I only begin to dream when most people get up. For nearly 15 years, I’ve been playing Wednesday and weekend nights, which means Thursdays go out the window too. For me, morning starts at around 4 pm.
It keeps changing all the time. And even if I listen to the music at home, I can only figure out what people want once I’m actually on the stage. I could mention a lot of music that I’ve loved for a long time. The truth is that all art, including music, has to have a sense of both immediacy and timelessness. If only one is there, the music will either lose its relevance 10 years from now or it won’t give you a feeling of being in the now. That’s why you can’t tell how today’s music will come across in 10 or 20 years’ time. Though with some of the music I play, you would guess it was made today if you didn’t know better.
I’ve recently re-read Hamlet, because I’m helping out with the music for a performance in Miskolc, but I don’t know when was the last time I read a book before that. I believe everything follows a circular pattern. At times one genre is important, and at other times another. When I was young I watched every movie and read every book. I used to listen to music even back then, but it didn’t play such a central role in my life. Nowadays music has replaced literature as the main focus in the world. We don’t have real movies any more. It’s music that shows us best what’s happening, rather than literature or film.
I’ve travelled about so much that I’d rather not go anywhere. Having a job that involves getting invitations to all corners of the world is a wonderful thing, but it’s also wonderful to do something that attracts people here. If I have to choose between performing in Budapest or in another city, I choose home.
I can’t cook, but my wife is a wonderful cook, so I’m very lucky in this respect. We also like going out to eat because she needs a break too.
Both, and non-stop. I’d recommend that people explore all sides of the story, rather than just listening to information that confirms what they think. That’s why people don’t usually ask themselves questions – because they only listen to information coming from one side. If they also looked at the other side, they would immediately start having questions.
I don’t read magazines much. I like interviews and analyses a lot. I also like Népsport (now called Nemzeti Sport [a Hungarian sports daily]) because it’s so straightforward. A match score of 1:0 will always be 1:0.
I’m actually the laughing stock of both my family and my friends. I don’t know if I’ve ever bought anything for myself. It’s my wife who takes care of these things. If she gets fed up with the clothes I’m wearing, she goes out and buys some new ones for me.
I’d feel very uncomfortable at a reception, for example, so I avoid events like that. I don’t like having to dress formally.
Nick Cave – but then he would need to make the coffee.
Definitely my parents. There are too many other people to count and it keeps changing.
I think perhaps responsiveness is the most important thing. The current generation is different from the one before it. In my father’s generation, people went to school, did one job their whole lives and then retired. Now it is not uncommon to see your job become superfluous in three years’ time. That’s why being able to adapt fast is so important. At the same time, we’re the first generation that needs to work all our lives until we die. There are hardly any self-sufficient young people under 30, hardly any jobs available once you’re 40, and practically none for people above 50. That means you have about 10 years to make something of yourself.