Are all of you from Jablonec?
"No, just two. One is from Tanvald, one from Prague and two from Chrastava."
Why can people see you so rarely in the Czech Republic? Do you get few offers there or do you prefer rather offers from abroad?
"Well, that's complicated. At present we get less offers in the Czech Republic because we prefer the foreign ones."
What countries have you performed in?
"Mostly in Denmark, then Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, we've just returned from Canada. We played also Greenland, the Farie Islands, so there's loads of places we've been at."
What stars can you brag about you performed with?
"Rednex, the Bellamy Brothers, Suzy Bogguss, Pam Tillis, Wanda Jackson, Charlie McCoy, Lee Ann Womack, BR5-49, the Mavericks... Well, there's a whole bunch of 'em. Recently we played with Martina McBride and Travis Tritt in Canada and today we're gonna add Chely Wright and Mark Chesnutt to our list."
"And also Pavel Bobek!"
What influences your choice of the songs you play?
"We just play what we like."
Do you observe the current country music scene?
"Of course we do. Every year we record some new hit songs along with some old evergreens. People just love it."
I wonder how many different costumes you have at home.
"Well, we've already had a plenty of costumes..."
"That's gonna be the toughest question!"
"These
days we have like six or seven kinds of costumes."
"We perform in denim, white, brown, red, tiger-striped, black and camouflage pattern costumes."
What influences you to pick a costume for a show?
"It depends on the surroundings, the atmosphere, the background..."
"It depends on the fact whether somebody puts on weight or loses weight, what costume fits at the moment..."
"Actually it depends on the dinner we just have..."
"And we enjoy playing in paper sacks the most!"
Do you sew your costumes by yourselves?
"Each of us has her own dressmaker, so we usually agree on a specific style and then everyone picks her own pattern."
Have you been always using an automatic drummer?
"We used to have a drummer but it's a long time ago. We had a couple of drummer boys and drummer girls but we were never satisfied. We found out that a drummer ruins our vocals. It was impossible to hear ourselves from the speakers because the drummer was always howling us down."
"In terms of transport it wouldn't be possible as well."
"Sometimes we perform on a very small stage and a potential drummer would take up all place."
"And it's also due to lack of time. Sometimes we have like 15 minutes to get ready for the show and if we had to install the drum set, we wouldn't make it. And due to transport as we
ll. Our car carries 8 people and 6 musical instruments and if we had the drums we would have to travel by bus. Drums aren't practical."
I heard there are so called 'future band members' playing with you sometimes.
"Yeah, they're kind of candidates. They practice and get ready half a year in advance and sometimes we test them onstage."
"There's no one who could substitute for us and when we are ill, we just have to go and play."
"When somebody wants to quit the band, she can't just say bye. We gotta look for a new girl in advance because it takes 6 months to learn the whole repertoire. Fluctuation isn't that high, the girls in our band usually play for like 3, 4, 5 years at most..."
"I've already been in the band for six years!"
"Me too!"
"Yeah, you're an exception and about to leave anyway..."
"I'll be here for seven years soon!"
"So, we pick a new band member a lot in advance to see whether or not she is capable to replace someone who is leaving."
Thank you.
(C) Petr Mecir 2006. All rights reserved.
