Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Šmartno (Goriška Brda) / Hiša Kulture / Slovenia
Interview date: November 3, 2012
Dan D are one of the most popular rock bands in Slovenia. They’re in the spotlight of a crowd that’s demanding, and spoiled enough to sit around waiting for the band’s next artistic move, and then the next one after that. The »Tiho« project was really a must for Dan D, so they wouldn’t accidentally get stuck in the trap of routine and repeating themselves. By reworking the Dan D repertoire around exotic gear like bottles, spoons, wooden spoons, bottle openers and so on…, the band radically shook up their creative spirit. That helped them grow into a new stage of development, where Dan D now stand even stronger and even more resolute, and it throws the doors wide open to an inspired attitude and a creative, artistic daring that the band can squeeze every last drop out of while recording their next studio album.
During the autumn »Tiho« tour, we caught up with the band on November 3, 2012, in Šmartno (Goriška Brda). After the show, we got the chance to chat with Dan D’s charismatic frontman and main songwriter Tomislav Jovanovič “Tokac”…
RockLine: Where did the idea for a big Slovenian tour of acoustic shows come from?
Tokac: We got invited to the Lent festival, and they said they’d love for Dan D to put on an acoustic show. You know, we’d done that before… acoustic guitars, an acoustic gig, and at first the idea just didn’t feel right to us… Then I remembered the attic, so we went rummaging around up there. We found spoons, wooden spoons… At first we were just goofing around, trying things out half-jokingly, but the whole thing took off. It caught fire in an intimate way and steered everything in the right direction. The result was a different presentation of our musical catalog, and it’s mostly about how you deliver emotion, which hits differently compared to the band’s earlier tours.
RockLine: So it’s basically an upgrade of the »Izštekani« version.
Tokac: Yes. There you had acoustic guitars, drum brushes… That’s standard practice on the scene. But this time it’s something quite different. All the older material, and the newer songs too, work in a really deviant way compared to every rearrangement we’ve done so far, never mind the Dan D originals. A different atmosphere, a different sensibility is developing. A different way of composing songs is pushing to the surface, and the result is a different energy…
RockLine: Tonight here in Šmartno in Goriška Brda, you played three or even four brand-new songs, if I’m not mistaken?
Tokac: Yes, four.
RockLine: How and when did they come about? Are the ideas behind them older, or did they come up while you were rearranging your »back catalog« for the »Tiho« tour?
Tokac: They came about while we were working on the older material, so just recently. We told ourselves we weren’t going to wait around at all costs for these new songs to get their electric finishing touches for the next studio record. That wasn’t important to us. What matters is that these songs were born in a different creative environment, in a new situation with a special kind of intimacy, and they belong naturally with the reimagined classic Dan D songs in the »Tiho« production. That seems totally logical to us, because that’s what their natural development dictated. They were born in such a way and at such a time that it’s only natural to treat them as part of the Dan D story we’ve labeled »Tiho«.
RockLine: And that was followed by two natural moves, really cunning moves: you released a rustic version of the new audio on a cassette tape, packaged in a birch log, plus a sort of leather pouch…
Tokac: You know, that move developed completely spontaneously too. Nobody planned it. We recorded in the special atmosphere of a farm in Šentjernej. That’s a totally new creative space for us, and it charmed us in a special way, inspired us, gave us extra motivation, got us animated, you know, different little birdies sing here, heh heh heh… The cassette idea is great. It felt like the perfect moment to cleverly provoke people again. A band always has to provoke people somehow, but not by forcing it. You do it by offering them, say, a cassette, something most people have long forgotten ever existed, so they have to make an effort to dig up a tape player before they can spin the cassette and listen to the songs. It’s a kind of subtle provocation that has to fire up the receiver, in this case the people who are interested in our music.
RockLine: There was quite a lot to see and hear at your show in Šmartno. Obra briefly turned back into a wind player when he grabbed the tuba, and the songs hit especially hard, as if I’d never heard them before. The song Tiho really got to me, for example, and it wasn’t the only one…
Tokac: The selection of songs we play on stage was totally spontaneous here too. There was no precise list of songs set aside for the »Tiho« makeover. We simply tried out, spontaneously, how songs work in a new musical environment, new soundscapes, new emotions. Where a song really grabs you, it’s through emotion. That’s the primal core of any musical message. At least it has to be, in terms of honesty. That’s how the repertoire came together. We didn’t force anything.
RockLine: What was the process of giving the songs a makeover like?
Tokac: We got together at my place and went up to the attic. We picked up instruments we’d never played in our lives. And we tried, and tried, and tried. We figured out that everything worked in a way we’d never known before, and we knew that what we were doing was unlike anything we’d tried in our whole career. All these songs work so differently, as if they were being created for the first time. That way we basically pulled the rug out from under our own feet. Meaning we put ourselves through a brand-new test, which was really tough for us. It was a kind of maturity exam. And we passed it. There’s only one question here: “Are you in, or aren’t you?” You know, and there are no excuses. Either you play, or you’d better pack your bags and go home right now!
RockLine: Tonight you were juggling a whole sea of different instruments. When did you learn to play all of that?
Tokac: I’ve been doing music for a very long time. And then this moment came where you provoke yourself so much that you face the fact that you’re not on those safe instruments, you know… No Marshall, no Les Paul, no triviality, no predictability, no control, so nothing that gives you a sense of security. In this new situation you’re a bit unsure at first, questions and doubts pop up… But once your confidence builds, once you realize you’ve entered a realm you’re discovering from scratch, it becomes a huge pleasure, and that realm actually challenges you, in a way, with a different, not-yet-tested kind of creativity. You start respecting the spoon and the wooden spoon. It sounds humble, but it means a lot.
RockLine: And the audience reactions are wild when, at a Dan D show, Obra suddenly hits a row of bottles hanging on strings…
Tokac: Yes. At first everybody’s watching, wondering what the hell those bottles are doing up on stage the whole time. They have their purpose, their moment, and they matter. But everyone’s impatient because they don’t know when that moment will come. I don’t like it when journalists and the media play up our new approach as something special and kind of blow it out of proportion, sensationalize it. No. A wooden spoon and a spoon are just plain objects. What really matters is whether people hear music in it or not. Only the music counts. A touch of artistry.
RockLine: In the second half of September last year, you played an “unannounced” morning show at the train station in Ljubljana. How did passersby react, and what did it feel like?
Tokac: Again, the answer’s the same. We did it out of a desire to provoke. But there’s one difference. A moment ago you had spoons and wooden spoons up in the attic, so what inspires you right now doesn’t push you toward some glamorous show at Hala Tivoli. You’re looking for small things, small and simple things, but things with the pulse of intimacy. The train station is perfect in that sense. It connects to our mood during the period of trying out these exotic tools, instruments… You could also call it a kind of reflection on the creative period. And of course the whole time we were wondering whether this early show at the station could make the passersby heading to work or to university happy and brighten up their day. That’s ultimately the first purpose. The purpose of music. We hit the target, it caught fire!
RockLine: Lately the trend of street music troubadours has really blown up in Ljubljana…
Tokac: Yes. But interestingly, back when we were at the train station, none of them were there. We even asked people, the staff who work at the station, whether anyone does that kind of thing, and they said no. I don’t get it. Bands should be doing their sound checks right there.
RockLine: Still, it must have been a shock therapy for the passersby.
Tokac: The effect was definitely noticeable. In the sense that we spread a positive spirit, the vibes and stimuli were very positive. The energy’s different. And the quality of the performer isn’t what matters here, the intention is, and it has to be honest. I generally don’t see this kind of street playing as “begging”. It’s simply that somebody learned to play something and goes out on the street to show it off because they enjoy it. And it’s only fair that they get a few coins for their playing and performance. There should be more and more of that. It’s not panhandling. It’s about giving people something, something that’s inside you and has to come out of you.
RockLine: In 2008 you contributed vocals to one of the songs on Elevators’ second album. Considering they work in a completely different musical environment, I’m curious how you ended up on the same wavelength and jumped in to help with vocals on the song »Čedo ljubavi«?
Tokac: We’ve been tight for a long time. The lyrics are in Serbo-Croatian, written by RunJoe (Sergej Ranđelović, Elevators’ drummer, author’s note), and he thought it made sense for me to take the vocals, maybe because I come from the south myself, so the Elevators guys probably figured I’d pull it off best. It’s a kind of Yugo-revival song that was practically tailor-made for me. I think that’s the reason for the collaboration.
RockLine: Is there any ray of light on the horizon yet, one that might be hinting we can expect a new Dan D studio album?
Tokac: We did this current »Tiho« project to give our established Dan D story a bit of a twist. To surprise ourselves and the people. If you can’t surprise yourself and the people, you’re not fun anymore. Dan D are just one of the bigger bands on the Slovenian music scene, and so people don’t get sick of our story, which can’t be allowed to slide into routine, we have to come up with new art ideas and offer them to listeners. You know, if you play too many shows, people get sick of a band fast, and the market gets oversaturated too. We’re too popular, and that’s why we’re forced to play a lot. And Slovenia, with two million people, gets oversaturated pretty quickly. People get tired of the same story on repeat, and that can kill the story of the band, the band’s music, the band’s spirit, everything. Along the way you kill the people too, and you’re not fun anymore. That’s also why we cut back on the number of shows. The change with the »Tiho« project was necessary for us to step away from our usual routine. And I believe this artistic detour is an important factor that will cause a creative shift in all of us, which will have a big impact on bringing freshness and new ideas to the next studio album. That album will of course be electric, and I’m looking forward to it with all my heart. I don’t know when we’ll start working on it, and I don’t know where we’ll take it. That very unpredictability is all the more attractive, and as a musician it excites and delights me all the more. That freedom of not being boxed in by planning when and how is the best thing that can happen to you as a musician.
RockLine: Besides Dan D, Siddharta and Big Foot Mama are also forever doomed to this way of operating in the Slovenian music scene…
Tokac: Slovenia is a really tiny place, and bands can easily fall into the trap of wanting to play a ton of shows, and they gradually turn into weekend-warrior bands whose only aim is to land a gig. But that can’t be your goal. The goal has to be creativity, meaning, and quality. And if you play 100 shows in Slovenia, that’s not quality, that’s quantity.
RockLine: That’s also the principle of healthy artistic maturing for any artist who makes original music.
Tokac: Funny thing, the other day, after a really long time, I listened to our first record again. That was recently, when the Dan D guys were riding together in the van. I was dying of laughter. Half-bizarre messages in the poetry, male chauvinism all over the lyrics and so on. Of course, over the years you start looking at all of it differently. But it was fine. We were young and we didn’t hold any of it in. After all, what do you know about life when you’re twenty, or a little past twenty? But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you let that energy out, because that’s the right moment for it. And if you stick with it, the band grows up and matures in a natural way. The main thing is not to stay the same. That would hurt me personally the most. Our second album is a much stronger musical manifesto for me in terms of how polished the songs are. There are plenty of hits on it, excellent songwriting, and I also slaved away a lot more over the arrangements for the second album.
RockLine: Have you ever wanted to try your hand at some other musical project? Maybe as a solo artist, a singer-songwriter, since the messages in your poetry are strong and really weighty in substance.
Tokac: Of course, alongside everything else there’s always some desire in me for projects like that, but on the other hand I’m constantly working with other musicians, with bands, producing their music. I’m mostly interested in young, creative bands, and I look for them so that “like a vampire, I can drink their blood and it keeps me young” (everyone laughs). These young creative bands need to be motivated. I’d like to pass my stubbornness and persistence on to them. Because you can make it with persistence. It’s possible. You just have to trust yourself and stick with it. Sadly it’s like you said earlier, in Slovenia there are three bands. Three institutions. And that’s not a real scene. We urgently need to broaden it.
You can read the RockLine concert report from Dan D’s show in Šmartno (Goriška Brda) on November 3, 2012, HERE.
You can read the RockLine concert report from Dan D’s show in Novo mesto (Lokalpatriot) on November 29, 2012, HERE.
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