A Polish Sensation Aims Higher

​Agnieszka Olszewska - Kaczmarek, a mouthful I grant you, is a singer songwriter not from Peoria, IL. Actually Agnieszka is from Warsaw Poland and for the US audience in Peoria, goes by the band name, Back to the Ocean. Make no mistake, Agnieszka is the heart and soul of the band and is as talented as her name is difficult to pronounce. I find it refreshing that the rock and roll traditions of the past half century that were born in the UK and the US have now filtered  to other parts of the world and those countries are now creating rock traditions of their own. I have recently heard some great bands from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Greece and Poland and just can't help but think that one of these bands might really break through and breath new life into the faltering rock establishment.

Back to the Ocean released their debut CD in 2010 and based on the strength of that release,    Agnieszka was able to continue to write songs and has been nominated numerous times for her songwriting excellence. Her voice is haunting and captivating with a quality somewhere between Tracy Chapman and Melissa Etheridge . The tunes on her most recent EP "Rain" fit squarely in the folk or electric folk genre but her newest song 'OMG' is more of a departure. The song which she says is dedicated to Jodie Foster, complete with a video referencing Silence of the Lambs imagery is more of a punk rock anthem with rapid fire guitar parts and a driving punk rock beat.

The band is currently touring all over the world in support of their recent release. Back to the Ocean is poised to invade the US airwaves and for that matter, the world's airwaves and hopefully with gather enough momentum to keep this talented band busy for many years to come.

---