I worked as a greengrocer for three months. I didn’t enjoy cheating, says musician Ivan Hlas

“When a person is approaching seventy, he likes to return to the places from his childhood where he experienced beautiful moments,” says Ivan Hlas. And such a place for him is Baba on Prague’s Hanspaulka, which accompanies him throughout his life. He composed his first songs here, took his first loves here, and organized secret festivals here with musicians during the previous regime. A place that simply cannot be allowed to go.

Do you remember when you first discovered Baba?

I was five years old when we moved to Hanspaulka. My parents unpacked and sent me and my older sister outside and she brought me here. And that’s what amazed me for the first time, the view down across the river to the zoo. When I was older, we rode here with the boys on bikes, climbed through the rocks, and I used to come here with my guitar.

At what age did you start playing it?

Quite late, not until eleven o’clock. Rather than playing, I began to smash into her, and my parents put me in a “human” to handle it. I went there until I was seventeen and gradually started playing big beat and blues.

But you started making music professionally quite late. What did you do for a living until then?

At fifteen I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. We had a bookseller in our family, I liked books, so I trained as a bookseller. I really enjoyed this job, but the pay was lousy. And when I started my first family, I thought it couldn’t go on like this. My friend Ríša Tesařík (Yo Yo band) worked as a stagehand in a theater at the time, where the salary conditions were much better, plus two months of vacation. So he advised me. And that decided it. But I also made a living as a greengrocer, where I discovered that I could soon buy a new guitar with that money. But I only lasted three months, because I didn’t enjoy cheating like that. On the construction site with a jackhammer, that was a bit beyond my strength, but I felt good in the boiler room, for example. I did that for quite some time and it came together nicely by the fire.

At what age did you start writing your lyrics?

Sometime around fourteen. It was 1968 and everyone was influenced by Big Beat and wanted to be different. We had a school band that we played with, and that’s where my first lyrics were written.

Most of them are romantic and poetic. Nevertheless, not always in romantic places were created…

I’m saying that you need to have a little perspective. I like romance and mild sentiment and always wanted my songs to have a positive outlet. The truth is that many of them are inspired by the pub.

Maybe like the hit Hanspaul City?

Yes. Hanspaul City was created in Houtyš – that is the abbreviation of Hostince u Tyšerů, which no longer operates today. But then it was kind of our refuge. We had an innkeeper friend there who let us play, his piano and instruments in the kitchen. And when someone composed something, we immediately tried it. And that is the case with Hanspaul City. I wrote it at night and it was played the next day and it became our little anthem.

You won the Czech Lion for the music for the film Jackal Years. How did you get this job?

It was a coincidence. My friend Petr Šabach wrote the short story Jackal Years. And when we learned that Petr Jarchovský and Jan Hrebejk shoot a full-length musical, we went to talk to them about it with Peter. But they talked us into it. And I must say it was a beautiful job. We all lived that musical down to the last prop.

But you still have one more “year” on your account…

After the Jackal years, I got an offer for the film Baječná leta pod psa, which we did with Michal Dvořák. And then I made another fairy tale How to deserve a princess. I didn’t like the other offers I got, so I turned them down.

You have replaced several bands, for the last 21 years you have been loyal to the chamber Ivan Hlas Trio. Don’t you sometimes have a submarine?

I play very well with boys. They are excellent musicians. Our advantage is that we are all completely different, and if one of us is angry, he takes it elsewhere. In this trio, there is really an advantage in the difference in personalities. And the great thing is that we can fit in one car and go on trips and play.

In addition to acting, you also write books. You have four on your account. Are you planning another one?

I can consider the books really written by me to be Behind the Colored Glass, which is like a novella or a novel, Let’s go to one, where I accompany a talk about pubs with a wonderful photograph by František Dostál, and a book of lyrics, My dear, come back. The last one, V naruči dejvický noci, is a book interview with journalist Marcela Titzlová. Really about everything. I’m not planning another one yet, but you never know. Maybe I’ll start enjoying it again.

You claim that you are more like a mother in nature. In what specifically?

Mom was really amazing. We were four children and she was incredibly patient. Dad kept yelling, because of every stupid thing. And that is very unpleasant. And I have the advantage that I am calmer after my mother. And optimistic too.

You were optimistic even when you were diagnosed with vocal cord cancer. You didn’t think you could lose your voice?

Cancer is always hard. It was a period when it looked like I wouldn’t talk for a long time, but I never thought I wouldn’t sing again. I’m a bit stupid in this, I don’t miss serious things. In the end, luckily, everything turned out well and I continue to play.

Do you think you are lucky in life?

Certainly. I have a flawless wife who has endured for five strong women. A total of five kids to hang out with, six grandkids to hang out with, and one great-grandchild who’s so tiny we can’t talk yet. And that’s lucky for me!