When you announced the suspension of your concert activity last year, you said that it would take several years. What made you return to the stage after two years?
This break, sometimes I call it paternity leave, was the best decision of my life. At the time, people and those around me did not understand at all why I wanted to interrupt my career at the moment when I could profit from it the most. But I realized how fast it all flies and that two years is no time in today’s fast-paced world.
I’m not going to lie, the first two months I was a little unsure of how to live a life I don’t really know, but that break was, and actually still is, extremely valuable to me. I could spend time with my loved ones, gain strength after fourteen years of work and think about what I want to do next in life and in music. I could also find out if and what I would miss and what mattered to me. And I give a damn about my fans.
My heart and a video that came to me on social networks decided my return. A mother and her son were on it. They didn’t know someone was recording them. It was created at the beginning of one concert in Eden, when I came on stage. They hugged, cried, laughed and sang. They were happy.
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It was beautiful and touching, and I realized that this is the meaning of my life, apart from my family. That what I do has meaning, and that I have terrible luck that I should start fighting for again.
During the break, you wanted to focus mainly on your family. What does it say about your current decision?
The break lived up to my expectations exactly; and hopefully my family’s expectations as well. As you say, I devoted myself to her. I wasn’t a singer, a driver, and a musician, but I was a full-time dad, son, and husband.
Seeing my son wake up every day, go to sleep, be able to make up mummy’s head crazy stuff with him and experience all those ordinary things was something I will never forget. And he probably doesn’t either.
I could visit my parents every day, walk around the beloved Šumava with my wife and for a while be the ordinary boy from Železná Ruda again. My family has supported me in everything I have done in life and this was no exception. He knows what I’m like and that I kind of have two families. My own and then Lost Family. That’s what I tell my fans.
What else did you do during the break?
After many years, I had time and space to calmly compose and listen to music. I also started reading again and sometimes I traveled, among other things to concerts around the world. You could say I lived from minute to minute. It was a strange feeling after fourteen years of having every minute planned.
How many new songs have you composed?
Almost fourteen. I have already recorded eight of them in the studio and am now working on finishing them. Some of them are typical me and some are a little unusual. It’s even the case that I may end up not using some. Being in the studio, playing, and not having fun, that was something great.
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You will release a new song on Sunday. When did you write it and what is its subject?
It’s a song I wrote right at the beginning of my tour break, about two weeks after the Eden shows. I never go to the piano thinking I’m going to write a song about this or that. At that time, I sat down and after a while found out that I was at a wedding and that the topic was actually very interesting, broad and I had recent experience with it.
It was a month after my wedding, and without planning it, a song called Ta bílá ti suitsi was created in a moment. But it is not a romantic slow song dripping with honey, so to speak, as one might expect given the subject matter.
Dalibor Cidlinský made an interesting arrangement and the song has an interesting energy. I look forward to the reactions of the fans. After all, it is something that each of us will experience at least once.
Photo: Marko Ztracený’s archive
Marek Ztracený will return to the stage next year.
You’re going on tour and releasing a single. Will anything else happen besides that?
I am an inexhaustible well of news and surprises. I really enjoy surprising people. So there will be a new website, a new logo, merch and I have a secret Christmas trick up my sleeve. It’s something I’m really looking forward to.
Back Tour 2025
12. 7. Hluboká nad Vltavou
25. 7. Ústí nad Labem
Do you have plans for the time after the end of the tour that you are announcing now?
I have only one thing to say about it – and it’s a message to my fans. Dear Lost family, dear listeners, thank you for waiting for me and not forgetting me. I look forward to seeing you next summer. It will be the biggest and most energetic tour we have ever done. Big things are ahead of us, and everything I’ve just described is just the beginning. Welcome to a new journey.
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