Ewa Bem: I hate sheep’s rush all. I am not attracted to chasing fashion [WYWIAD]

Justyna Bryczkowska: How do you feel after the release of the album “Live” and the first concerts?

Ewa Bem: Very good! I was really trying to get on stage for a long time. It was a huge challenge for me – and it still is, but I am already used to it. I soak up the extraordinary kindness of the audience like a sponge, which treats me wonderfully, thanks to which the concerts are great. In addition, of course, the release of the album “Live”, which has been waiting for public presentation for four years, and the re-release of the album “Kakadu”, which also has a piece of my heart. What can I say – I have many reasons to feel good.

The scene is like home again?

Yes. You could say that I fully enjoy the benefits of being on stage when I am with musicians that I love, who understand me, who I understand. This is definitely home.

And you still stick to the principle: “I do not perform in unscrupulous costume”?

Maybe it’s not a strict rule, because I don’t always do it, but it should be. I learned the basic principles of stage art from great artists who are long gone. Once, I was in the dressing room with an outstanding singer and I heard these words from her: “never go on stage in an unbearable costume”. Fact … A costume can make a concert extremely difficult and take away the pleasure of meeting the audience and musicians. It can hurt, tease, and scratch. The audience cannot see it, but the artist can feel it, so it is good to prevent such situations as much as possible.

I’m curious what was the key to selecting songs for the “Live” album. Some might be surprised by the fact that, as part of the summary of over 50 years on stage, you decided to perform, apart from your own works, also compositions by other musicians.

The only common denominator when selecting the songs was that they should be jazz and Polish songs. The program of the album is only a part of the repertoire that we have earned with Andrzej Jagodziński and his quartet. In fact, there are not a few great hits – mostly “My heart is a musician” – but this is just the beginning of my jubilee.

In turn, the re-released “Kakadu” is referred to as the album on which you debut as a songwriter. Why then?

I do not know. It was a coincidence. You won’t catch me on any calculations, because my musical life has never been calculated or recalculated. Rather towards sophistication. I believe that most things happen because they happen, and that was also the case with “Kakadu”. Joachim Mencl, whom I met on a completely different occasion, delighted me with his songs, which he sent me as a demo. Every time I listened to them, images appeared in my head – I immediately felt what it was about, how it stimulated my imagination. It seems to me that from the very first track I knew that I would write these lyrics. And I wrote.

Over the years you have been singing compositions by many renowned songwriters and poets. I was wondering if you felt a bit like their student writing your own texts on “Kakadu”.

Like a schoolgirl – probably not. I have always had a tendency to write – since I was a child, I created poems, songs, then I fell in love with writing columns, letters, poems … luck all the time, it allowed me to deal with my own songs better than, for example, someone who has never dealt with such lyrics.

After five decades on stage, do you feel like serving your audience, apart from musical summaries, something like a biography? I know that you once opted for film instead of a book.

And now the mere thought of a movie discourages me. There used to be a serious push for biographies in book form, and now it is for films – it is enough for a person to hear an important name and it is known that a film about him will probably be made soon.

You don’t like fashionable things?

It’s not like that. I hate sheep’s rush with all of me. If something is done without conviction, it is appropriate, because it pays off, because it is assumed in advance that it will be accepted in a certain way. Of course I like what is fashionable, but not everything. I am not attracted to the pursuit of fashion at all. I changed all the fashion styles – I wore gigantic heels, platforms, pleats, polka dots … Everything has already happened, and more than once. Speaking of “fashion” in biographies: I am invited by various respected institutions, literary publishers, I know people who could help me in such an endeavor, but I really do not feel like it. I have never liked to talk too much about myself, I have not archived old photos, posters, I have no memory for dates or chronology. It scares me, a bit like the cosmos and the depths of the ocean. My husband hides some things related to me in a drawer, but I never.

I remember a lot of unheard-of situations and anecdotes, which everybody keeps banging on, but if translated into written language, they would lose their taste and charm, for example the adventure with “Teddy”. For a long time I did not realize that I sang in a cult movie. I didn’t know what he was about. I only heard a pastoral with beautiful music by Jerzy Derfel and a wonderful text by Stas Tym – it charmed me. After the enchantment, things went on: that I recorded it, that I was invited to a film set, that at the last moment I was disguised as the Mother of God (and next to me, Rafał Olbiński, our world-famous graphic designer and poster artist, was standing in the role of Saint Józef). It was all witchcraft, and I like witchcraft and I didn’t inquire what it was about, and I saw “Teddy Bear” only after a few years.

I missed a moment to write when my daughter Pamela was still alive, and she often asked me to write a cookbook for her. And I put it off, because in fact I can cook, but how to write it down? I do everything organically, so I didn’t think about it too seriously. It is difficult to stick to such things in my artistic disorder, because that’s what I am. But today I regret this cookbook that was not written for Pamelka. Maybe it’s time to write it for Gabrysia?

Whatever the case, you invariably tell your best stories in the language of music. Once Jan Ptaszyn-Wróblewski stated in one of the interviews that you are a vocal nugget and there is something about you that makes you know how to sing regardless of the circumstances.

Every word of Birdie is sacred and weighs a ton, first of all. Maybe I wouldn’t say “nugget” about myself, because I don’t use such a phrase enough, but I agree with every word of Birdie. The fact is that I can say from the perspective of those over fifty years that what I have learned in the field of vocal – both in the workshop, technical and, above all, substantive sphere – is only what I have learned from myself. And from the great musicians I have worked with.

It’s great to hear that because I read somewhere that you tend to be dissatisfied with your own sound.

I don’t think I’ve ever expressed myself that emphatically. But in fact, I am extremely demanding of myself and it rarely happens that I would give myself a good mark, let alone high. I once said in a conversation about vocal technique that I do not have a large scale. At first it limited me a lot, it seemed to me that it was my big flaw and that it would take revenge on me somehow. These thoughts were torpedoed by my brother Alek, who explained to me that it is not about the scale, but about the feeling, about the choice of sounds from among those in my head. And it seems to me that I managed to make the best use of it.

Once, in a conversation with students of the Warsaw gymnasium, you said that of course you love to sing, but not everywhere. In the store, for example, your younger daughter forbade you to do this.

I often want to hum at home, in a shop or in a cinema, but my daughters did not like that much, as they treated singing as my profession. The one who takes and changes their mother, although I have never abused this profession, I did not leave my children for long. For obvious reasons, the closest family feels it this way.

Carrying out this work makes huge circles, which, unfortunately, always got my daughters. In any store, with a basket full of vegetables, you had to sign someone, take a picture – such situations were never liked by Pamela or Gabrysia, and her husband at all. I don’t know if it is the same in other artistic houses, but I suspect it is. I am very friendly to people, I always interact, but sharing someone close to strangers, and sometimes in abusive situations, is not easy.

Let me ask you about something on the other, more pleasant side: is there a piece that is performed in a special way by a soothing lady?

It is definitely not one of my own songs, because I always listen to them through the prism of judgment. But apart from my songs, there are a lot of such compositions – it is difficult to choose one, when even with a few lines you can often create a unique atmosphere. As a person who has settled down a bit on this earth, I can say for sure that music is for me a source of comfort and spirituality. In the darkest moments, she was a lifeline. She is me and she is in me.

How do you approach the music proposed by young Polish artists today? From what I’ve read, you like the lyrics by Mery Spolsky. Someone else caught your attention for longer?

I do not know what the business of Mery Spolsky looks like now, but at the beginning she made a big impression on me. She entered the stage with a hit, with her own character. I always shy away from praising people who do what is fashionable, and in the case of Mera, I immediately sensed that the girl knew what she meant.

Maybe Mata found your radar? It is nice, because both you and this young rapper have graduated from the same high school in Warsaw.

Yes, I have heard of him, although I cannot say that I know his works. I also know that Maryla Rodowicz really wants to record something with him. I think I’ll be in the line – as a graduate of the same school, I should have special rights (laughs).

At the end, I will ask what Ms Ewa would say when she graduated from high school, if you had such an opportunity now.

Close your eyes, Ewka, and listen to yourself. This is the only thing worth doing – just.