Nemjuci has quite a busy concert schedule these days. Do you have time to prepare new acts for the performances?
Indeed, I sometimes perform on three or four consecutive days, but what?s that compared to for instance how Mick Jagger goes on tour?.What the audience can expect also depends on whether we have a guest at the show and also on the size of the stage. I love moving around, love big spaces without boundaries where nothing holds me back. That?s why I maybe have a preference for large stages. But the boys are more relaxed playing in smaller venues and indeed our energies show better in a more intimate space.
Should the audience expect new songs?
We would like to get a second album published next year and we therefore have many new songs or song ideas. We tested some at Hegyalja because it?s still possible to make changes at this stage. Actually, I?ll have to write the lyrics for two songs by the weekend?
There?s not much time left ? is that enough to write two songs, and what?s more, in English?
I hope so. I usually sing the songs first with fake English lyrics but this gibberish eventually somehow still points to a certain theme. And I have a helping hand: my friend Judie Jay who is also a singer and her mother tongue is English. I usually put together the lyrics with her.
Did you collaborate with the group?s other members to write the new material?
Yes, but in a slightly different way from the first album. I had just finished working for the TV at the time and was bursting with energy. I wanted to appear on stage again and was so glad about having a rock band that I had a plan about everything. As soon as the first two sounds came out, I already knew the entire song. This time, however, we have gone though many things, our inspiration is different and things do not come from the gut with the virgin freshness of the early days. And I only want to use the best bits. I do not want to make a record because I have to. The boys take an active role in all tasks, including writing songs, and we are searching out the way to the second record together.
You have listened to guitar-driven music from an early age. You used to listen to Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin and you gained popularity as the singer for Anima Sound System. Yet, Nemjuci is a rock band. Do you think your audience has accepted the change in style?
Andris Lovasi, who I work with in Budapest Bar, said he did not think so. He believes Nemjuci can only become a successful group if people get used to the rock group status and my role in it. And he is right about that. Bu I do not want to keep proving that I am a rocker. I feel good doing what I?m doing, whether they like it or not. Some time will probably need to pass before more people realise that Nemjuci is a good group and they will come to our shows because they want to hear us.
Did you ever have a musical project that you think in retrospect was a sidestep?
I have been in this field for 15 years and I?ve never been involved in anything that I regretted. Life seems to take me to the right places. It must be my lucky star. I wouldn?t say that I do not have to make efforts. I do indeed. The fact that I have a new band and that I pursue a new style of music are indeed challenges. But the way life rolls with me is wonderful. I truly enjoy it. But I can only make progress if I take chances and go ahead with them. There?s no other way.
Indeed, you have done many things. You have been involved in film and worked as a reporter for a cultural show. Do you currently have plans beyond music?
I never make plans much ahead because new tasks usually find me. If I remind myself that growing up in Kapuvár as a teenager, I thought I would become a kindergarten nurse, yet now I sing on the big stage?well, I would die immediately. But to answer your question seriously: I have many more interests in music. Not only with the group, but I have many songs that can work with a single guitar accompaniment. I have some recordings for children that I originally made for private use for friends. But I?ll wait for more inspiration before I further develop and publish them. If I have a child one day or if I wake up and feel that the time has come for baby-talk. Talking about music, I have had some dates with a new instrument in the past few years and we will soon have a wedding in front of the public. But until then, I won?t say which instrument it is because I want to keep it as a surprise.
A few years ago, you appeared in a fashion show devoted to environmental protection. What was your main interest in this: fashion or the environment?
I never shop for fashionable clothes but I of course like nice and inventive things and I am interested in all things connected to modelling. I was glad when they invited me to act as a model while being a sort of actor for TÁP theatre. But today it is environmental protection that I feel I have a responsibility for. I am trying to avoid being obsessive but I want to show an ?example? to young people and convince them that we should all do as much as we can. Let?s collect our rubbish selectively, switch off the light and shut the tap. But many eco-programmes have gone overboard and people have become indifferent. We do not have really good and exciting environmental campaigns, except for a few. We are therefore planning a series to show young people that being green is cool and fun.
Interviewer: Melinda Serfőző / Photo: Bence Kovács
