In reading your interviews and texts about you online, I notice most follow a formula: do you remember your crazy youth, where you were in 1992, do you really hang out with Chris Novoselich - privately, what will you do to surprise us for the band’s 20th anniversary? Have I left anything out?
Yes, you most certainly have. Just the other day I was asked whether I’m sorry I don’t have any hits, whether I’d like to have had hits, and whether I’d like to be rich, famous and popular. If I didn’t know how stupid some reporters are, I’d think that somebody is messing with me on purpose; but I don’t get the point of interviewing someone you don’t like and giving them media attention. I even prefer someone openly hating me over them not preparing to do their job properly. I’m already used to that, and it was a difficult decision to come to the Balkans and play here (to Pula, of course, where else). I kept thinking: Who really wants to deal with that? Great people like the late Ante Perković, like Petar Janjatović and Zoran Stajić are the rare kind, as well as musicians, who can be trusted.
Hiding behind the keyboard, everybody feels they can do a lot of professions, especially be a journalist, but there is no more curiosity, not even to do minimal research into the topic. Readers’ concentration can’t handle longer sentences, videos are adjusted to fit minute news. On the other hand, there is a lot of curiosity, concentration, and demand for the banal. Is it the same in music?
Yes, it is, my man. Nobody has monopoly on stupidity - it’s equally accessible to everybody, there is no discrimination. Each profession has its own fools, but I think that in your first sentence you hit the nail on the head. It’s not just behind their keyboard, it is behind microphones, behind TV cameras, even behind computer screens that everybody feels unmatched and untouchable. That’s the times, it’s not only art, music, and journalism, it’s humanity as a whole hiding behind computer screens, Facebook, and other channels of media correspondence, which gives them power to say anything to anybody while feeling completely safe and not fearing being beat up. I am definitely not one for physical violence, and I don’t believe violence can solve anything. I even think that regardless of how much I believe in my ideas, no idea is worth taking away even a shred of being human, let alone taking a life. However, fear was a rather nice insurance policy of civilised communication and polite conversation eye to eye. That’s gone today. Today we are all musicians, journalists, radio hosts, and we can insult others without being afraid of ever having to come face to face with them. We should all learn from each other and inspire each other, because you can learn something from everyone. This is the age of self-importance and self-promotion. These ‘journalists’ are not interested in me, they are interested in themselves, and they ask a question while providing the answer in it, as well as their personal opinion. The situation is similar in the music industry, when an ‘artist’ supposes what’s going to sell and what the people like and builds his expression based on that. Nobody listens any more, everybody just wants to say something. It’s like that joke:
Mujo asked Suljo: Who do you live with?
Suljo: With Mother.
Mujo: Do you have any children?
Is art really art if it’s made to order?
It shouldn’t be, and I basically have an old saying of mine - art is born as energy in itself, it can’t be created out of anything and it can’t spring out of anything, it just goes from one state of matter into another. Sophisticated energy. Nevertheless, there are also exceptions, such as, for example in my case, composing theatre music. Yes, that type of music is often made to order, but it’s not commercial, and its primary goal is not sales; it is made to order with the purpose of making an artistic work of complex nature complete. It can also be challenged from a philosophical standpoint, and I can accept that for some not even theatre music is art if it’s made to order. Of course, people can say I’m not being fair because I’m subjective, but in my case, I think of making music for theatre as art, and I don’t think of music for commercials as art. But we are all subjective. Including me.
Just to be on the safe side, because the readers are expecting information on Kultur Shock - the tags running through music and lyrics are very firm: provocation, speaking out, being direct… Does being uncompromising come at a cost?
Yes, it certainly does, but it also has its value - you win some, you lose some, depending on what you are interested in. I don’t mind people seeing their music career or any other career primarily as a way to make money. Everybody has their own priorities. I was never especially interested in money, and after the war in Sarajevo, my system of values has completely changed. Better yet, it has changed me. I’ve become another me. I often say I’m a positive war profiter. Probably not the only one, but one of the rare ones. With me, coming face to face with death has resulted in a definitive change of priorities. I’ve realised that life is too short to waste it on things I’m not interested in, on trivial things, secondary things like financial or material gain. I’ve realised that I could be robbed of my life any second, and if I’m given five minutes, I want to live them like they are my last. Since then, I live each of my five minutes like they are my last, my last five minutes to sing.
5. Kultur Shock can’t be labelled in any which way. Or two or three ways. Maybe it’s easier to say what Kultur Shock isn’t?
Bravo, my man. That’s actually the most realistic description I’ve heard in a question so far. It’s odd that it’s a description, but you’re absolutely right. I’ve always said that our direction is everything, but pop music. I know that people like to dance. I also know that they like to jump, scream, go crazy. I know that they like to close their eyes and enjoy songs that are part of them. I am the people, and I like that. However, we all have various moods, includingthe people who write songs. I am just honest with myself and I change my style when my mood changes. The different styles reflect our different moods - isn’t that what happens in everyday life?
Will you be working this summer? How many concerts have you had?
I am afraid to think about it, but I haven’t really started with concerts, and I’m already tired. We can fool everybody around us and become better with each year, but fooling life is not that easy - years go by, we get older, and we have less energy. I’m not experiencing this yet, and I don’t want to, but everything comes to an end, and so will Kultur Shock. And Kultur Shock doesn’t deserve to have its flame put out and be playing just for the sake of playing. Be it as it may, it’s still not time for that, and we have to get ready, because we have a new album coming out and all the craziness. We’ll be on the road for a month and a half this summer, and then we will be finishing the album and going on a European tour in April next year. We have played at more than 1500 concerts between 2001 and 2018. The band has been around for 22 years and is now recording a new album. Love from grandpa.
