Together in life, together in madness
The moment after the initial fuss was when this phenomenon could finally be studied more carefully and calmly. By then, it was clear this was no mere bright but short-lived flame, one that burns out as quickly as it appeared. This was an artist here to stay. In the months to come, and likely years, Siksa will continue to drip her radical, feminist, pro-choice, anti-nationalist message through a range of channels, slowly but effectively widening the Overton window of Polish public discourse. Or rather, adapting it to the norms that have functioned for years in many Western countries.
In their songs, Siksa sometimes directly refers to anarchist ideas and practices. She condemns the inseparable Polish bond between exclusionary nationalism and traditional Catholic morality, loudly fights for reproductive and women’s rights, and challenges the rigid boundaries of cultural norms. In one particularly striking song, this takes the form of an argument with a patriarchal father who brutally clings to tradition by demanding that his daughter bear children.
So, who is Siksa? First and foremost, it is a duo, not one person. The woman who went wild in viral videos and gave countless interviews, Alex Freiheit, is only half of the band. The other half is Piotr Buratyński, a bassist who, often hidden somewhere deep on stage, plays an endless solo on his instrument that is rough, dirty and provocative, creating the perfect sonic foil for the vocalist’s performance.
They have ties with Gniezno – a city neither big nor small that is historically important, although somewhat forgotten today. They are a couple in their private lives, and create most of their projects together. The band they founded in 2014 is definitely their most important one. They first met in Toruń, where they would talk for a long time about how they imagined their presence on stage, and where they would play their first rehearsals.
Today, they have several radical albums to their name, but unlike regular bands, they do not play their greatest hits at concerts. In fact, they do not return to their older compositions at all. They work in ‘seasons’ or ‘programmes’, much like theatre troupes or stand-up comedians – they prepare new material and play it in its entirety live for a few months, then start the whole process anew.
They love performing on stage, so it is no wonder that they play a lot and often. In Poland, they have already performed in every performance space going – from the smallest basement to the largest festival stage. In recent years, they have also been performing abroad. Although most of their lyrics are in Polish, the stage energy alone is apparently enough to ensure foreign audiences grasp their radical ideas without fail.
