Metamorphoses of a bar signer: an interview with Ester Kocickova.

When Ester Kocickova was a presenter at the orginal Limonadovy joe [Lemonade joe] radio station only a small circle of fans knew her name but as soon as she appeared on television interview followed interview Most of them have hinged on whether or not she is a feminist. Only a few interviewrs ask her about her musical activities even though she herself regards them as the most important aspect of her career Now after several years of concerts she has released a CD with the pianist and composer Lubomir Nohavica. Her songs can be defined as chansons, a genre that has not been much to the forefront in this country recently. On the one hand she honours the tradition of the French chanson, but on the other she approaches the gener in her own way - above all in her own way - above all in texts that mix humour with pathos.

Originally you studied drama How did you get into singing?

The subject I studied at conservatory is called drama" and actors were sup posed to learn to sing there too. But for five years they kept telling me, "Don' try to sing, you won't make it up to soprano anyway." For some time I did theatre improvisation, with Martin Smolka accompanying me, and at that time I often stylised myself into the role of a bar singer who leans on the piano and comments on events. Then some friends of mine invited me to their club, where I actually started to work as a bar singer. And that was where I met Lubomir Nohavica We were supposed to do songs that wouldn't disturb anyone in the bar - the kind I call 'bar workouts" - Jazek, Hegerova, things I would never dream of singing today. We began to compose, with Lubos bringing a melody for me to try to invent a text Then, when we had our own melodies and texts, we started to be sorry that people were eating and talking through them. Hockey players would come to the club, for example, and have competitions on who could do handstands and so on. One day we decided that maybe we deserved some attention from people. The transitional stage was a "bar opera" Rumunskym psum [To Rumanian Dogs], which was my chance to get the courage to sing in theatre. It ran for four years and then I realised that now I just wanted to sing.

Is the role of bar singer still an interesting one for your?

Definitely. But at the time it bothered me that when I played at being a bar singer, the people there wouldn't act along with me. I mean acting that they were in a club where a tired woman with a past was singing. They preferred just to listen, but in fact the original idea of the club had been precisely that kind of play. I was there as majordomus -- wrapped myself in a boa, knew all the regulars and sang them "their songs". But then someone had the idea that more people would come if there were a disco, and of course it worked. But then I didn't have any role. This happened just at the time when we were beginning to think we deserved a more perceptive public. I would really like there to be a club here where some madam would sit and when she felt like it she would go over to the piano and sing. But there's nothing like that here. I have one wish. To have my owr club called the "False Kitten", where I would actually live, and if a musician turned up I would sing something. And there would be The same atmosph ere there day and night

You have made your CD at your own expense was that because you wanted to keep complete control of it or was it just because no one was interested in publishing it for you?

A bit of both. If someone had been interested, we would have gone for it Supraphon only contacted us now, but we don't want it any more. They are offering us either a license, which means the sale of all rights, or co-production, which would be more acceptable for us because that way we could get into the distribution network, which is hard for small publishers. But we shall see. This particular CD was actually the result of high pressLire. Currently Lubos and I have songs for another three CDs, and so we said to ourselves that we needed to get rid of the songs so that we could give full attention to the next ones. Many of our listeners were also starting to talk about a recording, and so we also did it for our public - which wasn't very big - for our fan club. If I said that we had three hundred loyal listeners, then that would be a lot. We recorded the CD in a day and a half under psychological stress and with my voice not at its best. We didn't have any money for more recording time, and so retaking and corrections weren't possible. Some notes were flat, but had expression and so we left them as they were, We repeated maybe two songs twice, but in most cases we knew them very well from the stage.

What's the situation with distribution of the CD?

You can't buy the CD in a shop. Nobody can hear the songs unless he or she comes to our concert That was originally the deliberate idea, but now it looks as if it would be right and proper if the CD was available normally, although I still think that until we're established on the television screen there's not much point. And I would hate to see a CD that we published ourselves and borrowed money for, lying around somewhere in the discount section. Much bigger artists have ended that way, often simply because the recording company made mistakes. I don't know whether it would help if we tried to promote it in some way, or even how to promote it I suppose we could let it be sold somewhere in supermarkets by the cash desk...

But now you are already beginning to establish yourself in televisio At least as a presenter.

...but that doesn't necessarily mean in a positive sense. I took on work in a feminist, actually pro-women programme, and as I suspected, the first responses are very mixed. Everyone is so appalled at the thought of my being feminist that they don't think about me at all. People don't listen to what I'm actually saying. It was a touch deliberate on my part, because I hoped it would help the CD a little. But If I had my own talk show, where I could invite people myself and talk on my own themes, it would look different.

Can you imagine your songs in any form other than simply plane accompaniment?

In my case yes, but it's true that the combination of piano and voice is relatively unusual here. Now we have plans for work with other musicians and we also want to take on less familiar songs, which will mean more work. On our next CD we would like to invite just a few friends for extra colour. I can imagine some of these songs just with a double bass and nothing else, for example. The trouble is that it might mean losing our distinctive signature. But I can also imagine something with an accordion.

Can you tell us something about the way you work with Lubomir Nohavica?

Usually Lubos gives me a cassette containing several motifs and says, "Do what you like with itl", Sometimes I make up a text for something immediately -- last year I brought back thirteen texts for him from my holiday -- I was bored there. But sometimes it works in different ways. For example recently I sent friends a text message about a grill party, "I greet you and grill you , and immediately the song Grill P pushkin was born -- "I grill you...". Sometimes I even think up a melody, but Lubos still has to develop it and finish it I only compose what I know already, while he thinks like a musician and is more original. On the other hand, Heaven help us when Lubos comes up with an idea for a text! We are very different in some things. I call it the "Southpark difference". Lubomir Nohavica has absolutely no understanding of the poetry of the film Southpark, while if I need to be cheered up I put on Southpark: Hell on Earth and feel better. He's the typical goodnatured Moravian with his passionate melody and I usually go against his grain -- because his cantilena annoys me.

There are some songs on the CD with titles that suggest inspirtion from current events (Hizbullah Chardash the Kosova Demoarcation Line), but when you hear them they turn out to be about other more general themes Are the provocative title s there to attract attention.

I am a lyric writer and also a notorious television addict I can't avoid it. Hizbullah Chardash for example is about the psychology of the terrorist, not some solution to the Middle East conflict. The idea is also to make people laugh a little. When such a serious song is created, he title is supposed to lighten it a bit But sometimes the humour is a little heavy. Nobody suspects us of political purposes any more, and so the second CD ought to have more fairytale type themes.