Interview date: 03.08.2007
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). It’s a quintet of different personal outlooks that, by chasing a shared goal, click together into a bold heavy metal whole: Tomaž Frelih – Youda (guitar), Domen Guzelj – Guzi (vocals), Miha Oman – Buco (guitar), Miha Plesničar – Flesho (bass) and Simon Čarman – Čare (drums). There’s no other band like this in Slovenia. These guys combine the straight-up punch of heavy metal with smooth-flowing classic riffs, and a bit of genuine hard rock sex appeal sneaks into the mix. On top of all that, Lady’s First have a quality of character that only a few bands can boast of. They won me over with their big hearts, their honesty and a clear vision. So the idea for an interview came up completely spontaneously, during a chat with Miha Oman – Buco on the first day of the festival (03.08.2007) in Baredi above Izola, organized by the motorcycle club MK Red Eye in Baredi. Lady’s First played an important part there, since they took care of organizing the concert side of the festival. The next day I tracked down the band members, all except Youda, who had to skip our talk because of his organizing duties and only jumped in for a quick photo session. During the interview in the backstage tent, the Italians Lost 4 Found were already tearing up the stage, so we were practically yelling at each other through the whole conversation. Buco and Domen were the most talkative.
RockLine: Guys, what’s the mood in the band right now?
Čare: The mood is what you see, what we’re creating! We’re trying to keep up this momentum and pull off what we set out to do. We’ve already got a few gigs lined up for the near future, and if a few more weekend dates get filled in between, that’ll be awesome.”
Buco: Considering that we do practically everything ourselves, the fact that we put out an album was a huge achievement for us. As for interest in the album and promoting the band, in terms of getting our name out to people, we’ve done maybe 80% so far. We’ll try to hit the full 100% with the next album.
RockLine: How did the band start out? How did you all come together?
Buco: Actually, me, Čare and Flesho were among the last to join. I’ve been in the band for three years, Čare and Flesho for a year and a half, so the current lineup has been running for a year and a half. Youda and Domen are the only two members of the current lineup who belong to the original Lady’s First lineup. Before that, me, Flesho and Čare played in Asession, and Čare and me in Alcohollica. At some point Asession and Lady’s First sort of merged, and then what was left was Lady’s First.
RockLine: Domen, you’ve been with Lady’s First from the very beginning…
Domen: That’s right. Ever since Lady’s First has existed under that name.
RockLine: Since when is that?
Domen: Well, next year we’ll be celebrating the band’s first decade. We’ve been through quite a few changes. With the current lineup everything runs really smoothly. Every member basically gives their whole self to the thing, to the common cause. The current lineup is five people who want to do the same thing. And that’s the key to success.
RockLine: Why did it take so long for your debut, the album “911”, to come out in 2006?
Domen: Yeah, “911” (pronounced “night eleven” – editor’s note) really did come out not long ago, but half of the tracks on it are older, going back to 2000. After Buco joined the band, he wrote lyrics for three of the older songs and contributed extra lyrics for the rest of the album. Youda wrote most of the music for the album, Buco added a few ideas, and the whole point of “911” was then brought to life and put on tape by the band as a whole.
RockLine: Did the latest lineup refresh change the sound itself?
Domen: Definitely.
Buco: We’re a lot heavier. Before, our repertoire included songs by older bands, say Deep Purple, but no Metallica covers, for example. And we’re already working on totally new material that’ll be even heavier than what you can hear on “911”.
RockLine: Buco, how do the two guitarists in Lady’s First mesh?
Buco: Great. We have to mesh. Youda is better at solos, and I lean more on rhythm, I work more on the rhythm structures and make sure my playing locks in with the bass and drums.
RockLine: What music did you grow up on, what are your influences?
Čare: Lady’s First’s music is pretty varied. Basically each of us covers a different area of music.
Domen: There are generational differences between us too, and you can tell. It’s actually interesting that when Buco, Čare and Flesho were discovering some music and growing up with it, I was already “getting old” with it. We’re a generation gap apart. When Guns N’ Roses came along, I was 5 – 10 years older and took that band in completely differently than the rest of the guys. For them it was a really hot band, same with Metallica and so on…
RockLine: “911” is an interesting, multilayered album. It has that proper dramatic metal atmosphere, classic riffs, and even a few interesting detours into techniques you’d know from hard rock…
Domen: The two guitarists perceive music differently, there’s an age gap between them.
Buco: For example, Youda is really all about that eighties Iron Maiden approach. That’s his thing. Me, on the other hand… I’m much more into riffs like Machine Head, then there’s Pantera. And somehow it all came together between us. Čare can follow us both, while our drumming is more “new age” oriented, at least that’s how I see it, which lets us spice up the song structures and the overall sound.
RockLine: What’s the metal scene in Slovenia like right now, how do you see it? Could bands like yours start supporting each other, joining up in some kind of “loose” alliance, if I may indulge in a bit of daydreaming?
Buco: Whenever we can, we offer every band help and cooperation. But of course we look after ourselves first. That’s just how it is. God made himself a beard first. Our goal is to win over the masses with good music and a good name. So that people who come to our shows also take something away from their visit.
Domen: You’ve got to do everything yourself. If you wait for others to help you, you’ve screwed yourself from the start.
Buco: There’s one more thing. The band gets older and more experienced every year, and accordingly it needs as much feedback as possible from the crowds that follow us. Not just crowds in the sense of listeners, but also feedback from the organizers. For the most part, listeners receive us really well.
Domen: There are few “real,” honest people you can trust in this business. You’ve got two kinds of people, “human – human” and “human- prick”. The problem is that the latter make up the majority in this business, and they’re the ones holding the important reins. Most of the promising garage bands right now would agree with that, since because of it they can’t break through anywhere, or they break through a lot slower and harder than they otherwise would.
Buco: There aren’t many bands like us in this genre here. We try to keep constructive contacts with everyone when it comes to working together. You know how it is. We’re Lady’s First today, tomorrow we might be gone. You need good relationships in case any unexpected changes come up.
RockLine: Jeez, that sounds like a fatal prophecy for Lady’s First. I hope I’m wrong?
Buco: I didn’t mean it like that. We all believe in this, don’t get me wrong. We’ve just learned that reality is different from dreams.
Flesho: Right now we get along really well and we’re really good friends, we’re a great crew, the energy works, and any doubt in that direction would be a crazy move.
Domen: As long as we fight on average twice a month and it stays that way, it’s all good. When the silence sets in, then it’s going to be shit, you know how it is, like having the picture on TV with no sound…
Buco: When we work hard, there are conflicts too. That’s how it is. A bit of nerves and everything that comes with it, stress,…
Domen: There are five of us. Not everyone in the band is ever happy with everything.
RockLine: Last year, supposedly, there was a ton of people at a similar motorcycle rally to this one in Baredi. That one was near Ankaran, where you played too…
Domen: That was the year before last. Last year it rained.
Buco: There were way more people and the response was great. These rallies are the perfect chance for a lot of people to discover us all at once, so we always take the opportunity to play them.
Domen: The fact is, part of the crowd sees us as a band that belongs at motorcycle rallies. That’s really important in a positive way, because the doors are always open to us here.
RockLine: There’s a strong melodic component in your music. My take is that this makes you accessible to a wider crowd, and if I narrow it down a bit, you can bring both heavy metal and hard rock fans under one roof. You can hear that on “911”, but I don’t know what direction you’re forging for the future…
Buco: No. We won’t swerve off the track we’ve laid out. We’ll always make sure we stay within the circle of listeners we won over with “911”.
RockLine: And the new ideas are supposedly even heavier, I mean for the new album. Are you trying to inch closer to the current trends?
Buco: The trick is to always try to do something you genuinely love, to create a certain riff, a certain song that’s close to your heart. But at the same time you can’t neglect the fans you won with your first record. Right now I think we’d be making a mistake if we took some extreme genre turn compared to the debut, like suddenly starting to “rip” thrash, for example. We’d probably lose every single supporter we gained with “911”. And those you have to nurture, rewarding them for their loyalty with stylistic consistency on every release. We’re just working in the direction we’ve set, and we’ll always build on melody first and foremost. With fresh ideas worked in, of course. You always have to keep the band’s development in mind. We’re preparing material for the new album too, and it’ll be very varied, with a heavier sound.
RockLine: And what about playing live?
Buco: All the time, whether or not we’ve got commitments for preparing a new album. We have to play on stages as much as possible. It wouldn’t be good to lock ourselves in the studio and not show our faces until, say, the new record was done.
Domen: We try to do everything together and as we go.
Buco: That’s why it all goes a bit slower. Some bands can afford to not play a single gig for, say, a whole year. They record an album they think is great, but people don’t take to it, and that can be a double-edged sword. If the response to the album is negative, the doors to concert stages automatically close on you too and you’ll be playing very little. But if you play constantly, record a new song every six months and present it to the crowd at a gig, say one or two, until a new song “catches on”, and then you “blast” out a new record where you already know from the start that it has songs people got to know at concerts and liked, then the band’s own expectations are that much more positive too. That gives you a kind of guarantee of success in advance.
Domen: Certain bands have an advantage. They can lock themselves in the studio while others do the advertising for them, whereas we have to take care of everything ourselves, promotion included, we set up our own gigs… every band here in Slovenia probably dreams of locking themselves away in the studio for a year, coming out and immediately selling 10,000 copies of the new album, and then taking a year off, but that doesn’t exist here.
RockLine: Buco, you’ve proven yourself as a very capable organizer, tonight at this festival. You’re constantly making sure all the performing bands are comfortable. And then there’s the music gear you brought along, Lady’s First… That way it’s even easier for you to get gigs and bring your music closer to people…
Buco: Of course, that’s how you get your own band onstage too. The PA for this festival was sorted by Youda and it’s his, and if you let the bands playing with you be happy with the sound, and the organizer gets that kind of confirmation too, then success doesn’t fail to follow and the mission’s accomplished! For example, not long ago at one gig, a band’s amp head died mid-set. Of course you’ll say: “Take my rack, that’s my sound, like it or not! You’re not going to interrupt your set now.”
Domen: It pays to work as a “package”, you bring several bands.
Buco: We provide, say, the PA, we line up the bands and more, and today we could actually have called even more bands. Of course it’s all a matter of arrangements, situations differ from gig to gig.
RockLine: So you’re totally plugged into what’s going on, you’ve got the right contacts, the right network in this field. I think that’s very important, since Lady’s First can play the role of an integral element in uniting Slovenian bands that move in your range, as well as the scene itself, so that someday it could become a strong body that can’t be overlooked or ignored. Heavy metal bands deserve recognition, which in Slovenia they’re nowhere near getting….
Buco: With that, we can reach the “middle” tier in Slovenia and abroad. As for the “top” tier, they won’t just let us in there. Unless we focused on building “top” bands, then maybe we’d “fall” in there too, get noticed and maybe make it faster.”
RockLine: Let’s go back to your music. What’s the title track of the album “911” about? The collapse of the WTC in the middle of New York?
Domen: No, no… the point of that song is elsewhere. The song originally had a different title. It was called War In War. And it just happened to be written on 11.09.2001, the day the “twin towers” fell. Total coincidence. That’s why it has that title.
RockLine: The title War In War says a lot more given what happened that day, it’s not just chance…
Buco: The thing is, a lot of people thought that by putting out a song titled 911 we were going commercial, but that’s not true. We liked the title, because the song is insanely good, and because of that we picked it to lead the album. We shot a video for it too.
RockLine: A great example of a song that combines punch and melody and brings them to the average listener in a really effective, direct way.
Domen: I have to say it’s a very good song, even though it’s “home made” as far as production goes.
Buco: Even though it’s harder to sell CDs today, since folks download everything “for free” from the net, I think a CD a band puts out is very important, because it’s that band’s ID card.
RockLine: Maybe totally unimportant at first glance, but still something very important for the first impression when you encounter the album “911”. You did an excellent booklet design, a hefty booklet, great color combinations,… I think Slovenian bands still don’t put enough into that…
Buco: Every song has a meaningful motif sketched in the booklet that ties into the lyrics.
Domen: As for how people take in Lady’s First’s music itself, it varies from person to person. It’s very relative. Everyone will find something that especially appeals to them, certain parts of our music they’ll especially like. We’ve got lots of fans who follow us to gigs all over Slovenia and I really can’t say anything other than “hats off to them.”
Buco: Truly. We try to give that back with good gigs, we hand out a few T-shirts, we keep them posted on concerts as we go. People call us a lot too, there’s a lot of interest, especially this week (27.07.2007 – 04.08.2007, editor’s note), when we’re touring Slovenia together with Paul Di’Anno.
Domen: There’s one more thing. Every expense our band racks up, the band covers itself. This year I honestly can’t imagine some manager taking us under their wing and us suddenly letting everything slip out of our hands…
RockLine: Are Lady’s First relevant abroad too? How have foreign critics responded to your music?
RockLine: And the newcomer band competition in Graz? You did really well…
Buco: Yeah, pretty much.
Domen: As for Graz, the important thing is that people in Slovenia, especially those who make a profit in the music business, should realize that most of the competition at these Graz contests is made up of Slovenian bands. And really high-quality bands, who have to look for opportunities abroad to present their music and make a name for themselves, which is very sad. They simply have to go play in Graz. And so Slovenia never gets to know some very good bands.
Buco: Say, a full 80% of all the bands that play at contests like the one in Graz for “newcomer band” come from Slovenia.
Domen: The Austrians don’t have any great bands, and the Croatian bands don’t show much interest in coming either, so I can say the Orpheum hall in Graz is truly Slovenian in that respect.
Buco: Slovenian bands find it strange that they have to pay to play. At the Orpheum you have to pay if you want to play.
Domen: But the audience is really appreciative, attendance is great, they come, pay for a ticket, and let themselves go. It’s not like here, where 15 people come to a gig and 10 of them are the ones working behind the bar. At the Orpheum, people, locals, come to listen and enjoy. Every band gets applause, gets criticism and reactions. They can record you if you want, the lighting is good too. They have a professional attitude there and that’s the point. That was the first time we found out what professionalism is. You’ve got a tech for every instrument, making sure everything goes the way it should. Say a cymbal falls over, a tech runs up, picks it up and mounts it back on, a string snaps, he runs over with another guitar, they really know how to spoil you. You pay, but damn. They know how to sell, they know how to market. That’s exactly what we could be doing here, but we don’t have a suitable venue. I think every Slovenian band would rather give their money to, say, Maribor or Kranj than to Graz, if that were all sorted.
RockLine: Okay guys, let’s slowly wrap up, thanks for your time. Would you like to add any closing thoughts to the interview?
Domen: Love each other.
Buco: And come to our gigs.
Domen: Be a “human – human” and not a “human – prick”, that’s the whole point!
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