festnoise | Music & Festivals

Dream Pop Indie-Folk band teepee first appeared on the Czech independent music scene in 2015. With a second album recently released (“Where the Ocean Breaks” via Springstoff), this band coming from Pilsen that started as a duo has grown to be a four piece band and thanks to their mesmerizing performances and an exquisite sound, they have everything to boost and expand beyond Czech borders very soon. Compared to Bat for Lashes or the XX, they already have shared the stage with names like Jesse Ware, Seafret, Oh Wonder, Peter Bjorn and John or Laurel.

Smart, committed and confident of every step they take, there is a lot of themselves in teepee´s music. For singer-acoustic guitarist Miroslav Patočka (Mason) and singer-electric guitarist Tereza (Teera) Lavičková, everything seems to revolve around people and nature itself, and in an accelerated world they seem to be convinced of the value of well done things and the power of word of mouth.

Just a few minutes of conversation with Mason and Teera in the dressing rooms of Bi Nuu (Berlin) before taking the stage were enough to verify that their human values are even greater than their musical talent. It may take some time but surely teepee will go as far as they dare to dream. This is the conversation we had!

First of all congrats for this second album, it sounds amazing! You had the opportunity to present the new album in a very special show at the Lucerna Music Bar in Prague. What did that show mean to you?

Teera: “Thank you! We baptized the album 2 weeks ago in Prague and it was great, I really enjoyed it!”

Mason: “For us it was a big step. It was the biggest venue we played so far in Prague and our biggest concert and also the biggest number of tickets being sold. So it was a huge success for us. We were happy that so many people showed up and we hope we took the band forward a bit because we introduced the new member Prokop. So we played as a four piece for the first time in Prague.”

Prior to the album release and the first show in Prague you launched a crowdfunding campaign too. How did it go and how are you rewarding the people who supported you?

Teera: “Yeah, we got all the money! We're happy about that as well, people are really supporting us!”

Mason: “It feels amazing to see the reactions and that people want to support you and sometimes they just pay and don't want anything in exchange. For some of the rewards I will go for a beer with some people and Teera, which is a tour guide in Prague will do some tours. So yeah, we try to be creative.”

You just started yesterday this short gig throughout Germany supporting Seafret. How was yesterday's show in Hamburg and how was the people's reaction to the new songs?

Teera: “It was great! I don't know if it's gonna be like that in all of Germany but in Hamburg they were listening very carefully and quietly and a lot of people came after the show to us and said they liked it.”

Mason: “This tour is a big big step for us. We hope it will help us because we'll play in places we've never played before, and in places like Berlin or Hamburg that we've played once or twice, it's good to play as many times as we can.”

How did this collaboration with Seafret happen?

Teera: “We already supported them two years ago and we became friends and also our Manager Radek is a good friend, so that helped.”

Teera began playing classical guitar at age 6, and Mason played a host of different instruments before settling on the guitar. Coming from the city of Pilsen, the duo met in high school and began making music in 2015. Shortly after they released their first album (“Albatros”). Nowadays both of them combine their studies at the Charles University in Prague (Mason studies European Studies and tries to focus on music and Teera studies Gender Studies) with their emergent and promising music career.

How are you managing to combine studies and music, when both probably would require full dedication?

Teera: “Yes, it is very tough. I'm finishing my studies but I was supposed to finish two years ago but because of the band I just didn't have a chance to finish my thesis. So I hope I'm going to finish it this June. I feel sometimes I may have three different lives because we have to work, we have to go to school and we also have to play. So it's hard to combine these three!”

You both come from Pilsen and now live in Prague. How is the music scene in Czech Republic, are there opportunities and support for new bands?

Mason: “Well, to start a band I think it's quite a nice environment in Prague. And if you have a fan base in your hometown or somewhere else and then you play in Prague to spread the word it's quite easy because it's a small country, but it's really hard to get somewhere else. So we've been trying to get more to Germany for the last two years. But right now thankfully we have the Czech music export office and that's a huge help for any band. They're getting us to the showcases and festivals and it really helps. And they provide funding as well which is a key step.”

Did you ever consider moving anywhere abroad?

Teera: “Not moving abroad but touring around. We would like to do that a lot around Germany and maybe something is coming up in December.”

Tereza Lavičková (Teera) performing at Bi Nuu in Berlin

In 2016 you released the debut album “Albatros” and on last January 31st you released “Where the Ocean Breaks”. What has changed within these four years and two albums?

Teera: “Everything! We grew up, that's the first thing. I think this album is more like growing up. We also recorded it in a studio because the last one we did in our living room.”

Mason: “The huge difference is that we took a different producer this time and he really pushed us as a band and gave us the opportunity to expand sound wise. His name is Tom O. Marsh and we recorded the album in Vienna. So it was a big step for us in terms of everything!”

Teera: “And also it was the first time we composed with someone else rather than just the two of us.”

Creatively speaking, I can imagine it must be difficult to let anyone enter your inner circle. How was working with him?

Teera: “It depends who is the person I think. And Tom was like the ideal person for us, he really understood our music. We became friends as well and sometimes we felt like he's reading our minds after seeing what he was coming up with. It was a good match!”

Mason: “Yeah, and we spent hundreds of hours together, weeks in Vienna and Prague where he also worked almost as a therapist sometimes! He was gluing the two of us together, he was the third part of the band. It fitted really naturally.”

Teera: “It's hard sometimes when it's just the two of us and one thinks something different. Sometimes it's difficult to judge what is the best option so it's always good to have a third person to help with some of these decisions.”

Mason: “On the personal level it really clicked, we've never had a fight nor big arguments. It was just really natural and calm.“

Being individuals with strong and firm values it's no wonder to think that having a good connection with the people you work with must be essential for you, not to mention when it comes to finding the right producer. How did you first meet Tom?

Teera: “Tom had already produced some bands in Czech and then he came to our concert in Prague.”

Mason: “Yes, he saw us in 2016 for the first time when we supported Oh Wonder in Prague, and he liked the music and said he'd be up for a collaboration and then in 2018 we recorded a first single with him like as a trial and it was perfect. So we just said that we wanted to do the whole album.”

Miroslav Patočka (Mason) performing at Bi Nuu in Berlin

With probably a lot of people complimenting you these days I'm sure it might be easy to lose perspective of where you are at every moment, but what do you ambition and where do you want to take the band?

Mason: “We are trying to keep it simple.”

Teera: “And have no expectations!”

Mason: “We defined where we´d like to go in these neighborhood countries and we have a booking agency in Poland, a German label and now we also have a German booker, so we'll see what he comes up with! Anything else is a bonus, but even this is a hard step to do.”

Teera: “But I also think that we came to a point where we want to make a living out of the music, so it would be good to get to the point where we don't actually need to have another job and we can just tour and compose. That would be ideal.”

teepee´s music is a diary of what's happening in their lives. They write about their feelings and emotions but also about social or political concerns. It all shows great character and personality. How can you manage to apparently be so humble and balanced where everything invites you to dream big?

Teera: “We kind of learned that it's better to not expect anything because then you can be only positively surprised which it's always better than to have an aim and be frustrated if it doesn't happen.”

Mason: “But in essence it's important to have goals in a certain way to like know what the aim is in terms of a year. Right now is to tour and promote the album because it really took a year and a half and we want to get it to as many people as possible. Might seem like a small but for us it's not.”

Teera: “So he makes the goals and I'm just like whatever happens, I´ll be happy!”

With clean aesthetics (they always dressed in black or white), impressive raw locations in videos and artwork (“Parallel World”), evident references in lyrics and titles of the songs (“Where The Ocean Breaks”, “Albatros”, ...), teepee´s world is full of references to nature and there is a clear influence of traveling. Both fluent in different languages, Mason spent some time studying in the North of Spain thanks to an Erasmus Scholarship and Teera has spent some time in India.

How did these traveling experiences influence you and your music?

Mason: “I think it's essential for us not only to see like the people in society somewhere else, which is an important thing. But also nature itself which is some sort of escape or just another world. We put it in the song Parallel World, which for me it was the ocean when I lived in Spain, where just going to the beach and having some sort of connection with nature was so important.”

Teera: “But I haven't seen much nature in India because I was mostly in the city. So for me it was more like people and kind of how they changed my point of view and that kind of got projected into a lot of the songs because it helped me realize how good life is here, my life.”

Mason: “You know it's like a mixture. I feel like Teera is the one reflecting on the people in society more but we share the same opinions. And then I think I put nature into the album because it was really transformative for me. In Czech we don't have the Sea so we don't have the option like in Spain where everyday I went to the beach where the Ocean is so beautiful, and I felt like home.”

At your shows there is always a very special energy floating around creating a very unique and cozy atmosphere. How do you feel when you are up on the stage?

Teera: “For a while I had a problem with performing because I was very nervous. I don't like attention so being on stage doesn't help although now I got into a point where I really enjoy the music and the band so much that I just forget that all the attention it's on me. So I really would like to play more!”

You also seem to trust in the people going to the shows and the word of mouth effect, which has a lot to do with this special energy that I was mentioning before.

Mason: “We have a great experience with passionate people, if they really love the project then we know something's gonna happen and if they're passionate they're going to spread the word and that's what we really need. We believe we made a good album and there are people who will just pass it to someone else and spread the word and if it touches someone who's booking a festival for example it's great.”

Last question, what can you tell me about upcoming plans or shows ahead?

Mason: “In April we'll have another set of Czech concerts and in May we'll have a tour in Poland where we're really flexible, from doing house gigs playing in living rooms up to festivals! Then in June we'll start festivals and then for the fall we are planning to study abroad again and then do a tour in December probably.”

Follow teepee and stay tuned for upcoming shows!

Cover photograph by Lindsay Oliver