The pilot single is the song Secrets. What does it mean to you?
This time I gave the opinions of people who understand the choice of the single. I provided them with a record and said that I would like to be taught how to choose a single. I never came up with the algorithm by which they are determined. And I’ve never met in my opinion.
–
That the Secret was chosen is very symbolic for me. I see the new record as an entry into a new era. The Secret originated as the first song on the album and was born at a time when I was thinking about ending my music career and starting to do something else. It was my farewell to the world of pop music and creative music. But in the end, my desire to leave passed.
–
Why did she come at all?
For a long time I believed that songs could change the world, but gradually I began to understand that it was not possible. A song cannot change the world, it can only be a person or a situation caused by it. In addition, I was convinced that I knew exactly what the best world looked like, and I wanted to change it with songs. Today, however, what was to be the end is the beginning of a new stage.
–
Did you have any idea what you would do if the music career ended?
I thought I would offer my services to an advertising agency for which I could create slogans, for example. I feel like I understand the language and I could be valid. I would also enjoy teaching.
–
What is new about your new stage?
I learned that after fourteen years in the mainstream, it’s time to record a pop record. At the same time, I want to enjoy dancing to new songs spontaneously at my concerts, because I myself, although I dance very badly, like to dance.
–
At the same time, I understood the need to guard my personality in expressing opinions. It’s one thing to project them into songs, it’s another to overshadow songs. At the concerts, I announced my opinions into the microphone, but I did not put it in the hands of those who did not agree with me. It wasn’t fair.
–
So I sobered up from some of my attitudes and realized my role, mission and talent, which needs to be fulfilled. Otherwise, it would be a shame to have him. And the whole thing is adorned by the fact that we have chosen Jirka Burian as the producer of the album, a man who is completely immersed in music and is not interested in anything else.
–
Tomas Klus
Photo: Martin Kubica
Did he enter work on the album drastically?
Very vigorously. I handed him the prepared demo material, he listened to it, met me and the guitarist of my band Jirka Kučerovský and told us what he would adjust, finish or cancel. We are quite punks with the boys from the band, but this time we proceeded very systematically. In the end, I had to correct Jirka Burian and Jirka Kučerovský a lot when they started long debates about music. During the recording of the album, however, I learned a lot about music and listened to a number of great songs.
–
Above all, the three of us are very intersected in how we feel about music and what we think it can do to people. We agreed that it was a necessity of life, that it was a ritual key to opening a person. We fulfilled this knowledge in the Dalai Lama’s song Manasarovar, in which we became enraged and created an abstract musical surface, during which many of our friends wept. The music can say far more than a thousand words.
–
Why is the album called I Feel?
It’s the name of the song that’s most important and powerful for me on the album. Feeling is one of the most important things we have to learn as a society to be able to live together. But first of all, for me, the song is a conclusion of a relationship with my father. When I wrote it, I realized that she was sad and depressed. But I don’t feel these emotions.
–
When I thought more deeply, I realized that my father had sent me a message through her about how he had felt in his life and why he had left. He was a cheerful and friendly man, but he did not feel friendship. I would like to make a video for that song on Koprovský štít in the High Tatras, where my father died. This will close this chapter and underline it at the same time, because my relationship with my father, even though he has not been here for twenty years, is one of my pillars of life. He crystallized here, I finally understood him and definitely forgave him.
–
I think it’s generally a problem for children who lose their parents. They live to see some of his stories, or identify so strongly with him that they do the things he did, repeat the same mistakes, feed the same fears. But at some point, a turning point comes, and he came up with this song. By the way, one lady also wrote to me that I am a nice backstage, because giving the board the name I feel at this time is very brave. I’m sure I’m going live again on that album. That amused me.
–
What unites the songs on the album?
On each record, I try to arrange them so that they at least remotely create a story. In this he forms the first half of the composition about my personal relationships, about my self-reflection towards my immediate surroundings, towards my wife and so on.
–
The turning point comes in the song Reflexe, which is a set to music by František Gellner. My attention then turns to social issues, such as the responsibility for the planet, the refugee crisis, and in general the things that may bother us, but we can turn them into something that can bring us great positives. The need to learn to speak together is, after all, the leitmotif of several of my last records.
–
I lightened the second half of the album with the self-ironic song Enlightened. In it, I react to situations that I am often confronted with. People have a lot of different opinions about me and then they are often surprised that when they get to know me, they find out that I’m not as stupid as they thought. But I understand them, because I have made a lot of statements that could give a reason for their opinion.
–
The song Manasarovar then refers to my role model His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who in his books and activities brings a clear vision of the world of the twenty-first century, with which I completely identify. And the last song, Christmas Time, was created last year for the Municipal Theaters of Prague, when it could not play.
–
Cover of Klus’s new album I Feel.
Photo: Supraphon
What will be the concerts at which you will play new songs?
We want to offer a real pop show without cheating people about our strength, which is interaction and communication with them. We would also like to prepare a light and projection show with Matyáš Vorda, because he is at his best in the world.
–
So far, we haven’t rehearsed much for the concerts, because the members of my target group will play anything and anywhere. This time it will require a lot of training that will bear fruit in giving the audience a full pop concert.
–
When will you return to the podium?
We are now in autumn-winter hibernation. We did not dare to schedule any performances because the situation is uncertain. We rehearse honestly and in March we will go on tour and christen the record.
—
