Michal Jirák

Czech electronic musician, producer and DJ. Born June 2, 1963 in Prague (former Czechoslovakia). After a grammar school education (the legendary "U Libeňského Zámku" ) I studied or almost completed my studies (well, just under one semester and the finals left, and that's how it'll stay ) at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, while learning to play the piano for 20 years (and right until recently did not know why I didn't work harder at it as I enjoyed it so much), and as soon as I turned 18, really by accident , thanks to a joke by some other first-year students, I started to do some DJing (at that time spoken and written as "disk jockey"). I began when 7" (read "seven-inch") singles were used, gradually switching to CDs (when somebody at last invented them and made them accessible to the public) and now after many years I have returned to vinyl (I don't exactly know where the "i" belongs in that word, or the "y", hope I got it right) records, even if of course a little differently. In 1991 I got my first real "taste" of radio, actually the first private Czech station, later known as Radio 1. A year later I had several months at state radio with Regina and in '93 I settled down for 6 long (and beautiful) years at radio Bonton. During this period I mostly broadcast 6 days a week and in my spare time intensively worked on my own music. I first released 2 instrumental albums with Jirka Vatka (Mute Cs) as part of the "N-sonic" project, then I worked with Michal Šetka as "Magic Keys", and then, absorbed by the new wave of dance music, I completed the "Champagne" project. We recorded 2 albums in total (but unfortunately only the first was released), our video "Save Me!" performed well for several weeks in the then popular ESO TV chart. Apart from this we had an intensive live performance schedule and so it is no real surprise that after 6 hectic years I had to pause for a while. Two years later I was once again doing daily shows on radio Vox (great colleagues, fantastic atmosphere) and after six months I switched to radio Kiss 98, which had moved to new spaces equipped with what was then top studio equipment. But after one year the Kiss format grew stale (I am not a fan of oldies, even if I remember enough of them ), so I left and devoted myself completely to clubs as the resident in the Spiral and Industry clubs. In 2004 when Industry was closed I had the feeling that it was time to consider finishing playing live and start to concentrate on my own projects. But after a while sitting in front of a computer began to feel too monotonous and my desire to return to the club scene was stronger every day. So at the present time I'm trying to pin my friend Marosh down to help me with it, because he has fabulous business ability and unique music taste. Maybe I would succeeded before we both die... Perhaps... :-)