Morčata na útěku: A New Album Is on the Way. Who Would They Send to the Cage and How Was the Cult Hit Twajlajt Created?

The Brno legend Morčata na útěku is a phenomenon on the Czech scene. While some love them for their uncompromising humor and sharp parodies, others shake their heads at their straightforwardness. Rebel Sound had the opportunity to interview vocalist Roman "Yetty" Kobler and guitarist Michal "Mikesh" Hejtmánek.

In an open conversation, we discussed their upcoming new album, the current tour, and family life. We also did not avoid more personal questions: Which band member would end up in a wrestling cage? What slow dance song would they choose for the most famous Czech politician? Get ready for a ride full of bizarre stories, honesty, and humor that definitely pulls no punches — and which ultimately even ends with some unexpected hygiene awareness.

You've already played the first few shows of the "Tour You'll Shit Yourself From," which you're doing with Doga. How were the first concerts? 

Yetty: We already went on tour with them last year and we really enjoyed it. This year it's a similar vibe, we and the fans are having fun. If I had to rate it from one to ten, with ten being the best, I'd give it an eight. 

The first concert of the tour in Brno didn't go without some drama. The ambulance and police were involved due to a fight between some women. Does this happen often at your concerts, that someone fights?

Mikesh: We didn't notice it. After the concert, I went to the dressing room and there was some commotion outside the window. Later, people told us something had happened. Definitely not common.

Yetty: I didn't notice either. Anyway, the best part was that some women got into a fight, huge commotion, and our manager only cared that the van couldn't get in for equipment (laughs). I have no idea who they were. I thought someone from the neighboring club started it, but then I found out it wasn't, it was on us.

Mikesh: Maybe it's because at the merch stand we offer Dejan for fifty crowns. When people realize his rum consumption is enormous, they can't handle it, so they want to complain.

Yetty: And you can't. So we make a note: Next time, don't offer Dejan.

Are you currently working on new music? Since the release of your last album Lída in Action in 2022, some time has passed – can fans expect something new? 

Yetty: Just before you came, Mikesh was putting the guitar aside because he was finishing one of the songs. We have a lot ready; now we just need to organize it, find a studio, set a date, etc. So the material exists.

Mikesh: It's close.

Yetty: It's close. Hard to predict the date.

Mikesh: Whenever we try to estimate, it ends up wrong.

Yetty: We always estimate wrong.

How do you usually create new songs? Do you start with lyrics or music first?

Yetty: We do it the other way around. I write lyrics first, for covers or our own songs. Mikesh always says he needs the lyrics first to get the right atmosphere, then he makes arrangements or writes music. So we have a reverse process.

Mikesh: I don't think there's a standard procedure everyone follows. Everyone does what works for them. For us, it's based on lyrics and the idea. For covers, it usually starts with Yetty thinking of a parody of something he hears on the radio or a favorite track. Sometimes someone suggests a song we should cover because they like it, then we say, "Roman, make some lyrics for that." Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Yetty: It's idea-driven. Like "here's an idea, write lyrics for it." I only occasionally write for others. For Morčata, everything starts with the original idea. It has to spark something—a chorus or part of a verse. When I see people around laughing, I grab paper and pencil immediately.

Mikesh: For original songs, it's better to go from lyrics to music. "Šalina" is a typical example; I wouldn't have written it without the core idea. I wouldn't have considered it musically otherwise.

Yetty: (laughs) "Šalina" came together in the rehearsal room. We said, let's do total nonsense—the kind of dumb thing on YouTube with most views. I asked what the lyrics should be about. "Well, about riding in a tram." "What else?" "Anything." So we made total nonsense, and people like it.

Mikesh: Especially the chorus had to be completely…

Yetty: …stupid.

Mikesh: We said: Just put "šalina", nothing else. It's a Brno thing. Make the song "Šalina." "What else?" Nothing, in the chorus just "crrrr," like a bell. That's it, don't add more. And it works.

Yetty: At concerts people do a train line, it's ridiculous.

Yetty, you mentioned writing lyrics for other artists. How much do you dedicate yourself to that?

Yetty: Only occasionally. I sent something to Trautenberk — I don't remember if they used it. I'm writing lyrics now for Izzi from Doga for their new album. I used to write for Sagittaraty. But I'm not very reliable. If I don't get an immediate idea, I tend to procrastinate.

Your work is very provocative, often combining black humor, sexuality, or even fecal humor. Did you plan to write these kinds of lyrics from the beginning, or did you want something more serious? 

Yetty: No.

Mikesh: It came organically. We played in other bands… We had this material with these ideas, so we decided to release it somewhere and founded Morčata as a side project. It ended up being much more successful than our original bands.

Yetty: Exactly, before that we only did black metal. Mikesh and I had Torment, Filipínec I think was in Amortez. The humor started when we were eighteen, playing in the pub Black Diamond just for ourselves. The first album was recorded to be played in that pub. That's where the pub humor came from. New people arrived and asked where they could get it, and it just took off.

Mikesh: When people from southern Bohemia called us to play, we realized we could play anywhere in the Czech Republic. The first and second albums were entirely situated around Diamond and its specific community.

Yetty: Basically, we were doing it straight from the pub.

Mikesh: Yeah, when you're twenty, you have time for the pub. But for the third album, we decided to broaden it and not focus on specific incidents based on real events.

Yetty: But a little spoiler – on the new album we have a song about one of the Black Diamond visitors. It came from an idea. Seeing that songs about people no one else knows are successful, I thought, why not put it on the new album.

Is there a topic that is off-limits for you, that you would never write about?

Yetty: Politics.

Mikesh: Politics, definitely not.

Yetty: Someone wrote on Facebook that those who avoid politics in lyrics are just cowards afraid to upset fans. I know punk bands think differently, but punk is political. We don't want to upset fans; politics is everywhere every day, and people come to concerts to have fun.

Mikesh: People aren't interested in our politics.

Yetty: They don't expect it from us. Sometimes someone asks us to write a song about Babiš or Fiala. Why? Let them do it. We write about asses. Politics seems totally stupid.

Mikesh: We can reference events for humor, like the CzechTek raid or Rath's wine box, but it's always in jest. No political profiling.

Who decides the setlist for your concerts?

Yetty: Mikesh proposes it, then we vote.

Mikesh: Basically, yes. Everyone has input, sometimes we completely disagree even among ourselves or with fans. Spotify data helps, but it's not just about playing the top 20.

Yetty: Sometimes we think a song is amazing, but people just stand there. And the opposite happens too.

Mikesh: Exactly, they're not enjoying it. Sometimes we add songs we never played live before, and they succeed.

Yetty: Exactly. Sometimes someone asks, "Why don't you play this song?" We played it four concerts ago and the reaction was nothing. So we stop playing it.

Mikesh: In Brno, winter at První Patro and summer at Špilberk, we can play more songs. Then we test a wider setlist because we know we'll cut 4–7 songs for the next shows. The drummer, Filipínec, has the best instinct for what people will like. Then we discuss and reach a consensus.

Yetty: Sometimes we disagree with fans. We don't enjoy playing Švihák z Pennymarketu, the lyrics are good but the music is boring. Yet people jump for it, so we keep it. The opposite: we love song Klus, but nobody reacts, so we remove it.

Are there any songs you refuse to play? 

Yetty: Well, we ended up playing Švihák anyway.

Mikesh: We don't have a song we stubbornly refuse. Some fade naturally because we're not close to them anymore.

Yetty: Chlapi jsou prý na hovno. People like it on recordings, but live it's boring. We played it a few times and reactions were lukewarm.

Mikesh: When we released it, we played it to satisfy demand. Then we stopped. Slow songs just don't work live. But if fans really want it, we'll play it.

Do younger fans know the latest hits better, or am I wrong?

Yetty: I thought so too. But we returned Kakala to the set after ages, last played when we didn't even have beards – and it succeeded, young people know it.

Mikesh: It's not about age. Our audience is very diverse. Everyone finds their segment in our music.

Yetty: That's why I always say "heads." Heads are what I see from the stage. So I don't greet people, just heads.

When someone mentions Morčata na útěku, everyone thinks of "Twajlajt." How did that song come about? 

Yetty: That's enough, it's very popular.

Mikesh: We always play it as the final song.

Yetty: Many people know only Twajlajt from us.

Mikesh: Exactly – it came together opposite to how we usually work. Drummer Filipínec brought the music, but we had no lyrics. Four versions existed; Twajlajt developed in the studio.

Yetty: They had the music recorded, I was smoking outside and had no idea what it should be. First version was about footballers running across the pitch – "zig-zag, like a dick, running across the pitch." It was nonsense. Then someone mentioned the movie Twilight. That clicked in my head. I went back and recorded it while the lyrics were still warm.

Do you want to break into the international scene, or stay local in Czechia?

Yetty: No ambitions. We were invited to London, Poland, talked about Banat in Romania with a Czech community… none worked out.

Mikesh: We also considered Chicago, Czech community there, but logistics were complicated.

Yetty: We didn't even know how to transport all the gear.

Mikesh: Abroad, only for Czech communities. We want authenticity. That's our success – no calculations. Always did what felt right.

Yetty: Never made a business plan.

Mikesh: Lyrics are in Czech, will stay Czech. That shapes our scenes.

You play in clubs and cultural centers—have you ever thought about selling out the O2 Arena or a similarly large venue?

Yetty: Yeah, the O2 Arena topic came up among us. But the reactions were pretty mixed. Some said "never," some said "yeah, why not."

Mikesh: Rationally, we think we're still quite far from that. Brno, Prague, and generally big cities are well visited by us. Brno is absolutely the best, Prague right behind it—and we only started discovering that quite recently. Gauč was almost sold out the first time, last year completely. But we go naturally, step by step, as it grows. But doing the O2 Arena… for me, not even Lucerna.

Yetty: That's my personal opinion, not the whole band's. Even if the O2 Arena was completely sold out, I can't imagine Morčata na útěku on such a huge stage. What kind of show would we do there? An airplane like Iron Maiden? Fire, confetti—that's not our style, I don't even like it. At Benátská noc, I saw Bonney M. They had four lights and glitter on the shoulders. Nothing more. And it was great. That's what I like—that the show is about the people on stage, not blinking lights and pyrotechnics.

Mikesh: Our show is half concert, half stand-up. Yetty once had a favorite joke, that someone calls him and he goes around the corner behind the speaker to drink rum.

Yetty: Don't say that! (laughs)

Mikesh: And how it would look in the O2 Arena, I don't know.

Yetty: He would walk half a kilometer across the stage to drink.

Mikesh: I can't imagine it. If needed, we'd come up with something—like a five-meter inflatable Lída, and bubbles would come out of her ass. (laughs)

Yetty: Or I'd fly on a wire like Copperfield and then disappear—they'd find me the next day in a pub. (laughs),

Have you ever been blacklisted after a concert at a club or cultural center?

Yetty: I don't know about that. I really don't remember anything like that.

Mikesh: Usually people know what they're getting into. Except for a few exceptions, but those weren't regular public concerts.

Yetty: Once, though, we probably ended up on a blacklist, even though it wasn't our fault. The mayor invited us on the recommendation of some guys from the pub. We were playing at two in the afternoon, kids everywhere, and she came to us asking if we could skip the obscene stuff. On top of that, local rockers and metalheads started gathering, black clothes, long hair… And the mayor seemed a bit scared.

Mikesh: That's good to know, who I invite. But that anyone would complain afterwards, no. Also, nowadays we're basically "tea party" level.

Yetty: Did you notice that we don't really hear how obscene we are anymore? By today's standards, we're still soft.

Mikesh: That shock effect was taken over by others.

Yetty: If you look at certain parts of the rap scene, we're almost polite compared to them. We're still like doctors, who say "no" instead of "shit," compared to them.

Has it ever happened that someone wanted to beat you up after a concert because of what you sang or said there?

I would like to sincerely thank the guys once again for their time, openness, and simply for the opportunity to meet and have a chat. The interview was incredibly thorough, full of energy, humor, and honesty – and I truly appreciate it.

I promise that if we ever meet again in the future, it won't be as epically long as this one 😁

After the interview, this amazing photo was taken, which will be a wonderful memory for me. Once again, a huge thank you! 🖤

Kateřina