When the term “world music” is mentioned, most people probably think of Indian Bollywood music or African rhythms. But the genre also includes music from Europe. I talked about it with Milan Tesař, head of the music editorial department of Radio Proglas and now also secretary of the World Music Charts Europe. Interesting performers from Europe are now being invited by Milan to the world music scene at the Marathon Music Festival Brno. In addition, we discussed Proglas, his work as an expert supervisor of the Ceny Anděl (Anděl Awards) competition, the quality of Czech music and its experience with dramaturgy.
You have been working as head of the music editorial department at Radio Proglas for twenty-six years. What does this position give you that you haven’t changed your location yet?
I’ve been drawn to radio as a medium since I was a kid. When I actually started working in radio, I had no idea what it would give me. But gradually I realised that nowadays there is probably no other radio station that would give me as much freedom as Proglas. Commercial radios are very much tied to one genre of music, they are after a large listenership, so the musical administrator has less opportunity to be creative. In the public media, which are certainly prestigious, I would have maybe only one show, and I couldn’t take much action concerning the rest. In Proglas, on the other hand, there is great freedom and I am in charge of a large part of the music broadcasting.
You participate in the daily “Jak se vám líbí (How You Like It)” series of music interviews, of which there are now more than 3,000. Do you have any more questions? Don’t you feel that everything has been said?
One can slip into routine, or constantly invent new things. I feel that there is still much to discover. There are so many interesting people to ask questions of that it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. But the show has evolved over time. In the beginning we were primarily dedicated to Czech contemporary folk music. As Proglas grew and I developed musically, I ventured more into more challenging things, such as interviews with foreign artists. Technology also developed, culminating in the COVID era when we used video calls extensively. It’s practically no problem to talk to anyone on the other side of the world today. This way, I have recently interviewed, for example, a band from Benin or a singer from Colorado. Twenty years ago it was not so easy, but fortunately today it is.
But you’re not alone in conducting interviews.
Yes, that’s another advantage, I have several colleagues helping me and most of all two collaborating musicians, Martin Kyšperský from the band Květy and Jannis Moras, a singer-songwriter with Greek roots. In addition, he began to interview his compatriots in Greek. All in all, I’m not worried that the show will end up lacking content.
What are the reactions of your listeners? Do you also have any tips from them on what any of you should listen to or what is worth publishing?
I’m very careful to keep all the reactions that come to me. Ninety percent are positive, the rest are more or less negative. I even just have a group of steady listeners formed from the listener hit parade who write to us every week. I really appreciate it; it’s from here that we get tips on bands or constructive criticism.
You prepare the music programme not only on the radio, but also at the Brno Music Marathon festival. How did you become its artistic administrator?
For some time now I have been contributing as an editor to the Brno – Music Friendly City website, which was created after the city was registered in the UNESCO network of creative cities. David Dittrich, the founder of the festival and head of the production company CEMA, offered me the opportunity to write for the website due to my profession as a journalist. Besides, we already knew about each other. And now the offer for dramaturgy of the new world music scene has come.
What do you want to say through the music of the selected artists?
Firstly, the first intention is to focus on Europe. The European scene is very varied and interesting, and I hope my dramaturgy is as well. In addition to that, I also tried to look at the success rate of artists in the World Music Charts Europe (WMCE), of which I am a part. From this came Damir Imamović, who was among the five most successful performers for the whole of last year. In addition, in May he was awarded Best European Artist by Songlines magazine, the most important music print media in the world music sector. The band Spilar impressed me with their energy and creativity. And the vocal quintet Kata from the Faroe Islands is very interesting, mysterious and purely female. The final intersection of all performers and world music in general is the emphasis on story. Even if we don’t understand the individual languages, the songs tell the stories of their authors. But we get to know the idea of the songs through the music that guides us.
What does the job of an artistic administrator mean to you?
It is a person who listens for others, watches, reads and then selects and recommends to others. Previously, in our country, five albums were released in one genre per year. So the music editor wrote about everything. There is a plethora of music now, thanks also to streaming platforms. So my job is to provide the listener, based also on my knowledge and experience, with a varied package of music that may not always be a hit, but is interesting and has something to offer.
Since November 2020 you have been the secretary of WMCE, the European independent music chart, which practically means that you control the whole chart. What exactly is your job?
Yes, even though we call it a secretary, it’s a de facto leadership role. The organisation is an expert panel with forty-three radio music editors from twenty-five countries. My job is to coordinate this group and provide them with input for their work in the organisation. Each panellist is asked to vote once a month for their top ten albums. We are also trying to make editors, musicians and labels work together so that everyone knows where to send the music and how to distribute it. The musician or label can choose. Either he or she sends the recording to a targeted editor, whose contact details can be found on our website, or we can arrange to send it to all panel members for a fee. It used to happen that someone would send a recording to a radio station in Berlin, for example, and someone would listen to it at the reception, keep the CD for themselves, and the editor in charge wouldn’t even know about it.
What exactly does this “blanket distribution” mean?
We offer labels the opportunity to send us forty-three CDs in one package, which we then send to individual colleagues. We prefer physical media because some of the panel members are still big fans of old formats. The packages come to our editorial office in Brno. Once per month, my colleagues prepare packages for our members from all the incoming albums, which we then send out.
You must be in almost daily contact with different publishers across Europe.
Exactly, and not only with them, but also directly with the musicians. In addition, I manage the website www.wmce.de and my Hungarian colleague and I manage social media.
The fact that the headquarters of the charts moved from Berlin to Brno – does it mean anything for the Czech Republic?
Time will tell. The prestige in professional circles has certainly increased, and I have also received some positive feedback from the Czech Republic. In addition, all the documents and things leave from Brno, which is usually visible in the case of traditional distribution, and therefore we again make the city and our country visible abroad. In the longer term, it is difficult to determine the benefit now, but others knowing about us and our position allows us to get to interesting events. For example, a colleague from Hungary is planning a project in Central Europe on mapping and analysing folklore, and in the Czech Republic he asked us to be a partner because he knew Proglas. I don’t want to overestimate it, but on the other hand I try to promote Brno and the country as much as possible.
How is it with music, do you have more influence on the chart placement of Czech artists?
Previously, some albums have been included in the charts and occasionally someone has been featured on foreign radio. The Indies Scope publishing house has been active for a long time, for instance. Now I’m trying to convince other Czech labels to find sense in it and start actively sending their albums not only to Czech radio stations, but also to our panel.
And how does Czech music stand abroad? Do we have anything to offer?
Some albums scored in the WMCE chart, but it was only one or two cases per year. Namely, I remember Gipsy.cz, BraAgas, Tomáš Kočko or Čankišou. Clarinet Factory did very well last year, and the biggest success of Czech artists in the chart happened at the beginning of this year, when the duo Tara Fuki got to second place, and even in the interim six-month ranking is in the top five, which none of us has managed so far. I rather feel that the Slovaks are more active and successful. One month they even had four titles in the top twenty, but this is due to the activity of the local organisation WOMUSK, which offers Slovak music abroad.
Does that mean “we’re not of good quality”?
We certainly are, we have a lot of interesting projects and musicians here, we just can’t “sell” it abroad enough, to highlight ourselves. Unfortunately, the competition is strong and sometimes even those who are musically weaker but know how to move in the industry can become famous. Therefore, as a panel, we try to offer interesting news to our members. I also advise labels to include a press release in English or other promotional materials with the CD. Time is short, and when someone gets information served right under their nose, it’s easier than expecting them to notice you on their own.
When one reads music biographies, one finds many ways to present a band. Do you prefer colourful language and colourful turns of phrase, or facts and simplicity?
Definitely the second option. Interpreters should be aware that diverse turns of phrase and metaphors do not always imply quality. As a music journalist, I’m interested in who the author of the music and lyrics is, how long the band has been around, their background, what they’ve been through. I want to know the story. So when I get a description that contains that information, and it includes one or two metaphorical sentences, I consider it to be very good work. And it doesn’t even have to be who knows how long, just half a page.
I guess you could say that each country or larger region has its own typical music – Moravian folk music, Bosnian sevdah, Portuguese fado, Nordic rhythms and more. Does foreign influence permeate these genres? Or does it keep its form, in your opinion, unchanged?
The very name “world music” originally referred to music that is not directly folklore, but combines different genres, or folklore with something else. Nowadays it’s looser, which implies that it’s not a genre, but rather a kind of simplified naming. I’m noticing a lot of jazz or rock fusions popping up. However, each region guards its traditions. In Hungary there is a strong folk music revival, in Scandinavian countries there are many interesting violinists, in Finland many people have been playing the accordion for many years. However, the music of nations that do not have their own state is also making it into the charts. I work very intensively with a Catalan publishing house. However, there is also interest in the Sámi, formerly known as Lapps. For many years now, the music of the Tuareg people of the Sahara, i.e. from present-day Mali and Niger, has also been on the course. Naxos Publishing is now publishing a multi-volume series of songs and compositions by ethnic minorities in China, of which more than fifty are recognised. It is often strange and atypical music for us, but very interesting.
Should you be short of ideas, you can also draw musical inspiration for interviews or radio as an expert guarantor of the Anděl Awards in the genre categories Folk and Jazz. What do you see as the meaning of the Anděl Awards? Possibly other awards such as Vinyla or Apollo in the field of popular music?
This topic is very topical for me especially this year. Every summer, during the Folkové prázdniny (Folk Holidays) festival in Náměšt’ nad Oslavou, there is an expert colloquium composed of editors, labels, organisers and others. And this year the theme is “Music and Capital”. I’ll be giving a talk there on the effect of being awarded for bands. Evaluation is always subjective, music is not a competition, it’s just a game, but still, I think success in a poll of experts or winning a chart like WMCE is important for an artist. But when someone wins an award, they can continue to work with it, whether in PR, production, booking, etc. However, it is always up to the artist how he/she will further capitalise on the capital in the form of awards.
Can you explain how the Anděl Awards are voted for?
The awards have two parts. Firstly, there are the main awards – album of the year, artist of the year, etc. They are voted on by the so-called Grand Academy, which is several hundred people from the industry. The second component is the genre awards, where each genre has its own supervisor and different people vote in different musical directions. It partly overlaps because some people have an overview in two different genres. The supervisor then selects the voters, who then evaluate. There used to be more awards, now it’s a bit more reduced. Thus, for example, the Folk category includes tramp songs, folk, country, folklore, world music and acoustic alternative music. That’s a wide range. That’s why I’m inviting the organisers from, for example, Porta and Colours of Ostrava as voters, because I know about their knowledge of these genres. The second task of the supervisor is to create as complete a list as possible of the albums that have been released in this category in the last year. Voters then have a scrollable online list, or they can add someone who is not on it.
What are the conditions for inclusion?
The album must be released in that particular year and must comprise of previously unreleased songs. Furthermore, a majority of the band members must have Czech citizenship or permanent residence in the Czech Republic. For example, we were finding out whether the saxophonist Karel Růžička, who lives in New York, still has Czech citizenship or not. It was also discussed whether one album can be nominated in more than one category. My opinion is that one album can score points and maybe even win in more than one category, like the Grammys for example. Last year, for example, Vladimír Mišík won both the Folk and Rock categories. And I think that’s fine.
In addition to Proglas, you prepare articles for the magazine Kulturní magazín UNI, for Harmonie and for Katolický týdeník. You also write for the Brno – Music Friendly City website, for the Polish quarterly Twój Blues and others. Is time management your strong point?
I’m very organised, I can find the time, but I have to want to, I can’t be forced. When someone stands behind me and pushes me, I get stuck and can’t move on. But if I enjoy something, I do it and I can do more things. For example, I’m not a driver, I would consider it a waste of time. I always read and listen to music at the same time when travelling, I couldn’t do that behind the wheel.
Isn’t it sometimes too much? Do you have time to sit and just look out the window or sit in the park and just think?
Sometimes it’s too much. I used to write poems back in secondary school, but unfortunately I can’t do it anymore. On the other hand, I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid and what I enjoy, so I appreciate it and it fulfils me. But there is a lot of stuff to do, I listen to music practically all day, except when I sleep. Sometimes I get ten albums to listen to in a day, which is a lot. But so far it’s working.
Music editor, artistic administrator and professional juror with over twenty-five years of experience. Is music evolving or are we in a cycle?
It is said that the past years and musical creations are gradually returning. In the 1990s, The Beatles’ music was making a comeback in England. Then we have legendary permanent stars. Yet I feel the evolution more than the cycling. At the turn of the millennium there were more single-genre festivals, now it is common to have multi-genre festivals. If I take contemporary folk, where I started as an editor, it was previously unthinkable to have drums in this genre. When Bob Dylan first performed with an electric band, many fans did not accept it. And these situations continue. A couple of years ago, loopers and looping were the subject of Porta’s preliminary rounds, while today folk musicians routinely work with beats and electronics. We’re moving on.
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