Goran Bregovic was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, in 1950. He played in one of Yugoslavia’s leading bands, Bijelo Dugme (White Button), from 1974 until their break-up in 1989. Bregovic also composed soundtracks for award-winning movies like “La Reine Margot” by French director Patrice Chereau and “Underground” by Serbian film-maker Emir Kusturica. Since 1998, he has been performing all around the world in an ensemble known as the Wedding and Funeral Orchestra.

Deutsche Welle: How different is it for you to play in Bonn, Moscow or Paris?

Goran Bregovic: It is important for us - the band and I - to have fun on the stage. We do not rely on the audience to have fun. I am from rock and roll, so I already had that. I had too much of that in my life, so I'm okay if nobody moves. At my age, you understand that life is short. Instead of doing a million things, those people who could be washing their cars, playing with their children or watching football, give their time to me. The two hours have to be spent well, so I try to be good.

What distinguishes Balkan music from other kinds of music?

In other countries, just plain music is enough. In the Balkans, it's not only about the music - it has to be madness. And this is why we use that brass, which is actually German brass played by musicians who are not trained. The instruments are old and cannot be tuned, so they are a little bit out of tune all the time. And this is what creates madness. I don't see any other real difference except this need to make madness all the time. Every normal person needs a little madness just to feel normal, so it's not exceptional.

How different is it to compose music for a movie as opposed to just writing music?

I'm not really a good movie composer. I was just lucky to work on a few movies which were good. The directors didn't really need movie composers, so I wrote music the way I always do. My last records are not really soundtracks, but I consider them soundtracks. I try to write the soundtrack of someone's life. We all have music that we carry with us for certain occasions. I like the idea that I'm in someone's soundtrack.

If you were offered to go back in time, which year would you go back to?

I would like to go back to 1968, 69 or 70, the time when I left Yugoslavia for the first time. It is probably the most important period of my life. I was a striptease bar musician and played in bars in Naples. It was the year that Eric Clapton and Cream came out. You can easily spend life in striptease bars; the money is good and the girls are kind. But then Clapton and Cream came out, and the approach really got me. It wasn't jazz. It was pop music, but free pop music. So we started to play like Cream in the striptease bars. The poor girls were shocked - getting naked to all of this anarchy. So we were thrown out. And we had problems with drugs of course. That's why I always consider Clapton the most important person in my life. I would probably today still be a striptease bar musician if it weren't for him.



What do you regret the most?

I think that it would be arrogant to regret anything. I come from such a small musical culture compared to real musical cultures like the German one. You can buy the biggest book of musical history, and you will find no Yugoslavian in there. Knowing that I have an audience in Germany, in Paris, or that I will play in Carnegie Hall - it would be really arrogant to regret anything. I think all of my life, I was just lucky all of the time.

Interview: Chiponda Chimbelu
Editor: Greg Wiser