With HRH in its 13th year, we sent our two new recruits Glenn & Glyn to Great Yarmouth to check out the new venue. While there, they caught up with the lads from Chemia for a chat. Check out what they had to say below.
“Rock music is everything that is in my soul and my heart.” Lukasz Drapala
We met with lead singer Lukasz Drapala and guitarist Wojtek Balczun for a coffee at the Hard Rock Hell festival in Great Yarmouth to discuss touring, musical influences and singing in different languages.
Rock and Roll Circus; You're coming towards the end of the tour where you’ve supported Michael Monroe and Skindred. What was it like touring with them?
Lukasz; We’ve known each other for a few years, and we’ve played with Skindred in the UK and Europe. It’s always good and always fun. The same with Michael Monroe was even a little more fun. There’s a lot of punk there. We're probably a bit of rock, punk, and grunge. The metal is more classic. We had a lot of fun in Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, and the UK. I’m gonna miss those guys.
Wojtek; When I was a small kid, I was a huge fan of Hanoi Rocks, they were my heroes. I was so proud to have the opportunity to support them.
Rock and Roll Circus; That must be incredible.
Lukasz; People at the gigs weren’t just waiting for Michael Monroe. They were there from the start. So it was good for us as a supporting band.
Rock and Roll Circus; How much did working with great live bands like Skindred and Michael Monroe, who put on such a great show, influence your live performance? You’ve got to up your game when your working with guys like that.
Lukasz; We’re gonna see that now because we’re just starting. Typical band story! I left the band for two years to get some fresh air. After two earlier shows with Skindred a few years back, our effort was less, but now we’re not gonna lose it. Because of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, we have more fans.
Rock and Roll Circus; The first time you came to the UK was in 2014. With social media and the exposure you’ve had over here, have you found that your fan base has grown massively?
Wojtek; We’ve had a really positive response from the people. From European countries like Germany and in Sweden, Switzerland, and so on. We had a break, now we are more experienced, and we’re starting from a different point. Having English management, booking agency here and we know each other better.
Lukasz; Like friends, sometimes you have to punch each other!
Wojtek; We recorded our new album in London, and it’s a lot better.
Rock and Roll Circus; We talked about the Chemia sound. It’s a bit of grunge and hard rock. Who would you say have been your biggest influences?
Lukasz; When we write, Wojtek makes the riffs, I make the melody, and that’s the starting point. He’s from the ’80s, and I’m from the ’90s. So you get everything in there. Hard rock and even metal in the riffs. In the 90’s I was in love with grunge music.
Wojtek; Funny story, grunge wasn’t the best for me!
Lukasz; Like the ’80s for me!
Wojtek; But many times, they have told me that this riff is similar to grunge! I answer that I don’t know why! Maybe it’s grunge week or metal week.
Rock and Roll Circus; Grunge didn't just appear from nowhere it borrowed from before. Punk borrowed from pop.
Lukasz; Exactly!
Rock and Roll Circus; And it still killed the best music!
Lukasz; Yeah, and you know grunge was about the melodies. You can’t compare Nirvana to Alice in Chains. We like to mix this music with our experiences.
Wojtek; When we began writing this music, we had an original plan to create a more modern sound. Because we love current music, we started and completely changed our minds and recorded some blues, country and its a journey. We did some electronic stuff and a few weeks later went back to the blues. Our manager said that we don’t need to be some version of famous bands from the United States. You sound like Chemia, play in your own style. That’s the solution.
Rock and Roll Circus; American bands, have a very similar style right now...
Lukasz; Exactly and I don’t like that.
Rock and Roll Circus; It’s very southern tinged and has affected a lot of the bands over here and their taking on that style.
Wojtek; It’s very difficult to calculate your music and product. It should be a natural thing from your soul and heart.
Rock and Roll Circus; It’s nice to hear a band say that we’ll do what we do. We’ve got a formula, and we’ll go with it.
Lukasz; He’s got the riffs in his heart, and I have the melodies. Not to compare to anyone, we already have it in our hearts. I don’t collect melodies like notes.
Rock and Roll Circus; You’ve been on the road for a few weeks now.
Wojtek; We supported a big band from Ukraine on a big stadium tour, and that was interesting.
Lukasz; Three bands, one main stage, and 20,000 people there. Huge production.
Wojtek; Then we move to smaller venues and clubs. It’s intimate with the people.
Lukasz; We even tried to do some songs in Ukranian, I don’t know a word! We had a guy from Ukraine, and we started to learn the accent. It’s crazy. They have four ways to say one letter! And I’m trying to sing it! We did three songs, and the Ukraine fans liked that.
Wojtek; They love rock, and they love music! It’s a very promising country for us, and we have to be more flexible.
Rock and Roll Circus; And singing in another language increases your fan base.
Lukasz; Exactly! Especially on Instagram.
Wojtek; It's funny because we don’t sing in Polish!
Rock and Roll Circus; No Polish at all?
Lukasz; Maybe nine years ago, and then we stopped and focused on English. I think in the future we should! My accent in Polish is very good!
Wojtek; Better than it is in English!
Rock and Roll Circus; The unplugged album recorded in 2016, why put out an acoustic album?
Lukasz; The same year, I left the band! Before that, we were the best-drunk band in Poland! I came back two years later and said to the guys maybe we should release that album because it was really good. Let’s start from something!
Wojtek; And the guys from the radio said we should release this!
Rock and Roll Circus; And you need a product?
Wojtek; Yes, and it gave us time to compose ourselves, and now we’re looking forward.
Lukasz; Now we have new fresh energy and its something new. Every sound is like a new song.
Wojtek; We think the new stuff is better than anything that we’ve done before, and we want to show it to the world.
Rock and Roll Circus; When your creative as much as you are and coming up with new material. How do you switch off from that?
Lukasz; I have a different band! It’s much harder to switch off. The band is all in Polish, so I’m writing and doing the melodies. I try to be different than when I am in Chemia.
Wojtek; I love to be active in different fields. Rock music is what’s in my heart, but also I need other activities to survive. To find a stable environment for my personality. In business fields, I was a manager for big companies in Poland and Ukraine. I have international projects in other countries. It allows me to find more freedom in my music. I feel more independent and free. I can do what I want.
Lukasz; It’s important. Chemia is fun. It’s like a feeling of freedom because we haven’t got to do it. We do it because it is in our heart. That’s why I have a few projects, so it’s good to have fun with that.
Wojtek; It would be good to have a positive response in other countries from the fans, this is like some kind of dream, and we hope that we’ll be able to achieve these goals and move the band to another level.
Lukasz; It’s important to play to somebody! We love to play live, and we’re proud we have fans from the UK, Canada, Germany, and Ukraine.
Wojtek; Fans send us messages about the song ‘Hero’ from our album and how it helped them survive difficult moments in their life. Its amazing motivation to do this, and it’s the best gift we can get from our fans.
Lukasz; Your song is changing someone’s life in a better way. Wow, it’s the best gift.
Rock and Roll Circus; You must love being on stage? The buzz must be incredible.
Lukasz; It is, and you have to love it! I prefer writing, but the new Chemia is such a bunch of good guys on stage. It’s like a tank on your back. I feel so safe and so good with them. I focus on my job right now, Chemia is in the best condition we’ve ever had.
Wojtek; I love to play live and compose riffs almost every day.
Lukasz; Almost 200 of them on my email! If you had the time, you could have ten albums every year! Really! Sometimes, I go to his house for a coffee, and four or five hours later, I come out with five songs! We sit, make some melodies, and record it!
Wojtek; You can see the smile on my face all the time! I can’t stop smiling on the stage because I love doing this!
Lukasz; Perfect job!
Rock and Roll Circus; How are you finding the Hard Rock Hell experience?
Lukasz; We played here four years ago, and it was our first time on the second stage. It was in North Wales and then we went to Ibiza. My god, it was really nice. It was so nice!
Wojtek; The weather was better! This is our third time but first time on the main stage. It’s a great honor to open the stage.
Rock and Roll Circus; Your here a third time, so they must like you! We’re both looking forward to catching your set later today. Thanks for speaking with Rock and Roll Circus.
Lukasz; Thank you!
Wojtek; Thank you so much!
Wojtek Balczun & Lukasz Drapala.
Wojtek Balczun
The Rock & Roll Circus Team at Hard Rock Hell XIII over the weekend were Glenn Dean & Glyn Mason.
All photo taken by Glenn Dene
©The Rock'n'Roll Circus Radio
(Contact The Rock'n'Roll Circus if you want to use any of the photos)
Ceri Davies
Presenter and Co-Director