2024-09-14 19:22:30
Last year she jumped to a solo project, but in the end she always returns to where she belongs for years and where she feels safe – to the band Monkey Business. They are trying to bring more subtle nuances to this otherwise men’s club. She also contributed lyrics to the new album entitled When the Muses are Silent, their first sung in Czech. “We blocked the way to a simple ear with English,” says Tereza Černochová.
This is a big change for Monkey Business, founded in 1999. Lyrics sung in Czech are unprecedented in their work. Nevertheless, the music still keeps to the funk beat and contemporary sound of frontman Roman Holé. “We were afraid that the difference wouldn’t be significant, and overall we didn’t know how it would turn out. In the end, it turned out well and I’m not modest in saying that we’re proud of the result. Now it’s just a matter of whether he will feel the same about it listener,” says Tereza Černochová about the new album consisting of ten tracks.
The impulse to start singing in her native language came precisely from the leader of the seven-member group, and it was no problem for her. She already used Czech with the band Black Milk as well as on her three solo albums. According to her, one of the reasons for the change is the change in listener preferences. “In the 1990s, it seemed that English would completely rule here and that we would get closer to the West. I too had the feeling that singing in English meant worldliness. But in the new millennium, the complete opposite happened. The trend of ordinary song form in in Czech,” he describes.
Added to this is the fact that Monkey Business became famous for relatively complicated lyrics full of cynicism, irony, metaphors and reflections. “Our lyricist Vratislav Šlapák even read English poetry, so his lyrics were polished, they didn’t contain any clichés. Consider how difficult it is to understand something like that in Czech, let alone in English,” says the singer. She said it happened that she stood on the stage and felt that the audience did not know “what the poet wanted to say”, she admits. “We closed the way to the simple ear who just wants to come to the concert and sing with us. To translate the lyrics and think about them, as I did in the 90s, there will really only be rock fans,” she adds.
It was also a step forward for the band and an opportunity to develop in a slightly different direction after years. “We want to be closer to the listener, to tell him: we’re here and we’re singing as our beaks have grown. The fact that I’m there, and not Tonya, makes it even more meaningful,” reminds the singer of American origin Tonya Graves, who joined the group eight years ago replaced. He shares vocals with Matěj Ruppert.
Guys, what will keep you going
It was Tonya Graves who said about Monkey Business that it is a “boys club”, a men’s club, and Černochová only confirms it. “Sometimes I have to point out to the boys that women also go to concerts and that it would be good to introduce some finer structure,” he explains. This time, the singer took part in some of the lyrics, for example, she contributed to the song Jsem zlo, where she sings: “I rule like a black hand / Duka is also afraid of me / I will rule even the Dalai Lama / I’m breaking Barbie’s rubber joints.”
On her last year’s solo album Slečna demanding, she worked on purely female themes, which there is no room for in the band. Since then, she stopped being afraid of her own lyrics, but she notes that she still doesn’t feel much self-confidence in this regard. “But there is a certain taste and curiosity in it. I definitely want to continue, because no one can see into my head anyway and I will become less dependent on others,” she believes.
He wants to continue his work as a copywriter. “No one can see into my head,” thinks the singer. | Photo: Anna Kovačič
However, a solo career is not a priority for her. She takes her own creation more as a special thing when she starts to get bored in Monkey Business. “I’m not very good solo. I can sing, that’s fine, but when I’m on my own I feel very insecure. Of course I have some expectations, even though I say I don’t. Then I feel sad for a while when it won’t work out, but eventually I’ll find out that I have my place in the band, and that’s the most important thing. If I can do it somewhere, it’s there,” he thinks. She also values her “men’s club” for the support and security it gives her when her self-confidence betrays her. “They are guys who will hold you up, that’s a great feeling,” he appreciates.
The theme of insecurity and dependence on external evaluation is touched upon on the album When the Muses are Silent in the composition Bludičky v máčal identity. “Why do we care so much what you think about us, we’ll cut up, I’ll tear up while you’re praising us,” reads here. “It is a very topical text about the fact that we are all searching for our own identity, who we are, what we are doing here or how to raise children so that we don’t screw it up completely,” lists Tereza Černochová. “Our own ego makes a terrible mess of it,” he adds.
His favorite track from the album is Prima rozvod, written by bassist Pavel Mrázek. He talks about the breakup of a marriage with irony and perspective. “He wants to indicate that even if such an unfortunate thing happens to you, such as a divorce, you can handle it and after a few years you will laugh again,” interprets the singer.
The song Dva na colójé, about the journey of two people who continue on their own path, also speaks to her personally. “People ride together for a while, but then they go their separate ways. That’s an eternal theme and it’s the same in life. But sometimes it happens that they meet again on that tram,” he says.
The song Two on the rails from the new album of the group Monkey Business. | Video: Warner Music
Music as a “family business”
Tereza Černochová admits that singing in Monkey Business is technically not easy. “We come from the so-called p-funk, where a woman is a female who comes, opens her mouth, kills with her tone and leaves. These are high exposed positions, so you have to manage your energy well during the concert. You also need to practice more. Of course, the older I get , that makes it easier for me, definitely much more than when I started,” she explains.
“Tonya, who has a different vocal position than me, left then, so I had to adjust my singing an octave higher,” she adds.
Černochová studied opera singing at the music gymnasium, but it was rather a dead end. She says she doesn’t use much of what she learned at school in Monkey Business. That’s why she started attending voice technique lessons with lecturer Hana Pecková. “She recognized that it’s in me somewhere, it’s just a matter of bringing it out. Since I’m not a naturally self-confident person, I had to stop being afraid of my own voice and simply open my mouth. We managed to do that together,” she boasts.
She herself is the daughter of the singer Karel Černoch, and now it turns out that her ten-year-old daughter also inherited her musical talent. “Recently, she pleasantly surprised me by singing one of my dad’s songs, and I definitely understood that the genes are there. There is no point in pushing the saw, but also in closing our eyes to it,” she says.
In addition to music, she secured a back door, with a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry and an engineering degree in reproductive biotechnology. She originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but she couldn’t combine her studies with performing in the band Black Milk.
Today, the singer, who recently moved to Šumava, has breeding as a hobby and a form of relaxation. “I have a pet, now three more chickens and a horse have been added. I also go to Šumava to help out at a smaller zoo, where I deal with, for example, when the animals have some health problems. I enjoy it when my head can rest in a completely different world than the one musical,” he concludes.
Video: Why Tata Boys avoid political topics (3/9/2024)
“Humanity is always going around in circles,” says Tata Boys singer Milan Cais. His teammate Mardoša would also like it if people weren’t so “heated up”. | Video: Team Spotlight