Lo-fi synthpop | Rotterdam 🇳🇱
Upcoming SHOWS:
TBA 2023 - Tilburg (NL)
⠀
⠀
About
Hey Karen is a Rotterdam-based indietronica outlet by a Polish expat, Bartosz Urban (he/they), looking to reinvent himself after moving out of his homeland. After self-releasing 4 full-length albums in Poland, it’s time to start over. It’s time to create something beautiful.
He describes his music as indie synthpop with an alternative sensibility. His main musical inspirations are Kraftwerk, Metronomy, Nine Inch Nails, Daft Punk, and Björk. Performing since 2011, he scored gigs at the Warsaw European Music Fair 2016, Yach Film Festival 2016, and Spring Break Festival 2017. He opened for Gin Ga, Rebeka, and Decadent Fun Club. In the Netherlands, his big stage debut happened at the Big Rivers Festival 2019 in Dordrecht, with performances in Amsterdam and Eindhoven following before the lockdown.
In 2021, Hey Karen released a new album titled POLYTHEÏSME. A new set of EPs by Hey Karen, titled RAT KING, will be released in 2023.
Just like with Trent Reznor, there's a level of whisper-to-a-scream unpredictability to [his] musical output, as he cartwheels through industrial, tech-house, and synth-pop. Vocoder? Yup. Deep beats? Yeah, why not? Bucolic instrumental passages? Hell yes! The fun is seeing which tool he’ll pull out of his kit next. (Spoiler: all of them.) ~ Bandcamp
Booking/inquiries: mail@heykaren.net
Links and streaming services: linktr.ee/heykaren