Interviews

Daevid Allen is the legendary guitarist and vocalist of Gong, the band he also founded. After assorted adventures (mostly involving drugs) he left the band. Over the years he's worked with plenty of musicians on all sorts of projects, and…

Ahead of his visit to Slovenia, Chris Jagger took a few questions from Slovenian music fans too. He talked us through Act Of Faith, the latest record from his band Atcha, shared a few words on his musical influences, and explained the…

Among the many fans of eclectic rock music, Arena are respected as one of today's leading progressive rock bands, with a thoroughly distinctive sound. Although, quite understandably, they avoid

The legendary Jesenice band Game Over put out the cult demo tape Tilt in 1990, and it won over Slovenian metalheads at the time. In just a few short years they recorded a good number of original tracks and played plenty of well-attended…

Dave Kerman started his musical career with 5uu's, where he was the driving force. With that band he made a handful of cult albums and helped shape the American rock in opposition movement. Kerman is known as a workhorse, which the number…

Good Day To Die are up-and-coming stoner rockers from Zagreb who are currently bursting with drive and work ethic. In February they put out their studio debut "Hazing Through Shadows" (RockLine review HERE). So they came to Ljubljan

Inmate is a fairly young metal band from Velenje. In their few years together they've already played a ton of gigs, and now they've headed into the studio to record their debut. Over the years they've swapped a couple of members

Psycho-path are a legendary Slovenian alternative band that's almost impossible to pin down to a single genre. They never sweat labels and aren't stuck in one narrow musical style. With them, anything goes. The only constant is

(for English version, please scroll down) Elixir are legendary New Wave Of British Heavy Metal veterans who are enjoying their first renaissance of the new millennium. As they tell it, they were handed a second chance when they got back…

In a short time, the Styrian band LastDayHere has taken over Slovenian stages and won the hearts of fans. Their debut album From Pieces Created, released not long ago, has picked up positive reviews at home and abroad and gone down well…

Chaosstar are a relatively young Slovenian metal band rooted mainly in progressive metal. One of the few groups of this kind on our turf, they showed a high level of professionalism right away by reaching out for the following interview…

Metaphor is an American band that broke through with their debut Starfooted, which is hugely respected among prog fans. Later albums never quite hit the same level of popularity, but that didn't make them any

Gamma Ray is a name heavy/power metal fans need no introduction to. Charismatic frontman Kai Hansen has led the band through almost twenty years of career to become one of the genre's bigger names. Kai, who built his cult status already

Michael Eriksen is the singer of Circus Maximus, Norway's piping-hot, fresh-out-of-the-oven progressive metal buns. Our interview with the band was originally set for right after the soundcheck, around 6:30 PM, but the whole thing for the…

Scottish keyboardist Jim Gilmour has been a member of Canadian art rock greats Saga since the early '80s, or more precisely their third album "Silent Knight" (1980), not counting a short break in the second half of the '80s.

Fish, the charismatic vocal icon of progressive rock who earned his nickname by spending way too much time lounging in the bathtub with a book, hardly needs an introduction for Rockline readers, since a lot has already been written about

You don't just let a chance to see IQ slip by. As a huge fan of this legendary neo-prog outfit, I simply didn't want to miss a show happening so close to our border. The trip to Vienna meant more than just seeing a conc

A chance to sit down at the same table for a chat with legendary Helloween bassist Markus Grosskopf doesn't come around every day. The guy is a true pillar of the European heavy metal movement today, since he lives and builds it practic

Interceptor is a name Slovenian metalheads know all too well. The legendary Slovenian band, which had its heyday between 1990 and 1999, released three albums of quality death/thrash metal – The Beginning (1993), Fade (

Tuesday afternoon. A cold gust was sweeping the last leaves off the trees around Cvetličarna, where yet another concert of the year was in the offing – Canadian alternative heroes and jazzcore veterans NoMe

After a successful and very well-received set, we lured the singer of Invasives, a prog – punk outfit little known in Slovenia, in front of the mic too. At their Ljubljana gig, only their fourth in Europe, they confidently defend

We sat down with a music legend, one of the best bass players on the planet, before the Devil's Slingshot show at the Bluesiana club in Vrba, Carinthia. Billy Sheehan is a name that commands awe, but the icon behind bands like Talas,

Negligence are right now one of the best metal bands on our turf. The long-awaited debut album "Options of a Trapped Mind" came out this year and blew past the already huge expectations for

Richie Kotzen, guitar hero, singer, writer of countless songs, once part of the notorious bad-boy crew Poison and after that part of the Mr. Big camp, is going through a true creative bloom these days. Less than 11 full months rolled off…

Big Foot Mama are back this week with a brand-new sixth studio album, Važno, da zadane. Their nearly twenty-year journey has been an interesting and eventful one – with their debut Nova pravila they revived Slov

A Sunday night that's not like any other Sunday is the day Beatsteaks decide to storm Slovenian stages once again, serving up the last atoms of their strength and wringing out of you those last few grams of resistance and traditional Slove

Monday's rainy day was sliding into its final phase, and Metelkova, wrapped in a light mist and drizzle, was sitting there pretty empty. In a creative kind of way. At the agreed time I stop in front of Gala Hala. From the darkened interior

The great American prog metallers Symphony X were a big name on the metal scene a few years back, but after releasing The Odyssey in 2002 they sank into near-oblivion. This year they came back in a big way with the excellent…

interview for RockLine by: Grega Šujica Miha "Mike" Pipenbaher shot to fame in the Slovenian rock/guitar scene like a meteor when he signed an exclusive endorsement deal with guitar maker Dean two years ago (followed by similar deal

Črt Birsa is the guitarist of Aperion from Žalec. Aperion are a special band. Especially in Slovenia. They're a septet (almost an octet) of musical perfectionists, known for blending metal riffs with elements of symphonic composing from…

Neil Leyton is a spirited young guy whose guiding principle is to live his own mission. The first axiom of his sermon goes: "Be who you are and don't let anyone else dictate the rules of the game of your life and the

In the late sixties, Le Orme were still playing psychedelic music that wasn't all that interesting or innovative. But in the early seventies, after the guitarist left, they turned into a mighty trio. Plenty of people called them the Italian…

Tomo Jurca, guitarist and mastermind of the freshly born Ljubljana melodic hard rockers Stone Orange, firmly rooted in the legacy of classic Judas Priest & Accept-style metal and a doctor of cultural sociology by trade, joined me

Cult German thrash metal outfit is back on stage after more than fifteen years. The third record, Hate, is right around the corner, Vendetta's premiere on Slovenian soil at this year's Metal Mania was more than great, and after their set…

Lady's First, the metalheads from Bled, are celebrating 9 years together. Last year, with a rejuvenated lineup, they finally put out their studio debut, titled "911" (2006). A quintet of different personal outlooks that, by chasing a shared…

Bleeding Fist, a hard-hitting trio made up of Etienne Chelleri (guitar/vocals), Simon Dermota (bass) and Alex Destradi (drums), who, as they like to put it themselves, stand for the colors of chaos thrash metal and who pull the ground out…

Before Paul Di'Anno's Postojna gig, I got to sit down with Di'Anno for an interview in the cozy setting of Jazzy club in Postojna. I was pretty nervous going in, since Paul doesn't exactly have the nicest reputation, so I was all the more…

Billy Sherwood became a household name in 1997 when he officially joined the legendary Yes. He'd worked with them before, but it took a while for them to accept him. He came into Yes during a transitional period – a few years after Trevor

Blind Guardian is a name followed all over the world by hordes of loyal, almost fanatical fans. It's no different here at home: last October, Ljubljana's VPK was bursting at the seams during a stellar show by the legendary Germans. Bli

Peter Tägtgren is an old familiar face on Slovenian stages with Hypocrisy, but this year at Metalcamp he played his first show on our soil with Pain. Before the gig we got to talk with Peter at a press conference, which was also watched,…

Back in the seventies, Faust were known for their experimentation, "wacked-out" live shows, extremely inaccessible albums and, together with a few other German

The German melodic rockers made their Slovenian debut at Heavy Metal Night on July 14 in Veliki Ubeljsko. Their set will be remembered as supremely confident, relaxed, energetic and fun... Even though, thanks to a traffic jam at the…

Legendary flutist and singer Ian Anderson is without a doubt one of the greatest personalities in the history of rock music. Since the late '60s, his band Jethro Tull has built a reputation as one of the most respected and long-lived rock…

Britpop and British rock – island musical phenomena – have defined the world music scene for decades, and the last big media siege could be felt just a good n

While cleaning out the dusty corners of my drawer, I dug up the last bit of it and found a documented recording of the moment I got to stroll past a crowd of fired-up fans and into the backstage area of the Zagreb

The same day we sat down with Clawfiner, the final day of Nova Rock 2007 promised one more journalistic highlight – an interview with thrash legends Slayer. The closer the hour of the big gala event came, the clearer it became that…

RockLine: You're about to hit the stage to kick off this year's festival conquest of Europe. You already played Nova Rock last year. What are your memories of last year, and what are you expecting from this year's

Clawfinger are a band that filled TV screens in the nineties, until suddenly lots of other, flashier or just younger bands became the hot thing. After the success of albums like Deaf Blind Dumb and Use Your Brain, they kept creating and…

After some seriously hellish heat, Saturday's concert fever was in full swing. The sun had already climbed halfway up the sky and parked itself at its peak when we went looking for shelter in the shade of the press tent. The first…

After a full day of Nickelsdorf sun beating down on us, it was time for the first interview. In the white press tent we were sorted into groups, and one of the sheets showed that we'd landed the interview with Mastodon. Mast

Vene: How does the digital age affect your creative process? Klein: Sometimes the computer makes the work a lot easier, other times it complicates things again. Back when we were writing songs many years ago, we used a guitar and voice,…

On Tuesday, June 5, we arranged an interview at Zagreb's Teatar & TD with Woven Hand frontman David Eugene Edwards. But because of some minor organizational hiccups, there was too little &#26

Billy's Private Parking surprised everyone not long ago with a gig at Rock Caffe in Postojna. During the break I sat down with the singer, the lovely Urška Majdič. Let's see what she has to say … Interview by: Tinkara Šefic

John Lawton, once the frontman voice of British hard rock icons Uriah Heep, is the real deal: an artist, a showman, a proper gentleman if you like, and a genuinely good bloke on top of it all. I found that out for myself in the chat with…

After his excellent performance at the Rock in opposition festival, I managed to grab a quick chat with Dave Kerman, the legendary drummer of 5uu's, U Totem, Thinking Plague and of course Present. We talked about the festival, their show,…

On a rainy Friday afternoon in a Ljubljana bar, I got the chance to sit down for a chat with Rami and Pete from the Finnish rock band Turku Romantik Movement, who are in Slovenia for a few days of promo for their newest albu

I had a really pleasant evening ahead of me. So did the rest of the crowd in the nicely packed Orto Bar, because Ljubljana's oddballs and musical enthusias

Moonlight Sky are a band that has won over plenty of music fans in Slovenia – especially those with slightly sharper ears who don't fall for every cheap musical trick. There are no tricks with Moonlight Sky

Kojaniskaci, a trio of interesting old-timers from Borovnica, sweated it out last weekend at the Rock Otočec qualifier, held in the smoky atmosphere of Navigator in Logatec. After an energetic set, their second of the night, I sat down with…

In the cozy atmosphere of City Pub, I got to spend a late afternoon hanging out with the driving force of Kut Gas, Zoran Zlatič, singer and guitarist of the funk&soul outfit Kut Gas, who kindly accepted our invitation to an interview

Gonoba is one of Slovenia's most promising metal bands. We did the interview in a super relaxed atmosphere, with beer of course... What kind of metalheads would we be without beer :) The guys, who are incredibly devoted to their band,…

After the guitar clinic at Orto bar wrapped up, they kindly invited us over to the music school's headquarters, where we got the chance to sit down for an interview with the excellent guitarist Kiko Loureiro. Not only is Kiko a fantastic…

Petar Janjatović was born on June 30, 1956 in Belgrade. He got his first taste of journalism in high school, working on the show "Veče uz radio" on the first program of Radio Beograd. Since 1976 he's been a regular contributor to newspapers…

Planet Music club (Vienna, Austria), 6:15 PM! After a friendly welcome from Angra's tour manager Andre, I said I'd love to do an interview with Eduardo Falaschi, the singer of Angra. Of course, when you get a chance to interview Angra, the…

Tide singer Kevin Koradin patiently answered our questions on 7.3.2007, before the gig at Orto bar. RockLine: First off, I'm curious how you picked the name Tide? Do you feel like people mix you up with the band The Tide? Tide: The name…

Finland's wonder boys Machine Men have been turning heads ever since their first record came out. Plenty of people have already crowned them the heirs to the legendary Iron Maiden, mostly thanks to a killer voice that sounds a lot like a…

Before Sunday's Demon's Eyes show, where they warmed up young and old at the Orpheum in Graz, I got the chance for a short chat with the "frontman" of our beloved Deep Purp

Before the Mardi Gras show, the Eagles Of Death Metal gig, our crew managed to lure frontman Jesse Hughes in front of the mic, the persona who gives this American band its very special patina. In the belly of Ljubljana's Cvetličarna we…

RockLine: I'm glad you've come to visit Slovenia and our capital again, where you'll play tonight and introduce your material and the band itself to our Slovenian crowd, at a gig that's also a warm-up for

Saturday, seven in the evening. The weather decided to stay at a level of morbid gray, which the darkness that fell over our capital at least partly hides, so the three musketeers and a young lady set off from there toward Sežana. The…

Ambitious Italian guitarist Mateo "Matt" Filippini, the man who last year released his solo studio Moonstone Project debut "Time To Take a Stand" (RockLine review HERE), is known for working

Swedish power metallers Sabaton played Slovenia for the first time on January 31st, opening for Germany's Grave Digger and their fellow countrymen Therion. With their uncompromising power metal and killer war lyrics, they won over the…

The old venue where the work gods always smile on us journalists, the Orpheum in Graz, got a visit this time from Europe, the comeback kings, who I think I can now call legendary. It was right after the soundcheck. I dutifully followed the…

On Saturday evening, a little before ten, representatives of both sides met up, Matevž Grad – Melodrom, plus Jani Lah and yours truly – RockLine.Info, for the agreed interview in the then still empty Gala hala. At first it seemed that

Canadian technical death metal outfit Quo Vadis blew away the Slovenian metal crowd on Wednesday, January 17. Their razor-sharp technical set proved they belong at the very top of the genre, and they also turned out to be incredibly…

After the final set of Saturday's ABC Band Contest Pt. 1 competition, part of the "X-mass Metal Party" festival held on 23.12.2006 at the Mediapark hall and organized by Master Of Metal, two guys from Noctiferia &nda

Sveti Lovrenc na Pohorju isn't exactly the kind of place that gives me hope anything musical is actively going on there, yet that's exactly where a driven quintet of music enthusiasts called Marzla Vada comes from. They're not out to…

Thursday. The rain had eased off a bit. We showed up at the K-4 club with the RTV film crew right on schedule - five o'clock. We got everything ready and waited for the members of Father to arrive. In the next room the tech

November 23rd. Thursday evening was creeping closer. The climax was known - the show by Rijeka's Father. The bigger unknown for me was the opening act. Ragespect. I honestly couldn't build any kind of detailed picture of what I should even

I spoke to Mr. Glenn Hughes over the phone just before he boarded his transatlantic flight to Europe: Vene: How do you see your career back in the old days and today? Hughes: Good question. When I started performing many years ago, I

Damir Simic – Shime, the great guitar wizard, a likable guy full of charisma without a shred of arrogance, who has been earning his living in Los Angeles for 16 years, stopped by for three shows in Slovenia on his "Demonstratus Prmo Tour…

Already after the first listen on Slovenian stages (I first caught the melodies and the unbeatable live show a few months earlier at Tolmin's Metal Camp), it became clear to me why these guys have such a im

House Of Shakira, the melodic hard rockers some connoisseurs call the European answer to Journey, were already done for the night in Padua, but two of the band's friendliest Swedes, guitarist Anders Lundström and drummer Tony Andersson,…

Beer in hand and with a Friday night of Slovenian-style metal ahead, I waited for the Velenje workhorses, thrash-death metal heavyweights Kaoz, to wrap up their soundcheck too. They're hard proof that Velenje

On Friday, November 3, we headed to KUD France Prešeren in Ljubljana for a double bill of metal bands and to see how gig-ready Slovenia's metal flag-bearers really are. Flying the black flag this time were Kranj quartet God Scard and Vel

After twenty-seven years on the metal scene, Iron Maiden are back in truly triumphant form with A matter of life and death. There's hardly a major chart on the planet where the new record hasn't left its mark. They even surprised everyone…

The press conference of the reunited legends Buldožer is surely one of the most talked-about events on the Slovenian rock scene this year. In the one-of-a-kind atmosphere of the little hall inside Stari Glej, the legendary musicians talked…

The interview with two top-notch musicians and Toto members Greg Philinganes (vocals, keyboards) and drummer Simon Phillips was done right before Toto's show in Graz on August 20, 2006, right before the closing concert of Tot

The Toto press conference, held at the Hotel Balkan in the middle of downtown Belgrade on August 14, 2006, was honestly a bit too lively. Straight up, or rather, tense. The whole room where the press c

An interview with legendary Uriah Heep singer John Lawton, one of the finest voices in the history of rock music in the field of classic hard rock elements, a man who has an extraordinarily smooth, sensual vibe in his bluesy soul sing

The biggest rock spectacle of the year in Slovenia, the concert by the legendary hard rock outfit Whitesnake, already got its overture yesterday, July 15, 2006! So we, the RockLine crew, took up the official invitation of the concert…

Vene: You've been on the road, with short breaks, since 2003. How are things out there right now? Coverdale: The tour's been going for quite a while now. Today we've got a day off, which we usually use to rest. But I'm actually in the…

Derek Dick, better known by his stage name Fish, one of the main culprits and co-authors of Marillion's timeless masterpiece "Misplaced Childhood" (1985), a record that in the eighties firmly crowned a new branch of rock mus

This interview with Mike Terrana, drummer of the excellent German heavy metal trio Rage, who've been enjoying a fresh new spring for several years running, was done right before the band's gig in Graz (Orpheum hall), between 6:30 and 7:30…

Daniel Zimmerman, the drummer of the well-established Gamma Ray and of the much younger power metallers Freedom Call, is a respected name on the German metal scene. He's known for his blistering double-bass speed, refined precision and…

The title for the album Human zoo (2003) came to the band during a trip to Thailand, where they shot the video for the song Heaven from the 2001 album Homerun. Seeing the poverty and the lives of the poorest people,

Shortly before the release of Rapture of the deep, I chatted with Mr. Gillan on the phone... Vene: Rapture of the deep followed Bananas pretty quickly... Ian Gillan: There were a few years in between. V

The interview is a conversation with the members of Aperion, a band made up of Črt, Špela, Tina, Dani, Samo, Zala and Bojan (the last three weren't at the interview, and Dani only joined near the end, after his sudden arrival, after

That January evening, the Bavarian capital Munich was covered in a layer of fresh snow, often whipped up by the wind, and the guys uncovered important chapters of their musical history on stage in much the same way, full of fresh wind, so…

I had a quick chat with singer Joey Tempest and drummer Ian Haughland before their Vienna show in November 2004, right as the album Start from the dark came out. First up, they talked about their fans: "Things are great, unbelievable.…