Author: Rok Klemše
Interview date: 02/26/2008
In a short time, the Styrian band LastDayHere has taken over Slovenian stages and won the hearts of fans. Their debut album From Pieces Created, released not long ago, has picked up positive reviews at home and abroad and gone down well with audiences. After plenty of gigs around Styria, LastDayHere finally got their first show in Ljubljana, at Orto bar to be exact. Before the gig I got the chance to sit down with the guys for an interview, and the atmosphere was great. The conversation was relaxed and full of laughs, but LastDayHere also have a well-defined vision of the present and future of this promising band.
RockLine: Even though LastDayHere have been showing up more and more in the media and on stages lately, let’s start with a quick introduction of the band.
Uroš: We’re the metal band LastDayHere from Celje. We play melodic, alternative metal of the newer school. The band has five members: Marko Duplišak on vocals, Jure Gorjanc on guitar, yours truly Uroš Boršič on second guitar, Tomi Šenveter on bass, and Mohor Mlakar on drums. We play our own music, we recently put out our debut From Pieces Created with ten tracks on it, and live you can also hear three new, fresh songs.
RockLine: So you’ve just put out your debut From Pieces Created, which has gotten excellent reviews from both domestic and foreign media…
Uroš: I’d only correct one thing: for now the album is self-released, and we’re looking for a suitable label to put it out. It’s self-released for the time being because of promotion.
Jure: Not quite everywhere…
RockLine: Listening to the album, I got the feeling that From Pieces Created is a very cohesive record. Is there a deeper idea behind the music, the album title and the songs? The lyrics, after all, aren’t exactly obvious at first glance, and they give you something to think about.
Uroš: As for the songs, they really were put together from bits and pieces, which is why the album title is what it is. The lyrics come from personal feelings and traumas. Marko can tell you more about that since he wrote all of them. The instrumental side is punchy and melodic.
Tomi: We basically build the music out of riffs. Somebody comes in with an idea for a riff that we all like, but you can’t play one riff for a whole song. Later we add new ideas, and it happens that a single song has several different tempos, which you can clearly hear on the album. The album really is made of pieces that we put together. Maybe that’s also why the music sounds cohesive, because you could rearrange those pieces and it would still sound cohesive. At least that’s how I see it.
RockLine: So you write the songs the way you said. Everyone brings an idea, and then you put it together and build on it as a band?
Tomi: Exactly, then we modify and change things until it sounds good to us.
Uroš: It all kind of starts from the instrumental side: first the guitars, drums and bass get done, and only then the vocals. It’s not like the singer first writes the lyrics and the vocal line and then we lay the guitars over that.
Tomi: At least we haven’t worked that way so far. But we’ll try it at some point.
RockLine: All the lyrics are in English. Is that because you’re aiming at the international market from the start, or is it just easier to write in English?
Marko: Yeah, I think both are true. The goal is definitely abroad, and I don’t think it’s even worth mentioning that we’re trying to break through in Slovenia with the genre we play. You might get somewhere with some kind of rock, but with new, alternative metal it just doesn’t work here. It’s also true that writing in English is easier, because it’s more melodic. I did try one song in Slovenian, but it’s really hard to find good rhymes. I’m not exactly Klemen Klemen or Trkaj, putting rhymes together out of thin air.
Tomi: Or Six Pack Čukur, who rhymes every twelfth line (laughs).
Marko: (laughs) Every other line is some playa from Veleja or an avenija… Joking aside, working in English is better, though I haven’t tried German yet (laughs).
Tomi: I actually have, but at rehearsals (laughs). Also, out of all the reviews we’ve gotten so far, we’ve only been slammed in Slovenia. Mostly for the lyrics, that they don’t make sense.
Marko: I could say something here. Every review is written with good intentions and is welcome on our end, but if you listen to Nirvana or any other band, every artist wanted to say something with their lyrics. We got a lot of really good reviews, except for one in Slovenia that was so at odds with the rest that it honestly shocked me a bit, saying the lyrics are empty…
Tomi: Someone from New York, a born-and-raised American, writes that the lyrics are deep and touch on every aspect of being human… and then a Slovenian writes that they make no sense. But okay, every review is welcome.
Marko: From now on I’ll make an effort to write epic rhymes with big words (laughs).
RockLine: Marko, most Slovenian metalheads remember you from the legendary death metal band Supremacy, where you really growled your head off. How come the vocal style in LastDayHere is completely different? Did you practice clean vocals, or is your voice a natural gift?
Marko: I noticed pretty early on that I had some kind of “gift” for making music in other genres too. I’ve been a good singer since I was little, other people said so as well. I started playing in a band, the previous one where we played rock, and that’s where I shaped my voice, hardcore. My first idol was James from Metallica, of course, and then you keep developing. Later we drifted into that death metal, and I saw I had potential for growling too, but I still wanted to really sing. With LastDayHere I actually got the chance for that. Our former member Pero and Uroš wanted clean vocals, so I really worked at it. And I think I’m still taking shape.
Tomi: His voice is very recognizable…
(Marko cuts in): I’m not Chad Krueger (laughs)
RockLine: Yeah, that Nickelback comparison doesn’t seem quite right to me either.
Marko: It’s not. I explain that comparison by the fact that I can be compared to Chad a tiny bit because of the singing style called rasp. Otherwise, not by a long shot. The Creed singer and I are a little alike too, because of all the whining (laughs). I’m not Tomi from Siddharta.
(a well-meaning organizer barges into the backstage area and interrupts for a few minutes)
LastDayHere and RockLine: Where were we? (laughs)
Everyone: Aaaaaaaaaaaaa….. (laughs)
Uroš: At Marko and Supremacy…
Tomi: How nicely you started singing (laughs)
Marko: Now I’m the newly appointed Styrian nightingale.
Tomi: As the Celje one, you haven’t beaten Murko yet (laughs).
RockLine: Okay, back to the serious stuff. You came up with a pretty unique way of raising money to shoot a music video, offering fans and everyone else the chance to help you out. Is it working?
Uroš: It’s coming in slowly.
Marko: That might already be a small business secret, but yeah, it’s coming in slowly.
Mohor: We just offered the option. A lot of fans say they want a video, so we gave them a chance to help us with it, and that really means a huge amount to us, no matter how much it is.
RockLine: As individuals you come from different musical genres. Was it hard to find a shared desire for the same kind of music, or were you already on the same page?
Marko: I think it just came naturally. I don’t think the band could work any better than it does now. If it were five identical people with the same way of thinking, I don’t think it would work this well.
Tomi: Yeah, then it would be just another typical metal band. Personally, I probably wouldn’t have joined this band if Marko and his way of singing weren’t in it. That’s the kind of music I played when I bought my first guitar, and I had no intention or desire to play in a metal band, but when I heard him, I was hooked. We do a lot of working things out between us. I’d always throw in a bass line that maybe wouldn’t fit, but compromises matter, and that’s how interesting, varied music comes about.
RockLine: Yeah, that’s the interesting thing about you. At its core the music is relatively typical modern metal, but you’ve got something that sets you apart from the pack.
Marko: Yeah, there’s something special. Not to praise everyone individually, but there’s a difference that sets us apart from the others.
Tomi: Maybe you’ll hear it even more in the newer songs, since we’re all creating the new material together. By the time the new members joined the band, From Pieces Created was practically done. We maybe changed quite a lot, but the concept stayed the same. The new material is already quite different.
Marko: With the authentic LastDayHere signature.
RockLine: Since you already have three new songs, are you maybe thinking about a new album already?
Uroš: First the barn, then the cow (laughs). First we want a video, then maybe a single. But yes, though we can’t promise exactly when. New songs are constantly being written, though.
Tomi: The nice thing is that this band has a system, so when we go into the studio we won’t be dragging it out for a year. We come in, rehearse and record. We’ll probably hold off on recording until everything is settled and agreed. We didn’t manage that with the first album, but it wasn’t our fault.
RockLine: Within a year you’ve already played quite a few shows, including the first reunion gig of the legendary Interceptor… You’ve seen a thing or two in that time, so how would you describe the Slovenian metal scene?
Marko: The Slovenian metal scene has grown and developed a lot. There are still certain people who keep one scene running non-stop. We decided to keep up with the times. But the scene has definitely developed in quality too, in the way people play, in professionalism…
RockLine: Time’s pressing, you’ll have to get on stage soon, so one last question. Where do you see yourselves in ten years?
Marko: In music.
Uroš: Hopefully on a European tour or some other kind of tour. We’d like to play as many shows as possible.
Marko: I know that if I didn’t believe in music, in myself and in this band, I would’ve quit ages ago. I’d have gone to college and gotten a regular job.
Tomi: And you wouldn’t have blown everything you have on the band (laughs).
Marko: I think every member puts 150% into the band. I see myself in music, and I know I’ll be there, and I hope the others will be too.
Mohor: We’re working toward maybe being able to make a living from this someday.
Marko: No, I’m going to have two kids (laughs). No, I’ve decided I won’t be that standard cookie-cutter person – school, family – instead I chose this professionalism, and I’m sticking with it.
RockLine: Thanks for the interview, and have a great show!
LastDayHere: Thank you!
Photos: Lea Lesar
Text: Rok Klemše
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