Grażyna Hanaf: You have been coming to Bolesławiec since 2005. You have performed your own programs for us, including “Serwus Madonna”, “Gdzieś pomiędzy”, “Z ust do ust” and “Dziwny ten świat – opowieści Niemenem”. Is there something special that draws you here? Have you experienced anything extraordinary here?
Janusz Radek: Only that I wanted to burn down a church. But fortunately, it did not burn down...
Yes, the roof of the rectory at Zamkowy Square caught fire by the chimney after a concert by you, Jacek Wójcicki and Olga Szomańska during Gwiazdka Życzliwości in 2012...
Now seriously. When I was driving to Bolesławiec today, I thought that in a city of around 40,000 residents there are a great many cultural events. People here want to leave their homes. That is exceptional. I do not remember ever performing here for half a hall. It is always full. Secondly, there is someone (BOK-MCC) who offers residents an interesting, reliable and good cultural program.
I can see what is happening in the world: you can have everything online without leaving home. To get up from in front of the computer and watch an artist live, to have direct contact with art, you need to be willing. The willingness of Bolesławiec residents to engage with live art is astonishing, and I am not saying this just to flatter you and come here again. I am saying it based on seven visits.
Do you know that the song “Pan Roman” has a political meaning in Bolesławiec? The city’s mayor is named Piotr Roman?
I was not aware of that (Janusz Radek laughs). That is, someone did tell me about it. This song is popular and has a double meaning. It is often played on the radio and, from the grassroots, “Pan Roman” reached people and became a hit. This song was never designed to be a hit; quite the opposite. On the album “Z ust do ust”, I drew on melancholy, both mental and sonic. The character of Roman is old-fashioned. I try to maintain distance from everything I do and I do not pursue ideology with pretensions of fixing the world. The material on the album was playful, but not without sarcasm. I like to take things down a peg, to lash myself with such absurdity and mockery, and Roman is exactly like that. I mock Roman, and Roman mocks all of us.
What will we hear at today’s concert at Forum?
Perhaps I will play “Rozmowy o...”. This summarizing material contains 30–40 songs. I compose the program depending on my mood. I select it so that it becomes a story welcoming new structures and new music that has caught up with me. “Serwus...” is a greeting to something completely new, a turning point that is approaching.
In what direction will your work develop?
There is no such thing as a direction. Today’s modern style is a compilation of the most interesting elements of 1960s guitar playing and 1980s electronic music. Today, young people create modern music from this because they do not treat those sounds as relics of the past; they rediscover them.
So what will come after 10 years?
Complete faith and conviction that I have finally learned how to write songs...
Thank you for the interview. I wish you a wonderful concert in Bolesławiec. Today at 7:00 p.m. in the Forum hall (BOK-MCC).
(information: Grażyna Hanaf)