WOJTEK SZADKOWSKI, loopbaan

Satellite came about in the beginning of the new millennium as a project from former Collage composer/drummer Wojtek Szadkowski. The highly acclaimed debut in 2003 was called A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset and featured ex-Collage member Robert Amirian on vocals. Mirek Gil, another ex-Collage member, Mirek Gil was one of the guitarists next to Sarhan Kubeisi and the drums were recorded in Mirek Gil’s studio. The rest of the recordings were done in the studio of Krzysiek Palczewski, another ex-member of Collage. He played keyboards on the album and got credits as co-producer. The album contains extraordinary melodic symphonic music in the same vein as Collage, also with influences of Genesis. The artwork and bandlogo were done by no one less than Mark Wilkinson of Marillion fame. Next to a number of guest musicians, the line-up of the first album was completed by Darek Lisowski (keyboards) and Przemek Zawadski (bass).

Evening Games, the successor to the debut, was released late 2004 and featured the core of the first line-up minus keyboardist Darek Lisowski and guitarist Mirek Gil. Recordings on several locations in Poland including the studios of Robert Amirian and Krzysiek Palczewski. The artwork on the second album consisted of a photo taken from a painting by Deanne Hancock. On the third album Into The Night (2007), the line-up is still the same except for bass player Przemek Zawadski. He turns out to be replaced by Jarek Michalski. Guitarist Sarhan Kubeisi contributes to the songwriting in the bonus track. Artwork - again olive greyish and green as the main colour, was done by Jan Ternald. Recently Satellite’s fourth album Nostalgia saw the light of day. This time Wojtek Szadkowski apparently decided to take full control again because he wrote all the music, played both drums and keyboards and produced the album as well. Recently another album was released, namely Rivers Gone Dry by Strawberry Fields. This too turns out to be a project by Szadkowski. Although less progressive, it is still an album worth checking out for all people liking melodic female fronted music, symphonic to some extent. Enough reasons to have an interview with the artist responsible for so much great music as we know from both Collage, Satellite, Peter Pan and now also from Strawberry Fields.

Hello Wojtek, I hope you are well! Are you ready to switch from Polish to English?

"Of course, always! This may seem a little odd, but I’ve spent some years studying English literature at the university, so for me it’s not too much of a problem. It struck me when I was in your country, that most of the people I met were speaking more perfect English than the English people themselves!"

But I’ll bet it’s harder for Polish people to learn English than it is for us Dutch people?

"Not necessarily, although I admit that unlike Polish, the English and Dutch languages share a common background. I would think learning Polish for you Dutch would be more of a problem!"

No doubt about that! But, we’re here to talk about music, your music to be more precise, and this conversation is being recorded, so be careful with what you are about to say, because you know ‘anything you say can be used against you...' No, I'm just kidding! Nothing in this interview will be published without your approvement. Do you remember we actually met some years ago in the Netherlands? I was the guy who introduced the band back then and you were having some difficulties with gear and the soundcheck.

"It’s a relief that I can read first what you’re about to publish, because sometimes my emotions get the better of me and I might regret things I’ve said or your interpretation might be different from what I tried to say. Yes, I remember playing in the Netherlands that night, now I get the picture!"

If I may I’d like to dig a little in your history as a musician. When did you first start playing an instrument and when did you decide you wanted to make a living as a musician?

"I’m not the kind of musician that grew up with musical instruments and having many years of classical training. I think the first time I picked up a guitar, was when was around sixteen years of age. My parents bought me one and the first thing I tried was to play some melody line of my own on the high E string. From the moment I started to play, I started to compose. Although I listened to music, I always hated to play other people’s stuff. As for the drumming: when I heard the The Beatles, Ringo Starr became my idol and not being in the possession of a drum kit, I started to play these rhythm patterns with my bare hands on the table, chairs, all kinds of things. Then I bought myself some sticks and pretending I was playing a real kit, I started to use my lamp as a cymbal, my chair was the snare, some pillows were the toms and the plastic shell from the tapes - in those days there were no CD’s but mainly tapes and cassettes - was my bass pedal. With this ‘gear’ I started to copy Ringo in songs by The Beatles. Now at some point there was a band in my school looking for a drummer and although I was never been near a real drum kit at the time, I told them I could play. They invited me and I got to sit behind the kit and we started to play and it was real easy for me. Fortunately they were even worse as musicians than I was, but we enjoyed ourselves very much and this is how I got my first experience as a real drummer. A different story is how I learned to play more complicated stuff: once I heard the album Seconds Out by Genesis and I was totally blown away by the drumming of Phil Collins. I practiced The Cinema Show and subsequently the whole album until my fingers were aching, and when I finally got it all under control, I learned that the stuff I had been practicing, in real life turned out to be performed by two drummers, because with Genesis on stage there were Bill Bruford and Chester Thompson as well! I think this is why I sometimes overdue it a little and do strange things on drums. In my opinion, the most beautiful things happening with music are happening because of lack of knowledge: well-trained musicians make no mistakes, but might lose some creativity, while people like me make mistakes all the time, but those mistakes lead to new ideas and different approaches. I’m 45 years old now and I still not know the chords on the guitar or even the names of the strings. I don’t know anything about musical theory and that’s why I’m able to do things schooled musicians would not do."

What about the keyboards?

"That is from the time with Collage. Whenever I got an idea how to arrange the music, or I had a composition, I started to show what I had in mind using the keyboards and gradually I started to play chords as well. In summary I wouldn’t say I'm a good musician at all, not on any instrument! When I started Satellite it became a necessity for me to play keyboards, not only because more of my compositions were conceived using keyboards, but also because keyboard player Krzysiek Palczewski wasn’t always available, like on the last album. Due to unforeseen circumstances, he was unavailable for about two or three months, so I had to do practically all keyboards myself to meet the deadlines I had agreed on. It was a very strange situation as I didn’t expect this to happen, but surely I’ve learned a lot again! Krzysiek did submit some keyboards at a later stage, but they were too cosmic in my opinion and didn't not fit the overall character and mood, so I just hung on to the things I had recorded already leaving just a few glimpses of Krzysiek's keys. He’s still in the band though and he is an extraordinary keyboard player indeed. I hope he will be recording with us again on the next album."

So you didn’t consider hiring another trained keyboardist?

"Why should I? I thoroughly enjoyed doing the keyboard duties and as far as I’m concerned they sound just fine. You know on the previous Satellite albums, I’ve also recorded some keyboards, but that’s not stated in the booklets. Apart from that I’ve shown Krzysiek on several occasions how I wanted the keyboards to sound, so many of the basic sounds are ‘mine’ too. However, on many occasions he was able to improve what I had in mind, but I couldn’t play myself adding some great new sound and structure ideas as he is very creative. That’s why the current album is different: my chords are not as complicated and well developed as Krzysiek would have played them."

Krzysiek is still in the band? What about the live shows?

"Yes, Krzysiek is still a band member, but he has been busy with all kinds of things last year. He would be playing live with the band, but the problem is our vocalist Robert Amirian. He is also involved in other projects, TV and such and he decided that he was not going to perform live anymore. It’s his decision and I have to accept that as a fact I have to deal with and it leaves me with two choices: either maintaining Satellite as a studio project, just like The Alan Parsons Project, or changing the vocalist. My biggest problem is I’m just so terribly fond of Robert’s voice. He’s a great singer, one of the best, and it would be extremely hard to find someone else."

What kind of music did you grow up with? Obviously Genesis has been one of your sources of influence and inspiration. What other acts of genres of music do you like?

"No doubt it is of great importance for your early development that you have one or more idols. When you grow up and the creativity starts to flow, however, you should try to become your own idol. I hear a lot of bands just trying to copy their idols and that’s something I tried hard to avoid. The most important band for me is always The Beatles. This band changed my life, my way of thinking and the attitude towards life. Then I can think of Genesis, but foremost King Crimson: in my opinion the most creative band since The Beatles. They combine creativity, passion and technique in a most unbelievable way. I’m not very interested in genres as a whole like neo- progressive rock, rather than bands that I like because individuals or bands create a genre and it’s not the other way around. I like to listen to Joy Division, Billy Holliday, Louis Armstrong, Big Band stuff, Simply Red, Chic, but also Madonna and Michael Jackson; these two are my true idols, I just love them! From the newer generation I also like Robbie Williams, Kings Of Leon and Fall Out Boy. It’s strange for me to observe people comparing my music to Porcupine Tree or Pendragon: I just don’t know, because I haven’t heard their music at all. I might hear some single tracks, but you cannot call it conscious listening. Every day I’m walking around with thousands of tunes in my head and I’m constantly in the process of composing. Since I’m not able to write down the music I conceive, I must either record it using the guitar or the keyboard or use my cell phone to record a melody and many of them are just locked away in my head. I never plan anything, I just do..."

How did you become involved with Collage?

"This was in the days of the school band I mentioned before. I was walking down the street one day and I heard some rock or blues music coming to my ears from a basement. It sounded awful, but the guitarist - he turned out to be Mirek Gil - was just amazing. He sounded like Eric Clapton in his days with Cream or Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin). About two weeks later a guy appeared at school telling us he was in search for a drummer, so I stepped forward and said, yes I can play drums. It turned out to be that band Mirek Gil was playing in! But, Mirek also played in another band with a vocalist who just sounded like Phil Collins and invited me to join them. Because of our constant desire to improvise, Mirek and I were thrown out of that band and that’s where we started to form our own band in the mid-eighties; that band was the foundation of Collage."

I suppose that you didn't earn a lot of money in those days?

"No, not at all. We started to earn some money with Collage in the early nineties and before that we were students. I lived at home and I went to the university of Warsaw to study English culture and literature. It was very hard for me to combine study with music, because I was asked to appear on television, do interviews, play live shows so at some point the people responsible from university confronted me with an ultimatum. I had to choose between university and music. No need to tell which choice I made! I finally managed to graduate but it took me a long time."

What kind of technical aids did you use during the Collage days to write your music and bring it to the other members of the band?

"Until Nostalgia, practically all of my music was composed on the guitar. So I used to play basic chords and sing a melody for the band and we just improvised around it. I always had a song with the proper basic vocal lines and sometimes a sketch of lyrics and sometimes just rough ideas with my voice humming the melody. The Collage song War Is Over is an example of a song that was almost ready to record in a few minutes after bringing it to the rehearsal room. I have so many ideas that is always difficult to choose. If you listen carefully to both Collage and Satellite songs you'll hear that they are composed from all kinds of different melodies. It’s all about these melodies and emotions of course."

At this point Wojtek’s cell phone starts making noise with a ringtone from Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F. We had a little chit chat about Axel Foley, but Wojtek had to leave for a rehearsal with Strawberry Fields and never expected an in-depth interview. We made arrangements to continue this conversation later on.

So, how are you this morning, wide awake?

"Yes I am, in fact we are in the middle of making preparations for a Polish tradition at Easter: egg painting. We do it with the family, my wife and two sons."

That’s really nice. I hope I’m not interfering too much! What did you do when Collage disbanded (1996) and when did you decide to try again with Satellite (2000)?

"When the band split up we - Collage minus Robert Amirian - got the opportunity to become the backing band for the famous Polish singer Anita Lipnicka. She used to be in a very popular band called Varius Manx, but around 1996 she moved to London to pursue a solo career. In London she worked with renowned session musicians and producer Danny Shogger. Her first album was an enormous success in Poland. She was looking for a band to play live with her to promote her solo album and we were out of a job so we ended up touring with her, playing all the big venues, travelling with three big trucks packed with stage and lights for eighteen months. On one special show we were supported by Danny Shogger, Chris White (Dire Straits) and Hugh Burns (George Michael, Gerry Rafferty, and many more. We had a few days of additional rehearsals together with them in the studio to change all arrangements. That was a big time working with those great artists. After that Mirek and I did some TV shows with Morten Harket (A-Ha) promoting his solo album, and then I focused on my family. My first son was born and two years later the second, so I became a family man. I had a regular job working for Sony Music Publishing. I was responsible for the A & R there. The Beatles back-catalogue, Presle and may many more artists, and searching for new talents, signing some back catalogues of famous Polish stars belonged to my tasks. Still, after a few years, I couldn’t stand to be outside the core of the music business anymore. I wanted to compose, play with friends and just have fun like in the early days. I wasn’t planning on recording or anything like that, I wanted to play again."

What’s the music scene like in Poland? If you weren’t selling albums in the rest of Europe, you would probably have a hard time to survive?

"Fortunately, I’m also selling albums outside of Poland but if this was not the case, I believe I still could make a living as a musician. The main thing for me, however, is to perform live, playing gigs all around the world that’s what I like the most. It is also necessary to gain popularity. Promotion outside of Poland is very difficult so gigging is the way to make a name for yourself. What we really need is a good promoter and manager outside of Poland. With Strawberry Fields we are ready to go on tour and with Satellite also if we could find a good vocalist, but without someone who looks after promotion and booking, it’s impossible and I really don’t want to have that responsibility myself. I would be able to work with other people, compose with other people and create popular music as well, but still there’s the problem with not having someone to take care of the business side outside of Poland, so if you know a person who is willing to support me in that aspect, it would be great! Many bands are touring in Europe and obviously have such contacts, while we don’t!"

Don’t you know who they have as liaison or can’t you ask them?

"No, I don’t know. But there’s something else. I’m from a different generation and in my time everybody wanted to help one another as musicians. I would be happy to provide information and letting other musicians benefit from my experience and contacts. The modern generation of musicians, although all of them are great guys, are thinking in a different way. In the back of their head is ‘making an album’ and sometimes this is the only reason to form bands to do just that. When I was younger all we wanted was to make music together and we never thought about recording ever! Forming a band had a totally different drive compared to the present day. I am constantly creating and composing, regardless of what happens with the things I have created. Maybe that’s why older bands are stronger and perhaps better, because they are only thinking about playing music and not ‘we have to record an album now’. I mean, Satellite is a good band and Strawberry Fields, being more pop-rock oriented, could even be more popular and I think with the right people helping, this band really could become very popular internationally."

You recently released your fourth Satellite album through Metal Mind Records. Is that record label the only logical choice for you?

"I have known the managing director Tomasz Dziubiski, for a long, long time and as I mentioned before, I’m not very good at spending a lot of my time looking for contacts, labels, promoters, and so on. Since I knew Tom for such a long time, I decided to work with him on my projects. Biggest advantage is that I am allowed to do what I want to do and Metal Mind Records will release almost everything I create, no questions asked! Can you imagine a record label that would release my Strawberry Fields project without even asking for a demo? I have never ever had to give them a demo for any of my projects. For this attitude I am very grateful. They just believe in me. Most of the time I am too late to meet the deadlines agreed to deliver the mastertape and they even accept that, grumpy and pissed off naturally, but they do!"

All four albums by Satellite were highly recommended in a number of prog rock websites and magazines. Do you consider the Netherlands to be a ‘good country’ for Satellite and which other countries do you know Satellite is popular?

"Well thank you, that’s really cool! Actually this is a question for the record label, I really wouldn’t know. But considering the responses via my space, Satellite gets positive feedback from all over world, even the strangest places such as Sri Lanka. So, the distribution must be reasonably good. As for teh Netherlands, I agree. In your country there has always been a strong fan base, but in France too. In England I think not that much, as far as I know progressive rock is not very popular in Great Britain. The USA is a big market too, and not to forget Japan. I have to go to Japan because Collage also was selling very good there, so I think for Satellite there must be a demand too, because the people there have a reputation to love progressive rock!"

What about you’re your neighbour country Germany?

"Certainly good reviews, so it might be possible to do gigs there. Definitely a country ‘to be explored’. Italy it’s the same. I’ve got no worries about the popularity of Satellite in Europe or the US. In Scandinavia there were very positive reviews too, that means we would have to perform live there too some day. Playing live is what we need to double or even triple the fan base in all those countries! On the other hand, strictly from the point of view as composer, when I’m creating music, I don’t care if people like it or not: I don’t give a shit! This way of thinking does not affect my creative process of making an album. Once an album is finished and it’s released, then it’s a different story."

Other progressive acts from Poland like Believe, Quidam, Riverside, Kayanis, just to name a few. Do you know of these artists? What’s your position in the Polish scene?

"I don’t know Kayanis. I think most of the people in the music business know my name and I hope I'm a well respected colleague. Due to the popularity of Collage in the nineties, when we were playing the biggest venues together with pop-rock bands, everybody is familiar with my name. Every time a Satellite album is released there are big reviews on the internet, in the newspapers and in the leading rock magazines in Poland, so that’s quite okay. However, the progressive music is not mainstream in Poland anymore and just like everywhere else the sales of CD’s is decreasing. Look at Billboard: the number of albums you have to sell for ‘gold’ are far less than five or ten years ago! Sometimes the sales of a well promoted pop star is comparable to the sales of a band like Satellite. That means that if we would get the same kind of promotion, we would be selling far more! For instance Evening Games was number two in the Polish charts for two weeks. To give progressive rock a fair chance would mean restructuring of the promotional tools. The two biggest radio stations in Poland have a lot of influence. Major record labels wouldn’t dare to sign an artist without their approval! It’s ridiculous. You know, many people in Poland love progressive rock, but many of them don’t know of the younger bands. They all know SBB, because it’s a very old band, but if they would know these younger bands, probably the old music scene would be different and prog rock would be far better promoted. It’s slightly changing however, so maybe in about three years. We’re hoping for the best!"

Maybe the internet, My space and YouTube make it possible for artists like you to be heard through other channels than the radio?

"That’s true, but again you have to get someone to build a website or a ‘my space’ and maintain it, send emails, and so on. I won’t do it, I have no time! It would be very efficient though, but a time consuming business too!"

Listening to all Satellite albums, especially Nostalgia and the last Collage albums, there's musically not too much difference for my taste. What are the differences for you as an artist?

"For me those albums are not comparable at all. Looking back at Safe, the last album of Collage, I think there are a few good songs on it, but it’s making a switch towards pop music. Safe wasn’t even meant to be a Collage-album! The composing of that album took us only two weeks, the producing, however, took about 800 hours! While we were composing, it began to sound like Collage and with a few adjustments here and there we decided to make it a band album after all. Nostalgia on the other hand is a very personal album, composed by a different man in a different time of his life. Especially because I don’t think Safe was a good album, I wouldn’t compare it with Nostalgia, also because in my opinion Nostalgia contains the best melodies I wrote so far and the lyrics are much more meaningful, though fairly simple. Maybe Moonshine has got a similar kind of mood, so you might be right but to tell you the truth, I never listen to an album once it’s finished, so I really wouldn’t know. During Collage times Mirek and I composed most of the songs, but we worked on them in the rehearsal room. We improvised and arranged the songs together, that’s a big difference with Satellite, because I'm doing all the composing and arranging myself. The rehearsal room is in my head. Of course, I work with fantastic musicians and their solos are much better than I could have come up with, but that’s a different matter. Most creative processes in Satellite are mine including composing vocal lines."

And comparing Collage with Satellite from the point of view of a businessman?

"Satellite is certainly making me some money, but due to an agreement with Sony Music Publishing, for a number of years not all revenues are mine, I’m afraid."

Are you still in touch with Mirek Gil?

"Sometimes things happen that are beyond control or that you don’t understand. I cherish all those moments Mirek and I were improvising, composing and arranging and I think we were an extremely good creative couple. As time goes by people change, develop other interests. I would love to compose with Mirek again but at this point I don’t think it will happen. But occasionally we meet each other and have some beer together."

On Nostalgia Robert sings more aggressively, instead of using his very melancholic, soft singing voice. Personally, I have the impression that he has to put lots of efforts to sing the many high notes on this album. Is that a deliberate choice?

"I have finally managed to push Robert to the strongest, powerful sound I knew he was able to deliver and I’m extremely happy with the results. Moonshine was the peak for Collage and Robert sang a hundred percent of his abilities there too, so I can imagine there are some similarities that one could detect."

Robert records his vocals very often twice with an octave difference. Is there a special reason why you want them that way?

"Although the vocal lines are mine, I feel it is right to allow the vocalist to use his imagination and to come up with his own interpretation. Robert likes to arrange the vocals this way."

Nostalgia has been recorded throughout 2008. Does this mean that you just record one track at a time?

"No, that’s not how it works. As I mentioned, I’m constantly in the process of creating and composing and most of the time I’m working on a number of songs simultaneously. An hour or two on one song, than I switch to another song and shape that one, go back to the first and so forth: I never concentrate on one song solely. It’s just like giving attention to your children: you can’t focus on just one, you have to give some attention to each one of them regularly. Besides, I’m too impatient and too curious: when I’m working on several songs I’m eagerly awaiting what melodies will come next for each one of them. In fact I’m working on one whole album at the same time, in the case of Nostalgia I was working on Rivers Gone Dry by Strawberry Fields as well!"

Just like the previous albums, Nostalgia has been released in a regular slipcase version and as a digipack with extra tracks. Is it your idea or the record company’s?

"It's the idea of record company. I don’t see the point or benefit, but they ask me to give them a couple of extra songs and I deliver. However, sometimes these extra tracks are not as well arranged and produced as the ones on the regular album."

How did you get the Polish progressive rock artist Amarok to play on Nostalgia?

"He happened to be recording in the same studio we were. I didn’t know Amarok (Michal Wojtas) was such a versatile musician and when I heard what he was doing, I asked him to help me play some Hammonds in and of course the last guitar solo in the last track. This initiated another project of mine; presumably it will be called The Travellers. I have some tracks ready to send to him and then I will wait for him to do with his guitar whatever he wants and send them back to me."

Nostalgia is the third album with the same sort of colour setting and atmosphere on the cover. Is it your idea and does it have a specific purpose since these covers look alike to some degree?

"The choice of the artwork for the cover is my decision. I always look for an artwork that matches the album I’m working on. For the first album, I was working with Mark Wilkinson. It was my idea and I contacted him. We talked about how I wanted the cover to look like. Only the unicorn wasn't my idea. The second cover was an existing artwork I picked up. Technically it may be not that good, a bit childish perhaps even, but it fits the title Evening Games perfectly. The third cover from Into The Night and the DVD-cover is from an artwork by a great artist named Jan Ternald. I just love this artwork. For Nostalgia it’s a combination of two entities. I got inspired by an artwork featuring a woman in a white shirt standing on a boat, but I didn’t like it as such with flies around her head and all. I suggested artist Trine should be a man sitting in the boat with a glass in his hand, to put in a TV-set and a reflection of a city scape in the water. There you have the lonesome guy, sort of drifting, reflecting and floating between two worlds, reality and memories."

The other album that Strawberry Fields recently was Rivers Gone Dry. Does the name Strawberry Fields refer to The Beatles in some way?

"The Beatles is the greatest band of all and I’m always looking for a good and catchy name, so... Although we have had some discussion, reviewing a thousand names, none of them was as good as this first idea: Strawberry Fields. There’s an obvious relation with The Beatles’ song there, but it reminds also of a slightly psychedelic era so I think it’s a good combination. But most important of all: it’s just a very good name!"

How did this project come about?

"The problem with me is that I have too many ideas. Often I compose six or seven songs per day, all those couldn’t be suitable for Satellite, that would be insane. Surely not every song I compose is good enough, so I make choices and maybe one out of a hundred is meeting my standards but there are many different styles in what I compose: also pop and rock songs! Physically, I have no time to bring all those songs to the studio and record them to make an album. It happened about a year ago, I had some free time to spend and that’s when I started thinking of a project besides Satellite. Robin’s voice is truly amazing and she inspired me to put the songs together for the album.

How did you find Robin?

"This is a strange story but I’m a strange kind of guy you know! It happened one time when I and Radek Chwieralski, guitarist in Peter Pan, sat in a bar and I was discussing this new project of mine with him and his girlfriend Marta Kniewska, also known as Robin. I was telling them I couldn’t find the right vocalist for this project. After a few beers I asked Marta if she would be the singer in my new project. At the time I didn’t even know if she could sing at all! And I was not drunk. I just felt this would be the right person."

That’s a bit peculiar indeed! You stated that you wanted to do things outside of Satellite, but in Strawberry Fields you ended up using the whole band except the singer?

"The music is always the guiding light I follow, making all choices. Apart from the fact that it's hard to find the right people in a restricted timeframe, the compositions are forcing the musicians to play in another style and that’s exactly what happened. If I was to compose songs that were really totally different from Satellite, I’d probably pick other people to work with. In this case I really didn’t think that was necessary because all songs sound like I imagined they would sound. Apart from that there’s always me, I’m the constant factor and I’m not pretending to be anybody else. So as long as I'm involved there will always be some clues pointing to me as the composer. I’m not trying to be a Genesis-clone or anyone’s clone, I want to hang on to my originality."

Another project initiated by you is Peter Pan. The current bass player Jarek Michalski of Satellite is a member of that band and Robin was found through Peter Pan’s guitarist. How did you create this project?

"At some point I was kind of fed up with all the big production techniques and the clean, polished sound. Never a note out of tune! I began to miss the passion in the music and I wanted to feel the raw and honest sound again, because in my view in many cases the production process is killing the music. There’s too much compression and things. I’ve tried to minimize this on Nostalgia and I succeeded in realizing much more ‘space’ than on the previous albums. So I started looking for a guitarist and found Radek through Robert Amirian. He told me that he knew a young talented guitarist, well-known in the underground jam scene. I went to see him play in some club in Warsaw, we met and felt a mutual understanding. Still, at that point, he was far too quick for me. It was his Steve Vai-like technique playing, not him, not his soul. Every time the audience went crazy while most of the times I told him that it was awful, not bringing in any emotion at all. It took him nearly a year to figure out what I meant, but finally we got together and we began to rehearse. Even then he needed a while to produce that emotional raw sound as you can hear on the Peter Pan album Days. This album is recorded live for about fify percent, they were in fact rehearsals but with sound improved in the studio. We did only three rehearsals, but in the studio we failed to achieve the same kind of passion as in the first rehearsals, so I mixed the recordings in the studio with the recordings I had left from those rehearsals. Only the vocals were re-recorded. The sound is so natural and rough, it really felt like a relief for me to feel the vibe of spontaneous music again and to record this kind of music just as rough as it was performed."

Back to Strawberry Fields again: Robin wrote all the lyrics. Did she also do the vocal line compositions?

"No, they are mine. But she wanted to write some of the lyrics but when she asked me to help her, I insisted that she would finish them herself. She’s a great lyricist and I believe she’s got something hidden inside that she needed to express. Actually, it felt like a relief for me too. I could concentrate on the music and didn’t have to worry about the lyrics. When I’m working with someone else I’d like them to be creative and if I think they can’t express it, I force them to do it."

Whose idea was it to use so much echoing and reverb for Robin’s vocal, especially in the first song?

"It happened by accident. We were adding some reverb to the vocal and someone stopped the tape, creating that sudden change. It was my idea to use it in the recording. A similar technique, by the way, is used in the title track of Moonshine. In the middle section there’s a sudden silence. Also on Evening Games, somewhere the music is cut very abruptly. I like this kind of contrast."

Are you planning any shows with Strawberry Fields?

"If we can, yes! We’re just about ready to play live but as I said before, I’m likely to get a depression because all other artists seem to be able to find the right people to get them gigs in Europe and until now we can’t!"

What will be the core business of Wojtek Szadkowski the months to come?

"I have a number of songs already so we will probably start to record the second album by Strawberry Fields in May next year and also a new Satellite album. There will be a new Peter Pan album too, maybe even this year. Then there’s the project with Amarok and one more project, but that will be a bit weird, I think. It will be a surprise, for me too!"

Wojtek, I really appreciate that you have given me so much of your time and I surely hope to see you live with whatever band real soon!

"Thank you very much and yes, I too hope we will start touring soon!"

Discography Satellite:

The Street Between Sunrise And Sunset (2003)

Evening Games (2005)

Evening Dreams (DVD, 2005)

Into The Night (2007)

Nostalgia (2009)

Discography Strawberry Fields:

Rivers Gone Dry (2009)