66 | / : It was ten years ago that Robert Pešut, better known as Magni co, caused a real musical stir in the Balkans. 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 adecade later, his songs areagainpushing theboundaries. Inhis collaborationwithactor-directorDraganBjelogrlićonthehit lm“Montevideo,GodBlessYou”,Manji koshowedadi erent,moreemotional side.That’swhymanythinkthathissongPukni, zoro[Crack,dawn],whichtouches thesoul andcompels the listener to cry, is an old folk song. This Slovenian singer-songwriter and Bjela continued shifting boundaries 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 lmMontevideo, God Bless You? - Yes, he said to me: “It looks like Bjela will call you, but nobody’s allowed to know”. It sounded like Tito would call me, the way he informedme. 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 thanme 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 lmmusic. You came up with the song “Barjak” for the second season of TV series “Shadows over the Balkans”. Was iteasier tomakemusic for this series, giventhatyou’dalreadyworkedwithBjelogrljić? - ‘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 nowmore people have been included in the whole story in order to satisfy that demand. What’s it like to work with Bjelogrljić? - He’s easy andnice toworkwith. If hehadn’t become a director and actor, Bjelawould surely havebeen 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 fromHerzegovina. For example, he said tome“makeme a song that sounds like it’s old, but that’s newand should be a hit”. He cares verymuch about what themusicwill be like in a series or lm, unlike other 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 feelingwe 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”? - That was primarily an orderedwork, and then I looked internally for something inside that I could get a grip on. Given that my grandfather was a ghter on the Thessaloniki Front, I heard a lot about that as a kid, and fromhis stories I formed a picture of that period inmy head. “Pukni, zoro” is a love song dedicated tomy grandfather, who returned to his wife, that is to my grandmother, and the song conveys 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’mconstantly inventing something newand sounding interesting, but people’s rst reaction towhatever I do is to say“this is typically yours”, regardless of the genre. And I’ve tried a lot of genres, as I seemyself as a songwriter. SUZE VOJVOĐANSKE Vaš otac je iz Vojvodine, majka iz Slovenije. Kakve vas uspomene 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 decu. Mogao si da pogrešiš ili polomiš nešto i da na tebe niko ne viče, dok bi u Sloveniji za iste stvari već dobio batine. Ta razlika mi je baš ostala u sećanju, kao i prva zaljubljivanja. Bio sam strašno zaljubljen u seljanke iz Gornje Rogatice, odakle su mi bili baba i deda, i plakao sam svaki put kad sam odlazio, a plakao sam od sreće i kad sam dolazio. I danas, svaki put kad dođem u Srbiju, uvek se upali ta ista lampa. TEARS OF VOJVODINA Your father is fromVojvodina, while your mother is fromSlovenia.What kind of recollections do you have from the period of your childhood spent inVojvodina; what images do you recall? - I really loved coming to Serbia as a kid and I remember that no one shouted at kids back then. You could do somethingwrong or break something and nobody yelled at you, while in Slovenia you would have taken a beating for the same things. That difference stayed strongly inmy memory, as did the rst time I fell in love. I was terribly infatuatedwith a village girl from Gornja Rogatica, wheremy grandparents came from, and I cried every time I left, and I criedwith happiness whenever I came back. Even today, that same lamp always lights up every time I come to Serbia. 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 fromHerzegovina 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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