You’re Responsible for Your Own Momentum (Karoline and Mati of CF98)
Polish pop-punk band CF98’s Karoline and Mati talk returning to their roots, writing simpler songs that hit harder, and the grind behind their new single “Hate My Life” and upcoming album Stupid Punk. We get into patience, DIY touring, and why your friends aren’t your fans.
Follow CF98:
Also Available On:
Transcript:
Mike: Hey, Karoline, how are you? And hi, Mati, how are you?
Mati: Great, man. Thank you. How are you, Mike? Hello.
Mike: Good, good. And I do apologize—it’s Karoline, right? I do apologize. So it’s Karoline and Mati.
Karoline: Don’t worry. It’s absolutely fine. Karoline, Carolina…
Mike: I’m trying.
Karoline: You can call me however you want, really. It doesn’t matter.
Mike: I appreciate that, but also, I know how it is—it’s one of those things out of respect. For myself, for example, some people ask me, “Do you go by Mike or Michael?” We can go back and forth either way, and I’ll say, “Whatever’s easier for you is totally fine. You can call me either.”
Karoline: I always love the pronunciation of Karoline, so that’s why you can call me that today. It’s gonna be awesome.
Mike: Really? I actually like the native pronunciation, to be perfectly honest with you. I think it’s quite wonderful. Being in the U.S., you get so used to certain pronunciations, but when we hear something a little different, it’s more interesting, more exciting.
Mati: But I think if you hear “Michael,” you know you’re in trouble, right?
Mike: Yes, very much so. “Michael” is usually reserved for significant others or family members, or for serious conversations.
Karoline: Or some serious conversations.
Mati: It’s the same all over the world, you know? If you hear your full name, you’re in trouble.
Mike: This is very true. Unfortunately, I was a very well-behaved child, so I usually didn’t hear that too often. But usually when I did, it meant there was something serious going down. Did either of you have nicknames growing up?
Mati: I’ve had the same nickname since I was 10. The nickname is Delma. And Delma is actually a brand of butter or margarine, you know? So it’s very yellow-ish, kind of like a cartoon persona. I still have the same nickname after almost 30 years.
Karoline: Mine was probably Karya, which is even more difficult to pronounce. Some of my friends still use it, but some don’t. I never had a super sticky nickname. So Karoline today, please.
Mike: Yeah, my nicknames usually came from my last name. My last name is Zimmerlich, or if you get a little bit on the German side of things, it sounds even stronger. You can imagine, especially in America, where that can go.
Anyway—Karoline, I noticed that in your latest single, which we’ll definitely be talking about, you mention putting “Fat Lip” by Sum 41 on repeat. Was that the first pop-punk song you ever heard? Or by that point were you already into the scene?
Karoline: I think that was probably one of the first songs, except for Blink-182. That was definitely a starting point for lots of teenagers at that time. I remember having this specific connection with those pop-punk songs, especially because that’s when I knew this was my genre. Like someone created this genre for me, because it was 100% my personality, my approach, my attitude, my energy. Melodies you could sing, but still being upset about something, or loud about something. That fit me perfectly with all those songs from that time. So yeah, I think that was definitely one of the first songs where I thought, “Whoa, this is it. I just discovered my entire direction in life.”
Mike: Did you know you wanted to be in music before that point, or was that the moment where you realized you wanted to perform and make music?
Karoline: Oh man, since I was a child. I was performing in my room with a deodorant or a hairbrush as a mic. I remember that exactly. I just knew I was going to be in the music world when I grew up. I knew from the beginning I would sing, for sure. I wanted to have a band, I wanted to be part of something. As a little kid, I didn’t know what direction or genre I would go into. I discovered that with Sum 41, obviously. But since I was a child, I knew music was at the top of my priorities—my dream, my direction, my thing.
Mati: First was breathing, second was music.
Karoline: I think so, yeah. Sorry if that sounds typical, but it’s true. I knew it from the beginning. I loved to sing everywhere, anytime. It was just my thing.
Mike: And what about you, Mati?
Mati: Yeah, I’ve tried to think about it many times—even yesterday—and it’s still not my thing, you know? When you’re younger, and you have cousins or brothers-in-law, you meet a lot of people who influence you. I started with metal bands, really heavy stuff, because of my cousin. Then I moved to bad Polish punk rock. Then I found Nirvana, Offspring—all the bands from around 1994. The easiest part was grabbing a guitar and trying to find the chords. I’d watch “Basket Case” on MTV and figure out how he was playing.
I never went to music school. Karoline did. So she always points things out when I don’t hear something right.
Karoline: For fun, when he doesn’t hear something that I can, I bring it up, of course.
Mati: Yeah. And when you’re a teenager with angst, if you can’t sing or draw, the next option is an instrument. It was easier to pick up a guitar and find melodies than to start on drums. So yeah, that’s how it started. A long time ago, but still going.
Mike: And it’s interesting—everyone learns differently. Some want the experience of music school, and that helps them progress. Some prefer to be self-taught, or just throw themselves into the fire and see what happens. That’s what fascinates me—everyone’s journey is different in how they resonate and learn.
Karoline: I was definitely drawn to music, but when I went to music school, I had no idea that pop-punk, skate-punk, or melodic punk rock would become my top priority. That’s also kind of a funny story. I think I had that exact moment in mind when I was writing the lyrics for “Hate My Life.”
I really wanted to sing since I was a child. But in my small hometown in Poland, there weren’t many options to play instruments or learn music. So when my parents heard I wanted to sing, they signed me up for flute lessons. And flute is the instrument where you cannot sing and play at the same time. After four years, I had to drop it, even though I loved playing flute and it gave me a great musical background. I played in orchestras and had a lot of great experiences. But I knew I wanted to sing, and with flute that wasn’t possible.
Mati: I’d love to see you with a trombone.
Karoline: No!
Mike: I was a trumpet player, so I get it.
Mike: So now you’re singing, starting projects, and getting into your own material. I want to jump ahead to your album Storymakers, which came out in 2017. Can you give me a snapshot of where you were at that time and how you approached that record?
Karoline: I think the most important thing about that year and that record was that we knew it was time to go back to our roots—back to pop-punk, skate-punk, melodic hardcore. That record had some hardcore and melodic hardcore songs on it, plus skate-punk and melodic punk influences. Before that, we made two records in Polish, but honestly, those never felt right to me. I really prefer to write lyrics in English—it’s easier for me, it sounds better. Nothing against Polish, there are many great Polish artists who can sing in Polish and that’s amazing, but it never worked for me. That’s why Storymakers was so crucial. It was the turning point, where we said: “Let’s go back to what we do best, what we feel is right, what we feel the most at home with. Let’s make skate-punk great again—for ourselves.” That was our decision, and that’s how Storymakers was created.
Mati: And I joined the band just before that.
Mike: Oh, how did that happen?
Mati: Well, I knew the band from the beginning. We actually met back in 2004.
Karoline: Yeah. And to be honest, we were talking trash about each other’s bands at first. He was saying bad things about CF98, and I was saying bad things about his band. He thought I was jealous, I thought he was jealous. So we were both talking shit. But after a couple of years, we finally talked for real. At that point, we had festivals coming up, some bigger stages, and even some opening slots for bigger bands. We thought it would be better to have a second guitar, so we asked Mati to support us. He did, and after that he joined the band.
Mati: My hardcore band had broken up a year or two before, and I was really missing playing. So when Karoline started bringing home rehearsal recordings of new songs, I kept asking to hear them: “Play me what you’ve got, show me what you’re working on.” And yeah, I wanted in.
Karoline: Our drummer from Mati’s old hardcore band also joined us around that time. There was a lot of crossover. It’s a complicated story, but to make a long story short—Mati joined just before Storymakers, and that’s when the record was written.
Mike: I’m sure musicians listening right now are nodding. Band stories are never simple—there’s always people moving between projects, lineups changing, and then things finally coming together. So with Storymakers being such a turning point, what did you take forward from that era into how you approached the band after that?
Karoline: We learned how important it was to connect with people and play shows. That’s crucial. If you want to grow, you can’t just hide your music in a room and wait for a savior to appear who will promote your music and make things happen for you. You are the person responsible for moving your band forward. That was the big lesson from then.
Mati: And also switching back to English made us realize we could actually go abroad from Poland. The Polish scene was very hardcore-dominated, so our sound didn’t really fit. But when we played festivals in Germany or Slovenia, we saw there was space for us—that there were people out there who wanted what we were doing.
Karoline: Exactly. Pop-punk was never a super popular genre in Poland. The punk scene here was more about harsh, political, screamy punk rock. Very aggressive. If we tried to play something faster but still melodic, we’d be told it was too sweet, too soft, too this, too that. But then we discovered festivals like Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia. That was heaven on earth. We realized there were people like us out there, bands like us, and that we weren’t alone.
Mike: That must’ve been such a validating experience.
Karoline: Absolutely. And we also learned respect for people’s priorities. We learned that if it’s not going to work, it’s not going to work—you can’t force it. You can’t force someone to treat the band with the same priority you do. If someone only has 50% to give, then maybe you find someone else who can give the other 50%. You have to respect that. Otherwise, you get resentment.
Mike: Right, and priorities can change too. Life happens—jobs, kids, moving to new places. It’s not always the same as when someone first joined a project.
Karoline: Exactly. And that was a hard lesson, but we learned it. Over the years we’ve had so many great drummers, but skate-punk shows can really wear people down physically. Even the best, most motivated players sometimes just say, “I love you guys, but I don’t want to be a drummer anymore.” People change, priorities change. That’s life.
Mati: Yeah. Within twenty years, it’s not possible to keep the exact same group together. Maybe you’ll have one or two close friends from back then, but not everyone stays forever.
Karoline: And if something isn’t working out, you can’t give up. We’ve been in situations where we thought we’d never find another drummer, or another bassist. But we always did. You’ll find another. Don’t give up and don’t settle for someone who doesn’t care. Find the person who’s as excited as you are. That’s better than dragging along someone who’s just bringing you down.
Mike: That’s really important advice. And it’s also why chemistry on tour matters so much. You’re together in vans for hours and hours.
Karoline: Yes! Exactly. On tour, Mati and I act like tour managers. We make sure people sleep, eat, drink water, get rest, get time off. Once we started doing that, everything got so much better. Nobody was frustrated, nobody was yelling, nobody was wasting themselves every night. If you’re playing eight or nine shows in a row, you can’t do that drunk.
Mati: Yeah. And we say there are no “problems,” just situations. You have to treat it as part of the process. Especially in Europe, every stop is different. You never know what you’re going to get.
Karoline: Exactly. It’s all part of the journey. And we always remind ourselves—we’re doing this because we love it. We love to connect with people, we love to play music. It’s fun first. Everything else is just part of the process.
Mike: So let’s talk about your most recent material. I want to dive into “Hate My Life.” We were talking just before this interview started—I’ve been listening to it on repeat. It’s a bop, I love it.
Karoline: Thank you! That’s exactly what it’s meant to be—the kind of song where you roll down the windows in the car, sing loud, and just go for it. “Hate My Life” is our fourth single from the upcoming album Stupid Punk, which comes out in October.
The song is special for us because, even though we’re usually very positive, life-loving people, everyone has those moments where you just feel tired, unlucky, or overwhelmed. If you treat life too seriously, it doesn’t work. So the song is about that—it’s actually a life-loving song. It says, “Yeah, sometimes I hate my life, but I move through it.”
Mike: And the video really captures that vibe too.
Karoline: It was supposed to be even more cringey than it turned out! We wanted to include all these stupid stunts—falling into a pool, dropping mics, all that. Not everything made the final cut. But the idea was: bad luck happens, silly stuff happens, and if you treat it too seriously, you won’t be okay.
Mike: I like that. So, this single leads into Stupid Punk. How was making this record different from Storymakers back in 2017?
Mati: Completely different. For this album, we produced everything via Zoom sessions with our producer, Pete Zella, who’s based in the U.S. We recorded everything ourselves at home.
Karoline: Yeah. It was months of producing and recording—mostly during winter and spring. We had a hard deadline because in May we had ten shows booked, so everything had to be finished before then.
To give some background—our previous record This Is Fine was produced with Ishay Berger from Useless ID. But that was just a weekend. He came over, we had songs ready, and he helped tweak them. At the time we thought, “Oh, this is producing.” But Storymakers wasn’t produced at all—it was just us writing in our rehearsal space, following our intuition.
With Pete, it was a whole different level.
Mati: Yeah. He really forced us to simplify. We have this tendency—Karoline puts too many words into lyrics, and we throw too many riffs into songs. We used to make what we call “riff salad.”
Karoline: Exactly! Too many parts, too many changes. Pete was the first person who said, “Calm down. Make it simple. You don’t have to prove yourselves anymore. You don’t have to prove you belong here. Just make songs that you’ll love to play live, and that people will want to sing along with.”
Mike: That’s great advice. And it’s true—simplicity through intention is harder than it looks.
Karoline: Totally. And producing with Pete didn’t mean “dumbing down.” It meant making stronger choices. We see the difference immediately live. Even people who’ve never heard us before will sing along to songs like “1993,” “Find Your Own Way,” and “Nobody Wants to Party.” With the older songs—like from our Dead Inside EP—the audience would still vibe, but kind of at 30%. With the new ones, it’s instant. People just go crazy.
Mati: It was really mind-blowing to see.
Mike: I love that. And like you said, musicians aren’t your main audience—the fans are.
Karoline: Exactly. Making a simple song doesn’t mean it’s stupid. Sometimes writing something simple is the hardest thing to do.
Mike: I always laugh at that meme where millennials are summoned by the first note of “Welcome to the Black Parade.”
Karoline: Yes! We even wrote a song about that called “1993.” It’s about millennials—this “no rest” generation. For me personally, as a woman in punk, I spent years trying to prove I belonged. Prove that I could sing, prove that I deserved to be here. I don’t want to keep living like that. This song was my way of letting go of that pressure.
Mike: Let’s start wrapping things up with some fun ones. Mati, I’ll start with you—what was the very first concert you ever went to?
Mati: You won’t know the bands, they were just two local punk bands when I was 16. But it was my first real show with friends. Funny enough, years later I ended up playing in projects with some of those same people. So yeah—my first concert was a punk show.
Mike: That’s great. Karoline, how about you?
Karoline: I was also 16. It was a rock show in another city. I lied to my mom and told her I was visiting a friend, but really I took a train to the concert. I remember having to leave before the show ended so I could catch the train home. It was my first real rock experience. The band was called Hey, a Polish rock band. They were my first musical love. And to this day, my mom still doesn’t know that’s what I was actually doing that night.
Mike: That’s such a punk way to have your first concert.
Karoline: (laughs) Exactly! Let’s hope she never hears this. Luckily, she doesn’t speak English, so I think we’re safe.
Mike: Alright, next one—what are you both listening to right now? What’s been on repeat?
Karoline: So many things. Recently I started the new record from Modern Life Is War. I’ve also been listening to a UK band called South Arcade, which mixes pop-punk with electronic elements. Really cool songs. Also the new Neck Deep and the latest State Champs single. And of course, Hayley Williams—she’s my ultimate love and inspiration. I always have her on repeat.
Mati: For me, a band from Australia called Down and Out—they’re really good. Also the new Belmont EP. I try to stay on top of playlists because you can discover so many great bands that way, but it’s also frustrating that sometimes that’s the only way to find them. Still, those are my go-to listens right now.
Mike: Love it. Okay, final one—and this is the one I always close on. You’ve given a lot of advice already, but if you had to give just one piece of advice to a fellow musician, what would it be? Mati, you first.
Mati: Be patient. Really patient. Nothing comes for free. If you want to make something happen, you have to be stubborn about it. If you keep working, one day will always be better than the day before. But it takes time. That’s it—patience and stubbornness.
Mike: Karoline, your turn.
Karoline: I would say—don’t trust anyone who says they’re going to save your band. No one is coming to save you. You are the one responsible for moving your passion forward. Of course, you’ll meet supportive people along the way, but at the end of the day, it’s on you. Be consistent. Show up. Post on social media even if you don’t want to—because how will anyone know about your amazing music if you don’t share it?
Also, don’t ask your best friends if your music is good. They’ll just say “It’s fine.” Whether it’s great or terrible, they’ll say the same thing. Your friends aren’t your fans. Don’t expect them to be.
Mike: That’s excellent advice—both of you.
Karoline: One more thing—there are no shortcuts. You have to do the work. Even if it feels like a second job that doesn’t pay, you still have to keep going. Consistency is everything.
Mati: And yeah, never ask your friends! (laughs)
Karoline: Exactly. They’ll always say “It’s fine.”
Mike: Incredible. I’m really excited for what’s next for you both. Stupid Punk comes out in October, “Hate My Life” is out now. Congratulations, and thank you for joining me.
Karoline: Thank you so much. It’s all about the journey, and we’re so stoked to still be here, still getting better. This was amazing.
Mati: Thank you, Mike.
Mike: The pleasure’s mine. I’m literally going to go put “Hate My Life” back on repeat after this.