I Don’t Like Crickets…
“Our influences are Mario, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Lucky Charms” - Alex Ostrowski
I speak to Alex Ostrowski about Kotki Dwa and crickets mating calls.
“Tom studies zoology and is doing his dissertation about the mating calls of crickets.” This is Kotki Dwa’s response when asked for an interesting fact about the band.
The sounds horny crickets make though is not what concerns us, the sounds that Kotki Dwa make is. Asked to describe their sound, Alex the bands guitarist and songwriter says that “It is bright indie-electro-pop.”
He then goes on to tell of how Kotki Dwa met “Me and Tom (Drums and keyboard) went to school together and me and Tristan (Bass and synthesizer) are brothers.” The band’s name comes from a Polish nursery rhyme, Alex and Tristan are of polish origin and their Grandfather used to sing the rhyme to them.
The band Alex remembers were formed in early 2005 “I was studying for my Art Foundation, Tom was having a gap year and Tristan was still at school.”
Asked for their influences Kotki Dwa in response do not reel off a list of bands. Alex quite originally says “Our influences are Mario (from Nintendo game Super Mario), Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Lucky Charms” Not your average list of influences.
They may be influenced by Joseph’s coat but they make music so colourful that in comparison his coat is a dour grey Mack. The influence Lucky Charms have may also make sense. Whereas like many other bands they have catchy indie-pop tunes, Lucky Charms also have the boring part which others possess. They also have something different from every other band just like Lucky Charms have something different from other cereals with those marshmallow bits.
Also the citing of Mario seems to make sense when you listen to the incredibly infectious ‘Pad’. The song begins with what seems like the sound of Mario when your Nintendo crashed halfway through a game. What follows this sound though is not the disappointment you used to get realising you had to reset your console. It is instead a hugely catchy electro-pop tune.
The aims for the near future are Alex says “To release our first single ‘Robins Clogs’ on December 10th and have an amazing launch party for it on 15th December at ‘The White Eagle Polish Club’ in Balham.” Quizzed about the aims for the distant future Alex replies “We want to continue to make, play and record our music.”
The outcome of Tom’s dissertation it seems though does not really matter because soon enough he’s going to be studying the hollering of masses of indie kids as he is in your new favourite band.
