Paweł Czekała
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Paweł Czekała (born 16 November 1970), known commonly under his nickname Piguła, is the founder, former bassist, and current guitarist of the influential Polish
street punk Street punk (sometimes alternatively spelled streetpunk) is an urban working class-based subgenre of punk rock, which emerged as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. The earliest street pun ...
band
The Analogs The Analogs are a Polish people, Polish street punk band. Originating in Szczecin, they have been successful on the local and international punk rock scene with hundreds of concerts played across Europe as well as musical releases in Poland, Rus ...
. Piguła formed The Analogs in 1995 and, excluding the years he spent imprisoned, has been with the band non-stop since then as its primary songwriter. Initially he played
bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
and provided backing vocals for The Analogs, but in 2008 he switched to
lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
. In recent years Czekała has also began occasionally performing as the lead singer on a very small fraction of the songs the band plays live, such as a cover of the classic "Skinhead Girl" song during a November 2019 concert in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
where the band played alongside the famous
ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...
artist Roy Ellis. In 2020 he started his own multi-genre vocal project called Piguła Original.


Biography


Early life

Paweł Czekała was born in 1970 and grew up in disadvantaged
tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. ...
residential areas of
Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...
during the economic troubles the
Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
was experiencing in the 1980s. It is also during this time that Czekała became interested in
punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
music. He attended the
Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism ...
High School of Art in Szczecin.


Musical beginnings

From 1988 Piguła performed vocals for the
grindcore Grindcore is an extreme metal, extreme fusion genre of heavy metal music, heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, e ...
band Strawberry, with whom they self-released an album in 1989. He would later sing in the
crossover thrash Crossover thrash (often abbreviated to crossover) is a fusion genre of thrash metal and hardcore punk. The genre emerged in the mid-1980s, when hardcore punk bands, such as Suicidal Tendencies, Cryptic Slaughter, Corrosion of Conformity and Dir ...
group D.E.I.M.O.S., which released an album in 1992 followed by a demo in 1993 before splitting up. Later in the 1990s, this time with a
bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
in hand, he formed the short-lived Dr. Cycos with Marek “Oreł” Adamowicz on the guitar and Ziemowit Pawluk playing the drums. Their 1996 cassette was one of the first
ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...
releases in Poland. It was with these men that he would make a decision which would define much of his musical career.


The Analogs and run-ins with the law

It was in 1995, at the Bronx pub in Szczecin with Oreł and Pawluk, that Piguła formed
The Analogs The Analogs are a Polish people, Polish street punk band. Originating in Szczecin, they have been successful on the local and international punk rock scene with hundreds of concerts played across Europe as well as musical releases in Poland, Rus ...
– a band that would go on to become a leading group of the
street punk Street punk (sometimes alternatively spelled streetpunk) is an urban working class-based subgenre of punk rock, which emerged as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. The earliest street pun ...
and
Oi! Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement wa ...
genres in Poland. The band initially struggled with finding a suitable vocalist, with an early candidate being Tomasz Iwanow, but this did not work out and eventually Dominik Pyrzyna became the band's longtime singer. The band relatively quickly grew popular on the Polish punk scene and released three albums in the first three years of their activity, continuing with nine more in the decade that followed. However, by the time the first album of The Analogs was released, Piguła was serving a prison sentence for taking part in an organised criminal group; his time in jail, spread over two sentences that lasted almost five years in total, affected him deeply and made him turn his life around after being let back out; he would later reflect on his experiences in some of the lyrics of the band's songs, for which he was always the main writer. Upon leaving prison for the second time, Czekała became
straight edge Straight edge (sometimes abbreviated as sXe or signified by XXX or simply X) is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs in reaction to the punk subculture's excesses. Some ...
dedicating his life to music and sports. In the 2000s Paweł Czekała also played in the hardcore bands The Hunkies and Street Chaos as well as the 1977-style punk group
Anti Dread Anti Dread is a Polish punk rock band playing since 2003. According to band's members the name means simply that none of them wear dreadlocks. Style Anti Dread play melodic punk rock music, similar in style to that originating from the 1970s. The ...
, but The Analogs remained his main focus.


Projekt Pudło

The Analogs continued to play with some membership changes over the years, but Piguła remained a central figure within it as its bassist and songwriter as well as providing backing vocals. In 2008 he switched to
lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
and Tomasz Majorek replaced him on the bass (the latter was replaced by Przemysław "Benon" Kaczmarek in 2013). In 2011, Czekała won two medals at the European Championship of Brazilian jiu-jitsu in
Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
. The Analogs released ten more albums in the 2010s, continuing its popular live performances garnering attention both domestically and abroad. By 2018, Czekała along with fellow The Analogs guitarist and main vocalist Kamil Rosiak began touring penitentiaries, correctional facilities, and drug addiction centres as a duet called ''Projekt Pudło'' to play acoustic versions of their well-known songs – not only as entertainment, but as part of a resocialisation process for the inmates and others also. This campaign was deemed largely successful and received some attention in Polish media. In an August 2020 interview with
Wirtualna Polska Wirtualna Polska (WP ) (lit. Virtual Poland) is a group of companies operating in the media and e-commerce sectors. The WP Group owns the Wirtualna Polska horizontal portal founded in 1995 and known for being the first internet portal in Polan ...
, Piguła described it thus: Fundraisers, charity events, and tours around Polish jails culminated in the release of an acoustic album of the same name by The Analogs, which was successful and has gathered even more respect for the band on the scene as well as helping them continue Projekt Pudło live.


Hot16 and Disso Polo

In May 2020, friends nominated Piguła to take part in the Hot16Challenge. Piguła responded and, after seeing a highly controversial entry into the challenge by Polish far-right politician
Janusz Korwin-Mikke Janusz Ryszard Korwin-Mikke (; born 27 October 1942), also known by his initials JKM or simply as Korwin, is a Polish far-right politician, paleolibertarian and author. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 until 2018. He was the ...
, decided to dedicate his 16 verses of
rap music Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...
against the far right in Poland. Piguła's entry also stirred some controversy, with an overwhelmingly negative reaction from
fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
and right-wing circles but a mostly positive response from the far left, who saw it as brave and a refreshing voice on the Polish left-wing that was seen as genuine, coming from a working-class background without being academic or elitist. Czekała's entry into the challenge caused a number of other artists to step up and unite, with the result being a collaboration between 23 different artists (mostly from Poland, but also
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
and
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
) releasing a new album called ''Disso Polo'' under Czekała's Piguła Original project at the end of July, 2020; the record has been described as a "musical rodeo", combining elements of hardcore punk, rapping, reggae, and other genres into one album that sends an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-homophobic, and environmentalist message. Piguła wrote many of the lyrics, as well as performing the vocals and playing bass/guitar for many tracks. Alongside numerous others, participants in Disso Polo include Igor Bancer from Mister X and Mark Marlowski of
Booze & Glory Booze & Glory are an international punk band with roots in the Polish migrant punk scene in the UK, formed in London in 2009. They play primarily Oi! and street punk music. History Booze & Glory was formed in London in 2009 by Mark (vocal ...
.


Personal life

Piguła lives with his partner Weronika Korbal, whom he helps with her feline wellbeing group ''Kocie Warpno'' and label Oldschool Records; he is deeply attached to his cats, espouses left-wing views, and is an outspoken opponent of the
Catholic Church in Poland Polish members of the Catholic Church, like elsewhere in the world, are under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Holy See, Rome. The Latin Church includes 41 dioceses. There are three eparchies of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in th ...
. Sport and music have played an important part in his life, especially after leaving prison. Since the beginning of his musical career, Czekała has been strongly opposed to racism in the
skinhead A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youth in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide i ...
and
Oi! Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement wa ...
scene, recognising its Jamaican and multi-cultural roots. In 2019, Czekała along with his partner Weronika and their neighbour Ms. Kazia have helped around 80 cats in the local area through their voluntary ''Kocie Warpno'' initiative.


Notes


References


External links

*
The Analogs history on official website
*
Jimmy Jazz Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Czekala, Pawel 1970 births Polish guitarists Polish bass guitarists The Analogs members Living people Polish male bass guitarists Polish male guitarists