Anna Paluch meets the Polish acoustic rock duo Twilite, currently promoting their debut album
For Paweł Milewski, one half of the acoustic alternative duo Twilite, a drink at a Dublin hotel pub is quite an appealing break after a day at the office. His band-mate Rafał Barwisz, however, is more unsteady. Recently out of work and looking for new a job, he is worried about the cost involved in promoting their debut album, Bits and Pieces.
“Everything had to be paid by us: recording, mastering, the cover,” he explains. Doing everything on their own requires a certain level of discipline so that no time, or money, is wasted.
Take the recording, for example. In May last year Twilite were invited to Electric Eye Studio in Szubin in northern Poland by the Kapsa brothers from noisy rockers Contemporary Noise Sextet, and the duo went well prepared.
“We had only five days for the recording, so we decided for very simple arrangements,” says Barwisz. The result was a spare sound with just acoustic guitars and vocals, apart from few tracks of additional drums by Bartek Kapsa, but it captured their essence perfectly.
Like many people who listen to different and varied types of music, Milewski and Barwisz can’t pin down their influences on any one sound. “Sonic Youth of course, and My Bloody Valentine, these are our founding stone,” says Milewski, while Barwisz adds that he has recently started listening to jazz. The band’s name signals yet another influence, taken as it is from a Twilight Singers song called ‘Twilite Kid’.
“With our music we could do support for Sigur Rós,” laughs Barwisz, joking that they would make people fall asleep instead of heating them up for the headline act. They play too quiet for big stages, the pair admit, and prefer a more intimate atmosphere.
Bits and Pieces, Twilite’s debut album, was released last month, but its songs were given their first airing last November when band performed live in the studio for host Piotr Selmach on Polskie Radio Program 3. The station is known from supporting new acts, and two of the bands songs were also featured on Trójkowa ofensywa, a compilation series curated by Selmach. A tour in Poland to support the album is scheduled for this spring.
The live stage is nothing new for Milewski and Barwisz, both having had their first taste of it in high school, playing in different garage, rock and hardcore punk bands, performing in various venues like youth clubs.
“We met in Olsztyn [at the University of Warmia and Mazury] where we were studying the same subject but in different years,” says Milewski. “We simply started to exchange CDs, as we were listening to similar music.” Over the years their tastes have changed but even now from time to time they like to turn the volume up for louder sounds.
The idea for collaborating on a musical project also came together over those years, but it didn’t happen until 2005, while they both were working in Great Britain.
Back in Poland, their first songs were created thanks to e-mail co-operation: Milewski, living in Biskupiec, was sending songs to Barwisz in Kraków who, after adding the melody lines, posted the tunes on their MySpace page.
Even though Twilite have been recording and performing together since then, collaboration over the internet is still a big factor in their music-making process. “Anna Maria Przybysz – the girl who did the artwork – we actually never met her in person, we got in touch on MySpace,” they explain.
They also admit that marketing and promoting their album is much easier to do in Poland. In Ireland – where the duo relocated a couple of years ago – they have no manager or record label support, so to sell their album here, they have to do it themselves.
Even finding venues in Dublin to perform is difficult without the right contacts. “We have one small session, maybe half an hour at The Globe [played earlier this month] and just a few plans for the future, as we soon go back to Poland.”
But before we lose them, here’s hoping some influential Irish ears are listening to give Twilite a shot at greater success.
Twilite’s album Bits and Pieces is on sale now through MySpace.com/twilitemusic
