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Bash Co. on “Velvet”, Prague and Finding a Purpose for His Songs

Bash Co.’s “Velvet” began with an idea for a Christmas trip to Prague. Surrounded by the city’s landmarks and history, he found a way to bring together a personal story about enduring love with references to the Velvet Revolution, the Iron Curtain and Franz Kafka. A visit to locations from INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ video helped shape the song’s emotional direction.

Although Bash Co. has written music for decades, he describes “Velvet” as his most naturally flowing composition. He developed the track at home, adding percussion in its second half to build a sense of urgency, and released it on his birthday. In his first interview, the teacher and songwriter discusses the moments that inspired the song, why he prefers to stay behind the spotlight and what finally prompted him to share music he had long kept to himself.

You have been creating solo music since 1999. What first inspired the Bash Co. project, and how has your approach to songwriting evolved since then?

I’ve always wanted to make music. As a teenager, I was in a band at school, and that’s when I started to write lyrics and songs. I think everything has changed since then, of course. I used to write about conflicted feelings and all of those things teenagers tend to over-dramatise. For me, it always felt like I would write more if I wasn’t OK; I would put into lyrics things that I wouldn’t say to anyone face to face. And when I was happy, things wouldn’t flow. Over the years, adulthood brought me a lot more to talk about, and that type of impulse that depended on my own mood faded away. For the last sixteen years, I’ve started to use Bash Co. as an alias, mainly because it’s the way my first name is pronounced in English. I’ve always kept one thing, though, which is the search for ambiguity and using words and sentences that may have more than one meaning. It’s my way of telling things, but not completely in the open.

“Velvet” was written during a six-day trip to Prague. Can you describe the moment when the song first began to take shape?

I had the idea before the trip. I just didn’t think I would actually do it. It was a Christmas trip, a lot to see and do. I knew the city had a lot of musical background because bands like INXS, Depeche Mode and Linkin Park had used Prague in their videos and artwork, so I thought that once there, I could get inspired. Also, it was Christmas, which is special as well.

This was the setup. But when I was there, my eyes got filled with all the political landmarks, all the memorials and statues and things people shouldn’t and won’t forget. I remember exactly where I was when the first line I wrote came to my mind, which came to be the first part of the chorus, “It’s you in velvet, Revolution in my heart”. I was with my family visiting some spots from the INXS video for “Never Tear Us Apart”, and I came up with the idea of writing about love through rough times and how good feelings can overcome war and separation.

As my search for ambiguity never ends, I imagined someone who was feeling like a revolution was starting because of the sight of someone in velvet. So it has this double meaning and play with words which I always like. Musically, I had some previous chords to which I mumbled random words at times, and Velvet turned out to be the right fit for them.

The track explores enduring love through difficult times. How did Prague’s history help you express that personal theme?

Prague breathes history and transpires memory, and it all made sense. The Velvet Revolution was obvious, and the word game about that moment and someone dressed in velvet was also obvious for me. Being around some landmarks, and walking along Charles Bridge, and those old streets and squares, I got to imagine how hard it was for families and loved ones to get separated or harmed because of troubled times. For me, because I was with my own family, it felt natural to write about it.

References to Kafka, the Iron Curtain and the Velvet Revolution are woven into the lyrics. How did you balance these historical influences with the song’s emotional story?

It was all natural once it started with the Velvet Revolution. The Iron Curtain is the figure that tries to win over love, but it can’t. Kafka is the father of one my favourite lines ever, which I embedded into the lyrics. We are all cages in search of a bird, which means we all search for a purpose in life. It’s not about wanting birds in cages, it’s not about wanting to imprison someone by love, it’s about cages existing, therefore having a purpose which needs fulfilling.

I’ve told you about how I like double meanings and I think Kafka mastered that with lines like this. Thinking about cages and purpose, Kafka has made me write songs before, like “Dungeon”, which is my latest single, but it was written a year ago, way before “Velvet”. Emotion was raw and almost palpable in Prague, and getting to see all the places for real glued things naturally.

INXS and “Never Tear Us Apart” also influenced the release. What connects you to that song, and how did its association with Prague feed into “Velvet”?

That’s the personal part of the song. I’ve listened to INXS since I was a child and it has shaped the way I look at songwriting in so many ways. Michael Hutchence was a great loss for music and I grew up cherishing their songs because all that happened to the band after could never be the same without Michael. We went to all the places featured in their video, and it all felt like I had to somehow address INXS in the feeling I was trying to convey with Velvet.

You have described “Velvet” as your most naturally flowing composition to date. Why do you think this particular song emerged more easily than your usual writing?

Like I said before, I think it all had to do with being there, seeing what I’ve seen, and learning what I’ve learned. Words got together so naturally that I didn’t fight with myself as usual. It never felt abstract, like when we can only guess and sometimes it works, sometimes we struggle for the right words. More often than not, I’m writing from a point of view I can only imagine from a distance. It wasn’t the case with “Velvet”, it felt like I was only getting the best from a flow that was already there.

The percussion in the second half was designed to evoke marching troops. How did you develop that idea in your home studio, and what did it add to the finished track?

That idea came when I was already home. I don’t have a real set of drums, but I do have enough tools to create whatever beat I want to. The second part of the song repeats the lyrics all the same, so I wanted it to sound differently. I had this sense of urgency that I wanted to get built up, and the drums were what I came up with to create an idea of things reaching a peak, troops were coming, the safety, the warmth and the stillness to which the lyrics address were all in danger.

You released “Velvet” on your birthday. Why did that feel like the right date, and what personal significance does the song now hold for you?

I ended most of Velvet on December 22nd. I gave myself 90 days to release it and my birthday is on March 22nd, so it became clear to me that that date was going to be not only practical, but special. Also; I wanted to show how personal the entire process was. It was me going to that special place, and writing and creating from an experience I had, first hand.

You describe yourself as a “teacher, songwriter, not a singer” and prefer to remain behind the spotlight. How has that shaped the way you record, present and share your music?

It shapes everything. This is my first interview ever. Bash Co. doesn’t have official social network. There’s only my personal pages. My Spotify page exists because I wanted to share my songs, but I was already on SoundCloud since Covid. But people wouldn’t find my real name up until recently. I prefer to stay behind the curtain, always. I want the songs and the sounds to be what’s under the spotlight. My main job is teaching and I consider myself a songwriter because I’ve been doing that for decades and I like the things I’ve done. I got used to writing songs and never actually do anything with them. Life is always first and that’s fine. Having said that, it’s clear music has always been a hobby which I wanted to get more from. A long time ago it was a dream, but I’m not a kid anymore.

I say I’m not a singer because that’s not something I look for, I like my voice and I think I can sing, but the way I see it, vocals are just another instrument. I alter, filter and change everything I can in my own voice, and use all kinds of tools, so if someone says it’s not me singing, they’re absolutely right. There’s always something in the way it sounds that shows it’s me, but that’s not important, that’s just me giving clues. I play all instruments I can play, mainly guitars, I’ve started playing small bits of piano (an instrument I don’t play that much) which appear in a couple of songs, I create the rest digitally and then, like I said, I sing all my songs for production, and get it tuned and sent into the dashboard just like any other instrument to be fiddled with. I sometimes alter my voice with pedals and filters from tools I’ve been using for the last four years, like Ableton and Boss pedals. And that’s it.

I make the best I can to perfect my songs, and then upon distribution, Distrokid allows me to balance and upgrade the songs even more. Most songs have been listened to by friends and family over the years, and getting out of that kind of setup is something entirely new.

Kafka’s words, “We’re all cages in search of a bird,” strongly resonate with you. What does fulfilling your creative purpose look like now, and what would you still like Bash Co. to achieve?

This is a very interesting question, because I haven’t thought about it that way until now. I haven’t felt music and my songs are like I’m fulfilling my purpose, finding my bird. I’ve always thought writing them was enough. My creative purpose hasn’t changed, only the kind of exposure has. I’ve always thought that if a song was out of me, the job was done. I’m not sure I still feel that way.

The way Kafka’s words resonate with me tend to something different, which is the thought that I could never forgive myself if I didn’t try to get my songs out of the drawer. I mean I had at least to be one more trying to find that bird. It’s my way of leaving some kind of legacy, it doesn’t matter if they’re heard or not, they’re out there. They will be forever. One day I woke up and thought how bad it would be if my songs died with me. I had to do something about it and Bash Co. got out to the world.

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