Beautiful new album from Poland’s Mr Cool…
Interview by Dan Prince
Marcin a huge welcome to DMCWORLD…where in the world are you today?
Hi, this interview is transmitted from Wroclaw, Poland J. Wroclaw was a German city prior to WWII and it was called Breslau. My neighborhood has a very original shape – it resembles an Eagle, which is the coat of arms of Lower Silesia – a place where I live. You need to check it while landing here:
What was the first piece of music you heard this morning after rolling out of bed?
ANDREA (feat. Vanessa Elisha) – DOWN
Maybe not a perfect morning tune for middle of the week…but who cares. I’m a huge fan of downtempo. I’ve been following Jakarta Records for a while …they always deliver quality music.
You have hot the ground running in 2016 with the release of your brand new album ‘Inside Out’ which zips our way on Plug Audio. I want to touch on the inspiration for the album firstly, you got the idea from some photography work by Duane Michals. Please elaborate…
As an only child I am used to doing things on my own – a one man army. On one hand working alone isn’t that stressful and you take a very safe position (bards often disintegrate due to a human factor) but on the other hand there is no additional synergy inside your music. In 2011 I was running a project on Soundcloud called 365breaks, which generated 130k followers at the end of the year. I wanted to make break # 365 very special so I wrote an email to legendary hip-hop producer STEINSKI asking if he’d like to collaborate on the last break. Break # 365 was going to be made out of samples from the previous 364 loops. STEINSKI’s response: “why not? Cool idea.” So by chance at the end of the year we had a tune. Meeting by Chance was founded with that project. The track is free to download here:
At that time I felt that everything was possible however, I got a reality check. J Despite that, I started making remixes, mixes, production and tracks with other people, which was all new to me. That opened new possibilities and helped in developing my musical identity. My first solo work was a mixture of all my inspirations such as Badun band, Icarus, Hermutt Lobby and science fiction movies…
MEETING BY CHANCE seemed to fit perfectly – when you search for inspirations you never know who you will encounter, who will agree to collaborate and how it will finish. Then I saw this beautiful sequenced photo called Chance Meeting – live building blocks with music sequencer, I fell in love and from now on it became a flagship theme for everything I create.
There is also a huge influence on the long player courtesy of three female vocalists who are featured throughout ‘Inside Out’. Please explain what Ayuko, Mayuko and Magda brought to the project and how you met them…
Magda is also from Poland. I asked a friend of mine, who runs the PolishJuke label, (https://polishjuke.bandcamp.com/) if he knew anyone, who would like to sing for me. He told me about Magda, who at the time was making footwork beats but also wanted to start singing because she never had a chance. The idea of Meeting by Chance is to keep an open mind. I agreed and since that time we did five tracks, she doesn’t stop surprising me with her voice. Ayuko and Mayuko are Cuushe and Noah of FLAU Japanese ambient electronic record label, one of my favorite modern electronic labels. With Cuushe I did a 7” limited white single called THE ONE.
https://meetingbychance.bandcamp.com/album/the-one
As a paranormal experiment I did this track in two versions of tuning 440Hz and 432 Hz letting people decide if there is any difference in listening to it.
And most of tracks are done by NOAH. Check out here LP : http://www.flau.jp/artists/noah.html
So, nine beautiful, downbeat, electronic, dusty soul and jazz pieces of magic…please give us a few words on each of your new musical babies…
Thank you…
Crossroad – where do we go from here…
Dream On – an invitation to close your eyes and listen
Koi – named after what I heard while cutting vocals to this track … I had no idea what the singer was singing so – I thought it sounded like word KOI
She Is My Evening – a simple tune for the evening, about the girl that made your day .. the one you love or the one you saw on the street
Watermark – inspiration taken from my earlier release called drop
Birdman – a musical illustration to the last scene from the movie Birdman
Stay – “Hey boy, stay. it’s such a lovely evening, look at the stars”
Better Now – after the thunder comes peace
Inside Out – it’s like a hip-hop outro that supports whole album
How long did the album take to create?
I’m kind of a music workaholic I make music everyday … I also believe that music session must be intuitive. I try to finish music in two or three takes. Lets say that in a month or two. But making music is not a linear process.
Shit question but I’m gonna ask, favourite track on the album and why?
No idea. I’ve been listening to the LP in my car for a while now. I think INSIDE OUT is very homogeneous and works well from beginning to end.
So let’s rewind for a moment. The world of music of course is well aware of your huge talent thanks to your work as co-creator of the legendary Polish duo Skalpel that Ninja Tunes got right behind. Basically, one of the most important talents from Poland that came into the international limelight. Had you any idea when Igor interviewed DJ Vadim for the Polish Hip Hop magazine Klan what was around the corner for you both?
Back then we both were HUGE UK Hip Hop fans. Personally I loved productions from MARK B. (R.I.P !!!) and Blade and all the jazz fudge beats. I think you can still feel that minimalism in my music. DJ Vadim was about to tour Poland as Russian Percussion with Blu Rum 13, Mr Thing and Killa Kella, so we asked Vadim about the possibility of supporting him. We did it for free. After the tour we gave him our demo called poish jazz , I think they also already had it in NINJA HQ but Vadim put in a good word about us and we signed a record deal.
What can you tell us about the Polish scene at the moment? The artists, clubs, musical direction etc.
As I mentioned before PolishJuke is fresh now! Guys just came back from their Japanese tour. As an observer I can see more alternative bands on the radio and TV now. Teielte the electronic/hip hop producer is worth mentioning. Asfalt Records – asfalt.pl is a great polish hip-hop label but just behind it you have Alkopoligamia Records – polish hip-hop scene is still very, very strong.
And finally, what else are you looking forward to in 2016…?
I hope people will enjoy my music as Meeting by Chance but I also hope for more Skalpel music. As Skalpel we play with great percussion player Rafal Dutkiewicz – so I hope to play a lot of gigs.
http://www.meetingbychance.com/
