Tuesday 22 April 2014

An Interview with Polish pop punk band Despised Kids



A first today, the blog's first interview. Despised Kids are a 4 piece pop punk outfit from Katowice, Poland. Impressed with their enthusiasm and their dedication to having fun persuing their love of pop punk music I asked them a few questions which they kindly replied to, here's the results.....

Firstly, you're new to me and probably new to some of the blog's readers so can you give a brief history of the band.

Band was founded by drummer Michal Kubiak and guitarist/vocalist Artur Zurawik in mid 2012, bass player Marcin Bytnar joined later that year.
We are a Pop-Punk band from Poland, originally a three-piece but in the beginning of 2014 became a four-piece due to join of lead guitarist Dawid Holona.
We played a lot of normal and acoustic shows during those years, even in front of the famous "Spodek" in Katowice.
Our first single out of the "Party Time" EP called "Love in a hospital" was shared on various Facebook pages, such as "Pop punk Rules" and "Breakdown magazine", the same goes to our second single "Down"

Right now we are playing shows and slowly creating new material for our first LP that we are going to record later this year.
And if everything goes right, our first single with a videoclip to it will be out this summer.
So big things are coming.

Currently "Despised Kids" are:
Michal Kubiak - drums/percussions
Marcin Bytnar - Bass guitar
Dawid Holona- Lead Guitar
Artur Zurawik- Rhythm guitar/Vocals


Why did you want to form a band? fame? fortune? girls? or just because you love the music and thought you could do it better than most of the bands that are currently around?

Michal:  I didn't want to start a band just because of girls, fame or fortune but because  of my love to music.
Since I was a kid I dreamed of being in a band and now those dreams are coming true.

Marcin: Mostly for fun and I’ve always wanted to play in a band, but in my hometown basically 95% of bands play only covers.
You are not cool enough to play with them if you don’t know how to play RHCP and Metallica, and I thought playing covers is boring and not creative, and fortunately, Artur thought the same.

Artur: I always wanted to form a band, not for fame or girls (laughs) but to just be myself and to do what I always dreamed of doing; because music was always my escape, my shelter that I loved and helped me get through hard times.

Dawid: Without a doubt I'm in a band because of my love to music.
It's exciting that I can create it and share it with other people.



Your bio on facebook lists influences like blink 182, all time low, simple plan etc, is it just american bands you grew up listening to or is there a healthy punk music scene in poland that you could recommend bands from?

Michal: I love those bands and I grew up listening to this type of music.
It all began when as a kid I listened to "The Offspring" and I simply felt in love with pop punk ever since.
But unfortunately in Poland there aren't as many people listening to it than abroad.

Artur: I am all about american bands like Nirvana, blink182, Green Day , All Time Low etc. because I never found good punk or pop punk band in my country that was giving their best live.
To me too many bands (especially young) in my country act like a bunch of snobs with big egos and they always stand still while they perform on stage! I mean really WTF?!

Marcin: I don’t really listen to polish punk, but it seems to me that it mostly consists of bands who play punk mixed with ska and bands who want to play the same but don’t know how.
You say you're best known for your crazy live shows, give me an idea what to expect at your shows?

Michal: There is always lots of great humor and good music combined with awesome contact with the crowd that we want to satisfy in every possible way; if you know what I mean!  (Laughs)

Marcin: If the band isn’t having fun, the audience won't have fun either, so we try to interact with the audience in every way possible, like inviting some people on stage to sing  with us, a lot of chatting with people between songs etc

Artur: You can expect great performance with crazy and breathtaking behavior and of course a lot of dickjokes!
 I  know that I want to give people the best and the craziest show of their life that they will never forget.

Dawid: On our shows you can expect a lot of crazy stuff and plenty of dickjokes!  (laughs)
And our connection with crowd creates unforgettable gig for both sides.

Do you gig abroad?

Artur : We would love to and we are doing everything that is possible to play shows  abroad.

Michal: I would love to have a chance to play abroad and I hope soon we will go on tour outside our country.

Marcin: It would be pretty cool, but  I would like to record an album first because I know we can sound better than our ep.

Dawid: I'm the newest member of this band and I personally never played abroad but I'm looking forward to it.


Is it easy getting your music out to the big wide world? 

Marcin: Yeah, you can upload your music everywhere and its cool. 
We received some positive feedback from all around the world, even though, as I said earlier, I know we can sound better.

Michal: It's hard but I hope we can make it.

Dawid: I think it's hard to get big but I hope one day we will reach that level.

What's the most fun aspect of being in the band?

Marcin: Every live show!
The feeling when you see people having good time when youre playing is really awesome!

Michal:  Shows and when we are working together on new songs

Artur:  Live shows, definitely. 

Dawid: For me the most fun aspect is a possibility to create music with your friends and playing shows because then we are doing the funniest and unforgettable things!


Cheers guys, I look forward to hearing the album

1 comment: