Martin Němec: “I Keep Starting All Over Again.” Precedens Heads Toward Its 45th Anniversary Without Looking Back
Martin Němec has been part of Precedens since the band was founded in 1982, and over more than four decades he has travelled a path from small clubs and new-wave experiments to a distinctive songwriting style that has retained its own identity to this day. In this interview for Rebel Sound, he looks back on the early days with Jan Sahara Hedl and Bára Basiková, recalls the creation of Doba ledová, talks about the current, rockier incarnation of Precedens with Daniela Langrová, as well as his second original band, Lili Marlene. We also discussed lyric writing, painting, upcoming projects and the anniversaries that are rapidly approaching. But do not expect Martin Němec to spend much time looking back – he is far more interested in what comes next.
The British New Romantic and synth-pop scene – Ultravox, Visage – had a strong influence on you in the early days. How did the Czechoslovak scene, which was more accustomed to the underground or classic rock, view you at the time?
Well, it is a little more complicated than that and what isn't, right? We founded Precedens in 1982 (which is a fairly crazy date when you think about it) with Jan Sahara Hedl, who at the time was not only the band's lead singer and guitarist, but also the main writer of both the music and lyrics. They were mostly dark rock ballads. I played keyboards, did the arrangements and acted as something like the bandleader probably because we rehearsed in our apartment in Malá Strana. /laughs/ Around that time, a friend from my secondary art school (SUPŠ) introduced me to a very young girl, Bára Basiková, whom he had heard singing in a church choir. Her crystal-clear voice worked beautifully with Sahara's rough, half-recited vocal delivery. After several years of playing mainly in small clubs, Sahara and I went our separate ways and I was faced with the task of creating a new repertoire. That was when I realised Bára Basiková would no longer be a backing singer – there was enormous potential in her. And I became the sole composer of the music. There was also a detour in terms of lyrics when I collaborated with Lumír Tuček (R.S. Vpřed, from the circle around the Sklep Theatre). It was more like a new-wave cabaret, full of exaggeration, irony and things like that. We also developed a certain stage stylisation. People started talking about us, and we became part of the circle of bands regularly performing at the legendary Junior Klub Chmelnice. At that time Bára and I also started listening intensively to the New Romantic bands you mentioned... Keyboards began to play a dominant role in our music, and one day I sat down and wrote my first song with my own lyrics – it was called Doba ledová. The audience was getting bigger, but it was certainly difficult to put us into any particular category. And it still is today! /laughs/
Your first demo, Co nám zbejvá, was released on cassette, as was the second demo Doba ledová in 1985. Two years later, however, it became an iconic album. How do you remember that pioneering era, and did you already sense at the time that you had such timeless material on your hands?
And once again, things were actually a little different. Well, it is ancient history by now, isn't it? We recorded Co nám zbejvá with Sahara, of course (after the revolution it was later released on CD and vinyl as well). The Doba ledová cassette is not completely identical in content to our first album, even though many people quite logically think it is. I know it is a little confusing when both have the same title. The cassette contained recordings from the period of the collaboration with Lumír Tuček I mentioned earlier. The only song they have in common is Doba ledová itself. When we later recorded our first official album (Panton, 1987) in a professional studio, produced at the time by music journalist Vojta Lindauer, he pushed for the title Doba ledová again. And I am glad he did. That song was simply a strong one (we still play it today), while the cassette was known only to a smaller and more specific group of listeners. With the release of our first album, we entered the wider public consciousness and, much to our surprise, suddenly became a professional band. The records sold extremely well, we began touring large halls, appearing in the media and so on... The label immediately offered us another album (Věž z písku, Panton, 1988). What was strange was that everything back then seemed to come together rather intuitively especially my composing and lyric writing, but also the studio work. A new chapter in the history of Precedens began. In any case, we arrived at the right moment with something that interested people, something new.
From the darker club underground, Precedens gradually became one of the best-known bands on the alternative scene. How did you personally experience that leap into the "top league" as a songwriter and bandleader?
I was a little surprised. At that time, Precedens became something of a phenomenon. The line-up also changed quite significantly. On the next album I was already working with a second keyboard player, Pavel Nedoma, and the two of us still work together today. Offers for film music, theatre music and so on also began to arrive. Painting the profession I actually studied, unlike music had to take a back seat to music for a while.
People say you compose spontaneously, quickly and without keeping "drawer lyrics" for later. How does that creative pressure work in practice – do the music and lyrics sometimes emerge in one single burst of energy?
Well, quite often those two parts of a song actually come into being at the same time; less often the music comes first... It is difficult to describe the process. Most of the time I really am guided by some kind of intuition and a spontaneous mood. But generally speaking, my dark songs are created quite joyfully. /laughs/
What personally keeps you in such strong creative and live form on club and festival stages after more than forty years?
So that we do not create the impression of some kind of idyll there were genuinely difficult moments too, for example when Bára left for Stromboli. A lot of people thought there had been some kind of falling-out between Michal Pavlíček and me. That is nonsense. On the contrary, Michal asked me to write lyrics for example Okolo ohňů or Sandonoriko. In fact, I wrote almost all the lyrics for their second album Shutdown, which were then translated into English by Michael Žantovský. Interestingly, after Bára left, we continued to perform very frequently. Guitarist Vláďa Dvořák took over the vocals, together with backing singers Jana Badurová and Jana Benetová (both of whom later joined Petr Muk's Shalom). I also produced Bára's solo album featuring Ota Baláž's big hit Souměrná. At the time I approached Jan Sahara Hedl to collaborate on the lyrics. Blood is thicker than water. /laughs/ With Bára I also recorded a number of other albums outside Precedens (Responsio Mortifera, Angels Voice, Dreams of Sphinx...). She was singing with us again on the third Precedens album, Pompeje, and later we also made the Basic Beat album Viktorie Královská together, which includes my fairly well-known song Soumrak bohů. We play that one with the current line-up too. Years later, Bára and I said goodbye musically with the somewhat overlooked Precedens album Aurora. By then I also had my second original band, Lili Marlene, with the excellent Dáša Součková. The band still performs, although not very often, and has recorded three albums. On the aforementioned Aurora album, the two women sang the duet Amor Muerto together, accompanied by a music video. In the meantime there were also two Precedens albums with Petr Kolář La, la, lá and Drž hudbu! which, perhaps surprisingly, I still like very much today. They include, for example, the song Berlínská zeď and Jsi můj anděl, which was heavily played on the radio for a while. Put all together like this, it makes me sound terribly hard-working, but we are talking about entire decades. Basically, I am actually rather lazy. /laughs/
The new album Odstíny černé sounds sharper and more direct thanks to the younger line-up. Is this rawer rock sound the direction you want to take the band in the future as well?
Definitely! I have to admit that with the current form of Precedens, I am probably the happiest bandleader I have been in the whole tangled history of the band. The arrival of Daniela Langrová, who is a truly exceptional person and singer, marked the beginning of a new era. She brought in bassist Zdeněk Imramovský, he in turn brought in drummer Tomáš Kobdzey Kašpar, and then she remembered that she had played with the excellent guitarist Karel Vošta (who was not even born when Precedens was founded), and suddenly we were together. That word is important. I feel a great sense of unity and energy within the band. That also clearly defines our current concerts, which we genuinely enjoy very much. So Pavel Nedoma and I are now somewhat ruining the average age of this band of "forty-plussers". /laughs/
Your setlist includes new material as well as classics such as Doba ledová and Berlínská zeď. How much do you have to toughen up the arrangements of the older songs so that they fit the band's current sound?
It is simply a fact that our current form is rockier thanks to the new musicians and the singer, and all of that has my wholehearted blessing. It is exactly how I imagine the band now, but it is obvious that it would not have happened without that "new blood". A band is simply a collective creation. So, to answer your question, of course we had to "put through the fire" even the songs that have belonged to the live repertoire since time immemorial and that audiences expect to hear. We also had to change keys, of course, because Daniela, unlike Bára, is an alto rather than a soprano. A lot of work, but beautiful work. Music journalist Pepa Vlček described it very aptly in a highly positive review of our new album, saying roughly that Precedens now forms a more compact whole and no longer gives the impression of a band accompanying a soloist... I think the heavier edge suits us. It is not some kind of old-man indecision on my part. Quite the opposite it is old-man decisiveness! /laughs/.
Are you already working on new material? Will it follow on from Odstíny černé, or do you feel like taking the band in a different direction?
I do not know. I am probably preparing a few more rock things, but then sometimes a song like Tsunami from Odstíny comes along, which is a post-apocalyptic waltz with no rhythm section... Who can make sense of me? I certainly cannot. So we will see once we hear it!
Precedens is an expressive, hard-driving rock force, while Lili Marlene builds on decadence and a dark cabaret atmosphere. How easy or difficult is it for you to switch between these two completely different worlds?
I enjoy both. I think that even though I am essentially the sole songwriter in both bands, they really are different. But then the two singers are very different as well. And if there is one thing I know for certain after all these incredible years in the business, it is that the main performer the singer has to believe the lyrics. You have to think about the individuality of those people, their talents, their personalities... It has to sound believable coming from their mouths, as though it were their own imagination. They cannot simply be instruments for my words! That would not work.
Next year Precedens will celebrate 45 years, while Lili Marlene will mark 25 years of existence. On top of that, you will be turning 70. What will it be like to celebrate both the bands' anniversaries and your own milestone almost at the same time?
Well, close friends of mine play in both bands, so it feels completely natural. They are almost like second families. I am not really much of an anniversary person, but in this case it is simply there and there is no escaping it. They will probably be some good parties, although in the end we often do not even need an anniversary for that. /laughs/
Dáša Součková has a very distinctive alto voice. What was it about her delivery that inspired you so much that Lili Marlene became a separate project?
Her distinctive alto. /laughs/ No, really that voice is a force of nature, so dark and deep. I only discovered a little later that she is also an absolutely wonderful woman. Next year we should appear at the Krásný ztráty festival again after some time – otherwise we are mostly to be found in the familiar embrace of Malostranská beseda. Precedens also plays its Prague concerts there. It is our beloved harbour.
You perform the song Hoří Notre-Dame with both bands, and Michal Prokop has recorded it as well. What is it like for you as the songwriter to hear one of your songs presented in such different stylistic interpretations?
It is certainly an interesting comparison. Michal did it his own way with Framus – almost bluesy – and it received a very respectable response in the reviews. Dáša's approach is highly expressive, even dramatic, as befits Lili Marlene, while Daniela, on the other hand, sang it with an unexpectedly gentle touch, saying, "after all, it is about humility". I value that song quite a lot, so those three different versions made me happy!
One question about the past: what did Bára Basiková mean to you as the voice of the first Precedens albums?
The combination of my rather cold synthesizer music with Bára's almost operatic soprano was something quite unusual in our part of the world – it caused a bit of a stir. We did not really want to do it any other way, and in fact we probably did not know how. We never tried to pander to general taste, and certainly not to the official establishment. We tried to be ourselves actually, we did not even try, it was simply the way we were. There was never any calculation behind it. It was a kind of "Sirael hour", created by who we were and by the audience's hunger at the time for something new and unusual. Somehow that mutual moment arrived, and it worked. It is nice, and quite common, that I meet people who tell me they grew up with Precedens... So did I! /laughs/
Do you still write lyrics specifically "tailored" to particular musicians and singers, or does a sketch first emerge in your head and only then do you decide who will sing it?
- Yes, tailored to them. And because girls are unquestionably more beautiful than boys, I usually write them on their bodies... /laughs/ But seriously, I basically write lyrics for my two bands; I am not a typical hired lyricist. Usually, when we are preparing an album, I naturally focus primarily on one band, or we are working on the live repertoire with the other. I definitely do not jump back and forth between songs for the two groups – I tend to devote more attention to one of those beloved bands for a certain period of time. I write for other performers only rarely. About two years ago, I had a lyric that somehow did not fit the poetics of either band, and after our collaboration on the previous album, I thought of offering it to Michal Prokop. I was genuinely surprised when he later wrote to me saying that their keyboard player had set it to music and that it would open what we now know to be the highly successful and acclaimed album Ostraka. The song is called A přece ráno.
Your lyrics have always been full of darker metaphors, gloomy atmospheres and tension. Where do you keep finding inspiration for themes that work so well with a rock backdrop?
Inspiration is not some muse fluttering around; it is something that is inside a person, "like something stuck in a goat", as my grandmother used to say. Sometimes I struggle with something, but more often I have to say that it feels as if those things were already written somewhere inside me. Creativity is actually a rather mysterious thing. But so that this does not sound too self-centred although a certain, not insignificant amount of self-confidence obviously belongs to creative work there are also times of great doubt and struggle. Just like with everything else. I have published three books of short stories, and I always let imagination and intuition guide me, often finding myself surprised by what on earth was happening in them. Almost nobody read them either. /laughs/
So next year Precedens will celebrate 45 years since its founding. Are you planning a special tour or guests for the anniversary, or are you relying entirely on the current, energetic line-up?
Guests? You know, so many singers have passed through Precedens that it would probably make sense, but following the example of Erich vin Deniken, I would prefer us to remember the future, not the past. After all, for many listeners including promoters the current band is actually something new. I have a fairly justified feeling that I keep starting all over again throughout my life. And with a certain absurd dose of optimism, I have no intention of taking stock or calling it a day. I simply believe in the current Precedens with Daniela, and we would even like to release a live album by this line-up. Hopefully we can find the funding so that it can also be released on physical media. And perhaps it could even be a DVD, God willing.
You are planning to publish a complete collection of your lyrics for Precedens and Lili Marlene with the MAŤA publishing house. What will be the main content of the book?
Lyrics...? /laughs/ Well, of course I am also starting to dig through the photo archive; there will naturally be covers, a foreword... I am looking forward to it! I love books and, as I said, I have written a few collections of short stories, so this time it will be stories and words created for a musical compound. Hopefully they will work on their own as well, without the music. They are expressions of what I feel around me and inside me, and sometimes even about things I have no clue about. I do not like overly literal lyrics. I respect mystery, and I prefer it when listeners can project their own visions into them. I feel the same way about paintings. No manuals or explanations. The world is a strangely beautiful and ugly place both the outer and the inner one. But it can be, and is, inspiring too.
You are preparing a series of exhibitions called Taneční, which are intended to be slightly surreal and erotic. How does this visual-art line connect with your musical work?
It does not! They are my two professions and they develop independently of one another. Sometimes they overlap a little, but that is not important and certainly not intentional. Although every creator has limited sources of imagination. As for exhibitions, a few are being discussed, and so far a Prague exhibition at Galerie Toyen, which belongs to Prague 3, has been confirmed for October 2027. I went to secondary school not far from Jiřák, and my studio has also been nearby for decades. It is on the seventh floor with no lift so I suppose that makes me an "athlete" too. Well, I really am not, unfortunately, but for now I still manage to walk up there relatively "easily" about five times a week. When I paint, I never really think about music, and vice versa. It is a little schizoid, but perhaps that is because I am a Gemini. Although my wife Jana says I am more of an "aggrieved one". /laughs/
You are a trained painter – four years at SUPŠ and six years at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). How much has your visual-arts education influenced you as a musician and lyricist?
Very little. Although actually that is nonsense, isn't it? After all, both things are cooked in the same pot by which I mean my head. But they are very different activities: one is collective and the other is solitary. I could not give up either of them. Neither is more important, nor is the other somehow secondary. /laughs/
Finally, what would you like to say to REBEL SOUND readers on the occasion of 45 years of Precedens, 25 years of Lili Marlene and your 70th birthday?
Somehow it all goes by incredibly fast so enjoy every day! I would be happy to meet you at one of the concerts or at one of the exhibitions. And listen to music with love, because without love it really does not work... neither making it nor listening to it. And above all, be happy! /laughs/
In this interview, Martin Němec makes it clear that instead of looking back, he is focused on what lies ahead. He believes in the current incarnation of Precedens, has no shortage of creative drive, and alongside music remains equally devoted to painting and writing. Rebel Sound thanks him for an open and humorous interview and wishes him, Precedens and Lili Marlene plenty of energy for the years ahead. And as he says himself: make and listen to music with love.
Matess
