Czech electronic music has lost one of its most rebellious voices.
Petr Votava, better known as DJ Tráva, passed away at the age of 60. A true pioneer who helped shape the country’s electronic music scene after the fall of communism, he remained a punk in spirit until the very end.
Born in 1965, Tráva started out in the punk scene before discovering the hypnotic pulse of house and techno in the early 1990s. He was among the first to introduce electronic dance music to Prague’s underground clubs, long before it reached the mainstream. His early residencies at Bunkr and later Roxy laid the foundations of the Czech rave culture.
In 1996, Tráva became one of the faces of Roxy’s legendary Shake nights voted “Club Night of the Year” just three years later. He went on to start his own event MIX, which became one of the defining club nights of early-2000s Prague. His music projects, including Significant Other and Lazy Lizard, reached as far as Café del Mar compilations.
Tráva’s personality was as distinctive as his sound was sharp, outspoken, and full of humor. In one of his last interviews, he joked that “rave.cz is a dead medium.” Well, joke’s on him, because it’s right here we are continue this story.
In another interview, he admitted: “I still feel like I’m living in the late 1980s under the Bolsheviks.”
His words reflected the same raw, defiant energy that defined his entire career.
He often criticised modern artists for “spending more time on PR than behind a computer making music.” For him, music was never about fame or fashion. It was about authenticity.
“Music is good depending on how good its intention is,” he once said.
Tráva played alongside international names such as Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, Armand Van Helden, and Josh Wink. He earned multiple DJ of the Year awards and inspired generations of Czech DJs who followed.
Beyond the decks, he stayed true to his punk ethos independent, unpredictable, and allergic to conformity.
„Punks not dead“ neither is Tráva’s spirit or influence.
Sources: iDNES.cz, iRozhlas.cz, Seznam Zprávy, Techno.cz, MusicServer.cz, iReport.cz