| on 16-07-2008 12:44
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Published in : , Music |
In the wake of Czech Republic’s Mighty Sounds festival, Provokator caught up with one of the main acts, The Toasters. As well as The Toasters being one of the longest active American ska bands, with nine studio albums under their belt, their founding member Robert “Bucket” Hingley is responsible for the now-defunct Moon Ska and the still-booming Megalith ska-record labels. In short, there’s no one more qualified to talk about the state of ska and the current music and festival scene in the world, let alone Eastern Europe…
Marika: So, how long have you been touring through the Czech Republic?
Robert "Bucket" Hingley: Well, I think our first gig there was 1990, 1991, maybe 1990.
M: Okay, so then as compared to now, I mean, as far as –
RH: But then, uh, I mean then basically it was still a Communist country.
M: …or recovering from being one.
RH: And you had heavy duty border controls but I mean I tell you what it was easier getting in there then than it is crossing from USA to Canada now. I don’t know if you’ve tried to do that recently.
M: No.
RH: But, where we played up there was mostly up in the north, like Usti nad Labem, up around that area, and then we didn’t get to Prague until about 1991 I don’t think.
M: And as far as the bands that you’re hearing now over the past let’s say five years to ten years, as far as like their production value, the music in general, do you feel that they’re better at their art…?
RH: Yeah, I mean there’s definite progression. Fast Food Orchestra, who we’re working with now, we released them in Spain, we’ve also just licensed them in Japan. That’s just happening this week so they’ve got a Japanese record deal.
M: Oh terrific.
RH: So basically you’ve got a band there now that’s able to really reach out and go international, so I’d say that kind of speaks for itself. But I mean really, it’s gone from not having any bands, that were playing ska and reggae, to a lot now. I mean you’ve got that band Prague Ska Conspiracy, also, and a bunch of other bands bubbling up, so I think the scene’s quite good at having guys like Premysl, Kuba and Fido putting together things like Mighty Sounds. I think that’s really great polarisation, and just drawing people’s attention to the fact that something’s going on there. But the other good thing about the Czech Republic is the location, so, really, I mean it’s a country that a lot of bands can tour through to get to Eastern Europe or down into Italy or out to the Balkans, so I think being in Prague is an ideal place to have a thriving music scene, and that seems to be happening at the moment.
M: Why do you think it’s happening at the moment as opposed to say four or five years ago?
RH: Well I think it’s just the development, I mean, for kids to start bands and organise things they have to have money and it’s really taken a while for kids in Czech Republic to get financially empowered, I think. That’s got something to do with it. You know when you’re starting a label or putting a band together or whatever you’re doing and your idea is a stone you throw into a pond. By the time the ripples get to the edge, which is basically meeting your audience and meeting your customers and stuff, the stone’s been sitting on the bottom a long time. So it actually takes quite a long time, I’d say like five, ten years, to develop something like that. It really doesn’t happen overnight.
M: You were in the second Mighty Sounds correct?
RH: Yeah we played the second one and we’re playing, this year we’re playing on the Sunday, so I guess, uh, is this number three or number four?
M: This’ll be number four.
RH: Yeah, so we played number two then.
M: Yeah. So I remember catering for you.
RH: Oh good.
M: No back then.
RH: What are we gonna eat?
M: Oh this time I’m not cater - we’re able to pay other people to cater. I just take care of you.
RH: Oh come on, well that sounds good, makes more time then.
M: Well that’s what I’m saying, like, that they’ve actually made a really good, like, a lot of money and a lot of people, like the first one was 3000 people, last year was 8000 people.
RH: That’s great. Well I think this year it’s shooting for ten or twelve isn’t it?
M: Yeah, absolutely. We’re going for the -
RH: Well that’s great quantities, I mean if you can keep having a growth curve in those numbers, not too much in the music business doing nothing at the moment. I mean most business is stagnant to decreasing so I think having, you know, having a festival where it’s growing exponentially is really great. But I know it takes from about 11 months to decompress after that, Hue was telling me.
M: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. But we all just sit around, actually I just invite them to dinner, and we sit around and watch the last Glastonbury.
RH: Oh that sounds like fun.
M: And that’s what we’re looking for it to be, eventually.
RH: To just go back-
M: Yeah, please.
RH: To Eastern European music, I think it’s really quite interesting to talk about, like, Balkan Beats meets ska.
M: Yeah?
RH: And there’s a couple of bands to look for, Pannonia All-Star Ska Orchestra out of Budapest. I could point people towards them. And there’s another band down in Macedonia which isn’t really a ska band but they’re kind of like a wacky jazz bop, called Naat Veliov.
M: Uh huh. And do you see a lot of this coming, I mean like, do you see it finally, that’s what I was questioning you about the Eastern European music scene, that there is a level of now they’ve had access to the music, so they are starting to you know-
RH: Well on the other side of the coin I think that people in Western Europe and particularly in the festival circuit, the people looking for more eclectic types of music, and more ethnic types of music, are really kind of tuned in to that, so you’re gonna see a lot more Balkan influenced bands, no matter, you know, folk music or whatever it is, you’re going to see a lot more of those playing in Western music because they’re kind of like new, a little bit, you know, so it’s kind of flavour of the week some, but I think that’s the extent to which really the eye of Western Europe has swung round and all of a sudden they take Eastern Europeans and Eastern European music seriously, whereas before they didn’t I think.
M: Yeah, yeah I know it’s true. Whereas before it was folk music, you know.
RH: Well that and there was always, like a, I felt that they were in the West, they were almost a little like, a little patronising, you know, and condescending towards the East but all of a sudden they realised "oh wow there really is something there." And a lot of the folk music, for sure, has kind of been unspoilt because it’s just been there by itself and so it’s pretty true to the roots and I think a lot of people appreciate that in this age of, you know, mass-produced crap music.
M: Well, in that vein, would – are you into producing that type of music as well or looking into you know spreading Megalith?
RH: Well um not on Megalith so much because I wanna just keep that as a straight ska label and – and really you know as a ska label like a pretty purist one like two-tone and reggae influenced and old school. We don’t really put out ska punk bands at all, because I think that kind of, you know, that’s an appendix that’s going to shrivel up really. I’m much more interested in dealing with trad bands like Westbound Train or Go Jimmy Go. Deal’s Gone Band is a band we’re going to bring next year. So I’m, uh, any bands that I work with would kind of be outside of the label framework but I’m not against, I mean, when we were in Croatia for example, we met these guys who were in a band which is a band playing Croatian folk music – folk rock, with three girls singers, like singing in Croatian and doing all this kind of strange ulunation and stuff which they do over there, which looked pretty interesting. But I’m certainly not against taking a band like that out on the road, just for a change, um, just to mix it up a little bit, but you know bands like that, to go back to what I said, I really see them making some major inroads on the festival circuit.
M: Terrific, terrific. And I’m looking forward to that too, I do feel that Prague will be their crossroads throughout it.
RH: I think so.
M: Looking forward to that. Actually, I am it. Part of it. I do feel a little bit of an interloper being like an American Westerner, you know, coming here and working with the kids in the East, but, I mean, it seems much more natural than anything that’s going on in the West at the moment.
RH: Well I think you’ve got some street cred simply because of what you’re doing, you know, and the fanzine and everything, and you know, being there when a lot of people just pass through as tourists. It’s something else to actually go and live there and like assimilate into that sense, but I think really, you know Czech Republic really is going to come on by leaps and bounds, simply because, in terms of the former communist bloc countries it’s really one of the more advanced culturally and economically and everything, so I think really the best is yet to come out of Czech Republic.
M: Oh my, oh my how optimist. I don’t know if our fans can take that. But actually they can.
RH: I’m a glass half full kind of guy.
M: I think that’s another thing that they’re kind of learning here too, is like, in order to do something you just have to go for it and make that leap of faith, of optimism, that people will come.
RH: Yeah you do, because I mean really to quote the old proverb, nothing ventured nothing gained, and you’ve got to be in it to win it. So I think bands which really are putting themselves in, like Premek for example, to get where he is now all of a sudden he’s getting a break but he’s been working hard for ten years to make that happen. So, it’s not like it’s coming out of nowhere.
M: Yeah. No, it’s true, it’s true.
RH: There are really good bands in Slovenia, Bulgaria, all kinds of stuff going on down there, but it’s stuff you know you haven’t really heard of, and haven’t really, outside of MySpace now, they haven’t had much to get their music out. You know I think really the more you scratch, the more you dig, the more great bands you’re going to find.
M: Cool, and hopefully the farther East you go they’re actually gravitating towards you as well.
RH: Yeah I mean the thing is, they’re not spoilt because they don’t get a lot of concerts out there so when you do go through they tend to be more of a big deal and people appreciate it more because you know they appreciate the fact that you’re doing something for them, whereas in the West, like Berlin for example, nobody can be bothered going to a live concert because they’ve seen it all and done it all.
M: Yeah, yeah.
RH: But they’re a little less jaded out further East.
M: Yeah, which is something that’s preferable to play for, I’m sure.
RH: Yes, it makes a lot of sense.
M: So, I was just out in Barcelona the other day, actually, you’re in Spain? Northern or Eastern or Southern?
RH: Valencia, I’m about four hours due South of Barcelona.
M: Beautiful place there.
RH: Well it’s nice this week, but the weather’s been miserable. It was nicer weather in England, I hate to say. Hopefully the rest of the summer will brighten up.
M: Yeah right, we don’t want another Muddy Sounds. Alright cheers, thank you Rob.
RH: Okay thanks a lot.
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