“Eccentrical bedroom songwriter Oliver, who loves to spend all of his money for weird instruments such as Jew’s harp, reed organ or ocarina, and his second album, finally after couple of delays, on tape. Big fan of Adventure time is presenting you the melodies of Puhoy (S05E16).“
A quote from the website of Czech label Korobushka Records, which released the album on cassettes.
The album has been co-released with the Moravian label Bugheard Records run by my dear friends.
This is the newest album was made also by my friend Oliver aka Hellow Incognito from South Moravian Region, now living in Prague. We worked together under Z Tapes and we released together his previous album. He is also a visual artist and he has done a couple of artworks for our Z Tapes compilations: Christmas 2021, Sending Sunflowers, and Summer 2022. Oliver is not only a great visual artist, but also a great songwriter and one of the best songwriters you can find in Czechia.
His music is an acoustic-country-folk-western-lofi-indie rock with strong vocals. He makes that kind of music, when you walk into a bar just to get a beer and leave, you will stay just because of him and will clap wholeheartedly at the end. I am planning to see him play a live show at the amazing indie festival Beseda u Bigbítu, which is happening next weekend. He will play the opening gig of the festival and cannot wait to see/hear this newest album live.
I totally could see his music in some modern Western movies even though this music is made in a bedroom in the European country Czechia. Maybe one day it will be in some spaghetti western or something funny, it would be cool to see it there as well.
Jokes aside, Oliver’s music is great and I am really enjoying this new album, which is great progress from the previous album. His music is more mature, even more catchy and I bet it would be amazing live. I heard rumors he will have a full band for the set and I bet it would make it even better.
Hello, Incognito is exactly the kind of artist you should follow now because it has the potential to reach an audience in different European countries and find fans even on the other side of the planet. Right?
I asked Oliver our 3 usual questions:
What inspired you to start making music and what keeps you making music?
In my school years, I didn’t share many interests with my classmates, I was more of a soft guy who liked to draw. When I started studying art, it happened that I didn’t quite fit in again and found shelter in listening to music. In elementary school it was Green Day, in high school I found Bon Iver, who according to legends, recorded “For Emma, Forever Ago” alone in a cabin. Until then, I thought it was necessary to go to the studio and pay a shitload of money. So I bought a Focusrite audio interface and an SM57 mic and started recording every idea I had (one of the first songs just happened to be a Surf Song from my new album). Currently, what motivates me the most is being able to be a part of the Czech music scene. I’m not a pillar of it, it won’t collapse if I stop making music, but it’s an environment that I can feel being a part of. It’s nice to fit somewhere after 20 years of solitude.
What was the most challenging thing in your music (artistic) path?
For a long time, it was not letting my family and people from my past life know about the music I’m making. Later it was overcoming the fact that I’ll never sound like Radiohead 😀 Now the most challenging thing for me is collaborating with other people. It’s the first time I’ll be playing with a backing band at the “Beseda u bigbítu” festival and the role of frontman is very strange to me. I don’t feel comfortable being a leader of the free people.
What would you dream to do if anything was possible?
3Something creative like making gig posters, merch, and music covers for other bands. Right now I’m working on one for one of my favorite bands, Sinks. I’d also like to learn to work with people more and not shut away from my shell. I want to form some kind of creative gang where we help each other with music and make weird music videos. It’s probably not impossible, but my mentality sees it as a herculean feat. As Martin Prince from The Simpsons once said: “More friends! More allies! More I say! Hang those who talk of less!” (S06E01)
You can support Oliver on Bandcamp or Spotify and do not forget to get tapes.