Damian Westfal, Interia: It’s 12 o’clock, we’ll see each other before the first episode of “Dancing with the Stars” is broadcast. We’ll meet at your apartment and I’ll be a bit of a voice of conscience: You’re not at training?
Olga Bonczyk: – Right after our conversation, I’m going straight to the training room (laughter). And before our meeting, I came back from the sports rehabilitation center, because unfortunately I suffered two injuries, and they were quite serious, but it turned out that I met several participants and dancers from this edition there, so I’m not alone in this pain. Training really costs us all a lot.
I’m guessing that there have been offers to take part in the program before. Why did you decide to get involved now?
– There have been a few offers, but previously I had simply rejected them due to lack of time. When the production called me, let’s say before the holidays, trying to convince me, I usually had such a full calendar in the autumn that I knew I simply wouldn’t manage on time, and I couldn’t afford to give up on some projects. It’s true that I’m having a hard time now, because I’m about to start rehearsals for a new show and I’ll have to prepare for both “Dancing with the Stars” and the premiere at the same time, but I hope that with everyone’s good will I’ll manage to combine them. But it definitely won’t be easy.
Do you have a goal in mind for this program?
– To get to know myself even better. And this is happening, because it really is an incredibly difficult job. The body takes on such a huge burden: exploitation, effort, exceeding its limits, that suddenly we really start boxing with each other internally. Every training session is paid for with tears and anger, stomping feet, slamming doors. For example, I saw myself in situations that I experienced as a little girl, i.e. in such helplessness, defenselessness. These are things that I remember from childhood, and which have not happened to me in adult life, so this recognizing myself is my goal, but I did not think it would be so painful.
Your latest album “Wracam” (I’m Back) was certainly also a lot of work, and you say it’s the most ambitious project of your career. What’s next for you after your life’s work?
– Another masterpiece (laughter). I’ve been recording my next album for many months now. Nothing stands still for me. Right now I’m on “Dancing with the Stars” and I’m already thinking about what new things I can do, because the show will end in November, regardless of how long I dance in it, and I have to know what to do next – it was exactly the same after the album “Wracam”. I already had a plan for the next album back then and I started to implement it. I never work from dot to dot, all my projects overlap, so I’m constantly on the move and that’s great. The album “Wracam” is my great pride and professional fulfillment, but I think I’ll probably never come up with anything more ambitious in my life, because no one in Poland has ever done such a project before. Maybe something else will come to me, maybe I’ll come up with something else, but for now I don’t have such an idea.
Can we reveal any details about the next album?
– The album doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s possible that it will be called “Powrócisz tu”, because it will consist of songs composed by Piotr Figiel. The older generation certainly knows this gentleman, because he is a composer who wrote the greatest hits in the 80s and 90s, among others for Mrs. Irena Santor, such as the song “Powrócisz tu”. Piotr Figiel was the uncle of Filip Siejka, with whom I am making this album. Filip is an excellent arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist. I have already made a few beautiful songs with him, and now we came up with the idea to record his uncle’s songs, but in new arrangements.
When can we expect new songs from you?
– I admit without beating around the bush that I was supposed to release the single “Powrócisz tu” in September, because it’s already ready, but since I started the adventure with “Tańc…”, I simply can’t do two things at the same time, because there are only 24 hours in a day. At the beginning of October, I promise that the premiere of the song will take place. I will admit immodestly that it’s a truly phenomenal version of this song, and not because I sang it, but because it’s arranged differently. It has some kind of brightness, we removed the pomposity from it, and something so soft remained… you’ll see for yourselves, although of course I don’t dare compete with Ms. Irena Santor.
So your closet is still in use? Let’s recall that you have a “recording studio” at home, in your closet.
– Of course, the closet worked (laughter). I know it sounds funny, but it turns out that when I talk to other vocalist colleagues, they all admit that they also record in the closet very often. And it’s not entirely about saving money. Recording at home gives me comfort – I record exactly when my voice is good, when I feel good, when I’m in good shape, when I feel that I have good energy. On the other hand, a recording studio is rented in advance and it may turn out that we’re not in very good shape that day, but the studio is rented, there is a person waiting and sometimes you have to act under duress.
On the album “Wracam” you sing five voices at the same time. How does it feel to sing with yourself and what do such concerts look like?
– It’s hard with this multi-voice singing at concerts, because I don’t clone myself (laughter), so there are four voices recorded, and I sing the main one. However, recording this album was very difficult, because there’s nothing to refer to. I recorded everything at home by myself, I had to sort out all these logistics myself, so that I could learn some strategy from my mistakes, which would help me make fewer and fewer mistakes in the next songs. Singing with yourself brings one fundamental difficulty, that you have to assume in advance that a lot of tracks will have to be thrown into the bin and everything recorded again. And indeed, there were simply thousands of soundtracks that ended up in the bin, and during the recording of such an album you simply have to have consent to this. Consent that a huge amount of work will be thrown into the bin. I often said that I wouldn’t be able to do it, that it was too difficult, and then I humbly returned to my closet and tried again. It required a lot of humility, patience and self-awareness.
I’m also interested in the album cover. Did you paint this yourself?
– This is my self-portrait, but not my own. There is a beautiful story behind it, because it was painted by Anna Bocek, and “Bocek” is my maiden name. When I sang in the Spirituals Singers Band years ago, that was the name I used. Anna is not my family, but I like her paintings and I wrote to her once, asking if she would paint the cover of my album. She agreed. I had already thought of the title of the album, “Wracam”, and I thought to myself that it was not all accidental. This album is truly mystical to me, because all the elements on it have combined in an absolutely mystical way.
Where do you feel more fulfilled today? In acting or in music?
– I think both. Although I may have fewer acting challenges under my belt, because, for example, film has not really given me any special tasks, apart from the role in “Na dobre i na złe” (For Better or for Worse), which brought me enormous popularity in the country. There was a long time when I really dreamed of a big film role that would take me further and give me the opportunity to let loose on stage. I would really like to work on a fictional role, where we know the beginning and end of the plot, so we can carry this story well throughout the film. However, in a series, the role is written in the long term, so even we, the actors, do not know its further fate. I must admit with sadness that just as I was waiting and hoping for this to happen in my life, now I am at a stage where I do not really care. Maybe it is sad what I am saying now, but I think I have come to terms with the fact that this thread in my career simply did not take off and it is difficult…
I would think of it not in terms of sadness, but rather of reevaluating your life a bit.
– And that’s why I don’t have a problem with it. For the first time in my life I’m experiencing such a feeling that I don’t care anymore, because I’ve always lived with such emotions in my work, that I care about everything very much, that I would really like to try this, this, that, at most I’ll get upset, but I would like to experience, I would like to test myself, I would like to touch, I would like to work with this director, with that one… I don’t have such an appetite anymore, but on the other hand I get so many different proposals that I have somewhere to go wild.
Even now on the dance floor of “Dancing with the Stars”.
– Exactly (laughter). This is a challenge beyond my strength, because it is truly superhuman, but I hope that I will make those who support me happy with my dance creations, and I would like to dance on this dance floor and simply feel happy.