Jacek (Jaco) Filípek, founder of the world alternative group Trupiegi. Furthermore, the head of the cultural center and organizer of concerts and festivals in Sulęcin. He cooperates with managers and organizers of other festivals throughout Poland. The founder of the internet station radioSOK and much more. A very creative person who engages our landscapes at events and broadcasts. Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Alan – Hi Jacek. You lead/manage radioSOK and are also a Trupiegy group member. What is your position on the radio and in the group?
Jacek - As far as radio is concerned, I am its founder, originator, and moderator of the live broadcast. I also conduct interviews and look for partners for various musical events. As for the band Trupiegi, I am also its founder and I play various percussion instruments, I participate in the promotion and organization of concerts.
Alan – Projek radioSOK is which voivodeship – Silesia? And the story of this radio? From the beginning to the present?
Jacek - The radio is based in the cultural center Sulęcin. The town of Sulęcin is located in the Lubusz Voivodeship and we broadcast from there. Radio SOK is an internet radio that offers great possibilities, as some of our programs are broadcast from different parts of Poland, e.g. Kielce or Poznań, and o from Paris, France. Radio has been around for six years and is still evolving. We have more and more listeners not only in Poland but all over the world. We mainly promote lesser-known Polish, alternative, and rock music. We reach out and support young bands that are just starting their adventure on the stage. Of course, you will also hear better-known bands and stars on our airwaves, but those we like and listen to ourselves. We often reach for foreign music, for example, from the Czech Republic. Apart from me, the radio consists mainly of Jacek KARBON Hardyk and Marek MARECKY Dębowski.
Alan – I also mentioned your time in the Trupiegi group. How long have you been around, and can your work be classified as a world alternative? Hard to tell, that's why it's quite interesting.
Jacek - The group Trupiegi was formed almost seven years ago and is still active in the music market today. Our work is a musical interpretation of the poetry of Bolesław Leśmian, one of the greatest and most important poets in Poland and, in our opinion, in the world. It's hard to define our musical style in one or two words. We use poetry, so it could be described as sung poetry, but the way we approach the game is different, more complex, and emotional. We are closer to an alternative sound, world alternative is a good name, but we don't like to define the style of our music. We don't belong to any particular genre, we play the way we feel and get inspired by the different sounds of the world around us.
Alan – We'll stay with the group for now. You have already been able to play abroad. Where was it? For what concerts or festivals? And learnings from playing abroad?
Jacek - So far we have played with Trupiegi in Germany and France. They were wonderful concerts. In Germany we played at two festivals: Liederlauschen am Rand and Folllorum. As for France, we played three concerts, including one in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, where Leśmian used to walk and write his poems about a hundred years ago. It was an important concert for us, which we played for a large international audience. The concert took place thanks to our Parisian friend Justynia Borodej and also at the special invitation of the Consul of the Republic of Poland in Paris. Concerts in Poland and abroad do not differ much in terms of organization, their energy depends on the person. And what fascinated me and taught them that music is above everything, it is a language, an international bridge. You may not listen to a specific genre of music, you may not know or understand the words, but when you open yourself up to the sounds and let yourself drift, you will experience something beautiful. Regardless of genre.
Alan - Speaking of concerts and festivals. You are not only in radioSOK and Trupiegi, but you organize a lot of concerts and festivals. What are they like? Genre focus?
Jacek - Yes. I organize various concerts and festivals. Currently mainly in Sulęcin as part of my work in the cultural center. Since I became the director of this institution, there has been less time to organize festivals outside my residence. Our main festival is the Wake Up and Live festival in June, which was already in its seventeenth year this year. I could safely say that it is an experimental festival because every time we surprise the audience and ourselves with something new, for example, bands, art projects, or places. This year the festival was held in the forest. Wake Up is a festival that presents diverse music from different parts of Europe and the world. Bands from Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, the Czech Republic, the USA, and Israel performed on our stage. It is a small very colorful festival. In addition to festivals, I also organize concerts in the BULKA club, which is located in the basement of our cultural building. Various bands perform here, both young and stellar in various musical genres, mainly rock, but also jazz, ethno, blues metal, and reggae. We like it when it's diverse. In the past, I organized concerts and festivals mainly in the western part of Poland, but now there are fewer of them due to lack of time. Currently, cooperate
with several clubs and selected festival organizers. I use my energy to work in SOK and Trupiegi.
Alan – Some of the festivals you do or are a part of are quite big. You could also talk about them. Which province is it under? Who all participates in them? And since what year have they been held?
Jacek - Trupiegi and I played at several big festivals, e.g. Powidz Jam in Powidz, TransVocale in Słubice or Akustyczenie in Szczecin, Wolimierz Festival, and also in Germany. They are big international festivals where the audience is very different, they listen to different music, but the energy at these festivals is always the same. People are very open to our music and other artists' music. The aforementioned festivals were born out of a passion for music, as you can feel it upon contact with the organizers and arrival at the venue. Their histories are very different, but I think the roots are the same, which is to create a unique event for people to meet, listen to music, and have fun.
Alan – Big-name bands have also performed at these festivals. Which were they?
Jacek - We met "big" artists at the aforementioned festivals. We shared the stage with Kwiat Jabłoni, Gutkie, Anną Marią Jopek, Ania Rusowicz, and even our friends from the Max Klezmer Band. These meetings are very different, some are fleeting, and some end in the morning.
Alan – What group or groups did you enjoy doing? They don't always have to be the biggest. Which one or which ones are stuck in your memory?
Jacek - This is a very difficult question because I listen to a variety of music. I like heavy sounds, reggae, world music, ethno, punk and jazz. I like to discover new artists, not necessarily well-known ones. I like to listen to live music and when something catches my ear, a band, I look for their work somewhere on the Internet. I always "bring" at least one such band from the festival. This year, my discoveries are the band Deep in Moon from the Liederlauschen am Rand festival in Germany, the band Dymytry from the Celtic Night festival in the Czech Republic, and the band Sunnata from the MateriaFest festival in Szczecinek / Poland.
Some bands have recently appeared in my player for a longer period, for example, bands like Chałtcore.
Alan – You have a project ready for 2024 with SOK radio, at least that's what we talked about, live streaming from festivals. What stage is everything in? And what else do you intend to do with SOK radio?
Jacek - This is our idea: next year we will cover concerts and festivals like Rádio SOK. We are currently in the preparation, planning, and fundraising stages for the purchase of equipment. The first such activities, although so far only interviews with musicians, took place at previous festivals. The plans for 2024 are big. We want to attract more people to cooperate with our radio. Maybe we could have a little radio festival. Time will tell, we have a lot of ideas in our heads.
Alan – The last album, in general, the first Trupiegi album was released in 2020, you played with 4 people. Now the group has grown, what is in the pipeline?
Jacek - Two years ago we changed the guitarist, Kosma Kowalski joined us and after another six months we expanded the band with a drummer (Filip Słowiakowski). From that moment on, the team began to develop more and gained momentum. Our compositions and songs have become better and fuller. We started to compose more, and the concerts became more dynamic and acquired the uniqueness of an ensemble atmosphere. Currently (September 8th), our new song "Dwaj trestanci" was premiered, which is an announcement of our second album "Ślady", which will be released in November this year (2023). The new album also includes concerts, we are preparing several promotional special meetings (performances) with our music, but we will write about all this on our social networks. Apart from Kosma and Filip, the band consists of Kasia Gardziejewska - vocals, Jurek Hippmann - bass, and me - drums/percussion.
Alan – Thanks for the interview. And maybe next year I will meet Trupiegi at least somewhere in Silesia.
Jacek - Thank you very much Alan for talking to us. By the way, I also want to thank you for what you do, and how you promote music, including artists from Poland. I am very glad that we met and I know that our cooperation will develop. We would like to play in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. We would like to present our music to Czech and Slovak audiences. I personally like the Czech Republic very much and I have been visiting your country for almost 20 years, I feel very comfortable there. Slovakia is also a beautiful country, and a certain part of it feels like Poland. You have a completely different approach to the world and life, which I like very much.
