Kuba Sienkiewicz on the album released in early November “Lady God” talks about the world, about Poland and about himself. A leader for cooperation Electric Guitars invited jazz guitar virtuosos – specialists in the “new acoustic” and “gypsy swing” styles Sebastian Ruciński and Tomasz Wójcikwhom he supported Kosma Kalamarz on bass guitar.
As on the previous album, the 63-year-old musician invited his youngest daughter, 14, to sing backing vocals in some songs. Zosia Sienkiewicz.
“I go to a music school. I started my adventure with the piano when I was 6 years old, I also attend choir classes. One day my dad asked if I would like to record backing vocals for one of his songs,” Zosia said in “Dzień Dobry TVN”.
“I remember that I listened to my dad’s music since I was little. We approached recording together calmly, without any tension. At concerts, I have to deal with stress. Initially, there are a lot of emotions, but later I get used to this atmosphere,” she adds.
Most of the repertoire of “Pani Boga” consists of songs from the last six years, but there are also three previously released on Elektryczne Gitary albums, which Kuba Sienkiewicz decided to improve and his own version of the song “Heart Like a Dog” previously known as lyrics to the melody Paul McCartney.
Kuba Sienkiewicz and the new album “Pani Boga”. “They praise my children more”
This year, Kuba Sienkiewicz began to limit the scope of his work as a doctor (he is a doctor of neurology). He ended his 20-year cooperation with the “Live with Parkinson’s Disease” Foundation, and will soon finish 38 years of work in a public hospital. From 2025, he intends to leave only two private offices.
Iza Komendołowicz, PAP Life: In your life, was medicine or music first?
Kuba Sienkiewicz: – First, I became a doctor, and only after a few years, in 1990, a public figure. Previously, I was interested in music as a music lover. Since high school, I have been especially fond of songs as an artistic form of expressing myself and describing the world. This is where my own creativity came from.
I presented my works for the first time in front of a large audience in 1981, during student sit-ins at the Medical Academy. It was an ideal opportunity to repeatedly perform their repertoire in front of a favorable audience. There was a great hunger for independent culture back then. It turned out that the recordings of my songs were spontaneously copied. Thanks to this, I appeared in the second circuit for a while in the 1980s. I considered it only an adventure and did not see my future in regular performances. In 1989, my friends convinced me to release the songs I had collected in my drawer and present them to the world, preferably in big beat form. And that’s how Electric Guitars were created.
Why did you go to medical school in the first place?
– I was strongly influenced by the example of my mother, who was an outstanding psychiatrist. I watched her while she worked, I even went with her on duty when she had nothing to do with me, I spent the night with her in Tworki (Maria Sienkiewicz she was the head of one of the psychiatric wards in Tworki – ed.), I went on rounds and also observed the outpatient work. I think she impressed me with her approach to patients and this probably influenced me later when choosing a profession.
Throughout your entire adult life, you have been a “dual professional”, a doctor and an artist. Did patients take seriously a doctor who appeared on stage? On the other hand, did your fellow artists expect medical advice from you?
– I am happy to help my fellow artists as much as I can. Fortunately, the patients don’t recognize me. Neurological diseases cause great fear, and under stress, patients do not want to be interested in their doctor’s private affairs. They treat me like any other neurologist.
It’s difficult to get to you.
– I admit that my queue is almost a year long. Of course, sometimes patients discuss my stage activities, but lately they have been praising my children more. I am happy to talk about art during the visit, because patients need such informal contact and some relief from unpleasant health issues.
Kuba Sienkiewicz on the popularity of Electric Guitars: It was madness
There was a time, not a short one in your artistic career, when you enjoyed enormous popularity. How did you combine concerts with medical work and life?
– It was madness and I don’t recommend it to anyone. I managed because I was young and healthy. Moreover, I worked compulsively, running away from personal problems. Teaching, service and research activities and the stage could hardly be reconciled for the first ten years. I couldn’t stop playing, so I painfully gave up my research and hospital work. In fact, it’s only in the last ten years that I’ve found balance – I manage both jobs. I do about fifty shows a year. This also allows you to pursue a second profession.
Have you ever wanted to give up your job as a doctor?
– NO. Medical practice is mentally very rewarding and it’s hard to part with it, it’s hard to let go of this part of your life.
– Of course, too, but it runs at a different rhythm, in a different cycle, and you can take breaks. You can also come back with some artistic projects at the right moment. There is no such ongoing commitment as in the case of medical work.
Do you sometimes miss the popularity from the era of “Kiler” or the albums “Na crzywa ryj” and “A ty co”?
– That popularity allowed me to enter the canon of pop culture. I still use it to promote new songs and perform old repertoire with Electric Guitars. However, I believe that my popularity was exaggerated. From the beginning, I have been dealing with a niche, literary and musical song, which by some accident, a happy twist of fate, was promoted. But my real element is what I did in the 1980s, i.e. performing in clubs, apartments, and on small stages. Such direct contact with the audience, through a song that is engaged and responsive to the current context. I have been returning to this form in recent years and I feel good about it. I never felt out of place on the big stage.
Your latest album “Pani Boga” was released on November 8. Its musical perception is a bit old school. Lyrics commenting on reality in strong words, guitar. Who do you really create for?
– I’m starting with myself. I want to feel good about what I present on the album and in front of the audience. There is still an audience interested in this form of communication: artistic song. This time I propose to this audience a program based mostly on songs from recent years and a few old ones – improved ones.
I entrusted the sound of the album to virtuosos of electric jazz guitar, new acoustic and gypsy swing specialists. These are musicians I have been working with since 2017 – guitarists Sebastian Ruciński and Tomasz Wójcik. He accompanies them on bass Kosma Kalamarz. I invited my youngest daughter to join some choirs, Zosia Sienkiewicz (just like on the previous album “My Bubble” – ed.). Listeners will probably pay attention to the wonderful improvised and melodic guitar parts. In the texts, as usual with me, difficult matters are presented lightly and trivial matters are presented seriously, i.e. a verbal and musical game, sometimes quite seriously.
Do you think that the certain amateurism of these performances is their advantage?
– The guitar parts are fully professional, and my voice – well, you have to endure it. There are no drums – this may be an advantage of the “Pani Boga” album. The compositions are rather accessible, so that they can be sung and played by any Sunday guitarist. The lyrics are amateur, of course, but ambiguous, leaving the listener free to make their own associations.
I must mention that the algorithms on some digital websites immediately select the first single, i.e. the song “Beautiful Days”and then the entire “Pani Boga” program was classified as blues. Thus, I am making my debut as a bluesman and I am waiting for invitations from national blues scenes.
In your texts, you often comment on reality. A year and a half ago, during the rule of the previous government, you gave an interview that for a committed artist like yourself – the worse, the better. There is something to sing about and laugh about. Now there’s something to laugh at?
– The situation is still dynamic, a deeply divided society, many external and internal threats, which are, as usual, transitional times. In such conditions, art song thrives. The oppressiveness of times serves art well, but to certain limits. When there is peace, an experiment is born. When there is oppression, art becomes involved. But when there is a disaster, there is no art at all. I wish we didn’t have to go through this. In a song “Freedom is terrible” I quite seriously sing that freedom is difficult and uncomfortable, but it must be carried and taken care of. Today we can comment on reality poetically and play art. It’s worth appreciating it.
Kuba Sienkiewicz on the success of Apple Blossom: A feeling of great relief and satisfaction
You mentioned your daughter, Zosia Sienkiewicz, with whom you worked on your last two albums. But I have to ask about two other children – siblings Kasia and Jacek, who make up the band Kwiat Jabłoni. How does it feel to be a famous artist and at some point discover that they write more about your children than about you?
– It’s a feeling of great relief and satisfaction that they succeeded. In my opinion, this situation takes the pressure off me to take care of my own promotion. Subconsciously I feel that my children are continuing something I started. And it doesn’t bother me at all that their success is greater. This is a new generation of perfectionists. They take care of every detail of the performance. They are musically educated and have skills. They consistently promote their pro-animal and vegan message. I couldn’t function like that, but at least they know how to do it. I believe that, in general, music in the world is getting better and better, and Kasia and Jacek are participating in this phenomenon.
Did you encourage them to perform music?
– There was a lot of different music at home and in the car. And when I was on stage, I often took children to my performances. In addition, we organized folk and jazz jam sessions among family and friends. This musical practice was enough to convey passion.
What did such home jam sessions look like?
– First at home, then in various clubs, we gathered as a group of enthusiasts of playing together. We invited everyone we could, specialists in new acoustic, jazz and folk. Some of our guys really knew how to play. Over time, the children took control of these jam sessions and directed it themselves. It was an initial musical and semi-stage experience.
Did their popularity surprise you?
– I was worried about one thing. From a very young age, when asked what she wanted to become, Kasia consistently answered that she wanted to be a stage star. And to tell you the truth, it scared me, because I knew how unpredictable a career in pop culture is, how much it is ruled by chance, and I also observed how deep frustration was experienced by various people who wanted to function on this stage but failed. So when Apple Blossom became a success, a stone fell from my heart.
Was there an idea for you to perform together someday?
– Kasia and Jacek accompanied me during my solo concerts for several years. We stopped this practice when they started the band Hollow Quartet and took part in a talent show (in the 10th edition of “Must Be The Music” on Polsat they reached the semi-finals). Then we decided that we would not appear together so as to avoid unhealthy assumptions about their possible successes on the stage. It worked – only after a few years did we publicly reveal our family relationships.
– And now we are so busy that we are not thinking about joint projects for now, but who knows. Everything is still ahead of us.