Former Polish railway chief releases latest rock album
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
24.09.2015 11:37
The latest album from Polish rock band Chemia, led by the former chairman of freight company PKP Cargo, debuted on Tuesday in almost 20 countries.
Wojciech Balczun playing with Chemia. Photo: wikimedia commons/Adam KliczekPhoto: wikimedia commons/Adam Kliczek
Since resigning in 2012 from the wing of Polish National Railways, Wojciech Balczun has devoted his time to being lead guitarist of the band.
Latest album 'Let me' was produced by legendary rock veteran Mike Fraser, who has worked with cult bands such as ACDC, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Metallica.
The album will hit stores in Japan, the U.S. and Canada on 4 October.
“The evening before making the choice [to resign from PKP Cargo], I was watching ‘August Rush’ about a musically talented orphan,” Balczun said in an interview with Polish portal onet.pl.
“In one scene, while warming up in New York’s Central Park, this boy played on an acoustic Gibson, identical to my guitar resting on a stand next to the television.
“I cried like a baby and understood how my life should look,” he reflected.
“In the morning, I handed in my resignation.”
The Warsaw-based band sounds like “something from beyond the [Atlantic] ocean” according to onet.pl music critric Paweł Piotrowicz, who compared Chemia to Nickelback and Queens of the Stone Age.
Chemia is touring Poland and Germany for the rest of the year and will visit Warsaw on 7 October at Klub Hybrydy.
Balczun started the band in 2007, two years after he began working for PKP companies. (ua/nh/rk)