Břetislav SobekDJ Ventolin, David Doubek is a creator of electronic music. He has studied pedagogy and cultural anthropology. He teaches at Charles University. He performed in Olomouc on 1st July (read the report from the event here). You will find out about his musical work and what thoughts are behind his tracks. You will also read about what the purpose of media is and how they make a living. Covid vs turnout at events. In the end there is written about why we hear from students that teachers are idiots and from teachers that students and naughty individuals.
Thank you that you have accepted my invitation for the interview. When I watch your video clips, I find some of their aspects interesting. An example is eating a schnitzel by a pond. It seems to show what the reality really looks like. However today’s media tries to show total fiction which doesn’t correspond with the real life at all.
Everybody shows only fiction.
Why is it like that?
People like to make up stuff.
Do you still carry it with you to your performances (I am showing Ventolin, medicine)?
No, not this one. I don’t use it anymore. I use a different type. However I have to use them. I am an allergic asthmatic. Pollen troubles me.
When I listened to the track Supersonik, I came to a conclusion that you tried to express today’s abundance of personal marketing on social media. Are your songs based on deep thoughts? Are you trying to point out such topics for the society?
Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes my songs are more analytical like the Supersonik. It is about the topic you’ve mentioned. Sometimes it is more personal. It is also a deep thought. Sometimes they are just nonsense which crosses my mind, but I like them. So it spans between total nonsense to attempts of expressing deep thoughts.
The song Mech and Disco Science shows reality of an ordinary day. Is authenticity and everydayness present in contemporary music?
I don’t know, but it is important for me. I think that people look for naturalness. There are many ways how to express it or create it. People look for various things. I do it as I feel it. It can have an impact on some people. Other people do it in a different way.
In a documentary about you, you said: “Embarrassment is good energy, which can be used for a performance. That way, you can create something really unusual.” How can the embarrassment be made use of in a positive way in everyday situations so that one doesn’t freeze up in them?
That’s an interesting question. I think it is always about courage. Just don’t get frightened. It is possible to appreciate the embarrassment in that one acquires a different perspective on themselves and their problems and situations one gets into. It is kind of an exercise, I mean looking for the different perspective and staying on top of things.
How should one fight with a feeling of anxiety and fear to act on?
One must try it. It is also about a sense and an evaluation of a specific situation – what the situation can withstand. Sometimes one is afraid more than it is necessary. They can’t estimate the situation accurately and they don’t understand other people. They don’t see what’s in their minds and thus can be afraid more of some things and it is applicable for the situation. They must keep trying and learn from failures.
How does fear come into existence in people?
It stems from expectations. Nobody wants to fail to meet the expectations of what one wants to look like or what one imagines to be perceived. It is a fear of being discredited in the eyes of people one talks to.
Your music is full of liveliness and emotions which encourage people to dance and relax. What do people need to reach what they want in their own fields they do?
They must keep trying and trying. There is no other way. If somebody is interested in something and enjoys it, it must do it persistently until they reach their goals.
Do you think that people have enough persistence. What is the situation with the persistence in the Czech republic? What factors influences it?
I don’t know. My experience as a musician is that the persistence is the biggest issue. I have worked with many individuals. Our cooperation often failed on not being persistent enough.
I feel you’re authentic and it gives me a vibe of living in a real world. How can you explain that what the mainstream media writes daily is the absolute opposite of the reality?
I cannot say it is this way. What is the mainstream media? Aktualne.cz?
Lidove noviny or Mlada fronta Dnes for example.
Lidove noviny and Mlada fronta Dnes are owned by Babis. They just produce what’s necessary at any moment.
What’s their purpose then?
They serve to communicate. People write about various topics, which they find interesting or important, in them. They are also limited by the length of an article and editorial work. They are limited by what’s expected to be interesting for readers or what would be desirable to read. They are also limited with a budget. The budget is getting smaller as they are gradually loosing advertisers. The media makes money from adverts which they sell. I think it is complicated with the media.
In fact mainstream is a good thing. It is a common ground in which people can come together somehow. I am fine with the mainstream. I think it is cool when each society has a proper mainstream. It is the best what they have. That’s principal and helps the society to stick together.
If there are too many extremes and no mainstream, the society breaks apart. That’s not good for anybody.
Sometimes when I read what’s written in the newspapers, I can’t believe the nonsense which is in them.
It happens. Of course, if it is nonsense, it may mean that the editor hasn’t spent enough time on the articles. Or it can be your subjective opinion.
That’s possible. The political representation reflects opinions of the society as a whole. Do you thing that what’s written in the newspapers reflects opinions of the society proportionally?
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on which part of the society it relates to. It can’t work this way. The society is a very complex organism. The media is just a small part of the whole. The media represents opinions of a specific part of the society quite accurately which they correspond to. Then they don’t represent opinions of other parts of the society at all. That’s normal.
That means that they look for their audience?
They look for their audience. Everybody looks for their own audience.
How does Covid influenced attendance of cultural events and the attendance after it?
It disrupted desire of people to attend events. That’s my own experience. It is possible to see it. More people attended events before Covid than nowadays. It was also influenced by other factors as the economic situation. There is no easy answer on it. I guess it has struck the people’s courage to be among other people temporarily. However it is gradually improving now.
How did you perceive switched-off webcams in online education during Covid? Why did students turned off their webcams?
They had various reasons for it. There was a practical reason for it. When the webcams were turned off, the data stream was smaller. It means it lagged less. It was a result of a consensus so that the online education could take place at least.
If there is around 200 people in an online call and if each of them has their webcam turned on, it will be useless. Small windows of them is the first reason and the second reason is lagging and getting stuck.
On the other hand, students were in their private places. Sometimes they wore pyjamas or something else what was awkward. It was better to have it turned off.
Didn’t you miss that you didn’t see them? I did some online education and I missed it. I needed to see their reactions.
Yes of course, I missed it. I perceived it as a practical issues which needed to be solved as I mentioned earlier.
What’s a good place where people can have a clear head and make up new concepts and think up new ideas?
It differs per person. Some people like being among other people. Some people like being alone. I like when it takes turns. I love to have walks in the nature. I like to just look out of a window.
Students say: “Teachers are idiots.” Teachers say: “Students are naughty.” How did it happen to be like that and how to solve it?
This opinion is a little bit escalated. I know many teachers who don’t have it this way. It is a consequence of failure of mutual trust and communication. The communication didn’t turn out so well as it should have. It is always the responsibility of the teacher in most cases. The teacher is an adult. They should be wiser and have a better perspective and assessment of situations which occur during education. It is also because students are reactive, especially in puberty.
It is possible to prevent to get to such state. Teachers just work on it. If it ends this way, it is because it has been neglected.
I had a teacher at primary school who kept telling us we would all end up as garbage collectors and she smelt badly.
It is a mistake of a teacher. The teacher is a grown-up. They have all means to create a nice atmosphere in a classroom. If it is not good, they didn’t try hard enough.
I think it is also because of the generation difference. Younger generation prefers visual aids. Isn’t it because of generational misunderstanding?
It happens regularly. Misunderstanding in a normal part of a life. Some people are just tired and they don’t want to concern themselves with solving problems. It is understandable, why it occurs, but it is not right. My children attend grammar school. The oldest teachers who don’t care about modern technologies have the biggest respect there. They have great charisma and understand their subjects very well. They teach maths or physics. They are rough, but popular among students. Children trust them. That what they say they also understand. I thing that’s principal. It can’t work without it.
If you didn’t have to deal with thinking how to make living and money to survive, what would you do?
(short pause) Music.
Thank you for the interview.
