We called ourselves “emo-pop” and I love it, says Jan Richter - INTERVIEW
“ I try my best to put as much emotion as I can to everything I sing. At some point, we called ourselves “emo-pop” and I love this expression dearly to this day, mainly because many people hated it and it triggered them. Weirdly, that somehow motivates me and makes me wanna stick with it.”
Photography by Rony Thilakan
Marie: Jan, You live in Prague, and you’ve been together for quite some time now. How did you form a band?
Jan: Back in 2007, my beloved band called My First Date fell apart. For some time I was just writing songs for myself and after maybe a year, I have created a bandzone.cz account where I uploaded some of my early acoustic work. This somehow led Lada Belina, a guitarist from friendly band Zacatek Konce, to approach me with a suggestion of creating a band around my stuff. We got together with him, his brother and my mate from MFD Petr and started playing. When I think about it, we did not even celebrate our decade of being together!
Marie: How do you find the music scene in Prague?
Jan: Rich as any other! When it comes to quality of the musicians, bands and projects, I honestly think that we can compare to any other city in the world. However the situation about mainstream media and how much the music as a whole is perceived among general public is a different story, much sadder story.
Marie: You’ve been influenced by artists some people may not be that familiar with such as Peter Gabriel. How would you identify your conscious and unconscious influences on your latest EP Every Minute Counts?
Jan: Very good question to which I don’t even know if I have the answer. My greatest influences are Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and basically everything around Genesis, Beatles, Pink Floyd and much much more. I wouldn’t dare to compare our work to those listed above but as for me, I try my best to put as much emotion as I can to everything I sing. At some point, we called ourselves “emo-pop” and I love this expression dearly to this day, mainly because many people hated it and it triggered them. Weirdly, that somehow motivates me and makes me wanna stick with it.
Marie: Are your songs autobiographical or do they come from your imagination, or both?
Jan: I am basically only the lyricist in the band and sometimes my bandmates don’t care at all what I am singing about. I don’t know if they just trust me or really don’t care :) My lyrics are mainly autobiographical. Almost every single song is about something what happened to me or what I realized about life as I grew older. I couldn’t avoid love songs of course and I am glad I couldn’t :) I’ve even written one song about heartbreak I have experienced with one of my girlfriends. It was full of hate and regret. Only after a decade I realized I was to one who made that relationship fall apart and so we are not playing that song anymore. However it is a good testament of how I was feeling/behaving in that period of time. Simply said, I was an asshole.
Marie: Do you listen to much music on Spotify, and if so, what are the top releases we should check out?
Jan: Lately I am obsessed with the band called The Midnight. They are playing very clever, perfectly crafted 80’s synth-pop which actually sounds contemporary! I absolutely love it and as a kid, mesmerized by video games growing up in 90’s, I recommend the album “Kids” which is total masterpiece which brings that magic back for me. I also enjoy quality, mainly lady-driven POP, like Fickle Friends, Sigrid and from CZ scene? There are so many, but lately I am listening to new release of Skywalker band “Late Eternity” and new EP of Out Of Silence.
Marie: Lockdown has been difficult for everyone. How has it affected you and your songwriting?
Jan: It affected me more than I expected to. It took time, but after a year, I had to redefine some of my life priorities. Suddenly, seeing your friends more often sounds much more important than ever before. Going to live concerts, which I pretty much neglected in the past, is now something I am longing for so much! I am part of those “lucky ones” who can simply work from home and not being that much economically affected so if anything, it brought me to feel gratitude and appreciate my situation and life in general much more, more than I used to. When it comes to song-writing, I went pretty much dry over the last few years. My most active years were in the time I was down and generally non happy, when I was “emo” if you will :) But as I grew happier and happier, my songwriting faded away a bit. So today, I am exploring writing songs again from a different perspective. Approaching that craft from different place than I used to. Possible results are yet to be seen :)
Marie: Now more than ever it’s challenging for ambitious musicians. How are you planning to make your mark over the next twelve months?
Jan: It is a good question. Making our mark. Question is, do we even want to? Don’t get me wrong, we still do have this drive to be successful and we all want to play live concerts, the bigger the better and festivals. However over the years we also found that we simply love to play and make music and at this point it looks like we will be simply doing it for the sake of doing it. Be better, sound better and eventually try something bigger. At this point, we will be happy if we could get together and rehearse some new material. When there will be enough of it and we will feel like it, we will go to studio to release it. When it comes to me, I still wish we would release an LP one day. Whole record, not only EP or singles but whole, complete record.
Marie: And finally, if you had one wish for 2021, what would that be?
Jan: Everyone to be as healthy as possible and generally people to learn of critical thinking, healthy skepticism and making own, well researched, non-selfish choices. That… and obviously I wish to enjoy live performances as much as possible with draft beer in glass glued to my lips.
Photo by Rony Thilakan
