Interview Top Guitar

Interview with Krzysia Górniak by Maciej Warda.

Krzysia’s latest album unexpectedly took on significance in the time of plague. Firstly, it is a reflection, a look back, a musical reckoning with the past. Secondly, among the songs there are two dedicated to those who have passed away – Grzegorz Grzyb and another friend. However, this is not a nocturne album, lunar in its atmosphere, quite the opposite – there is a lot of sunshine and positive melancholy in it. There is no boredom in it, a lot is happening musically, so we encourage you to get to know it, and to whet your appetite we suggest a conversation with the artist.

Motto: “The fragility of fate is a part of life and the more we realize the inevitability of transience, the more we appreciate the time we have left”.

What have you been up to since the last album “Moments”? On which albums and in which bands could we hear you?

Since “Moments” a lot has happened in my life, I have played concerts and participated in many jam sessions. I especially remember the concert at the W. Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio, I always wanted to play in this hall because of its excellent acoustics and I did it. I am glad that the concert was immortalized on video and is available on YouTube. Last year I did the trick of being a sea sailor. I personally experienced moments of great sadness and regret, moments of reflection on the meaning and purpose of life. Grzegorz Grzyb, an outstanding drummer, with whom I played on the album “Moments”, passed away. The tragic death of Grześ was a shock to me, in the meantime, another close friend of mine also passed away. This led to a change in the line-up of my band, some things that worked well with Grześ Grzyb, sounded different without him. That’s why I started looking for a new sound for the band, I changed the line-up, I wanted a certain maturity of sound, jazz nostalgia, but also multidimensionality of color and dynamics.

And what does Krzysia do when she’s not performing, writing music and sitting in the studio? You used to be the head of the Polish Radio music studios, and now?

I lead a creative life filled with passions, apart from playing I draw, I create cycles of paintings showing people in their various emotional states, there’s a lot of love, contemplation, expectation, dreams. The paintings have a musical lightness, a nerve resulting from the change in time, they are lacy and ornamental. I’m also a board member of the Diuna Foundation, I work in the foundation, I raise funds for creative activities. My passion is sailing, in my free time I sail on yachts.
The songs on “Memories” are a record of memories about people and events that were somehow connected to you. Can you tell us anything specific, assign people or situations to specific songs?

Each of my albums was dedicated to a different story, “Tales” about traveling through Europe during my student days, “Ultra” is a musical illustration of individual colors, “Emotions” is an album about emotions, “Feelings” is about feelings, “Moments” are moments from life, and “Memories” are memories of people and events that were associated with me in recent years. I have reached a point where some of the friends I knew live only in my memories. I already know that the fragility of fate is a part of life and the more we realize the inevitability of transience, the more we appreciate the time we have left. In the world of music, the departure of Grześ Grzyb was especially painful for me, because for the last few years we played together, he was part of my band, we can hear him playing drums on the album “Moments”. The ballad “Touch Of Your Soul” was written in August 2018, under the influence of pain after the loss of Grześ Grzyb. “My Indian Summer” was written in September 2019 at the end of summer, when we can already feel the arrival of autumn, but it is still hot outside, it is a lazy time of solstice, something that is irrevocably leaving. I dedicated the song to a friend who passed away due to illness. “Memories” is not only nostalgic memories, there are also pleasant moments. “Strawberry Kisses” the first single from the album, I composed in June 2019, it is the time of strawberries and it reminds me of the sweet beginning of summer, hence the reference to kisses. It is something pleasant, warm, something that we like to recall in our dreams on long winter evenings. “Sweet Almonds” the second single from the album, I wrote in May 2019, it brings back memories of a trip to the seaside, the scorching sun, the wind in my hair and sweet almonds to munch on. “See Salt On My Lips” is a song about those moments while sailing, when the salt from the sea breeze settles on your lips. “Travel” is a composition written in memory of a beautiful trip to Italy with my friend, there is a motif about running through the airport, a motif about sightseeing in the city and a motif where we relax by the sea. “Cardamom Coffee” was written under the influence of conversations over coffee during rehearsals at my home, coffee with cardamom is my bandmates’ favorite delicacy.

Is it just me, or have you recently returned to your fascination with Pat Metheny? The themes you play are of course in your smooth jazz style, but somewhere in the over-compositions there is this Metheny melody.

If I can hear Pat Metheny’s influence in my work, it is a big compliment, I think he is an outstanding musician. However, for years now I have not been consciously inspired by Pat, I am not an imitator of his style, I do not practice his phrasing. Of course, most modern guitarists, including me, have a certain fascination with Pat, his technique, phrase building, melody, it is a good model in the education phase, when you are looking for your own style. What you can hear on “Memories” is my own material, where I looked for inspiration in my own interior and experience. I think Pat created a certain style based on melodiousness and lyrical melodies, and because I also like melody and space in playing, I am compared to him.

So what record is currently in your player or on a playlist on Tidal or Spotify?

I listen to a lot of different records, I am still a fan of CDs or vinyl, I like to have physical contact with the product. I think that the cover, what is written on the record, what its graphic design is, the concept of the project, the photos, all of this has meaning and gives a new dimension to the music. In my opinion, a record is a whole, not just music, it is an idea enclosed in such a small artistic project, there is visual, poetic and musical content. The cover has significance, also historical, because it is a message of certain content, such as the image of the artist at a given period of their life, and also the acknowledgments or lyrics on the album, often expand the picture of the entire musical story that the artist wants to convey to us. Streaming is of course very convenient, we have access to everything, we can listen to one song from a given album, create playlists, it is like a large library of musical thought in space, but because it is not limited in any way, we lose direct contact with the creator there. I treat this library educationally, I will take a look, familiarize myself with what individual artists do, but at home I prefer to put the CD in the player and listen to the entire album. I also like to have a good quality recording, the album always has a unique quality. Maybe that is why we still create CDs, to have a physical trace of our actions, so that something after us remains in the matter. In answer to the second part of your question, I will not give the names of the artists I listen to or my inspirations, it is such a wide range of music, which is constantly changing and evolving, that I would not like to get attached to individual people or bands. I listen to everything from classical music, through jazz in various varieties, to music bordering on world music. The most important thing for me is quality, I listen to those artists who are virtuosos on instruments, where you can hear hard work and years of practice.

I know most of the albums you have released, but none of them had so much “hit”, and at the same time so many threads and references. The “Slavic” ones are especially delicious, because musically elevating Polishness to Europeanness is a big thing. Tell me how this music was created, how you recorded it, what inspired you…?

As I mentioned earlier, I look for inspiration mainly in myself, I have the impression that this is the best way to achieve an original, unique language of composition. Of course, I always care about melody, because that’s how I hear music, a beautiful melody fits my spiritual structure. A theme that can be sung, that stays in the subconscious, somehow plays itself thanks to the melody, that’s how I hear it. The music I create has a dimension of intellectual relaxation for me, the point is to introduce the listener to a spiritually uplifting, but also calm, relaxed mood. Hence, I have many well-thought-out harmonic changes, which I think about for a long time before I use them. It is about the situation of harmonic ambiguity, and at the same time it is important that the harmonic changes flow into each other smoothly, without causing discomfort. This is a kind of avoiding musical obviousness, where the theme is harmonically complemented in places with surprising structures, then the whole is rich and deep. “Słowiańszczyzny” simply came from the heart of the band, these were arrangement delicacies that we as Slavs have in our blood. These are naturally creative moments, jazz with elements of folk is obvious to us Poles, just like jazz with elements of Byzantine music for the Greeks. On “Memories” there are also many dynamic, technically difficult moments, but in such moments I always try to make the whole sound as if it was nothing significant. Simply more energetic playing, faster or more dynamic, which flows in the same way as calm moments. I want the recipient not to be aware that something is complicated, technically difficult. The most important thing for me is for my music to be filled with a wealth of feelings and emotions, where everyone can, thanks to their own imagination, add their own story to the musical images that I create.

Do you still have the same guitar? Gibson 175D?

Yes, I still play the same guitar, which was bought from Winicjusz Chróst, with whom I have been collaborating on the production of the 8th album. He bought this guitar for Tadeusz Nalepa, so a beautiful story is enclosed in the heart of this instrument. I fell in love with it from the first touch, the guitar has a relatively small scale and a narrow, round neck, which is a good solution for my feminine hand. A noble instrument can be very inspiring. My Gibson still inspires me, I love its warm, deep sound.

But it seems to me that your sound has matured, brightened up a bit, modernized. Have you changed anything in your equipment since the last album?

Maturity is not a matter of equipment, but everything that shapes our musical personality. These are years of working with the instrument, but also the lightness of the message. You could say that it is like growing into an instrument, it becomes not a guitar, but only a means of expressing the emotions and personality of the creator. When we reach the stage where we stop thinking about the guitar and start thinking about what we want to say with the instrument in our hands, and technical limitations cease to concern us, this is maturity. The guitar becomes a tool for expressing emotions, feelings, it is only a transmitter of our energy. When it comes to equipment, with the passage of time I start to appreciate the maxim that less is more. I focus on quality and very good instruments. On “Memories” you can hear 3 guitars: the mentioned Gibson 175D, Gibson Acoustic L-130, Godin ACS Slim, I also play on the AER Compact 60 amplifier, I use delay and reverb. In the studio I record mainly with lines, and both the Gibson 175D and Godin were picked up from the speakers by a microphone. I limit later post-production activities in terms of color to a minimum. As for the brightness of the sound, it results from the very nature of the composition and how I hear the whole thing. I am glad that the sound has become more modern. As time goes by, I am beginning to appreciate the maxim that less is more. I focus on quality and very good instruments. On “Memories” you can hear 3 guitars: the aforementioned Gibson 175D, the acoustic Gibson L-130, Godin ACS Slim, I also play the AER Compact 60 amplifier, I use delay and reverb.

Tell me more about the musicians you recorded “Memories” with. Are they not new acquaintances…? What criteria do you use to select them?

“Memories” is based on many years of friendship with fellow musicians, with whom we met and played on various stages, during festivals and jam sessions. The jazz and improvising musicians’ environment is quite hermetic and we all know each other. The musicians I selected for “Memories” are united by their great professionalism, experience and creative lightness in conveying the content of the musical composition. The heart of the band is Marcin Jahr, an outstanding drummer who began his professional career in Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski’s quintet in 1987, with whom he still collaborates today. On the double bass, we will hear Michał Jaros, winner of many awards, who released his own album “Floating Bridges” in 2019. On the piano we can hear two musicians: Michał Wróblewski, a pianist with great artistic achievements, arranger, composer, creative and visionary improviser, who works with Michał Urbaniak on a daily basis, and Piotr Wrombel, an experienced musician with a wide artistic achievements, who takes part in many jazz projects of a diverse nature, collaborating with Krzesimir Dębski and Zbigniew Namysłowski, among others.

And finally, a request for reflection on the Polish musical taste and its shaping by the media/schools. In what direction do you think it is going and how do you see the future of Polish music?

I do not assess this situation positively, over the last 20 years many destructive changes have been made, the effects of which affect the entire creative industry. The withdrawal of music from schools has led to the fact that society is systematically becoming deaf, genres such as disco-polo and the cult of so-called hits are fashionable, which are additionally promoted by the media. Also large international music corporations have gradually led to the decline of creativity among musicians in Poland. The scene has been cemented by so-called stars, where it is not really about music, but about a certain type of image. For me, all this is too shallow and vulgar. When it comes to the world of real music and musicians, there is a lot of creativity here, but usually such artists are promoted to a limited extent by the industry. We have to manage on our own, we exist mainly thanks to the Internet and social media. Music on the Internet is practically given away for free, which is why many artists struggle with existential problems. Of course, concerts are still held, the audience comes to listen to live music, there is an environment of people who value quality and virtuosity. However, this is a minority. I think that we are dealing with times of decline and certain revaluations. I hope that everything will change for the better, that quality and creative creation will be valued again, and artists will be fairly paid for their work. The withdrawal of music from schools has led to society systematically becoming deaf, with genres such as disco-polo and the cult of so-called hits becoming fashionable, which are additionally promoted by the media.

Thank you for the interview.