Polish music is highly appreciated outside our country. Interestingly, rock and metal groups are very popular (often much more than in Poland). Behemoth, which constantly encounters problems of “Catholic nature”, whenever it tries to play in Poland, appears on the posters of the biggest festivals abroad. On tour with Slipknot, he performs as a guest – not support, and Nergal high-fives backstage with members of Metallica or Slayer. The band Riverside is also very popular abroad, black metal Mgła and stoner Dopelord have a lot of fans. Another successes on the account are also marked by Trupa Trupa.
The Corpse The Corpse. Why did the inhabitants of Gdańsk fall in love with the whole world?
The band was founded relatively recently, because the beginnings of the band date back to 2009. The sound of the band can be described as psychedelic post punk. The formation consists of Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, Tomek Pawluczuk and Wojtek Juchniewicz. Trupa Trupa achieved her first foreign success in 2015, when she debuted on the international arena with the album “Hedache”, released by the British label Blue Tapes and X-Ray Records. A year later, the musicians signed a contract with the French Ici d’ailleurs.
2017 was also a breakthrough year for the team. The band released the album “Jolly New Songs”, which attracted the interest of the Japanese label Moorworks. The album was also noticed by the American weekly “Newsweek”, which placed the album in ninth place on its list of “great albums that may have been overlooked in 2017”. The reviewer of the album appreciated the gloom and dark atmosphere that permeates the band’s music. “The band combines psychedelic rock with post-punk and does it with an intensity that knows no bounds” – we could read in the statement.
The avalanche of successes of the Trupa Trupa group could no longer be stopped. The artists were soon invited to one of the most important showcase festivals in the world. In 2018, 500 performers from 43 countries were recruited to Texas for the SXSW Music Festival, including only one Polish representative. In the same year, the formation fulfilled one more of its musical goals. The artists played at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, where you could also hear Bjork, Cigarettes After Sex, Slowdive or Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. After the event, “Full Moon” magazine summarized the concerts and indicated the artists who presented themselves best on stage. The Trupa Trupa team was highlighted in the article.
They are praised by The Times, Guardian and Rolling Stones. Their shirt is worn by Iggy Pop himself
In 2019, the band released the single “Dream About” on the legendary Sub Pop label, which is credited with popularizing grunge. It was here that Nirvana and Soundgarden released their music. In the same year, the musicians found a cassette with the legend of Texas alternative The Suspirians, and in September they released the album “Of the Sun”.
Foreign media went crazy about the music of the Trupa Trupa group. The Metro portal published an opinion in which the band’s sound was described as “The Beatles playing Joy Division”. The Times, in turn, placed the song “Fitzcarraldo” from the EP “I’ll Find” in the list of the most interesting songs that saw the light of day. The list, next to Poles, includes such performers as Neil Young and The Strokes. The author of the article, Will Hodgkinson, wrote that the song is “a beautiful dreamlike homage to the epic work of the German director Werner Herzog”.
Interestingly, the music of the Trupa Trupa group was also loved by Iggy Pop himself. The band moves in post-punk climates, so the godfather’s appreciation of punk must have been an extraordinary experience for them. The well-known vocalist has presented the band’s music many times in his broadcast on the BBC radio, he has also appeared in the band’s T-shirt.
“Iggy Pop has been a fan of our music and our band for several years. It started with the play of the song ‘To me’ on BBC Radio 6 music, because Iggy has his broadcast there. Then there was another song and another broadcast, and it happened more and more often and densely. Finally, our songs are broadcast more often on the BBC than on any other radio in the world, and we played a concert session there as part of the promotion of our latest album ‘B FLAT A'” – says Grzegorz Kwiat kowski from Trupa Trupa, via the website reklama.trojmiasto.pl.
The situation with the T-shirt belongs strictly to the category of “science fiction” – he adds.
One of the most popular magazines dealing with rock music in the world – “Rolling Stone” compared the sound of Trupa Trupa to legends such as Joy Division, Can or Sonic Youth. About the phenomenon of The Guardian band. An interview with Grzegorz Kwiatkowski appeared on the portal of the British newspaper, in which the artist emphasized that Trupa Trupa opposes all right-wing hate speech. The artist also talked about the dark lyrics of the formation.
One of the band’s most moving songs – “Never Forget” from the album “Jolly New Songs” refers to the Holocaust. In it, the musicians emphasize the cruelty suffered by Polish Jews at the hands of the Nazis. The lyrics include the moving lines: “We will never forget these deaths in the ghetto. They sound like a midnight choir”, which is emphasized by the band’s gloomy music. Kwiatkowski also confessed that he treats the subject of World War II very personally. “My grandfather was a prisoner of the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdańsk. When I was a child, I used to go with him to the Stutthof Museum and watch him cry. For me, it was not just history, but reality,” the artist told the English portal in an interview.
In turn, in the song “Remainder” Trupa Trupa deals with the recently popular practice of trying to deny that the Holocaust took place. The line “It didn’t happen!” appears many times in the strong track. When asked why, after many years, it is necessary to fight for respecting the memory of the victims of Nazism, Kwiatkowski talks about the gaps in education and anti-Semites, which are still numerous around the world. As the key to solving the problem, he points to the debate and raising awareness about war crimes, which he also tries to do with his activities in Trupa Trupa.
Kwiatkowski is the author of the dark texts of Trupa Trupa. In for Onet, he talked about the need to write. “I believe that everyone has a creator and a killer within them. If we face this dark side, we can become better people. This is the meaning of my poetry” – he explained. He also emphasized that in his work he often rebels against crimes and evil that has accompanied man since the dawn of time.
On February 21, 2023, the experimental and limited edition cassette “ttt” was released, which was very well received by critics. Currently, the band is preparing for several summer concerts. On August 6, the group will be seen on stage during the OFF Festival in Katowice.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
