Beat a Go Go

Matjaž Sekne backstage at Siddharta's stadium concert

You were born in a small ironworks city in a valley in the Slovenian Alps. When you were nine years old, you started to learn violin in music school. Was it your decision or your parents'?

My parents enrolled me in music school. I didn't wish this very much because I was a child and of course kids don't like to go to any school and learn. But later I found out that I love to play violin.

Siddharta

I went to Italy last summer to see the highly popular Slovenian band Siddharta performing at a small rock festival in a village called Praprot. The festival was arranged by young Slovenian people living in Italy near the Slovenian border. Slovenians are a national minority in that part of Italy.

It was a pleasant experience to get there. There were Slovenian and Italian people of all ages. The village was crowded with cars from everywhere, motorcycles and of course Vespas. When we came into the audience, an old woman with a walking stick, surrounded with a lot of kids, said hello nicely to us. On the other side was a biker with long blond hair, in leather jacket and pants, drinking his beer slowly from a plastic glass. Late at night, after the old lady and little kids had gone off to bed, and after we'd had a few glasses of local red wine, the stars were in the crystal sky and the other stars took the stage at the edge of the little village surrounded by dark forest.