Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Interview date: 02.11.2006
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 has more to offer than just rap and the folk-pop scene, and that Šank Rock aren’t the outer limit of decibel measuring in the Styrian industrial town. After a punchy soundcheck we made it backstage, where they, each with a beer of their own in hand, were mulling over the moments before the frontal assault on the Ljubljana metalheads… The lads are easiest to describe as men of few words, but dogged, stubborn grinders who live by the motto “Talk less, do more!” The interview went down in that same spirit.
Sandi: First off, a warm hello here in Ljubljana! You guys have been on the scene for a while now and you’re one of the cornerstones of the Velenje metal scene. What can you tell us about the early days, how Kaoz came together, and how everything developed from there?
Zenf : Kaoz was just kinda quick at the start – we were just jamming for no reason. Then we got a bit more serious…
Dado: How old were you back then?
Zenf: Ah, just kids, you know…
Dado: 14?
Đoko: 24… (laughs)
Zenf: Close to 30…(laughs)
Zenf: Nah… We were just jamming before. We called ourselves Alcoholica and so on… We’ve already forgotten all that. Then we renamed ourselves Kaoz, ’cause we were gonna start making music more seriously, right? We went through a lot of band members. Now it’s these four here – that’s it! Fertig! Bye!
Sandi: So I’d simply say you’ve become a serious band? It’s not just messing around?
Zenf: We’ve still got one open spot for a bassist, so the singer can quit playing bass and just sing, but we can’t find a bassist anywhere. There just isn’t one! There’s no crazy enough guy who could hang with us.
Sandi: But Velenje has plenty of good musicians! Have you held any auditions to fill out the lineup?
Dado: Our audition is how much beer he can put away!
Zenf: There are musicians, but only if they can keep up with this rhythm next to us, this tempo…
Sandi: In the meantime you also put out your debut on your own. What kind of birth pangs did you have to live through before the record actually saw the light of day?
Zenf: Getting to the record was… Any other band would’ve given up already, thrown their hands up over the whole thing, and quit playing altogether. We had all kinds of loan trouble, but in the end we squeezed it out. The reviews were some good, some so-so, like always. Now we’re moving on. We’re working on material for the new album. How it’ll turn out, we’ll see.
Dado: Sponsors: get in touch! (laughs)
Zenf: That’s it…
Sandi: What would you say to this: the direction you showed on the debut was soaked in the influence of Sepultura, Kreator and all the bands that were working side by side through the ’90s and shaping the scene. Which way are you leaning now?
Zenf: I think more or less in a similar direction! A bit more… Let’s say we’re a bit more…
Dado: Maybe we’re a bit more melodic than before…
Zenf: A bit more melodic than before but it’s the same, the rest is still the same! Similar, come on…
Sandi: And when can we expect something concrete to come out? So we can say: “Now we can really push Kaoz forward, and not just the debut…?”
Zenf: Uff… I’d say the end of next year at the earliest. That’s doable!
Sandi: Self-released again?
Zenf: Yeah, looks like it’ll be that way! (laughs)
Sandi: How’s the response been? With God Scarde, German promoters started getting interested, I don’t know. How about you?
Zenf: Kaoz’s promotion was that we didn’t promote ourselves at all! We didn’t send anything around, didn’t advertise, nothing.
Sandi: And do you plan to keep going that way?
Zenf: Yeah… The next one, yeah! Because we judged ourselves…
Dado: Like you say, when you’ve got two releases it’s easier to push forward, I mean, you put the second CD next to the first one and it’s easier for people to see how you’ve progressed.
Sandi: Now if we look at Velenje – besides 6-Pack Čukur, there’s plenty of other stuff going on in Velenje too. How does the metal scene stand in Velenje right now? Back in the day, I remember, a lot was happening. How is it now?
Zenf: Our generation had a lull – but now it’s picking up again. There are so many lads: high school, elementary school… Loads of them. They’re tearing it up… The lads are tearing it up!
Sandi: Who would you single out as the most promising (besides yourselves)?
Dado: In-Mate?
Đoko: In Slovenia?
Dado: He means for Velenje…
Đoko: As far as that kind of music goes, In-Mate. I mean metalheads in general, right. How the metal scene in Velenje has spread overall. With metal it’s different. Metalheads stick together, rappers beat each other up. So… There’s no comparison…
Sandi: And your goals? Short-term? Long-term?
Zenf: Write a song and record an album! (laughs)
Dado: Yeah, sure! That’s it! What comes next, we’ll talk about then, right?
Sandi: You can’t live off music alone yet, right?
Zenf: Oh yeah! We’ll just have to keep pulling shifts! (laughs)
Đoko: Aw, shit! (laughs)
Zenf: There’s no chance. We’re aware of that.
Sandi: What do you expect from tonight’s gig?
Đoko: Headbanging! Sweating! Drinking and partying! (laughs)
Sandi: Dado – because I know that besides your main band you manage to find time for side projects. More or less all of you find time for that. How do you juggle time between Kaoz and the other projects?
Dado: These side projects are so easygoing that there’s no problem coordinating time, right?
Sandi: More just fun and so on…?
Dado: Of course… Of course… Side projects are there so you can thrive – I play drums – keep going on drums. In different music, say. Like Latino and stuff…(laughs)
Zenf: My side project is the shift. I work rotating shifts, family, the whole circus, so what’s left for the band is those few hours a day. That’s how it is.
Sandi: Thanks a lot for today’s interview.
Đoko: No panic.
Zenf: Thanks to you too.
Dado: Want a beer?
