PETE LOOLYAK || MUSIC PRODUCER

My name is Petr Luljak (aka Pete Loolyak) and I was born in Valašské Meziříčí in the Czech Republic and there's where I create my music. My creative motto is Gustave Flaubert's quote "One must make art for oneself, and not for the audience." My approach to music creation is based on a "back-to-roots" philosophy and fundamental stylistic purity, avoiding the excessive use of the latest audio technologies and samples. I compose my music using traditional methods, recording the individual instrumental parts myself, and I rely on editing and programming only when absolutely necessary.

I have been keen on music since my age of thirteen. From the beginning I fell for the colourful sound of synthesizers. Perhaps I have a creative talent and a feeling for art in my genes, as my relative on my mother's side was the very well known actress Blažena Holišová (the Oscar nominated movie Vesničko má středisková, other movies Jak básníkum chutná život, Slavnosti sneženek, Rozpuštěný a vypuštěný and the TV movie Svědkyně and many others). And more my extended family included the ballet soloist Helena Štěpánková (Žižlavská) and the opera accompanist Oldřiška Štěpánková (Žižlavská) and as well the opera singer Iveta Koppová (Žižlavská) all of the National Theatre in Prague. My basic experience behind the scenes of the music recording and publishing industry was given by my work at the music recording and publishing label Prolux Records which in its time played a significant role in the domestic dance music scene. At first it licensed electronic dance music releases mainly from the Benelux countries and Italy, and later produced its own original music works.

In the same period my first steps as an amateur DJ began. Besides electronic dance music I absorbed many musical styles and genres. My desire has always been to create my own music. I bought my first electronic keyboard in a Vietnamese market after graduation and spent my first salary for that. The sound quality of the "music tool" was terrible but it was enough for the initial experiments. I mastered music theory by self-study from a textbook for Public School of Arts borrowed from the city library. I created arrangements of the first demo recordings by copying individual tracks (instrumental parts) played live on the keyboard from cassette to cassette using a Vietnamese two-cassette radio tape recorder. The first professional Yamaha SY55 workstation synthesizer took up residence with me in 1995 (eternal thanks to my golden mother) but less than a year later it was replaced by a bombastic novelty on the market at the time - the Yamaha QS300 "Raver's Babe" workstation synthesizer which was leased to me with some help of my friend.

A few years later I started my own music recording and publishing label Direct Beat Records. The first single was a dream trance titled Millenium and released under the name Project One. The Millenium single achieved relatively good success: staying in Bassline magazine's charts for almost six months and peaking at number 9.

The A & R manager Libor Lisý (label Escape/Monitor EMI) planned to include my dream trance recording Millenium on a compilation of the original Czech dance music but the London headquarters of EMI stopped the project eventually. By the way the EMI publishing catalogue included, for example, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and the Beatles. The successful promoter Derek Sanders (Wax, Beeswax Recordings) showed interest in our collaboration and as well DJ James Balson (Sunshine People, GZ Media) also positively evaluated my Millenium recording. I worked briefly with DJ Hooby from Rožnov who later made quite a name for himself and performed at big dance parties. I met the legend of the Czech dance scene DJ Pavel Bidlo. At that time the possibility of our musical collaboration was hot topic and Pavel was sincerely inclined to that but due to creative "obstacles" on my side it ultimately remained only in the plans. Here is a link to a nice interview with DJ Pavel Bidlo.

The next released title was the debut album Ten Experience of the Snowman project on which I presented recordings in a wide range of techno, house, tech-house, minimal dance styles. The album received very favorable reviews from music magazines Bassline Electronic and Rock & Pop (rating 3/5). Jeffrey Heston's funky disco house track True Love was declared single of the month by Bassline Electronic magazine and stayed on its chart for almost a year! The single True Love reached number 5 in the chart of the dance music magazine Xmag which was regularly broadcasted by the radio station Kiss Publikum Zlín. DJ Petr Kopčil liked the True Love recording very much and there was even a joint jam session which we enjoyed together. DJ Milan Kroužil included my single True Love and the album Ten Experience in his radio show Clubmix broadcasted by the radio station Bonton Deejay Praha and I was his guest on air.

I also created music megamixes for aerobic competitions of the Valašské Meziříčí Sports Academy. After complicated negotiations I stopped the planned music project in the style of trance dance featuring the pop star vocalist Alice Konečná and then devoted myself to other work activities for a long time. My frienship with the pioneer of Czech dance music and composer and producer Eduard Parma who together with his brother Jindřich Parma (Parma Productions) shaped the domestic dance music scene in the early 90s meant a lot to me.

Between 2009 and 2010 I prepared and presented a total of fifteen almost two-hour music seminars for libraries in Valašské Meziříčí and Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. These seminars introduced the public to the development of modern popular and dance music from its origins among African-American slaves to the present days somewhat unconventionally from the perspective of major music producers who were and are always in the background even if their work plays a major role in the birth of a hit.

My music production has a wide scope and in addition to trance, house, techno I occasionally produce pop and relaxing and experimental electronic music. Now I'm working on my various music projects as an independent music producer. I am an author represented by OSA and my music recordings are distributed online by the traditional Czech music recording and publishing label Supraphon.

Big thanks to my music inspirator Pete Waterman OBE of the most successful music production and songwriting team Stock Aitken Waterman (PWL). Thank you, my dear friend Teresa Lee from Leeds (UK), for making it possible.