Patrik Bartko: It's intoxicating to play stadiums, but I also love the intimate atmosphere of clubs

“Ever since we released ‘Two Bottles of Wine’ [Dvě lahve vína] and the actor Zdeněk Godla, who is a friend of mine, appeared in it, Romani people have become our fans and come to our concerts,” the guitarist Patrik Bartko says of the Marek Ztracený band. Romano vod’i magazine first published this interview with him in June 2022.   

Q:  How did you get in to the Marek Ztracený band? Did he contact you directly or did you audition? 

A:  I joined the band when the musician Michal Hrůza was assaulted in Ostrava, on Stodolní Street [Editor’s Note:  July 2016]. He was to have performed at the Kryštof Kemp music festival. He was unconscious with bleeding into his brain and they had to operate. Richard Krajčo, who was the organizer of the festival, needed an immediate replacement for him. First he called other bands, but nobody was available. He also called Marek, but his guitarist was on his honeymoon. Lukáš Boho, the drummer, is a friend of mine, and he remembered me and recommended me, so they called me on Friday morning to ask if I could play with them the next day, and I said yes. That meant I had just one day to learn 13 songs. Ever since then I filled in at his concerts from time to time and after a while I remained in the band.

Q:  I assume that beginning in a band that has already formed where the musicians are used to each other is not exactly easy. 

A:  That’s right, it wasn’t easy. Up until then I’d performed in clubs, and suddenly the world of big stages opened up for me and I was playing for 5,000 or more people. Unlike the other guys in the band I had never had that kind of experience. The lead singer noticed and in the beginning he taught me a lot, because it takes a while for one to get used to such a big stage, to absorb it. It took some time before Marek got used to me.

Q:  What do you mean?

A:  Marek is a professional and I was just learning to be one at the time. In the beginning I had a cheap guitar and the sound wasn’t the highest quality. I didn’t know how to move naturally onstage and I didn’t put on a show during the concerts. I have to admit, when I look back on it, that I didn’t have the discipline yet, I showed up to rehearsal half an hour late. Then I decided to turn that around and keep an eye on it, because that is part of professionalism.

Q:  You are the only Romani man in the band, have you experienced any prejudices from your colleagues or the fans about that? 

A:  I feel good in the band, I fit in, Marek and I consider each other family today. It’s better when there are clashes in the beginning and then it clears up than when things first work well and then go wrong. I have not experienced any hate from the fans either. I have the feeling that nobody cares whether a Romani man is playing in the band of a famous singer. However, it is true that I have changed the view of us Roma for the better in the band, at least for the drummer, who had hardly ever known anybody Romani. Our bass player, Honza Vaníček, speaks Romanes better than I do because he grew up among Roma. I wish you could experience the fun we have when we’re in the car and heading to a concert. Naturally we listen to Romani songs, performers like Nótár Mary or Věra Bílá, whom Marek and I adore.

Q:  Are you bringing your own musical elements into the band’s creations?

A:  Certainly, I do my best to do that every time. Marek first composes the music, then I pick up the guitar and invent the accompaniment, spice it up with blues elements, a bit of American style, and then we go see the producer. If he likes it, we record it. I incorporated Romani elements into ‘Two Bottles of Wine’ [Dvě lahve vína] because pop has its own rules and there’s not much room for breaking them and bringing other musical influences into pop music.

Q: Whose idea was it to release a song that has such a recognizably Romani rhythm? 

A:  Before our concerts I always play Romani songs in the dressing room, so I wasn’t surprised when Marek brought those chords and wanted to do a czardas. He composed it and played it for me in Czech, but I gave it that Romani feeling, the way it’s supposed to be, and I think it worked. Marek composed the lyrics and music, though.

Q:  Do Romani people go to your concerts?

A:  There’s not a lot of time to look at everybody’s faces because each show has its own choreography, certain points that connect to each other, effects onstage, and you all exactly know what, where and when you have to keep an eye on things. Ever since we released ‘Two Bottles of Wine’ [Dvě lahve vína] and the actor Zdeněk Godla, who is a friend of mine, appeared in it, Romani people have become our fans and come to our concerts. I noticed that many Romani bands online are covering the song, they arrange it differently. I’m glad that when Romani people meet us somewhere they respond to us very well and want to take pictures with the band members, they let them know that they like our music.

Q:  How did the Czech audience receive the song?

A:  The performer Gipsy broke through even though he was playing something that nobody else had before here. The Buty group released their brilliant record Normále in 2001, but their fans didn’t know how to appreciate it. I know they lost some of their fans at that time. When I was talking with Radek  Pastrňák, he told me their fans weren’t prepared back then, it was a different time, more closed, under more of a burden of prejudice against Romani people. I believe that if they were to release that same album now, the audience would be far better prepared for it and would receive it without any problem.

Q:  You sold out the O2 Arena twice in 2021. What is it like to play for such a mass of people?

Indescribable. It’s a drug. We performed for 40,000 people during two concerts. At that moment you have the feeling that what you’re doing makes sense.

Q:  What’s the difference between such a big concert and playing the club scene? Which do you enjoy more?

A:  If you are playing in a smaller club the concert has an atmosphere that is almost intimate. When you play on a big stage, it’s more about the show, energy and adrenaline. The fans are farther away from you and you don’t have such close contact as you do with those who come to a club. What works for me is to separate different genres, because for blues or jazz a club is more appropriate, unequivocally, and for a pop-rock or rock concert it’s better when there are masses of fans there.

Q: Will you perform Romani music onstage, maybe with your own band, Patrik Bartko Experience?

A:  The vocalist in my band will only sing in English. Unfortunately, I don’t sing, and I speak very little Romanes. My parents spoke it at home, but they never taught it to us, which I regret today. I would love to know how to speak Romanes fluently, but unfortunately I don’t. I was born into a bilingual family and grew up in one, but I am not bilingual.

Q:  What kind of music are you most inclined to perform?

A:  I regret it somewhat that when I was a child I never learned most of the Romani songs that are traditional. To this day I love to listen to Věra Bílá and the Kale group, because they are fantastic musicians. I don’t love keyboards, though, I consider them to be a bit like player pianos, but if somebody likes that kind of music and has fun with it, that’s fine with me. I just believe music has to be played honestly. I remember being six years old at my grandmother’s funeral when the Horváth cembalom band from Brno accompanied her to her final resting place. That made a great impression on me. One could tell that they understood their craft well, and even at that age I felt that there is a part of our Romipen in that traditional Romani music. I love to play halgats, but just for myself or my family. I love Romani music, but as a musician I dedicate myself far more to different genres, from classical music to Jewish or Armenian music. For example, I like the Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan, whom I consider to literally be a musical genius. I also love jazz, I studied it at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory – I might not have graduated from there, but my love for jazz persists. Jazz is complicated music, essentially, not everybody can comprehend it. With my own band, the Patrik Bartko Experience, I play the blues, which I’ve loved since childhood.

Q:  Weren’t your parents sorry you didn’t graduate from the conservatory?

A:  It was different for me, because before I went to conservatory I had graduated from the Engineering High School. My parents did not perceive it negatively that I never graduated from conservatory, they didn’t have the feeling that I’d ruined my life, because I had already achieved a high school education. I’d had to leave the conservatory because on the one hand I had to make a living, so I began playing “gastro jazz” after school – music for people eating in restaurants. However, the main reason was my Dad, who was ill at that time, and it was difficult for me to commute between Prague and my home town of Chomutov. That was when I got the offer to play in the Marek Ztracený band, so my parents never had a reason to confront me over not graduating.

Q:  Why are videos more successful today than records?

A:  Records used to sell more because there was no Internet and people had no option but to buy music. Today there is the Internet and you don’t have to buy anything, all you have to do is search for the name of a performer on YouTube and you can download it.

Q:  Romani people do not appear on our television screens very often. They perform their work more through their own Internet channels. How do you explain this absence of Romani artists from TV? 

A:  That’s easy, the Romani people who appear in the talent competitions, like Monika Bagárová, do appear on TV. The problem lies elsewhere. It’s generally difficult to break through, it’s not about whether you are Romani or not. The band Gipsy.cz also appeared at one time on different TV programs and was played on the radio. However, it is true that on commercial television, what appears is pop music above all, more or less. I don’t know any Romani musicians who would play pop music for Czechs. If you play jazz or classical music, then you’re performing in a genre that is marginal, with a minority of listeners. People who come home from work all wound up mostly want to play something simpler so they can relax. Jazz can seem complex to them at that moment, they might not get it. The biggest mass of people listens to pop music. Romani people incline toward r&b, soul, Latin music, but not so much toward pop. This is not about skin color or ethnicity. Even a Czech vocalist who sings r&b will not appear on TV and will not be played much on the radio. I have many friends who are musicians, singers, they produce music of high quality, but they come up against this fact. If you have a radio station that plays rock music, then no other genre will be on the air. It’s difficult to break through on the music scene, I’d even go so far as to say that it’s about luck, money, and the science of how to write a hit that is easy and also makes sense.

Q:  Radio stations play you, though. I assume that for Marek Ztracený and his band it’s not a problem to get airtime?

A:  The radio stations reach out on their own to Marek so they can include him on their playlist, because he’s built up his position on the music scene after performing as long as he has. He’s written music for Karel Gott, Hanka Zagorová and Lucie Bílá.

Q: Have you always just played guitar, do you play any other instruments?

A:  In addition to guitar and bass, I play drums and piano. As a child I played clarinet for five years, but I never got into it. My granddad had played it, and I wanted to be like him. I went to music lessons and I honestly practiced, but I did not enjoy it at all. The embouchure for the clarinet is difficult, and if you want to play well, you have to intensively practice. My parents may have been disappointed with my decision, but I believe it’s the best one I ever made, because I was able to dedicate myself to the guitar much more. So while I do play more than one musical instrument, I consider myself a guitarist. To be honest, I don’t much like people who play everything with not much result. Prince or Lenny Kravitz could say that about themselves because they were fantastic musicians and actually managed to play it all. I rather do my best to be distinctive, so my fans can recognize my performance. Marek gave me a Gibson Standard, so I already have the sound I want.

Q: You’ve played guitar since childhood, who introduced you to music then?

A:  My Dad. Thanks to him I was able to get in touch with the different genres he listened to, like rock and heavy metal. Jazz and blues too. I have wanted to make a living through music and to be famous ever since I was child. I pursued it hard, even though many people deterred me by saying I would eventually end up working in a factory all the same with a wife and child and that I’d just touch my guitars on special occasions. I didn’t want to give up on my dream, though. In Chomutov I attended music lessons and thanks to that I got to know many musicians. During my conservatory studies I played in several formations, although our audience back then was actually small. My first concert was for five people, then for 10, then for 100, and then the brass ring came by and I grabbed it. When I look at my own pupils today, I have to say that I’ve yet to see the ferocity in them that I had in myself at that time.

Q: You spent today in the studio. What were you working on?

A:  A friend was there who had asked me to play guitar and help him arrange something. I am a studio player, among other things, so if an artist asks me to play guitar parts in the studio, I am glad to do it. I play all possible genres, but most frequently it’s rock and pop. Thanks to that I’m currently collaborating with the singer Ferry B, with the Evropa 2 Dafonicko producer, and with DJ Flux, who is one of the DJ masters of Europe. Recently the band Melodica contacted me and the beautiful song “Soumrak” [Dusk] was the result of our collaboration, soon there will be a video where I’m supposed to play and it will appear on their next album.

Q:  Is it still the case that studio players are some of the best musicians? 

A:  A musician who plays onstage for years has an absolutely different kind of experience from those who just play in studios. I don’t like boxing people in, though, I don’t believe in it. If a musician actually wants to make a living at a professional level and manages to play it all, both in the studio and onstage, then he can really apply himself.

Q:  What was the pandemic like for you? The COVID-19 era is not exactly good for culture.

A:  I recorded with different interpreters in the studio, or I arranged music. I also teach guitar. I teach pop and rock music or basic jazz. My pupils are both children and adults. During those two years, 18 pupils found their way to my classroom in Chomutov. There is one half-Romani boy among them, he’s six years old and I see interesting potential in him.

Q: What is your band planning now and what is the Marek Ztracený band up to?

A:  With my band I am doing my best to work on a record. Once we have 12 songs we’ll release a single. Marek and I have also not been idle. In mid-June [2022] we’ll go on our summer TOUR DE LÉTO and in September we are planning the RESTART tour – concerts in venues like the O2 Arena in Prague. We will appear in Brno and other cities during that tour as well, though. I’m already preparing for those concerts now, I play every day. I’m getting in shape, too – during the lockdown I gained weight, now I’m losing it by playing sports. I have to say that I’m already looking forward to standing in front of an audience, it’s unreal how much I miss it.