Debra Richards: In the history of jazz, there haven't been many musicians that give credit to their playing video games. But as a nine year old hardcore player, Kuba Więcek developed an affinity with repetitive practice and now feels the need for strategic thinking and fast decision making has stood him in good stead as a bandleader today. After a pivotal moment as a teenager, which he talks about in the interview, when he improvised on his saxophone for the first time, his 10 hour a day, video gaming habit switched to music study. I particularly like musicians that approach jazz in an open and authentic way. It's not an historical music. Jazz has always been an expression of emotion in the present moment, reflecting the social, political and cultural atmospheres around us. That's what improvisation is. I think it's also worth noting that Kuba attended the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen of which I'm a big fan. Some of the most exciting artists like the bass player, Petter Eldh, and vocalist Lucia Cadotsch studied there. We live in an era of many, many musics. And conservatories like this one in Denmark encourage exploration of anything and everything. Whether it's Ornette Coleman, or Kanye West, Tomasz Stanko or Bjork. Kuba reveals he has that curiosity which is so vital to creativity. On a trip to New York, he bought some portable synthesizers and took to them as he had done his video games. And when you hear the interview, you'll get a sense of how experimentation is at the heart of his approach and relationship to which is also key to jazz. The interplay between musicians. In this case with his trio of Michał Barańśki and Łukasz Żyta, carving new paths in any art will always have its critics. And these new waves of jazz artists face exclusion from jazz record labels and venues and festivals. When Więcek’s first album, Another Raindrop was released in the renowned Polish Jazz series, there was a backlash. There were comments about his youth and playing skills. And yet the album won two prestigious awards for best jazz debut. You will hear Kuba weaving in stories of his background, his working methods, and what he's drawn to. You sense he has a quiet confidence and belief in what he is doing. But like all of the best artists, his commitment is to the music and not himself. I really feel he's an artist in the true rebel spirit tradition. And I think the original Polish innovators of jazz would be inspired by his attitude. I look forward to hearing more music from him in the future.
Kuba Więcek: My name is Kuba Więcek. I'm a saxophone player and music producer from Poland. I have my own groups that I play my own music with. But I also work as a music producer. So I do a lot of electronic music. When I was like, nine years old, I started playing video games. I was very actually hardcore into playing because I was, you know, doing this for like 10 hours every day for like, many years. My mom, she was a piano player, so she made me go to music school with her and my first instrument was cello. But I was never so much into cello. It was like five years of struggle for me. Like, I didn't have any fun out of playing cello. And after five years, I switched to saxophone. Four years later, I went to this volleyball camp where I met people a little bit older than me, who were very hip at the time at this camp, and I wanted to be friends with them. And they had this kind of garage band. They played covers. And when they found out that I play saxophone, they wanted to invite me to the group. I went to their practice space and they started playing one of the songs and they just looked at me at one point and just said, so improvise now. And you know, I’ve never done it in my life. So it was completely life changing for me. After this rehearsal my life has changed. I've never played any video games anymore. And like, all this time I was spending on video games I converted to saxophone time.
Multitasking was my second album I have released with my trio. Those songs were inspired by all my inspirations coming from electronic music, but also getting to know Łukasz and Michał who play with me in my trio much better. It was like a very fun process because every month something was changing. For example, we were asked to prepare Velvet Underground’s music for Andy Warhol exhibition that was taking place in Warsaw. And when I was listening to Velvet Underground’s sound, they were using this instrument called glockenspiel, which is like a very small vibraphone. And I really liked the sound, so I decided to have it in our band for longer. I started writing music that would use the sound of glockenspiel and make our drummer play it at the same time as he would play the drums.
So that was a moment when I thought of this concept that, you know, we are a trio, we could easily, like, hire some more musicians, but actually, it's fun to play as a trio but sound like more musicians. So for example, our drummer Łukasz, he would play the drums and glockenspiel at the same time. And at that time, Michał Barański who is bass player was learning this technique called Konnakol, of rhythmic imitation of the tabla, with the voice. So he would play the bass and, like, do the konnakol at the same time. And also, I went to New York, like, in that time and my friend recommended me to buy some small synthesizers. So, I bought them and I really got into them. So I would, you know, just play my saxophone and those synthesizers at the same time. So, like, everybody would do, like, different things. So that was, like, the first idea of multitasking. When I was composing, I always had a concept of the song before I would start composing. Every song had to have something special about it. When I was composing Jazz Robots, the first idea was to change our roles to have a song where our drummer, he will play melodies that will make people cry, and Michał and me, we would play rhythms on our instruments. Like, bass and saxophone are usually not, like, instruments that are about rhythms. But I decided to, like, have a song that was changing our roles. At least as a starting concept for this song. So, for the first half of the song, there's like, no drums coming from our drummer and no melodies coming from us: bass player and saxophone player.
I was very much, at that point, about making very simple songs and getting the most out of them. So having all the possible orchestrations, so like combinations of the sounds we can get out of those music ideas. And I was experimenting, how long can I keep on playing those melodies to not make people fall asleep, but also, like, keep it very interesting for them. So they are, like, very curious on what will happen in the next five seconds. And, you know, in the middle of the songs, we go back to our roles; I'm playing the melody on saxophone, Łukasz is still playing glockenspiel but he's joining with the drums, the bass player is playing more bass lines, so then it goes back to normal.
Composing is like a skill. It’s the same as playing instruments or cooking, you really need to learn how to do it, and how not to be critical about yourself. So when I was studying in Copenhagen, we would have to make new music every day. And for some people, it might be hard because. I know that some people you know are waiting for the inspiration for, like, days and it never comes. In Copenhagen that was not possible because we had to bring those new songs you know, every day, or like even create them in one hour and present in another hour. So, I learned those skills, like, how to compose and separate your composing from your emotions. So, when you compose you don't judge yourself. You just use your stream of consciousness and just come up with the ideas that just come to you at that time. Usually, when you do it out of nowhere, you also come with like, completely different things, so you don't repeat yourself. I try to be as minimalistic with my music as it is possible. This is a huge challenge for me, because with my thoughts, I'm usually all over the place. If I would be just myself, I would just go from, like, one idea to another, to another all the time. And I know that for the good of music, it's nice to maybe stay with less material And, like, do as many creative things with them. You can limit yourself to the same melodies or rhythms, but still have different ideas. So the song is evolving but some of the elements of music are staying the same. Having as many limitations as possible, keeps me working fast. It's more fun to me and I also believe that it makes the music more easy to listen to. Nowadays, I'm very tired of listening to music that is very complicated and tries to be complicated. I really try to make my music simpler and simpler everyday because I usually try to get myself out of the comfort zone. And for me, my comfort zone is to make, you know, music with a lot of elements. Music that takes a lot of attention from the listener. Music that is very challenging for people to play it. And I just know that I have to get out of this to become a better musician or a better person. So, I actually know that at the very end, even if I will try to be as simple as possible, I will still not be able to lose my background, my personality, that is about making music that is actually very complex. So, I just know that for me, like, if I would be like a doctor for myself, I really know that trying to be as simple as possible is like only a good thing for me because I will never get simple enough.
So when I moved to Poland, there was one musician that was really taking my attention. And I always wanted to play with him. That was Marcin Masecki. He was like a big inspiration for me. And I just thought that it will be so great to do something together at some point. So when I composed this song, it reminded me of him so much. So I knew that I wanted to invite him to join us on this song. And this idea opened up some new things to me also because Marcin, he's from this alternative music scene in Warsaw, that actually never collaborates with like, mainstream jazz scene. So that was like the first moment for me when I thought: that it's so great that I, you know, connect musicians from, like, very, I would say, conservative jazz scene with alternative people who would never play together if this wouldn't happen. That made me very happy. We recorded the song and Marcin liked it very much and he would just send me those synthesizer solos. When I actually heard it for the first time I was so surprised. It was so shocking for me, but then I just thought this song made so much sense with this Marcin Masecki solo, so I was so happy about it.
I think among young Polish musicians, there is some kind of sense of humor that is, like, visible in their music. I think it's great because music should be fun and it's nice when you can express some emotions. Sometimes it happens on my concerts that people will listen to the music and they will smile or laugh. And, you know, I like to have those musical jokes, sometimes I do have my compositions. Some people tell me that sometimes when they talk to me, they are not sure if I am serious or a joke. I like this and I try to bring this to music. My name is Kuba Więcek and this is one of my favorite compositions of mine called Jazz Robots.