Artur Dyjecinski

(http://www.arturdyjecinski.com & www.myspace.com/arturdyjecinski) Remember as a kid traveling through leafy Birchwood forests in the mountains of British Columbia. Remember sitting in the back of your parents faded mustard Ford Pinto, your ears filling with the sweet sounds of early Neil Young. Remember driving with the windows down, the play of cool mountain air against your face and the pleasant smell of foliage coming alive in the Spring. It might sound overly iconic but Artur Dyjecinski remembers this time, and so does his music. Born in Poland, Art moved to the lush beauty of Vancouver Island at the age of two. Canada was a land of beauty, of nature, of storytelling… If life imitated a VW commercial, Artur might be just another folk singer. Just another guitar wielding hippy or worse still, a cynic trying to pick up on the current success of guitar wielding hippies. But Art’s music is more than that. Now 28, Artur Dyjecinski (Born, April 24th 1979) has developed the voice of a more hardened soul, jaded by the experiences of city life, yet his music clings to a melody that leads his listeners to a place of inspiration and simplicity evoking his childhood. His debut album A Year and a Half of Rain lends us a glimpse into the heart and soul of this musical talent. In the days before internet, Art, like the rest of us took his musical cues from an elder sibling. A peculiar mix of classic riff driven guitar (Hendrix, Crazy Horse) combined with new wave British (The Cure, The Smiths) and poetic balladry (Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg) his brothers record collection somehow made sense to the young Art. He picked up his first guitar at the age of 8 receiving encouraging words after performing some juvenile jingles to the family. His first gig materialised at the age of 13, on a harbour dock belting out Bob Marley songs for a few dollars in a town called Little Current while sailing the Great Lakes. The earnest Art – with no formal instruction - spent endless hours of his adolescent years in his parent’s basement submerging himself in guitar chords and scales. As basements gave way to garages in urban Toronto, Art surrounded himself with local instrument wielders jumping from makeshift band to makeshift band well into his unversity years . “I’ll always be fond of that time in my life, surrounded by friends and instruments, everything revolved around music.” However, Art suffered the artistic frustrations of many a solo performer. Like a homeless man with no place to sleep, Art’s music was adrift, a Woody Guthrie of suburban Toronto, if only in his own head. In 2002, Dyjecinski packed his guitar and Harmonica and made the now familiar journey over the Atlantic, this time to England. In the UK, Art found artists who shared his zeal for music and who were more receptive to his own artistic output. Art made the jump to solo gigs around University campuses – with the occasional band gig thrown in. Although the bands inevitably failed, Artur’s music developed. His voice melancholic, yet warm and appealing. His song writing structured, yet melodic and catchy. His picking more technical, yet nimble and light. Art’s own brand of country folk began to emerge. The period was close to revelatory. As a solo artist the songs which he had only ever heard alone in his head were now being fed through a microphone and two piece monitor. Lonely, simple songs punctuated by whining harmonica and haunting vocals. With great focus and a new commitment to his music, Art spent the next two years writing and recording songs on his dated home computer in a cramped room in East London. By year three, he met with Joe leach from The Cowshed Studio in North London and the pair worked together on A Year and a Half of Rain. “We met in the studio and Artur played through his songs, just guitar and vocal. Beck’s Mutations sprang to mind. I love the fact that Nigel Godrich and Beck started with the premise to make an album in the space of one week and just did it. So I coupled Artur with a fabulous, instinctive rhythm section (Mark Fletcher drums and Thad Kelly bass) and we went in the studio to test the chemistry. After the first playback I’ll never forget Artur just grinning from ear to ear with sheer delight. Just beaming. It was that eureka moment where we all realised we were on to something really special.” Revelation had become realisation. The sum of its influences – who knows? A year and a half of rain dances unabashedly to the listener’s ear with blues/country undertones and simple folk rhythms. Lyrically the music gives voice to a contemplative soul with story as its vice. Sometimes troubled, sometimes carefree, this is life as he knows it. It’s no VW commercial but then again, it’s not all bad either. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.