POLAND’S FINEST PUNKS
PUNK’S not dead – but don’t just take my word for it, listen to Poland’s Szczeciński Zespół Dupa then decide for yourselves.
“Punk is just a certain style, a point of reference, but we try not to close ourselves in one style,” explained singer Marcin ‘Gurcin’ Hadaś.
“In the past we wanted to fight with the system, swim upstream. But at the same time, don’t hurt anybody, respect people, admire nature, that is why we sing about trees! How does it look for guys in their 50s? it’s basically a backlash against stupidity now but the system is holding strong.
“Maybe it’s a midlife crisis? Well, some people buy cars, others start yelling, just like us did almost 30 years ago. You can say that we’re putting the ‘Punk Is Dad’ principle into practice!”
In 1995 Marcin and a group of friends formed a band called ‘Geemps,’ and as a joke recorded a 15-minute album conceived, written and recorded all in the same day. They christened it ‘Szczeciński Zespół Dupa’ which loosely translates as ‘The Szczecin’s Asshole Ensemble.’ And then forgot about it until 2018 when it was rerecorded and released on Spotify a year later.
“The success of the album surprised us a bit so in early 2020 we recorded a few tracks just before the pandemic. This led us to record something completely different, definitely not punk, which we did remotely, just sending the files to each other. The result was ‘Nowa Flaga’ (New Flag) released in May the same year.
“In October 2020 we released Drzewa (Trees) a four track EP and then in the second lockdown we repeated the idea of remote recordings and Antykuloziemcy (Flat-Earthers) became our most popular song on Spotify.
“This year we’ve also released the single ‘Strata’ (Loss) the ‘MaMo to Pinokio’ EP and ‘Doglondaran,’ a song from our archives.”
Asked about their influences, the band are quick to name The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, along with Poland’s Dezerter, Siekiera and Lech Janerka.
And fans of the band will be delighted to hear their prodigious output shows no sign of waning.
“What’s next? There’s going to be some new stuff later this year,” added Marcin.
“We’re continuing to dig out our archives, and there’s some of it on tapes and old disks. and of course, new recordings. We have several pieces in various stages of completion and we would rather release singles and EPs because it seems nowadays hardly anyone wants to listen to whole albums.
“By the way, If anyone wants to know what our lyrics are about please check our Bandcamp where most of them have there their English translations: https://restlessastronautrec.bandcamp.com/
Szczeciński Zespół Dupa are:
Grzegorz ‘Gregor’ Bojanek: Guitars, compositions, production.
Marcin ‘Gurcin’ Hadaś: Vocals, lyrics.
Lepu: Drums
Kornel: Drums
Piotrek: Bass
Ben Bojanek: Bass
