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Dan Gebski interviews Tomasz Koziol.
Tomasz (T2T) for me you are not only an artist but also a Hero whose work is motivational and showing that, however you can start from scratch to create real life poetry. Tomasz (T2T) is a Polish Hip-hop artist who organised a well attended concert in Newry last year called “Work Emigration Music”. He also won award for The best Polish artist of Ireland 2019 by TRD Radio Dublin.
DG: Tomasz your creativity is real and for me you are a hero. Thank you very much for agreeing to this interview.
Tell me more about yourself, where are you from in Poland Tell me about your family and past?
TK: I came from from Poland the city called Sosnowiec in 2004. I have emigrated to Northern Ireland to Newry, where I live to this day. Every day I work full-time at a local company, after work I take care of my daughter Hana and in my free time I develop my music passions.
DG: How did your hip hop adventure and music start?
TK: I just love music for as long as I can remember and thanks to my parents there was always music on the agenda. In those days to have the same cassette player or vinyl record was already a rarity and also the access to music was very limited and then like in a housing estate or someone had something popular from overseas or from Poland.
They listened, practically everyone listened to what was promoted then. At the moment it is hard to exchange but it's a whole palette of every well-known songs or stars of the Rock'n'roll scene, blues, funk, metal, punk, rap, pop etc. The end of the 90s was a more mature way I started to reach for music. I was always fascinated with lyrics in songs and because of my poor English I preferred to listen to Polish, more specifically Polish artists. Finally I started to try to write my own lyrics which in time I started to record them in the studio. In the meantime slowly step by step I tried to develop myself more and more.
DG: What do you think about city of Newry?
TK: I have been abroad for over 15 years and I have lived in Newry for 15 years, a very nice tiny border town where everything is close to the sea and the ocean. I generally like Ireland but you know the saying there is no place like home.
DG: Do you treat music as a hobby or a profession?
TK: At the moment I don't pay bills with music and although we approach the subject professionally, it is still a hobby.
DG: What does the rap market in Northern Ireland look like and are there any local rappers we haven't heard of at all?
TK: The Rap market here, and more specifically the Hip-Hop culture is very weak. it is a small island and we are still limited to make music in Polish language. I have to say that it is quite popular culture at the moment, to put it mildly, and everything is looping among its people and for their people.There are quite a lot of us all over Ireland. In Newry there are a few rappers like DAMIAN BTK, GERSON, JUZEF P etc. and each of us does something we love and we hope to encourage people to follow us.
DG: What do you really want to convey in your songs? What is important to you? Do you want to make music in two languages or only in Polish?
TK: In my songs I mostly focus on positive messages and good entertainment. My lyrics are a part of me so my lyrics evolve with me and I write with age and on the spur of the moment and I try to describe various emotions that accompany me every day. I like my Polish language and I like to play with words. if I can master English up to the PRO level, I will definitely try to record something someday,I would love to do that.
DG: What do you think about my project from zero to hero? Are you planning any bigger projects yourself?
TK: Dan your project is very interesting and I like it. The project allows you to meet a lot of cool creative people.May the heroes be as many as possible as that is exactly what the world needs. As for my bigger projects each of my albums that I made was the biggest project for me. I just started working on the fourth album so at this moment I focus on it and this is my most important project. It is very hard to have a full time job, being a father and trying to keep my passion alive, but its extremely important to make time for your passion and follow your dreams.
DG: I know you were one of the co-organizers or participants of a charity concert in Dublin? Can you tell us more about this?
TK: Myself and TRD Radio Dublin organized a charity concert in Dublin together with the local Polish artists. At the concert, we collected money that allowed for the purchase of the device for the early diagnosis of breast cancer company "Braster Pro" and for this we got 30 free tests. I hope that in the future more people that do good will join us and we will be able to support with even more cool projects and help those in need.
DG: What could you say to those young people wanting to pursue a journey or career in rap music? What to do and what not? What would you advise them?
TK: From my own experience, I only know that you have to do your work regardless of the circumstances, you have to write straight from your heart, convey the truth, chase your dreams, live positive above all and not look back, and all the rest in terms of craftsmanship you can now google or use youtube because like many people in the world there are so many different ways to do anything so the most important thing is to create a goal and strive for it stubbornly.
DG: Thank you for the interview. Good health Dan.
