"Prague
singer and songwriter Jan Vytasek is one of the somewhat latent promising
talents of the local pop-rock scene. Jan commands a fairly charismatic voice
and his songs, founded on the most traditional sources of the seventies and
eighties at times with an added touch of an american country music, overflow
with a seldom heard melodic potential. It sounds like: Bruce
Springsteen, Tom Petty, Bryan Adams."
by Petr Koral - Muzikus Magazine ,
CZ
Jan Vytasek, musician and singer,
songwriter, was born with music in his heart. From a very young age, at the
musical school, he studied to play flute and quitar. At the age of sixteen,
he was already recording his first libriform home demos inspired by Paul
McCartney, Bryan Adams or Bon Jovi. At about that time, he started to write
his own music and lyrics. Besides the above artists, Queen, U2, and of
course Beatles were among his most favourite bands since early childhood.
Later, after participating in a concert version of the musical play Hair, he
showed his talent when he became one of top ten finalists in the prestigeous
competitions “Bohemia Talent” and “Zlin Talent”. A turning point in his
carrier became a broadcast by the Czech TV of his artistic profile and his
original song Prisaham (I Swear To You) in
2001. The song then made it into a number of regional radio stations and
enjoyed a great acclaim.
Neartime down the road, Jan founded his own band, the “Blackbirds”. Despite
being very busy with the band, he mostly kept performing on the musical
scene solo. Meanwhile, Jan tried his hand in other musicals, cabarets, cafes
and clasical concerts in the Czech Republic, as well as in Germany and
England.
***
In 2006 though, Jan left behind various
trends and musical revivals, and returned to his pop-rock roots and
presentation of his own songs, many of them in English owing to his
engagement abroad. Other international engagements, like in Poland where he
performed solo at the town square with guitar and piano, and the Queen
Convention in Hungary, followed. In the autumn of 2008, Jan returned to the
studio and completed his album, appropriately called Lost and Found. The CD
was published by the Good Day Records in December 2008.
The album carries through pop-rock genre, and reminiscences of Jan's
early childhood idols shine through. It is worth to note Jan's versatility.
Besides being the author of the music and lyrics, he provided musical
arrangements and programming for the CD production, and recorded most of the
musical instruments. The CD gives an impression of his real solo album, in
the proper sense of the word. Lost and Found is a pop-rock album with Czech
and English lyrics, which besides rythmical rock guitar plays, has plenty of
ballads with texts full of gentle fealings. Above all, the CD wishes to show
the author's complete originality with his heart-felt message inspired by
his life story and experiences, which in his words make up 90% of the album.
Cd was
released with the christening-party with the presence
and support of special godfathers - besides musician
Martin France and actress Jitka Asterova - legendary
Czech musician
,
and Freddie Mercury's
former assistant -
Peter Freestone.
Even thought the cd with not
any touch of advertising and promoting wasn't
a big breakthrough, Jan got noticed by reviewers and
festivals abroad - funny fact is, that the first
review
ever came from
Later, other reviews followed. Meanwhile Jan got a
chance to perform in England, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia,
Switzerland and
Poland
so far. The single
made it to the top ten in some web chart and the
get occasional rotation on independent TV stations, and
more above - became one of audience's most-favourite.
In 2009 he's appeared at bigger
festivals, as a
support
act for legendary band Olympic
and went again at
international festival in Poland
- this time as a guest. Meanwhile he went back to studio
for recording of new tracks, and made a video
Bob Idol Song,
reflecting - in funny way - the TV Reality Shows
phenomenon and the ballad Make a Wish, with which
he received the
Special
Distinction Of Jury in Poland 2010.
After struggles by supporting the album with no media
and management support, and permanent
changes in band, he
joined the anonymous party-band "just to find a pure
pleasure of doing the music". The short break was worth to
find back the new enthusiasm and also new musicians.
Now he is working on the new
records and write also songs involving other artists from other countries.
“If
the public buys the albums, I will be delighted, but if not, I'm really happy
just gigging about in clubs”, he adds. I like the best travelling and above all
live concerts.
To play anywhere, and as much as possible".
