Henrietta Verhoustinska: I welcome to the studio two great musicians who are expecting a big event, and they are Ingus Ulmanis and Aigars Voitiškis. We are all very much looking forward to Aigaras Graube’s film about “Jumprava”, which, as they say, will be ready for the national holiday. How are you looking forward to the film, and how big was your participation in its creation?
Aigars Voitiškis: Well, for example, the performer of my role came to me, we got to know each other, we talked about all kinds of things – how I felt there, how to portray him… It seemed very professional to me. In addition, the film uses my original guitar that I played in “Jumprava”. I’m really looking forward to the final result!
Ingus Ulmanis: I was not so lucky that someone came to me (laughs). It’s hard to say… It’s such a sensitive moment – both for this time, as we all understand it, and… well, let Aigars manage to turn this sensitivity so… Not everyone has to play along, not everything has to be glamorous, but somehow you also want to their own opinion – that’s how much we are in that frame. It’s hard to say how it will be.
Your big event is the Ingus anniversary tour – I won’t mention the number because it’s incredible… This anniversary tour will start on February 15, and I counted that there will be sixteen concerts. But this birthday was last year for you…
Ingus Ulmanis: Yes, last time. It was very interesting that the organizer of the concert announced it on the birthday – and the idea, in fact, arose a week before. You can see that the person knows what he is doing. It was like icing on the cake. And then everyone noticed it – the birthday, the roundness, and the fact that something will happen. I think that there was such a good starting shot, now it remains only to realize what was promised.
Is it really the case that the concert that will take place in August in the Dzintari concert hall will include everyone with whom you have collaborated musically during these years of your musical career?
Ingus Ulmanis: It was my choice, I didn’t want to invite the stars of the moment to the concert, which would bring the number of tickets to the concert. I wanted – if it’s about what I’ve done in life – exactly those projects that have been my fellow human beings, my friends, people with whom we have created and formed ourselves as personalities.
Maybe you can name some names?
Ingus Ulmanis: “Jumprava” – that’s what we’ll start with, I’ve asked them for specific songs. “Lädzer”. A big experiment will be with “Brínumskapi” on the same stage. And, finally, the “Nature Concert Hall”, which in my view is like a veil under the whole concert tour. As an ideological veil – he figures somewhere all the time, that philosophical aspect of the “Nature’s Concert Hall”. It was very important to me because this is how I think as a person, what I think. And I want people to feel it somehow. Here, and these four projects, which seem to me the most essential, will also be in the Dzintara concert hall on August 25.
Ingus Ulmanis, Aigars Voitiškis and Roberts Rasa with the song “Kultūrdevas” in the studio4min
How come you’ve never been on Supernova?
Ingus Ulmanis: Well, first of all, when “Supernova” started, we were no longer the tasty fruit to be picked. We had other formats when we started. I just told your colleagues that basically our beginning was a happy beginning in the sense that such a critical eye from society was not possible. The Internet had not yet developed, where everyone has an opinion on everything. We lived in such a little bubble of pleasure, and when we put everything together with youth, we were winners. We could develop our original personality much more easily…
Regardless of any conditions.
Ingus Ulmanis: That’s right, we could have been alternative, we could have been this and that. And the formats that “Supernova” has – there were none at that time. There was a format – Free Latvia! (laughs) This was the format for any program on Latvian Television.
Aigars Voitiškis: I also think that “Supernova” is meant more for young talents, so that they can prove themselves, develop, show themselves. I think it is a very good platform to realize yourself. It stimulates them and gives them a specific goal. This contributes a lot to their personal development.
Ingus Ulmanis: But there is also such a thing of caution.
Aigars Voitiškis: Well, who doesn’t risk it…
Ingus Ulmanis: Formats impose very large rules. In my point of view, if you want to grow into a person who is different in this world, you have to look for that different person. Because often formats impose their common-equal. It can also not be good for a person. There is such a dual view of such events, such rules.
Aigars Voitiškis: I think that “Supernova” does not have such strictly defined formats. It seems to me that many different formats can be applied there – the main thing is that they are good.
You’ve been touring for decades. Do you feel like your musical career has been successful, or is there still some anxiety that things didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to?
Aigars Voitiškis: I’m happy with how everything is shaping up. We have not worked in just one field, we have focused on many things during our activity – there were both “Nature’s Concert Hall” and “Brínumskapis”, where you could express yourself in different ways, and I think that it enriches you – when you step aside a little, somewhere else and get something new. So I would say yes.
We still play our songs, we still get invited to perform – I think that’s good.
Program “Kultūrdeva”
Photo: Aigars Bumburs / LTV
Ingus Ulmanis: What’s interesting is that this is a story about longevity. When we talk about the environment, we tend to use these words. I think that every person has such a big challenge – we want right away and now, and big achievements. We had them in “Jumprava”, something like that fell unexpectedly. But it is essential to live your whole life with the feeling that you are still developing. And you can’t avoid falling in this world. And must fall. There is an awful lot of squatting, but the main thing is to squat. And from this point of view, I would say that we are on our knees. We’ve just done it. And now we are, to a certain extent, enjoyers, we look with ease at what has been emotional, and we look with value at the fact that it is still usable today – exactly in relation to our songs. That the songs were created at that time…
…still sounds. Thanks largely to the pandemic, we haven’t enjoyed your wonderful project “Nature’s Concert Hall” for three years now. Will it happen? Does it have a sequel?
Ingus Ulmanis: Yes, the pandemic hit us. This big project involves a lot of people, and so many people could not come together. But what happens with big projects – they don’t recover so easily. But there is hope that you will recover.
In the meantime we have made two films and the third one was about a concert in Germany where we had a fantastic opportunity to play with the Berlin Philharmonic. And I have to say this – those happy faces from their side as well and that match was so unique that maybe… maybe there is a sequel to it. And here is one thing, that if the “Nature Concert Hall” is revived, then how to say something new in it, to create a feeling of freshness in people.
All kinds of little creatures are not over yet!
Ingus Ulmanis: No trifles. But you always need to say something that appeals to people and surprises them. You need a surprise.
In addition to your anniversary tour “How to manage my time”, you have news to come – an album and a vinyl disc will be released, where you have collected the best songs of “Lādezera”. Maybe you can tell me what songs will be there?
Aigars Voitiškis: There was a story with those songs – Ingus wanted to rewrite all these songs in a new perspective. I’m already skeptical. I clung to it with such mistrust, wondering how everything would turn out there. But in the end, when I got into the work, I was so overwhelmed… I was so happy to have the opportunity to record these songs again from today’s point of view. I got excited, I think everyone got excited, including Ingus. We played these songs with today’s feel. I think these songs have not lost their energy, the charge with which they were written. Because it is already known that you are safe when you are young, now I am much more afraid. When you’re young, you can take risks, you’re not afraid of the consequences. Those songs are created bravely, but the level of technical ability was maybe not so good for us. Now we have become smarter, more erudite. I am satisfied with the result.
Ingus Ulmanis: It is interesting to sing now: “You are still young, everything is still ahead of you”. But how interesting it is that Māra Zālīte has put such a big code in that song, big insights – “your mother will die/and will die in your arms/look in the mirror/at wrinkles and creases”. This is the philosophy that goes along with the “Nature’s Concert Hall” – hey, let’s calm down about our age, our youth. We look at the life of the stone. That all mankind are still tiny children who have not yet done anything before the stone age.
I think that this mystical feeling, the feeling of time, is also asked in the concert “How can I control time?” This is no longer a question. It’s such a sigh of relief. With time, you deduce from everything, extract such naked truths.
But the record itself is called “I write”. This is essential. There was such a situation, and here we should mention our friend who is in Taisauli – Pēters Brūveris. He has been a great teacher for us. He has taught me many different things. There was such a situation, he had a stroke, I visited him in the hospital. Peter could not sign, I called him all kinds of words and he learned to write them. I remember telling him to write “Lädezers” and he couldn’t write it and said: “The name should be changed.” (laughs) His last collection of poems, published by his daughters, was called “I’m Learning to Write”. And that’s why I wanted to name our board “I write”. And on top of that comes the feeling that we are writing all our things in the trees. Well, this secret will be revealed at the concerts.
Please tell in more detail.
Ingus Ulmanis: We once had such a story about a lichen in the “Nature Concert Hall”. That characteristic lichen was a very good prototype of Peter – how could he wander there, because he also used to wander in those forests. And that story was about a strange man writing down everything in a pen with such strange hieroglyphs. Well, here it is. The stories that we have also invented are also so strange – it is not clear what is happening at the front. But they are recorded. And it is such a mystical connection, and it is interesting – how everyone understands it, how everyone understands this record. How everyone finds their formula for happiness. We thought it was very important, related to the board and also to “Dabas Concert Hall”.
2024-02-08 13:51:31
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