Beat a Go Go

Rob Wright in front of NoMeansNo and The Invasives, with crew in the Balkans - photo by Irena Povse

The Canadian progressive punk rock band Invasives were in the middle of their sound check when I entered the concert hall.  It was late autumn 2007 in Ljubljana.

Andrej Ruda, the guitarist of Slovenian jazz/rock fusion band Zmajev rep- which always reminds me of Weather Report - was coming in as well.

Both bands were going to support legendary alternative punk rock/punk jazz band NoMeansNo in their concert in Ljubljana.  It was simply a genius idea to choose those two extremely different bands as a support for such an open-minded and "no borders" band as NoMeansNo: Rob Wright on bass, vocals, guitar, John Wright on drums, vocals, keyboards and Tom Holliston on guitar and vocals.

NoMeansNo's philosophy and art are alive through their music for last 25 years through their live performances and rich collection of Lps ...it started with Mama in ancient 1982 (reissued in 2004 with extra tracks)... to today's promotion tour of All Roads Lead To Ausfahrt.

Destruction, Metal Camp 2004 (photo by Taisija)

So, here we are again in sweaty-red-hot-boiling beautiful  summer - the season of summer festivals and thundering summer storms.  One of the most beautiful places you can find to get all this together is Tolmin - Sotocje where stormy bands will attend the fifth Metal Camp, July 3-9.
The place where the festival happens is between two rivers and you have a feeling like you find yourself in a mystical fairy tale where a turquoise green river rules and all around are high mountains.

Aleš Rendla

How did you and Nino start playing music?

When we were very young. I started to play violin when I was six, I think. I’m not sure about Nino, but I think he didn’t go to any music school when he was young. We were friends then and lived in the same house. When I moved out of the house with my family, I was still coming back to the place because my grandmother lived there. So Nino and I would play children’s games. Nino had a boat, and somebody destroyed his boat, and then gave him drums to replace it. So that’s how I got to play my first drums. Nino made his own bass guitar, completely of wood. And then we started playing. We practiced in Nino’s basement, under the café.

Bruno Subiotto on the cover of Manitu

What is your inspiration when you are writing texts for songs?

Life is of equal value for human beings like for other living creatures, animals and plants. No one has the right to take anybody's life. It's one of the, let's say, "cosmic rules" and breaking it means misfortune and misery. The scale of suffering is equal to the negligence of this rule. Don't we have the commandment: do not kill? This commandment is meant for people, not animals ­- they have other rules to follow. Sorrowfully, people proved not to match such a "high" standard.

Aleš Rendla, Nino de Gleria and Bratko Bibič in Cerkno, Slovenia, May 2003

It's May of 2003 and we're on our way to the jazz festival in Cerkno, a small town about an hour's drive from Ljubljana. We're hurtling along the narrow road at high speed and I'm watching the countryside flashing past.

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.

Nino de Gleria, soundcheck at Cerkno, May 2003 (photo: Bogo Pečnikar)

How long have you and Aleš known each other?

I’ve known Aleš from birth. We were living in the same house. We were neighbors. We were together all the time as kids. We had a puppet-show together. Then after Aleš moved, he began to learn violin in music school. My first wish was to play cello. I asked my father to enter me in music school. But something had happened a few days before my request. At that time I was very young, six or seven years old. I went with one of my friends from home and we got lost. We were walking at the river Gradascica, very far away from home. Our parents went completely crazy, worrying about where we were. At last they found us in another quarter of Ljubljana. Then when I asked my father about going to music school and playing the cello, he said, “If you are independent like this” - he was thinking about my vagabonding – “you can go and enter yourself in music school alone.” This was a kind of pedagogical step. Of course I didn't go to school alone.