Kladivo, konj in voda | Interview

Slovenian folk band active in period from late 70s until mid-80s. In 1983 they released Vidov ples.

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How did it all start? When and where did you begin your musical journey?

Dani Bedrač: At the end of primary school and in the 1st year of gymnasium I started writing poetry. At the same time I was of course thrilled by rock music, but I’ve got completely ‘enthralled’ when the psychedelic movement emerged. With music, unusual audio and visual effects and of course the texts it tried to dive into different mental and spiritual dimensions of a human being. In particular into the ‘higher’ states of the mind. It invocate the mentioned states with help of hallucinogenic drugs, meditations and unusual life-experiences. I’m talking about the time when the hippy-movement started spreading out on the west-coast of the USA, and soon after also in Europe and everywhere else. It offered ‘positive vibrations’, free sex-life, limitless happiness, marijuana and LSD, the beauty of sunsets and the full moons,… the movement itself somehow didn’t attract me: I experienced their values as banal simplifications, and their lifestyle as a sort of a cheap pretention. But we had a thing in common anyway: the interest into unusual, different spiritual states, wherein you can find inspiration for poetry, music and pictures. If the hippies were looking for a way into instant-nirvana, into permanent bliss and escaped into these states to escape from their inability to face reality and lead dialogues with it they did it differently from me. I was ‘tripping’ because of a personal (perhaps traumatic) experience, because of my search for a referential point eg. Interpunction, from which I could understand life more deeply and better… and of course these states became also a source of inspiration for my writings, music and paintings.

Were you perhaps in any other bands prior to Kladivo, konj in voda?

Before Kadivo, konj in voda was established I played in 2 or 3 teenage bands… I was 13 years old when I first grabbed the electric guitar, stopped visiting the barber and established my first musical band, that naively and intermediately replayed all bestsellers from bands like The Beatles, The Monkees, The Rolling Stones… If I remember right the band was called ‘The Invaders’. Later, somewhere in my 3rd year of high school I established the band ‘Plaz’. It was a classic trio made after the classic sample of The Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience… We improvised a lot and I started writing my own songs. But this band has unfortunately never grown over the ‘garage-level’. We played on school parties and had 3 or 4 smaller concerts.

How would you describe the scene in the region of Celje (Slovenia) in the late 70’s and early 80’s? 

Actually there were no bands you could call relative to Kladivo, konj in voda in the region (I actually can’t recall any others any later either). Close by in Žalec in the period of 1979-1984 there were festivals of acoustic music, in Celje there was a youth club called KljUB. On both of these locations mostly performed bands and individuals from elsewhere… Celje got a bunch of interesting so-called alternative bands relatively late, around the year of 1985.

Tell us about the formation of the band.

The roots of the band start in year 1979, when I met an excellent guitarist, a musical educator and good friend Srečko Lavbič (20.1.1957-15.2.2006, R.I.P.). He was teaching classic guitar in the musical school in Žalec. I introduced him to all my songs and Srečko, who was by the way also a perfectionist and a master at arranging, was excited. We tried to establish a band with some friends: we learned to sing with multiple vocals, but none of us was a good singer. It got serious when Srečko started to teach Damjana Golavšek in the ways of the guitar. He was inspired by her voice (its memory still inspires me) and immediately me and Damjana (who was at the time about 15 years of age) went to listen to music to her place in Petrovče, where we also had our first rehearsal, which could last for the whole day. As much it concerned the performance we had high criteria: each song, be it performed at the rehearsals, in the studio or on the stage had to sound the same way it did sound in my head, even if I first heard it in my head years before! There were no compromises: interpretation was the subject for all of us (Srečko took care of it as a musical educator). In the frame of the arrangement each of us could work his own way.

In 1983 you recorded Vidov ples.

The Album was recorded in Ljubljana in studio TopTen in 1983. It was recorded by master Dare Novak and produced by Andrej Pompe. We were recording in the ensemble of; DAMJANA GOLAVŠEK-vocals; MIROSLAV VIDEČNIK SINE-vocals and guitar; SREČKO LAVBIČ-guitar (classic and acoustic guitar, mandolin,…), DANI BEDRAČ-guitar(acoustic guitar, mandolin, bass-guitar), AVGUŠTIN PENIČ-violin (sometimes also guitar, tambourine, flute); GREGOR STRNIŠA-piano (synthesizer).

The recording was rather turbulent, there were a lot of tensions between band-members regarding the way of recording, arrangements of each song… And exactly these tensions made the album the way it is. We also had some guests; MITJA BEUERMANN on the clarinet, the excellent bassist NINO DeGLERIA and the percussionist VLASTO SKALE.

The album was issued and published by the label RTB (Radio-televizija Beograd). In the 1st wave there were about 3000 copies, that were bought out immediately.

What was the concept behind Vidov ples?

The album was actually emerging in my head already years before; the concept of the album was based on my so-called psychedelic starting points I described before and also on my lyrics. The music was serving as a tasteful and basic additional atmosphere; it was just a base for the poetry. Later – just before the recording and in between – it overgrew its primary objective. We improvised a lot and let ourself go to momentary feelings… We enriched the arrangements with synthesizers, a clarinet, percussion, we recorded inventive and upgraded multivocals. The album is a sum of musical experiences and feelings of all of us, even though it is in its base a simple melodic and tripping poetry.

Would you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?

I would gladly do so. But I must admit I don’t really remember what kind of a state or mood lead me to write the texts. It is a time-distance of 35 years or more,… Nonetheless I can tell you it was a series of single trips, insights and recognition’s I tried to put into words with the poetic arsenal I had at the time. Somehow intentionally I tried to not be a smart ass and try to teach the listeners about some lessons or messages. I tried to musically paint the states awareness, even though some songs still send some lessons or obvious messages… I am pretty sure all of this can be understood while listening to our songs. The diction of both singers is quite clear and the texts are understandably sung. .. Each listener can still interpreted each song on his own, which was somehow my intention.

Who made the cover artwork?

The cover was made by a local painter, Branko Dobravc from Celje – the text on the backside of the cover was my work.

How about concerts? 

We had our 1st performance as a trio (Golavšek, Lavbič, Bedrač) at the musical school Žalec in 1979. As the mentioned trio we had some successful concerts in Polzela, Kranj, Celje, Maribor,… We managed to record our 1st songs in the studio of Radio Študent in Ljubljana. It’s too bad, but I don’t seem to recall the number of concerts we had back then; in the time frame of 1979-1984 we could be talking about a triple digit number! The concerts started to follow each other more constantly after Sine Videčnik, Gusti Penič and Gregor Strniša joined us. We performed almost every single week, then for some time none and then followed a period of bigger and more known concerts, out of which I would especially like to mention the concert in the Gallus Hall, Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, the concert on the gymnasium of Miloš Zidanšek (Maribor). We also had a great concert (recorded live with no mentionable mistakes) in Narodni dom Celje. We also performed on the festival of acoustic music in Žalec each year. We also had a performance on the festival Omladina in Subotica, we played on the Slovenian tour with the band The Tannahill Weavers… To be honest there really is too much to tell…

What about influences? Were you influenced by English bands like Pentangle, …

I couldn’t say that. Although I know the works of the mentioned band. At first I was really enthusiastic about The Rolling Stones, later also Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Jim Morison. I should probably also mention Jefferson Airplane, Vanilla Fudge, Pink Floyd and similar. Later on some electronic bands and some punk bands joined in… I also listened to a lot of ethno and folk music of European and Asian societies, what can be probably noticed in some of my songs.

What happened next? Were you still musically active?

For quite some time I was, I worked in a experimental group ‘Lokalna TV’, a band named ‘Sfinkter’…; I recorded some minor things with Marko Brecelj, but then I spent some of my time with my family, studies and alinism… But regardless I kept on writing poetry. I only performed on some literary evenings or smaller events. Later, especially in years 1996 and 1998 I recorded some audio-writings, which were not really comparable with Vidov Ples, especially not in terms of being well known.

What are you doing nowadays?

I am creating and working as a lyricist and musician. Lately I am also working as one of the editors of a local literary magazine named Vpogled. About 5 years ago I was leading the group Aletheia, in which I nowadays only perform in a duet with the vocalist Simona Kropec. As a writer I published 5 poetic collections and 1 novel. I also offer my services as singer-songwriter on a lot of events (on independent performances and concerts, on literature evenings and book-promotions) across of Slovenia. Once a year I normally also perform in Sarajevo (BiH).

Will there be a reissue of Vidov ples?

This year I published a mini album (CD) Le eno pesem še napišem, but I am not thinking about reissuing Vidov ples. But I am thinking about an LP in ways of ‘the best of Kladivo konj in voda’. The LP would be accompanied by a text-book. For now that’s just a wild idea I am currently discussing with some labels… But I can tell you it will take some time till we see the published edition.

Thank you! 

Thank you for your well-versed questions. I am happy about Vidov ples being so valued. I guess it deserves it, because of the invested effort. I would like to greet your readers and invite them to listen to some of my other works. They can find a collection here. Thank you. Dani Bedrač

Klemen Breznikar