IMAGINE YOURSELF IN INDIA

Before I left for India, I had no idea I was going to stay in a city so connected to one of our songs and one of the hardest decisions of my life. When I came back I did a TV interview and the presenter named Tereza asked me where exactly I stayed in India. I said I stayed in Pondicherry and I suddenly realised something strange.

It was only back in Prague that I realized a fascinating coincidence. In Always June I’m singing: “Richard Parker and me, we are sailing away. We are hungry and weak, but we will be okay.” That is a reference to the movie Life of Pi you might have seen: A boy called Pi is stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with a tiger named Richard Parker. They’re each fighting for survival in their very own way. Pi collects rain water and shares it with the tiger while making sure he doesn’t get eaten at the same time. On the other hand, Richard Parker respects Pi and soon they forge a special kind of relationship.

These words in Always June mean a lot to me because they mark the end of my first band Charlie Straight and the start of Lake Malawi.

Initially, there were more animals on the lifeboat until they got killed by the tiger. Pi’s family was sailing on a huge ship to Canada. They used to run a private ZOO in India but couldn’t make ends meet so they were forced to move with all the animals. Though the ship sank, both Pi and Richard Parker made it out alive. Guess where they sailed from…

…from Pondicherry. Even as I was walking around Pondicherry doing this video, it wouldn’t have occurred to me. Now it does. I guess nothing happens without a reason. Ã.