Singer Jan Toužimský from the group Arakain: The concert is like an aerobics lesson – RT World News

You have been in Arakain for twenty years. What time was that?

She was and is beautiful. Metal music was always encoded in me, and as time went on I realized that I wanted to be in a band like that. So when the guys from Arakain came to see me in my then studio on Biskupcov Street in Prague in 2004, I was very happy.

Of course, I realized that Arakain is a famous band and it will be a big responsibility to be a singer after Aleš Bricht and Petr Kolář. But I accepted the offer because it was a dream.

Why did the band members join you?

A few months before, I worked in the musical Excalibur, which was performed at the Ta Fantastika Theater in Prague, which is now the Lucie Bílé Theater. The boys from Arakain are friends of Lucca and she is actually a permanent member of the band, although she only plays with him when she has time. They saw me in the role of Artuš, in which I turned again with Kamil Střihavka and Petr Kolář, their singer at the time.

Later I sang songs for Jirka Urban Jr., the son of guitarist Arakain. He then distributed them to my father, maybe he reminded me of me and that was it. Then the guys came to me and told me that Petr Kolář was retiring, if I would take his place.

Why did you want to be a metal singer?

Because from a young age my cousins ​​fed me metal music. Because of that, I developed a relationship with her. At the same time, I discovered that I enjoy playing Spanish. Since I switched to the electric guitar, in high school I bought an instrument for it and then as a member of Simon’s band I jumped in for our singer, who was always running away from us.

I sang out of compulsion, I wasn’t very happy about it, but my teammates got used to it and I became a singer. With metal, things came together best in Arakain.

Did you get any essential advice for singing life from Lucie Bílá, Petr Kolář or Kamil Střihavka at Ta Fantastika Theatre?

In the restaurant U Zlatého stromu, which was a short distance next to the theater, we all gave advice. I really benefit from them all the time. I can say that they trained me there.

But it’s true that I only recently started singing before a concert, because advancing age tires the vocal cords. I am so lonely. I have only had a few singing lessons with Linda Finková, who is an excellent teacher. She gave me a foundation on how to handle the voice. But after a while she sent me to hell because I wasn’t a good student, and I went my own way.

You and the group Arakain celebrated forty years of existence last year with a concert at the O2 universe. How long did it take you to prepare?

About a year and a half. But we had shared roles and I was in charge of technical things, that is, why the show will be filmed, how it will be filmed, what kind of recordings we will have and so on. It was very intense.

Did you then talk about the songs you were going to play that night?

I haven’t talked about it for years because I seem to have different tastes than the other guys in the band. Unfortunately, according to them, my favorite songs are not strong enough to make a big impact on the fans at concerts.

So I leave the song selection to others, and in the last few years, and this is interesting, our court sound engineer Ondřej Martínek has been making concert programs. He also draws from the fact that when people stand around his mixing desk and discuss what was good and what wasn’t, he listens and based on that and his taste, he then suggesting to us what the performances should be like in terms of the program. .

Aleš Brichta was the original singer of Arakain until 2002. Rock fans still remember him. How difficult is it for you to sing the songs that became popular in his interpretation?

I don’t see it that way anymore today. But when I joined in 2004, there was no CD that I would sing. I had to undertake the songs of Aleš and Peter Kolář. Some were sung better, others worse, but I always tried to keep the original beautiful line in them. To this day, I am convinced that it should be that way for songs that people have already listened to in some form.

After that, songs from the albums I sang also entered the repertoire. I could understand myself more in them.

The annual concert lasted one hundred and forty minutes. Did he want it physically?

It was in high demand, but that’s all the show. Personally, I would compare them to an intense aerobics class. We are tired after it and it is pouring out of us. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to relax from time to time in the O2 universe, when the guests Lucie Bílá and Petr Kolář came. Unlike the other boys in the band, I didn’t have to be in the sled when they sang.

Why did you choose only Lucia Bíla and Petr Kolář as guests?

They were on the stage because they were singing in Arakain. But we invited all the previous members, some came, others didn’t. We reminded them at the concert.

We prepare the table slowly. We have already released the song Seven Sins and we would like to record another one. Because we want to stand behind the new album one hundred percent, we decided to go ahead with releasing singles, and when there are enough of them, we will put them on an album.

We also decided to work with a producer, which is very unusual for Arakain. In the past, we usually made records ourselves. But Martin Hollander filmed Seven Sins with us. I would like us to work with him on other songs as well, because I am satisfied with the final version of that song. But we’ll see if he has enough time. He is very busy.