Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar
Interview date: 27.10.2016
Before a jam-packed gig in the upstairs club space of Orto bar, one of the hottest and busiest rockers in Slovenia right now joined me for a short but thorough and utterly heartwarming chat. Matevž Šalehar “Hamo” blew out the first ten candles at Orto bar with his band Tribute to Love.
RockLine: Ten years of playing, over five hundred gigs under your belt. That’s a very respectable number for Slovenia, given the strange times rock’n’roll is going through globally. Was the road here a tough one?
Hamo: Hmm… The first five years you grind and nothing moves anywhere. The first five years were a real disaster. Every time you look out at the gig and see five people, preferably the same ones. They come to the shows, they support you, they buy shirts and so on… You slowly start giving up because the numbers just won’t grow, and then things finally start creeping upward. Anyway, the basic idea was to honor first and foremost our most devoted fans, the ones who’ve stuck with us since day one, and throw them a special concert here at Orto bar.
RockLine: How come you picked Orto bar for this celebration, and its upstairs concert space in particular?
Hamo: Well, basically this is where we committed our first sin. Right here is where we first played ten years ago. That’s the celebration. We’re going back to the same stage where it all started ten years ago. And I hope we’ll be celebrating our twenty years here too. Right here. Sure, we could’ve played downstairs where there’s more room, because we’ve got a problem: a ton of people signed up for today’s show. As far as I’m concerned it’s no problem, I’ve played downstairs, upstairs, everywhere. More than twenty years ago we even played next to the first bar counter in Orto bar, right when you come into the venue, on the right. Now there’s a big screen there and the space is usually closed. There was an improvised stage there. We played there with Babewatch too. Then we adopted the upstairs concert space. We haven’t completely made friends with the bigger one yet, but we’ll adopt it. No way we won’t. All in good time.
RockLine: With your constant activity, you’re practically “omnipresent” on the Slovenian music scene. You’ve worked hard for it. You’re on stage all the time, whether as part of music projects or as a special guest. You helped Mladi levi celebrate their anniversaries. In a relatively short time, you and Hamo And Tribute 2 Love put out two studio albums, etc…
Hamo: Very simple. I just really love doing all of this. If I compare today with the old days, when we were still playing as Babewatch, the time gaps are incomparable. Or hard to compare, anyway. Back then we did 130 gigs a year. In two years we achieved everything that took five with the new lineup. Okay, it was a different experience, but we literally played every hole in the wall and then some. People used to like going to concerts more. Records sold too, print runs were bigger. The first print run of the first Babewatch album was 15,000 and 12,000 copies sold. And nobody really knew us back then either. With Hamo And Tribute 2 Love we’ve sold between 2,000 and 3,000 copies of both records combined, and I still have a feeling more people know us than knew Babewatch. So times have turned around, but that logic has stayed: from gig to gig you win new fans, if you play every gig with heart, meaning you’re really in it. I love performing music and I’ve found people we’ve built a great shared formula with, so everything clicks together really nicely.
RockLine: Two albums out, then. The new »Pol S« has fewer songs, while the debut »Dva« had sixteen. What are the main differences in how you approached the new album compared to the debut?
Hamo: A few tracks didn’t make it onto the album, and we’re immensely sorry about that, because nobody can hear them and they’re really good. We even stopped playing them live. The shows were simply too long. For the new album, which is in the works, we’re not planning a huge number of songs either. But we’d like to start playing the new songs ASAP. We’ve had a bit of our fill of that last album live. Not that the album is boring by any chance. Quite the opposite, we can stretch it out experimentally across the shows. It’s an hour long, but at a gig we’ve gotten three hours and twenty minutes out of it. Anyway, if I compare the albums. Okay, the first one has sixteen tracks, but it’s true that it took six years to make. The next one came together in just two years. The tracks on it are already way more connected. Since they were written over a shorter span, they resemble each other more, both in structure and in sound. The new album in the works will also be way more consistent as far as material goes. And one more thing. From album to album we’re getting more and more honest and bluffing less and less. That last bit means you’re telling some story you haven’t lived. With material like that it’s insanely hard to stand on stage, especially, say, fifty times in a row. And many times in a row. If the story isn’t honest, it’s hard to keep repeating it for, say, 10 years. So I want to avoid that. I’m a very good bluffer on guitar, but when it comes to lyrics, I want to say in them what actually happened to me, or what I’m living through, say, daily.
RockLine: Back in the first half of last year you released »Pol S« on vinyl too, which is an extraordinary gesture, especially if you’re an audiophile. You’re obviously very drawn to that organic feel. How will you approach recording the new album in that respect?
Hamo: On the new album, as far as material goes, Denis and I are the most present as writers. In principle we’re looking for a global sound for the album. Okay, now let’s say we’ve found it, even though we haven’t recorded anything yet and the release date is already known, which I personally feel as a kind of pressure, but I believe we’ll pull it off. However I turn it, I basically want to package the new album’s material in a time and place that’ll sum up this music best. Present it in the most authentic way. I hope the album develops as naturally as possible so we manage to release vinyl too. If it comes to that, then I’ll only listen to vinyl, never CDs again. The difference in sound is that striking. Right now I only have albums on vinyl at home. Not because of a trend. It’s the only thing that forces me to actually listen to them. Vinyl means a lot to me. You can listen to a CD or an mp3 while washing dishes at home, but vinyl forces you to listen to music. And since I’m a musician, I listen to music in detail, and only vinyl gives you that kind of pleasure. Since I’m an eternal enthusiast and optimist in this respect, the others in the band will understand my wish to get the new album out on vinyl too. You have to flip a record, you have to read it, you’re constantly “fussing” with it… something’s always going on with it.
RockLine: Such a modest wish, yet it’s quite hard to make happen these days.
Hamo: Given that the last one sold well and that we’re always on the brink of survival, I believe we’ll squeeze this one out somehow too. Once you finally get your hands on some money, you have to spend even more of it to land on the edge of survival again. That’s rock’n’roll. Only then do the right things happen. The right things in the right place at the right time. Exactly what has to happen, happens. But first you have to blow the money.
RockLine: Is there any artist on the Slovenian music scene you’d like to work with in the future as a musician, or record something with?
Hamo: Loads of them. We play all over Slovenia, and then it happens that someone opens for you, or you’re at a festival with a bunch of bands. Like we were in Jesenice and Samuel Blues showed up. That’s a guy with a guitar who’s everything I’ll never be. Honestly, a real “motherfucker”. Guitar on stage, alone against the crowd, charisma. And as a songwriter he’s great. Made for England, for abroad. He should go there right away. I’m convinced we’ll definitely collaborate with him in the future, and pretty soon. He’s wonderful. Same goes for Prismojeni profesorji bluesa, who hit the scene a few years ago. Right away, really quickly actually, we started working together. We invited them to the video premiere, and a month ago they invited me to their show at Križanke. Hats off to them. They’re going into their project with big balls, they’re really brave. They dare. And people who are brave like that really have a lot to say and show musically. At one gig you win over one person, then two, and from gig to gig your heartfelt approach wins you more and more fans. No calculating ahead of time, no chasing profit. That’s old school.
RockLine: Many people compare your vocal tone and approach to Joe Cocker. How much truth is there in that?
Hamo: Well, honestly I’m always really happy when I come across a comparison like that. There are actually very few raspy vocalists on the scene, I mean ones who’ve really made it. It doesn’t help you much when singing. That register limits you more than anything else. On the other hand, it’s very recognizable. As for Joe Cocker, I was and have always been a huge fan of his. But lots of people have a similar vocal color. For me personally it’s a huge compliment. Though there are probably even more singers I’ve picked up even more from than from Cocker. Especially in the switch to singing in Slovenian, that Cocker character is very hard to hold on to. As a result there are fewer and fewer of these comparisons. What used to happen was, when we played English material, people would say: »Okay, Cocker’s great and all… But why don’t you play anything of your own?« But I’m very happy today for another reason too. We’ve been playing for ten years, and throughout that whole time we’ve primarily played our own material. True, here and there we played a cover, really just for our own souls, like the song Take You To The Limit, which The Eagles do in the original. Simply because we like that track. Strictly for our own taste, not because people would know it better. Okay. So now and then we toss someone else’s song into our musical sack and play it our own way, but otherwise I’m honestly proud that we managed to build our listener base strictly by playing our own music. Today here at Orto bar we’re standing on our own calluses. Covers are useful to play, though. Especially at rehearsals, to get a feel for how songs are put together and structured, and you can learn a ton from that. We were hooked on covers in Babewatch, but this time around, meaning with Hamo And Tribute 2 Love, we’re strictly chasing our goals with original music.
RockLine: Since you mention Babewatch, I dare to ask whether there’s still hope you’ll get back together, or was that appearance on the show Štos pri Draganu Buliču your last gasp?
Hamo: I think the gig at Bulič’s really was the last Babewatch show. On the other hand, I still love those guys very much, especially my brother (Miha Šalehar, author’s note). Miha was really the main source of ideas, an excellent guitarist, and I kind of miss him in my band today. I keep teasing him a bit to pick up the guitar again. He resists, but I’m not losing hope.
RockLine: He’ll change his mind. Give it a few years.
Hamo: I’m waiting persistently, waiting humbly. Though playing in the same band as your older brother while taking on the role of band leader is no easy thing. I’m in constant contact with the Babewatch guys. We see each other, we’re friends, everything. But playing together again… probably not. Those were different times, youthful energy held us together. A different focus and outlook on life. Mine evidently stayed similar, I stayed in music. The others changed, put other priorities first in life.
RockLine: I’d wrap up here. But still. Did we forget to add any important info?
Hamo: Yes. On 09.02.2017 we’re playing Kino Šiška and presenting the new studio album (the date was later pushed back a week, to 16.02.2017 to be exact, author’s note). So that’s when we’re releasing the new record. The album’s already written and that calms me down. Now we just have to record it and package it the way it should be, so we’re happy with it.
You can read how the Hamo & Tribute 2 Love gig went later HERE!
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