2024-07-26 23:04:19
Each of them makes music of different genres and sings about different topics, but they have one thing in common. Arleta, Anna Vaverková and Alžběta Trusinová from the band Něko něko write their lyrics in Czech and avoid the soaring metaphors that were previously typical for local music. Interest in non-Anglophone work is growing in the world, mainly thanks to digital platforms.
Twenty-seven-year-old Anna Vaverková has been living in Berlin for eight years, where she went to study music. There she founded a band with an international composition, The Flavians. The project was a success, as a singer and keyboardist with the group she also performed at the famous British festival Glastonbury. Over time, however, she began to like writing in Czech more than in English. In addition to the Berlin group, she also developed a solo career. Instead of an international audience, she presented it to listeners who would understand her texts written in Czech best – domestic ones.
Vaverková found her author’s handwriting in Czech, and after years of working with English texts, she suddenly began to feel better with her mother tongue. She made one of her first trips to the Czech audience in 2021 at the Color Meeting festival in Polič, where she presented only a few songs from the Roztomilá holka EP, on which she deals, among other things, with the topic of inequalities that women face. “I needed to compare and understand why certain things happen and happened to me as a girl and what it means for me,” she explains.
In Polička, she performed for a few dozen people in a small marquee. Three years later, he is already standing in front of the audience at Colors of Ostrava, one of the largest festivals in the Czech Republic. Two more Swedes play with her on stage – guitarist and Vaverková’s husband Liam Blomqvist and drummer Joakim Jägerhult. Neither of them understand what he is singing about. However, Blomqvist supports her in some songs in a language she does not speak with her vocals.
Anna Vaverková is the only Czech on stage. The entire repertoire is still in her mother tongue. | Photo: Jiří Zerzoň
Vaverková, who won the Angel award this year for her debut album Pozdravy z polepšovna, has obviously found a target audience for her dreamy music with often minimalistic lyrics. She mentions the great and, for her, unexpected interest in her solo project in her native country as another factor that motivated her to continue her Czech work. Thanks to this, he now returns to his native country to give concerts at least once every few months.
The Institute for the Czech Language cannot do anything about anglicisms
Vaverková is not the only Czech performer active on the alternative scene, who performed a repertoire in her mother tongue at the just-ended Colors edition. Alžběta Trusinová from the Néco néco project and rapper Arleta have also been working with their native language from the beginning. Both women agree that, unlike Vaverková, Czech was their first and natural choice. Arleta is mainly comfortable with the fact that the language is harder and more “angular” than English, Trusinová from Něko počet again explains how important it is for the audience to understand her.
Music journalist Karel Veselý notes that the domestic scene is undergoing a change in this regard. “Ten or fifteen years ago, bands hardly dealt with Czech. They sang in English and planned to break through in the world with it. Now things are turning around more and more. I would say that they are discovering that connecting fans through language is important,” he says.
Trusinová agrees with him. “What we were before has nothing in common with who we are now,” he sings to the audience of the Ostrava festival in the composition “Obrysy”, which deals with the relationship between the past, the present and memories. For an alternative pop group, the most important thing is that the listeners understand it – not only superficially, but in a deeper sense of the word. “I’m not doing it to become famous, either here or abroad, but because it’s important to me and it gives me meaning,” says singer and lyricist Trusinová.
In contrast, Arleta Berndorff solves the dilemma between connecting with the Czech audience and potential international success. The rapper bets on the fact that she uses a number of anglicisms in her lyrics and has recently started including French in her writing. Lately, the twenty-seven-year-old musician is said to be thinking more and more in English, which is why half of her lyrics are beginning to be in this language. He sings, for example: “Give me water, not wine.”
According to Veselý, text writing should reflect the times, so he sees nothing wrong with combining English and Czech. After all, it reflects the way the young generation speaks, which consumes mostly English-language content on social networks. “In my opinion, it’s not a problem and it’s certainly not preventable. The gentlemen in ties from the Institute for the Czech Language won’t do anything about it,” says the publicist in exaggeration.
David Koller sings as a guest in Arleta’s song Čás najde žen zám back. Photo: Jiří Zerzoň | Video: Arleta
The listener is his digital master
Vaverková and Trusinová, on the other hand, do not subscribe to the current language of young people, which, in addition to Arleta, is also represented by Annet X or Pam Rabbit. Half of the duo Something Something explains that she uses anglicisms in everyday speech, but they don’t belong in her lyrics. Anna Vaverková, a musician who has lived in Berlin for eight years, mentions that her Czech language is stuck somewhere between the “teenage slang” she brought there with her and the contemporary culture and art she consumes through the media.
To what extent can one break through with the repertoire in a language that only about ten million people speak, but also think. However, he believes that interest in foreign language music is growing in the world, even if listeners do not necessarily understand it. “After all, I played my Czech repertoire in Germany, in London or in Texas, so I hope that it will go elsewhere and further,” believes Vaverková.
Veselý also confirms the increased interest in non-Anglophone music. “Maybe it looks like I’m contradicting myself now, because I mentioned before the need for fans to connect to music through language. But these two trends are happening at the same time. For example, Korean bands that use their native language to a large extent are very popular now,” he mentions a genre called k-pop.
“It is also related to changes in the distribution of music through digital platforms. Part of the people who previously determined what is and is not suitable for the market have fallen away. Listeners have started to make their own choices and it has become clear that it is not necessary to discard certain music just because that it is in a language that is not globally understandable,” the journalist continues. According to him, a good example is the success of the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny or the South Korean band BTS. “It can give courage to musicians who aren’t sure they can be creative in their speech,” he believes.
Previously, according to Karel Vesely, bands either didn’t know or didn’t want to admit that the Czech language could pull. “I understand that for musicians who are just starting their own work, it is sometimes easier to repeat a few phrases that they have heard in the English lyrics of their favorites. In addition, Czech is not so easy to work with in Western-style music. But whoever is braver, thanks to the proximity of the language more chances to get listeners. Even if their music isn’t that interesting formally, language can be the key for some listeners through which they get to it,” he is convinced.
Anna Vaverková also sang the song Polepšovna on Colors. Photo: Jiří Zerzoň | Video: Kabinet Records
The end of poets in Bohemia?
Contemporary alternative musicians working in Czech can also be traced to a tendency towards civil expression instead of soaring metaphors. All three musicians have a negative attitude towards ostentatious other people and prefer civility, simplicity and playfulness in their lyrics. “Some things can’t be changed just like that, don’t think about them any more, it sounds so easy when you say it,” Vaverková sings, for example, in the song Polepšovna.
According to her, listeners can relate better to civil language. “I enjoy bringing lightness and everydayness to the texts, which can end up having more impact than using one metaphor after another. They are also nice, but they have to be handled with care and individuality,” he thinks. “Unfortunately, the ones I hear in music are usually quite kitsch,” she says, adding that her work is mainly inspired by the style of contemporary Czech poetry and prose.
Even Trusinová mentions the proximity of the minimalistic text to the listener as the main advantage. “I enjoy writing the way I speak myself. At the same time, I also write about the same things that used to be talked about only through metaphors,” she says. She is said to have been mainly influenced by Czech new wave bands such as Dybbuk or Zuby nehty.
The song Nečekej from the project Néco néco, created by Alžběta Trusinová and Tomáš Tkáč. Photo: Jiří Zerzoň | Video: Something something
Rapper Arleta also highlights accessibility as an advantage of simple writing. She adds, however, that she decided to civilize her speech only after she had been writing the lyrics for some time.
“I enjoy communicating complicated ideas in simple ways. It’s often more complicated than long descriptions,” he observes. And publicist Veselý acknowledges this change. “Czech has become the number one language for local musicians, which is great,” he praises himself.
Video: Delving into the topic of war does me no good. I no longer have Russian symbols in my music, says Annet X (February 25, 2023)
“I won’t run away from my Russian roots and I don’t want to run away from them,” said rapper Annet X in the Spotlight show last year. | Video: Aktuálně.cz, Jakub Zuzánek