Name: Ladislav Pazdera
Occupation: Guitarist
Nationality: Czech
Recent release: Ladislav Pazdera's new album Chiaroscuro is out via Unit.

If you enjoyed this Ladislav Pazdera interview and would like to find out more about his work and current live dates, visit his official website. He is also on Instagram, and Facebook. For a look into his views about interpretation, we recommend our earlier Ladislav Pazdera interview about interpretation.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Inspiration is a great thing. Personally, I like to get inspired by nature or musical influences of foreign cultures. In my case, the impulse to create something comes always from the inside.

Despite all the hardships that it brings, composing music creates a space for me in which I feel completely contented. It also gives me a strong sense of purpose and that is like a drug. I want to feel that way again and again.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

The ideas that I start with are mostly pretty vague in terms of musical content, but I usually do have a clear idea about the feeling that I want to communicate and the meaning that the piece should have.

Then I like to have a plan about the structure or the dramaturgy of the piece, however rough, especially when it comes to rhythm and groove. And of course, I like to play with the ideas and improvise. Those are the moments when I can involuntarily discover something cool purely by chance.

But I have to understand what I’d discovered before I actually use it in the piece, otherwise the result might not be that good.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I listen to a lot of music which inevitably becomes some kind of groundwork for my pieces as it were. Additionally, I sometimes do a deeper research into some of the aspects that I find important or interesting.

But to be honest, I always try to study as much as I can, even while working on a piece, so I cannot say there would be a phase where I only prepare and a phase when I write. It is all part of one big process, I would say.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I work best when I feel like I have time to create. As long as I am stressed or busy with other tasks, it is hard for me to concentrate on the guitar. So I am usually trying to have a couple of hours that belong only to me and my guitar.

I don’t have any particular ritual to do that, but there are two things which always help a lot – my table has to be tidy and I definitely need a cup of coffee. That is my favourite ally when I need to get myself together or calm myself down.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

That depends. Sometimes it’s extremely easy to begin, it happens by chance, sometimes it takes some time to come up with a first note at all.

And the beginning can be anything – a chord, a rhythm, a groove, a single note …

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

That is a good question. I always feel like I have discovered the idea. It is usually already there in a form of a feeling and what I have to do is just finding the exact way to communicate that feeling through music.

And so when I find the chord or the phrase that I was searching for, I feel like I discovered what I needed to be able to say what I want to say.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

That is very different piece by piece and all that depends on how much time I have at the moment or what exact thing I am working on.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I love when things just happen naturally, knowing that they are exactly as they should be without me influencing them. But even when things happen by chance or in some kind of flow state, I still very much need to understand what I am actually doing. Maybe not at the moment but later on.

The meaning and the purpose behind the music has to be clear. Otherwise, the final piece will only be a mosaic of ideas that I connected as good as I could without actually really knowing what I was doing and why.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

I always record them. Immediately. And I listen to them the following day.

Sometimes it is gold, sometimes it is not :)

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

It is a very intimate and private state where I feel very happy, very useful, doing something that is completely worthy of all that energy.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I work on a piece as long as I feel it’s required. Sometimes in one long go, sometimes with longer breaks. But when I feel it’s finished, it’s really finished.

Once I feel this way, I usually don’t find anything else to work on, even if I take some more time to evaluate.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

For me it is extremely important to work with the best people when it comes to recording. And by best I mean that they understand what I want to achieve and they naturally aim for the same goal in recording sessions. Then it is very easy to let them get involved and the process becomes very natural, genuine, creative.

Generally speaking, I try to by more present until we have a rough mix. Then I usually take a step back and it’s the sound engineer who takes over the master.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

It happened to me for the first time after the release of Chiaroscuro. I find it helpful to not force it too hard.

Very important to me is listening to music and spending time in nature along with my family. That’s it. The need to start again will come eventually.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I respect and admire all forms of arts and creativity as long as I can relate to the meaning of it. But I feel extremely blessed that it’s music what I am doing
because I think that it allows me to communicate in the most immediate way.

I can express emotions, feelings, colours, shapes and so on and I cannot imagine anything else which would allow me to do that so easily.