I was always interested in what was beyond the border.
Robert Soko is Mister BalkanBeats. Whether in Berlin, Paris, London or Tokyo, the guy is at home wherever he goes and knows how to enthuse his audience. Gypsy Music Network conducted an in-depth and very funny interview with the Berliner-by-choice and was able to coax some interesting bits of wisdom out of him along the way.
You are from the former Yugoslavia. Where exactly?
I come from an industrial town in central Bosnia. The name of the town is Zenica. I recently saw somewhere in the Internet that Zenica is “the jewel” of Bosnian tourism. And that’s why they say what they say about those of us who come from Zenica – that we have something precious within ourselves. My sister and my ex-wife, both from Zenica and living in Berlin today like me, wholeheartedly agree with that! My girlfriend from Paris, however, sees things somewhat differently... (laughs).
You came to Germany in the 1990s. Why did you leave your homeland back then?
Even in my youth I was absolutely fascinated by things foreign. I always wondered what it would feel like to be someplace where you didn’t understand the language, where you could earn more money and drive better cars than we had, and where you could encounter Chinese and Africans in the streets. I was always interested in what was beyond the border. I served a year as a soldier on the Yugoslavian-Rumanian border and when I got back to my gem of a town Zenica in the mountains of central Bosnia, I knew I had to get out of that place, I had to do something. I didn’t know exactly what or where, but I was getting out of there...
And you were able to do that without any problem? Or did you need a visa back then?
I first had to fall head-over-heels in love, that was clear.... and with a girl born and bred in Berlin, for that was the only way to betake of the sublime secrets of integration. And then this love set everything else in motion. That is, get a residence and work permit, get health insurance, pay back the first instalment of my loan, accept the first underpaid job in a chocolate factory, taste the first false tooth in my Bosnian mouth, etc., etc., etc... love gave me the strength I needed to recreate my life... but absolutely nothing went smoothly and without any problem in that area. I had a Yugoslavian passport and with that, the bureaucratic marathon was already pre-programmed...
What connections do you have to your former homeland today? Do you go there often, to work as a DJ, for example?
Hmmm, good question. Well, for quite some time I was nurturing something like nostalgia. I thought that there was something like a “WE” and it was nice believing in that. But everything changed over time and that feeling faded away like an old photo. Still, it was thanks to that “nostalgia” that I have my career as a DJ today. And to answer your question specifically: it is probably my childhood memories that link me to my homeland. Sometimes it is also the music. But mostly it’s the high telephone charges that connect me to my “old home”!
And rakia, of course! I love drinking homemade Bosnian slivovitz because after a few tall glasses, it makes me look particularly good! Šljivovica makes me a better person and a real ladies’ man! My Grandpa Stipe often said back then: rakia helps you solve your problems. But I think it is often very helpful even if you don’t have any problems. You just see things differently!
Nooo, I’m not booked there as a DJ. When I go, then it is to visit my father’s grave. Afterwards, I have a long sweeping look at the steelworks and the city from the cemetery, eat a huge portion of cevapcici with loads of onions, get two or three bureks for the road and drive back home. To Berlin! Perfect (grins)!
Is there anything exciting going on in music there at the moment?
Well, Dubioza Kolektiv has really been rocking recently. Shazalakazoo from Belgrade is producing a very interesting mélange of Balkan sound and so-called global bass. “Music with a geographical origin”, as they themselves call it. But otherwise, exciting from that corner of the world?! Hmmm, let me think. No idea, to be honest. I would say that at the moment there is really nothing new. It’s more the exciting “Balkan things” that are being produced now in Western Europe. Funnily enough, those in the West like to play as temperamental “Balkanese” and those who really come from the Balkans prefer to act as if they all came from New York! A paradox and crazy, but that’s the way it is and it’s good like that!
Do you currently see any new developments in this clique of Balkan/gypsy/Eastern European/world music?
At the moment, I don’t see any real new developments. Just the same old recycling. Always the same old melodies, just paired with other music genres. Which is totally fine. Recently, I am finding it quite interesting to observe how the sounds – hip hop, dubstep, trap, etc. – that my son’s teenage generation listens to fuse so well with Balkan music and with the club-goers. Wobble bass meets Hop Hop Hop so to say!
You also collaborated on the latest album of the Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar. How did you end up working together with them and what was your role exactly?
Not so much a real “collaboration”; that’s an exaggeration. I just did the sequencing and in the end produced a remix (Go Marko Go), which I didn’t particularly like and which I almost never played in my DJ sets. Until I saw at my BalkanBeats Party recently in Tokyo that the Japanese totally flip out to this track. And if the Japanese get into it, then there must be something about it, I thought. It really is interesting to see how the very same song creates a different reaction in another part of the planet. I think I have made good use of this “intercontinental drift”!!
You are also part of Berlinski Beat. What exactly do you do in that band?
Hmmm, I’m no longer sure myself! The original idea was that I would collaborate as a kind of “beat adviser”. Over time, I saw that I am more of a loner than a member of the pack. And then there is another thing – it’s not especially easy to work with a troupe that has already been together more than 20 years and has developed its own rules and dynamic. You especially don’t have to do that at any price. Not me at least, since I’ve already sewn up my own career pretty much on an international level and I’m always on the road anyway. Still, I’m the one who gave the band its name and that should suffice, I think! Nevertheless, you can still see my “gob” on the posters. And that was ultimately the deal between us, as they were desperately in need of a good-looking guy and I really like seeing myself in all those sexy poses on the wall! (Huge grin!)
It’s been a while since the last BalkanBeats compilation. Will there be another in the series and if so, when will it be released?
If everything goes according to plan, a new BalkanBeats compilation should come out in 2015.
What do you otherwise have lined up?
As far as the BalkanBeats Berlin Production is concerned, an event in Berlin Kreuzberg that has been sold out for almost 7 years, in 2014 we had some big names from the scene as guests. Shantel, Dunkelbunt, Soviet Suprem, etc. It will be the same in 2015. There are some surprises in store for our audience in Berlin, that’s all I can say for now...
BalkanBeats Paris was rehabilitated and is now rocking every two months in the centre of Pigalle, in the legendary “Divan du Monde”, that event venue that during the 19th Century was famed as the “Opium Salon”. An extraordinary event venue and we’re going to see to it that it stays that way! BalkanBeats Tokyo was quite a bit bigger this year. I’m playing in more and more cities and for 2015, a collaboration is in the works with the Goethe Institut. Our BalkanBeats London Party had a crazy “full house” dynamic over the past 6 years and that is why it was time to move elsewhere. Now we will be in London Brixton every two months starting next year. BalkanBeats Mexico is also on the agenda from time to time – in 2015, we’ll be cooking up something together in Oaxaca and Mexico City...
Maintaining success in itself is a lot of work and to keep all these events in the “sold out” category requires a great deal of experience and effort. That won’t change much in the near future.
I’m a party DJ, much more than a music producer. I love seducing a full club with music and bringing them to ecstasy on the dance floor, that is really contagious. Concerning music production, I recently had a meeting with Dr. Nele Karajlić of the No Smoking Orchestra. He was of the opinion that we should at least try to make something together. We’ll see what comes out of that. As always, I’m quite sceptical!
And then there are other things... always some kind of trial-and-tribulation, experimentation, project, cooperation, collaboration, expedition, idea development, masturbation, vision, Balkanometaphorcitation, various types of international onanisation, etc. etc., and so much more! All that is on the agenda and if I sometimes lose track, then I reach for that good old Balkan method that my Grandpa Stipe came to appreciate back then: Sljivovica Magica! It gives me a better perspective of things and a certain harmony settles in! But there is one thing that I know absolutely for sure: I’m different and I have a direct connection to my old home! Ja sam ON!
That says it all. Hvala, Robert, and ziveli!
Interview: Robert Lippuner / Global Music Network
Translation: Jamie Davies
