Featured: Jan Pawel - "Hoy Los Muertos Están De Pie"
Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Jovén, Venezuela
Jan Pawel (Juan Pablo in Polish) is the project of Maracaibo-born Juan Pablo Oczkowski, a singer-songwriter born into and raised by a family of musicians who immigrated to Venezuela from Poland in the mid-‘70s. Growing up in such a musical family, Jan Pawel naturally gravitated toward music as a form of expression. In his earlier days, he experimented with noise and electronica with projects like Los Os Brokolis. Later, his music became more confessional and intimate, taking on a more rustic, folk feeling in the vein of bands like A Hawk and a Hacksaw.
“Hoy Los Muertos Están De Pie” is about cleansing and renewal, specifically about going through rehab. The heavy subject matter explains why the song has a much darker, more serious tone than much of Jan Pawel’s earlier work. The almost monotone vocals of the beginning verse feel somewhat hollow, but in a powerful way. The song then builds into a triumphant march that announces rebirth. The single will be on the upcoming Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Jovén EP, for which Jan Pawel has enlisted the help of his friend and fellow Venezuelan Ulises Hadjis.