Jan P. Muchow: During EOST hiatus I’d always meet bandmate Winterová on school run
This year the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, perhaps the best-known Czech indie band of the 1990s and 2000s, delighted fans by returning to the stage after a hiatus of almost a decade. And the group, whose core members are founder Jan P. Muchow and singer and actress Kateřina Winterová, are also planning to release new music, the former says in an interview conducted at his Prague studio. Muchow also discusses his work as an in-demand film music composer and producer – and recording at the Berlin studio where David Bowie created some of his greatest work.
Why was this year the right year to bring back the Ecstasy of St. Theresa?
“I don’t know exactly why this year – actually, it’s just what happened.
“I don’t like playing gigs at all; for me being in front of people is an uncomfortable zone.”
“We played once last year, among a community, because we played on our kids’ school’s anniversary and that was a point where we thought, Oh, maybe we still enjoy it – even though I don’t like playing gigs at all, because for me being in front of people is an uncomfortable zone.
“But since we played our songs, and we hadn’t played them for such a long time, we really felt like we would enjoy it again.
“And people on the social networks… I put one picture on my profile and people kept calling and asking us to play.
“So we thought, Why not? If people are asking for it and we do enjoy it, let’s do it. That’s actually why this year was the year.
For That Moment, from the soundtrack of the film Loners, is one of EOST’s best-loved songs.
So you and Kateřina Winterová, your kids go to the same school?
“Yes. Unplanned, but it happened. They were schoolmates and as well friends and soul mates. Now they are at the next level and in gymnaziums, so now they’ve gone separate ways.”
When it came to practically starting up the group again, you obviously started the Ecstasy of St. Theresa in 1990 and Kateřina Winterová joined about 10 years later and you’ve had different members over the years. Did you call up the old members? Or find some new people to play with this time?
“It’s the line-up from when we stopped playing back in, what was it, eight years ago? And the former members will come to our Prague shows, just to watch us.”
So far how have the gigs gone, since you reformed?
“We’ve played festivals so far and I never thought that we are any festival band, because we are more like slow music [laughs] and you actually have to listen to it – it’s not just a rhythm.
“So I was a bit afraid, but it’s gone really, really well and we really enjoyed it.”
Whenever bands come back there’s always a question about whether they should just play and give people what they want, or do something fresh. And those who do something fresh are generally more positively received, it seems to me. Have you done anything new, or are you just playing the old stuff?
“At the moment, we’re just playing the old stuff.
“But the plan is – though I’m not sure we’re able to make it [laughs] – but for the Prague shows which are in the middle of November there was a plan to release a new single.
“I’m afraid we’re not in time to make it, actually, but it will come out a bit later on.
“But I think since we started to play again it makes sense to not only play the old stuff but as well come with something new.
“I have already written the stuff but we just haven’t had time to produce it and to record it.”
I’m (Not Really) Optimistic is from the 2002 LP Slowthinking.
What do you think when you see some group coming back and only doing the old songs?
“If you’re in an existing band you still should be able to do more than play old songs.”
“I went to Berlin to see The The two weeks ago and they split their show into two parts. In the first part they played all the new album, and in the second part they played all the hits.
“Most people enjoyed the second part far more, but I see as this as a really good approach to doing it.
“They’re even older than us as an existing band and also we’re not so far that we could play a whole new album, but I think that’s the way to do it.
“Because if you’re in an existing band you still should be able to do more than play old songs.”
Obviously music styles change, fashions change, people’s personal taste changes. The songs you’re playing are decades old now – can you still kind of relate to your old music?
“We play a selection of the songs, so the ones we play we still really do enjoy and like. And of course some of them we don’t play in the same arrangement as they are on the albums.
“But if we didn’t feel like we were still in touch with them, we wouldn’t be playing them.
“So all the stuff we play we still think it makes sense to play – and we love those songs still.”
You and Kateřina Winterová are the core of the band. Are you in contact a lot, over the years? Are you friends even? I don’t know much about you as people.
“Of course! Yes, and as had our sons in the same school and the same class we saw each other almost every day.
“So now and then we said, Are we still a band? Yes! And will we do something some day? Yes!
“So we kept feeling as a still-existing band, which just had a long, long winter sleep – because, you know, she’s Winterová.
“That’s the way our relationship is. We don’t have to see each other every day, even though [laughs] we almost did in those years we didn’t play live.
“But we kept in touch, and we are still in touch, and we call each other and go for coffee and stuff. We just didn’t feel like playing every week.”
And I suppose she’s very busy too as an actress and TV personality?
“Exactly, yeah. Now she’s a member of the ensemble of the National Theatre and she has her own TV show, so she’s very busy, of course, yes.”
EOST’s early guitar-heavy style helped them win fans internationally in the early 1990s.
Also I guess in the last year and a half there was some attention for the earlier [1990s] period of the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, for example in The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/04/we-didnt-want-to-sound-close-to-anything], about the years when you were quite known in indie circles in the UK. That must have pretty cool for you after all these decades?
“Yes, it was nice, because the band is so old by now that we have those anniversaries – this was, like, 30 years since the release of our album.
“But it was very nice and pleasant to get this attention.
“People do still enjoy these songs, even though we’re a bit surprised, and they are kind of actual.
“And we hope to rerelease some of the stuff on vinyl, because they are not available at the moment.”
I noticed it’s not all available on Spotify, for example.
“We’re trying to change that, but it is available on, for example, Apple Music. So I don’t know exactly why, but we are trying to change that.”
A few years ago you brought out an album called The Antagonist, which is a collection of your film music, both score music and songs. Probably it’s the Czech album that I’ve played most in the last seven or eight years. Every time I listen to it I think, Why doesn’t Jan P. Muchow write more songs? The songs are so good – why don’t you do more of that kind of thing?
“I don’t know [laughs]. Thanks, and I’m really glad you enjoy it.
“Because I probably need to be asked for it. When I do a film score and they say, Maybe it would be nice to have a song for the end titles, or more songs for the movie, then I have this opportunity to do it.
“But I probably don’t have this tension inside me that I have to write songs every week.
“So I don’t know. I have periods. Sometimes I have a period when I do songs even without being asked, but most of the time I just don’t need to write.”
And do you sometimes pick up an acoustic guitar and just play?
“Sometimes I have a period when I do songs without being asked, but most of the time I just don’t need to write.”
“Yes, of course, of course. It’s over there in the corner and that’s my everyday life, actually, you know.
“I play bass, acoustic, whatever – it’s always around me and I will do that.”
We’re here at your studio. All over the walls there are posters for films that you’ve done the music for. Is film and TV music the main thing that you do now?
“Yes. At the moment it takes most of my time. It’s now my main occupation, I would say.”
Does that mean you have a lot of projects on? Do you know for many months in advance that you have to do certain movies? Because movies are a slow moving ship usually.
“Yes. At the moment I know my schedule is, like, three TV shows and one movie in the making.
“Then I’m also producing one album and it’s all happening altogether but [laughs] not at the same moment.
“So I’m quite busy till spring next year.”
You’re also a very well-known producer. How do you find the experience of producing other people compared to doing your own music? How satisfying is it being a producer?
“Being a producer is, in a way, less stress, because you don’t have to write every note. But in a way it’s like you are the one who is responsible for everything.”
“Actually being a producer is, in a way, less stress, because you don’t have to write every note. But in a way it’s like you are the one who is responsible for everything.
“So in a way it gives me freedom, but in a way it’s actually even more tension inside me, because I want to be as perfect as possible and I’m the one who is responsible for it.
“If I write music for a movie, there still is a producer and director, and they should be the ones who really have to tell everybody what’s the direction, what’s the style, and what’s good and what’s bad.”
Obviously you’re a very busy guy. How do you select production projects? Are record companies coming to you? Are you meeting some young singer in a club and going, Let’s work together?
“Most of the time people come after me. Then we just have to click and the material they come with must feel like something I can help and that I like.
“I think the only moment I asked somebody if they wanted me to help them was with Sára Vondrášková [AKA Never Sol]. She was an unknown and I thought she was really, really good and would deserve to get a chance [laughs].
“So I offered to let her use my studio and I did help her to make her debut album.”
Lay Down, from the movie In the Shadow, with vocals by Never Sol (Sára Vondrášková) appears on The Antagonist, Muchow’s 2017 compilation of music from films.
Is there a certain sound that people want from you? Or do they just trust you and know you’ll do a good job?
“I guess you’d have to ask them [laughs], but I suppose they go after me for my taste.
“Because I don’t think I do every production sounding the same – it’s a different sound for Barbora Poláková than I did for Richard Müller or other artists.
“I guess it’s the way I, you know, feel music. That’s what I would think they come for.”
You mentioned Richard Müller. I saw on social media that you recorded with him at Hansa Studios in Berlin [famously used by artists David Bowie and Iggy Pop in the 1970s]. Could you tell us about that, please?
“Yes, that was actually a duet between Ben Cristovao and Richard. And that was like one of my dreams, to one day go to record at Berlin’s Hansa Studios.
“That was like one of my dreams, to one day go to record at Hansa Studios.”
“We had a chance to book the studio with this project and it was really, really interesting. This studio is really good and it has really such a vibe that you instantly feel inspired and that everything is possible.
“They have different rooms and when we came in they asked what room I wanted to set up the drums in.
“One of the rooms was the Marble Room and I was like, Can we try the Marble Room, which is mostly used for other stuff than drums, because it has so many reflections?
“The the sound engineer was like ‘eyes wide open’ and was like, Oh, this sounds like an interesting session.
“So of course we set up the drums in the Marble Room and from then all the recording went in this more experimental way.
“It was really enjoyable and was one of my best moments in my recording times.”
But is it the same place where Bowie and [producer Brian] Eno recorded?
“Yes, it’s the same place. The owners of the studio own the whole building which has more floors and they are now renting the huge main live room out for events.
“If you want to record in this huge live room you have to tell them in advance and they can still cable through to there.
“But they still have three or four other live rooms, not that big one – because nowadays if you don’t record with an orchestra you don’t need such a huge place.
“I guess that’s why they’re actually renting it out for events – and if you have a big-budget recording you can actually go to record in this live room.
“So it was the same studio, same control room, but we didn’t go to this live room where they recorded the music.
“But I’m sure we definitely used some of the rooms where they did vocals and other instruments.”
