It's been a year since you've been working with the Telegraph on the Telegraph Podcasts. How do you feel about the amount of work you've done? Where has it taken you?
A lot of work, preparation and stress goes behind each podcast. That's why I'm happy to say that it's been overwhelmingly successful. Of course there's always room for improvement, but the podcasts themselves have certainly brought me a lot. Definitely great insight into those subcultures and the overall perception and thinking of the artists themselves. The interviews were also very enriching for me as a listener and presenter in one person, I was surprised myself how long and extensive a conversation can be had, for example, over the topic of painting. I appreciate artists and their work all the more now, because I have seen for myself how much people in this sphere think about everything thoroughly and how everything they create always has a certain meaning and often overlap.
In interviews you have the opportunity to meet people from the art, music and business worlds. What's the difference in preparing for and conducting interviews with people from different fields?
When I think about it, there's virtually none in terms of preparation. The preparation process is almost identical for all guests. I gather information using all available channels, trying to match the guest's artistic scope as much as possible - for musicians I use music platforms, for painters I use their portfolios, Instagram, etc. Otherwise, it's really the same. When conducting an interview, it's very subjective, guest by guest. Based on the information I gather, I'll make a picture of each guest beforehand and predetermine how I'll approach them during the interview. For example, whether I will be more or less formal, whether I will stick to the outline, or whether I can afford to digress from the topic here and there and ask different questions, and so on. But perhaps surprisingly, I can say that all these potential differences we're talking about very often go by the wayside right after we meet. As we sit down at the table, we always have some kind of informal conversation with the guest, and sooner or later I find out that he's actually just a person too, and that the conversation is really only different in the questions and maybe a little bit of that formality or informality.
The podcast episode where you interviewed Telegraph founder Robert Runtak was very popular with the audience. What do you think of his work in the field of collecting contemporary art or culture in general?
Robert is a strong personality and a very active person. I, of course, see it more from a distance and relatively fresh, but objectively I respect the fact that he is trying to contribute something to culture. Of course, I'm talking mainly about the Telegraph, which provides an interesting space, a rich programme and cool exhibitions. The money spent on the running of the building and all the processes around it must be enormous and, dare I say, mostly irrecoverable. So it's good that the money is being used for that sort of thing, rather than, say, buying chemical companies. As for his collection, I'm not educated or interested enough to make any kind of judgement or comparison, but from what I've learned in interviewing him myself and preparing for the podcast, his art collection is enormous, diverse, and certainly respectable, and certainly valuable.
Were there any situations that caught you off guard during the recording process
I have to say that all of the guests I've interviewed so far have been totally cool, likeable and friendly. My biggest fear at the beginning was that I would have to pry answers from the guests to meet some agreed upon minute allotment. That they wouldn't be able to answer the questions, or they would be uncomfortable on camera... But most of the time it was the opposite, everyone had something to say and the interviews were really interesting. There were many times when we went for a coffee after the filming was over and talked for a long time. For example, David Pechat and I met after about a week of shooting and had a two-hour deep talk, because the 40 minutes were not enough. (laughs) And now I remembered a cool story about how David Těšínský took a bottle with him to the shoot, hid it under the table, and then when I asked questions and the camera was pointed at me, he always bent down and drank under the table. Then, in the middle of the interview, he took out his phone and took a picture, and I started laughing and I had to do my best to hold it in, it was great.
You used to be an editor at Czechmag and Themag.cz, and you're currently a live presenter. Where would you like to go next professionally?
First of all, I work as an IT guy, so I'm going in a certain direction professionally, and everything outside of that is more about my personal interests and hobbies. It's always the real work that decides everything. As a lot of people before me have probably found out, it's one thing to do something you enjoy and find fulfilling, and another thing to make money. Those things rarely go together, especially in this cultural pond. It would be nice sometime in the future to somehow bring everything together and be the master of my work and my time, but I'm not counting on that option. I always try to have some kind of short-term plan where financial security plays a part, coupled with my real job, and I always take what comes my way, which is now podcasts for the Telegraph. I have a problem in general in that I want to do an awful lot of things, but I can't commit 100% to any of them. Now I've finally gotten into DJ sets a bit more, I played three times in Prague in January. That's one of the things I want to develop somehow too, because I'm really into it and I can finally put my musical knowledge and creativity to good use. We'll see where it all goes in the future and what it all becomes.
The journalism profession brings with it the opportunity to meet people that you wouldn't normally be able to. If you could meet anyone and interview them, who would it be?
I feel like everyone has more or less said it all in the digital culture circles I move in. I'd be interested in going into unexplored topics that don't get as much of that space, and especially that would bring some interesting new insights. I'd love to interview an astrophysicist, a game developer, but I wouldn't be afraid to take it from the other end and interview, say, Sugar Denny. I like to probe into worlds completely different from my own, and I'd be interested in how people from specific subcultures think.
Author: Mira Macík
