The natural kindness and love with which the people of Székelyföld welcome people from far away is refreshing.
"There is no difference between Hungarians and Hungarians because they drew different borders in the Carpathian Basin as a result of certain historical events. Attila Nyerges, frontman of Ismerős Arcok band, shared his thoughts with us
As we learned, the band traveled a long and bumpy road until they got from the initial rhythm and blues genre to their current style, which, although it consists of a mixture of different musical genres, with a rock sound, bears the imprint of the soul of the six members. And what makes this even more special for us is that the creation of Ismerős Arcok was inspired by Székelyföld, "the tiny Hungary located hundreds of kilometers away", after getting to know and discovering it more intensely, Attila Nyerges could no longer remain the same: he undertook a mission with his music and his band, so the for 25 years now, it has been easing the rift between Hungarians and promoting the importance of togetherness across borders.
We started our conversation with light questions and slowly paddled into deep waters. This is how it came to light, among other things, that Attila Nyerges had already spent the week before Tusványos in Transylvania and Székelyföld, but this time he did not come alone: he also brought his wife with him, who visited Transylvania for the first time a few months ago, is now starting to learn about the countryside, but there is no doubt that he fell in love at first sight with the natural treasures, the simplicity and hospitality of the people. They visited the surroundings of Cluj-Napoca, Csíkszereda, Székelyudvarhely, the Zetelaki Dam, the Gyimesek, and also visited the Millennium Border.
For them, the natural kindness and love with which the people of Székelyföld receive those coming from far away is refreshing.
- enthused Attila Nyerges, emphasizing that he always comes across some unthought-out wisdom coming from within, which completely knocks him off his feet.
"Now that I was at the Millennium Border, we went into the guardhouse, where a gentleman was sitting, he must have been a tour guide, he was a very nice, simple, smiling man who immediately answered any question readily, so I started talking to him. He showed me around the area and said that whoever has this past has no business here. I savored this sentence and it took 10-15 minutes for me to understand what I actually heard. I don't want to over explain this thing. Everyone savor this thought. It has everything in it. It has everything that is important," he shared his experiences, which actually form the poetics of the band's face.
An initiate, he himself has been visiting Transylvania for many decades, but consciously only since the Ismerős Arcok band has existed. They have been fulfilling their mission for twenty-five years and proclaiming that, regardless of national borders, there is no difference between Hungarians and Hungarians.
"I went here even as a very young child, I brought my father to Sepsiszentgyörgy, because they handed over a section on the athletic field, and my father was an athletic leader. I was the driver then. Since we put our mission on our flag, thanks be to God, a lot of things have come true from our thoughts, I am thinking here of dual citizenship, or just that it is much more free in the motherland, and we can finally talk about the Hungarians living beyond the border, and more and more that I feel that these irregularities, which were felt outside and inside the border, are becoming more and more smoothed out"
the singer admitted.
He added that a musician's everyday life is actually spent reflecting on all the events that happen around him, which explains why the Ismerős Arcok band does not only talk about one thing.
"This is a thinking band, a group of six people who like to walk in the world with their eyes open and have an opinion about the world".
We learned about the beginnings, at first they played separately in smaller formations, mostly drawing their songs from rhythm and blues
"In 1999, shortly after our establishment, we came to Székelyföld, we came to a motorcycle festival at the invitation of a motorcycle team from Székelyudvarhely, Daimler MC , and that trip had a great impact on us"
- admitted the singer, emphasizing that it wasn't the road itself that changed their fate, but the welcome, the love, the way the people of Székelyföld received them in an "other Hungary" 700-800 kilometers away. The experiences they gained here awakened their sense of professionalism, when they returned home they could no longer be the same entertainment band they were in the beginning, because they felt that they had a task:
"we wanted to help with the unfortunate situation, which at that time could still be absolutely experienced and felt even in the motherland, but for this we had to improve our texts"
- he detailed during our conversation.
Attila Nyerges also told me honestly that until his first visit to Székelyföld, he was aware of the fact of Trianon, he knew that many Hungarians were stuck beyond the borders, but he was raised in the generation that graduated in 1987, i.e. finished their studies before the regime change. so they learned almost nothing about Trianon, the 1956 revolution.
"If we did learn, mostly lies, but mostly silence was the method of the previous system in relation to these sensitive issues. And only after the regime change came and I was demobilized from the military, I was amazed at the world that began to open up to us: books and writers appeared, such as Albert Wass or József Nyírő, whom we had never heard of. I started reading these books, while the trip to Transylvania came along, and it all had such an impact on me that now we are here with Ismerős Arcs after 25 years and, in fact, the entire Carpathian basin knows us"
he added.
However, there was no arrogance in his voice, he also told honestly that a series of difficulties hindered them in the beginning, since the change in style meant that their former audience was completely destroyed, so they had to start from scratch. As their songs were gradually incorporated, there were those who stormed out of the room when one or another was played, and the majority could not understand why the light-hearted band, which until then had been based on entertainment, suddenly started to deal with such serious, nationally sensitive topics.
"After the trip to Transylvania, we started working Egy a hazánk , and we played the first song regularly at our concerts, when actually 90 percent of the show was rock and roll and blues But the last song was always Egy a hazánek , which dealt with Hungarians beyond the border. And then there was stunned silence in the auditorium, slowly the audience completely changed. We sold out and rebuilt the whole thing nicely from scratch, people appeared who thought similarly to us, so the name familiar faces took on a slightly different meaning."
- introduced Attila Nyerges, and then added that their names were actually chosen because they all played in other bands, so they probably knew each other from somewhere.
But the way people like them gathered around them and thought the same way as them, brought a new interpretation of the name, moreover, that the band's characteristic of thinking together with the audience. From then on, not only the faces but also the thoughts became familiar.
However, despite their high popularity, they themselves did not advance to stardom. What remained were the simple people with whom the general public could easily identify.
"I've always thought that we didn't start making music to be famous or stars, but to popularize the ideas we consider important. So the goal was mostly to convey the message, the pleasant outcome of the whole thing is that they really know me now, and the fact that we can make a living from it is a miracle of our lives, but the point was still what to say. Stephen King has a saying that the essence of the story is the story, not the storyteller, and we absolutely agree with that."
Attila Nyerges explained.
