Lucie Vondráčková: Singing about love is courage for me

Your album has a strong Slovak imprint. Most of the writers are from Slovakia, they were filmed in Bratislava, you sing in Slovak in one song. Why is it like this?

It is beautifully organically made. First, the album’s co-creators and I said we’d try to make one song. Braňo Jančich sent me a message in a bottle and I immediately said that I had to sing this song. It went straight to my heart.

The cooperation then continued smoothly. I started going to Bratislava more often, where we recorded and composed, and we all enjoyed it. It was a fun adventure trip.

For the song Message in a Bottle, you are the co-writer of the lyrics. Is that why you immediately liked the song?

I have some of my lyrics on every record, but I never send them out into the world as a single. The original text of Message in a Bottle was written by Marián Brezáni. But from my point of view, he is very masculine, my view of love and the emotions associated with him is slightly different. So I changed a lot of things in it, and the men’s songs became much more fragile women’s songs. I then participate in the lyrics of other songs and in other songs I collaborate on the music.

Lovings album is monothematic, the motive is love. It is so?

I’ve always loved listening to Maria Rottrová and Lenka Filipová. They both sing about love all the time and it is a balm for the soul. And my album is about love. Sometimes the forbidden, sometimes the failed, and the yet to come. There are various feelings associated with love in the recording.

Poetry, music, and fiction most often revolve around love at the end. It didn’t matter if it was a story set in war, this time or another time. I love to sing about love and I felt I had to sing it.

Lucie Vondráčková

Photo: singer archive

How many of your personal love experiences are imprinted in the lyrics of the new album?

Every record that I release is a reflection of what I experienced and experienced at that time. So my album can be seen as my diary. I don’t like to talk about my personal life, I don’t even do it on social networks. And the only place where you can find some information about him is his lyrics.

So if tabloid journalists who are interested in information about your privacy read their texts, do they know more than they could discover on their own?

Maybe yes, they will definitely have a better and clearer map of my life. But their mistake was that they separated my art world from my private world.

Love has been sung about the song many times. Isn’t it boring anymore?

At first I avoided the theme of love in my songs. I released my first album when I was thirteen, and while we were working on it, I told my mother, Hana Sorros, who wrote most of the lyrics so there was no love in it. This happened until I was twenty-one, when the album Manon was made. The next May Day album was more rock, there wasn’t much love in it either.

But then I told myself I was going to step into it and I wouldn’t be afraid to mention the things I went through. As a result, my lyrics have become more personal. It was the first time on the album Boomerang in 2005. It was a breakthrough in this regard.

But when you sing about love, you lick it from the critics who think love is shallow and think singing it is childish. On the contrary, I think it is a great courage. And I will not return to my courage.

Lucie Vondráčková

Photo: singer archive

There are two words on the new album that have no fixed place in Czech, love and sin. The first is in the album title, the second is in the lyrics of the song I Don’t Have to Go to Heaven. Where did she come from?

Love is a word you really won’t find in a dictionary. I made it myself. I am a linguist who loves Czech, as well as the grammar of other languages. I’m strict in terms of lyrics and everything else in terms of language. I like to come up with new words because I think they belong to the evolution of language. Love is an example. I need to describe the feeling that came to me.

The word sinful was coined by lyricist Marián Brezáni. After spending a long time in the studio, he understood that I liked new words. So he came with that expression and I was happy. This is exactly how I like it.

The Czechs have gotten tailcoats in recent years. The slant of female names is no longer valid, words that have been considered colloquial for many years have entered the literary language, and in short, individuality and sound are disappearing. Do you feel it?

I’m not a fan of such steps. As in English, things are simplified in Czech. But I like the roughness and subtle complexity of the Czech language.

As soon as, for example, the debate that there would be no difference between soft and hard y started, I freaked out. At the same time, this is what I find interesting and fun in Czech. Yes, it’s complicated, kids fight at school, but it belongs to the Czechs and they have to learn something.

Which copywriters do you respect?

I will live with a permit in Slovakia. Years ago, Kamil Peteraj fascinated me with his lyrical works. We first met in the studio about twenty years ago. When I met my new album, we met again and I was terrified. He wrote me two beautiful lyrics and came to the studio to shoot. He wrote for so many great musicians and suddenly he was spending time with me.

I was nervous, I felt like I was shooting the first song. But again, great people and legends have proven to be humble people. They are firm but very understanding.

The album is influenced by pop pop in the eighties. Do you have a relationship with him?

I’ve always admired the melodies of the eighties. He disappeared a bit in the 1990s, mainly in dance songs. That’s why I go back to the 80s throughout my career, and it’s interesting that it’s now, so to speak, trendy, because so many other people in the world and the world are doing it. I love that what was considered negative a few years ago is modern today.

But you also have a relationship with dance music.

You know, I love to dance, so I need to have three or four songs on each of my dancing albums. But I also love folk, which I also touch on every album, even if only briefly. It happened in Láskovětů in the song Honza, which we recorded with the Kandráčovci band. Each of my records may be many, but I can’t help it.

Lucie Vondráčková

Photo: singer archive

We are going through a time when there are no concerts. Did you lose it?

We all need to adapt. From my point of view, I’d say that if I get criticized a lot for singing, playing in movies or theater, and still dubbing, instead of concentrating on one thing, it helps me survive now.

If I had followed the advice and kept singing, I might have been in trouble for the last two years. By dubbing what I like, making movies and doing what’s allowed, I survived. But I miss the audience at the concert.

Does this vast artistic life fill you?

Very. I find that when someone burns something at their job and does too much, they become cycling and can get burned. I experienced it myself.

Now I have a light inside of me telling me that I have gained a lot in one area. I can relax by doing something else and gain the strength to be able to look forward to working again. It cannot be done without joy.

When did you experience burnout?

At one time, I played thirty plays a month. I got to a stage where I didn’t really know who I was anymore. My voice started to fade, my body stopped listening and it indicated that I should stop. I didn’t listen to it for a long time, but in the end I ignored it. Now everything is fine again. I look forward to everything I do.

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