INTERVIEW: VLATKO STEFANOVSKI

/, Sound, Blesok no. 118/INTERVIEW: VLATKO STEFANOVSKI

INTERVIEW: VLATKO STEFANOVSKI

I want to write another good song in my life!


However, if you don’t have the mileage and all you’ve done before, you wouldn’t be able to do that. From BREG through LEB I SOL… to today. Few days ago I was listening to the record where you are together with Miki Petkovski and Laza Ristovski, then I remembered Ajduchka cheshma – that historical concert… Then my thoughts went to “mother tongue” where you put on the same level Jonche Hristovski, Esma Redzepova… with Goran Bregović.

STEFANOVSKI: They are absolutely on the same level. Jonche Hristovski may have seemed to some as a comic person with his moustache, the way he moved his jacket… with some performance tricks, but if you analyze his compositions – they are masterpieces. From “Makedonsko devojche” (Macedonian girl), “Ako umram il’ zaginam” (If I die or get killed)… and other patriotic songs – everyone realizes that they are masterpieces. He often came here in “14”. I had great respect towards him. I always greeted him… he was sitting here every morning with a company, they were having a few drinks… A great name. Jonche Hristovski was a great name. He has songs that seem to be taken from a rock. Broken off a rock. He has songs that are hits, nice hits. But he also has songs that are so completed… as a polished diamond. You cannot add or take away anything from them. If you add, they crumble. If you take away, they will also crumble. So, perfectly made. There are just a few such composers and people who can write such songs. Regarding “Makedonsko devojche”, a very famous song, everyone thinks that it’s a folk song, but actually it is composed. It is Jonche Hristovski’s song. It would be great if our newly formed festivals had like five or so songs such as “Makedonsko devojche”.

Today, almost no songs are composed. Some music is done on the computer which is not really music.

STEFANOVSKI: The whole modern music can be called music experiment. That is not really music. You’ve taken sounds from here, samples from there… you’ve mixed them, put them together in a Cubase or in Pro Tools… you’ve done something, some mixture… That can be called “music experiment”, but for that to become music, there is a lot to be done. Today’s time is all about the wrapping. Not the content. Show-business and music business, music production is mainly dealing with the cling film, the wrapping… not with the chocolate. How much cocoa it contains. Instead, let’s wrap it up in this cover, in that cover… so, marketing becomes more important than the product itself. That’s the kind of time we live in. There were, of course, such things in the time of THE BEATLES as well, but the product was much more important than the marketing for it. I don’t mean to say that I live imprisoned in my own time. On the contrary. For example, my son Jan at the moment listens mostly to “Hey Jude!” by THE BEATLES. I don’t know what got into him. He is obsessed with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Star… Unbelievable. LED ZEPPELIN, THE BEATLES… that’s what he is listening to. I tell him, this is my music, not yours… and he says that that’s exactly what he likes.

Translated byKalina Maleska
PhotographyTatjana Rantaša
2018-10-30T09:54:34+00:00 March 27th, 2018|Categories: Reviews, Sound, Blesok no. 118|0 Comments