On Friday, November 27, the musician, composer and songwriter Piotr Strojnowski, the creator of the greatest hit of the band Daab, “In my garden” died. In 2018, in an interview with tvn24.pl, the artist talked about the beginning of his career, leaving the stage, but also about therapeutic work and returning to music.
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His garden, where time was lazy, was probably known to everyone. And although it was filled with sadness and loneliness, many people would like to be in it, because in the end, one night, they poured ice cream.
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Piotr Strojnowski was a musician, vocalist, composer and songwriter, including the most famous hit of the Daab band “In my garden”, but his output, also the non-musical one, is much more than one song.
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The artist left his team after only three years, in 1985. Even before their debut album was released and – as he himself admitted – his colleagues celebrated their successes without him. He did not come back to the stage for a long time, but he used his experiences, including the more difficult ones, to help others. For many years he worked as an addiction therapist, but after thirty years the stage called him again and he returned to music. With his new band, Strojnowy released the album “Wolność Serc”.
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Two years ago I had the opportunity to meet Piotr Strojnowski in one of Warsaw’s cafes. We sat down and naturally started a conversation with a return to the 80s and club Riviera. – Today I do not even remember whether we founded the band before the declaration of martial law or after – he admitted.
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“Despite the gray, it was not gray at all”
– It was one of the coolest times. There were several clubs in Warsaw: Hybrydy, Remont and Stodoła, maybe also Medyk – a place where everyone used to meet. I belonged more to the Remont crew, but together we formed the Warsaw crew. Lots of people – some played, others just were. I remember that Tilt and Izrael had a room at the Riviera student residence under the operator’s corner where they were rehearsing, which looked like the band was playing and the crew was sitting, smoking joints and drinking beer. When the rehearsal was over, everyone would grab the instrument or the microphone. Sometimes I also managed to catch me and after some time I met Milimeter (Artur Miłoszewski, bassist of Daab – editor’s note) at my friend’s place, who said that he had heard someone say that I was singing, so maybe we would start a band together. We met the drummer Darek Gierszewski (including the Kult band – editor’s note) and in 1982 we started our own rehearsals – said Strojnowski.
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I asked if music was an escape from the gray everyday life of the People’s Republic of Poland. – We contested the gray – he answered quickly, adding that “despite the gray it was not gray at all”.
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Daab was officially formed in 1982, but just three years later Piotr Strojnowski decided to leave the band. The debut album of the group, which included songs written by him, including the band’s greatest hit, “In my garden”, was released after his departure, so he did not celebrate his success. – It was quite upsetting for me. The last concert with Daab was in Amsterdam and I said we were breaking up. The album was released a little later. The success of the album, especially this song, was celebrated by my band mates without me. I don’t want to go into details, but there were some misunderstandings between us that made me fed up and wanted to go my own way, he admitted.
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Did he regret it? – I did not regret as much as I had no other choice. The atmosphere in the band did not allow me to stay and I felt sorry for that. At the beginning there was no money from our playing, but it was pure pleasure for us. The teams were made up of a few buddies. On the other hand, when the human factor broke, I saw no point in sticking to it. I can’t imagine being in a team with people I can’t get along with – he explained.
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Piotr Strojnowski was the vocalist of the band Daab until 1985Marek Wychowaniec / PAP
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“I am completely isolated”
– I left Warsaw, got married and we inherited a house in Ciechanów, so we anchored there. It was only a few years ago that I returned to the capital – said Strojnowski.
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When I asked what was happening to him at that time, he admitted that it wasn’t always easy. – There were alcohol problems from the old days, also some drugs, and I spent some time with them during the war, but finally I got over it. I went through my own therapy and in the meantime an idea came up that he could take care of therapy for others himself. I have realized this idea and I have been implementing it so far, because I run a private center in Czersk, where we effectively treat addicted people – he explained.
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I started to think about what a therapist has to do with a songwriter, to which Strojnowski admitted that, paradoxically, these professions are close to each other. – Whether in Daaba or now, I have received information quite often that my texts are perceived as therapeutic, because they go deep into a person and make him reflect. I heard from fans of my music that they had some change, and this is what therapy is all about – it is influencing people in such a way that they can change something for the better – he analyzed.
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He disappeared from the stage for thirty years without maintaining any contact with the world of music. – I’m completely isolated. Maybe because this situation hurt me a bit and I preferred not to provoke these emotions – he admitted.
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– It’s like that if someone appears on the stage once, I think that there is no such force that would make him not miss leaving it. It’s hard to describe – when you have people in front of you, you see how they perceive the music, and after the concert they come up and talk. It gives you such a high that nothing in the world can replace it, so I lived with longing for such moments all the time. Finally, I matured and to be honest I thought it would be much harder for me to come back to it after so many years, but in fact I feel much better on the stage today than back then in the 80s – he assured, talking about his musical project Strojnowy.
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“I felt so strong that I decided to try it”
The decision to return was neither spontaneous nor simple. – I have been gathering for 10 years. I was composing and writing to the drawer where the material gathered and gathered. In the meantime, I also conducted preventive care at school, where I sometimes sang with a guitar, so I had a bit of such a stage sample, although this is something completely different – he said.
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– I was also afraid of going back to what the rock world associates with, but at some point I felt so strong that I decided to try. Of course, for the new team I also selected people who do not have any such problems with drugs. The idea was to make me feel safe with them, he explained.
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How did he handle this party side of the stage? – I have a simple system, which I patented earlier, when meeting people, some of whom use alcohol: I am with them as long as we have contact. When we lose it and something starts to irritate me a little, I don’t wait to get pissed off, I just say hi and go home. I know when to go out and my bandmates make me laugh sometimes. Especially on the road, because when you watch the parties sober, you are often more “stoned” by this view than they are with anything else – he laughed.
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Piotr Strojnowski is deadThe artist said goodbye to his team Facebook.com/Strojnowy
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“Music has always accompanied man”
The first single promoting the album of the band Strojnowy was the song “Wolność Serc”, in which Strojnowski appealed to his listeners to release the love they have in their hearts. When I asked if he believed that music can change people and the world, he said without hesitation that if he did not believe it, he would give up on it.
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– Standing on the stage, I watch the audience and see them listen to what I sing. You can see that they are interested in it, and the message integrated into the sounds has an even better bearing – it is easier to reach with the text. Anyway, music has always accompanied man. It has such waves and resonates in such a way that it stimulates and therefore more likely reaches people – he explained.
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When we were getting to the end of our conversation, I asked Piotr Strojnowski about one more thing: is there anything he regrets in his life. – It’s one of those age-old questions, and when I hear that someone has no regrets, I come to the conclusion that they either don’t know what they are saying or are lying. Yes, sometimes life will be successful and the equation will be positive, but it is not true that a man has not done something that he is ashamed of to this day. Sure I do regret a few things – the ugly ones I did and the ones I gave up. One of them stuck in my head: in Daab’s times or soon after, Tomasz Stańko offered me a job at the STU theater in Krakow, where he played the trumpet, and the band was looking for a vocalist. Then I thought: “where am I, goof, to the theater” and therefore something that could have been cool happened to me. I regret it. I think that everyone has things that they regret, so do I, but luckily there were more of the cool ones. – he assured.
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photo-source">Main photo source: Marek Wychowaniec / PAP
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Sad. Daab was one of the precursors of Polish Reggae. While teenagers in mid 80s, we would ‘run from home’ on weekends, against our parents will to attend concerts. I remember Daab when then they played during Camping Muzyczny in Brodnica, today Rap and Reggae Festiwal. Nice to be a teenager.