Biography

 I was born in 1983 in a hospital in Cesky Cieszyn which was then painted yellow. Neither children nor artists are born in Cieszyn nowadays. I grew up at my parents` house in Dolni Zukov together with my grandmother, grandfather and two siblings. My talent for music became apparent already in my childhood - I took well-known melodies and composed my own texts to them. I accompanied myself on the piano. I attended piano lessons for 5 years and when I was twelve I decided to concentrate on my own music, composing and improvisation.

I belong to the ethnic minority of Poles living on the Czech side of the border. I do not consider myself being Polish or Czech. I consider myself a Silesian - coming from Silesia. That is “ślónzok”.

I attended a polish primary school in Cesky Cieszyn for 8 years. There we had to use standard Polish during lessons but during break time, we spoke the local dialect called here …”po naszymu”…“ours”. (It is a mixture of languages and dialects of all the ethnics living together in this area. This dialect is inimitable and incomprehensible for anyone who is not familiar with it.).

Polish became my favourite artistic means and not only because of its nice sound…

I discovered my mother´s accordion when I was 14 and a year later I found a guitar, which my father had brought from Ukraine. I learned my first chords on those hard Ukrainian strings and when it was possible to listen to these sounds I got myself an electric guitar. I could just see myself standing in front of the audience and playing my rock songs.

I took part in several musical groups but eventually I found out it would be better for me to follow the path of a lonely singer.

When I finished my business studies in Ciezsyn in 2002, I moved to the scenic town of Litomysl, where I began to study special needs pedagogics. In Litomysl I got acquainted with other kinds of music and this influenced, into some extent, my creative works. I also started to cooperate with Barbora Baronova, a neighbour from my home village Zukov. She accompanied me on her violin and, from time to time, we sang traditional songs from Cieszyn together with Krystyna Skalicka at concerts.

My first CD, recoded during my studies, was called "Przeszkoda" 2004 (Obstacle). It has a rock feeling to it and it contains songs which I wrote between my 17th and 20th year of age.

I left for Cardiff, Wales, after finishing my studies in Litomysl. There I tried to sing on the streets for the first time. It wasn´t long before I found a job in an LG factory. I spent 8 months there assembling monitors and being engaged in the production of TVs. It was a break-through period for me, during which I rediscovered my faith in God and in myself. At that time I wrote songs for the CD "Czary moje, dary twoje", which are so far my best-known pieces. They are full of optimism and faith. The preparation of the CD started when I got back to Czech in 2007, in the hospitable region of Walachia together with David Kulistak (violin) and Tomas Malina (percussion).

 

Then a group called Lezerne a vleze offered a cooperation to me and we recorded the CD “Uondany cas” (“Tired time”). Recently we have founded a new musical project “Vic nez rok” (“More than a year”) with some members of this group. Ales Mrnustik (bass guitar), Ivan Hrdina (ukulele) and Monika Hrdinova (percussion) take part in this project.

I cooperated with Tomas Hubacek between 2009 and 2010. Nowadays I perform with Filip Kramer (contrabass) and Tereza Machacikova (viola).

 

Though I like to be surrounded by musicians, my songs are based mainly on my personal performance so I often like to play solo.

During my concerts I use a guitar, an accordion, a ukulele, koncovka or mbira.

 

Influenced by the stories of my life, by the regions of Silesia and Walachia, by discovering my own


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