Although ‘intro’ defines what usually is a short preliminary stage in one’s act, this was by no means that case with this debut album. It may even seem ironic that Paweł Żądło’s introduction to the musical sphere took a ‘mere’ sixteen years. “Standing here with a finished album is nothing less than one of my biggest private victories,” adds Paweł with a very happy smile on his face.

The opening and title song of the Polish part of the album “Po czasie”, composed for lyrics written by Jerzy Marcinkowski, is the oldest, and takes us back to 1996. It was Paweł’s first composition to become a mature song, arranged by Adam Adasko to be performed by the band they were all members of at that time. Most of the songs that found their place onto iNTRO were composed throughout the following years, with Paweł choosing the solo songwriting and singing experience. Finalizing the album was significantly delayed during the period between 2004 and 2010, a time that forced Paweł to put music out of his focus. “I do agree that blind passion may be a strong driving force, especially in an artist’s life. But I also had to comprehend that human existence tends to be a lot more complicated than we’d wish,and sometimes this causes us to put our deepest hopes on hold. But giving up was not an option.”

Different from most other albums, iNTRO is by its nature split between two languages; and therefore may be perceived as actually two short introductory albums- one, “Po czasie”, directed at a Polish audience; and the other, “L I F E” (also read: Love Integrity Faith Emotions, recorded in English), opened up to the rest of the world. “Writing in English obviously attracts a wider audience, and is therefore a bonus advantage; but my strong connection with English that evolved while studying at university is the main reason underlying this choice.” Sound-wise, iNTRO represents a balanced blend of acoustic and technology-based arrangements, with a characteristic crisp and emotive attitude in the vocal lines. Most of the songs Paweł wrote in English are the more recent pieces, so they represent a more contemporary approach to arrangement style. When asked about the words, Paweł responds, “I do realize the cliché nature of certain issues that I’ve explored in the lyrics; but I refused to neglect the great need I had to give voice to what truly are most important things, and honestly there are only few of them out there… I feel diverse, including slightly more lighthearted, potential in myself. It is just not what I wanted to start with.”

The bottom line is that iNTRO is exactly what its name suggests, so the musical journey continuous…