Fresh, soulful, and hypnotizing – meet the talented Polish band SONAR.
C-Heads Magazine sat down with the young talented Lena Osińska, the vocalist of Polish pop-electronica band SONAR to talk about the Polish music scene, hard work and collaborations.
Photography Miron Chomacki
Thanks to UKM Label
Who is “SONAR”? And how did you meet each other and when was the decision made to form a band together?
In 2015 my bandmates were in a difficult situation. The singer they were working with had to quit the band and left them without vocals on their almost finished album. Łukasz Stachurko, the band founder and producer, had to start to search for a vocalist fast. He somehow came across my YouTube channel, where I was doing covers, and he decided to take a chance on me. With Rafał Dutkiewicz (drummer) and Artur Bogusławski (pianist), we’ve been playing together for almost 2 years now. We’ve also published 2 albums.
Your sound is soft, dreamy and powerful at the same time. How would you describe your own music?
It’s not easy to put a label on it. When making our second album we wanted to create music you can dance to, but also listen to when you’re driving your car at night. It’s electronic with acoustic elements, a balance between pop and avant-garde. You can definitely hear that we are a mix of very different personalities and musical backgrounds.
“Talent is useless without proper work behind it.”
How is the Polish music scene – is it hard to establish oneself over there and as a second stage go international. How did you manage that?
Unfortunately no Polish artist has yet been recognized internationally. We have some successes in less popular genres such as death metal, jazz or film score, but no one has conquered the mainstream so far. Nevertheless, it’s the golden age for music in Poland right now! So many amazing artists and emerging bands. We’ve been lucky enough to have the support of small radios and music journalists from the beginning. Being admitted into the line-ups of large music festivals, such as Open’er Festival, also helped.
What is more important to succeed in the music industry, hard work or talent?
Both. Talent is useless without proper work behind it.
“…it’s the golden age for music in Poland right now! So many amazing artists and emerging bands.”
If you could collaborate with any living artist, who would it be?
I’ve been dreaming to collaborate with artists that inspired me to create music in the first place and that was Flume and Chet Faker. They showed me it’s possible to make beautiful songs with only your computer and a midi keyboard at hand. Doing something with Mark Ronson would also be quite cool.
The world needs more of… and less of…?
More of empathy and maybe… samoyed puppies – or at least videos of samoyed puppies (I’ve watched them all!).
Less of… plastic.
photographer Miron Chomacki @miron_chomacki
model Lena Osińska @lenahype
music SONAR @sonar_muzyka
thx UKM @uknowmerecords
