Background:
My parents are musicians of the Szeged Symphonic Orchestra,
although by now they are happy retired people. My father, Istvan
Kiraly, is a soloist of the French horn and my mother, Maria Homor
plays the violin.
Start:
I was born on 12 August 1974 in Szeged (Hungary, Europe), soon I
received the names Vajk Istvan Kiraly without my agreement,
although I haven. t regretted this yet. (Vajk was the
pagan name of Hungary's first king, when he was baptized, he got
the name - Saint Stephen the First. Istvan is the
Hungarian form of Stephen, and Király means king). Since
I was the only son of the family after three daughters, I have
received a great ovation at birth - even the doctor ran around the
hospital - shouting: "Mrs. King has had a son!"
Interlude:
First kindergarten, then elementary school. Then I went to the
Benedict High School of Pannonhalma from1988-1992 where I was
educated with more or less success. After graduation I had a few
attempts at college without sticking to any area. Finally, in 2003
I took my degree in Szeged, JGYTF as cultural manager.
I work in my own company, which is a musical instruments wholesaling
company, called Forte Acoustic Kft.
This is my main business. Further back I worked a lot as a program organizer
for clubs & festivals, but after a few years I gave it up.
Music:
5 years of piano lessons long time ago, followed by a year of
French horn then came the guitar at 14. I played old Hungarian hit
songs using maximum five chords. At 16 I became a Doors fan,
and we formed a school band "Pearls of Qpac", which
lasted for two noisy performances.
Later I heard about acoustic blues from a musician called "Bee".
This was a milestone. Interesting enough I have never been
attracted to heavy metal or disco music. All in all I started
looking for available music. Then I heard Eric Clapton's Unplugged
and I got to know Imre Virag and Ferenc Illes who have been
popularizing the style in their home in Vajdasag (Hungarian
inhabited ex-Yugoslavia). The time when I decided to stick to the
acoustic blues of the 20s and 30s was when I heard recordings from
Blind Boy Fuller and others (Blind Blake, Charlie Patton, Robert
Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Bo Carter). It was around this
time when I bought my first more serious guitar, an Ibanez, which
I've been using ever since.
One of the greatest inspiration happened in 1992, when I heard the
Yugoslavian guitarist and vocalist, Macan, or Homesick Mac at the
Mojo Club Szeged. I asked him to show me some techniques. He was
the one who pointed out that it is not enough to practice at home
alone, but I have to go out and play in front of people without
worrying about the quantity of my music or whether I know the
songs well enough. I took his advice and my first appearance in
public was on 14 May, 1993 at the Mojo Club Szeged . A few months
later on 3 of July I have performed at the first Adafest (Ada,
Yugoslavia), for about 2000 people, thanks to my friends there.
It was through Homesick Mac that I got to know the german Rainer Wöffler.
Since 1995 I have regularly visited him in Munich to play music on
the streets and to be filled up with blues. Besides being an
excellent acoustic blues guitarist, he is also a collector. In his
flat, which he calls the Blues Hotel as many blues musicians have
spent time there, there are thousands of CDs, LPs, MCs, among them
some valuable unique blues recordings and at least 20 very old
acoustic guitars (Gibson, National, Martin). One of my nice
memories is when I first visited him I took my wooden Ibanez with
me. When he saw it, he said that this would be too quiet out in
the streets, people will not hear me. So he handed me a National
guitar from 1931 with a metal body to use it! In the summer of
1995 I bought my first, Regal resonator guitar, the rest of the
story is about the same as the 'Rambling Blues'.
End:
Let's wait a bit with this, all right?
Back
