Het lappendeken dat vroeger Joegoslavië heette, heeft iets met gitaren. Groepen
als Laibach, Borghesia, Strelnikoff en Gone Bald maakten al in de jaren tachtig
indruk met explosieve, rebelse rockmuziek, vaak met subversieve politieke tintjes.
'Alternatieve' muziek is er dan ook nog steeds niet geďnstitutionaliseerd, ook niet
in het huidige Kroatië. Lunar is er een van de zeldzame groepen die er in slaagt om
de overstap naar West-Europa te maken. Hun muziek klinkt ons dan ook niet onbekend
in de oren: 'post-rock' met veel gitaren ŕ la Slint, een kleine dosis elektronica
en een pulserende groove. Ze krijgen vooral in België voet aan de grond, ook al omdat
de plaat verdeeld wordt door het Gentse
Dellboy Records,
dat ook o.a. het Zweedse Lemko Hall, Blutch en Hitch onder zijn vleugels
genomen heeft. De groep gaf recent een overdonderend concert op het beruchte
Farmfest festival (in Aalbeke!), hou dus vooral de oren gespitst.
(Noot: het interview gebeurde via de wondere wereld van het Internet. Wegens mooi zomerweer en het fleurige taalgebruik van onze vriend Bojan Kotzmuth, krijgt u deze mooie dialoog te lezen in zijn originele vorm. Enjoy!)
URBANMAG: Of course, to us, Belgians, it's intruiging that you're from Croatia, since rarely any music from there reached us before you came along. How's the music scene in general (pop, rock, dance, ...labels,media, fanzines, clubs, festivals, ...?) Bojan: "Well, Croatia is music wise shithole. There are only couple of places to play alternative music and those places mostly suck. And, if there is no room for alternative music, you can imagine cultural level and 'good music'. We in Croatia suffer from ignorance, laziness, amorality, plain stupidness, cowardliness, and those tend to be national trademarks and are shown on a daily basis through politics, economics, culture, art, media...Believe me, its not hard to be alternative to those... you just have to be normal!
Student and youth clubs do not exist for last 10 years, big majority of young people spends time in disco clubs where ex folk singers are simulating singing on playback. Same young people are into German satellite programs, and if they are really into music - they watch MTV. However, there is one student club called "KSET", and there is possible to see nice gig every now and then. But its all work of two enthusiasts, Mate Skugor and Ivica Baricevic. There is another club called "MOCVARA"- (the SWAMP), with very busy schedule, but no focus, and they tend to be commercial...
Creative and young music scene is in isolation which sometimes produces interesting bands. There is a little scene of independent labels and bands, but its weak. Not connected. Bands are to different among them selves to be the same crowd. I have to mention following bands: Peach Pit (kind of post rock), Analena (kind of emo-core...), Karpis (noise rock), Chang Ffos (stoner rock), FNC Diverzant (punk), Lunar (macho pop). These bands are working, they have one or more rehearsal a week, and have one or more gigs in a month. They are active. There are bands who need to be cleared as bands in the near future: Rujan (post rock), Uzrujan (experimental), Nikad (strait edge emo), H´aia (art rock), Sumski (persistent cartoon music), Sumo Shock (disco inferno), Kukuriku Street (ambient post rock), Galax 54 (ambient slow pop)... there are many others... All of these fine bands will make great stuff, I am sure.
I think you have to create - if you want to stay mentally healthy in Croatia. There is nothing else to do which makes any sense.Every other thing is dull and underpaid. I could understand some creative soul who would have an office job from 08-16h, but than get serious or just enough money to live. In Croatia you don't get paid, or you get seriously underpaid - so it does not make sense at all... .So by making art, you know you will never get paid for it, but at least you have fun. And that improves your mental state, seriously damaged by politics, propaganda, bad democracy and just plain ignorance of your surroundings.
Labels are nice, but not well organized as well. Since there is no profit in releasing anything.
In shops its either impossible to distribute independent CDs, or if you manage - they get to be too expensive for anyone to buy. You can sell them on gigs o nly, but as I said there is not so much good things going on in that department...
When buying Croatian CDs be sure you buy from Carnival Tunes, Earwing Records, Anubis Records, Get Off, LiberTee, Monte Paradiso - Do not buy from Dallas. They suck.
Radios: there are two good radios in whole Croatia. Radio Student, and radio Maestral. Once there was Radio 101, but now plays only midmainstream music, Italian disco and commercials. They have one good show called "Van Struje"-(out of the stream).
Festivals: Ponikve, open-air above Zagreb, cca 3000 people, end of May. Art and Music Festival, club Uljanik, Pula - summer, Monte Paradiso, punk open air, Pula - summer. Sometimes you get jazz or alternative festival in KSET in Zagreb.
Fanzines I do not follow so much - since they are mostly too hermetic for my taste, but there are some, and I heard they are quite good for what they do.
About dance... I don't know, we usually play so...
URBANMAG: You all seem to be quite young (how old are you guys anyway?), but the bio says you were active in many bands (which were those?)10 years before Lunar. Music seems to be very important in you life - is it? "We are all 27 now, exept the big guy (Mijo) who is two years younger. Yes, we where very active in many bands. Sasha (sleepy guitar player) was in REACTOR, (the very first, and to me best) Lo-Fi band in Croatia. They had couple of tape releases and are considered living legends. But he was invited to play with us after his Cdr. solo release under code name POLAROID. Mijo (the big one) has played in few hard-core bands in his home town Zadar (on the sea side), and when he moved to Zagreb (Capitol) he joined ANALENA (emo-core), and later LUNAR. He was our fan, but not as big as we where his!(...and we still are!) Nixa (evil looking pyromaniac) and Bojan (bigheaded siko) where playing together since the dawn of time, they started in high school where they played in now legendary band called: ACHTUNG-DICHTUNG (garage rock and roll/crossover...) Man, they where bad! After releasing tape "Nights with white Satan" for "ILL IN THE HEAD Records", they formed GONE BALD (noise) with guitar/voice Ivica, and played many gigs and released "Little song of love" CD on 100% recordings, thanx to Ante Cikara."
URBANMAG: What were the major influences that led to "There is no 1"? "I think on our album you can feel space we created for ourselves. Its space for you to explore and put your own characters inside. Use it to get in touch with your memories, with the time everything was simple, you felt secure and you thought man really walked the moon..."
URBANMAG: The music you make is labeled "post-rock", alongside groups like Mogwai, Trans Am, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Tortoise, Slint... Do you agree? Did those groups have an influence on your music? If not, what kind of music do you guys like to listen to? "I would not label our music as post rock, but I don't mind people for doing so. There are many things that connect us to the bands you have mentioned, but just on some plain level, we like those bands. And we do listen to them. Influences? Well, it may sound stupid, but we do not consider any band had an impact on us. Not in the sense that we decided, "O.K., lets do it that way". We believe that we are able to express our own experiences and emotions far better than to try to emulate someone else's. We have never been to America, we have different surroundings and background which we cant change. It is important to us that we clearly see us in our music, and that reflection is precise. We have our own stories and jokes, we don't pretend to be something else. And I feel this is something we should stick to. To be compared with Tortoise, Slint etc...is a great feeling, since I thing these people are great artists, far better then us."
URBANMAG: Your music sounds cinematic. Never asked to compose a soundtrack? "Yes, we always refer to our music as cinema. We try to leave some space inside our music to be open to listener. To his individual trips. You would be amazed what kind of stories we provoke with music... we provide the space - you provide the caricatures - who knows what will happen?!
We did music for couple of TV commercials, but that's not something we consider important. Its nice, but lacks in almost every aspect of creativity, form is very strict and use is very shallow...Film industry hardly exist, underground films are rare. And they are done lousy. No craftmanshift, and we are really into craft. Recently we where asked to do music for one film, but its still in the mist...we will see what happens..."
URBANMAG: The record was recorded in 1999. I suppose you worked on some new music since. Are you still looking for new sounds (more electronics like in "Ursa", more vocals, ...?) "Yes, we worked on the new material, we started to record recently. We did a cover from "Fly me to the moon" from Sinatra, but in a lounge-space-bossanova(... I know!)-noisy version. That will go on compilation that CARNIVAL TUNES is releasing this Summer and will be called "LE BOOM ALBUM!". We are also preparing new release with Xavier from DELBOY RECORDS, and are very thrilled with work so far. It reflect us completely, and that's important. We decided to stick with the people who recognized us first, Xavier and Boris (Carnival Tunes) and I hope we will stick with them forever, since they are great. Other labels are maybe more powerful, but they do not vibrate so good, and they where no where around before we got recognized.
Yes, there are still some electronics involved, but as spice, not as the main dish. As for vocals, you wait and see, but don't get your hopes to high!"
URBANMAG: Have you been touring a lot -where? How did people react? "No, we did not tour a lot. I hope we will. We played in Italy two times, around five shows, we played in Slovenia couple of times, in Bosnia (Sarajevo), in Croatia a lot... Did some festivals in Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, some live playing in radio shows (we liked that a lot!). And we played few shows in Belgium. People usually like us, we are easily digestible and they either love us, or they do not have time for us. Quick people... We got great reviews, and we got confused a bit. We thought we are doing something wrong, when critics love us so openly..."
URBANMAG: Recently, I did an interview with Yonderboi, a Hongarian musician, and he mentioned the musicscenes in former East-Europe have changed a lot since the dissapearing of "the Berlin wall" in 1989. More music available etc. .. Do you agree? Is there actually a sense of solidarity between musicians from former East-Europe? " No, fall of that wall did not bring direct changes to music in Croat. You could always get to music you wanted, more difficult then in western Europe, but you could. To us, disappereance of that wall took away youth clubs and liberalism, since it was legacy from socialism. And we got all the bad things from capitalism, junk food and shopping moles. Of course, things where not that simple, and they are still not.
"...a sense of solidarity" between musicians from easterner countries sounds poetic, but it does not exist. And I think its good that it doesent. Present situation illustrates situation in our parts. Chaos."
URBANMAG: Did the almost neverending Yugoslavian war and the consequences have an influence on the cultural scenes in Croatia ? "Yes, the war fucked up everything. And still does, long after it moved to east. From 22 million people (in former Yugoslavia), we are now market of hardly 4 million people in Croatia. The numbers never lie. Also, war brings xenophobia and isolation, depression and stupid people in charge on every level. So, you see, there is no space for trivia, such as music and art in general. People where actually killed all over the place, but for me scariest thing was propaganda and sick followers. I wish no one on planet would experience such horror. It was just like in the movie "Body Snatchers" - people becoming strange and distant from them selves.
URBANMAG: "Croatia is music wise shithole", you wrote. Did you never think, like Croation bands Gone Bald, cul-de-sac or Pink-noise-quartet, about starting operating from an other European country?" " Well, idea of leaving Croatia did cross our minds, but with previous experience we are now much more realistic. If we decide to go - we will go. But for now - we are where we are. The climate is good, food is nice... oh, and the girls..."
Gentse Feesetn 2001, Bo'dlo, 23 juli MP3's:
Kozmonautika
los dos millónes de dólares
www.lunar.itgo.com