Jana & Js' interpretation is based on the 17th-century painting "Dorfstraße mit Hurdy-Gurdy Player" by the Dutch master Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), which is currently on loan to the Alte Galerie in Graz. The painting depicts a hurdy-gurdy player performing in front of a farmhouse, with a small audience standing around and hoping for gifts. Young and old alike listen attentively to the music. The painting is set in the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War, a time when Europe was marked by plundered and destroyed regions and wandering vagabonds and disused mercenaries roamed the countryside. The hurdy-gurdy was the instrument of beggars and tramps, but musicians still had an advantage in obtaining alms more easily than those who only complained. Adriaen van Ostade was a younger contemporary of Rembrandt and was influenced by him in his chiaroscuro manner.

Jana & Js based their reinterpretation on van Ostade's motif, but presented the scene in a contemporary way and in their own distinctive style. The resulting work, "Village Square with Ukulele Player", has a similar structure and shows the same number of people in almost the same positions as Adriaen van Ostade's work. However, the adult characters in Jana & Js' work are all women, replacing the three men in van Ostade's painting.