Location: Nove Jarše / Ljubljana
Interview date: April 10, 2010
Dandelion Children, Slovenia’s first true “dandelion-philes.” Independent, homegrown, with no need to feed some complex by chasing the spotlight the way the “wanna-be stars” do, the ones elbowing their way into the middle (“mainstream”) radio lane of Slovenia’s music offering. A shortage of talent and creative inspiration keeps producing the same old desert views of the rock scene in Slovenia, and the ones who suffer most, yet again, are those hidden away in garages, creating carefree, for the soul, and crafting an interesting musical approach that follows a genuine, truly their own creative vision. Last year Dandelion Children released their debut “Stole My Bike.” An album of garage-fueled energy and some original musical ideas, authentic in spirit and written entirely by the band, it confirmed that there’s huge potential behind this young, independent (indie rock) trio.
RockLine: Can you briefly sketch the story of how Dandelion Children came to be?
Katja: Jure and I have known each other for as long as I can remember, since we’re brother and sister. Anže and Jure were classmates. One day Anže showed up at our rehearsal, dropped a few criticisms about our bassist at the time, and became a full member of the band. It took us about a month to get tight.
Jure: But the chemistry was right between us from the start. We’ve been around for almost three years now.
RockLine: So are you talented self-taught players, or what?
Anže: Nah, I took guitar lessons. I’d already played in previous bands.
RockLine: Was it obvious to the band from day one that you’d start writing your own material, or did you mostly play covers at first?
Jure: Katja and I started out by playing White Stripes songs. It turned out the White Stripes aren’t a demanding band, and that suited us fine. But we soon figured out it suits us much better to write our own songs. I was also really fascinated by Damon Albarn from Gorilazz, who did “weird” stuff. I liked that he mixed different genres, and it inspired me not to limit myself when writing music either.
RockLine: “Stole My Bike” is your first studio album. What can you tell us about it?
Anže: It was recorded really fast.
Katja: I played all the drums myself in two days, they were really pushing me.
Jure: We’re already finishing the second album now. That one will also be self-released. On the first album we tried not to overcomplicate the songs. Not to drag them out. So the tracks are compact and have as little rambling as possible. If we don’t feel like a song needs to be stretched, we just end it. That’s how you get Garden Throne or 3x Dead Funky Man.
RockLine: You got to your studio debut completely on your own. Is that hard?
Katja: We just don’t have any money, so it’s the cheapest way.
Anže: These days it’s not even that big a deal to record a whole album on your own.
RockLine: Who brings the musical ideas, and how do the songs come together?
Katja: Lately I’ve noticed the songs come together pretty spontaneously. But when it comes to the music, Jure has always been the main guy.
Jure: There are several ways a song happens, how it gets born. A lot of the time we simply “jam.” Or, say, Anže is playing something…
Anže: …. warming up my fingers…
Jure: .. and I stop him: “Wait, wait, what was that you just played, can you do it again?” and that’s more or less how we gradually build a song.
RockLine: How does a band like Dandelion Children land gigs these days?
Katja: We’re pretty lazy about that. Honestly, we haven’t really tackled it ourselves so far.
RockLine: You won the “Rock Izziv” contest.
Katja: Yep. It’s a contest organized by the Student Organization of the University of Ljubljana. The winner gets eight live gigs. Like Majske igre, Rock Otočec, one of the freshman parties, and we’ll soon be playing at Cvetličarna, etc….
RockLine: In your opinion, what was it about the Dandelion Children story that tipped the scales in your favor, so you “crushed” the competition in the contest? Was it tough?
Katja: Shoeshiners, Toxine, B.T.K. and others were in the lineup. Personally, I had a feeling Dandelion Children would never win this contest.
RockLine: Jure, your English flows great in the lyrics. Where does that come from?
Jure: It got into my blood mostly from watching TV and, of course, listening to music. Even in the slang I use in everyday conversation, I use tons of English words. On purpose or not.
RockLine: How has the media reacted to “Stole My Bike”?
Anže: Besides RockLine, Radio Študent also wrote us a really nice review of the album.
Jure: The folks at RSQ Magazin obviously listened to the album in a big hurry. They latched onto some heavy “grunge” thing when they heard it. Saying I’m trying to imitate Kurt Cobain and that we sound like Nirvana. I’ve never listened to Nirvana in my life.
RockLine: Do you ever think about gradually taking the Dandelion Children name abroad?
Jure: A while back I managed to catch the attention of some English radio station, which later played our music. In the style of the shows John Peel used to host. Actually, that station was founded by Peel’s friends in his honor.
RockLine: Where does the name Dandelion Children come from? Are you dandelion lovers?
Jure: Hmmm,… or the metal way (growls): “Children of Dandelion,” ha, ha, ha…” It was quite a while ago that I wrote a song about Katja and me, who grew up more out in nature, and there was this line, the source of inspiration: “Dandelion children, dancing in the wind…” Later I found out online that it’s actually a clinical term. For someone who’s growing up, developing. A kid who doesn’t get knocked off the rails by all sorts of potentially stressful situations. Stays “cool.” We thought it fit nicely! You know. Dandelion. Tough as nails. Blooms all year long. Grows anywhere, you can even eat it.
RockLine: About two years ago I saw you at Metelkova opening for Radio Moscow. Your uncle was helping you out there. There was quite a bit of improvising. I remember you and Anže swapping instruments…
Katja: Well… we don’t have a bassist. I mean, a bassist who’d play only bass guitar the whole time.
Jure: I switch instruments at gigs. I play some songs on guitar, others on bass. And the same goes for Anže. We won’t be looking for a bassist anymore at all. But we’ve started using keyboards.
RockLine: What kind of sounds are you exploring with the keyboards?
Jure: Honestly, I don’t want to burden myself with that. I don’t even want to worry about which era certain sounds belong to. The new songs also have marimba sounds, you’ll find tricks typical of drum n’ bass, Spanish rhythms, we even used a five-string bass. So the plan is that whatever we write, we write and create it so it’s one of a kind. So it doesn’t repeat itself and the idea can’t get worn out. That’s the guiding principle.
RockLine: Do you feel Slovenian musicians are hung up on what’s being achieved abroad? Especially when it comes to chasing virtuosity or solo acrobatics?
Jure: Yes. Very much. And I don’t think that’s the right approach for a musician.
Anže: Especially in metal. There the guitarists literally compete over who’ll be faster. You get the feeling everybody plays the same.
RockLine: You mentioned the new album earlier.
Katja: Yes. It’s already recorded. We got a chance to record an album. Basically, they did their diploma thesis on us.
Anže: We recorded the drums in the studio space of a band I used to play in. The rest was done at other locations.
Jure: Our new album is currently in Serbia, Macedonia, and partly in Italy. We’re waiting on the material to see what they’ll do with the sound.
Anže: Yep. At that institute for sound engineers, that’s at Dolgi most. in Vič, Ljubljana, they were doing their diploma theses on our music – meaning on the recording – and in return we got a free studio.
Katja: Apparently they’re short on guinea pigs like us over there, because suddenly a bunch of candidates showed up who wanted to run experiments on us.
Jure: We recorded 4 songs per “session.” It went really fast.
RockLine: What can we expect from the new album?
Jure: On top of what you already know from “Stole My Bike,” we’ve added some reggae, some surf, and a lot more blues. At the same time it’ll be more thematically defined, more compact. There’s a clearer thread running between the songs that ties them together.
Katja: The new album will have an even livelier character than the sound of its predecessor.
RockLine: And now gig season is coming.
Anže: Yep. Mostly in April, and Rock Otočec is lined up for the end.
RockLine: Katja, your dad used to drum for Lene kosti. He was probably your first teacher?
Katja: Yes. Dad showed me the basics of drumming technique. Like, so I even knew which foot goes where and which hand goes where. After that I kept learning drums on my own. You can be sure of that, because Dad and I have completely different drumming styles.
Jure: He has a style, Katja has styles.
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