Metal shiver in the heart of an IT manager

CANCOM Slovakia: Rišo, how did you become part of our CANCOM family?

Normally. You found me on LinkedIn. And I have to say that from the first moment I had a very pleasant feeling about the whole thing. I just immediately felt that CANCOM is one team and one family.

CANCOM Slovakia: Have you always wanted to work in IT?

No. I have a degree in civil engineering and I’m officially a structural engineer. You know, I had this weird hobby when I was a kid because I used to draw site plans. I’m from Revúca, so my first zoning plan changed the look of my hometown. However, it is a job where you do not engage with other people, and I really enjoy working with people.

CANCOM Slovakia: You work as a Monitoring Manager. How would you describe the work in your team?

You must be very careful with the term monitoring because it has multiple meanings. For example, the term can be applied to the team that is responsible for catch and dispatch, which means that incidents generated by our Zabbix application come to you and you forward them on, but we are responsible for the application itself, which monitors customer systems.
However, we provide and manage all the infrastructure and we even produce the monitoring templates that the monitoring is based on. So, for us we are talking more about infrastructure operations, engineering, architecture, and development.

CANCOM Slovakia: What about your hobby? Your heart burns for melodic metal, so we are wondering if there’s room for other hobbies. Is there?

Well, hobby #1 is the band, but hobby #2 is hockey. I go to play 1-2 times a week. Basically, this is a hobby where I can completely relax, as I see the band more as a business. When I’m playing music, I enjoy it, but I see it as my second job, and with hockey, I completely switch off and go play.

CANCOM Slovakia: Let’s tell it like it is. Metal is a subculture shrouded in legends, so I’m curious, when did you become enchanted with hard but still melodic music.

I’ve been into music since I was a kid, but it never occurred to me to try playing a musical instrument, and I listened to different genres… It wasn’t until I was in college where I met Martin Klein, with whom I later formed a band…
He had a guitar in his room, and I was terribly attracted to it. The first thing he taught me on it was a riff from Iron Maiden’s Wicker Man. I was completely absorbed by the guitar and through it I found my way into the arms of metal music.

CANCOM Slovakia: Was there a band before Within Silence?

Well, before Within Silence, we were called Right Door and we recorded our first single under that name, which was called by the same name but now it’s called Silent Desire. We came up with that name quite early on and we were operating locally in Slovakia.
Then, when we went to sign with the label, we agreed that the band deserved a punchier and more global name. Few people understood the meaning behind the original name, which was supposed to point to “the right door”! not the one on the right…
The idea behind the name is that you need to open the right door in life, whether it’s to school or to CANCOM. For me, opening the door at CANCOM was the right life decision and that was the idea behind our first name but not everyone understood it.

CANCOM Slovakia: How did you come up with the name Within Silence?

You know what, our singer came up with it, who writes a lot of our lyrics and compositions in general. The whole idea of the title is that “within silence you can find truth”. You just must slow down sometimes and in the silence of your soul you find that truth.

CANCOM Slovakia: What bands have inspired you?

We knew right from the beginning that we wanted to play power metal and our inspirations include bands like Iron Maiden, Edguy, Avantasia, Hammerfall, Stratovarius or Sonata Arctica.

CANCOM Slovakia: What’s the idea behind Within Silence’s music?

Our lyrics are mainly about inner motivation, and we try to reflect on life itself. The last song we released is called “Flame of Peace” and it was our Christmas single. In this song we discuss the fact that not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy the peace and presence of their loved ones during Christmas. When you look at the current geopolitical situation, it’s a very timely topic and we just must cherish peace.

CANCOM Slovakia: Has being in a band helped you in your professional career?

Well, it doesn’t seem so, but in the band, you work with a team of 5 people. Just like a sports team has a coach and a captain, a CEO at work, a band needs a band leader to give direction and coordinate its functioning. Often there are disagreements in the band, so it’s such a good school of people management, but it’s also communicating with vendors and of course it’s also the marketing of the band.