Interview date: June 13, 2008
If you won’t come to The Drinkers, The Drinkers will just come to you. Ever since RockLine’s birth in March 2006, there’s been a rock-solid alliance between this band of cheeky, booze-soaked rock n’ roll degenerates and our full-gallop web-zine. After all, RockLine caught its first wind in the sails when it set off on February 24, 2006, spitting out a premiere report of a The Drinkers gig at Orto Bar (Ljubljana) as its very first article. But enough of the sentimental gushing that makes the eyes misty, let’s save that for another time.
How is it even possible to do an interview with The Drinkers at one of the most prestigious festivals held in Europe every year, namely Nova Rock? That definitely belongs in the realm of discovering life on Venus and Neptune. How is it even possible to interview The Drinkers, whose members are always up to their ears in their own business? Either they’re haunting the TV, or, on top of their main band, they’re involved in other bands too, and they’re also the real deal when it comes to scouting young talent and helping young bands that still have to prove themselves. Men who never beat around the bush, men who’ve been lashed by their honest tongues more than once, since these days that kind of plain speaking is ever harder for Slovenian yuppies in “positions” to understand, or it scares the hell out of them. In short, The Drinkers are one of those rare healthy rockers who don’t know the meaning of bluffing. Respect.
Off to Nova Rock. You set up camp, wander around, eye up the Danish hot dogs, when a smiling and very familiar face comes toward you. Sunglasses under a “Jocker” hat. Maki! Maki in the flesh, beard and all, in the middle of nowhere. On a wide-open mown field, a kilometer away from the even wider fields of Hungary and the endless expanses of Asia beyond, somewhere in the most lost and godforsaken corner of Austria. And among 120,000 people, mostly neotenic Austrians who’ve just started swapping their baby teeth for the proper dental formula of Homo sapiens. Nothing to be done. A cheerfully smiling, positive and charismatic guy of Maki’s caliber is hard to escape. Straight into chat, and after a few minutes of warming up, of course, an invitation to an interview, which happened on the second day of the festival, June 14, 2008, a little after 11:00 a.m. We spent a while looking for shade, then bet all our aces on the impenetrability of our headgear and sunglasses. Luckily there was a breeze blowing the heat away. Maki happily showed off an already empty bottle of Jaegermeister that we found underfoot, as befits a true The Drinkers legionnaire, and then the conversation got going about…
RockLine: Tell me, what’s going on with The Drinkers these days?
Maki: After some heavy promo, a broken leg and a tough fight with excessive quantities of, uhm… I think it was Jaegermeister, our bassist has happily recovered again. He’s walking normally again, no crutches. Since it’s summer, I can’t skip our gig at Viva La Pola!, where he came on stage on crutches and played sitting down.
RockLine: We’re talking about Miro Mutvar, right?
Maki: Miro, yes. Our Miro Mutvar, whom I’d like to greet on this occasion. Even a 30cm step can get you a complicated heel fracture. Anyway, we’ve put out our newest single, “Hajdi lovim v brajdi”.
RockLine: How is this current nationwide, positive-sense “frenzy” around Niet, around their revival and reactivation, affecting The Drinkers? Bassist Miro Mutvar is fully committed and working with them, and your guitarist Robert Likar plays guitar in Niet too, right?
Maki: In this case Niet are a treat for The Drinkers, a bit of spice, and also a bit of spice for rock music in Slovenia, I’m talking about the rock scene itself. I think it’s important that Niet are promoting rock again the way they understand it. Their rock principle is a healthy principle for promoting real rock music. We saw and experienced that recently at Križanke in Ljubljana. What saddens me about the whole Niet thing is that their cover, in the hands of Dan D, is getting full airplay on the domestic radio stations, which can be misleading. But really, with Niet it’s a big comeback. Summer is shaping up to have lots of festivals with their shows. Our Robi is glowing like never before. But none of this will affect the work of The Drinkers. Our gig dates stay untouched and work in the band carries on undisturbed. The Drinkers remain the priority.
RockLine: In just a few days you’re hitting the stages again. Action!
Maki: First we play Roxly club in Ljubljana in June, and the day after that in Jevnica at a festival with support bands too, I think Pain The Ass and so on… The Slovenian young blood.
RockLine: Pain in the Ass? Those are the guys who throw toilet paper at each other during gigs?
Maki: Yep, ha, ha… A response to the Iron Curtain and Youth Day, ha, ha, ha… Then there’s July 5 and 6, and Klumpanje in Sevnica. Oh, and one more thing. Right now, while we’re sitting here together at Nova Rock, The Drinkers were supposed to play at a big motorcycle gathering in Prague, but unfortunately I’d bought my ticket for Nova Rock a month before, so we had to cancel that gig. I regret that, but on the other hand, nothing beats a “Jaeger”, Nova Rock, and bumping into the “RockLine guys”, ha, ha…
RockLine: That’s already a tradition. RockLine and The Drinkers have always been good allies.
Maki: Isn’t that funny? Among 100,000 people here at Nova Rock, I run into you. Of course we have to stick together.
RockLine: The punk scene is back in the spotlight in Slovenia, thanks precisely to the Niet reunion, but on the other hand, my opinion is that we Slovenes still don’t have any healthy mainstream rock. What’s your take on all this?
Maki: The thing is ready to come back, I mean punk, it just needs to be woken up a bit. Some media have already figured out that they won’t survive with this quasi-pop over here. Radio Oktal, for example, plays pretty healthy music. Not that I’m any big champion of radio stations, we in The Drinkers don’t even do radio interviews anymore. But generally speaking, there’s a potential for real rock to wake up again in Slovenia. For example, The Drinkers work really well with the band Nove Konzerve, who we think have great potential. You know, The Drinkers can’t get on the “national broadcaster” anyway, but when we hit the road, there’s always a proper party at our “gigs”.
RockLine: Your shows are always packed, and with your repertoire you can’t expect anything but total mayhem in front of the stage. Your shows are full, right?
Maki: The shows are full. Yeah, we play simple rock, very accessible, no complicated choruses, for having a good time. We just stay true to our tradition. No “little holes in shoes”, let Christ sing that.
RockLine: You’ve got a new single out. Tell me more about it.
Maki: Yeah, so here’s the deal. The album came out at the end of 2007, the master was done at Metro studio in Ljubljana, and we recorded 14 tracks. I can brag that we completely sold out the first run of 400 copies. The reissue of the record will happen on June 14, 2008. Wait a sec… When? Is today the fourteenth?
RockLine: Yep.
Maki: Great. We’re getting the CDs from Poland today! The reissue is cheaper because we blew quite a bit of cash. The CD will just be in a cardboard sleeve and two tracks will be missing from the reissue, so we avoid claims over various copyrights. Anyway, for the new album we re-recorded “Ko to tamo peva” with my vocals. We started promoting the album first with the track “Tine rine”, which was our first “single”, then came “Hura! Hura! (Nažrem se ga lahk’ doma”), and the third single was “Šnopc, je reku stari mož”, plus a video. Now it’s stopped at “Heidi”, because we ran out of money.
RockLine: “Šnopc je reku stari mož”. How insightful, ha, ha… your The Drinkers ideology lives on, just in a new outfit.
Maki: “Šnopc je reku stari mož, then they carried him off to the grave”, ha, ha, ha… Well, sometimes we have to stress the message that going overboard with booze isn’t always such a great idea. We do offer well-meaning messages like that from time to time.
RockLine: So who in the band mostly comes up with such wild ideas for songs?
Maki: Mainly Koza and me, Likar too, but mostly Koza has written quite a lot of the songs. “Hura! Nažrem se ga lahko doma” fits right into this capitalist system. Can you imagine? “Another shift’s over, I swing by the pub, gonna get hammered like an animal.” We’re pretty honest. Maybe too honest. That might be what bites us, because then RTV SLO never invites us.
RockLine: My opinion is that this is the only healthy way. That authenticity. As an artist, you have to express whatever is eating you up inside. That authenticity matters a great deal for a healthy picture of rock music. I think The Drinkers, with their directness, are one of the main pillars of healthy rock culture in Slovenia, and that’s especially important for young bands, so they learn to tell the difference and find their direction more easily.
Maki: Well, The Drinkers don’t promote alcohol. We only promote the effects of alcohol, while alcohol gets promoted by, say, Natalija Verboten in the Union beer ad. In our lyrics we just say what we see. A reflection in the mirror. So… Mutvar’s leg is healthy and we keep pushing on!
RockLine: As individuals, you Drinkers members are very active when you’re not being The Drinkers. Koza, for example, has another band, Astrid Lindgren, right? You show up on TV, Likar is a Niet guy… You’re good. How do you pull it all off?
Maki: Maybe it’s the fact that we’re scattered all over Slovenia. One is from Logatec (our drummer Macho), then Koza is from Ivančna Gorica, I’m from Grosuplje, Miro is from Ljubljana, Likar from Jevnica. Lately we’ve had fewer rehearsals too. Our bassist Miro says, and it wasn’t me who came up with this, that whoever can’t play should be the one to practice. I don’t find it fun anymore, because we really do have to rehearse more.
RockLine: The new The Drinkers album is also your first official The Drinkers album with your vocals.
Maki: Yes. Before that I was the guitarist for two years, or a year and a half, then I switched to vocals. Well, and we also had that ill-fated DDV band.
RockLine: How, when and where did The Drinkers “hook” you into ending up as their singer?
Maki: First I was rhythm guitarist in The Drinkers. Then the keyboardist left the band, and on top of that I had the DDV lineup, so I was playing in both bands. I even had to handle Bon Jovi. After two years the DDV ship started sinking and finally fell apart, after we were supposed to go on some tour of Germany. One of our DDV members didn’t want to go on that tour. Then I got an ultimatum to choose between The Drinkers and DDV. At first I chose DDV, because we had that tour of Germany announced. Well, then DDV broke up. Koli, the former singer of The Drinkers, was a pain in that period too, with his ego he must have weighed 300kg together, and at that time he left the band as well. Then Likar calls me: “Hey, wanna come over to the Drinkers?” I thought: “Guitar again.” And the answer comes from the other end of the line: “No, no. You’ll be singing.” And that’s that.
RockLine: But that’s a bold The Drinkers decision. You and Koli? That’s like “The Beauty and the Beast” contrast.
Maki: Well, yeah. Koli was a bit bigger, and…
RockLine: … did the guys nag you that you have to put on weight and so on…?
Maki: Of course. At 300kg, and they were buying me McDonald’s vouchers. Now that Koli’s gone, we’ve got a tennis court in the van.
RockLine: Excuse me?
Maki: That much space suddenly opened up in the van.
RockLine: A real “Rolling Stone mobile” then, ha, ha, ha…
Maki: Yeah, ha, ha, ha… Anyway, Koli is an icon. Of course, I respect him, we in The Drinkers are still friends with him. The story of The Drinkers just goes on with me. Now the record “Heidi” has come out. In some places the album caught on, in others it didn’t. We threw a lot of money at it.
RockLine: What’s special and new on the album “Heidi”?
Maki: 12 new songs, plus the covers “Ko to tamo peva” and “Lep dan za smrt”, a track the media didn’t sniff out, and we recorded it with a special guest, the original guitarist of Niet. We also wanted to record “Jaz sem na liniji” by Pankrti, but they turned us down, supposedly because we made too good a track for the compilation. Yeah, instead of the track we wanted to contribute, they preferred to put the same song on the compilation with some kind of “screwing around”, some saw kicks in at the start, Rotor bend or something like that…
RockLine: Wait, I don’t get this. For an alternative compilation, a “tribute to Pankrti” or whatever it is, you’re too good, and for RTV Slovenija you’re too much of a rock n’ roll outcast?
Maki: Yeah, you know how it is? We try to arrange a gig at Metelkova in the club Gromka, we play punk songs, we’ve got a Niet guy in the band, and they tell us we don’t fit their program. But we don’t give up. For the summer we’ve already filled our schedule with shows.
RockLine: Maybe this is too early, but tell me. Is there already a plan for the new album, the follow-up to “Heidi”?
Maki: Actually, there are already plenty of songs ready for the new album. Right now. I’ve got some ideas too. Just today I was thinking about… “HIV – negativ”.
RockLine: So what’s the process of how a The Drinkers album comes to life? Who writes the music and how do you put the songs together?
Maki: Koza, Likar and me, Miro helps out too. Say Koza writes a song, then we meet at rehearsal and try it out. Our drummer also plays in the band Krema now, who are also putting out an album this September, so they’re rehearsing like crazy right now. So The Drinkers are multi-disciplinary.
RockLine: Your multi-disciplinary nature lets you offer a healthy range of services to young bands, helping them find their direction more easily.
Maki: We’re always trying to help young bands, because we know it’s tough in Slovenia. We try to promote lots of promising bands through our shows. We’ve been on the scene for a long time and we know how things work, so we always help if we can.
Maki: Take our Miro and Robi, both are family men, so they’re pretty tight on time that way. But still, Robi, for example, is constantly striving to discover young bands and give them a “push” forward. We approach it without a trace of stardom. You know, people in Slovenia asked me: “What is stardom?” Basically, in Slovenia it means getting an extra piece of meat from the butcher. There’s no stardom in Slovenia. You know how many bands there are in Slovenia that already have material ready for an album? Like Nove Konzerve, Zgrešeni Primeri, Krema… but they don’t get a chance. We in The Drinkers are already in the groove, and the songs work well for us at our gigs. But we have to make something new too.
RockLine: Okay, let’s finally say who “Heidi” is.
Maki: She’s basically a little girl from a cartoon, from the Alpine pastures of Switzerland. A cheerful, pure soul who goes to the barn to milk the cows… The film about “Heidi” was also shown here. So we borrowed one frame from the film and swapped the goats’ heads for the heads of our band members. And that’s the album cover. Anyway, the idea of “Heidi” is really old. Years ago I was on tour in Switzerland with DDV, and a buddy and I were gazing at the mountains and I thought, damn, where’s Heidi around here? Then at the same time they were playing some punk song Heidi, with the lyrics “Heidi, Heidi, deine Welt ist in die Bergen”. Then I translated that into “Heidi lovim v brajdi”. “A smiling girl, face red from wine, if she had a wooden pail on her shoulder, she could carry my son.”
RockLine: So The Drinkers aren’t letting up on their booze poetry.
RockLine: Rock n’ roll that shows you heaven and hell at the same time.
Maki: Yeah, personally I think that in Slovenia it’s a nice success for a rock band to fill a club. As for Slovenes ever playing successfully at a festival like Nova Rock, in my opinion that remains a utopia.
RockLine: One more “off topic”. How happy are you with the gigs you’ve caught so far here at Nova Rock?
Maki: I’d praise Sex Pistols, even though Rotten has a weird way of behaving, but that’s a constant at his shows. I did find a comparison between Niet and Sex Pistols, though. In Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious died, in Niet, Primož Habič. Sex Pistols released one album, Niet also one album, and both managed to achieve something. Awesome. I’d also recommend to every Slovenian who listens to at least a little rock n’ roll that they should see a festival like Nova Rock at least once in their life, to broaden their horizons. What about you, how was yesterday?
RockLine: Dunno… I wasn’t exactly on the side of the first day’s headliners, but the triad of back-to-back bands Rose Tatoo, Airbourne and Porcupine Tree on the red stage hit me “with a straight right hook to the noggin”. Basically I’ve been chilling at the red stage, and I will today and tomorrow too.
Maki: I feel like the lineup on the red stage is a lot better than on the blue stage, and the sound seems better on the red stage too. But Austrians don’t know how to drink beer, because they spill it and throw beer around at people. Did you happen to notice that? I don’t get it. Is the father of a lad who throws a full glass of beer some kind of Šrot’s agent…
RockLine: Outrageous counter-propaganda against the core The Drinkers creed, this beer-spilling….
Maki: Really awful. They just can’t handle it. And I have to say one more thing. Schwechater is the official importer from Austria for The Drinkers, and here at Nova Rock I see loads of red cans of this beer on the ground and that reminds me of home.
RockLine: Is there anything else you’d like to add at the end of the interview?
Maki: You’re all invited to The Drinkers shows, listen to lots of music and eat lots of carrots. And don’t let the media lead you around. Don’t lock yourselves in your rooms, come out to the field instead and feel what “rock” actually is. And one more thing, ultra important. This year we’re celebrating The Drinkers’ 15th anniversary. I don’t know yet when, how and where we’ll mark it, but we’ll “pull something off”. We’ll invite RockLine too.
RockLine: Maki. Thanks for the interview, shall we meet somewhere in front of a Nova Rock stage today?
Maki: Are you going to watch Bad Religion?
RockLine: Yep, the reunion version.
Maki: Let’s meet at 8 p.m. on the left side of the mixing desk at the red stage.
RockLine: Deal.
Maki: Okay, it’s a date.
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