Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Nove Jarše / Slovenia
Interview date: 04/30/2012
Dandelion Children are considered Slovenia’s most prolific rock band. That kind of output can only be matched by the golden age of rock, when rock ‘n’ roll was young, faith in it was spotless, and corporations hadn’t yet started profit-pigging all over the scene. That was the early seventies, when bands cut two albums a year and Frank Zappa cut even more than two. And two of the kind that could, as groundbreaking precursor albums, write rock history and still adorn the vinyl collections of your soul-searching moms and dads.
And Dandelion Children are exactly like that. The real deal, they approach things with heart and lots of love, yet also fiercely, passionately and without a shred of fear. The moment the talk turns to the album they just released, they’re already two albums ahead in their heads. And the truth isn’t far off. In fact, both are already almost finished.
RockLine: Time is a merciless bailiff. We did an interview two years ago, and now I can barely keep count of your albums. If I’m not mistaken there are five, and the change on the new one is that you’re no longer producing the material yourselves.
Jure: Actually, Damjan Lebeničnik helped us out.
Anže: We recorded drums at Damjan’s before he even had his studio set up. That was for the album »Stole My Bike«, on borrowed drums, and later Jure and I did everything else ourselves at home. Damjan was still learning recording techniques himself back then, so the sound isn’t all that polished yet. For the new album we worked in a studio for the first time, so everything is recorded just the way it should be. »Dandeloid« you can count as an album of demos, old demos, so »Dandelion Chilren so pičke« (RockLine review HERE, ed.) is really the first album for us that was recorded entirely in a proper studio.
RockLine: Direct, not slick, not polished, authentic, fat garage sound… All of that remains the guiding principle of Dandelion Children going forward.
Jure: Just wait, you’ll see what the new album sounds like, the one we’re recording with Peter Dekleva. Then you’ll be able to judge what we like right now and what we don’t.
Anže: Yeah, a totally crazy new story is shaping up for us.
RockLine: The album »Dandelion Children so pičke« offers a glimpse of a band that plays even better and sounds even more coherent, and you can feel that you’ve paid more attention than ever to the arrangements, or in plain talk, »to the heads and tails of the songs«. The album is very varied, showing several faces of the same story, and it also takes your earlier releases up a level in maturity.
Jure: Honestly, I don’t really feel it that way. The material is old. It was written three years ago. As far as arranging goes, it’s nothing new for us, no novelty. We wanted to bring the element of a Dandelion Children gig into the studio. It is true, though, that this was the first time we weren’t in any rush while recording an album. This time we finally had a real chance for that.
Anže: Yeah, exactly. When we were working on »Stole My Bike«, we had a very low-powered computer. So we had to record drums »blind«. Every track separately.
Jure: Ah, back then we also didn’t know, among other things, that it’s good to record the same guitar twice and stuff like that. This time we had the time. So we could goof around. In a positive sense. You try out more ideas in the same song, more rhythms, more twists of the vibe.
RockLine: So you’re saying Dandelion Children are currently at a turning point in the vision of your musical and sonic direction?
Anže: Well, that’s actually true.
Jure: Two weeks ago I went back to Damjan. We recorded another album of demos. We tracked the drums in a week, and the following week the bass was already being recorded. The foundation is bare acoustic, and then we build on that. The new record will be a new dimension for us.
Anže: Yeah. It’s a totally new approach. I record guitars and bass without even knowing the songs. And the material just keeps piling up. I’m honestly kind of scared of what happens if we end up having to release two albums at once. How are we even going to tackle that…
RockLine: That’s a matter of your internal politics and self-organization.
Anže: People do look at you funny when you put out an album two months ago and then three months later you’re already talking about two new ones, well, whatever… it’ll be what it’ll be.
RockLine: How did you get in touch with Peter Dekleva? He’s a special musician, I’d even say a real »alien« on the scene.
Anže: We actually met at one of the gigs, and we were all already happily sauced. We got money from ŠOU Rock for recording a single and a music video. We were loud and said: »We don’t know what to do! We don’t know a single ‘studio guy’…« And then a suggestion came from somewhere: »Dekleva has a studio. Why don’t you ask him?« Okay, I kept that idea in my head. Then Damjan and I ended up at some gig where Adam were playing. Of course it didn’t go without a few mugs of hop liquor, so I walked up to Peter and he was interested. We were really happy with how he recorded that song for us, so we asked him if he’d also get involved as producer of the upcoming studio album. And Peter didn’t say »no«, so now this album taking shape at his place is a whole new story. There’s a lot of experimenting with sound, a lot of fine detail… I can tell you it’s insane. You find a ton of gear in that studio…
Jure: I have a feeling we’ve covered every genre at Dekleva’s. From Bee Gees to Delta blues.
RockLine: You also made it to the Exit festival in Novi Sad, which is an outstanding achievement.
Jure: There were 200 bands that applied. And not some »alt-junk« underground bands either. Known names. We made it into the shortlist of fifteen bands.
Anže: And we’d told our Peter (manager Peter Djokić, ed.) that we already had enough applications out there for various contests, we didn’t even know exactly what the guy was aiming at, so at first we didn’t even take the whole thing seriously.
Jure: Finally a show in front of a crowd, finally a big gig!
Anže: We put Peter in charge of handing out a box of CDs to everyone who came to watch us during the show. And we’ve got a confirmed slot at Rock Otočec too. Finally we’ve got work over the summer.
RockLine: Full employment at just the right time.
Jure: A few days ago we got the new music video, the one that’ll be on the new album.
Anže We’ve been playing the song live for a while, but it hasn’t been recorded yet and it’s not officially out yet.
Jure: First there was Smitten – that’s more of a pop tune, and now we’ve got a video for the song Never Handled too. And that song will also be on the album we’re recording with Peter Dekleva.
RockLine: »Ne Maki ga«??? Don’t tell me this song is about Maki, the former The Drinkers singer?
Jure: It’s about him exactly. We found our real inspiration in him.
Anže: That tune is so phenomenally dumb, and then he came by and made an extra impression.
Jure: That song is already on the previous record, in a live version. »The Church theme«, it was in the plan from the very beginning, but then we forgot about that insert. That choir singing was already there for the live version, and now something similar happened to us in the studio. We added the vocals at the last minute.
RockLine: Of course you didn’t forget the special thanks to Maki that you put in the album booklet…
Anže: And we thanked him for the album title and the cover itself too.
RockLine: Let’s cover that topic too. Even though the official PR has already revealed the backstory, still. One day someone was messing around on the walls of the club Lokalpatriot in Novo mesto with a ballpoint pen…
Anže: That’s the thing with this tiny Slovenia, you can’t scribble even a little something in the tiny »backstage« of any club, however small, without it getting around the whole neighborhood… That scribble on the wall was first noticed by Peter Dekleva…
Jure: We waited too long, because Mark showed up…
Anže. Yeah. Mark showed up and crossed out »so pičke« and added »rules«, so what was left was »Dandelion Children rules«, and then we had quite a bit of work to do, getting rid of that Mark in Photoshop and digging our way back to the authenticity of the original, which became the title of our album. If we’d used Mark’s version, it surely wouldn’t have been a good title anymore.
RockLine: Good provocation, good advertising…
Anže: And you know, the guy who wrote it hasn’t even reached out to us yet. It’s really funny how he’s dodging the fee we’re promising him for this »cover art«.
RockLine: I assume you record all Dandelion Children albums in the first take.
Anže: Yes. So far that’s generally been the case.
Jure: Same with most of »Dandelion Children so pičke«. For this album too we generally kept all the basic guitars, and later we only fixed a transition part here and there.
Anže: We also left the flubs in the recordings, I don’t even know why myself, probably to sound as authentic as possible.
RockLine: All of that has to be there. It’s elementary. More and more bands are realizing the importance of such a principle. Even bigger bands are going back to the basics of studio recording techniques.
Anže: But then nobody wants to play you on the radio, even though on Študent we’ve got the fourth most-played album.
RockLine On Študent?
Jure: Yeah.
Anže: Well, finally they like us too.
RockLine: Word is Dallas Records came courting you?
Anže: Yeah, and we turned the offer down. First it feels great when you get a call from Dallas. Then they send you a contract, you hold it in your hands, read it carefully, which takes us a couple of days, ha, ha, ha,… you ask around about everything and weigh it up. And you conclude that the contract isn’t okay for the band. So it all falls through. But it was a good feeling. At least that. A feeling that confirms you’ve finally done something.
RockLine: The future is simply going to be that all bands become their own little companies, small businesses. All the more important for you to have all the strings in your own hands.
Anže: We’re lucky to be surrounded by some really good friends who help us with everything. Starting with PR and promo, to photography, shooting videos, and studio recording too. We’re a pretty bold crew, you could say a happy family. And we milk all these friends for all they’re worth, ha, ha, ha,…
RockLine: And now you’re saying you’re already wrapping up another album, the one after »Dandelion Children so pičke«,.. I still feel like I’m not keeping up with you too well….
Jure: Two more tracks, then Katja does the drums and that’s that. We’re really waiting for the album with Peter Dekleva with a lot of impatience. Honestly, I can’t wait to see what’s come out of it. I’m truly proud of this one. Because Peter Dekleva approached the whole thing with real love. He came to us and our music as if it were his own. He sensed artists in us, artistic souls, and opened the door for our artistry to come true.
RockLine: I hereby officially announce and proclaim that you, Dandelion Children, are the most prolific Slovenian band.
Anže: It’s easiest to work as a trio. Jure’s got a hundred things going on at once, there are always new tunes, new ideas…
Jure: The three of us agree on everything right away. When will folks get that we, Dandelion Children, try everything? On this new record they’ll have to get it, once they hear it.
RockLine: How much did Dekleva actually »tinker« with your material afterward?
Jure: I prepared bare acoustic skeletons of the songs, then we waited for Katja to play drums, followed by bass guitar, then guitar, where Peter influenced us to change a few little things.
Anže: As for Peter, he played some cymbals and sang backing vocals.
Jure: There’ll be a few guests too, for example the bassist from Livija is on pedal steels, Severa Gjurin sings vocals on one tune, Zdava is on tablas, and Rajko Bajt contributes backing vocals on about three songs.
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