Alright, buckle up because we’re diving into the lo-fi, The Strokes infused emo world of WRACAJ, BO CIEMNO (Come Back, It’s Dark), a band that’s all about raw vibes and genuine feels. These Warsaw natives are here to mix up the local emo scene with their dreamo sounds that scream nostalgia and authenticity.
WRACAJ, BO CIEMNO might sound like a mysterious call in the night, and that’s because it kind of is. Picture this: a nostalgic nod to childhood days when parents would call you home as the sun sets. That’s the essence captured by Piotras, their first drummer, and it just stuck.
These guys draw from a melting pot of influences. Think Jeff Rosenstock’s intensity, The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die’s atmospheric soundscapes, and PUP’s punk energy. They even throw in some love for bands like Cap’n Jazz and Deafheaven.
The band lineup includes Miśka on drums, a fresh face in the band scene, Janek on bass, who brings experience from high school projects and the punk outfit Violet Dogs, and Maury on guitar and vocals, also juggling roles in other bands like drumming for Gorgeous.
Their album cover radiates summer chill vibes—lazy days by the lake, carefree moments, just living in the now. And it’s exactly what inspired us to sit down with them and get you a proper introduction to this project.
Let’s get the obvious question out of the way: your name, WRACAJ, BO CIEMNO, is pretty intriguing. What’s the story behind it? Sorry for the generic start, but we had to ask!
We couldn’t really find a proper name for an emo band at the beginning. We had some ideas, but none of them really sounded well. Finally Piotras (our first drummer) came up with the name and it just clicked. It has this kind of nostalgic, sentimental feel to it. It sounds like a parent telling you to come home from the playground or whatever.
What are your main inspirations as a band? Have you been influenced by any specific artists or genres?
Yes, and there are a lot. Pretty much every song is inspired in some way by a different artist, usually even by specific songs. But if we were to mention certain bands or musicians that inspire us constantly, we would say Jeff Rosenstock with his previous projects, The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Cap n’ Jazz, Camping in Alaska, PUP, Los Campesinos! and Deafheaven (each of us tried to give 2-3 names at most). But you can just take a look at our inspiration playlist which you can find on our Spotify page. There’s a lot of stuff we really like.
Introduce us to the band members! Have any of you played in other bands before, or is this your first project together?
Miśka (the drummer) has not played in a band before. We met through a mutual friend after she came to one of our shows. Janek (bass) played in two bands before, Bucket of Chill (a high school project which did not release any albums) and Violet Dogs (punk quartet), where he played the guitar. Maury (guitar, vocals) plays currently in his first band, Gorgeous (on drums) and has played with Janek in Violet Dogs as well (also as a drummer).
The cover art looks like you had some great times by the water. What memories does it bring up for you?
I guess just memories of summer and chilling at the lake with your friends. Feeling of peace, no need to worry about anything besides who owes you money for groceries and what you will have for dinner. And the cover art fits well with our name and nostalgia in general, I think. Just calmness and good times. And appreciating every moment of your life. That’s what WBC is all about.
Can you give us a track-by-track commentary on your latest release? What inspired each song and what vibes or themes were you going for?
Family Guy Funny Moments can be divided into two parts (which can be divided into several parts as well). The first part ends with the solo, which kind of also changes the mood of the song. In general, it’s a bit chaotic, but we think we managed to put it together so that it sounds nice. And the final part is really cool, we like it. When I (Maury) was writing the song I had many inspirations at once, so that’s why it’s so all over the place. I think I was under the influence of Brave Little Abacus when writing this song. The lyrics, as usual in our songs, don’t really have any specific elements or stories, just general themes of love, loneliness, memories and friendship. I guess I was thinking about all my past relations with people in these lyrics.
Kto zabił Laurę Palmer? was the first song we ever wrote. Before the band was born, I went to Greece, and I went to this museum of modern art at the outskirts of the city. We weren’t really doing much with Violet Dogs back then and I had this strong need to make some music, less punk-ish and more emo-like. So instead of consciously admiring the art, I was just walking around and thinking about the melody and the lyrics. When I got home I wrote the chords. Again, no specific events inspired the text, maybe apart from the chorus. I was alone at my parents’ summer country house waiting for my friends and I spent two nights alone, not really doing anything. One night I just layed down on a big, flat spot next to our house, where we were always stargazing, but this time there were no stars at all. And I though “Goddamn, this is so fucking dumb, this night, and this situation in general.”
Musimy przywrócić twee pop, like almost all of our songs, has a title not connected to the lyrics. I just thought that we need to promote twee pop and bands like Los Campesinos!, which are not popular in Poland. Musically we wanted to write a more midwest, chill song, Camping in Alaska-esque. I think you can hear it in the chorus. Last minute, when we were recording the vocals, I put in the piano at the end, because it just felt right. And in our opinion it sounds great.
Wszystkie psy idą do nieba was, on the other hand, highly inspired by Deafheaven, especially Ordinary Corrupt Human Love. I don’t know how we came up with the title and I can’t really say much about the lyrics as well. Just some life stories mixed together.
Tell us about Close Call Records. How did you get involved with them, and what has the experience been like?
Michał Czapski, who established Close Call Records, is an old friend of ours. We met him just before the pandemic hit, he found Violet Dogs through some obscure punk Facebook group. He has always been a huge fan of the hardcore DC scene, he loves Dischord and Ian McKaye and highly believes in the DIY ethic.
He was with us with every album we ever put out and helped in one way or another.
He founded Close Call soon after we met to release his and our projects, as well as our friends’. He’s one of the best people we ever met and inspires us everyday. It’s good to know that in such fucked up, commodified times there are still people who embrace the DIY lifestyle and try to do things their own way.
What drives you to express yourselves in this raw, lo-fi, mix of emo and alternative rock style?
We don’t want to pretend that we are good musicians. We feel like this raw, distorted sound is more authentic to the genre we represent. I cannot sing, none of us really play their instruments that well, but just want to have fun, share some cool hooks and progressions we came up with, and make some memories together.
Why did you choose such a gritty, lo-fi sound? What appeals to you about this style?
I guess it just makes us more… original? If there is something like that either in music or the emo community. One time at band practice we had this really shitty equipment, which made the vocals sound really distorted. But we thought “damn, this sounds cool, kind of like Julian Casablancas.”
So we decided to leave it like that on the EP. Many people said that they didn’t like it at first, but it finally clicked.
We think it makes us stand out at least a bit. We don’t really know any other emo bands with distorted vocals. The distorted guitars just seem to be the best choice for when you want to scream your feelings into the microphone. But there is a dreamy quality to it, which is why we use the reverb. We really like the term “dreamo” that people have been describing us with.
Where do you want to take this band? How do you see WRACAJ, BO CIEMNO evolving?
It’s hard to tell. With Miśka on drums we might have some calmer songs… but we don’t really know. Miśka expresses her desire to master the percussion and says we just want to keep making cool music that we like. And maybe learning our instruments better on the way. That’s the most important thing.
How do you see the music scene in Warsaw? Are you active in the concert circuit and in connecting with other bands?
There’s no such thing as a “Warsaw scene” in our opinion… There are some scenes forming as we speak, in Gdańsk or Poznań, but electronic music dominates Warsaw.
But there are some Warsaw-based bands that we really admire, like Son of Deni (originally from Minsk), trujące kwiaty/kartografia from Mazovia.
What other independent bands from Warsaw would you recommend? Who should we be listening to?
Gorgeous and Dłonie, recommended by Miśka.
Is there anything else you’d like to add or share with our readers?
Remember to pet animals and come to our shows. We will appreciate that much!
And huge thanks to IDIOTEQ.
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