Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Hostel Celica, Ljubljana
Interview date: 08.12.2012
Črt Batagelj and Matej Ahlin are the duo behind Dirty Skunks, one of the most active (if not the most active) organizers of »underground« gigs in Slovenia. The first show under the stinky duo’s baton went down way back in February 2002, when they brought Sarcasm, Expulsion, Nabisko and Distortion onto the stage of Orto bar. From then on their activity shot up steeply, and over ten years they’ve brought the biggest names of the metal, punk and hardcore scenes to Slovenian stages – Suffocation, Cynic, Agnostic Front, Lordi, Hatebreed, D.R.I., Suicide Silence, Benediction, Pestilence, Napalm Death, Saxon, Ice Earth and plenty more. Last year Dirty Skunks celebrated ten years of operation and marked that respectable anniversary with two free events, one at Kino Šiška and the other at Gala hala. So it was high time the Dirty Skunks stepped up to our recorder too. The interview was done last December in an ice-cold Ljubljana, and since the Skunks put on gigs faster than I type up interviews, quite a few shows have gone by since. The one waiting around the corner is Tuesday’s death metal spectacle with New York heavyweights Suffocation, this time joined by Cephalic Carnage, Havok and Fallujah.
RockLine: The 2012 gig season is almost over, with just two shows left.
Črt: Yeah, right now it’s more the Kadilnice of Death at Orto bar that are in the spotlight.
Matej: Vulture Industries were awesome!
RockLine: So if you were to draw the line under the gig season?
Črt: I think it’s positive for the first time.
Matej: A very successful season, we have to admit.
Črt: The start was pretty bad, but the finish was really good.
Matej: We started off really strong, we celebrated ten years of operation with two free gigs.
Črt: Ah, that’s where that minus comes from (laughs).
Matej: Yeah, there was no entry fee, but around a thousand people showed up.
Črt: We did sell a few shirts, though.
Matej: So much happened, too much to list.
RockLine: Last year you celebrated ten years, and your first gig was with Sarcasm at Orto bar. Since the follow-up is sometimes harder than the start, I’m curious how the second gig went?
Črt: The first one was the hardest, because we had no clue what we were doing.
Matej: We had no clue with the second one either, but at least we had some guidelines by then.
Črt: It took about a month less, you’ve got a club already, we knew what the band wants to drink and eat.
Matej: By then I already knew that an amp isn’t a bass cab.
Črt: And that they have to bring their own cymbals (laughs).
RockLine: You started with our local bands. How did you pick who to invite back then?
Črt: Maček from Sarcasm was my coworker at the time, so he was the first one we thought of, and Matej had a few acquaintances too.
Matej: Yeah, acquaintances, friends, friends’ bands, and then the bands started getting in touch on their own. And we said, why not.
RockLine: The first foreign band you put on was Hatebreed, if I’m not mistaken?
Matej: No, the first foreign band we did was Southern Storm, and the second was Ritam nereda.
Črt: What about Rut Host?
Matej: Rut Host were the first American band we hosted, in 2004, on the same day Fantomas played at Cvetličarna.
Črt: It was so good. How many people were there? Like ten? (laughs)
Matej: No, there were about thirty of us, even my dad was at the gig. (laughs)
RockLine: So how did you start working with bigger foreign bands and building contacts with agencies?
Matej: Well, we were drinking and the conversation drifted to which band we’d like to put on, and the name Hatebreed came up. We sent an email and five minutes later got an answer that it was possible, on such and such a date.
Črt: The internet is a great thing.
Matej: After that gig things got more serious, they probably noticed we were doing this properly and the bands themselves started contacting us.
Črt: The biggest problem for foreign agents is working with someone who hasn’t done anything yet. As soon as you have something behind you, it’s much easier. Because at the start they don’t trust you, they demand, say, 50% of the fee up front.
Matej: Some still want that today, but most of them know us by now and trust us.
Črt: Sooner or later you meet them in person too, and that makes the work a lot easier as well.
RockLine: When you started with gigs, you were probably among the few, besides Erotica Promotions, doing metal and hardcore shows. Considering how saturated the scene is today, not just with gigs and bands but with promoters too, how do you compare the scene ten years ago to the scene today?
Črt: There used to be nothing, and today there’s plenty of everything. Maybe it really is oversaturated already, but there are so many different genres that, thank fuck, people can pick and choose.
Matej: Metal alone has ten different genres, and the crowd is mostly pigeonholed and only goes to shows in their own genre. But there are also those who go and check out literally everything. And then there’s post-rock, punk and hardcore stuff, which again have their own audiences.
Črt: There used to be one gig a year, Biohazard for example, you put them in Križanke and it sold out, because black metallers and hippies alike came.
Matej: Bands that played Gala hala or Križanke 15 years ago you can put in Orto bar today, and it’s not a given it’ll sell out. That’s a fact.
RockLine: Maybe most people don’t even fully realize what your contribution to the scene means. I only really started to realize it myself after watching Dekada smrada. Did you get that kind of feedback from anyone else?
Matej: Good boy (everyone laughs). There was so much praise that we’re a little embarrassed.
Črt: Dekada smrada is great, but there’s so much praise in it that by the end we were truly embarrassed. Someone could have at least called us idiots.
RockLine: Over the course of your work you’ve probably met the vast majority of local organizers, clubs and bands. Judging by the documentary you get along very well with most of them, but probably not with everyone. I remember, for example, the story of some Romanian guy…
Črt: Actually, he was the only one we couldn’t get along with at all.
Matej: In the beginning we helped him a lot with contacts and everything he needed, but his feedback was different. He said one thing and did something completely different.
RockLine: The bigger gigs, Iced Earth and Saxon for example, you did in cooperation with ŠKUC Ropot. How did that collaboration come about?
Matej: Yeah, with Igor Vidmar.
Črt: Vidmar used to do metal gigs too, Morbid Angel for example, but today he doesn’t really have a connection with the metal crowd, so he turned to us.
Matej: He was just wondering if we were up for doing something together.
Črt: It was actually a pretty decent combo.
RockLine: In ten years you’ve done over 300 gigs, and you’re also among the few with a well-planned program schedule?
Črt: Yeah, but it’s pretty spontaneous. You get offers and go through them, but obviously you’re not going to do eight death metal gigs in one month, that’d be spitting in our own soup.
Matej: It can even happen that you’ve got so many things confirmed in a month that you’d like to do one more, but you can’t because it makes no sense with the other gigs. And you can’t cancel one of the confirmed ones either, because you’d rather do this one.
Črt: The bitch of it is that sometimes you’d really love to do something and you’re a fan of the band, but you know it won’t work out financially. Then you just hope you’ll get it on the next tour.
Matej: The reality is that usually, just as we’re getting back on our feet, we’ve already »missed« the next thing.
RockLine: It’s fairly common knowledge that you were in the red for quite a while, partly because of the Paranoid Open Air festival.
Črt: We still are (laughs). It wasn’t exactly small money back then, but these things happen.
RockLine: And if you end the year in the minus, is it hard to start a new season?
Črt: No, in the end we do this because we enjoy it. Actually, during the gig season itself we’re not in the red, we’re in the minus because of past years. The plus at the end of the year is so small that it doesn’t do much to that minus.
Matej: And in 2010 and 2011 a few bigger minuses piled up, when the season wasn’t exactly booming, no matter which bands played. But the last half year has improved enormously. Thank you for your support bitchez (laughs).
RockLine: And in these ten years, did you have to let go of a gig you badly wanted?
Črt: Yeah, Suicidal Tendencies.
Matej: Although now we’re glad it didn’t work out. Črt was in Australia at the time and would have missed them, and I still wanted to do it at first, but they set the fee too high.
Črt: The starting price we’d agreed on was great, but then other venues started sniffing around, or rather the haggling started.
Matej: Then the others pushed the already high price even higher. I went to the gig and had a blast, because it was fantastic.
Črt: Sometimes it’s nice to go to a gig you’re not organizing, get hammered and enjoy it.
RockLine: How much prep and logistics goes into it before a gig actually happens? If it’s a bigger one, say.
Črt: Mosh Lives at Kino Šiška, for example, we booked three months ago, we’ve only just got the go-ahead to announce it, presale starts in a day or two, and now comes filling out the riders and promo.
RockLine: Given the high number of gigs you’ve done, is there one you’d single out, in either a positive or a negative light?
Črt: Paranoid Open Air was cool despite the minus. It was a good school, we saw what we’re capable of. There just weren’t enough people and it ended in the minus, fuck it.
Matej: Good schools are usually expensive too.
Črt: The bad gig was without a doubt Lordi. I get in a bad mood just remembering it. The band was actually totally fine, it was the crowd that let us down there.
Matej: It also happens at smaller gigs that some band wrecks something, and then it all depends on how big the damage is and how the band handles it. Most of them pay for the damage, but some play dumb. Those guys belong in a pit.
Črt: To be plowed under the fields.
Matej: And sprinkled with lime.
RockLine: With all these gigs there must have been a ton of funny situations too, and the Taake stories, which you’ve told several times already, are surely among them.
Matej: Yeah, we’ve told them countless times.
Črt: But you can tell the one about them at Metalcamp.
Matej: Nah, there was so much crazy shit that I don’t even remember it.
Črt: Anyway… We woke up with Taake together in one bed.
Matej: Oh yeah, that one I can tell.
Črt: What happened before, let’s rather not (laughs).
Matej: I was lying on the floor, Hoest at some weird angle on the other side of the room… Clothed, just so there’s no mistake… Črt first snuggled up to the drummer on the bed, and when he woke up the guitarist was lying next to him and Črt told him, »Hey lovely, good morning.« And then other bands start bursting into the room to take a shower and we realize we hadn’t been sleeping in the right room at all. We’d slept in the »shower room.« The Taake thing lasted two days, and then Arkona arrived. Those Russians are seriously sick.
Črt: Yes vi drink!
RockLine: A very welcome piece of news is that you’re running the second stage at MetalDays 2013, so to wrap up, I’m curious how that collaboration came about?
Matej: Boban and Roman invited us to collaborate. They laid out the terms and gave us a free hand in picking the bands. The terms were great and we said why not. It’s also in our interest to bring in another new band or two that you might not otherwise see at this festival.
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