Lincolnshire’s Music Scene just got a lot louder.
Big hair, big performances, and huge personalities: 1980’s Los Angeles was the neon-drenched cradle for a new breed of music that would rock the world from its East-Coast epicentre for more than a decade and shake the rock and metal genres for years to come. Building on the foundations of performers like Alice Cooper and David Bowie, hair metal (or glam metal) takes the artistry and frustrations of the 1970’s and cranks the intensity up to 11; acid-bright colours, thunderous live shows, and enough hairspray and musical talent to light the world on fire caught the metal scene by the mouth with its shamelessly loud, proud, rock-and-roll sound.
Pat (centre) with bandmates Matt, Ben, and Jordan.
All about the music.
I had the privilege of chatting with LA-85’s resident lyricist and songwriter, Patryk ‘Pat’ Kosmala, to talk about the band, his inspirations, and how Not That Kind Of CIC are helping the Lincolnshire music scene:
“When we got together for the first time, it was Matt and Ben playing together, writing ideas.” He says. “Both are big fans of Van Halen, Whitesnake, Motley Crüe – their inspiration comes from that. You can definitely hear that sort of feel to our music.” He says. “And then I joined, and then we found Jordan, who is just an amazing bass player.”
Listening to LA-85’s discography, that throughline is clear – Matt Wood’s throaty guitar riffs cement an electric 80’s energy throughout, while Ben Donald delivers thumping percussion that anchors the music to strong rock and metal roots, especially in songs like “Get Away” or the chest thumping introduction to “Video Game”. But to the careful listener, there are hints of more modern influences to their songs too – especially noticeable is Pat’s earthy and emotive grunge vocal style, or the distinctly synth-wave flavoured instrumental build up in “Maiden Voyage”, which immediately transports you to a TRON-like end-of-movie cyberpunk boss fight.
“Initially I had a little bit of fear about mixing these different genre influences, you know?” says Pat. “I was worried about that – the style of singing I love, none of it is flamboyant, none of it is this big, ‘Van Halen’ sort of sound.”
Growing up in his native Poland and moving to the UK in his early 20’s, Pat is a self-confessed lover of 90’s grunge, citing bands like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains as a big influence on his personal musical style. “I love 80’s metal, but my music taste was shaped by the next decade, you know – I love grunge. I’m a huge fan of Eddie Vedder. Everything he touches turns to gold in my opinion. I love Chris Cornell too, he’s been a big influence on my style. Bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden are all massive inspirations for me.”
So what happens when you mix oily-grunge vocals with a flamboyant, larger-than-life 80’s sound? Pat explains:
“When we all met for the first time, they sent me a couple of ideas, one of which would later become ‘Monster’ – and I just… the lyrics just poured out of me. We put the melody together, and we pretty much put that entire song together on the first day, and it worked great.” It’s clearly working out for them – with over 1000 listeners on Spotify in just a year, it’s great to see the band is gaining popularity online. “We always say that half of it might be just us listening to it,” Pat laughs, “But yeah – I love what we do, and I listen to it often. My wife is currently training for a sponsored cycling event, and she loves ‘Painkiller’, it gives her a real kick, some real motivation.”
“When you commit yourself to create music, you need to be able to believe in what you’re singing and give emotional value to it. It needs to be something that’s important.”
For those who’ve not listened to Painkiller – and I thoroughly recommend checking it out here – the song deftly explores themes of struggle, resilience, self-worth, and vulnerability. Combining an unapologetically 80’s powerhouse of a riff with Pat’s signature 90’s grunge vocals, LA-85 effortlessly brings the metal power ballad into the sights of the modern rock audience, crossing three decades of music in an emotional tour-de-force.
“You take my pain away,” echoes the chorus – it’s something we can all relate to, that feeling of collapsing into the safety of someone or something we love. For Pat, it’s his wife and daughter, but he explains that it could be a song, a film, or even a passion project:
“I wrote this for my girls, really, they’re the closest two people to me in the world,” he says. “It’s a love song, but the journey of me and my wife getting together, it wasn’t always easy. There were bumps on the road, as there usually are. Everyone has been through something hard; everybody’s been hurt in the past. And everybody’s hurt somebody else in the past, too. So there is definitely a theme of resilience, and a theme of letting go and committing to what’s important in your life.”
“Writing for me is a deeply personal thing,” Pat explains, “so I find it easy to write when it’s something that means something to me. When you commit yourself to create music, you need to be able to believe in what you’re singing and give emotional value to it. It needs to be something that’s important.”
“There’s never really a plan,” he continues, “it’s difficult to plan these things – they come sometimes as an inspiration, sometimes they come from a frustration, sometimes they come from experience… sometimes it’s just something you see on a particular day, or you’ve heard something on the radio, or seeing something on the news. The lyrics just come pouring out.”
I ask Pat what the secret to LA-85’s success is, a year after getting together: “That ego gets left behind at the door.” He replies, simply. “There’s nothing combative about the way we’re making music, we’re collaborators, it’s a collective. We’re always building on each other’s strengths, listening to each other’s suggestions. “It’s so easy to hurt people’s feelings, especially when you’re all putting so much of yourselves into the music you create. That’s why it’s so important that there’s open communication and honesty in the band – we’re there to work together.”
Music and Mental Health.
And that’s exactly what we’re all about at NTKO too – making sure that there are accessible means for people to talk about their feelings is often the first step towards dealing with a mental health crisis before it can get worse. According to a 2025 survey by Mind UK, 45% of young people in the UK don’t feel comfortable talking about their mental health. This can lead to further feelings of isolation, with 39% of young people stating that they have pushed people away or stopped socialising because they don’t feel safe enough to talk about their mental health.
All too often, people suffer from the weight of expectations that they’ve been unfairly burdened with, and music can provide a safe harbour to escape, express your feelings, and decompress built up stress. Mental Health affects all of us in different ways; in 2023, Wellbeing Charity ‘Inspire’ partnered with Ulster University to reveal that people in creative professions (like musicians, artists, and designers) are almost three times more likely to suffer from ill mental health than the general population.
LA-85 playing at the 2024 NTKO CIC Battle of the Bands.
Pat is no exception – he candidly speaks to me of his own struggles with anxiety and depression. “I’ve been battling anxiety and depression for about 14 years, now – I have very low self-esteem and I generally feel like when I walk into a room, everyone in the room is better than me. I also get quite anxious, so those things combined are a sort of perfect storm that is quite difficult to deal with.”
“I was speaking to my daughter about this – she’s involved in a lot of musical theatre, and she’s got an audition that she’s worried about, and asks me how I deal with it.” He pauses. “I tell her that when I’m about to go on stage, sometimes I’m absolutely petrified, shaking inside… but then I tell myself that I’m making myself do this not because someone else wants me to, but because I want to do it.”
“I’ve certainly masked my feelings about it before – I’ve tried to pretend that I’m not stressed or anxious, but the people who know me best know how I hide it. It can be difficult sometimes, but at the same time, performing on a stage and expressing yourself… nobody is forcing me to do it, I do it because I love it. It’s important to remember that – and when you see people enjoying themselves and dancing, it’s just such an amazing feeling.”
“I’m not forcing myself to do it for anyone else. I’m forcing myself to do it because I love it.”
“That’s why we love NTKO. Dale and Ed have been massive supporters of what we do, and we owe them so much. They’ve opened so many doors for us, and I just want to say thank you because not only are they amazing people that I love spending time with, but also because they stand for something so important. Giving opportunities to musicians in Lincolnshire… there’s a lot of people trying to do that, but NTKO are doing all of that while also helping to raise awareness about mental health.”
“I can’t tell you enough what it means to have an initiative like NTKO at your back. They’ve cultivated a great community of musicians, and because of that we’re even working with other bands to talk about ideas and play some gigs together. There’s not a lot of that out there – there’s lots of Facebook groups, but nothing on the level that NTKO are doing.”
“I’m so happy to be a part of it.”
Watch this space!
If you’re interested in helping NTKO CIC support the Lincolnshire Arts and Music culture, you can follow us on Facebook and Instragram, or check out the rest of our website for information on how you can get involved. Support local artists like LA-85 and enjoy live music experiences by turning up for their shows! You can stay updated about what’s happening with LA-85 through their Facebook and Instragram pages.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about LA-85 as much as I have – check back in July for our next feature on another exciting local Lincolnshire band, Balaclava!
From all of us at Not That Kind of CIC – stay weird, and always dare to be loud.
– Mitch
