What role does the album ČauČesku play in your discography?
I hope that it will become a memento of time as soon as possible and that we will wake up from this nightmare soon. From a personal point of view, for me it means therapy, writing out an obsession, as my friends called it. The time we are going through is difficult and no one really expected it, not even the most calculated of us. She has shown that the people who govern us are not doing well. The moment it is so visible, it came to my notice to point it out.
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I perceive both actors, which the album ČauČesku is mainly about, as plugs that we have to pull out in order for anger and unnecessary hatred to flow out of our society, and we can start solving things that are really important.
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In the last few years, almost nothing has been solved here other than their cases or their attacks on this or that journalist, institution, competitor, or other social group. It is very delaying and annoying in the sense that it annoys society.
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The two main actors in your album are Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and President Miloš Zeman. You have pointed out their inadequacy in the past. Do you think the pandemic period intensified it?
Exactly. This time showed how he actually thinks of us. And in the case of the lord of Lány, the current case of Vrbětice completely underlined it. Due to the fact that I had a lot of time and thus a lot of opportunities to read and study information and perceive it much more carefully than during normal operation, emotions began to creep through me through songs. I was full of it. For me, logically, such an album had to be created.
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Tomas Klus
Photo: Iveta Valentová
What things do you think are the essentials that the Prime Minister and the President should address?
It is essential to try to connect with the world. But they do the exact opposite. Of course, the world is now plagued mainly by covid-19. But it is also plagued by many other important things, such as climate change. In the fight against them, it is necessary to establish contact with the whole world, because the problems are global.
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But it is in the interests of both masters to separate. One is motivated to need to raise money and subsidies, the other, out of some special resentment and perhaps stubbornness, records with his attitudes and actions that we can once again get into the tow of a power that has more than once proved that it is not a good mother.
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Among the eight songs on the album are eight commentaries on various cases concerning the prime minister and the president. Who prepared them?
Journalist Jaroslav Kmenta. I called him and introduced him to my idea. Originally, I even imagined that the album would be conceived as a fairy tale about two scribes who whistled it nicely.
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Jarda is one of my favorites on the investigative and writing side, as he can present even very ugly topics in such a way that a person is able to finish them despite the nausea in the stomach to the end.
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I told him that I would like him to write some comments on the record, and he replied that he was finishing a book on the subject, he had a lot of material and he would love to do it.
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I then solved the form. First I read his comments, then I asked some of my acting colleagues, but it still wasn’t that. In the end, I realized that for me, as a singer and a person, authenticity is the most important thing in my life, so it would be perfectly logical for the author himself to read the comments.
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I had to persuade Jarda for a moment, but in the end he agreed. I’m very glad that it turned out that way, because I perceive it on the record as a pillar, as a support. I bring emotions, he facts.
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You collaborated with producer Jiří Burian on the album. It was your first cooperation. What did she bring you?
She brought me exactly what I expected from her. That’s why I’m shooting my next album with Jirka now. I think we intersected in our attitude to life, the way we think about life as such, but also in our opinion of and approach to music. In parallel with that collaboration, a beautiful friendship was formed, which expanded to include my colleague guitarist Jirka Kučerovský. We record the next record in threes.
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The collaboration with Jiří Burian is simply absolutely fantastic. As he is above all a great musician, his production contribution was not and is not just that he would say what would be nice and what would not, but when something occurs to him, he will play it right away. And it often doesn’t matter what the tool is. It’s fascinating to me.
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The album ČauČesku has a pop sound, while its hints were already on your previous records. Is that the sound you’re going to stick to now?
I basically made the ČauČesk record only with Jirka Burian. The only song that we recorded on it again with the group Target group is called Chátrám. When we thought about the sound we would choose for the next album, we agreed with a smile that it was time for Tomáš Klus to record a pop record.
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I think I got into the mainstream, ie the middle stream, more by mistake. I’ve never released a single song that I would purposefully create for radio to play. For me, a bit paradoxically, some of them got into them, and they were the ones we recorded the most alternatively.
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For example, Nina was filmed so that the strings that sound in her are actually guitar bindings, and marker writing is used as a rhythmic element.
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So I thought I would try differently this time. I don’t think I could have chosen a better producer than Jiří Burian.
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Tomas Klus
Photo: Iveta Valentová
Can you tell us more about the upcoming album?
We started recording it on Friday, April 30th. His mood will be quite similar to the album Seagull, however, as the author of the songs, I am ten years older than I was then. I focus primarily on relationships, but they are no longer topics like Rack’s. In short, I’m older, I’m open and I’ll be very happy to meet the fans in those emotions.
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However, I believe that the album will have a similar impact as Seagull had. And I think it will be a collection of hungry songs after ČauČesk.
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When should it come out?
We would like to shoot it by the summer, it should be released at the beginning of autumn.
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The guitarist of your target group, Jiří Kučerovský, recently faced a serious illness. What is his condition now?
Jirka is in the best condition I can remember. All evil is good for something, and he is a wise man who has understood the message that has come to him and accepted the disease with great humility. He beat her and came back much stronger, more experienced, wiser and I feel more creative.
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