LOCATION: Bardejov, Slovakia
GENRE: Melodic Pop/Rock
INFLUENCES: The Everly Brothers, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Michael Bublé, George Strait, The Hollies, Ed Sheeran
LABEL: TAMBERT, spol. s r.o.
CONTACT: Lubomir Gula, Kukorelliho 1494, 085 01 Bardejov, Slovakia; e-mail: lubogula@gmail.com; phone: +421 905 821 159
BIO
Before the boys even met, Steve had played shortly in two local bands in the area of his hometown, called GRONER and DEFEKT and then had gone on hiatus until he was joined by Lubo and Maco during the opening session of the English Speaking Union in Bardejov. The unprompted session inspired the threesome to form a permanent band and they started to call themselves THE MUDBALLS. Their evening unplugged concerts on the Bardejov square soon became notorious and were often aborted by the city police for disturbing the peace. At that time the band mostly played cover versions of songs by The Everly Brothers, The Beatles, Peter & Gordon and The Hollies, concentrationg on develeping their own vocal approach based on close 3-part harmonies. They soon began to tend more towards contemporary music and explore their own songwriting abilities and released a partly self-penned acoustic album entitled "C. OF LOVE", which is based on their rich 3-part harmonies and catchy melodic tunes.
"ELLEN", the very first original composition, ejected the band to the national finals of "TALENT 2000", the TV/radio project of the Markiza TV and Forza Production House. The boys were asked to change the band name for the project and released a newly recorded version of "ELLEN" as THE CARDINALS, whereby the song was produced by Slovak pop legend Vašo Patejdl. The band finished second and subsequently received positive reviews, in particular from the chief judge Petr Janda, the frontman of the legendary Czech rock band Olympic.
No more songs were recorded for Forza however and the band recorded another song with Vašo Patejdl, "NECAKAJ, ŽE TI ODPUSTÍM", that was premiered during the TV show "Welcome home" on the Markiza TV.
Later on, Maco and Ľubo recorded supporting vocals on "I'M LEAVIN'", the single by PETER & THE ROWERS, which broke the European airplay record when it spent 14 consecutive weeks at the top of the ECMA chart. Another 3 songs were recorded in the Leon-Art studio in Bardejov, one of them, the ballad "FOR THE LAST TIME", made it on the Peter & The Rowers' album "ODIŠIEL COWBOY".
Subsequently, upon invitation from the country producer and songwriter Mark Trail, the band traveled to Nashville and played during the CMA Festival in the legendary Douglas Corner Café.
After several line-up changes in the backing band, the boys recorded their first official Slovak-English album in several studios in Nashville, TN. The album was released on April 9, 2021.
The first singel "V zajatí štyroch stien" topped the Demovnica chart on Radio FM and the Inkubator chart on SKYradio and received substantial radio rotation on many Slovak radio stations. The second single was titled "Fialový dážď".
The third single "Len ticho dýchaj" is still regularly played on numerous Slovak (Radio Košice, Radio Liptov, Radio Slovensko, Radio Paráda, Radio Pohoda...) and Czech (Rádio Samson...) radio stations. The current single is the first one in English and it is an up-tempo toe-tapper titled "May I Have The Pleasure Of This Dance", whose dance mix is played by Radio Liptov, Radio Slovensko or even Slobodný vysielač in Slovakia and Rádio Otava and Rádio Ponte Records in Czech Republic to name a few. At the same time this single is released internationally and sent to numerous radio stations throughout Europe and Australia.