His real name is Bartosz Schmidt. He was born and lives in Warsaw. He has got a master's degree in psychology. At the beginning of his career he sang in Polish, but later he started writing lyrics in English. He does not exclude the possibility of coming back to creating in his mother tongue, which is a more difficult task. He talked about his lyrics in the interview with Ula Kaczyńska in the Polish Radio Channel 4:
The songs are not my diary. I don't describe my experiences. I make music and the lyrics just come to my head.
In 2013 Baasch debuted with the EP Simple Dark Romantic Songs, which preceded the longplay. The title explains the style of all four songs. It is worth noticing that from the very beginning Baasch recorded his songs, wrote the lyrics and performed his own works. These first songs blended the analogue sounds of synthesisers and a slow electronic pulse. However, in each of them there was an air of anxiety.
Before Baasch released a debut longplay, he had written music to Tomasz Wasilewski's film Floating Skyscrapers. He created music that complemented the film and did not divert the audience's attention. Schmidt explained in the interview for the cultural magazine 'Co Jest Grane 24':
Floating Skyscrapers is full of emotions. I wanted the music to tone in, and not introduce to the scenes the emotions which were not included in the script. It would have disturbed the story's reception.
The film was recognised and received awards at the festivals in Gdynia, Wrocław, Karlovy Vary, Buenos Aires, Zadar and Cluj-Napoca. In the soundtrack we can hear two songs from Simple Dark Romantic Songs.
The release of the first record was preceded by two singles: Siamese Sister and Several Gods. They foreshadowed more 'technological', synthetic music that drifts away from natural sounds. The album Corridors was released at the beginning of 2015. Deep, slow basses were complemented with disrupted high-pitched sounds. The song that caught journalists' attention was Crowded Love, featuring the vocalist of the band Bokka, who performs under the stage name Y. Stronger, darker songs reminded the critics of the music of Depeche Mode. In an interview for Interia.pl the artist mentioned drawing inspiration from the duo The Knife:
They revolutionised my thinking about music and music production. They moved the boundary which determines what is 'correct'. This does not mean that these inspirations are easy to find in my music. (…) These inspirations reach deeper. They involve the way of thinking about music in general.
A year after the debut album appeared, RE_CORR was released. It contained remixes of Baasch's songs by Agim, Jaaa!, Mooryc, Rysy, Teielte and Zamilska. Baasch also produced remixes for Automat and the duo Rubber Dots.
The most recent album – Grizzly Bear with a Million Eyes – was released in spring of 2017. In the song Dare to Take Baasch sings together with Mary Komasa. Other guests included Miron Grzegorkiewicz known from the bands Jaaa!, How How and Daktari. Journalists emphasise that Baasch's music on that record started bearing more resemblance to dance music and became less gloomy. Robert Sankowski wrote in 'Gazeta Wyborcza':
The song Fall impresses with dense textures of strings at the end, and the picturesque Once Upon a Night resembles Baasch's cinematic experience. Another remarkable thing is Baasch's ease of writing good choruses. Sneaker Fairytale sounds like an electroclash piece, but what strikes the ear in the whole album is not radicalism of sound but good melodies.
Baasch said in the interview for the Polish Radio Channel 4:
For me making music is a form of meditation and a possibility to meet myself. After this there is a moment of sharing these sounds with my musicians and eventually with the audience.
Baasch was a member of the bands Miennta and Plazmatikon. During his own concerts he was helped by a few musicians, but sometimes he would play only with the drummer Robert Alabrudziński. He also performs with the acclaimed producer Wojtek Urbański, the co-founder of the duo Rysy.
As a vocalist Baasch performed with the Polish duo Venter (the song Fire from the record Venter Lp), but what was more widely recognised was his singing on Rysy's excellent album, Traveler. Baasch sang three songs on this star-studded electronic record. It also featured Piotr Zioła and Justyna Święs, the vocalist of the famous duo The Dumplings. Both the albums – by Venter and by Rysy – were released in 2015. Two years later the artist sang on Piotr Bejnar's record Album in the song Jellyfish and the song On The Way from the album of the duo Sotei (consisting of Sobura and Teielte).
Baasch's albums are released by Nextpop record label. A proof of his position there can be the fact that he was the first artist who played at NXT’ Sessions – a live concert broadcast from the label's studio.
In Poland Baasch played at the Open'er Festival in Gdynia, Tauron Nowa Muzyka in Katowice, Orange Warsaw Festival, Free Form in Warsaw and Audioriver in Płock. He also performed abroad: in the Czech Republic, France, Island, Germany, Romania, Lithuania and Hungary. In 2014 he played a few concerts in China. He commented on them later in the interview for 'Co Jest Grane 24':
We performed there at the New Year's Eve in the centre of a multi-million city. These were concerts after which it was difficult to evaluate how many new fans we gained, because in China social media are not used.
According to Baasch's website, his debut performance in Warsaw was a support before the concert of Tricky. After such a start it is no wonder that the Polish vocalist, musician and producer is winning the hearts of listeners in Poland and abroad so quickly.
Originally written in Polish by Jacek Świąder, translated by MW, February 2018
Discography:
- 2013 – Simple Dark Romantic Songs EP
- 2013 – Płynące wieżowce (soundtrack)
- 2015 – Corridors
- 2016 – RE_CORR
- 2017 – Grizzly Bear With A Million Eyes