Interview date: 01.04.2007
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, certainly no cheap ones, let alone tacky ones – these guys know exactly what kind of music they play and why they play it. The album is downright superb, the band proves its mastery live too, and as you’ll see in the lines below, they hold their own as interviewees as well.
RockLine: So how did the Moonlight Sky story get started?
Moonlight Sky: It all began some seven years ago, when we were playing, in a slightly different lineup back then, mostly covers of legendary acts like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Santana, Billy Cobham and so on. Then we slowly started writing our own music. And today we are where we are – at our gigs there are only a few covers left for flavor, and we’ve released an album with the simple title ‘Moonlight Sky’, made up exclusively of our own original music.
RockLine: The road for a young band, however promising, is especially thorny here. Was that the case for you too?
Moonlight Sky: Our musical road is still “thorny”. Slovenia is just like that: anything that isn’t mainstream has a hard time making it onto the big stages. Breaking through takes a lot of effort, time and money, and it’s usually the money part where bands get stuck.
RockLine: The easiest and most “understandable” way to label your music would be progressive rock, but there are strong influences of blues, pop, hard rock and even world music in there. How would you label yourselves?
Moonlight Sky: With that description you’ve basically said it all. Genre-wise, it’s progressive rock with hints of a few other styles. But the best way to get a feel for it is to catch one of our gigs.
RockLine: Given the variety, what does a member of Moonlight Sky listen to in their free time, and what inspired them and still does?
Moonlight Sky: Interestingly, all four of us have quite different musical tastes. If we allow ourselves a little generalization, guitarist Miha Petric is mostly a fan of real rock (and also blues and jazz), bassist Janez Moder, besides rock, jazz and ethno, also likes to indulge in a more “poppy” tune now and then, Andraž, our singer and keyboardist, goes for pop and film music, and our new drummer Aleš Kajtna we lured over to rock from mostly jazz waters.
All of us are active in other bands and projects too. Miha can also be heard on Matjaž Jarc’s classical music CD, and occasionally guests with Gal in Galeristi. Janez plays bass in Aritmija (ethno) and Gal in Galeristi as well. Andraž writes film music. You can hear Aleš’s drums with Predin, and often at the jazz club Gajo too.
RockLine: ‘Devet osem’ strongly reminds me of Leb i sol, ‘Ocean’ of Pink Floyd’s ‘Shine on your crazy diamond’, and there are strong Jimi Hendrix influences too…
Moonlight Sky: Of course, it’s impossible to avoid outside influences. The quality musicians who shaped our musical upbringing will always be a part of us. Still, our music is entirely our own and so varied that you can’t pigeonhole it. That’s down to the mix of different tastes and stylistic leanings among the band members.
RockLine: The songs are technically polished and very complex. How do they actually come about, considering that most of them are instrumental?
Moonlight Sky: All of us in the band write the music. Usually one of us suggests a rough idea for a song, and then we build it up together. Everyone comes up with their own arrangement for their instrument, and the whole time we toss suggestions back and forth and sync up. Andraž Kržič is mainly responsible for the lyrics and the vocal songs. And there’s a lot of improvisation at the gigs too.
RockLine: Was the album recorded live, or are there hours and hours of the band playing, plus producer work in the studio, behind it? How much did Dejan Lapanja (once of Olivija, now Ulixes) and Jaka Jarc (formerly of Sfiltrom, who was also an important part of developing Melodrom) shape your “studio” sound?
Moonlight Sky: The first sketch of the album, our demo, was recorded back in 2003 at Dejan Lapanja’s studio. It went pretty fast, all of it in a few days. When we won the Reverse Engeneering competition for young bands run by KUD France Prešeren in 2005 and earned ourselves an album release, we re-recorded all the songs with Jaka Jarc and reworked them thoroughly. That took a huge number of hours playing our instruments, plus producer work too. Our previous drummer Bor Zakonjšek played with us on this album, and then he left to study music in London.
RockLine: Your music in little Slovenia is…
Moonlight Sky: Innovative, alternative, and if we may allow ourselves a “modest” answer, very good quality compared to what’s on offer (laughs).
RockLine: And what’s the response from abroad? You get the feeling that the US or northern and western Europe should be snapping you up with both hands?!
Moonlight Sky: It’s hard to break through abroad, and very few bands in Slovenia have really managed it (if any at all). Global trends are shaped by money, and there’s none for music in Slovenia. Two years ago we played a gig in Vienna, and we’ve played in Croatia as well. We were received really well everywhere. For more far-reaching ventures, we haven’t decided on anything yet. The translation of our website www.moonlight-sky.com into foreign languages isn’t finished yet.
RockLine: Where do you see Moonlight Sky in a few years?
Moonlight Sky: We’re already working on new songs, our first video is being finished, and in a couple of months we’re planning to have the second one out. So we keep going – rehearsing, gigging, writing new music. In a few years… Who knows?
RockLine: Thanks, and all the best going forward!
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