First
of all, I thank you for finding the time for this interview. I would
like to start with a question about your stay in Poland. Now that you
have you already cooled down a bit? What are your impressions?
Thanks to you Irek, the Rock Area team and your readers for their
support. It was my first visit to Poland and it was a very exciting
experience. The Polish people welcomed me with genuine warmth and
generosity. Lublin is such a charming town! The festival was well
organized and I really enjoyed performing in front of such a receptive
audience.
After Lublin, I stayed in Warsaw for a few days and in comparison to
London it felt like a very relaxed city. It is often depicted as austere
but I found it to be beautiful and culturally rich. It was unfortunate
that I did not have more time to discover it further. When I returned
to London I was reading a beautiful book about Toruń that my friend Olka
gave me. There are so many interesting and lovely places in Poland. I
look forward to coming back.
How did it happen that you played a concert in our country?
I was kindly invited by Waldemar Sulisz who organizes Europejski
Festiwal Smaku [The European Festival of Taste] in Lublin. The timing
was perfect because I was also asked by Piotr Baron and Marek
Niedźwiecki for an interview and a performance on Polskie Radio Program
III [Polish Radio 3] – the show „LP Trójka” which I did the day before
the festival.
You met a lot of your fans and friends who are in a large number here. How did it feel to meet them in the flesh?
It was truly moving! Some of them had traveled a long way to see me
perform. I felt really honored to be given such support. After the
performance, I was busy signing CD’s and my interaction with everyone
was filled with emotions, gratitude and laughter. I would like to thank
everyone I met during that signing session. It was amazing to meet you!
You were very warmly welcomed in Poland and you are very liked here. What do you think about Poles and their musical tastes?
I find Polish people to be very self-deprecating, which is better than
being arrogant I suppose, but I think you need to feel proud about your
relationship with music. Many Polish people are very well educated
musically, not just in terms of knowledge of bands or musical genres,
but also technically (i.e. how music is made). I met so many people who
had learned an instrument since childhood. More importantly, you listen
to music with your heart and also have broad music tastes. Music itself
seems to matter above what is fashionable. Poland is known for its
excellent classical and jazz musicians. Tori Amos used a Polish string
quartet on her new album „Night of Hunters”. Your country is also known
for more extreme forms of heavy metal music like death metal but also
good progressive rock bands like Quidam. Poland is also an important
place for festivals. It has some of the biggest open air music festivals
in the world and there are also very interesting culture and art
festivals in many Polish towns. I would love to perform there sometime.
I heard many good things about Polish audiences. I read the words of
Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol after their gig with U2.
How did you spend your time outside the concert? Were you able to visit places, to see anything?
Unfortunately, between sound-checks, radio interviews and
performances, I had very little time to explore. I did walk through the
center of Lublin and visited the castle. In Warsaw, I walked around the
Old Town and also stopped at all the benches which „played” Chopin’s
music. I also had a coffee with friends in Saska Kępa next to the statue
of Agnieszka Osiecka. So I had a coffee with Agnieszka too! 🙂
