Location: Rock Cafe / Postojna / Slovenia
Interview date: 07.01.2010
Once upon a time there was a Slovenian band called Brezno zla, but the eighties are buried for good. So here we have Brezno today! Brezno are yet another oddity on the Slovenian music scene. Six people who combine elements of folk music with heavier approaches and are already wowing people in the bloom of their early youth with some truly bold arrangements, which could be a big promise and a solid send-off for the band’s future development. Another special thing about this band is the lyrics, which are entirely devoted to Slovenian, plus a female lead vocal, flute,…
After their performance in the third round of the Epic RockLine contest in Postojna on 07.01.2010 (RockLine live report HERE), Brezno took a few minutes to change out of their soaked clothes. So right from the start, the band cultivates a polished look, which matters a lot for stage presence, charisma and conviction.
Even though the whole Brezno lineup sat down for the interview, by far the chattiest member of the crew was drummer Matej…
RockLine: What brought you to the Epic RockLine contest?
Matej: We liked the “place” itself, so that’s reason enough why we signed up. We didn’t even come to Postojna with the goal of competing. First and foremost, we wanted to play here. This club space, here at Rock Cafe, is really cozy and very friendly.
RockLine: You boldly combine the gist of metal music with old Slavic heritage?
Inez: Oh la la, what a description! Actually, we haven’t limited ourselves to the Slavs, and we’re not really aiming at Slavic heritage that much. But you know how it is. From folk music to the Slavs isn’t all that far in the end. We’re basically drawn to that theme, but we deal with it more or less indirectly, on occasion.
RockLine: Mixing music like that with traditional folk elements isn’t exactly easy. You need a pretty vivid imagination.
Matej: I always wanted to have a band that would somehow capture the imaginary world I’d built in my head. Slowly, slowly the right crew came together. Members changed, new ones came in, and now we work really well in this lineup.
Inez: Each of us brings our own piece to the band, and we try hard not to fall into some gothic or folk mold. We’re a crew with very mixed tastes.
RockLine: Is anyone among you a Jethro Tull fan?
Matej: Me, for one.
Inez: Matej listens to them the most of all of us.
RockLine: The sound at tonight’s show was great. The whole thing is set up really well. You just need more gigs..
Mitja: That bit about the sound isn’t true at all. On stage it was squealing and crackling.
RockLine: Down in front of the stage it was fine. Especially after you’ve had two beers. How did you all get together in today’s lineup?
Matej: Well, me and another buddy who played guitar started the band. Then another buddy joined, who actually wasn’t a musician at all, but he said: “So we’re doing a band? Okay. Then I’m going to buy myself a bass guitar.” Then Inez came into the lineup. We were looking for a keyboardist, and Inez first played keyboards with us, and only later switched to lead vocals and flute. At first we had no idea that Inez was actually learning to play the flute at school. As for becoming the singer, it happened because we started looking for a singer. So Inez tried out on vocals and we really liked it. Pretty funny how fate plays games sometimes.
Inez: Actually we needed a singer, so I tried to see how it would go for me…
Matej: Inez then even went to take singing lessons. So her progress has been huge, and that reflects in the strength of our whole crew. We were really pretty lucky with the vocals. But we still didn’t have a keyboardist. That’s when Katarina joined us. That was the foundation. With more serious rehearsals, the guitarists then filled in the gaps…
Mitja: You know how it goes in Spanish soap operas. The three of us (Max, Domen, Mitja, ed. note) show up in the big finale, and that’s how Brezno came to be.
RockLine: Is there any competition in Slovenia in the genre you play?
Matej: I wouldn’t say it’s competition. We get along great with all the bands. In Slovenia you can’t really find folk elements combined with metal. At the moment. So there are no bands like that in Slovenia right now. We’re the only ones. On one hand it’s funny. We don’t necessarily want to sound metal, we like following the sound of rock music too. But in the end we’ve realized we’d like louder guitars in our sound, so, as far as we’re concerned, you can actually get a whiff of a metal band.
RockLine: You’ve got a killer logo design, too.
Matej: Oh, thanks, thanks…
Inez: Matej made it.
Matej: It’s especially good because you can’t read it. And then people got the wrong idea about us. They thought we were black metallers. Especially after they visited our official MySpace page, when they saw those mountains and all that grayness… It was funny, too, because some of the people came to the gigs painted up like pandas. And then we show up, with nothing to do with black metal. On the flip side, that way the ones who consider themselves “true” metalheads noticed us right away and said: “Hey, you guys aren’t even that bad?” It’s still better than being discovered first by someone who tells you: “You know, at home I play with Barbies!”
Mitja: Come on, come on… Now you’re really exaggerating a bit… What we do isn’t metal with growling, so I say: “Away with instant brutality.” We want to get under the skin of all music lovers, including fans of one kind of heavy metal or another, in a slightly different way.
RockLine: When did you discover that Slovenian is the perfect language for your musical approach?
Matej: Right at the start. I personally think that as soon as we started writing lyrics in English, the whole thing would have come across as trendy and commercial for Brezno. Of course, this condemns you to a somewhat pickier fan base, but that kind of listener base stands by you all the more. It’s true, though, that writing lyrics in Slovenian is much harder than in English.
RockLine: Who writes the lyrics in Brezno?
Matej: At the beginning it was me. Today we all write them. Of course, someone among us always brings the basic idea. Then, as a whole crew, we shape that idea into its final form.
RockLine: Is there enough material for a studio debut yet? Something like 40 to 45 minutes?
Matej: Yeah, there’s that much already, but we’re not going to record an album anytime soon. Because the songs we’ve written aren’t polished enough yet to record for an album. So they’re not finished tracks yet. They’re fine for live shows, but there are parts in some songs that we still have to shape up, and right now they’re not fully defined musically. Defined in the sense that they’re too similar to and reminiscent of some other band. We need to rework those parts a bit and finish them in the spirit of Brezno.
Mitja: But we can promise a few new songs in the near future.
Matej: Yes. We’ve been planning a working retreat for about half a year now, and it just won’t happen. Something always comes up.
RockLine: So how do you feel about your show in late October 2009 at Orto Bar, opening for SkyClad?
(Nothing but praise, except from Matej)
RockLine: And did the crowd take to you well back then?
Matej: Yes. So far we’ve always run into really good reactions in front of the stage and a lot of approval from the crowd that comes to our shows. I’m very happy about that, because the worst thing is when the crowd doesn’t notice you, doesn’t react during your set… Then you start asking yourself: “Why am I even playing?! What’s the point?” That can start eating away at your confidence. But I have to admit the best reaction we’ve had at our shows so far was in Idrija. Even when I was walking through the crowd it felt great, not to mention once we got up on stage. Truly phenomenal.
RockLine: I’d like to ask Inez, who recently guested in the studio with Lene kosti on one of their songs for the upcoming studio album, where she got the guts to accept the invitation right away, and what she enjoyed most about the collaboration, what drew her to take the offer.
Inez: Every invitation where I can contribute my vocals I take as a great honor. That’s the first thing. The second is that I enjoy singing. After I looked into who Lene kosti actually are in more detail, I got a bit of stage fright… Just some respect, and before doing the job I wondered whether I’d pull it off the way I wanted, whether Lene kosti would be happy and so on… At first I really doubted myself, but then, when I met Milan (Milan Krušič, vocals, Lene kosti, ed. note) and both guitarists, I realized they’re real big shots and I honestly couldn’t say “No” to the whole thing.
RockLine: This question might be a total miss, but here goes. Have you ever thought about integrating symphonic elements into your music? After all,… if bands like Dan D, who keep turning the same three chords over and over, can perform with a symphony orchestra, why couldn’t a much more subtle Slovenian band like Brezno do it someday too?
Matej: Sounds great. But for a start we’d be very happy with special guests playing some pipes, or Scottish bagpipes and similar instruments.
RockLine: So when you create future material, you’re also looking at integrating additional instruments, and you won’t stick to just the flute?
Matej: Definitely.
Inez: Of course. Especially if someone joined us as a guest who’s at home playing these, if I can put it that way, more exotic folk instruments.
Matej: As a complement in terms of arrangement and to enrich the atmosphere and sound of our music, that would be great. We’ve already looked into whether we could add another instrument. If you stick with just a synthesizer or keyboards, okay, there’s the flute too, you quickly realize the options can be limited.
Inez: We did work with a violinist once.
Matej: Yeah, that’s right. But she somehow didn’t fit into our mindset. When we wanted the thing to sound more Irish, it was kind of hard for her to follow what we wanted. So first and foremost you have to bring in someone who can feel the message of our music.
RockLine: If we slowly wrap up the interview, what are Brezno’s plans for the future?
Matej: We have to write new songs. And we recently started working on a new one and brought in additional lead vocals, like never before, and it was great…
RockLine: Ohoho, soon we’ll be at Finntroll…
Matej: No, no, no…
Mitja (modestly): Ah, for me it’s easiest to just scream anyway.
Matej: No, no… I wanted to get through to them that they have to sing angrily. And that’s how we successfully added other lead vocals to Inez’s vocals. We hadn’t tried that before and it sounds really interesting.
RockLine: I noticed that Brezno are really a band cut from the right cloth, one that values itself. Right from the start you’ve got your own roadies, techs, your own photographer following you to gigs…
Matej: Ah no… Ha, ha, ha… All the people who came with us tonight to Postojna are our partners, parents,… Of course, a few real friends who believe in us and our music also came to Postojna today to back us up.
interview by: Aleš Podbrežnik & Rok Klemše
text edited by: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos by: Mojca Perdih
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