“You should always aim for the top shelves and cool ideas!” / LR2 / / Latvian Radio

Reason for worship of the Latvian supergroup 1980s “Jumprava”, unlike most of its contemporaries, continues to create new music. The last arrangement, the song “Internet Animal” went to the audience a few months ago, reminding that “Jumprava” on August 31 is waiting for fans for a concert. This date is the name day of the Aigars, and of course Ainars Ashmanis will join the Aigars – Gräver, Graub and Krēsl on the Mežapark stage to celebrate their 40th anniversary together. It was impossible to gather the four great spirits together, and this time in the program there is a conversation with two Aigars – Krēsl and Graub.

Ar Aigara Kreslu we meet in a “tour session” in Valmiera, because the musician does not live in Riga, where he only goes for a special purpose. He is looking forward to the concert on August 31 with some excitement, because he prefers active and regular concerts, which give confidence in a good athletic form. And even though Krēsla bought a set of drums a year ago, he doesn’t consider himself a great drummer and in Mežapark, of course, he plays with the keys and a microphone:

“I don’t accept celebrating anniversaries at all, because in Latvia there is a maniacal desire to celebrate all kinds of anniversaries. It is normal to have a concert with a little name. We will play what has been there, what has been updated, there will be something new, and this time the name ‘XL’ has done a good job turning on the anniversary because it is two twenty in Roman numerals. Good thing he’s not forty…”

Aigars Krēsla was the last to join the classic line of “Jumpravas”, Aigars Grauba came a month and a half earlier. On the other hand, Krēsla knew Grāver long before, from the time they were both in Valmiera, when they played in the ensemble “Vitamīns”.

“It all started with a children’s music school, there was a school stage ensemble – a group of high school students. They all finished school, the instruments stayed, and when I was in the 4th grade, they called everyone together and asked them to make a new ensemble – the player was Ilvars Zālītis guitar and the leader for that matter. First I play the trumpet, then the drums.”

Krēsla’s musical biography also included the Valmiera Culture House ensemble “Kvelde”, until Aigars Grāvers called from Preilii and spoke briefly: come to Jumprava! Wednesday rehearsal and that’s how it started. Krėsla remembers well that his first concert as a drummer in the band was held at the Ādaži House of Culture: “I blew through many with honor!”

“I actively stopped playing the drums, because I miss the specific height of the musical note in the rhythm.

However, Krēsla will sit on the drums at Ingus Ulmani’s concert on August 25 in Dzintari, because “Jumprava” will also be playing there. Along with playing percussion instruments, since the days of Valmiera, Krēsla has been writing, the people of Jumpra call him a master, as Aigars have written such popular songs as “Baltā”, ” Peldėjs”, “Ena”, but he has rarely sung his own compositions, only concerts. An exception is the song “Rīt lis lēnām” with lyrics by Ainar Mielava from the 2019 album “Jumpravas” “Insomnia”. In the 1980s, Krēsla performed the famous songs “Klaidonis”, “Sveiciens” and “9.pālata”, and the melody usually comes to his head first.

Křesla has tried to work in other jobs, but he has found out that his profession is only music. Currently, every effort is being made to create a big concert, but last summer “Jumprava” gave up to seventeen concerts in different cities:

“I prefer to live in a more modest way, but I do what I like. Sometimes, there were probably too many gigs – even twenty a month, but I like to have a gig or two every weekend. Grāvis already promised that we will now have a new album, a virtual mini-album – mostly restored, old songs and new ones. A couple stayed halfway, we’ll finish later.”

Aigars Grauba joins the program in a phone conversation, expressing his happiness that the first team of “Jumprava” will gather for the anniversary of Ingus Ulmani. The musician himself described his departure from the group in the early 90s of the last century as an emotional decision, which was followed by a new level of creativity, when both Aigars and Ainars could make music of creating new content as a trio. .

“I have no objection to forty, because it also seems amazing and beautiful that “Jumprava” was founded in the last century and we have about a hundred and fifty songs!”

According to Graubas, “Jumprava” treats music and concerts carefully and carefully, this time will not be an exception, but always leaves room for improvisation. Each participant submitted their own song list this time, and the titles are compiled in the selection. Aigars submitted “Here Down” and “Teatris”, which he had always wanted to sing – on August 31 it finally happened. In the second part of the program, of course, “Ziemeļmeita” and “Tălu aizgaja” will be performed.

“It’s not a bad thing to be an obligatory part, just like the song “White” and many others could be listed.”

First, the stadium “Daugava” was chosen as the venue for the big concert, later it was moved to Mežaparka, and maybe one of the reasons was the need for real pictures important to record in a song for the film directed by Aigaras Graubas about a group “Jumprava. The Big Event”. In the mid-eighties, their participation in the News Festival that was held in Mežapark movement, benches were even broken, hoping that it will not happen this time, and the director hopes that the film will hit the screens next spring:

“The film will be a story of love, youth and music, and preparing for the concert this year will help me capture the mood I need!”