NYC, East Village, St Marks Church. 

My first impulse to write a poem was soon after being part of the audience at the tribute night to poet Gregory Corso. Thurston Moore read Corso’s poem «  How not to die  » and there, something within shifted. Maybe it was observing Patti Smith in her wooly hat and a baggy sweater sitting on the church floor, reading off a printed A4 sheet. Or Lou Reed walking down the aisle and then performing The Raven, casually. 

This night, I realised that poetry can be a very different beast than the one I have encountered in the past. It certainly was not a Sunday afternoon dramatic reading to some slow pace classical music masterpiece on the national radio.

Here’s my story.

As a primary school pupil in a small town in central Slovakia, (then part of Czechoslovakia) I kept winning the school competitions of interpreting memorised prose. 

 In Amsterdam, I wrote short stories, and from time to time read them as a guest on Radio 100. In my very early twenties, I wrote ideas for performances where others spoke and I did not. I never actually dared to open my mouth and say my own well put together words out loud in front of live audience until after the Gregory Corso’s tribute night experience.

So, at the opening of my next solo exhibition, I braved to read my first poetic writings. There I was, on Broadway, at the Dance Space Centre in NYC, accompanied by a double bass player Matt Heyner, reading out my scribblings from printed A4 pages, while the audience chewed on their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, kindly provided by my fairy godmother, Margaret Bodell, who I was an assistant to at the time.

 After my return from the US, while spending time in Graz (then cultural capital of Europe), I co-created a band called GerdaDear. We did a few shows around town. It was fun.

 Some years later, I found myself in Harrogate, Yorkshire. There, a musician Ashley Reaks was organising his Click Clack open mic, and he asked me to tell one of my old poem/songs, because he was curious to hear what I sound like. He helped me book a local studio and soon after the first UK recordings of my poems were born. And so it began, the regular open mic route ritual that I circulated on for a number of years that followed.

 It was also an exciting time of MySpace, and it was on there, after virtual encounter with 10D-PJ, 4 tracks were created. One of the tracks even got us as far as airplay on Introducing with Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6.

Agnes Meadows ran Loose Muse at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden, and I was fortunate to be allowed to share my work there on several occasions too. After moving to London, one of my friends pointed me in the direction of Spoonful of Poison that was taking place at the Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel Road, and the rest is history. I grew more and more confident with the wonderful encouragement of Mr Vis the Spoon, the kindest shouty poet and compere who’s introduction of the acts was well worth those performing at the Wembley stadium. He is incredible.  

I also read, as a feature, a number of other nights: Jawdance, Tongue fu or London Liming among others. 

 In print, my poems have been published in the US and UK in different anthologies. 

And then, in 2011, I released a mini album, Speaking of Words. Recorded by Chris Redmond, mixed by Dean Firth in London, mastered by Marco Paschke at Andere Baustelle in Berlin, it still remains a collection of work that I treasure very much. Its individual tracks received airplay on the radio in the UK, Netherlands and USA, and there was a feature on the mini album on RadioFM in Slovakia. 

Listen and buy on Bandcamp

We also recorded a live radio session (with Dean Firth) for The Garden of Earthly Delights at CRMK in Milton Keynes.  

Bela Emerson was kind enough to perform her magical electric cello with me at Old Queens Head in London. 

And we did another nice and quiet duo concert with Les Carter (Carter USM, Abdoujaparov) at Googies in Folkestone during my solo show there. 

Latitude festival show with Greg Hall and Franz Kirmann was the last full length live musical performance to date. 

LUV*JAM (Andy Cole) has been a wonderful collaborator over the years too. I love his beats and it is always an honor to hear what he comes up with.

Slovak electronic music artist Foolk mixed my poem Honesty and the track titled Mirror can be found on his album Millions of.

Other musicians include: Nicolas Letarte (singing saw) Dave Dowson (keyboard), Filip Drabek (electric bass, electronics), Matthew Ratcliffe (cello), Raising Objections (who were Rima on saxophone with Jason Ribeiro on drums)

Features Overview

Foolk album

The lyrics of the track Honesty is featuring in the artist’s award winning album Millions of.

Luv*Jam record

The DJ Luv*Jam has been mixing my voice with his sounds in his record RAWAX too.

ODD NIPP

with Andrew Cole (Luv*Jam) and Ed Cox (In Fields) voice and words for tracks Silence and Smoke Signals In The Dark