From Poland but Cardiff-based since 2017, Małgola Gulczynska is 50% of synthpop duo 100% Rabbit; one of several members of indiepop ensemble Live, Do Nothing; and on-off musical collaborator with Welsh-language singer/rapper/spoken word artist Teifi. She’s also just released a chiptune-styled album under her solo name of Małgola, No. Emma Way found out more…

Playing in so many different projects, how do you make Małgola, No unapologetically you? 

I write and produce all the songs myself – I don’t get any help from anybody in the creative process. With 100% Rabbit for example, it is my original projects with my songs as well but it’s almost 50/50 with my partner [Adam Sowiński] so even though there will be my words or my vocal melodies, we will produce the songs together and his contribution would be much larger than just mixing the music for us. In other bands, I usually just play what they want me to play which takes a big load off my shoulders.

Your new release The Cave Of Llord Skull is a chiptune-styled re-recording of the previous Małgola, No album – 2022’s Polish-language Jaskinia Chrabiej Czaszki.

The original Polish album is a concept album anyway: it’s got lyrics in the form of comic book strips and each song could be a separate story. I do like to challenge myself to do new things. With Małgola, No, I tend to make every album different from the previous one: my very first album was piano ballads. My second album was more experimental, using synthesiser and computer-based sounds. My third album is in the Polish language, but back to pop-rock songs.

Adventure was part of the inspiration [for this album] – and my partner and I used to explore old computer games, emulating old Nintendo games. So I used to hear a lot of that music, and I heard the soundtrack to a game called Mother, also called Earthbound. People call it different things in different countries, but basically, that music has blown my mind. I was wondering how they did it and read about it – for those old NES games, you need to limit yourself to only four or five sounds at a time. I thought that would be a brilliant challenge: you can’t have any chords, you can only have a couple of notes at a time.

My album was based on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, synthesiser, there are so many layers to it. So I learned a programme called a tracker in which you basically compose or produce those sounds with original chiptune sounds.

It’s fascinating that you can only use so few notes at a time.

Isn’t it! It’s different for every engine. This one is 8-bit, then you have 16-bit. So you can have more sounds but I was like, no I like a challenge! So I went into deep water straightaway…

Have you ever thought about writing music for video game soundtracks?

I would love to. I do create some soundtracks for movies and animation, usually for university students or graduates. It’s usually not paid work, but I felt I wanted to try and do instrumental music as well because I just like music. I just find songwriting and composing fascinating.

How does Wales’ live music scene compare to Poland’s?

My experience is that there are certain struggles that we face in both. Maybe it’s sort of a global trend, or a European trend, that people don’t go to gigs as often as they used to; I think it started happening before COVID. Say 10 years ago, there was a big boom for electronic music, and DJ sets rather than concerts became more popular in the UK. I think there is more interest in live music in the UK than in Poland generally – but certain kinds of music or nights. In Poland, we don’t have many open mics – in the UK it’s common. I also find the audiences in Wales way more encouraging and way more supportive. I don’t want to be too negative about Poland because I only visit every so often, and I play small shows. 

You’ve got a show coming up at Porters – what kind of stuff will you be playing?

It’s going to be the second show with my band – we’re going to be playing songs off my three albums. Unfortunately, we’re not going to play any chiptune songs because I haven’t figured out yet how to make music like that live. I think people can expect alternative pop tunes.

Do you call it ‘adventure pop’?

I call my Polish songs that. I wouldn’t necessarily say that about my songs from my previous albums, because the first one was more emotional piano ballads. I do want to go in this direction because I want to try and be more positive in my music. I want to make it more enjoyable for both the audience and for myself.

What’s your next project?

I have two I’m working on at the moment. One is going to be r’n’b style, sort of 90s or early 2000s flavour. The other is an acoustic project with ballads based on the piano, a little bit back to the roots of my first album. On that album, I worked on my own – all of the instrumental parts I recorded myself, or with MIDI for string or brass parts. For this album, I’m hoping to involve more musicians in creating it and get real acoustic sounds.

Małgola, No, Porters, Cardiff, Wed 21 June (with Ynys and Alaw).

Admission: FREE. Info: here

The Cave Of Llord Skull is out now.

Info: Facebook

words EMMA WAY