We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vik Kovacs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Vik thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I sometimes wonder whether there’s something wrong with me. Throughout my professional career as a musician I’ve played second fiddle to someone else in the group. On a surface level, I realise that can come across the wrong way, but after thinking about it, the reason why I find it difficult to collaborate with other artists is because my vision is so vivid to me.
I’ve played lead guitar in all of my previous bands and projects, I’ve been a part of the band, the point of interest at times and I’ve been involved in music for magazine commercials, pop bands, alternative bands, indie/folk groups and blues bands. This wide palette of experiences has let me to admit what I have always wanted to be. A modern hard rock artist.
Telling Secrets is a band I formed during the covid-19 lockdown in the UK. The whole thing was spurred on by my curiosity in singing. I had a few demos recorded which I wrote by myself and recorded scratch vocals to – I had just started online singing lessons with my friend Matt, and I wanted to know if I had what it took to improve and be able to front a band like this. I wasn’t sure whether or not I had the sound, attitude or look to be a singer. But I definitely have the ear for it. I met Matt through Instagram as I was covering his band’s music on my YouTube channel on guitar and the band kept reposting my clips on their stories. I started following them and one night I saw that Matt was offering singing lessons through Skype. This is how one of the best friendships began, he has given me nothing but support and I’m so glad our paths crossed.
Since then, Telling Secrets has gone on to release 7 singles, we’ve been playing live in the UK and have 3 shows coming up in Manchester and London this fall, we have over 100,000 streams online, 4 music videos and much more on the way. I entered and won a competition run by the Hungarian national radio station “Petofi Radio” and as a result I’ll be working with producer Simon Istvan to finish up the debut Telling Secrets album which I plan to release early 2024. “Tired of Waiting” which is my latest single, has been played on BBC Radio 1, BBC Introducing, iHeart Radio and multiple national and regional radio stations across the UK.
I take pride in my work. I write the music, I record the music – I only ask for help if I absolutely must and it kills me when I do. But I am also ever thankful for the people who gave me their time, effort and trust. You know who you are.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Vik Kovacs, I am a Hungarian artist, and I am the singer and former of the modern rock band Telling Secrets.
My journey began in school when I started playing guitar, I developed really quickly, never practiced and heavily relied on my ear to get by in my guitar lessons. Three or four years into playing, my teachers invited me to play with them at the local open mic nights in their blues/folk band which was mainly covers but also had a few originals in the set. The night I decided what I wanted to do with my life (sort of..) was during a gig in Clapham, London, at Arch 365. Before the gig we met a sketchy promoter who took our gear from us to carry, split the crowd and told them to make way for us. I felt like a rockstar already and this is technically my first ever gig! In that group, for about 30 seconds in most of the songs I was the center of attention when taking a guitar solo. I can’t remember what song it was but I remember the crowd chanting my name during and after the song, over and over and over. I felt like I was in a bubble, it was euphoric. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since and there is nothing like it.
As I got more serious about music I decided that I could try and start my own bands and write my own songs. I began recording my own ideas at home, in my room, I got more serious recording software and gear and got to work. It was a huge hinderance for me that I couldn’t sing. But the problem wasn’t that I couldn’t sing, it was that the singers around me and the ones I looked up to where so confident when they sang, even if they didn’t sound all that great. No one around me liked the music I started to listen to, everyone made fun of it, everyone’s interests were different. I think that really slowed down my development and knocked me down – But I’m back and the trajectory is promising.
I write songs for my band Telling Secrets and my identity is woven deeply into the lyrics, visuals and tones of each song. A lot of bands in modern rock root for the underdog, the misfit or the person that’s seen as different. I don’t really look at it like that or care about that. Whatever you have been through, seen, or done is a piece of your identity. I want people to use my music to be comfortable with the person they have become due to their past, present and be in a good headspace to take on the future. I’ve been the underdog, different, isolated and I’ve reflected on it all. I’ve learned to own it, and I’m in a much better place to deal with issues. I feel like no matter the situation, I won’t crumble – I want to share that with others through my songs.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Being an artist is kind of like being the loudest person in the room, all the time. Even if you make indie singer songwriter music or you whisper your lyrics. You are exposing yourself on a level that non-creatives are not required to.
Sometimes on Instagram among all the positive comments and notifications I’ll see someone say something negative. (Which I welcome because the best artists are polarising). It made me realise that non-creative people don’t see what we actually do let alone understand the amount of details we have to take care of. It is a highly skilled profession, that is over saturated, filled with all rounders, and specialists, and people get a lot of undue criticism. It usually comes from someone in the field who’s inferior or someone who doesn’t know music about the topic.
It’s difficult to explain the process because every artist works differently but the best comparison I can think of is this; If you were to walk into a barber shop, you see the hairdresser finish a client’s cut and you didn’t like it, would you walk up to the barber and tell them their work was bad and then stand there having an argument? – Probably not. People do that all the time online about music. I am very thankful to all the followers and people who engage with what I write, but if my work gets disrespected unjustly, I will stand up for it because artists are taken advantage of very frequently.
I don’t expect people to understand all the details, I just expect a level of respect, especially if the non-creative is talking about something outside of their expertise. I don’t tend to argue with my mechanic or plumber because I know that I don’t know!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
During my last year studying guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music I had a difficult time because nobody (literally) wanted to play modern rock. Everyone was into neo-soul, jazz, indie and softer genres but I wanted to be in a raging rock band. I felt like I wasted four years because most people went on to do things I’m not interested in. Session musician at weddings, music teachers, one of my friends even join an alternative indie band who opened for Coldplay(!). I think all of those jobs are great, but I just want to play rock music. I love rock music, I wake up to it, I make it, listen to it, go to sleep to it. I was so frustrated with the situation that I decided I was going to become a lawyer and earn more money that way than selling my soul playing covers up and down England at functions. I enrolled in the GDL program at BPP University which is 2 years of a law undergraduate degree slammed into 1 year. It was hell on earth. I had to read until 11PM and get up at 5AM to start reading just to get by. It was at that time that I realised how much of a commitment I made to music. Every single spare minute I had I was either writing a song, practicing my singing or talking about music with someone. I felt a sense of pride knowing that I’d identified my true passion. I’ve always been the unicorn. I think that’s less to do with me and more to do with the places I end up in, but I’m glad I did it – I ended up getting the diploma.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tellingsecrets/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TellingxSecrets/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbp_QeWzo2E
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5gOEb5JcLM5qEnorwA1lFO?si=AxH9uli7TAK6lBr71OPslA https://music.apple.com/us/artist/telling-secrets/1552822021
Image Credits
Rianna Ram (Live shot only)