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Se another interview here.

I searched for and found this interview because I am a big fan of Jana from the old days, and missed her. I got it translated for my personal joy, and thought it would be a favor to the world to post it. Thanks to Pavel and Daniela for the translation from Czech. I am happy she is active, even though she seems not to mind making her fans confused by changing her name all the time! I am looking forward to her new album and her book.
(Sorry for all the missing characters, I don't know which Czech characters they are supposed to be.) - Eolake


JANA KRATOCHVÍLOVÁ
a.k.a.
Jana Pope or Jana Uriel

A singer, composer and text - writer
Born 14 January 1953, Zlín

Albums:
Jana Kratochvílová (1980)
Listen and Follow (1981)
Bohemian (1985)
Joy of Transformation (1991)
Create Z Health & Beauty (1991)
Copánky (1992)
Immortality (1992)
We Are Calling Immortals (1993)
Power Inside You (1994)
Jana Pope & Heval LIVE (2CD, 1994)
Illuminati - Anarchists: Unite! (1994)
Goddess of Desire (1995)
Illuminati - Everything Is Under Control (1998)
V stínu kapradiny (1998)
S láskou (1998)
Films: Trhák
Buldoci a t_e_n_
Straka v hrsti
B_ehy n_hy
Books: Frank Towen: _ivot s tancem (E. Tomková-Towenová, O. Strusková, 1993)
Slavi_í osudy (M. Graclík, 1999)
Kulturní toulky Vala_skem (M. Mikulcová, M. Graclík, 2001

Sample Jana's music: Spy.mp3

INFO: a singer, composer and text - writer appeared on TV with Ji_í Brabec’s Country Beat in 1973 for the first time. Then she played in several theatres. She became famous in the pop group “Steps” (1976 – 1978) with Franti_ek Jane_ek . Although she became a real star in this group, she left it and established (together with Pavel Trnavsk_) her own group “ Motor”. From 1980 to 1983 she sang in the legendary roc reggae group “Heval” . The new style of their music, net T-shirts, which exposed more than was usual then, her unyieldingness and eccentric opinions caused lots of bans and prohibitions. Nobody was surprised that during their return from a music festival in Ireland she and her friend Pavel Trnavsky stopped in England and did not return home. In 1984 her friend, the drummer with “Pra_sk_ v_b_r and _lut_ pes” , Ji_í Hrube_ joined them. She lives in London with a new name Jana Pope . When Polydor cancelled her “ million” contract (album Bohemian) she lost her mansion, Rolls – Royce and servants. Then she threw herself into yoga, alternative medicine, healing and other eastern philosophies. In the 1990s Jana Pope Kratochvilova recorded several esoteric rock and pop projects with various stage names. (Z Goddess, Zuru, Heretyka ) She isn’t understood by majority because of her provoking, shocking and radical opinions. Apart from the remakes of her former hits “Copánky, V stínu kapradiny…”, in 1998 Jana Kratochvilova released a new album in Czech (“S láskou”).
The begging of the new millennium witnessed a great artistic comeback of Jana Kratochvilova in the Czech Republic with the young singer Martin France she made a duet for his debut album “The Angel of Salvation”. The song is in both Czech and English version and they are also preparing a video clip of the song. Jana Kratochvílová is preparing a brand new Czech album and she’s also going to remake her biggest hits.
She’s also preparing shocking book of interviews called “ Striptease”. It will bring an extensive interview with Jana Kratochvilová without any censorship. It will be accompanied with her friends and colleagues’ opinions, lots of data and hundreds of both black and white and colour photographs from her private archive.


INTERVIEW

Jana, why do you change your names so often? Isn’t it a sign of continuous search of opinion?
The name JANA I got from the Karafiat’s children’s book called “The little Beatle“ It probably should guarantee my saintliness. It only lasted for first 5 minutes or so after my birth until I got over the shock that I had landed on this planet again.
POPE is my fighting name from the era of the Heval Band – from the time of our persecution and all possible (and impossible) prohibitions in the former Czechoslovakia. I also use it as my civil name in England and I also made album Bohemian the Polydor Company.
Z GODDESS is my intuitive stage name. I used it for the albums Immortality, Radiant Tones of and Joy of Transformation.
ZURU is my civil name.
HERETYKA ( heretic) is my stage name in the Illuminati Band I played with in the Czech Republic and made the album Anarchists Unite in the middle of the 90s .
My last stage name is URIEL.
Privately I call myself NYMFOJANKA, but in the Czech Republic I am Jane Pope Kratochvilová. It’s absolutely simple, isn’t it? Or do you have any problems with it?

But some time ago you told me that Jana Kratochvílová had died……..
You are right. Jana Kratochvílová is dead. She left her physical body in the last century – it was exactly on Christmas Eve 1990 in 11 in the evening. I, as “Extraterrestrial”, only inherited her physical shape for future use. My name is Zuru, but in this island I use names Heretyka, Uriel – but I have talked about it a minute ago. Apart from the physical case I have nothing in common with Jana Kratochvílová.

How do you celebrate your birthday now?
No celebrations, celebrations are good only for bureaucrats and materialistic sapheads. I’ve been 18 years old for several centuries and as a proper extraterrestrial I celebrate only solstices. I bring rebellion against everything that restricts free development of spirit which influences your calendar age.

What did you want to be when you were small?
An astronaut! I used to practise zero G on a chain roundabout. Twenty times in rapid succession. I’ve got an iron stomach. If I have any.

Your parent gave you musical education…….
Originally I followed classical masters who had, unfortunately, left this terrestrial incarnation – that means that their music is also somehow out. Most of my childhood I spent as a violin maniac. I was also influenced by opera. When I was nine, I used to sing arias from the “ Rusalka” opera by Antonín Dvo_ák. With the teenage age I jumped into a new field. I broke the bow in two, grabbed the guitar and hold it for long years. When my brother got married, for example, I was playing at his wedding for sixteen hours without any break.

You take the calendar age for stupidity and you emphasize your biological age, which is going down. Why do you get angry when the tabloids mention your calendar age? Isn’t it a bit narrow - minded? Isn’t the look of somebody more important than how old they are?
First of all – I have never been born! That’s why I take being tied by a fudge of limited people– i.e. your calendar age for absolute nonsense. It isn’t essential and is good only for narrow-minded people and bureaucrats. Spirit is immortal and cant be marked with anything of course, the biological age of your physical shape, which I assumed a bit later than it is common on the earth, can be changed arbitrarily. The only thing you need is to master the laws of regeneration and degeneration. And because I understand these laws, this physical form isn’t a problem to me. And the form is getting younger and younger. At the moment I’m happy with this state. When I’m tired of it, I will simply leave this case.

If you don’t get older, you regenerate all the time…
Regeneration is a process that is included in everything and everywhere. Our physical body is able to get trough an unbelievable number of regenerations. For example your stomach is able to be utterly transformed in for days, with your oral cavity it’s only one day. The regeneration of your skeleton is the longest process – as it takes as much as seven years. It means that every seven years we have got a completely new body. And in the ideal case it should be young, healthy and full of energy.

Getting older is not a natural process in your eyes?
Impure and dirty food or environment damage people. But people are also damaged by their own dirty thoughts that lead to their degeneration. Thoughts full of envy, hatred, wrath….. Thoughts representing greed, perversity, but also self-pity, fear or feelings of helplessness or pessimism. These factors influence the whole organism and sooner or later it will become visible through a lot of illnesses or ailments.

How would you asses your artistic activities in the Czech Republic before your emigration?
I got through a few hard periods, but there were also lots of nice moments. All possible and impossible prohibitions from the official institutions belonged to the former ones. The time of my intensive tours with concerts (mostly with the Heval Band) often with an unbelievable magic atmosphere between the audience and us represents the latter – positive ones. These moments were worth suffering.

What is your attitude to the Czech Republic, your parents, your brother, who worked as a sound - mixer in your band for a time, like? Your first visit after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 was as late as 1994….
My attitude to this planet is surprisingly warm. The Czech Republic is the place where I got this physical case – as Alien Spirit – for my use. And my terrestrial parents and relatives generally…? They are the spirits I made, before this incarnation, agreement about our getting through live together with.
I’ve travelled round the world to and fro. I’ve also visited my family and relatives many times recently. In my spiritual body, though. Such travelling is much more comfortable and faster than travelling in your physical case. I was about five times in the Czech Republic during the 1990s and I also had a concert tour with the Ilumminati Band (together with Ji_í Hrube_ and Pavel Trnavsk_).

And how about your native Moravia?
Moravia is a sweet smell of child’s and fabulous memories of beautiful moments at my grandmothers and grandfathers’, aunts and uncles’ and other nice people with open hearts. No wonder I used to call my native town (officially Gottwaldov) “Good Ville”. Moravia for me is huge hospitality, beautiful countryside and endless flooding of wonderful folk songs. In short, Moravia is my first big love and such love is forever. Give my regards to all people in Moravia and Silesia. I love them all, because they are so warm-hearted.

Why did you choose exactly England for your emigration?
Because Great Britain can’t be shocked by anything and anybody.

Is England really as conservative as it is said to be?
It’s conservative in its “islandness”.

How long did it take you to find your new home there?
The first real feeling of newly found home was brought by a small kitten. We had had a few half – somnambular weeks in a new country behind us and we had been staying at a permanent address after a long time. I was just composing a new song with a borrowed guitar with my first English lyrics:“ I feel like a jet plain falling down from the sky…” when, suddenly, a miniature shaggy creature appeared in the room – it looked as if cut out from Disney’s cartoon. It was “Chi - chi”. For the first three years we had thought it was a cat, but later our English friends realised it was a tom – cat. And we had promised almost half the people in London small kittens…!

What does the word “home” mean to you?
The genuine home we have in our hearts and in our souls. I don’t feel only as a girl from Moravia I also feel I’m an inhabitant of the Universe. What’s the right word? A“universer”?

And what did your leaving for England across the Channel mean to you?
My leaving for England was a sudden change in our lives. Millions of people leave for foreign countries and come back again. But difference between a normal tourist and somebody who can’t (and mustn’t) return home is huge. You feel like a tree whose roots have been cut off. The power and strength of our roots with an ancient civilization which hadn’t been cut off could be felt at a place where a sudden surge of strange energy caused we felt dizzy. Stonehenge. Huge stone columns in a circle in the middle of Salisbury. They are at least three thousand years old. One of many mysteries and puzzles the previous generations left for us to be solved. One of the newest theories claims that the stone columns work the same way like needles in acupuncture. The needles are used to remove the obstacles that obstruct the free flow of energy through the nerve system of the human body. Our planet has a similar nerve system – thousands and thousands of underground rivers and streams throughout the whole planet. Some long forgotten races may have (with the help of these huge” needles”) cured the planet and helped to keep the life balanced.

Could you tell us anything about your first steps in England?
It was a real “school of life” for us. Pavel Trnavsk_ and I came here in a worn off VW “Beetle” with two suitcases full of impractical stuff. I didn’t have any warm clothes and the winter was really tough then. During the first year we had to get through the barrier of a foreign language, strange customs and a strange world. We didn’t have any idea of the value of British money and we soon spent all the money we had. We needed a flat and we had to get over a huge shock. We had some acquaintances there, but begging for help is not our style. We wanted to be independent. We studied English intensively because our knowledge of English was of little use. When I came to England I knew three phrases in English and even they were incorrect. Instead of “ How do you feel?”, I used to say, “ How do you fool?” – and lots of similar things.

A year later Jirka Hrube_ joined you….
Yes. We built a recording studio. We rented to a various musicians during the day and at night we made our demo tapes. Getting over the problems strengthened and deepened our relations. We signed a contract in 1995 and a new big contract with Polydor, the well-known company, which invested a million marks in us, soon after. They offered us excellent conditions. We were recording in the best English studios our album Bohemian (produced by Martin Rushem) for half a year. One of the best world bass guitarists – Martin King – collaborated with us, and I had three managers and a whole team around me. The album was accompanied with two singles, two maxi singles and floods of newspaper articles and interviews. My first video clip was prepared by Goodley & Cream, I appeared on European TVs and stayed in the most luxurious hotels.

And what happened next…
During the following year we lost everything again “thanks to” our former manager and our contract, which we had signed at the time when our English was good enough to write first lyrics for our songs but not for treacherous juristic tricks and expressions. We cancelled the contract with help of lawyers two years later as financial conditions we were working at were only enough for sustenance and the biggest profits end at our managers. This fall from the top was followed by crisis deepen by serious disease of my mother and the death of Paul’s mum. The former communist regime didn’t allow her to visit us and suddenly, it was to late. This crisis made us to think about question of life and death, generally. We started to live a continence way of life and to meditate intensively.

What does the inner world of Jane Pope look like?
In this contemporary life I continue with things I was engaged in in my previous lives. To this life I have brought concrete desires and longings inclinations. Desires for self-improvement and for finding the purpose of existence, for discovering other ways how to improve your sensibility and perceiving, desires for finding new senses, for understanding of new dimension. Desires to learn and understand the truth.

What did you study in England?
Apart from music I was engaged in studies of oriental philosophy, yoga and alternative medicine, especially hypnosis and healing, which is a kind of balancing of the energy of the whole human being. It means energy physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Where balance and equilibrium mean health and on the other hand imbalance and disequilibrium mean diseases.

You have already been vegan for ten years, what do you think about meat eaters and carnivores?
Eating meat is barbarism and he evidence of the backwardness of development. Eating carrion is not normal until you happen to be born as a vulture…. How long will it take these human carnivores to understand that they eat dead bodies, which then rot in their digestion systems for several days with the help of the whole army of terrible germs. And the dead bodies secrete poison to the whole human body, which then get people to their grave sooner.

As a proper fruit eater you eat only raw fruit and vegetables. What are the advantages of this food?
Fruit is the food of gods and for people is the most natural fare. It is food and drink in the same time. It is even possible to cure and stimulate with fruits. Would you like to have some examples?

Yes of course.
Well, APPLES – are symbol of immorality, they help to clean the whole organism and they support esoteric sexuality. They are also great for your digestion and against temperatures. They also lubricate your lungs.
STRAWBERRIES – fruit of love. By the way, strawberry leaves can work as a talisman! Also strawberries help to clean and invigorate the whole organism. They are great against a sore throat and hoarse voice. When you have got a temperature they help you not to fell thirsty. They intensify your appetite. And they help you to recover from illnesses.
BANANAS – great against a hangover and effects of alcohol, generally. Good for asthma and cough. They lubricate inwards. They are good for fertility and they cure impotence. Also other kinds of fruit that is fresh and ripen naturally without any chemicals have similar advantages and positive effects.

If we ate only fruit and vegetables, would we be immortal?
No, but human body is potentially able to live for a hundred and fifty, but also three hundred years. But our life id shortened not only by eating meat. There are also some other reasons for example limits which people built in themselves. If somebody is sure they will die in sixty or seventy, because most people do so or most of their relatives died at this age. They literally program their organism for the fact that they will really die at that age, In England I know several people who started to save money for graves or even chosen tomb slab at the age of fifty.

Last time you were in the Czech Republic in the 1998 and since then we haven’t heart anything about you, why?
When the Sony Bonton Music and Czech media ignored our new album With Love, from 1998. We lost interest in working in the Czech Republic and in trying to do something artistic there. The word “artistic” has become a strange unknown term in the Czech republic and also the post revolution materialistic system of your society is for spirits unbearable. At the moment it is impossible to breath in the Czech republic. I feel physically sick because of the atmosphere there. Compare to the British hard capitalism is a real paradise where you can breathe and work freely.

Why do you think, was your latest album “ buried”?
The Bonton firm and your media might have thought we could threaten to their local “ mini starts” and company “ slaves”.

What have you been doing since your last visit to the Czech Republic?
I have thrown into a monastic life. I have voluntarily chosen super continence and super ascetism of soul spirit and body. I wanted to wash the “ dirt” produced by mammon – the new adored god of greed perverse and mean materialism. I again flung myself into intensive studies of world religion and spiritual practise, voluntarily, without any claims to fee. I worked as hard as a miner in several associations, which were focused on spiritual healing and therapeutic methods. Aiming to help people at the boarder between lie and death. I almost crossed the boarder together with those who didn’t have enough strength to stay in this life. And with my friend George Hrube_ we also practiced intensive, underground, alterative music.

Are you going to get married?
He is my biggest super love on this planet. If I was not against official marriage I would ask him at least million times to become my husband – on me knees! And the wedding ceremony would be in most Christian church, because Christians weddings work the best.

What was the purpose of your visit in the Czech Republic at the end of the year 2001?
Apart from I wanted to heel family relations I also made a duet “Angel of salvation” with the beautiful human being Martin France.

Why Martin France?
I appreciate his inborn decentness, modesty, talent and certain unidentifiable angle innocence.

How did you become friends with this young singer?
Through our common friend who had sent a demo with his offer to make a duet with him. I felt in love with music immediately so much, that I made lyrics for it and called it “ Angel of salvation”. We made it also in English version. I hope, that our “ Angel of salvation” will help in bringing real salvation to many people who are drowning or even has already drown in the river of life. I believe, that our “Angel of salvation” will bring them energy to start a new life and new hope and believe in the good. The good always defeats all devils in the end.

You didn’t have any other working engagement in Prague, then?
I made programmes for the Nova channel. I also had some talks about my new book called “striptease” that was being prepared.

When is the book going to be published and what things can we expect there?
If a courageous publisher is found, it could be ready by the end of this year. The book will contain detailed, shocking interview without censorship. Also my friends, relatives and Czechoslovakian colleagues will speak about me. Even fragments of several reviews of my songs and CDs which were published in press during the years, my complete discography and a lot of facts will be there. And I mustn’t forget lots of photographs from my private archive; many of them will be published for the first time.

When are you going to visit the Czech Republic again and what do your plans look like?
I will come for several days during the holiday time. I should make one more duet with Martin France for his album called “The Angel of Salvation”. We should also make a video clip for this duet. I’m also planning a visit in the autumn because I should be a godmother to Martin France’s album which will also contain our duets. They are my first two duets I have ever made, by the way. I’m also going to make some TV programmes (some of them alone and some with Martin) and after almost twenty years of my career I’m going to sing my best hits from the 80s. And if also the prepared book “Striptease” is published, I will devote myself to the promotion of the book.


Interview by MIROSLAV GRACLÍK
March 2001

Sample Jana's music: Spy.mp3

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