“Stare Mesto.” It is still one of our most popular tracks on Spotify if you just look at the numbers and dates all the way back to our first album Lose Your Ties which we produced at Riverside Studios in Berlin.
Some of you on Hive might know the track — but did you know it was written in Prague over a decade ago?
Back then, The Trouble Notes was still just a dream. We were city-hopping, scraping together enough to rent tiny apartments for a few weeks at a time — immersing ourselves in different cultures and chasing melodies in the streets.
And Prague... what a magical place.
It was a different time for us. Now we plan, we strategize — already looking toward 2026 and beyond.
But in 2013, every moment felt like a leap into the unknown. It was free. It was exciting.
Prague. Old Town Square. October 2013.
We went to Prague because of our friend Craig McCall — who, we’re pretty sure, has seen us perform in over 10 cities in Europe/North America. From the moment we arrived, something just clicked. We rented a little apartment in Žižkov, and every day we played in Old Town Square — part of Prague’s living soundtrack.
At night, we’d walk the cobbled streets of the old town. I’d imagine what it was like during the Baroque and Classical periods — tracing the footsteps of some of history’s greatest composers.
For me, it felt like a pilgrimage.
That’s where the melody for “Stare Mesto” was born — inspired by Baroque phrases, played along the river at dusk. The piece took shape around a simple chord progression, filled with arpeggios and dynamics reminiscent of Beethoven, who walked those very streets. I tried to channel the movement and spirit of Dvořák — a personal favorite of mine growing up.
There’s a tension and playfulness in the melody: a street-forged intensity that commands attention, and a light-hearted grace that pays homage to the folk-infused romance of Dvořák.
That month in Prague changed everything.
It was when I began to understand just how deeply European folk music, woven into the classical tradition, had shaped my life as a violinist.
Growing up in America, we learned “classical” repertoire without always knowing its regional folk roots — from German to Hungarian, Italian to Klezmer, Slavic to Sephardic. It was all there, just beneath the surface waiting for me to rediscover.
“Stare Mesto” became the seed.
It laid the foundation for the entire compositional style behind our first studio album, Lose Your Ties — our attempt to bridge a classical upbringing with a progressive folk identity that draws from both sides of the Atlantic.