We are Päfgens – Jana Drábeková Kočišová and Filip Drábek. Our friendship began in autumn 2008 during journalism studies in Bratislava, Slovakia, and it evolved into a relationship a year later. Ten years after meeting initially, we got married.
Being partners in life offers a unique depth and bond, which we try to reflect in our music. It is often melancholic, helping us to deal with loss, changes, and the immense love we feel for each other.
We are two Slovaks who haven’t lived in Slovakia since 2013. First, we moved to Warsaw and, after almost 3 years there, to Berlin. Berlin has been our home since 2016. The feeling of belonging is something we are constantly seeking. As people or as musicians, we sometimes navigate different ‚lives‘ and spend time where we feel good. The process of finding and experimenting is mostly fun, always intriguing, but sometimes also exhausting.
How did the music even start? We always loved going to shows together, and we also booked concerts under After Hours Shows (2011-2013) in Bratislava and were active in the Slovak label Exitab for years. Filip used to play bass in the post-rock band The Ills between 2008 and 2013. Jana played guitar just for herself for many years before confessing to Filip.
In 2013, shortly before moving abroad, we created Päfgens, our musical project. The first EP was released that year, followed by our first concert a year later. The project is constantly evolving and moving from shoegaze/lo-fi/singer-songwriting territory to drone landscapes, creating a beautiful mixture of improvisation and compositions, sometimes accompanied by vocals.