We Love Budapest:How did the three of you meet and start playing music together?
Bálint Füstös (guitarist): I started playing with Kristóf (Törőcsik, guitarist) in high school, and we saw Viki (Lábas, singer) at a talent show, we were mesmerized by her voice. Later we sent some of our demos to Viki and soon started jamming together in my room. It was a great feeling from the beginning, I think we complete each other.
WLB: What were your influences in the beginning?
Viki Lábas: All three members of the band are very much into acoustic, Western folk-pop, like Passenger, Mumford & Sons, or Ed Sheeran. We were looking for solace, for support in music. Just like Margaret Island in Budapest, we also want to be an island in the Hungarian music scene, where everybody is welcomed, where everybody can come relax, far from the noises and the frustration of the city, and can chill out in a pure way.
WLB: Before Margaret Island, all three of you played in different bands. Having some experience, was it easier or harder to start a new band?
Kristóf Törőcsik: We’ve learned a lot from our current and previous band members, so when Margaret Island started, it made things easier that we already knew a lot of important people in the scene. I guess it saved us from some extra rounds, but you know, there’s no recipe for creating art, we had to find our style, our fans.
V.L.: Even at this point, I feel like we are climbing up the ladder of success, and we are working really hard to keep growing and to get better as a band. On one hand, we are very aware of how the music industry works and we are trying to keep everything real, but on the other hand, playing just for the thrill of it and spontaneity are what really keeps us moving, when all that matters is just our hearts and feelings.
WLB: How would you describe your style?
B.F.: In our current, rushing world, sometimes I really miss silence. I like to stop and lay back for a second, just wondering about all the things that matter. In my opinion, sometimes everybody needs to take lonely walks, to meditate but also to spend time with their friends, when they can turn their back on problems and laugh all the bad times away. For me, Margaret Island is about this duality.
WLB: Margaret Island was formed merely two years ago, and since then, you’ve made it to the semi-finals of a major talent show, played sold-out shows at the biggest clubs around the country, and recently released your debut album, “Egyszer volt” (“Once upon a time”). What would you say was the key to success?
K.T.: Maybe that we weren’t interested in anyone’s expectations. All of the songs on the album were written very instinctively, hoping that what is important and precious for us will find its way to our audience, and that they’ll share the same feelings about them. Also, maybe nowadays it gets more and more important that we can still connect with our fans in the same open-minded and direct way. That’s one of the most important things for me.
B.F.: When we started making music together in my bedroom, it wasn’t amongst our aims to sell out huge concert venues, we were just enjoying playing together. We often hit the street and performed there, that’s when the first positive reactions started to come in. The smaller and bigger compliments made us take the whole band more and more seriously. And now, the band takes up all of our free time, we think about it nonstop. Sometimes we stay up until 2am, discussing the set list of the next concert. Unbelievable things happened to us in the last two years, we can hardly keep up with all the different happenings, we receive more and more letters and nice words, and these things just strengthen our belief that it pays to put so much energy into the band.
WLB: Tell us a bit more about your debut album, “Egyszer volt”!
V.L.:
“Egyszer volt” is the collection of the first songs we’ve written together. We put the first songs that we’ve released on it too, songs like “Nem voltál jó”, with lyrics written by the famous Hungarian musician, János Bródy; “Csillagtalan”, which is the cover of a traditional Hungarian folk song, which was the favorite song of the crowd at the album release gig; and “Bolyongó” too, which was number one on Petőfi Radio’s charts for weeks. But you can find many new songs on the album as well. During winter, we moved to Fonyód to work on the album in isolation. We got to know each even more and play together all day and all night. We chose the best ideas that came up during these sessions and showed them to lyricist Szabolcs Hujber, and talked with him a lot in spring. And when the basics of a song came together, we went to the studio and recorded the songs together. Each song was recorded with a slightly different lineup; apart from us, 16 musicians played on the record. We played the songs to them and they added their own personality, their own world to the music, and we were just sitting and smiling.
WLB: The album-release concert at the A38 Ship was sold out. What kind of memories do you have about the gig?
B.F.: It was the most beautiful day of my life. I never thought that it would be such a thrilling experience, we didn’t think that it would be sold out, and many of my friends couldn’t get a ticket to the concert. The crowd wasn’t only singing along to the older songs, but new ones too. We can’t talk about anything else since then.
V.L.: It was the first time I’ve experienced something that I’d only heard about from other musicians, the feeling of flow, when you become one with the audience, you both feel the same, even those who are at the back of the concert hall – and you create something together. We were resonating together, so to say.
K.T.: All of us felt that it was a perfect night, everything came together that we’ve ever wanted.
WLB: Tell us a bit more about your newest video for the song “Eső” (“Rain”), which people can see here for the first time.
B.F.: Our friends join us for the concerts, so on stage, we are a six-piece band. We toured with them during the summer, we played at the biggest Hungarian festivals. Every concert was special in a way, we played at beautiful places and got to know wonderful people. Our favorite photographer, Bendegúz Csizmadia, followed our wanderings across the country, and the video came together from his recordings.
V.L.: We wanted to show people the way we are, and also, this was our way of telling them thank you for our first tour, and for their continuous support.
You can listen to Margaret Island’s first album at their YouTube channel. The next time you can catch the band in Budapest will be on October 4th at the Pálinka & Sausage Festival at the Buda Castle.
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