Fast Confession - David Kraus: I had to fight for my existence

David, we meet at a commercial event, which is unusual for you. You've established a new collaboration with Gurmet. Why?

I lent my support mainly to lemonade, because I like lemonade. I don't drink alcohol much had issues with it already as a young man, but the older I get, the worse it is. Basically I go to bars where they serve good lemonade. I think more and more people my age are like this, I'm not the only one drinking lemonade at the bar.

How can you be an artist, if you don't like to drink?

I'd like to. Everybody needs to get out there and get wasted every now and then. But the two following days are hell, I feel awful, my body can't metabolize it. Not even beer, I'll have a small beer after lunch and start feeling sick.

Do you think it's your age?

Age and genetics. In our family, nobody is doing it, because we all get sick. I drink like a beginner, it makes me ill.

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Has it always been that way for you?

Yes, and I often had to make excuses. Unfortunately I don't drive, so I couldn‘'t use that as an excuse, but I often pretended to be ill or something, because I didn't know what else to do. People are always forcing you to have a shot with them.

And now it's Christmas time, which means mulled wine…

Actually, I've had mulled wine yesterday. I like this sweet stuff, like Campari. To be honest, I also like slivovitz, so as not to risk looking like a crazy guy who never has a single drink. If the slivovitz is homemade, I'll gladly try it. It's the only kind of alcohol that has never made me sick. It's good stuff. And I also like being drunk on it.

Can you still live without a car and driver's license in this day and age?

I do a lot walking to catch a train or a bus, but I admit that I take a taxi sometimes, too. Or somebody gives me a ride. I don't like cars. I've tried to get my driving licence a couple of times, but not because I want to drive a car. I thought it would be good to have it, so that when you're somewhere and someone gets hurt, you can take them to the hospital. It happened to me once, it's very unpleasant. For this reason, I would like to have it, so I can help in case of need.

But you have to practise anyway, you probably wouldn't put yourself behind the wheel anymore after so many years.

When your partner has a head injury, you will get in the car and drive them to the hospital anyway, no matter if you haven't practised in years. I have a problem with driving, many of my friends died in car accidents. I often sit in the car when traveling between concerts, so I've seen a car crash from up close multiple times. It happens even to the most experienced drivers and you have to constantly anticipate what can happen.

For me, it's a major stress factor, plus there are huge traffic jams every morning in the area where I live. Fortunately, I don't go to work in the mornings. I want to have a car mostly for the purpose of getting closer to the train and use this „shuttle service“ just like many other poeple who live outside of Prague nowadays. There's nowhere to park in Prague anymore and geting into the city is plain torture, it only serves to spoil your mood, because you can't get anywhere on time.

Let's move on to your work. You perform with a band, play in your dad's Show…

Since I was in my dad's show, a lot of people think that when you're on TV, you have an obscure amount money and drive a ferrari, especially when your dad is involved. A huge number of people see you there, and it becomes the main thing everyone knows about you. And it's very hard to overcome that. At that time, I performed in the theater and composed music, but it was impossible to beat.

People even start to wonder, they feel like you don't want to do concerts when you're on TV, like you don't need them. But everything I've been doing in my life was to get here, to the point where I'm playing my own music with my band, not to provide musical background for my dad's show. It's only complementary to the show, that's what was asked of us. And I think it might have been because my father believed I would make music he woudln't hate. (laughs)

I didn't think the reactions would be so weird. Then you wait ten, almost thirteen years for a change to come. Until finally the Face (Your Face Sounds Familiar; ed.) helped me and rid me of this curse. My dad used to have the same problem, he was the long-eared boy from Saxana until his forties, he only got rid of it when he started doing his show. I guess I'll always be my father's son, which I don't mind, I'm not ashamed of him, I love him very much and I'm proud of him. But I have done a lot of things in my life I can present myself with, not just this show. After that, I had to make music for commercials that were completely independent from who I was.

Is your dad proud of you?

I don't know. The way I was brought up, we don't speak about these things much at home.

But everybody needs to hear it! Have you ever asked him?

I haven't, and I never will.

So what else are you doing besides the show?

Last summer, we reached our record in number of concerts played. We were playing so often that, for the first time in my life, I feel like I could just do nothing for a while now, because we've played enough. It has always been my dream, but I have to admit that it took me by surprise how difficult it was. Not the concerts, but being on the road, especially when we played double shows or had to cross the whole country. So I thought "sometimes less is more" – better than playing two shows in a day at any cost. But it was what I had wanted, my band wants it, so I basically fed our desire, we had a good run.

We're on a break now, with some exceptions, such as when I sing as a guest with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, these things are prestigious for me, and they're related to Christmas. Or when I sing for Jitka Zelenková at her album launch event… I like to sing, but now I need some time off for a change, so I could make new songs for the next year, because it's no good playing the same old things. It's pretty weird when you perform in the same town where you performed a year ago with exactly the same songs. The band also needs something new, of course, so that we would enjoy it.

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What will your new songs be about?

I have this dream that, for the first time ever, an adult audience listens to my music, so I'm going to sing about whatever I want. Even things I used to joke about when I was younger. I've made a lot of songs about girls, all of them with some irony, so I want to make a serious love song. I miss it. I think there's a lot of electronic music, naughty songs and rap, it's all pretty similar to me. But when I happen to hear a nice song with a piano and a simple melody with subtle lyrics, I am satisfied. I hear such songs more often from female singers than male ones.

I want to create what I'm personally missing, and I won't say no to cooperation either. I have two talented songwriters, so I'd like to do it half-half with them. I always feel the need, when I write something about love, to turn it into a joke. I was brought up that way. When something's getting too romantic, you make fun of it.

The media dragged you through mud for your recent love "accident". Would you say that you want to sing it out?

I don't need to sing it out, because I got over it even without singing. When I wanted to sing it out, I wrote a ton of songs on the subject, but I never used any of it, because it would have been inappropriate. I think you can sing it out, but at that time I put my most negative emotions into it and the song would have been too negative.

I don't think its okay to do that - to create something negative about your ex. Although I have set the record straight in the media, explained what really happened, I never gave any details and I never will, but it bothered me that they'd turned it upside down. I was upset by her lie, that's why I acted the way I did.

I want to make songs about nice things that have a future. This is a depressing topic that I'd prefer not to sing about.

Do you currently find yourself in a happier period of life?

Yes.

So you can sing about new blooming love.

I can do that too, but I think I it's possible to sing about love even if you're not currently experiencing it. That's the nice thing about music, you can dream about what it's going to be like, or you can be living it and write a song about that.

Every time I show a partner to the media, they follow us when we break up, when it goes wrong, we're like two sheep. Wherever you go, they take pictures of you together. I don't do it anymore. I attend public events without women and I intend to stick to this rule. Of course, women find this very unpleasant sometimes, because they have the feeling that you're ashamed of them, that you won't take them to an opening night.

I've done it many times, taking a partner to an opening night officially. They take pictures of you, you get a nice photo out of it, but what follows is a ton of articles, most of them being negative. It's rare to read something like "they're a good match". Usually, they use a photo that had been taken a year back and write something nasty about it. Or they simply wait until they see you with someone else so that they could publish an article about a break up.

It didn't bother me when I was with someone who was also a public person. I felt like I was safe, like I couldn't hurt them. But when I'm with someone who's not in the public eye, I do not want to get family and acquaintances involved.

Fame is an issue when it comes to this?

It is. Well, fame… There's no fame here, fame is nothing but an empty name in the Czech Republic and it has always been that way. Abroads, you produce one song and then you don't have to worry about money anymore you until you die. Here, everyone you see in the tabloids has to work extremely hard to make a living. In no way does it mean that you're popular and well off.

A few years back, everyone knew me and I had to fight for my existence. On top of that, I had zero privacy and everybody was talking about what a great life I had, that I went to this or that country, daddy here, mommy there... That's really frustrating, which is why I moved to the countryside. The people there are still the same, they accept you in one way or another, and that's pretty much it. While in Prague you meet someone new every day.

Your parents went through a similar kind of mess, there was an exchange of partners...

My last public relationship ended with neither an exchange nor a breakup. It was infidelity.

Haven't you learnt from your parents when it comes to situations like this?

Kind of, yeah. But it's important to add that in my family, despite what happened, everyone behaved very politely and generously in the end, which was different in my case. That's why we all get along very well in my family, including the new additions we have, we're still a family. But things were different in my case, there was infidelity. I'm not perfect either, but when such a thing happens, one should be able to apologize or deal with it. Instead of acting like a coward.

Can you imagine a different, better world?

My idea of a better world would be if I could take all my friends, who keep me here together with my family, and move to Costa Rica. By which I mean friends you've known for over twenty years and it's a piece of you that can't be replaced. When I go for a vacation abroad, I always choose places where I'm unlikely to meet Czech people. I like the Czechs, but when I'm lazying around on the beach, I want to do it without people asking me for a photo.

But I have no problem with it when I'm at work. I would like to go to Croatia, for example, but that would mean I'd be posing in selfies all afternoon. Due to social networks, everyone is always taking pictures and filming. And they all want two photos, then a video and then they need one for their daughter. And you stand there and take pictures forever.

Do women also tell you that their daughters are single? Is that a thing?

It is a thing. Of course, the farther I'm from Prague, the more often it happens. It rarely happens in Prague. Same thing with New York, I've met Keith Richards there twice, and no one was taking pictures with him. And unlike me, Richards is a real celebrity.

People here don't care that much, in Prague they'll smile at you, but the moment you get out of Prague, they start asking for photos and you feel they behave differently. I don't mind it, there are also people I'm hubled to see. But I've never taken a picture with anyone or asked for a signature. When you just look at each other, the memory is nicer anyway. That's enough, you can't take such a memory and put it on your wall.

Thank you very much for the interview, David.