Location: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Interview date: 09.12.2009
Diskurz, a young punk rock outfit from Rijeka, Croatia, have finally gotten the chance to introduce Slovenia to their studio debut “U Protivnom”, which came out this May via Dallas (RockLine review HERE). Despite their tender years, these guys are unbelievably convincing on stage as well as in the studio. There isn’t a speck of syrupy sentimentality or whining about them, the kind that’s typical of so many manufactured bands of the same generation around the world, falsely pushed as punk while getting massive backing from media like MTV. Diskurz come across as a band that inherited the best of the older generation that defined the “Rijeka New Wave” movement in the late seventies. An apple that didn’t fall far from the tree in other words, and an apple that “won’t let you down”.
The band is a trio: Bojan Bajić (vocals, guitar), Andrea Živković (bass, backing vocals) and Ivan Ritoša (drums). When I joined them backstage at Orto bar, right before their set, the guys were sitting there with grim looks, less approachable, blunt, no-nonsense. Like “sharp-dressed men” who don’t know games and don’t bluff. The chat with the guys was short, to the point and extremely intense.
RockLine: Is this your first show ever here in Ljubljana?
Bojan: Yes. We really like it here.
Andrea: We’ve been moving to Ljubljana all day long.
Bojan: Seriously. We’ve been talking all day about how we’d move to Ljubljana. Metelkova, Metelkova,… It’s got a great vibe.
RockLine: I see it the other way around. When I get to Rijeka, I’m totally blown away when I check out the rock cafés and so on…
Ivan: It’s not exactly like that. You probably haven’t been to Rijeka in a long time.
Bojan: Well, okay. We’ve got the Palach hall, but it has nothing to do with what you’ve got here in Ljubljana.
RockLine: This May you put out your studio debut “U protivnom”. Rijeka is full of punk. Why did you guys get into it too? Don’t you worry you might come across as worn out?
Bojan: Well…. I don’t even know myself why we started playing it.
Andrea: There you go, that’s how we started, and then things just kept pulling in the same direction one after another, and that led to what’s standing in front of you now. The band Diskurz.
Bojan: Now we’re developing further. Broadening our horizons. Musically. We won’t keep pushing the recipe of the first album, we’ll change. If somebody likes it, okay, and if not, we couldn’t care less. We enjoy being what we are.
RockLine: How does it work when you write music?
Andrea: Bojan’s the main creator of the music. He writes the skeletons of the songs at home, programs the rhythms on a drum machine. He brings those skeletons to our rehearsals, and then the three of us turn them into a song together.
RockLine: How does the audience in Croatia see you?
Bojan: Weird. Weird, and actually they’ve started to hate us. The logic behind it is that the more popular you get, the more someone needs to “shit” on you.
Ivan: Honestly, that’s how it is with us these days: the moment they figure out you’re a punker, they immediately declare you a sellout “pussy”. And they back that up with complete nonsense, with nothing behind it, really just totally brainless remarks. Those are real low blows.
Bojan: You even hear accusations like: “Sellout assholes. Dallas paid for your tickets to Ljubljana!” and stuff like that…
RockLine: Signing a deal with Dallas doesn’t mean a thing…
Bojan: Sure, sure. But you have to tell that to the audience.
Ivan: As for the album, we’ve only gotten positive reviews so far. Then again, we’re a young band and we have to really roll up our sleeves to gather our own audience around us.
RockLine: Still. You’re sort of the heirs to the new wave from Rijeka, and the scene is on the rise again right now. Great new bands from Rijeka keep popping up, like Father, Morso and so on… How do you experience that, how do you feel about the current pulse of the music scene you come from?
Ivan: Listen. Each of the three of us has a totally different opinion about it. We get along great with the older guard, bands like “Letovci” (Let 3, ed.) and so on… With the younger bands, there are a few we get along well with too, but things can also get tangled up fast. All in all, we’re on the best wavelength with the bands of the older generation.
Andrea: But Rijeka has “happened again”. Every few years a good band floats up from there. Now it’s us, and like you mentioned, Morso, Father, and so on… We’ve all put out our debut albums, and something is really moving down there. You can’t compare it with those days 30 years ago, but still. It feels like things are moving in the right direction right now.
RockLine: Tell me about the goals you want to reach right now?
Bojan: Right now we’re playing a lot of shows. Alongside the gigs, we’re working on new songs and rehearsing regularly. By our estimate, the second album should come out next fall. We don’t want to force things. We’ve got Dallas behind us now, and that’s good. We can be more relaxed and there’s no rush.
Ivan: Right now we’ve got about ten songs written…
Andrea: Yeah. 12 new songs were written. We went through the material, and from what was written we’re currently using material for only 6 new songs.
Ivan: We’re in a kind of creative flow right now…
Bojan: You can expect the new album in the fall.
RockLine: Will you keep the same musical framework on the new album as on the debut?
Bojan: The new album will be just as “dirty” as the debut. Only even darker. It won’t rest only on riffs, we’ll try to make an album that’s more dynamic and lively, with some more interesting figures on it.
RockLine: So no fear that you’ve gone soft and turned into crybaby flowers?
Bojan: No way.
Ivan: We can already announce that on the new album we’ll cover a song by Borghesia.
RockLine: Are you planning to carry the band’s name to the countries south of Croatia too, say Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia?
Andrea: In Bosnia we’ve only played once so far. Last year in Sarajevo. Otherwise, we’re cooking something up for next year involving shows in Banja Luka and Široki Brijeg. A new club is opening in Banja Luka in January next year, and we’ve got a chance to play there.
RockLine: One generic question to finish. What can we expect from your show tonight here at Orto bar?
Bojan: Well, 35 minutes of classical music, Bach, Chopin, Mozart…
Ivan: Mozart’s too heavy, Lady Gaga would be better.
Bojan: Something between Lady Gaga and Chopin. Classics.
Andrea: We’ve got no idea ourselves.
Bojan: See? I just got here from the toilet, this guy on the left (points at Ivan, ed.) smoked a cigarette,… I honestly don’t know what you can expect. We’ll see.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
* You can read how Diskurz’s gig went on 09.12.2009 at Orto Bar (Ljubljana) HERE.
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