Lash & Grey at ZITA
The mature sound of musical duo Lash & Grey has won over many hearts at our optician's. Plus, they've got great taste when it comes to choosing frames from ZITA. Our worlds overlap in many ways, so we chatted about their plans, style, and creative process while filming their video for the single Come and Get It.
16. April 2024, Author: Zuzana Luther, Paula Blahová Photo: Jakub Čaprnka
What kind of year have you had?
J: Right now we're in the middle of recording and creating new music. We've released two new singles. Meanwhile, we're playing concerts in Slovakia and abroad. We recently played in New York and for the first time in Mexico.
What's the response been like to your new music?
J: People who only know us from our first two albums might find our new work more dynamic. On previous albums, especially the first one, we came across as subtle, intimate, and ballad-like. That's what we wanted back then. But the rhythmic element has always been present in our music.
K: A musician's debut often profiles them unintentionally. We like to experiment, though. Not in the sense that we'll suddenly start playing metal, but we work with organic elements and try new things.
How do people perceive your musical style?
J: A lot of people say we've recorded jazz albums. We do explore jazz in depth, especially when practicing or at jazz festivals. But the music you know from our albums – we don't consider it jazz, because from our perspective it's something else. We're definitely influenced by the craft side of the genre, though.
K: The average, perhaps less demanding listener often automatically files any more complex song – the kind you mostly don't hear on the radio – under alternative genres. Unfortunately, Slovakia doesn't have such a rich musical history that would allow even more complex music to be part of the mainstream.
Do you think your music will find more listeners abroad?
K: We're from a small country and we make music here for a certain group of people. In other countries, that group is logically bigger. Plus, the present favors sensations that grab you in the first three seconds. Building a wider fanbase in Slovakia therefore takes a bit longer than, say, for musicians in France or Scandinavia, where alternative artistic scenes are more widespread, richer in how they present creative work. In many clubs and festivals there, the work reaches a wider mass of listeners, even though the percentage of these fans might be very similar to our country.
J: We're doing something similar to what you do at ZITA. You've also brought Slovaks a new perspective on opticians and frames. At first only for a certain group of people who weren't afraid to wear something different, bolder. We also have fans who've listened to us from the beginning, and then those who found their way to us over time. They consider our music bolder, deeper. Even so, our recent concerts in Slovakia have been completely sold out, and we're happy that more and more people are finding their way to us.
Can you imagine being played on regular Slovak radio stations?
K: It would please me if radio stations were bolder and generally played work that deserves it.
Musicians and bands who genuinely try to make a quality pop song and don't just follow the templates of the times to imitate another current hit "from the top 40 charts". Current creation, sadly, still resembles past times when songs were simply retexted from English.
J: Whenever we release a new song, we don't skip a single radio station. Maybe this time the hoe will shoot and someone will have the courage to present us to people. But we don't lose sleep over it when, apart from _FM radio, Radio Devin, and a handful of music enthusiasts, everyone else turns us down.
How does creating a new song work for you?
K: For example, with the song "Come and Get It", we were practicing something and then Kubo started playing that groove. We simply imagined the other instruments right away and I started singing the melody. I love that feeling when I sense things naturally falling into place and everything flows out at once without any unnecessary forcing. That's why this song came together very quickly. From the first idea to the finished demo, only a few hours passed.
J: We listen to a lot of instrumental music and perceive the relationships between individual melodies. In a composition, elements alternate – in some parts there are more, in others fewer. It's truly incredible how identical our musical taste is, Kristína's and mine. If we invite someone else into the creative process, it sometimes goes much harder. We have trouble understanding that another musician doesn't hear it exactly the way the two of us do.
K: I agree, creation is very much about taste, and we understand each other in that. The way a person is, that's how they play and sing.
When it comes to lyrics, do they come more naturally to you in English?
K: English is definitely easier and more natural for phrasing. Our generation grew up largely influenced by music with English lyrics. For example, "Come and get it" wouldn't sit well with us at all in Slovak, taste-wise. People often ask us when we'll write another Slovak song. Recently, one came together for us with a snap of the fingers. But the truth is I can't command it while writing – we really have to feel it that way.
J: Even so, it often happens to us abroad that they appreciate precisely the Slovak song, because they like our language. Slovak is very soft and melodic, even though it's a bit less rhythmically flexible, especially in the genre we work in.
What problems do you see in today's music industry?
K: I have the feeling that people today easily sell themselves through social media. They hide their real value behind something cheaper, just to reach a wider audience. Public pressure can be demanding. Doing something honestly means not giving in to pressure, being patient in creation, and being used to overcoming all kinds of obstacles.
J: Few people from the industry openly talk about failure. Yet success is built precisely on it. We don't learn from what succeeds, but rather from what doesn't. Every no leads us somewhere closer to yes. We'd like to encourage others too, not to be afraid to do things the way they feel them and want them.
Let's get to your glasses. What's the response been like?
K: Really a lot of people react to them. Most recently, after a concert in Stockholm, about three girls tried on my glasses. First they praised Jakub's, then I took out mine and they almost fell over. I love them and really enjoy wearing them. I don't need to have anything interesting on, I just put on the frames and it looks great. I've grown so attached to them that they've become part of my identity.
Jakub, when we spotted your Dabrach glasses at the trade fair, we said to ourselves we had to have them and they'd definitely find someone! They suit you incredibly.
J: When I first put them on at your place, my first feeling was: "Wow, this is killer". After a moment I started imagining all the places I'd go in them and whether I wasn't overdoing it with the extravagance. In the end, though, I told myself I had nothing to fear and I got used to them quickly. When I took my first transparent frame home from you, a lot of people around us were surprised. About the second pair, which is even more striking, several people have now told me it's really cool. It seems I've pushed boundaries in this regard not just for myself.
K: People are starting to perceive us through ZITA glasses too. They often ask if they're part of our image. When choosing glasses, we were thinking more about how we both needed them. Each of us was looking for ones we'd like and would be comfortable wearing. We didn't take it as "staging". But now we do. :D
Kristína, you first chose the more understated transparent glasses with us. Then you decided on these Gamine ones too.
K: I always thought of Kubo as the one who wears striking frames. But this frame attracted me somehow. After a while I tried it on again and realized I really needed it! It's unobtrusively striking, beautifully powder-pink, and lightweight.
Check out Lash & Grey's latest video for the song Come and Get It, where our glasses also starred, here.
