The young Tri City-based band also pulls from contemporary influences, such as Australian psychedelic rock bands – Tame Impala and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – or Chicago-based group Wilco, whose sound blends rock, alt-country and experimental music. At the beginning of their career, The Fruitcakes often searched for inspiration among the first Polish artists of rock and roll from the 60s and 70s.
Members
The band was founded in 2011. Kuba Zwolan (born 23 September 1990) is the vocalist and lead guitarist. Lukas Tymanski (born 7 November 1991), who was raised in Switzerland and Germany and is the oldest son of Ryszard 'Tymon' Tymański, one of the most versatile artists in Trójmiasto, is the drummer. Przemek Bartoś (born 27 October 1988), who also played in Tymon Tymański's band Tymon & The Transistors, is the bass player.
Since 2013 Tomasz Ziętek (born 28 June 1989), who also has his solo project The Ape Man Tales, has been playing the rhythm guitar. Ziętek is a famous actor. He played the roles of Jan Bytnar 'Rudy' in Robert Gliński's film Stones for the Rampart, Ronaldo in Marcin Wrona's Demon, Paweł, the brother of Dawid Ogrodnik's character, in Silent Night by Piotr Domalewski and Pinczer in Corpus Christi by Jan Komasa.
After the debut album was recorded, the band was joined by the jazzman Szymon Burnos (born 4 February 1991), a pianist known from such bands as Tymon & The Transistors, Tomasz Chyła Quintet and AlgoRhythm. He is Włodzimierz Nahorny's student at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk and a proud graduate of the New York's School for Improvisational Music.
How did they meet? Lukas answered in the interview for the magazine 'Teraz Rock' (10/2017):
Marcin Gałązka [the guitarist of Tymon & The Transistors] does a good job in Słupsk. He helps the new bands, many of them owe him their formation. Przemek and Kuba started with him. I had a band in Germany, where I lived for 8 years and graduated from secondary school. I wanted to make music, but my friends treated it like a hobby and were planning to go to the university. Marcin told me that in Poland there were guys who also wanted to dedicate their lives to music and play. I thought that was my chance. I met Przemek and Zwolan and said 'Hey guys, do you want to form a band?'. They said yes. We played two songs and it was great.
In the same interview Ziętek added that the idea of creating a band occurred to him when he accidentally saw some well-known faces from Słupsk during a concert on Długa Street in Gdańsk.