You are constantly on the road but I know you run 7-8 km every day. Do you find time for running when you travel and give concerts?
Unfortunately I usually don’t. I travel mainly with my concerts and I never have enough time even for a proper sound check. When I do find some time or even an hour to spare I always spend it in a hot bath (laughter). After a trip and before I start singing I love to relax in warm water… During a concert tour there is a different mechanism working. You are constantly on the move. You need a moment to stop. Just 15 minutes of quiescence. In my steady, everyday life in the city running is an escape. I put on my sneakers, I start running and I disappear. (This is why a running track was never an option for me. I only use it when I really miss running and freezing cold keeps me at home. A track makes running away impossible. It’s only a test of your endurance and I know what I can do perfectly well). I like the psychological aspect of running and the fact that I can leave my leash behind. Even the one I put on myself. The freedom that running gives me is wonderful.
When you decided to abandon classical music your teachers tried to change your mind. What do they say now, after so many years, having witnessed your amazing career in music?
I think that they don’t know what I do. I’m serious.
Do you stay in touch?
One of my sons goes to school I graduated from, which means I meet my teachers there. They are wonderful and devoted people but I have no doubts that they don’t know what their old pupil does. Of course they realise I did well because they saw me on TV a few times, but they are not fully aware of what I do in music. Classical musicians live in their own world and as long as someone exists in their surroundings they are up to date but the moment someone emigrates to another universe of music they lose sight of this person. I could be a dentist as far as they are concerned. I’ve noticed that classical musicians are one of the most hermetic groups in music. This is probably why I couldn’t be a part of it.
Singing takes up most of your time. What do you do in your free time apart from sleeping off your tiredness? Do you have any other passions or hobbies?
I have kids!! I think that every woman who has children knows what she does in her free time. There is no free time!! You are involved in your kids’ life. And it’s not one life but three lives at the same time. When I have some “free” time I want to check every homework, talk about everything, take them everywhere, cook for them, wash their clothes and then I’m dead tired. I read books on the way to a concert. Every tour is like a spa or holiday for me. On the way I read, I watch movies and I listen to music. I don’t have time to do all this at home. My home life is so intense and absorbing that it doesn’t leave much space for anything else. At least to someone like me who gets fully involved in everything and cannot separate the world of the mind form the world of the heart.
You came back from Japan not so long ago and you are the Polish Culture Ambassador in Japan for 2014. What did you like about the place? How do the Japanese receive you? How do they react to traditional Polish songs? After all you sing them in Polish…
Japan is a very unique place. I have an amorous relation with it. It moves me. I could probably never live there because I’m very strange for them, almost an alien, but on the spiritual level Japan is my home. If I was to say what touches me most in Japan I would say one word: respect. Respect for another person, for work, for nature, for tradition. Japan also teaches me culture and how to experience time purposefully. It is a place where no one makes noise carelessly and everything, even the most prosaic activity, is done with full concentration and total awareness. I have an impression that we, the Europeans, have been completely lost in our pursuit (of what?) and everyday struggle. We live quickly and superficially, with lots of adrenaline, convulsively, carelessly and loudly. Every visit in Japan makes me stop in time and space. I give in to this feeling. I stop, I look around and I take everything in. I learn. When you are in the most crowded place in Shibuya people don’t even poke one another. It’s unbelievable!
I love working in Japan because everyone takes full responsibility for their profession and their work. The work ethics is so strong there that it makes people ill and some of them have to get special treatment. Everything has to be done in one hundred percent. It is a real tragedy if it’s only ninety nine percent.
This means Japan is a very good place for you. After all you are a perfectionist.
That’s true. Japan is a great country for me! When we go on the stage we have an absolute certainty that nothing will fail because everything is perfectly prepared and everyone works at their best. It also makes us give everything we have.
This takes us to the audience. It’s… beautiful!! Completely focused, devoted, immersed in music from the very first beat. Usually it takes a moment for us to connect with the audience. We start to play and we listen to one another. Sometimes we are not sure if we managed to communicate or if we were fully involved in the exchange of energy until the concert comes to an end. In Japan you go on the stage and the audience… is simply there! You can feel there strong presence from the first note. Every wave of energy is directed at you like a samurai sword – so sharp and tangible that you have to start giving everything you have within a second, with no introduction, no prologue, no warm-up. Because they have been waiting for you for a very long time. You can feel this waiting in the air.
And going back to folk aspects. It seems that in Japan they resound! I often analyse this. I’m not sure if it’s done on the level of our Slavic melodies, our nostalgia that lies in the sequences of Lydian and Mixolydian scale or the sound of our language, mood of songs, idea for the narration? I don’t know where this comes from but I’m sure of one thing – that fact that I’m a Polish person gives me a great value in Japan. It works both ways… Japan does the same for me! I’m inspired by the pentatonic scale and when I saw a Kabuki performance I was almost in a trance, forgetting about the uncomfortable squatting. Time ceased to exist. I could believe in everything – it was such a penetrating, powerful and beautiful experience.
What was the craziest thing that Anna Maria Jopek has ever done or would like to do?
Every crazy thing I do usually has a specific cause. One time I thought that instead of putting another record or some gadgets to auction for children in need I could give the smallest concert I can imagine. I insisted that we would play for seven people (seven is my lucky number) and that we would meet in a hotel room with no cables, microphones or cameras. These seven people offered huge money to buy tickets online and we all met in one of the suites at the Intercontinental Hotel. It turned out that the best acoustics was in the bathroom and this is where I invited my audience! We put some pillows on the toilet, on the bidet, on the floor and next to the washbasin. Marek Napiórkowski, an amazing guitar player who was a part of this, and I sat in the centre of the bathroom – in the bathtub!!
The idea behind the concert was that everyone could ask for a song. Sometimes people chose very old ones, which I didn’t even remember. Then I asked them to remind me the words – they searched their iPhones and we were learning the songs on the spot, in the bathtub – total madness. Improvisation is my true vocation though. I accept every complication and twist with no sign of panic, with childlike curiosity and with the need to check the outcome.
I also remember a concert in Berlin when the electricity went down. It was a huge room with 800 people and suddenly… there was no power. The only thing that came to my mind at that time was to sit with my musicians on the edge of the stage and ask everyone to come closer. All these 800 very elegant people squatted in front of the stage, one next to the other, very tight, and we played for them – it’s was a natural and very intimate unplugged concert. Quite unexpectedly it was one of the most enjoyable ones in my life. The one you remember for a long time. Every difficult situation can become a success when you’re open and willing to do something and communicate with another person.
I’m not sure if anyone has ever asked you this question but can you tell us what you think about when you look at the sky?
Good question. I was never asked about this, even when I was promoting my record called “The Sky.” I like to look at the sky during the day. It has thousand shades of blue. It’s beautiful and it gives me energy. On the other hand, the night sky makes me afraid. I have felt this since I was a child. I look into the abyss of the universe and I immediately feel weak. I become dizzy when I try to imagine the immensity of time and space.
Abroad Poland is represented by music and you do it extremely well. In your opinion, what else can promote Poland in the world? You meet people in different countries. What should they be told about Poland?
It’s not only music but also theatre, literature, fine arts. In general, art is our “export goods”. I may be wrong, but art seems to me a better ambassador of Poland than sport, for example. I know that nowadays sport is the widest form of communication between countries and nations and that it has millions of followers. Art is for the elites. I love football myself and I’m sad when our boys, with due respect, don’t play that well. Then I think what would happen if we invested at least some of the money we spend on sport in the amazing orchestras and fantastic artists we have. I’m always happy when I see Polish design and applied arts somewhere abroad. It’s also a great feeling when I can eat Polish dumplings on the other end of the world, having won-ton soup, sushi or pizza to choose. I love the fact that these small things make me think about different cultures and colourful nations. No matter what happens, pizza will always be an Italian thing. However, I once had a pizza in Matsuyama in Japan and it was such a variation of the Italian cuisine – pizza on shortbread – that it had a completely different quality!! I doubt if any of the chefs have ever tried a real Italian pizza… I wish our dumplings and excellent soups – we have first-rate food after all – would conquer the world…
Do you think it’s also a good way to promote Poland?
It’s a great way to do so! I test it on every international guest I have. When my fantastic fellow musicians, Gil Goldstein, Joe Ferla (who loves knuckle of pork) or Richard Bona, come to Poland we always have traditional Polish food. Later they write to me from different corners of the world: “I miss Poland. I wish I could be there and have a bowl of Polish żurek… You must invite me soon!!” (laughter)
In many interviews you stress that it’s worth being a “humble transmitter of meaning” that comes from artists and exceptional people, recognised musicians, respected authors. The contemporary world is not very encouraging in this respect… What is your definition of being humble?
In music? It means listening. I think this would be my advice for everyone who wants to play music – learn how to listen first. If you know how to do it, you will always know what to play. Besides, our profession is to provide services. When I’m on stage I learn how to listen to the audience to give people as much as they want from me as possible. What is it exactly? I never know. Maybe it’s something different each time? Music is the most beautiful language but the crucial thing is whether we can communicate through it and give something to others.
Thank you.
Photo © Marcin Kydryński