10 Questions with Marcin Skutela

10 Questions with Polish-born musician from Limerick City, Marcin Skutela.

Marcin Skutela is a Polish-born musician from Limerick City, who mainly Djs and produces, and also audio-engineers and sometimes is a vocalist

Speaking to I Love Limerick about his journey so far, Marcin says, “Coming from an unfortunate background in Poland, my parents brought me and my brother over here when I was 5. So I only have a handful of memories from Poland, but it definitely instilled a hungry hardened mindset in me.”

“Coming from a very poor part of Poland to a very upper middle-class area of Limerick my family definitely suffered a severe culture shock moving over,” he said.

Marcin says the “only consistent thing throughout my early life was music”, saying although none of his family played music, it “was always on”.

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Having studied a Music Tech PLC to “help me make my music better”, Marcin eventually progressed in mixing his own music as well as others and adding his vocals, allowing him to constantly learn the process.

Marcin then delved into the world of DJing, saying, “To keep it blunt, I’ve gotten into a rhythm of studio and DJing that lets me drop other jobs and focus on music, In the background my passions went from rapping to engineering to producing. More gigs more songs more experience, got me to where I’m at now.”

Dropping his first house track  “Take You There” on June 1st, Marcin feels he is “ready to head into the mainstream and make my waves in the Irish music scene imprinting my story into each song”.

How did you start producing?

I’ve been producing on and off since 2020, but I’ve only taken it seriously since the start of 2023, prior to this I was mainly focusing on being a vocalist and an audio engineer. I Would always dabble in production, especially at my job in studio 68, but I only fully started producing for myself when I became a Dj.

How did you record the music?

This song was produced on my old laptop in the dead of the night after a gig, I couldn’t sleep and I found this vocal loop on Splice and immediately knew I’m about to make a serious house song.

How would you describe your sound?

Personally, I would consider my sound to be considerably variable throughout my songs and career, right now I feel like the main sound I’m going for is House with an Eastern European twist, but alas each song would be its own sound so it’s hard to whittle myself into one genre of sound.

What has been the biggest challenge musically for you?

I definitely feel like my musical journey has been an uphill endeavour so far, full of twists and turns. In the beginning, I would have definitely felt my biggest challenge was being tone-deaf and not understanding pitch, but I’ve actually worked myself out of that with constant practice and production. Another memorable challenge would be my equipment for making music breaking and consistently leaving me without a means of production, but currently, I would definitely say my biggest challenge sticking to the same genre, I feel like my musical net is too wide and that I should narrow it down and stick to a niche and excel in it. At the same time today I might be happy making house and next week it might be techno so it’s definitely not easy to stick to one thing.

What artists influence your sound?

Right now definitely the likes of Fred Again, Meduza, Avaion, and Skrillex, there’s also this German duo called Brutalismo 3000 that would be a massive part of my sound. This would only be the tip of the iceberg of people who influenced my production.

What is your creative process like?

My laptop is open and on 24/7, any time I have an idea I’ll rush to it and lay it down, then usually at night when everyone’s asleep I’ll open up the project and make a song. I’ll be working on the same song till I start falling asleep, I’ll then hit the hay and when I wake up the next day and still like the song I’ll bring it into the studio and finish it there.

Can you tell us about the new single?

This song is definitely one that deserves a spot in your summer driving playlist, such a feel-good song I’ve probably had a smile on my face the whole time I was making it, this song is the first song I’ve made where I felt it was good enough to show to my parents. When your parents and past friends who have seen your journey from the start validate a song you definitely know you have to share it with the whole world. As it stands the song is out on June 1st but to me, it’s been a success from the moment my parents said they loved it. 

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to become a producer in Limerick?

My biggest piece of advice would definitely be to focus on being consistent & not the money, if you focus on consistently making music and social media posts over time you’ll naturally grow as an artist and money will follow. This isn’t a profession where it’s easy to make money.

How do you think the music scene in Limerick is changing and growing?

I would definitely say that Limerick’s music scenes have had a bit of a stagnation issue as all the clubs are notorious for playing the same songs and all the collectives and cliques have isolated themselves, I would definitely feel like the club scene here in Limerick is changing. The new head resident in Amber nightclub has taken some progressive steps to switch up the game and I would definitely say the club scene is in for a shock in the coming months.

As for the Techno & DNB Scenes, I would have to say they’re all still locking themselves into a small box & being too scared to venture out and work with others, you’ll always see the same names on the same posters making those scenes feel gate-kept. As for the Rap scene, there’s no space for it to flourish as all the venues blackball rap events making it hard for the lads to progress in their careers.

To finish off my Ted Talk, I would definitely say the emo scene is the fastest growing and the most open-minded, would definitely say this is also a scene to look out for. As for the other ones I wouldn’t be too sure as I’m not clued in.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Hopefully travelling the world doing festivals. I would love to play EDC in the States, or Tomorrowland, with gods grace in the next five years I’ll have played life festival or Longitude.

I would love to get a chance to play my songs or even just Dj in front of thousands of people. Right now that’s my only goal so I suppose I’ll be at it till I get what I want. In the meantime, I’ll be over here in Limerick working out of Studio 68 making music and throwing on a savage show with sully bush every weekend down in amber.

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