Birthday EP Marks Milestone of Survival, Creation, and Refusing to Let Pain Write the Ending
“Time Is a Thief” Lyric Video Premieres Alongside Full EP Release on February 10th, 2026
Melodic Hard Rock Statement from Living Room Rockstar Who Never Stopped Believing
Today, on his 50th birthday, Andrzej Citowicz‘s CITOVITZ AND FIREFLIES OF FEBRUARY releases “My Revenge,” a five-song EP that maps fifty years of refusing to disappear. Citovitz and The Fireflies of February—the project comprising Citowicz, his wife and lyricist Shereen Shoukry Citowicz, and longtime collaborator bassist Patryk Szymański—premiere the complete EP alongside a lyric video for “Time Is a Thief,” a song about survival when survival felt impossible.
“My Revenge” arrives not as celebration but as statement: proof of existence after everything that said existence shouldn’t continue.
“My Revenge” EP is available now on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and all major streaming platforms.
The lyric video for “Time Is a Thief” premieres simultaneously on YouTube:
FIFTY YEARS: AGAINST ALL ODDS
February 10th, 2026 marks Andrzej Citowicz’s 50th birthday—a milestone that once felt unreachable.
“Some years, fifty felt impossible,” Citowicz reflects. “When grief sat heavier than breath. When loss carved holes I didn’t know how to fill. When the world said stop and my heart barely whispered keep going. But here I am. Fifty years of refusing to disappear.”
The journey to this moment has been marked by profound loss—the death of his son Jonasz, documented in his deeply personal album “Living Room Rockstar Part 2″—and the sustained survival that followed. “My Revenge” transforms that survival into sound.
“Revenge isn’t about anger or bitterness,” he explains. “My revenge is existence after everything that said I shouldn’t exist anymore. It’s breathing when breathing felt impossible. It’s creating after everything tried to silence me. It’s still standing with a guitar in my hands after fifty years of being told this was impossible.”
The EP title carries layers of meaning beyond defiance.
“Fifty isn’t what it was for our parents’ generation,” Citowicz observes. “Our 50 is different. Still unfinished. Still learning. Still proving something. These five songs are rehearsals for whatever comes next—not endings, but preparation. Fifty doesn’t mean done. It means experienced enough to know what matters. Scarred enough to understand survival. Humble enough to keep learning.”
THE FIREFLIES OF FEBRUARY: LIGHT IN THE DARKEST SEASON
The project name—Citovitz and The Fireflies of February—carries its own significance, drawn from the only fireflies that shine during dark winter months.
“Fireflies of February are the rare lights that appear when everything else has gone cold,” Citowicz explains. “That’s what we are: me, my wife Shereen who writes the words I can’t say, and brothers like Patryk Szymański who became family through music. We’re the lights that refused to go out in the darkest season.”
This collective survival—personal, creative, collaborative—forms the foundation of “My Revenge.”
“Marriage, brotherhood, music—these are what kept me breathing when nothing else could,” he states. “Shereen held me through the worst of it. Patryk stood beside me when I couldn’t stand alone. The guitar gave me a language when words failed. This EP is all of that woven together—survival as collaboration, creation as revenge against everything that tried to destroy us.”
“TIME IS A THIEF”: EVERY WORD MEANS A LIFE
The lyric video for “Time Is a Thief” premieres alongside the full EP, offering visual accompaniment to one of the project’s most personal tracks.
“Every word in this song means the world to me,” Citowicz states quietly. “More than that—it means my life. My fight. My dreams. My hope. Being broken and getting up every single day. When people watch this lyric video, they’re not just reading words—they’re reading fifty years of survival translated into language.”
The song confronts mortality, loss, and the passage of time with unflinching honesty while maintaining hope that creation can transcend what time steals.
“Time takes everything eventually,” he reflects. “But music—what we create—that stays. That’s the only revenge against time that works. You can’t stop it from stealing. But you can make something that outlasts the theft.”
MARRIAGE AS SURVIVAL: SHEREEN’S VOICE IN THE DARKNESS
Throughout “My Revenge,” Shereen Shoukry Citowicz’s lyrics provide the emotional core—words that map not just her husband’s journey, but her own fifty-three years of being overlooked, unappreciated, and surviving anyway.
“Without my wife, I literally would not have made it to fifty,” Citowicz states with absolute certainty. “She held me when I was breaking. She wrote words I couldn’t find. She believed in this music when belief seemed impossible. Every song on this EP exists because she kept me alive long enough to create it.”
The collaboration between husband and wife—his melodies, her words—creates something neither could achieve alone.
“Shereen sees what I feel before I can name it,” he explains. “She writes the truth I’m trying to play. After all these years together, we’ve learned to speak the same language through music. Her lyrics on this EP are some of the most powerful she’s ever written. They carry weight because they’re earned through actual survival.”
Their marriage—seventeen years and counting—provides the foundation for creation that transforms pain into art.
“Jon Bon Jovi taught me you can be devoted to one person and still create wild, passionate music,” Citowicz notes. “You don’t have to choose between commitment and creativity. Shereen is proof of that. She’s my partner in life and in music. My revenge against loneliness is still being married to someone who knows my darkness and stays anyway.”
PATRYK SZYMAŃSKI: A DECADE OF BROTHERHOOD
Bassist Patryk Szymański’s presence throughout “My Revenge” represents more than musical collaboration—it embodies over a decade of genuine brotherhood forged through shared survival.
“Patryk makes my songs complete,” Citowicz states. “Not just musically—though his bass work is phenomenal—but humanly. He’s been there through the moments when music was the only thing keeping me alive. Through the loss of Jonasz. Through grief that had no words. He stayed when staying was hard. That’s brotherhood.”
The musical chemistry between Citowicz and Szymański reflects years of playing, creating, and surviving together.
“We’ve shared more than stages and studios,” Citowicz reflects. “We’ve shared grief, joy, silence, sound—everything that makes up a life in music. You can hear that connection in every track. You can’t fake the kind of chemistry that comes from genuine brotherhood. Patryk understands what I’m trying to say before I say it. That’s what a decade of friendship becomes.”
Szymański’s bass lines throughout “My Revenge” provide the foundation that grounds Citowicz’s guitar work while allowing it to soar—a perfect metaphor for how brotherhood supports individual expression.
MUSICAL PHILOSOPHY: BON JOVI, DEF LEPPARD, AND THE CRAFT OF SURVIVAL
Musically, “My Revenge” honors the classic rock traditions that shaped Citowicz while embracing modern production techniques—creating melodic hard rock that feels timeless but sounds current.
“I grew up with Bon Jovi and Def Leppard posters covering my walls in Wałbrzych, Poland,” Citowicz recalls. “Those bands taught me about melodic craft, about hooks that stay with you, about guitar-driven rock that still serves the song. But they also taught me something deeper—Jon Bon Jovi showed me you can survive anything if you stay true to yourself. You can honor commitment while creating passionate music. That philosophy runs through everything I make.”
The production balances raw emotion with polished execution—never sacrificing feeling for technical perfection, never abandoning craft for pure confession.
“Desmond Child and Jon Bon Jovi taught me about hooks—those moments that grab you and don’t let go,” he notes. “But they also taught me that commercial appeal and emotional honesty aren’t opposites. You can write a song people want to sing along to that still means something real. That’s what I’m always chasing—music that connects immediately but rewards deeper listening.”
The result is an EP that bridges generations: appealing to listeners raised on 80s rock anthems while sounding vital and contemporary.
“I wanted these songs to feel timeless but sound today,” Citowicz explains. “The melodic sensibility, the song structure, the way guitars and bass work together—that’s pure 80s hard rock influence. But the production, the sonic clarity, the way everything sits in the mix—that’s using everything we can do now. It’s respecting where I came from while living in the present. Just like turning fifty—honoring the past while refusing to be finished.”
THE LIVING ROOM ROCKSTAR AT FIFTY
Throughout his career, Citowicz has embraced the identity of “living room rockstar”—someone who never achieved mainstream success but never stopped believing music matters.
“I never became the rockstar on those posters in my teenage bedroom,” he acknowledges. “I never played stadiums or signed major deals. But I’m still here. Still writing. Still recording. Still finding people who connect with what I’m trying to say. After fifty years, I’m still standing with a guitar in my hands.”
This persistence—creation without guarantee of recognition—forms its own kind of revenge against a world that measures worth by commercial success.
“My revenge isn’t about proving them wrong,” he clarifies. “It’s about proving that creation itself matters more than recognition. That making music because you have to is more real than making music because it sells. I’m a living room rockstar because that’s where the truth lives—not on stages, but in small rooms where you play because stopping would mean death.”
The EP’s five tracks collectively represent this philosophy: songs created not for charts or fame, but for survival and connection.
TRACK-BY-TRACK: FIVE SONGS, FIFTY YEARS
While “You’re Not My Friend—You’re My Brother, My Friend” and “Time Is a Thief” serve as the EP’s emotional anchors, each of the five tracks carries its own weight and purpose.
“Every song has its own story, its own reason for existing,” Citowicz notes. “But they all connect around this idea of revenge as creation—of refusing to let pain, loss, or being overlooked have the final word. Of still standing with a guitar after everything that tried to knock you down.”
The collective statement is clear: survival itself is creative act, and creation itself is revenge against everything that tries to silence you.
“These five songs are my line in the sand,” he states. “They say: I made it here. I survived everything that tried to stop me. And I’m not finished—I’m just getting started. Fifty isn’t an ending. It’s preparation for whatever comes next.”
FROM “MY STORY” TO “MY REVENGE”: A CREATIVE PROGRESSION
“My Revenge” arrives less than six weeks after Citowicz’s surprise album “My Story,” released January 1st, 2026, which featured lyrics entirely written by Shereen chronicling her fifty-three years of survival.
The rapid progression from one project to the next reflects creative urgency born from survival.
“‘My Story’ was Shereen’s voice—her fifty-three years, her truth, her refusal to stay silent after being overlooked for so long,” Citowicz explains. “‘My Revenge’ is mine. But they’re connected. Both are about refusing to let pain write the ending. Both prove that even when life tries to destroy you, you can still create. Both say: we’re still here, still making music, still refusing to disappear.”
The thematic and sonic continuity between projects demonstrates that survival isn’t singular achievement but ongoing practice.
“You don’t survive once and finish,” he reflects. “You survive every day. You create every day. You choose to keep going every day. ‘My Story’ and ‘My Revenge’ are both part of that daily choice—the choice to make something from what tried to break us.”
A BIRTHDAY THAT MEANS SOMETHING
For Citowicz, releasing “My Revenge” on his 50th birthday transforms what could be arbitrary date into meaningful marker.
“I know sometimes a birthday is just a date on a calendar,” he acknowledges. “But hopefully not this time. Hopefully this one means something. Fifty years survived. New music released. Still standing. Still married to someone who tolerates my hair and my dreams with equal patience. That feels like more than just a date. That feels like winning.”
The decision to premiere the EP on his birthday wasn’t strategic marketing but personal necessity.
“This EP had to come out on my fiftieth birthday,” he states simply. “These songs are proof I made it here. They’re the evidence that I survived everything that tried to stop me from reaching this day. Releasing them on any other date would miss the point—they are my birthday, more than cake or candles or celebration. They’re what fifty years of survival sounds like when you turn it into music.”
THE LYRIC VIDEO: MAKING WORDS VISIBLE
The premiere of the “Time Is a Thief” lyric video alongside the full EP release serves specific purpose: making Shereen’s words visible, readable, present.
“I wanted people to see the lyrics as they listen,” Citowicz explains. “These words matter. They deserve to be read, considered, felt. This isn’t background music. This is someone’s life—my life, Shereen’s life—translated into language that might help someone else survive theirs.”
The lyric video format emphasizes the collaboration at the heart of the project: his melodies, her words, their shared survival.
“Every word you’ll see in that video represents something real,” he states. “Every line earned through actual living, actual suffering, actual survival. When people watch it, they’re not just reading lyrics—they’re reading fifty years of refusing to let pain have the final word.”
LOOKING FORWARD: WHAT COMES AFTER REVENGE
While “My Revenge” serves as definitive statement about reaching fifty, Citowicz makes clear this isn’t conclusion but continuation.
“These five songs are rehearsals for whatever comes next,” he explains. “Fifty doesn’t mean finished. It means ready for the next chapter. Ready to keep creating. Ready to keep surviving. Ready to keep turning pain into something beautiful.”
The future remains unwritten—and that’s precisely the point.
“My revenge against time, against loss, against everything that tried to destroy me is simple,” Citowicz states. “I’m still here. Still creating. Still believing music matters. And I’m not stopping. That’s the best revenge I can imagine—refusing to be finished when the world expected me to disappear.”
CRITICAL RECEPTION AND INDUSTRY RECOGNITION
Recent recognition adds context to “My Revenge” release: Metal Pedia named both “Living Room Rockstar Part 1” and “Part 2” as Albums of the Year, while Citowicz’s YouTube channel recently surpassed 100,000 views—milestones that validate persistence without mainstream support.
“These recognitions mean something,” Citowicz acknowledges. “They say that music made in living rooms, released independently, created from survival rather than strategy—that can still matter. That can still reach people. That’s its own kind of revenge against an industry that said you need major labels and radio play to matter.”
But the real measure of success remains more personal.
“If these songs help even one person survive their own darkness,” he states, “if they remind someone that creation is possible after destruction, if they give hope to someone who lost it—then everything was worth it. That’s what music is for. Not charts or streams or recognition, but connection. Human to human. Survivor to survivor.”
AVAILABILITY AND PREMIERE DETAILS
“My Revenge” EP is available now on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and all major streaming platforms.
The lyric video for “Time Is a Thief” premieres simultaneously on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmOpZ09ethk
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About Andrzej Citowicz:
Andrzej Citowicz is an acclaimed Polish guitarist and songwriter currently based in Cairo, Egypt. As a former recording artist for DownBoys Records, he has built a reputation for emotionally resonant songwriting and distinctive guitar work. His music combines classic rock influences with contemporary production, creating a sound that bridges generational and cultural gaps while maintaining artistic authenticity. His YouTube channel has garnered over 70,000 views from an international audience.
Connect with Andrzej Citowicz:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7aIeg5DyI7xwkYLsBgJNWf
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrzejCitowicz
Instagram: https://instagram.com/citovitz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citovitz/
℗© 2026 Citovitz and The Fireflies of February / Andrzej Citowicz
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