Venue: Kino Šiška / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Interview date: 25.10.2010
After three released albums, top-notch musical virtuoso and Slovenian guitar ace Grega Habič has finally managed to put together his own backing crew, and with them he’s at last brought his unique original music out of the studio and onto Slovenian stages. Fans of guitar heroes like Joe Satriani and/or Paul Gilbert already know what this one’s about. Jesenice native Grega Habič, with his artistic vision, is definitely a stunning breath of fresh air for the Slovenian music scene, even though sadly only a handful of rock enthusiasts here are aware of it. Abroad, music crews like Grega Habič Band are the most prized and respected.
RockLine: After releasing your third album “Self Destruct Sequence” in May 2009 (RockLine review HERE, ed. note), you started putting a band together. How did the crew of musicians around you come together?
Grega: Basically, other people kind of pushed me into it. The music is pretty complex, so it’s actually hard to find the right people who come to you and show some interest and commitment to get involved in playing it. I had the most trouble finding a bass player. It was only Lipnik from Negligence who suggested Matej Sušnik, who then joined in. The funny thing is, everybody raved about how Matej is a really high-quality bassist, yet I’d never heard of him in my life. Once Matej joined, you could feel at the very first rehearsal that we were heading to a higher level.
RockLine: How did you and Klemen Gasar get on the same wavelength, how did he join your crew?
Grega: Gasar comes from Jesenice, same as me. He and I first had two months of one-on-one rehearsals to learn everything. Before he started working with me, he’d played nothing but metal. I also build my own approach on a solid foundation of jazz chords. Gasar didn’t have that dimension at the start, so it took more time for us to fully click.
RockLine: In a very short time you’ve put together a crew that plays instrumental guitar rock and, from what I’ve seen and heard, hits world-class level by my standards. Performing the album and the studio material live is an outstanding recap, too.
Grega: If we weren’t hitting that level, if I weren’t happy with what the band is developing on stage, trust me, you wouldn’t see us at any gig. But we’ve rehearsed a lot. From May this year to October, at least once a week. And Blaž Soklič is a phenomenon. Just like Klemen, Blaž had never played anything but metal, and he didn’t even practice at home before coming to our rehearsals. The guy is incredibly talented, he grasped everything that was asked of him right away.
RockLine: Considering you haven’t spent much time on stage in this lineup, you come across as very relaxed and at the same time remarkably tight.
Grega: I kept telling the guys that they mustn’t take things on stage too seriously. There always has to be some room for goofing around on stage. All of rock music is ultimately built on a healthy dose of messing around anyway. We pull that off very spontaneously, because real bonds formed between us already in rehearsals and we click really well. Lots of bands play those gags on stage as staged bits, and I really don’t like that. The point is that when people watch us, they feel it in the vibe coming off the stage, since that’s the foundation on which you build the bridge between band and audience. I’m talking about a healthy relationship, an honest, genuine one. As for being relaxed, I can add that this is the main key to having fun. You have to get to the point where you enjoy yourself on stage while playing the music. So when we play a tune, we work in certain things on the side that we’re playing for the very first time right then. We never did them before. That happens totally spontaneously at the gig. And that entertains us even more. It’s also very important to us that we always leave the door to some wiggle room open. A song can grow even more on stage, and none of us asks beforehand how it’s going to grow. That way our numbers stay really appealing when we play them live, since they always sound a bit different. We always play them a bit differently. I can say that these songs recorded in the studio keep developing and growing afterwards, kind of ripening. That’s what you call artistic freedom, and you have to know how to fight for it.
RockLine: Have you ever tried turning abroad for help, looking for a proper breakthrough?
Grega: Jernej Vene from Val 202 already suggested something similar in our chat, but you have to have a CD ready to go. It’s not like it used to be. Today you have to do everything yourself, and the label just helps you out as much as you do, with distributing the CD. That’s how it is in our case, anyway. If I focus only on guitar rock.
RockLine: What about foreign musicians?
Grega: Sure. There’s Jesse Adams. We collaborate a lot all the time. But bringing him over to Slovenia is a pipe dream. He can’t exactly brag about a rosy financial situation either, same as me. The US feels the recession even harder than we do. Jesse would have to quit his job, for example, to come play in Slovenia with me. When the gigs wrapped up, he’d have to go back to the US and he’d be left without a job. In times like these, that’s really no joke. It’s too big a risk. Much easier to get over to Slovenia is Glenn Snelwar, a member of Gordian Knot. He recorded the acoustic guitars for me on Irreversible Damage. He also plays in At War With Self, and he’s worked with Dream Theater bassist John Myung. He does a lot with acoustic, and on the next album I want to get him involved more intensively. We’re in talks. He’ll play you whatever you want, even mandolins.
RockLine: So what’s the new album going to be like, do you already have some ideas, a vision?
Grega: I’d like to bring even more different instruments into the sound, and vocals too. Half of the next album will definitely be vocal. I’m not ruling out plenty of rapping either.
RockLine: My feeling is that the rap bits on your work so far have been very successful musical moves.
Grega: Yeah. With Jesse it complemented everything brilliantly. We’ll be working on that more. Jesse will write the lyrics. And even though it’s rap, he writes really good lyrics that carry strong, punchy messages.
RockLine: How’s the public reacting to a new band popping up on the Slovenian music scene, in this case yours?
Grega: Reactions are good so far. I knew there’d be no effect unless we got up on stage. Since we started playing live, a lot more people know about my music than before. Mostly we get really positive reviews and a warm reception. At first the idea was that we’d get together on stage only once, but then we got several gig offers, which rather surprised me, that there’s still such interest in the kind of music we play.
RockLine: Already back in our first interview with you, when your third album came out, it was fascinating how a genius could be holed up in some room behind four walls while the stages never get a look at them.
Grega: Well, you know, my philosophy is that I wouldn’t go on stage with one released album and play covers for the rest. You also have to release enough material so that you’ve got at least 15 or so tracks that are good enough, high-quality enough, to keep rotating in any set list you like. I don’t see the point of playing covers just to pad out the concert minutes, since I’ve got plenty of my own quality original material.
RockLine: It’s interesting that you’re actually the first real Slovenian band cultivating precisely this jam guitar rock approach with a generous bag of solo escapades.
Grega: Yeah, that’s interesting. And we’ve got tons of great guitarists here. Like Mark Lemer and Bor Zuljan, but neither of them left any special creative mark on the original-music front.
RockLine: Would you find yourself in the comparison if I said you’re kind of a Slovenian extract of Paul Gilbert?
Grega: Actually, of all these super guitar heroes, Paul Gilbert is personally the closest to me. Out of all of them, he’s the one I like listening to most.
RockLine: How will you approach recording the new album? Will you be a one-man show again, like on the previous three albums?
Grega: No, this time I’ve planned things differently. I want other musicians to record the drums and bass guitar for me. There’s enough new material for now, so that’s not a problem. It just needs to be recorded. But in the studio I won’t be recording with the guys from the band that plays on stage with me. As for the album, I’ll need about a year to get it out of my system. That is, from the start, when the material is put into some raw form, until the album’s release in physical form. For now, talks are underway about who’s going to take part on the album, so let the names stay a well-guarded secret for a while longer.
RockLine: How do you see the fact that instrumental guitar rock has finally gotten on its feet in Slovenia too? Besides Grega Habič Band, there’s Uroš Planinc Group, Matej Sušnik has released a solo studio album, Cveto Polak is preparing his,…
Grega: That’s all great. All I can say is, finally! Matej’s album is top league anyway. That kid can play anything you want, and he’s barely 23. I don’t know why Cveto put off releasing his album for so long, because his achievement is outstanding too, and the material was ready to go ages ago. Actually, it seems there’s a few of us here in Slovenia who are really laying the foundations for this kind of music, which has been highly esteemed and respected around the world for decades! But for now we have to fight for it completely on our own. No Slovenian label will back you. It’s funny, too, that you don’t need label support for the handful of people who’ll buy your record. The view of the whole situation changes real quick when you look across the Slovenian border, so it’s worth sticking it out.
interview by: Aleš Podbrežnik
text edited by: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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