Michal Habrda

Michal was born on December 29, 1968, in České Budějovice in Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic now). His father Frantisek Habrda was one of the last artificial jewellery makers and he worked as a foreman in the workshop of Jihokov company in Petidomi. He was also an excellent violin player. Michal’s mother Eliska worked as a chief economist in of the South Bohemian Red Cross. Michal has two siblings – older brother Ivan and younger sister Eliska. Aside from his parents his artistic course and future career of musician were mostly supported by his grandmother Eliska Holubova and Ivan Holub. Ivan Holub, his maternal uncle, was a very respected theatre actor.

For the very first time Michal was significantly affected by music at the age of thirteen when a gipsy band Bratri (the Brothers) practised close to his place. Band Bratri was inspired by big beat, sound, and vocals of the Beatles, and they played mainly own songs. Their frontman was Josef Peter – singer and bass guitar player. Michal was fascinated by this instrument, and he arranged private lessons with Josef. It was not only big beat that formed Michal – at that time he was interested in movie and classical (especially baroque) music.

In 1981 music became an important part of his life. He discussed it with his classmates - together they listened mainly to foreign music, and they discussed it. At the time he was saving money for the first bass guitar. Thanks to Grandma Eliska he saved enough money to buy it. He had his first music rehearsal room at his grandmother's place. Thanks to his father he got an additional music education – he joined the Otakar Jeremias Music School (double bass and bass guitar). His teacher, who was a friend of his father, was Josef Stochl. Michal successfully finished the school five years later.

Together with his classmates he started his first band ATD (ETC.) in 1983. Michal wrote own music and lyrics for the band, and he was improving his musical instruments skills. He also provided the band with production and organization support. When the band practised their own repertoire, it recorded a demo. Its first success was the recording of two of their songs by Czechoslovak Radio and their public broadcasting. The first recorded song was Jediny sen(The Only Dream) – it was broadcasted for the next couple of years.

The ATD band successfully participated in public performances and festivals and other recordings of its own production by Czechoslovak Radio. At the Rock League festival ATD met and became close friends with members of the band Ocean, led by singer Petr Muk. The band Ocean was very inspiring for Michal – especially because of their synthesizers, sequencers, and musical computers. Those meetings, and the opportunity to see all the equipment, he considered very inspiring.

The ATD band was active until the spring of 1987. Then there was a pause as Michal had to leave for compulsory military service. Even during that service, he was an active musician. He played with various military formations, and he sang in a military choir. Together with the choir he participated in the countrywide military parade ASUT (Military artistic competition). He also used his multi-instrument talent and played instruments he was required to. Above all, it was the bass guitar, guitar, and drums. Michal finished his military service in the spring 1989, after that – as a civilian, Michal sang in the mixed military choir Mládí (the Youth). With it he successfully participated in international competitions.

During his military service he was developing his interest in electronic music. He bought his first music computer from Petr “Hedgehog” Kučera, a member of the band Ocean. It was Yamaha CX5MII. After that he also bought a new ATARI 1040 SFTM. That was equipped with the music software Steinberg Pro 24, allowing the music composing and the MIDI control.

In those times he also decided to resurrect his band ATD, which continued with the two members only. ATD was based mainly on the electrical instruments, which were combined with the electroacoustic ones. Michal actively composed the music and solved all the production and organizational tasks.

ATD came to its end in 1992, however in the same year Michal created a new formation – the band Leonardo. For this he created and composed an entirely new repertoire. First lyrics for Leonardo were written by Daniela Vozáryová. This period was successfully finished by publishing the first album Procitám (I am Rousing), which was published on November 11, 1993. They produced a video for the song Odpusť (Forgive). This song successfully appeared on the top positions in the charts of local radio stations. The clip followed the success of the song. It was played on all national TV stations, and it became the first wild card of TV NOVA’s show ESO (the Ace). Leonardo set out for its tour and participated other performances. In 1995 it recorded a new album called Sbírka snů (the Collection of the Dreams). Even in this case Michal provided the band with his organizational and production support including the recording of the new clips. Leonardo was positively accepted by the Czech cultural scene and many articles were published about it. Leonardo disbanded in 1997.

In 1999 Michal started culturally-controversial formation – it was recreated into the band Kyberon. Kyberon’s first album was published in May 2001 under the title 2-0-0-1 at the international world publisher BMG. They also made two videos – V Atomový peci (In the Nuclear Furnace) and Odhodil tělo (He Tossed His Body Away).

In 1992 he cooperated with the renowned musician Pavel Anděl Pokorný. Together, they edited and arranged many various albums, which were published by Universal Music and others. Thanks to that Michal had a chance to meet many important people of the Czech cultural scene, edit the shapes of their production and cooperate with various studios and publishers.

Michal did not stop with music composing and arranging. Movies have been his hobby since his childhood. He was fascinated by the connection of film and music. So, he began to compose music for documentary, movies, and advertisement.

In 1994 he became an operator and a director of an independent private radio station. He got his own license in 1996 and founded the radio station Evropa 2 České Budějovice, transmitting on the frequency 90.5 FM. This probably made him the youngest owner, operator, and director of a radio station in the world. Thanks to this activity he met many significant and renowned people and continued to broaden his production and organizational skills. He used his previous experience to create the program, organize various culture, social, beneficial and music events. As the director of the radio in the nationwide network Evropa 2 he supported many concerts of world-famous arcticians like U2, Michael Jackson, Ping Floyd, Rolling Stones, etc. Evropa 2 České Budějovice under Michal’s leadership was a media partner of many beneficiary a charitable events.

Since 1995, when he entered a professional studio for very first time, he has been not only interested in music but also in an image and its postprocessing. During his career in the radio Evropa 2 he began to build his own audio studio. Step by step he finished it – hundreds of various records were created there, including video clips, commercials, and documentaries. Here he offered his directorial, production, arranger and technical products including the mix of music and its mastering.

Throughout his work he invests his time in self-education and he is interested in film and its processing. His emphasis is especially on the filming and on the camera. As a cameraman he shot many various projects, documents, and clips. Here we can see the demonstration of his passion for combining sound, music, and film with its sense for detail and originality.

Michal has two sons Filip and Daniel. The older of them, Daniel, took creative enthusiasm after his father and together they founded the multimedia production company NuArt Media ltd. in 2012. Daniel successfully started to study film directing and screenwriting at FAMO in Písek. In 2018 he graduated there with a red diploma. Their company is the culmination of the multimedia interest. It interconnects film and music studios,and it offers production, organization, and technical services. It is therefore a synthesis of all Michal’s life experience in a cultural and multimedia field. The field, in which Michal feels good and he likes to continue composing and editing.

Michal.habrda.com