Sawak is an international group of individuals who have all somehow ended up in the south of Poland, in the historic city of Kraków. Featuring Antonello Perfetto on drums and percussion, Bogdan Markiewicz on guitar, Greg Nieuwsma on guitar, synth and other musical concoctions and Shaun O’Neill on bass, Sawak is a pretty mixed bag of individuals who have been jamming and writing music since Autumn 2014. Indeed when asked how they met Bogdan says - ‘I was the veterinarian dentist Greg had heard about and he was just coming off the anesthetic I had slipped him in the waiting room’. Random? Yes, but so is the formation of Sawak.
Their music is hard to label but in fact they don’t appear to be bothered by this human urge to constantly pin a tag on music. Not ‘radio friendly’ says Nieuwsma, ‘not predictable’ says Perfetto and ‘dark, deathly and demonic music at times’ says O’Neill. Perhaps Markiewicz puts it best when he says ‘we’re just trying to sound’ for isn’t that what musicians should do first and foremost? As for what listeners can anticipate from the album, that’s quite a problematic one to present. ‘Unsettled dreams’, no ‘reasons for being optimistic about life’ but perhaps the best description is ‘a long journey with unexpected turns, exploring a variety of music territories’. Alternatively you could imagine yourself feeling nice and relaxed and then realising that you’re on a sinking ship without a captain and ‘that rats can swim better than you’. Their debut release is self-titled and contains nine tracks. It’s certainly a musical journey which begins from the rather epic opening track, En Circling/Schettino/Darkness, which is incidentally the longest track of the album at 15 minutes 12 seconds. It is a collage of sorts with the sound of gulls the transition from darkness to something even more sinister and apocalyptic. As they are based in Krakow I can’t help feeling that the not too distant dark history of the city’s past resonates in this track, and indeed throughout the whole album. The fact that three quarters of the band live in the district of Podgórze, location of the former Jewish Ghetto, no doubt has an influence on their music. O’Neill says that it’s (Kraków) ‘an evil mistress that inspires us and despires us equally’, hence the darkness of moods. That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom as there are some uplifting tunes such as track 4, Dissonia, which is perhaps the most melodic on the record. Track 8, Stupid Game/Interlude/Pankiewicz, is a rocker which is one of only three to features vocals. There is certainly humour at the end of this song - ‘Here comes something I’ll never forget, here are some of my favourite regrets’ with gruff harmonies ending the song in an acapella style. Progressive rock fans can enjoy the grittiness of track 6, The Well, with an interesting groove redolent of bands from the early seventies. Another source of inspiration or its antonym is the studio they rather lovingly call ‘The Pit’. This is where the band have spent hours upon end jamming alone or with anyone who is willing to descend into the depths of ‘The Pit’. ‘An escape from everyday life’ is how Perfetto describes it. Indeed this is where the album was recorded using a DIY approach. It allowed the band to craft their songs experiment such as by hitting guitars in open tunings, laid across keyboard stands, with drum mallets. It’s not all guitars and drums and synths though as the stunning inclusion of the saxophone which enters into the middle of track 3, Spider Detective, shows. What can we expect from Sawak in the future? The band say they will be busy working on film ideas and of course on the follow up album with a greater variety of sounds from current and future musical toys. No doubt the spirit of Krakow, the Pit and their own international experiences and influences will continue to play a part in the twisting path of Sawak.
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Is running a label a business or a hobby? It's always a question I have to ask myself and most of the time I find myself leaning towards the latter. These days it is not so easy to sell music and I would be a hypocrite if I said that I never take advantage of free music even if it is illegal. What is fantastic is the growing number of people who do choose to buy music and support musicians.
From my point of view, building connections is the most important thing about running a label. Most of the artists on Res Wood I have never met but we still cooperate via the Internet and I feel that I do know them because of their music and their trust that our relationship is built on. I think that if I was to view this as a business a lot of things would have to change. I would charge higher prices for the work I do and also sell the albums at a higher price. I would also be more demanding of myself and people on the label. So I guess this is why it's a hobby but an important one. Of course it's a great feeling to make a sale but I feel that it's more so because of the fact that someone out there now has a copy of one of our albums rather than the income we have earned on it. All Resonating Wood Recordings' releases are now available at Hummel Music in Bratislava. It's exciting to have our stock in a shop. The Internet is great and all that but there's nothing better than seeing our releases in a physical music shop.
Check them out online - http://www.hummelmusic.sk/index.php or even better, visit them if you are in Bratislava. In Poland, it seems that the majority of songs played on the radio are in the English language, but by law radio stations have to broadcast at least thirty-three per cent of songs in the Polish language. What I often find strange is the high number of Poles who choose to sing in English rather than in their mother tongue. Does the amount of airtime given to English-based music cause this? Does it really matter what language the songs are sung in? Is music universal and can linguistic barriers be crossed because of the catchiness of the melody? Do the majority of people even focus on the lyrics? A lot of different questions regularly come to mind when thinking about the debate between language and music and to get some other perspectives on this, I have asked the opinions of musicians, Jan Řepka (the Czech Republic), Peter 'Petiar' Lachký (Slovakia) and Jakub Bugała (Poland).
What struck me is that, unlike in Poland where Jakub estimates only about ‘ten per cent or less use only Polish’, both Jan and Peter claim, that in their opinions, a very small percentage of people sing in the English language in their respective countries. Jan claims that only about one-fifth of Czech musicians do so while Peter says that only about five per cent of his musician friends perform in the English language. Obviously the Czech, Slovak and Polish languages have their differences despite being part of the same language group. Rhyming seems to be more of a challenge in Polish and perhaps the Czech and Slovakian languages are easier to manipulate and mould to the songwriter’s needs. How important is it to perform in your own native language and what type of audience do musicians aim for? Jan says ‘Primarily, I think it is important to master the language you want to use, especially when it is supposed to be used in an artistic way.‘ Perhaps being judged by people in your own language makes some musicians shy away from singing in their first language. Jan suggests that the songwriter may try to ‘mask the weaknesses of the lyrics by using another (usually) English.’ Peter, on the other hand, likes to play with words which obviously requires a great understanding of the ‘hidden nooks of the language.’ To do so requires skill in any language and especially in one that is not your native one. For Jakub using a ‘non-native language creates a mask that makes you somehow less vulnerable’, which echoes Jan’s thoughts. When choosing to write and perform in another language, there is the opportunity of having a wider audience to reach out to. Jakub chooses to write in English as ‘English is a language of international communication.’ He makes the point that a lot of artists use the Internet as a means of sharing their music and thinks that the majority of Internet users are ‘English native speakers or people who commonly use English as their second language.’ ‘I’m more into translating my songs into Polish or maybe German as I’m more likely to play in those countries than English-Speaking ones,’ says Jan. In Peter’s case the difficulty of translating into English proved to be the stumbling point and has led to him continuing to sing in the Slovakian language. He describes a time when he did try to translate his lyrics into English but states that while doing so, he ‘couldn’t find a proper word, expression or we couldn’t fit it into the rhythm of the song.’ Of course, it’s not always so easy to transfer ideas from one language to another and there is frequently the fear of what is lost in the process. Rather unsurprisingly, all agree that the lyrics of the songs are key to the integrity of their work, although Jakub believes that lyrics and music can be separated ‘by treating lyrics as a pure rhythmical and sonic form.’ Out of the three, only Jakub writes most of his songs in the English language, however, Peter says that when comparing the English language to Slovakian, the former ‘has much shorter words than in Slovakian and is easier to rhyme.’ Finding more ways of expressing yourself is certainly a valid reason for using another language other than your own and it can be another argument on the board for those who do so. Do people pay attention to lyrics? Peter believes that they do and says that the type of people he performs to, ‘know that the music is based on lyrics.’ Jan says, ‘Of course you pay more attention when someone sings in your native language.’ This suggests that singing in a foreign language in front of people from your own country can potentially alienate them. Jakub plays predominantly in front of Polish audiences and he is not so sure if people listen carefully to his lyrics. He says, ‘I have received only a few comments about my lyrics.’ He has only recently released his first album (The Spin,November 2013), so perhaps this will generate feedback on the lyrical side of his songs. Summing up, it seems that the musical genre, the audience the musician is aiming his/her music at and the ability of the artist to use language are the key points here and these will ultimately determine the language used and probably the quality of it. Perhaps using your native language makes you more exposed in front of your home audience but the possibility of making a connection with them is arguably easier. The choice of language is a subjective one based on the individual’s language abilities but it is obvious that all three musicians and musicians in general would like to be understood and appreciated by their audiences whatever language they perform in. Jakub Bugała - http://inqbator.bandcamp.com/ Peter ‘Petiar’ Lachký - http://petiar.sk/v-krajine Jan Řepka - http://www.janrepka.cz/ First published on my blog Rusted Thoughts Resonating Wood Recordings came into being, inspired by the independent music label Preserved Sound and the fine work of Hayden Berry and Antonello Perfetto. When my acoustic duo, See-Saw, was looking for a label, we came across Preserved Sound and really liked the DIY approach to releases that they had. The idea of being able to produce your own releases was something that really appealed to me as it meant that you could simply make more CDs if you needed them. I also really liked the packaging from the very start and knew it would work well with my duo. They happily agreed to have us and we were delighted with being a part of something genuine. What I realised after some time was that the acoustic music of See-Saw did not really fit into the ambient/modern classical profile of Preserved Sound, so I suggested to Hayden that we form an acoustic label. He agreed and Resonating Wood Recordings was born with See-Saw and Hayden Berry the first two releases. Unfortunately, due to the sheer workload of running a label Hayden decided to to focus all his attention on Preserved Sound leaving me to run things on my own, but Resonating Wood Recordings has gone on to release another eight albums while Preserved Sound is going very strong and shows no sign of easing up on quality releases to add to their seventeen albums and five compilations. Recently they released vinyl for an album by Richard Youngs. This is a definitely an inspiration and a target for me in the future. That's the brief version of the story but it's taken a long time to get where both labels currently are and hopefully both will continue doing what they are doing. I'm always on the lookout for people who prefer the DIY approach. It's not so hard to find in this age of technology where you can record a song and have it available to a massive audience in no time at all. What I like though are those people who also support other musicians doing the same and this is why I am writing here about The Modern Folk Music of America. They have been kind enough to write about some of my releases and I thought I'd return the favour. Check out the website here and while you're at it you can also check out some of the releases of Josh Moss and friends. At the moment I'm enjoying American Cave a lot. It's genuine lo-fi, folk and rock with a soul. It's so great to have a new album to release and today is the day when the album by Algis Fediajevas is finally out. Our story starts in August 2013 in Tbilisi, Georgia. It was my second last night of an epic Georgian trip. I was with my friend Shota who said there were usually no concerts in Tbilisi but that night we saw two young teens play country music including a tribute to Shota and then we saw Algis play. I really enjoyed the evening and said to Algis that he should come to Kraków, Poland (where I was living) and play. He did. He hitchhiked to Kraków in November and played two shows. After that we played together in Vilnius, Lithuania and then in Lviv, Ukraine. It was during the last trip that the idea of an album came up. He knew about my label and I knew about his music so it all made sense. Last month we met in Bratislava, he recorded two songs to add to the rest of the album and we made it all happen. I must say that Algis did all of the sticking, cutting and burning while I was busy teaching. Now it's out and the journey has come to an end in some way and is at the beginning in other ways. Here it is. Here's a video we made in my basement. This blog is where I'll write about other websites, labels, releases and general things about music. Feel free to comment about anything I write.
Phil |
AuthorI am a musician and am generally obsessed with music. DIY approach is the way forward. Archives
May 2017
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