AGNIS
Biography
Once upon a space and time there lived a creature of darkness and bright… AGNIS – a Nordic translation of the Polish name Agnieszka that means “pure”, “agnis” in Latin means “to share” and Agni is a name of the Indian God of Fire, so “sharing pure fire” is her desire…
But first there was just Agnieszka Leśna, a Polish four year old girl who spent most of her time at her grandmother’s house. And there it was – the PIANO! She played her first melody along with her grandma holding her little finger, and thus her music path began. The grandma wanted her to play the notes and focus on the technique but Agnieszka was in love with something else... composing her own music, it was so much more magical… When the time came she joined a school choir and discovered that she loves creating and singing harmonies even more but another artistic discipline interested her too and she decided to become a painter!
Shortly after she discovered that by being an actress she could be anything she wanted so she passed a casting to "Studio Próby" Theatre at CK ZAMEK culture center in Poznań where for 8 years she studied acting, drama, dancing, performing, singing and script writing. She played in about 30 plays and finally wrote her own musical. It was a story full of mystical coincident about being more than one thing - "The Keykeeper". The musical was destined for young people searching for their own paths. Finally the time has come for her to decide which path to take: an actress, a painter, a dancer or a musician. With all the questions in her head she was sitting in her room watching MTV and again, there it was! Apocalyptica played the song "Path"! Shortly after she decided to go to the Apocalyptica's show in a nearby town hoping that something magical will happen and she will get her answers... AND IT DID!
First of all when she arrived at the show place hours earlier she spotted two security like guys walking down the stairs that led to the concert hall and some mysterious force pushed her to follow them. To her great surprise she was standing in the concert hall watching Apocalyptica rehearsing! -It is like winning the lottery! - she thought and needed to exit ;P At the show she stood in the first row, the closest to the band possible, enjoying the magic of the cellos playing in harmony. After the show Paavo Lötjönen came to her and shook her hand, then Perttu Kivilaakso shook her both hands, after him Mikko Sirén gave her his drumsticks and again Pavvo turned back and shook her hand again! That was the sign she needed and that night she decided to choose being a musician.
And again it was Apocaliptica band that helped to realize this dream as they announced a contest. Agnieszka recorded a cover of "I am not Jesus" with the help of her friend in a supermarket dress room at noon :). She didn't win the contest as she was not from USA and that was one of the terms she didn't notice at first but a manager of the polish metal / industrial band DESDEMONA saw the videoclip and asked her to become the vocalist and songwriter of the band as they were searching for a new one. With Desdemona she recorded one album "Endorphins"(2012) and played at such festivals as German M'era Luna, Made Of Metal (Czech Republic) (2013) and twice at Castle Party (Poland, 2012 and 2014). The band was not enough for her as she wanted to compose her own songs so remembering how an American journalist described her performance at M'era Luna festival ( "Agnieszka is like a little red storm on the stage") a decision was made to start her own band and name it "Red Storm"(2014)
Composing all the demos was what she always wanted to do and with help of her bandmates and professional music producers like the legendary John Fryer, front man of Vigilante - Ivan Munoz and a guitarist Dario Chiereghin (Mortuary Drape) she released the album "Alert" (2016). The achievements of Red Storm album was mentioned in such magazines as Sonic Seducer, Orkus!, Legacy and Teraz Rock. But the longer the band worked on the second album the worse she felt about it. Finally in December 2019 the band was closed. Then Agnieszka felt that she was free to go her own way on her own conditions full of creative power. Meantime in 2018 she was announced one of the top 10 Polish dark alternative scene vocalists by Antyradio.
And in the same year she was asked to play some Depeche Mode covers on the piano. This was the beginning of her solo path yet still it was not her own music but remixes in her own style. She played at three Depeche Mode parties in Poland, twice in Germany and once on a ferry from Poland to Sweden. To celebrate 40 years of Depeche Mode band she released a special Depeche Mode mashup remix “Touch Me” combined with 5 songs of the band with the videoclip that includes a video reportage from a special polish ritual performed at midnight every Depeche Mode party… And finally at 26.01.2020 the time has come to focus on her own original music. The effect was “I AM THE LIGHT” released on 16.10.2020 and with this single at 1.11.2020 she signed a contract with a German music label darkTunes. Now with her new artistic name AGNIS is working on her first solo original album.