What should you know about expat music in Prague? And where can you find it?

We met with Nano Tone – a Prague-based synth pop duo consisting of Carl Warwick (UK) and Jack Zagorski (US).

The band burst onto the local music scene in 2019, when their song “Let’s Get Digital” aired on Radio 1, the Czech Republic’s foremost alternative radio station.

You can catch them on the main stage of Prague’s Expat Culture Festival on Saturday, 27 September 2025, at Cross Club in the Holešovice district.

How long have you been part of Prague’s expat music scene?

Carl has been involved in the Czech and expat music scene for over 20 years. Shortly after moving here from the UK, he formed a band called Squall with two other expats. In 2002, their album How Things Work was released on Silver Rocket, a prominent Czech alt rock record label. Since then, Carl’s been in a slew of bands with expats, as well as Czechs.

Jack made his debut on the local music scene as part of Nano Tone, when he replaced former member Reed Jones in 2021.

How big is the expat music scene in Prague?

The expat music scene in Prague is bigger than you think. You might say it’s like all the bubbles in a glass of Czech Pilsner – disconnected, but packed together densely in a relatively small space.

This means that there’s not really an expat “scene,” in the sense of a cohesive group of people who play together and help each other organize shows. It’s actually a bunch of disconnected fragments scattered all over the city. Why?

Expats are not always integrated with Czech society at large. So, expat musicians who meet each other don’t always desire or know how to book concerts across the Czech Republic. They often end up playing under-the-radar shows that only people in their bubble know about.

It’s not that Czechs are not interested in expat bands; it’s that expat bands often don’t have the means to achieve visibility or connect with each other.

Where to find/discover expat bands in Prague?

Prague’s Vršovice, Žižkov, and Holešovice districts are hotspots for music by expats and touring acts. But you can find it in all kinds of unlikely places.

Here are a few places where your chances are higher:

Cross Club in Holešovice hosts local and touring acts almost every night, from DJs and techno to punk, and will again be home to the Expat Culture Festival on September 27–28, 2025. In Vršovice, Café V Lese on Krymská street is a hub for indie, rock, and synth pop, while nearby Beats From Basement leans toward alternative, experimental, and metal. Žižkovšiška Gallery & Event Center in Žižkov, run by an expat, offers jam sessions, singer-songwriter nights, and art shows. And by the river in Holešovice, Burza #4 keeps things eclectic with live music several nights a week, often spilling into the street.

What bands/artists are worth keeping an eye on?

All acts performing at the Expat Culture Festival are worth checking out. But aside from them, some of our favorites in Prague are:

Sabrehart plays abstract breakbeat, Urban Space Epics is a live expanded cinema project, Death Ponee blends post-punk and electronic, Renegade String Band focuses on American bluegrass and old-time music, and Neon Ears, Carl’s other band, is a spacerock duo.

We’re also discovering new expat bands all the time. For example, this summer we played a boutique festival called Ruinfest with Zombiero Martin, an all-expat stoner rock band from Prague. We had never heard of them before, but they blew us away. It even turned out we had common friends!

And, of course, there are groups that are primarily Czech, but which include foreigners. One of our favorites in this category is Josefina Dusk (bratty sci-fi fetish synth pop).

What’s it like trying to penetrate the local Czech music scene as an expat band?

Expat acts usually have to make an effort to learn how to navigate the local music scene, which is sometimes a long game. But many expat musicians don’t stay long-term in Prague, so a long game doesn’t always make sense. Indeed, this may be a reason for some promoters to focus less on expat acts.

Persistence is key. When we started out, we were just organizing DIY shows for ourselves, and reaching out to promoters trying to get them to book us, with not much luck. Then, after a few years, the seeds we’d been planting started to sprout.

For example, we once got in touch with the management of Hello Marcel, a Czech electronic music duo popular among locals, to ask for a show. One year later, the management followed up with us; two years later, we actually played a show together – and it was amazing!

Carl’s relationships with local Czech and expat artists, formed over his 20+ years here, have also been a big help.

 

Visualizza questo post su Instagram

 

Un post condiviso da Expat Culture Festival (@expatfestival)

What’s the story behind Nano Tone?

Nano Tone started out as an experimental electronic music project by me (Carl) and former member Reed Jones. At first, our arrangements were loose and had no vocals. But, over the course of a few years, they started to tighten into bonafide pop songs, and I started to sing.

The first Nano Tone song to get any real attention was “Let’s Get Digital,” which was played on Czech national radio station Radio 1 in 2019. It was essentially then that we established ourselves as a band with a defined sound.

Later that year, we played Žižkovská noc, an annual multigenre festival that takes place across bars and clubs in Žižkov. Jack, already an experienced electronic musician, scoped out the show in advance and stopped in to say hi.

We stayed in touch, and in 2021 he helped us record our debut album, Glow of the Show. Then, when Reed moved back to the United States, I (Carl) asked Jack to take Reed’s place, and things took on a new momentum.

In 2024, we released our second album, Creamy & Square. Now, we’re almost done writing the material for a third album, which we predict will be released in 2026. And on Saturday, 27 September 2025, at Cross Club in Prague’s Holešovice district, we’ll be playing material from all three albums.

Would you like us to write about your business? Find out more