Before the formation of the Indigo band, you could have joined the then-famous group Modus, which would have meant professional security for you in the eighties. Why didn’t you accept the offer?
It was a big opportunity, yes. I even recorded a song with Modus, but in the end no one published it. The music was written by Janko Lehotský and the lyrics by Kamil Peteraj. That was the end of our cooperation.
Modus made a condition that I would not compose. But at that time I had already established myself with my own song Professor Indigo, it was my first hit. I’ve always been a singer-songwriter, so I said I wanted to compose. Bandleader Janko Lehotský didn’t like it, so producer Julo Kinček, who had a bed in the same room as me in the Military Art Ensemble in Bratislava, where I was in the military, said that we would try it together.
He knew the music business because he had been in it before. He also wrote about music. So we tried, even though many people told me I was crazy.
REVIEW: Distinctive songs, honest sound and something extra. That’s the 60-year-old Olympic
How did you divide the work?
We did both. For some songs I wrote the music and lyrics, for others Julo composed the music and I wrote the lyrics. It was brave, but it worked. By the way, Miro Okáľ, with whom we founded Indigo in 1984, was also in the Military Art Ensemble. So the soldiers are to blame for everything.
How did the name of the band come about?
We had one of the first rehearsals and after that they went for bean soup. We ended up having red wine and I suggested to the others that our band should be called Indigo. At that time, my song Professor Indigo was already scoring in the charts.
There was a TV chart 5 times P and Professor Indigo was number one on it for five weeks. According to the rules, he had to leave the competition, but I could play another song instead. We chose You will never grow old with me and everything was repeated. The next one we sent to the competition was Love Is Here, then I Surrender to You and we still won.
How do you explain that your songs stuck with the audience at that time?
Today I feel it was because I came prepared. I also had many rejections, an experience that gave me strength. I remember how they rejected my song Last Time on the radio, which then became a hit.
I had a craft, and since my work was not accepted several times by those who decided what would be played, I worked even harder. I had great enthusiasm. When I recorded the song Last time, I was seventeen years old.
Singer Igor Timko about the new album of the band No Name: We argue about what songs we will play
Did you play at dance parties?
I didn’t go through that kind of school. But I know it’s a hard craft. Musicians who played at such events had to know about eighty songs. I knew twenty of them and more of my own or written for me. However, the band and I decided at the beginning that we would follow the path of the new wave, which was modern in our country at the beginning of the eighties.
At that time, we listened to recordings of the singer Nena, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and others on Austrian radio. We dressed similar to them, we were extravagant, provocative, interesting for that time, but the first place for us was always music.
In 1985, you won the Golden Nightingale when you defeated Karel Gott in that poll thanks to the votes of the fans. What did Gott tell you then?
He was handing me the prize. When he was pinning on a badge with a nightingale made of a Czech garnet, he said to me: Peter, now you will have as many girls as you want.
It was extremely kind, Karel had a sense of humor. Some people claimed that it bothered him, but I think we had nothing to envy in our industry. Czechoslovak show business was and still is more show than business.
There were and still are few of us, everyone has their own audience. Gott knew this long before I won the Golden Nightingale poll.
Did you have as many girls as you wanted?
Yes. We were at a festival and the Slovak Tublatanka, which was formed a year before us, also played there. The singer and guitarist Maťo Ďurinda was standing next to me backstage, looking into the audience and said to me: It would be great if you could lend me a few girls who came to see you.
Tublatanka was still a metal band back then. Later, her style changed and she also became very interesting to girls. I think Maťo enjoyed them a lot too.
Michal and Lucie Dvořák: Why are we a stable couple? Tolerance and empathy are enough
What happened to your career after the Velvet Revolution?
We kept playing but it was quite dramatic as the flow of bids suddenly stopped. It was a time when critics thought that after the revolution we would have new singers and new bands in Czechoslovakia, and we musicians thought that we would have new critics. In the following years, however, we continued to walk side by side and got used to each other again.
However, memories in people cannot be erased. If you look at what’s playing on the radio today, old Czech and Slovak songs have returned and are loved even by people who weren’t around when they were created.
After the revolution, ecological themes also appeared in your texts…
One of my most ecological songs is called Aj tak sme still frejeri. It sings that we are old for fairy tales, but young for losses, and that the iron men’s sayings have rusted with a mysterious rust. That song was written during perestroika, in 1988. But, wonder at the world, it is still relevant today, in every election period. In Slovakia, it was the anthem of football, hockey and other athletes.
There are two compositions in my repertoire that are intrinsically related to ecology. One is called 50 Giraffes and the other is called A Weird Tale. I’m not a preacher, just pointing out. But it bothers me that people don’t realize that they have eaten the future. I am not interested in those who preach the truth about ecology and use plastic products to do so, or who fly by plane to speak at an environmental summit.
By the way, do you know where electric cars have exhaust? In nuclear power plants.
Thom Artway put together the Call clip from videos from his childhood
You sang a number of duets. How did you choose your partners for them?
When Julo Kinček composed the music for the song Dogs defend themselves against attacks, I wrote the lyrics and he said he thought it should be a duet. At the time, Jožo Ráž from the group Elán had a cottage near my former house, and I immediately knew that he should sing the song with me. And he agreed.
That’s how all the duets were created. I approached friends or people who I thought would fit the song. I sent Petr Muk a few to choose from and he chose Nelietajú. It is such a reflection on what freedom is in a relationship. At the time, if I remember, he was just getting a divorce.
Years ago, I approached Meky Žbirka for the song Posledný krát, because she was influenced by his work and personality. I saw him as a teenager on TV on the Bratislava Lyra and he absolutely blew me away.
Duets for me are my personal success. I’m glad I could sing them with people I respect and they didn’t reject my idea.
You were talking about the song Dogs defend themselves from attacks. Should we translate it into Czech as dogs defend themselves from attacks, or do dogs defend themselves from attacks?
With this dilemma, I got to the matriculation questions in Slovakia. They asked what the author meant. It was a catch. Then they called me from Slovak Radio Expres and asked how it really is. And I answered that anyway. It’s a double entendre.
I published two photography books, I was a photographer at Czech Miss, I photographed for Playboy, I even won a tender for the cover of the annual issue of Playboy. I achieved decent success and learned that photography is a difficult craft. I broke up with him.
So it is much more convenient to write songs and thus bring people a good mood, good weather. I do that all the time.
Marika Gombitová: I will miss Karel Gott, Miro Žbirka and Vašo Patejdl at concerts
Elán Group: Some things in our book will probably shock people
2024-01-02 04:16:49
#Singer #Peter #Nagy #Good #Weather #Merchant #News
