/ : I t was ten years ago that Robert Pešut, better known as Magni co, caused a real musical stir in the Bal- kans. His song “Here I Come Here I Go” was a major hit in all countries in the region, sung even by those who don’t speak English, all because of its merry sound and interesting wordplay. Almost a decade later, his songs are again pushing the boundaries. In his collaboration with actor-di- rector Dragan Bjelogrlić on the hit lm“Montevideo, God BlessYou”, Manji ko showed a di erent, more emo- tional side. That’s why many think that his song Pukni, zoro [Crack, dawn], which touches the soul and compels the listener to cry, is an old folk song. This Slovenian singer-songwriter and Bjela continued shifting bound- aries with the series“Shadows over the Balkans”, the second season of which hits TVs at the end of October. For starters, is it true that the Loša from the Blue Orchestra whispered to you that Bjela would hire you for the lm Montevideo, God Bless You? - Yes, he said to me: “It looks like Bjela will call you, but nobody’s allowed to know”. It sounded like Ti- to would call me, the way he informed me. And Bjela really did call me and suggest we collaborate. He told me that he likes the way I work and he was more certain than me that I was the right man for those things. I couldn’t gure out why he thought that, because I hadn’t previously dealt with lm music. You came up with the song “Barjak” for the second season of TV series “Shadows over the Bal- kans”. Was it easier to make music for this series, given that you’d already worked with Bjelogrljić? - ‘Shadows’ are a big morsel and I didn’t make the music for the series by myself. I mostly did the main themes and peaks. In this new series viewers will be able to see a modern approach where every frame has some noise, some sound, so now more people have been included in the whole story in order to satis- fy that demand. What’s it like to work with Bjelogrljić? - He’s easy and nice to work with. If he hadn’t become a director and actor, Bjela would surely have been a great o cer. He gives orders in some gentle tone, but that still feels like an order. He doesn’t know di er- ently, he’s from Herzegovina. For example, he said to me“make me a song that sounds like it’s old, but that’s new and should be a hit”. He cares very much about what the music will be like in a series or lm, unlike oth- er directors who just let the composer do their job. He and I spoke on each occasion for a very long time about what kind of feeling we were seeking in a lm, what kind of music that would be. And then he wants to hear everything, so you have to take care with every note. Who was your inspiration for the song “Pukni, zoro”?
SUZE VOJVOĐANSKE Vaš otac je iz Vojvodine, maj- ka iz Slovenije. Kakve vas us- pomene vežu za detinjstvo provedeno u Vojvodini, koje slike pamtite? – Kao klinac mnogo sam voleo da dođem u Srbiju i sećam se da tada niko nije vikao na de- cu. Mogao si da pogrešiš ili po- lomiš nešto i da na tebe ni- ko ne viče, dok bi u Sloveniji za iste stvari već dobio batine. Ta razlika mi je baš ostala u se- ćanju, kao i prva zaljubljivanja. Bio sam strašno zaljubljen u se- ljanke iz Gornje Rogatice, oda- kle su mi bili baba i deda, i pla- kao sam svaki put kad sam odlazio, a plakao sam od sreće i kad sam dolazio. I danas, sva- ki put kad dođem u Srbiju, uvek se upali ta ista lampa. TEARS OF VOJVODINA Your father is from Vojvodina, while your mother is from Slo- venia. What kind of recollec- tions do you have from the pe- riod of your childhood spent in Vojvodina; what images do you recall? - I really loved coming to Ser- bia as a kid and I remember that no one shouted at kids back then. You could do some- thing wrong or break some- thing and nobody yelled at you, while in Slovenia you would have taken a beating for the same things. That dif- ference stayed strongly in my memory, as did the rst time I fell in love. I was terribly infat- uated with a village girl from Gornja Rogatica, where my grandparents came from, and I cried every time I left, and I cried with happiness when- ever I came back. Even today, that same lamp always lights up every time I come to Serbia.
- That was primarily an ordered work, and then I looked in- ternally for something inside that I could get a grip on. Giv- en that my grandfather was a ghter on the Thessaloniki Front, I heard a lot about that as a kid, and from his stories I formed a picture of that period in my head. “Pukni, zoro” is a love song dedicated to my grandfather, who returned to his wife, that is to my grandmother, and the song con- veys joy and happiness, but also sadness that not everyone returned from the front to their families. How and to what extent has your musical style and taste changed since 1992, when you had your breakthrough with the song “Let’s dance”? - I always think I’m constantly inventing something new and sound- ing interesting, but people’s rst reaction to whatever I do is to say“this is typically yours”, regardless of the genre. And I’ve tried a lot of genres, as I see myself as a songwriter.
If he hadn’t become a director and actor, Bjela would surely have been a great o cer. He gives orders in some gentle tone, but that still feels like an order. He doesn’t know di erently, he’s from Herzegovina Da nije reditelj i glumac, Bjela bi sigurno bio odličan oficir. On izdaje naređenja u nekom nežnom tonu, ali se ipak oseti da je to naređenje. Ne ume on drugačije, Hercegovac je to
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