KAMAW TUT — Journal Countdown until the show
So in just about two weeks I have a gig coming, and considering there’s a lot of stuff going on in the band currently, I might start a journal in order to kinda „think out loud” about different aspects of our preparations, the show itself, my thoughts on the band, etc. Ending this journal on the day after the show, with thoughts on how it went, and where (if anywhere) we’ll go from
there.
I’ll start with a quick memoir of how the band got together and then in the next days I’ll get more into the songwriting process, rehearsals and the songs themselves.
I’ll be calling the bandmembers the way we call each other, and not by their actual names, as I haven’t talked with them about writing this, so just in case.
7/06/21
History lesson
As of now, the band consists of myself (bass & vocals), Szelest (guitar & vocals), and Kilijanek (drums & vocals).
It’s kind of funny how we got together, as we were all in high school together, but never actually hanged out. I was friends with the guitarist first, but then after a year – or so – we've had a big argument and didn’t talk to each other for over a year, and so I started hanging out with the drummer. But then again after a year we parted ways in a not-such-a-nice way, and so we didn’t talk to each other for another year. Both of these friendships truly made my coming of age years, both in the good way (like getting to know – spend time – with people who actually get stuff, or that are compatible with me, or like running away from school, in order to smoke joints and jam all day long at my place) and in the bad way (like „how to deal with ****ty behavour from other people).
The weird part was, that the three of us were the only people in the school with active interest in music, but they never even tried to hang out with each other. I was the only link.
In the meantime I was going to study in France, and wanted to have a clean slate when I start a new chapter in my life, so I reconciled with both of them. And when I was in Paris I learned they got a band going (well Kilijanek did, and needed a second guitarist, so the first guy he thought of was Szelest). They invited me to witness the gig, but when you live in Paris, you can’t really go to Warsaw in a week's notice.
Paris was a horrible experience. And after a year I came back to Poland, only to learn that, guess what...they had an argument („he’s so irritating” „he’s so mean”). But this time around I was like „cut the **** guys, the three of us are the three people most in love with music, that I know, we’re gonna start a band, and Your dumb fight ain’t gonna stand in the way”. And they agreed. That was three months ago.
The first Jam we had, was in a quartet. Kilijanek played guitar, and we had another drummer. The Jam session was pure gold, we played blues, rock, psychedelia, reggae, and even a kinda jazzy tune. All (except the reggae one) invented on the spot, fun to play and just truly great.
Sadly enough the drummer never reached out to us again (
). But it turned out ok, because Kilijanek had been practicing for a while already and wanted to take that spot. This caused a fair share of tension within the band, as he is arguably the best guitar player we’ve ever met (he’s had lessons since he was like 10 or something). But I guess it’s all for the best, as his drumming skills are (were at the beginning) as lousy as my bass playing, so now the three of us are pretty much on the same level skills wise, and me & Szelest are not a backing band for him.
We met two times in this new power trio configuration, and the music was pretty good if you ask me, but apparently Kilijanek thought it was amazing enough to enlist us for a gig. It was a month ago, and that was the point where
Kamaw Tut really came to existence, as we started jamming 2 times a week, in order to prepare ourselves.