Taking Over Mars – A New European Wave of “Melodic Ska Punk” Rock Invades Slovenia (2009)
Location: Rock Cafe / Postojna / Slovenia
Interview date: 16.12.2009
The melodic ska punk quartet Taking Over Mars is made up of Aljoša Jagodic “Josh” (vocals, guitar), Matic Poklukar “Micho” (drums), Aleksandar Mladenov “Alex (bass, backing vocals) and Matic Pajk (guitar, backing vocals). These up-and-coming lads grew up and tuned the antennas of their musical perception on bands like Green Day, Millencolin and Offspring, and Iron Maiden aren’t unknown territory to them either! They’re the heralds of the new ska punk wave that has long since taken root west and north of Slovenia, something festival-goers at the likes of Nova Rock or FreQuency in Austria have probably felt best in recent years. Here at home, though, the genre label that defines Taking Over Mars is only just getting going and winning over its fans.
During our chat, the band showed plenty of ambition and self-confidence. The guys have definitely picked up the latter by being regulars on stages abroad. In 2007, for example, they did a month-long European tour, combing the continent from top to bottom and end to end. The band’s biggest wish right now is to record their studio debut.
RockLine: What was your main motivation for entering the Epic RockLine Contest?
Josh: Have we ever played in Postojna before?
Micho: Hmm… I don’t think so.
Spider: No, we haven’t.
Alex: Well. It’s a chance for us to land one more gig, and a chance for people in this part of Slovenia and in Postojna to get to know us.
Josh: Basically, this gig is also broadening our horizons. We’re making contacts, getting to know new clubs.
Spider: Well, the prize is pretty tempting too, heh, heh…
RockLine: How long have you been playing in this lineup?
Josh: Since February this year.
RockLine: Spider was the last to join the lineup, right?
Spider: Yep.
RockLine: Did the guys boss you around much?
Spider: Not really. If anything, I was the one bossing them around, …
(everyone: laughter)
RockLine: So Spider pushed you to a new, higher level of quality?
Josh: Yeah. Something like that. We defined our sound further, revamped it, polished it even more. This isn’t amateur stuff anymore.
Alex: Yeah. I agree too, the band took a considerable step forward with Spider in the lineup.
RockLine: The vibe in your sound is pretty positive. You roar, you blast, you make a racket, but there’s a lot of melody in that, if I can put it that way, punk element, that cheerful kind of thing, a bit of Green Day, a bit of ska, and above all the influence of the new wave of bands that love to show up en masse at festivals like Nova Rock or FreQuency, I don’t know, the likes of Rise Against and Vanilla Sky, etc…
Josh: We actually played together with Vanilla Sky. That’s true. We’re very melodic. In Slovenia it seems to me there’s a lot of music that’s full of negativity, of venting negative feelings. We in Taking Over Mars aren’t a gloomy band, and we don’t want to come across that way either. We don’t feel it, and we just can’t be like that.
Micho: This approach of ours has been getting really good responses abroad lately.
Spider: The music I play in Taking Over Mars fulfills my soul. As for me personally, judging by what I listen to, I follow a wide spectrum of genres and listen to lots of different music. My taste ranges from metal to Irish punk, even classical sometimes.
Josh: Each of us listens to different music, so each of us contributes something of our own to our sound, and that’s how the melodic style that defines us as Taking Over Mars comes about.
RockLine: I assume you want to record an album. How much original material have you written so far?
Josh: We already have twelve songs. There are actually more, but we’re preparing twelve for the record.
Spider: An album shouldn’t be too long, but it shouldn’t be too thin either. For our approach, twelve songs feels like a nice middle ground.
RockLine: I take it you’re thinking of about 40 minutes of music on your upcoming studio debut?
Josh: Yes. That feels just right for an album. In 40 minutes you can say what you have to say, or properly present your essence to listeners, to the target audience that’s supposed to be asking for your music.
RockLine: What can you tell us about your musical influences, the ones that define you as musicians?
Spider: Iron Maiden! I listened to Iron Maiden through most of elementary school. But today, like I said, I’m not all that hung up on genres. I listen to all kinds of music.
Josh: Alex and I grew up on ska punk. On bands like Offspring and so on.
RockLine: Your sound is very much of the moment. How are you received abroad?
Josh: We’ve already played a few shows abroad. We’ve played all over Europe, from Poland to Scotland.
Alex: We’ve played various festivals alongside Vanilla Sky, Emil Bulls, Slayer, Misfits.
Spider: With the image we cultivate, both in looks and in music, we got onto festivals abroad that we definitely couldn’t have gotten onto here in Slovenia.
RockLine: Slovenia always wakes up with a bit of a phase lag.
Josh: Just right for us. That’s when we’ll do what needs to be done. Anyway, the vibe at those festivals abroad is great and people receive us really well.
RockLine: Have you heard of the Slovenian band In-Sane?
Josh: Yes. We’re really good friends with them. They’re very cool guys. We’re connected with lots of bands in Slovenia too, but we especially click with bands from other European countries, like the UK, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland.
RockLine: Which bands from abroad, specifically?
Josh: Say, the Brits New Riot. They’re ska punk, they used to be called Fandangle. And it works out like this: they sort out a gig abroad for us, and we make it possible for them to come play in Slovenia.
RockLine: And which crowd abroad goes wildest for Taking Over Mars?
Josh: I’d say the eastern part of Europe. The Czech Republic and Poland. We played one of the festivals there regularly. We found out that people like us. When we played a festival like that before Misfits, our slot was in the middle of the day, and we were pleasantly surprised because a pretty serious crowd gathered in front of the stage, in the middle of all that heat, and enjoyed it with us.
RockLine: Where in Slovenia did you play with New Riot? At Njoki?
Josh: No. At Rog, in Ljubljana. We both ride that melodic ska punk track. Mat from In-Sane booked the gig for us.
Alex: In Ljubljana you can’t exactly land a gig at Metelkova or at Orto bar “every day”…
Josh: As for Maribor, it’s a bomb for Slovenia. Our shows there are always a total win. That’s where we met Rockheads, who we clicked with right away, and they’ve got our backs whenever we visit Maribor.
RockLine: I think it’s truly phenomenal that bands help each other out like that.
Alex: There should be a lot more of that in Slovenia. Abroad there’s much more of it, you get the feeling that everyone really sticks together. All the bands.
Micho: If nobody else sticks together, at least the bands should stick together!
RockLine: Not long ago a musician told me during an interview a harsh truth: if bands don’t support each other, nobody’s going to support you.
Alex: In that respect we’ve found common ground with Rockheads, Thrash Candies and Banditi,… the idea being to get a few bands together, find a few clubs around Slovenia, and have those bands hit the road together for a tour of Slovenia. A joint tour.
Josh: But we found out that these club venues don’t like to gamble, which is again a problem when you’re looking for opportunities to play…
RockLine: What can we expect from Taking Over Mars’ show tonight here in Postojna?
Josh: Positivity.
Alex: And some chestnuts, roasted chestnuts, ha, ha…
Josh: We’ll give it everything we’ve got. We always give it everything, no matter how packed or how empty the venue is.
Spider: We’ll do our best and we hope other people like our music too.
photos: Mojca Perdih
*You can read how the Taking Over Mars gig went, on the second night of the Epic RockLine Contest, on 17.12.2009 at the Rock Cafe club in Postojna, HERE.
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