Warsaw architecture:
Asa Horvitz (vocals, guitar): So mixed, surprising, unexpected – really the most interesting and wonderful of anywhere I have lived. Where else could Złote Tarasy, the Palace of Culture, and the faceless blocks of the 60s hotels be within ten minute walks of each other? No other city contains the traumas and triumphs of the 20th century so visibly, so obviously. This is what makes living in Warsaw powerful, you have a sense of a vector, a direction, from the past and moving forward. Warsaw has its own personality and is very distinct, it's not the stereotypical "Europe" of Krakow and Prague, it's much more like Berlin or New York.
Kyle Farrell (percussion): Think of biking along Vistula River looking at the buildings, being lost, really lost and hoping to catch a view of the Palace of Culture to orient myself.
Dan Bindschedler (cello): Warszawa has an endearing dichotomy. It is immediately cold and familiar. I took many walks around the city, spending hours looking at beautiful blocks of concrete and old doors.
People of Warsaw:
Asa: On the street in the day, everyone is silent and looks down and is unfriendly. But when you become friends with a family, you become part of it, they love you and take care of you and treat you so well – this happened again and again to us. Every time during our trip that it seemed like everything was going to fall apart, someone took care of us in a totally generous and incredible way. Polish people in general impress me like this – they have a generosity and selflessness, a maturity, that you don't usually find in Americans. This is something Americans can learn from Poles and Warszawians.
Kyle: Well, I made some great friends, but as far a people on the street it's kinda gloomy.
Dan: The only city I know where being born after 1980 is not helpful. There is always someone who knows more than you.
Clubs in Warsaw:
Asa: Chłodna is my favorite hang in Warsaw. I also like Cafe Kulturalna and Pardon To Tu. In the summer Plac Zabaw and Dolina Mumonkow are the best, though pretty much everyone seems to agree with that.
Dan: I danced my butt off until the sun came up a few times under a highway at an outdoor club venue. I think this was Plac Zabaw. Plan B was my favorite club to hang out at.
Art:
Asa: Zacheta is fantastic, and the contemporary art castle also has nice exhibits. My favorite thing I saw in Warsaw was an exhibition of Belorussian art at Zacheta, very strange and unexpected, powerful.
Kyle: I will never forget the Belorussian show at Zacheta. And necessarily because it was good in a traditional sense. Then I met a mother and daughter on a train who was from Belarus and she said she went to the show. I said "Do you think it's a refection of the art there?" She responded "There is no art in Belarus."
Music in Warsaw:
Asa: So much! The Lado ABC musicians are obviously an incredibly important core of the scene and vital to Warsaw music, but the music scene extends far beyond that. Having musicians like Dominik Strycharski and his ongoing experimental improvisation explorations, alongside Marcin Masecki and Professionalism, alongside Paris Tetris, alongside a world class Classical music scene (seeing Leszek Lorent play Xenakis' Kassandra was a highlight) proves that Warsaw's music scene is doing very well. I'd like to also say that Polish theater is one of my personal passions, seeing work by and getting to work with directors like Wysocka, Zadara, Lupa, and Warlikowski was a hugely important part of my time in Poland.
Kyle: I really liked going to Warsaw Autumn concerts.
What do you like the most about Warsaw and what do you dislike?
Asa: Like most: the people. They are kind, humble to a fault, extremely educated, forward thinking and liberal, and have highly sophisticated taste in art, theater, and music. I also love the University library roof garden, and all the neighborhoods along the Wisła. Biking to the suburbs in the summer, immediately leaving the city and being in gardens and fields was always breathtaking and totally impossible in a city like New York. Like least: The food. Sorry. As a Californian I'm extremely spoiled.
Kyle: There is so much I liked, the first thing that came to mind in this moment is the walk from the train station to our apt by the river in Powisle. Something I dislike is the strict biking and drinking laws...
How can Warsaw be attractive for someone who came from NEW YORK, so from the most attractive city on earth (that's what they say)?
Asa: Warsaw has a lot of advantages on New York. For what I paid for a single room in the scary ghetto in New York I rented a huge flat in Powisle. But economics aside I wouldn't have spent 9 months in Warsaw if I didn't love it. It has its own pace, its own feel, there's something unique there, something about being at the crossroads of Europe and being such an active part of history and somehow such a strong sense of identity, such a strength through it all. There's a strength there. And it's slower paced than New York. Artistically, philosophically, there are advantages as well. Polish artists of the generations older than ours are much less likely to compromise their ideas in order to make money. Already this is changing, theater rehearsals are shorter and people are trying to sell their work – I won't name anyone in particular, but there's a creeping anxiety about economics that is entering the theatrical discussion. I understand that there are obvious benefits to free market capitalism, but I would ask Polish artists to look very hard at American theater and see that this nonsense that we call theater is a direct product of the free market economy invading art, of shortened rehearsal times and compromised ideals, and please, don't copy that. Poland is connected to a theater tradition that is one of the best in the world and I really hope it stays that way.
Dan: I return to Asa's comment about Warszawa in comparison to other cities. Warszawa's facade has a raw resilience that evokes feelings of other metropolitan cities, such as Berlin. These cities have an uncanny sprawl left over from the 20th centry that allows one to breathe. New York is saturated with real estate development, commerce, and ideologies. I love New York, but
i find myself escaping frequently out of necessity.
Why you called your LP "Warszawa"?
Asa: It just seemed obvious. The record was written in Warsaw, it's about Warsaw, and Poland, it's about looking at Warsaw up close and looking at America from a beautiful distance.
Kyle: Houses of the Holy was already taken.
Dan: There was simply no other name for it.
The bassist Jack Randall joined Point Reyes in USA. He explains, why he would like to come to Warsaw:
Jack: Poland has been weirdly present in my life for a while. My great-grandparents went through Ellis Island with the name Mazur; though they emigrated from Odessa, the heritage is pretty obvious. My older sister lived in Warsaw during the '90s teaching English; one Christmas she brought her boyfriend to the States and he was the tallest person I'd ever seen. Later, inspired by my family's murky history, I studied the history of the former USSR and read a lot about Poland's revolution - Solidarnost and Lech Walesa, plays and poems. I guess we'll never know if the Mazurs really came from Poland, because my great-grandmother left the family bible and her favorite goose behind when she "temporarily" moved to the U.S. in the teens, and both bible and goose are now long lost. Also "Low" is my favorite Bowie record, so touring in support of an album called Warszawa was a sure thing.
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