Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.60 09/07)
excerpts from an interview with Enyedi Zsolt(Keyboards)
YESTERDAYS is a Hungarian band with Romanian residence. Let me explain this. All of us are of Hungarian nationality, except for our percussionist, we are all Romanian citizens, living in different cities of Transylvania. We are part of a national minority living in another state, due to a joke of history, a little bit like Irish people living in Great Britain. Anyway, this situation isn’t bad at all, here in Transylvania, we live at the crossroads of three major cultures: Romanian, Hungarian and German, and this is for the benefit of us all! Now, let me introduce the band’s actual line-up. JÁNOSI KINGA is the lead singer of the band. Her delicate voice is often compared with Annie Haslam’s style, although in her way Kinga is more jazzy. She entered the band in course of the recording sessions in the summer of 2006. KOZMA-KIS EMESE the flute player of the band is a gifted and classically trained young lady, whose flute-sound makes an impressive touch on our music. FÜLÖP TÍMEA, the third lady of our fairy front-line is an excellent vocalist and skilled piano player, too. Emese and Tímea have been members of the band for years, they are as beautiful as talented musicians. And now the boys... They come from different places and styles, most of them being session musicians, too. VITÁLYOS LEHEL, a nice trendy guy is a true master of the bass. KÓSA DÁNIEL a virtuoso percussionist from Budapest, Hungary, with great sense of jazz, Latino styles and humour. The “Holdfénykert” album was recorded in close compositional collaboration with the drummer-genius CSERGŐ DOMOKOS, who’s a well known session musician and resident member of KUMM. For live performances we applied for another friend of ours, OLÁH JÓZSEF, the “metronome” of our group. We consider both of them full time members of the band. BOGÁTI-BOKOR ÁKOS (all kinds of guitars, keys) is the founder and main composer, the brain and soul of the band, who’s carrying the whole “thing” on his shoulders. (Although we reject any tendency of putting musical styles in pigeon-holes, he’s got a similar role to Mr. Ian Anderson in Jethro Tull.) Our sound-man BAZSÓ TIBOR, a genuine studio hero, is also a true creative colleague of ours. As for me, I‘m ENYEDI ZSOLT (keys) Ákos’s old friend, a crazy keyboard fanatic, who was invited by Ákos to join the band and complete the Holdfénykert album with a characteristic vintage sound.
Please tell us something about the background of the musicians involved and the sources of inspiration (obviously there are some YES influences!).
Every member of the band has his/her own musical influences and roots. We come from several fields of music. Kinga is deeply into jazz, Emese and Tímea into classical music, Lehel into pop, funk and flamenco, Dániel into Latino and reggae, drummers Domi and Joe into pop and rock, whilst Ákos’ and my lifetime devotion is for seventies prog, jazz-rock and quality pop. Of course, YES are our all-time heroes, but they are only a distant and bright leading star for us, in the course of stepping our own pathway.
Most of the readers will not know Yesterdays, so can you describe in a few words what the prog fan has to expect from the debut album?
Our debut album is a kind of soft mixture of different styles. You know, many of prog-lovers used to make comparisons: the vocals - like Renaissance, flute - like Jethro Tull, guitars - like Steve Howe and Pat Metheny, keys - like Rick Wakeman, etc. I think these are cliches, and this attitude is good only for a first and very superficial categorizing of the work. Yes, we do love them all, but we are making our own way! We strongly believe that Yesterdays can approve its own style, and can leave its own musical finger-print. Furthermore, as this is a deeply emotional album, a true story of an impossible love with all the ups and downs of this, we hope, that we can reach one’s soul, we can generate some deep feelings inside of the perceptive listener. Anyway and more simply, for the average prog fan: this is a spiritual journey in the vein of the golden seventies.
The vocal parts are half English, half Hungarian. Why did you perform it this way and is there already any decision as to how you will continue? Won’t you agree that chances on the international market would be better if you switch over completely to English vocals only?
As I mentioned above, we live in a multicultural territory. We are Hungarians, we speak, we think, we love in Hungarian. That’s our cultural identity, we are proud of it, and won’t reject it for some commercial reasons. The Hungarian language is a very sophisticated and deeply poetic one. For instance, we’ve got many basic words for what Englishmen use to say with just one common word: “LOVE”. We don’t think that this national identity could ever be limiting. Just look at the well known and appreciated prog label MUSEA. They profoundly promote the non-English musical scene! Or, in other words, could a genuine prog fan ever deny, that those wonderful Italian prog masterpieces sound much better in the composers’ native language? It’s a matter of approach, I think. Progressive music is a lesson for life, and has its message: DON’T EVER BE REJECTIVE! LET YOUR MIND and HEART ALWAYS BE OPEN FOR NEW MUSICAL ADVENTURES AND SPIRITUAL CHALLENGES! I think, this should be a general way of living. Otherwise one can awake in a morning, and from being a progressive person he/she becomes a regressive one. Notwithstanding, let me firmly underline: we are big fans of the English-speaking culture, we do love this world, its music and language and our English/American friends. So, for the other side of the coin, it’s true: we even sing and compose in English. You know - some emotions find their “incarnation” in English words. That’s why this album is - and maybe the forthcoming albums are - bilingual.
How did you arrange working together with regard to the fact that the musicians are living in different countries?
Working, rehearsing and composing together is a really complicated task for us. We live in five different cities and every member of the band has got his/her own job/studies. Nevertheless, I can’t say that Yesterdays is just a session band or a studio project. We definitely love to perform live, and are good friends and band-mates. When cleverly and thoughtfully managed, all these problems can be bridged.
In total, nine musicians are listed in the booklet of your debut album. Does this include guest musicians or is this the actual line-up? In which line-up do you play live?
Nine musicians, indeed. In fact we are eight on the stage. The ninth member is our sound engineer, who helped us with some vocal parts whilst recording. CSERGŐ DOMOKOS is our drummer who composed the rhythm-parts and played them in the studio, but as he’s a very busy musician playing in several bands, we perform live with our kind band-mate OLÁH JÓZSEF
Last year you played at the Progfarm festival in the Netherlands. How did this happen?
Progfarm was last year’s major event for us, a fantastic adventure certainly. It was Ákos, who established a kind friendship with the eminent Dutch prog band, FLAMBOROUGH HEAD’s leader, EDO SPANNINGA. They discussed some mellotron stuff used by Edo on their state-of-the-art TRION album. Things evolved in their best way, our album was released, and we got a friendly invitation to yesteryear’s Progfarm Festival. It was a true pleasure and privilege to perform there amongst those famous bands and “all those good people”. In February 2007 we had the chance to organize our own festival, the “MINIPROG-FEST” in Budapest with the participation of our admirable Dutch friends, Flamborough Head, and a prog-icon, Mr. PETER BANKS and his actual band, HARMONY IN DIVERSITY. Delightful experiences and lifelong friendships for sure!
Is Yesterdays more of a studio band with little live experience or are you able to arrange to have lots of live gigs?
Yesterdays is a studio band like any other band is - in case of new projects and new musical ideas, as a matter of course, we want to record them. Performing on the stage is also an exciting challenge and a joyful experience for us. Although we don’t rush, we aren’t over-scheduled at all. So not loads of live gigs. In fact, after learning some sad lessons, we gave up the idea of being the main organizer of big festivals and major concerts, but it’s our pleasure to fulfill any invitation, we are honoured with.
What are your plans for 2007?
We were kindly invited to take part of the next SPAGHETTI EPIC and the INFERNO albums, both of them started by the Colossus Magazine and Musea Records. So, for this year we have to finish our part of these projects, and to take some steps towards our next album, maybe a live album, who knows?
The debut album is very much based on acoustic guitar parts. Will you continue working in this direction or will you include more electric guitar work on the next album?
Ákos is a highly educated and gifted guitar player on every kind of instrument, I mean both of acoustic and electric guitars. Actually, we just don’t know which will be the main direction of our development. Maybe we will use guitar-synthesizers or/and renaissance lutes, too. Keyboard parts can also vary from the acoustic sounds of the pianino and the church organ through good analogue patches to some cultic digital sounds, too. Maybe the next album will not be prog in its orthodox way. Just remember our policy: DON’T EVER BE REGRESSIVE!
What are the strong points in Yesterdays’ music and where do you see the need for further improvement?
I think this “credo” can be the most important strength of our music, too. To entwine several roots and influences, different sounds and styles. Anyway, we are in constant need of self-development, studying and rehearsing in order to improve our skills and our inner world, just to reproduce the energy of our souls as authentically as we can.
Can you describe the situation of prog music in Hungary and Romania?
Well. As one can see it... A very unfriendly market, profit-orientated musical-factories whenever one looks. In the past there were some legends, some mythical grandiose bands, like SFINX and PHOENIX in Romania; EAST, SOLARIS and YOU AND I in Hungary. Some of them are still active these days, but it’s a hard task to make this kind of music in an authentic way. Jazz or fusion is more viable due to the dedicated festivals, but no one can survive without humbling compromises. Though there’s the other side of the coin too, this time a more sunny side. For instance, the major part of our local audience and fans aren’t dedicated prog-lovers. They only love music, and are open-souled for emotions to be received through musical channels. I mean - one can do anything he/she has to do - if it’s TRUE, it will be echoing in the audiences’ soul. Believe me, from the stage I just caught some foreign people with teardrops in their eyes...
For those readers who are interested in getting your album: where can they order it?
Well, to actually purchase our album is a hard task for anyone, even for me :) Sadly or maybe happily we ran out of stock. But keep up hope: we’re planning to reissue the album, and for your benefit it will be an advanced re-release with some bonus material on it, a new and extensive booklet, and a remastered sound. Just for the connoisseurs: these days, whilst reading this interview, we already signed the contract regarding this re-release with the illustrious label MUSEA. Well, hopefully and joyfully :) Anyway please visit our website: www.yesterdays.hu or www.myspace.com/bogatiakos or just send a preorder to bogatiakos@yahoo.com
Jürgen Meurer © Progressive Newsletter 2007