“I do think it’s a risk, this one,” guitarist Marcin says of his new single and video, “Panic Attack.”
Then again, the Polish guitarist could say the same about nearly everything he’s done since winning the ninth season of his homeland’s TV competition Must Be the Music in 2015.
Marcin Patrzalek, 26, has combined his percussive playing style with classical, rock and Spanish influences to create a maverick approach that is distinctive — by design, and without apology.
“This is the kind of vibe I bring,” he tells Guitar Player via Zoom from Warsaw. “I like spice. I think musicians should be interesting and unapologetic. I don’t think everyone should just be wearing a black hoodie onstage and standing in one place, making sure they play the Lydian flat-7 correctly. That’s not me.”
And Marcin is well aware of why that’s the case.
“I didn’t grow up in a household where my dad was blasting Metallica and Slayer, or even like the Beatles or the Grateful Dead or something,” he explains. “I was discovering everything on my own, so I don’t have a frame of reference for, ‘Oh, this is the next step. This is what I should do.’ I just do stuff ’cause I like it, usually not what other people expect.
“Sometimes they bring a spark of controversy or discussion, but it never hurt me. It never had a negative impact on my life or career. It’s the opposite. I really want to be more bold in the choices I’m making, and more intentional.”
Nevertheless, Marcin expects “Panic Attack” — which he’s been developing during the past two years, live and in the studio — will raise some eyebrows even among those who expect to be surprised whenever he releases something new.
I didn’t grow up in a household where my dad was blasting Metallica and Slayer, or even like the Beatles or the Grateful Dead or something. I was discovering everything on my own.”
— Marcin
With its mix of electric and acoustic guitar parts — the latter played on a prototype signature model he’s developing with Ibanez — the track has a darker, heavier bent than he’s explored before. The accompanying video follows suit. And after employing spoken word passages in the past, “Panic Attack” also finds him vocalizing the title in a chorus kind of approach that’s more integrated as part of the song’s musical structure.
“I’ve done pieces before where I played on electric,” he says, “most notably, I guess, the ‘Art of Guitar’ track [with RJ Pasin], which ended up being really, really big for me. But with this one there is just way more meat to the electric guitar,” especially, he adds, in the middle section, which “is like a club kind of hardcore, heavy section. It’s something I think no one is really expecting of me.”
“Panic Attack,” in fact, is filled with things Marcin hasn’t done before. Best to let him tick off the ways.
“It’s not as linear as I’ve done before. The whole song never reaches the one. The key of the song would be E minor, but in the hook it goes between B7 and A minor, so it goes between the Five and Four and never goes to the one. Same in the other verses; they stay not on the one.
“Then it goes into the club section with this four-on-the-floor beat, which I’ve never done before and is pretty rare, I think, in guitar music, and that’s the time when it does go to the one, to the E, but you’re really, really quickly slapped in the face with this thumping, super-fast abrasive, electronic section, and you also kind of leave that tonic center because it goes to the E double harmonic minor thing — E, F, G-sharp, that sort of sound.
“I wasn’t trying to think about it; I was just trying to play around the neck and this really weird stuff happened and it really shifts around a lot. I don’t think you necessarily hear it all immediately, which I like. I think I did a good job of hiding the more unique harmonies in a mainstream-sounding song. I don’t think a layperson would understand what I’m doing.”
As for his singing, Marcin — who’s experienced two panic attacks himself — was responding to a world on edge and wanted to capture that feeling with his voice as well as his guitar.
I’m very proud of the fact I overcame my anxiety to put that in the song, because it’s a very new thing for me, a true vocalization.”
— Marcin
“If you want to have a clear meaning in a piece of music, it’s very hard to do, in my opinion, without some lyrical element,” he explains. “I think the subject matter is something that requires that on-the-nose treatment. It needs to be very loud and in your face, and I want it to feel like something anxiety-driven.
“I’m very proud of the fact I overcame my anxiety to put that in the song, because it’s a very new thing for me, a true vocalization. That’s another thing I’m crossing my fingers that people enjoy.”
Marcin calls “Panic Attack” “a hint” about his next album, the follow-up to 2024’s Dragon in Harmony. “It’s like a transitional piece... that connects the ‘Art of Guitar’ and ‘How Music Works’ and all that crazy, technical stuff with Marcin to come,” he says. He promises that the album will “definitely be heavier,” with more electric guitar and strings as well as ’90s alternative rock influences — specifically Tool and Deftones. It will also feature more vocalizing, “more towards like what’s in ‘Panic Attack,’ definitely not spoken word.”
And there will be guests — some of whom, he promises, “I think will be really, really major.”
“There’s also going to be a huge amount of melodic hooks; it’s a record of hooks, not noodles,” adds Marcin, who’s also handling all the writing, recording and music video direction himself. “I think it’s so miles ahead of the music I’ve been releasing before.”
Marcin will perform three sold-out shows in Warsaw in December before beginning a European tour in February, starting with the Art on Ice Swiss figure skating gala and then playing his own dates through April.
“I’m already getting angry DMs asking for other countries and continents,” he says. “That is actually going to happen. The tour is going to grow; I’m hoping to announce more cities very early next year. And as that is happening, I’m going to be revealing more and more of the album, more of the concept. There’s a lot going on.”
