Beat a Go Go

The family moved to Ljubljana. After grammar school you were in a dilemma ... between painting and music. Why did you decide on music?

I had applied to both academies. But then I did the first entrance examination for the music academy and I was successful. So, I didn't think any more about painting. You know how it is when you are young.

Do you regret this decision now?

Not really. But I think it must be interesting if you have two different interests. So, in your free time you can do something else. It is not always music, recording... because that is more than enough sometimes. But what I really like is architecture. I like to draw in this way, very precisely.

Do you draw?

No.

Then you are reshaping your apartment often?

Yes, I restraighten the walls! [laughter]

And you designed a kitchen?

It was fifteen years ago, now we have a new one. Sometimes I enjoy doing this, but then again you come to the middle and stop, and then leave everything.

What did you listen to when you were a kid?

Everything. First rock, then jazz and classical music. In the end I don 't make so many differences between all this styles. I focused more on stuff which is interesting and has quality. But I was never a fan of anybody¹s. Now I am mostly listening to jazz. It relaxes me somehow.

You started your music career with Srp [alternative band very well known in former Yugoslavia].

Yes, it was in secondary school, and with Marko Brecelj [alternative singer and poet]. After Music Academy in Ljubljana, I went for three or four years to the Music Academy in Vienna. During this time I didn't have any parallel music projects. When I came back to Ljubljana, I was playing a little with Lolita and now with Bratko Bibič and the Madleys.

When you play the violin with Bratko Bibič you do this in some very special way.

I think always I play the pieces each time in a little bit different way. This some of the Madleys don't like.... [laughter]

But this is one of the reasons why people are coming to the concerts...live music is different than recorded on CD.

Always it is possible to play correctly. If there is a good communication within the band, you can do a lot - enrich the music. If you only play correctly you are only a performer. When I play with Bratko Bibič and the Madleys, I have a possibility to express myself. I can create some stuff, have solos and a lot of other ideas can be realized. Playing with this band gives you more personal importance than if you play in an orchestra.

But the style - the way you are playing the instrument - this is impossible to learn in school.

This is something that comes or doesn¹t come. Everybody must find it by himself. It is ideal if you can master as much as possible the different levels of playing the instrument. Then you can play in every configuration in a different way and you can enjoy the differences. Sometimes fiddlers don't have the necessary distance from what they are playing - they all try to imitate some ideals. But I don't think this is the right thing. There are a lot of people like this. My opinion is that it is better to try to find your own way of playing ­ your own style - and stay faithful to yourself. All good musicians - virtuosos - have this ability. This is a key to success.

Can you tell me something about your job as a fiddler in the orchestra? [Slovenia's Radio and Television symphony orchestra]

Our orchestra is made up of around eighty musicians. All these people have to play exactly and technically as much as possible. We are all listening to each other very carefully. There is a lot of finesse which we have to follow, and in the center is a conductor who leads everything. But the sound which an orchestra gives is really something special.

conductor David de Villiers and singer Tomi of Siddharta

Last autumn you were playing with the very popular Slovenian rock band Siddharta in a big stadium event in front of 30-35,000 people. Can you describe how it was? What were your feelings? How did the orchestra work under such conditions?

We were playing with Siddharta once before for a smaller audience in Križanke [an old open-air summer theatre in Ljubljana]. So, this was our second experience with Siddharta. The music arrangements were writen by Milko Lazar and Slavko Avsenik. The conductor was David De Villiers. He did his job very well and led the orchestra. Principally the orchestra is very rigid because it is so large - it takes a long time to make changes, to make something happen. The conditions were different than they are normally on our concerts - we were listening to the band on monitors - and in rock music everything is different because of this primal energy the band, Siddharta, expresses. When we started to play we just had to follow them. When I was looking at the crowd there were in certain moments a sea of small lights and they were singing with us. The atmosphere was electrifying. You could touch the adrenalin.

What were the reactions in orchestra after the concert?

All younger members of orchestra liked this concert. Some older people were like, why do we do this - it is so different.... But the times are a-changing and why shouldn't we do the concert like this? If we do this kind of concert well, there is a bigger effect then if we do something every day like a routine - we can prove to ourselves that we can do other things well too, not only in our same circle of people always. I think this was a really great experience for the whole orchestra. And not only that, our concerts for next year are all sold out. Maybe this is because of this concert with Siddharta, I don't know.

What do you think about Siddharta?

I think they are great. It is interesting that with every new listening of their CDs, the music is still, or even more, interesting. The music doesn't lose its charm. Maybe this is why so many people listen to them from different generations. I think they are a band with a deeper message both in a musical and philosophical sense.

And your daughters, what do they think?

The small one is a fan - she has posters of Siddharta all over her room.

What are your plans for the future?

I would like to compose some music for a string quartet. I would like to write music and express myself in this way.

 

"Dolores" with The Madleys 1.19 MB

 

photo by Bogo Pečnikar