“What Are You Even Doing Here? Get On a European Tour Right Now!” – Uroš Planinc Group (2010)

Location: Rock Cafe / Postojna / Slovenia
Interview date: 21.01.2010

Another evening of hanging out with bands at Rock Cafe in Postojna, part of the fourth consecutive gig under the umbrella of the “Epic RockLine Contest”, finally lured a seriously interesting instrumental act out of its hole in the Styria end of Slovenia: Uroš Planinc Group, who lean heavily on the guitar rock tradition, with a guitarist front and center. Definitely a big gain for the Slovenian scene. They were supposed to play the opening night of the Epic RockLine Contest back in December 2009, but sadly had to cancel…

RockLine: What was your main motivation for entering the Epic RockLine contest?

Uroš: The main reason was that we wanted to play here in Postojna. Definitely not to win the contest. Or to put out a double live album. Though we wouldn’t say no to either, ha, ha, ha…

RockLine: You were supposed to play the Epic RockLine Contest opener back in December 2009, but it sadly didn’t happen. Why not?

Uroš: That was a really sad story. I came down with a serious case of pneumonia and quit smoking.

RockLine: So the band saved itself a nice fat bundle of budget money earmarked for its vital interests? Like, now you’ve got more cash for some guitar effect or whatever…

Uroš: Nope. Nina and I are going to Ikea, ha, ha… Okay, let me give you a serious answer. This was happening during a period when the band was going through an identity crisis, and a creative crisis piled on top of that. The lineup wasn’t exactly in a rosy state back then. But in January things changed. The band got back together, and I’m really happy that all the original members are “back on the pile” again.

RockLine: So tell us something about the band.

Uroš: I named the band after myself so it wouldn’t fall apart on me. Every band I’ve played in and founded so far, Leviatan among them, has fallen apart. We’ve been going for three years now, and we haven’t achieved all that much, the album isn’t out yet, and some of the guys finished their studies during the break and so on… anyway, the band has a solid foundation and there are no squabbles over the basics that could hold back the band’s development and, as a result, threaten its existence.

RockLine: Was it a long road for you to realize there’s no democracy in the band and that only one leader’s voice counts?

Uroš: You know, I’ve known that deep down for a long time. First you find it, you somehow figure it out, and then you have to make it real. With this “one-man band” politics, you still have to gather people who listen to you and who, at the same time, find enough creative freedom to follow you, because musical expression in that kind of setup still excites them, gives them wings and a reason to be part of it. That can get annoying at times. On the other hand, certain rules are clearly defined and, in principle, there can be no deviations from them. Besides, the band physically goes beyond the lineup itself. Especially in terms of roles. Besides me, in charge of the music, there’s my girlfriend Nina, who’s our manager, my sister Urška, who helps us with concert photography, Jalen, our designer, Tomaž, who handles the video footage, Aleš, who takes care of the lists, and Dizi, who’s our secretary and note-taker. And the goal in all this is fairly simple, and I think it’s also what holds us together. We don’t want to become famous, we just want to play as many gigs as possible and perform our music.

RockLine: Do you think guitar rock, or instrumental music like what you do, even has a future these days? I mean, is it still possible to offer something fresh, different, challenging on guitar, so that you don’t necessarily have to follow the same old templates?

Uroš: On guitar in rock music, Jimi Hendrix did everything, then Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai added a bit more. It all sounds best with players like Joe Satriani and Carlos Santana. If you add the icon that is Frank Zappa, the whole thing is basically wrapped up and doesn’t need any deeper philosophy. In our playing, we give about 50% of the space to the playing itself. Still, if you look at music more broadly, you can always do something new. We love mixing different genres, for example. You can hear all sorts of things in our music. From stoner rock to jazz, fusion and funk. On top of that, we want our music, which is instrumental, to be fun too. Like jazz back in 1950, as instrumental music, was quite different from what we do today. That music satisfied the musicians who listened to it as well as the general public. Today that’s getting lost. Looks matter more and more, and feel when playing matters less and less. Where are you going to find a new band today that you truly enjoy listening to? And where’s a Led Zeppelin these days, if you get what I’m saying, right? So we’re trying to shape an approach that I call “listenable instrumental rock”. Even more complex musical structures can be built into the expression in a way that entertains most people. Like in the early nineties, everybody was shouting: “Guitar shredding is dead!”, and then came the flood of grunge. Satriani kept going, and longer. In that time he came back again and people are rediscovering him. And where are all the grunge guys today? Apart from Pearl Jam, who, truth be told, play quite different rock today than in the early nineties, they’re nowhere to be found.

RockLine: You’re one of the few who isn’t just an excellent guitarist, but has also managed to develop a really appealing stage presence, acting as a performer in your own right, so you don’t come across on stage like a “stiff statue”, and the gig turns out dynamic and fun. Slovenian bands generally lack that. When and how did you develop this side of the Uroš The Planinc Group image?

Uroš: Well, that comes with experience. In the beginning I was very strict with others. I’d offer candidates who’d play with me old recordings, even from earlier bands, and lay it down: “This way and no other.” Today I’d rather ask the person and listen to them tell me their own opinion about the music I want to win them over with, so they join me in playing it.

RockLine: I assume there have already been some promising reactions from abroad.

Uroš: They receive us really well in Austria and I hope we’ll get to play there on stage again. Actually, they once egged us on, like, what are you even doing here, just go on a European tour already.

RockLine: Jimi Hendrix once reworked the Star Spangled Banner, and Uroš Planinc did the same with Zdravljica. I think that’s a great idea and one of those signature moves that can really root your band’s name among Slovenes, I mean, an excellent brand.

Uroš: Sometimes I make somebody angry with it, but otherwise I get a huge kick out of it. I always play that song differently. Okay, I know where the frame of the basic melody lies. And then I just adapt to it with improvisation tricks. And like I said. It gives me a unique pleasure. If only because of the strong identification with the song. It’s the Slovenian anthem, after all.

RockLine: When can we expect your band’s studio debut?

Uroš: Well. We recently met a really great guy, the owner of the Front Records label, Dušan Hedl, whom we send greetings to on this occasion. That label already existed in the eighties and now he’s sort of revived it. We’ve agreed with him that we’ll put out the album with him, because he saw potential in us when we showed him the music. Anyway, we’ve got 10 songs recorded for the album, and we still have to record one more, so in the end there will be 11 songs on the album. It’ll be very varied musically. And it’ll be recorded entirely in our home studio. Tomaž Dovžan will take care of the mix. If all goes well, the album will come out this year, around the turn of spring into summer.

interview by: Aleš Podbrežnik & Tomo Jurca

text edited by: Aleš Podbrežnik

photos by: Martin Prezelj

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