Ko blista,
zavist budi,
sredina voli drugome da sudi.
Katranom se mažu krila.
Tuđa sreća
nikom nije mila.
Ko leti visoko,
upada u oko.
Tuđem padu
mnogi se vesele,
Tuđ pad
mnogi žele.
(Zoran Kostic Cane, Crosswords)
Zoran Kostić Cane (b. 1964), singer and author of the legendary band "Partibrejkers", as well as the super-group "Škrtice", recently published a collection of songs called Crosswords (Laguna, four issues already!). But, even without this book materialization of his sharp creations of the mind, Cane has long since entered the thought books of his own generation and many succeeding generations. Thus, his rhymes have been a part of everyday urban speech for decades, and the specific choice of words, their order and way of pronouncing them - are a key issue of the city's honor for everyone streetwalkers i moon daughters the former SFRY. Canet's action on the public stage, however, was never plugged into the drive of ex-YU pathos, nor did it plod along, recycling itself. At the same time, although always daring to speak the truth out loud, Zoran Kostić Cane never allowed himself to deliver it as a hollow-headed banality for posting nothing. That's why he is our hero - never a slave, snob or malice.
"WEATHER" We were reading your book of poems Crosswords - and that on several occasions since last spring when she appeared - and it seems to us that the key question is posed in it: how we will be remembered by generations? what do you think, how will?
ZORAN KOSTIC CANE: There are two things you can be remembered for - either bravery or cowardice. So, according to how you position yourself towards everything, towards the current moment, towards eternity, towards man, towards yourself. Are you going to hide or are you going to live where you are.
We also come across verses in the book"We weren't like this., who we are? " Who are we really?, and what we used to be like?
Well, you know what, we used to know less, so we wanted more. We did not pay attention to the possible dangers that our actions bring. We were not aware of the consequences that our actions would have, which were based on unconsciousness and a reckless youth and a sense of justice.
And what happened next to that reckless youth, with that certain right instinct of ours, now that we look back?
Well, nothing, he ran into a survival compromise. All people now want to pass by burning things unsullied. So, after all, they don't care about anything. To mind their own business, to chase after some small interest and to have some small benefit of their own. A lot of lines of little resistance have determined our lives. The degree of all these shows us who we are and what we are.
And that's exactly what happened to us, although our parents raised us quite differently, in some ancient times? Compromise less-more, but people don't really care... you mention about it in one place, that one "formlessness of existence"- why did we turn out so wrong in the end?
We became like that because we lost trust in everyone and everything. So many people have outwitted us with their lies, their corruption, they have slipped the ground from under our feet on several occasions. They promised something, but gave a big nothing. That's what it's about. We have lost confidence, we are driven into ourselves, into some kind of endless introspection - and we have made a prison out of our life.
Dobro, but some people actually have a lot of confidence in you personally all the time. What then is your responsibility as a poet, as the voice of a generation?
I am not the voice of a generation, I am just the voice of one man. And that voice, if someone else hears it - great! I did something. But I don't have those targeted things - like, now I'm going to be a standard-bearer... I'm not from that gas, to be, you know, followed by the crowd.
Yet, This book is very popular. - all data shows that it sells well and is widely read. How do you explain that then??
Well, you know, if it sells - it's probably an okay book, given that the fourth edition has already been printed. Wherever I go and have a literary evening - I see that people are eager to be addressed, to be communicated with, while they live the way they live. Because we only determine the degree of our courage and fight for our own life. All the rest, you know, nothing counts.
Basically, I started doing music because I wanted to do something I say, and not to be popular now, to have chicks or to be listed in society as someone and something. I am glad that people accepted the book as something of their own, as a manual for every day. It's not a book, now you sit down and read it - it's a book, you take three to five songs, three songs a day, or for three days, slowly, so that you always have it at hand... in the sense of - what would you say anyone? As a solution to doubts. A handbook for easier coping in difficult times.
You keep stressing out., throughout his career, responsibility for a public word and for a public act. That's why it's a very responsible thing that you managed to do with the book Crosswords - it is obviously an extension of your musical activity by other means, in the sense that it will stay at someone's home, somewhere on the shelf next to the album "Partybreakers", to be kept and read to others.
Well, that's the most important thing. How a certain person in a certain time reacted to that time. There is no exposure, like, let's see what I have captured, how smart I am or I don't know what. Than - washing away your pain. So, here you go, see everything there is, that's my opinion. Well, if you like it, let it go, and if you don't, good luck.
In all likelihood, in your sufferings, many recognize their own sufferings?
Well, normally, pain is universal. You know what they say - we are all unhappy in the same way, and we are happy only according to some nuance, our characteristic. By what makes us happy, what lights up our face - gender and being, a certain smile, a beautiful look and all that. But then again, it's interesting how people take it all in... There are some who won't get into it. You hear comments like, well, I read your book in one day! But it is impossible to read that book in one day. It can be read, like a report, from a meeting, but to get into it - it takes more time. Now it depends, it's like when you record a song, and people react. And we live in great jealousy, envy and hatred, it's such a time, everyone has some priority over the other, everyone pretends that they are neko, until life puts them in their place.
About that jealousy, again we find an excellent verse"Life is on target. - it's not easy to live, to want, to shine, garbage"?
Well, yes. Because that's when you feel like you've stepped out of the middle, and that was never advisable. The middle is always leveling, it always forces you to be within some given framework. Whoever jumps out is a nuisance. Whoever thinks - must clean himself. It's all written in the book. Because, simply, people are so full of fear that they refuse the right to their opinion at the start. They want to share their guilt with others, not to take responsibility, people want to live in an indeterminacy... This indeterminacy is called in our country - sloppiness. You can do it this way, you can do it that way, plus a bunch of meaningless phrases and stories floating around.
Let's say, you can hear so many nonsensical things from one man, that you wonder how he came up with those constructions, how did he think it could be at all? But inorganic time creates inorganic people. Inorganic people create inorganic opinions. So, we now live in an artificial, inorganic world. In one large technological devolution. No matter how much it seemed to us that man now goes where he wants, if we had this artificial intelligence - we are now living in a devolutive time. All love and all feelings have been banished from the system that rules now. Because it shows weakness, and a man who has weakness is not needed by anyone. Strong people are needed here, who will easily live by other people's directives.
On that note, somewhere in the book you just said"Man has forgotten to love.", and a little later"What we feel makes us guilty". Do you think that some people have this weakness? - their sensitivity, actually the possibility of having feelings, love?
Well, yes, but you can see that everything is erased with a cerebral varicocele. All the characteristics and nuances that explain us in a sea of the same. Now all that is needed is a large group of people who will raise their hands when they need to and do what is required of them, to live in someone else's value system. Simply put, we are not looking for a man who thinks for himself, but a man who will put the biggest nonsense into action without thinking. Pyramid brain savings - that's what it's all about.
photo: marija janković...
Pa, who are these people who look down on us, while we live in a frog's perspective, as you say in song no.. 21? What is it that rules us right now??
Well, there is fear, fear for existence, for survival. The rule is that people are in a frenzy about the end of the world, nuclear disasters, wars. People say that they are blatantly lying, that stupidity is placed on the pedestal of wisdom, that everything that is abnormal becomes extremely common. People, how can I say, can't be completely fooled - that's why those people who can't be fooled completely have a great effort to accept everything that they wouldn't before. I return to one of the questions that we used to be better - the older we get, the more we deteriorate, how will we be able to digest ourselves more? What we rejected before, now doesn't bother us anymore.
A while ago we talked about how we used to be, like children...
Not as children, as we were until yesterday...
... but what remains for today's children, What do they encounter?, What do they inherit from us?? what do you think, what they will be like in the future?
You know what - only eternal themes and bright examples are important. Nothing else. And my generation was left with drugs, alcohol, hooliganism, laziness, dishonesty, and all that... But that's why you could choose on the other side, it means to be a hero, to be brave, to resist at any cost. Our freedom is paid for every moment. And now, freedom is no longer recommended to anyone. Because of his freedom, a man suffers in front of all apathetic, fucked-up people. Coward. Duplicitous. The only thing is that you should set a bright example for those young people, teach them good. Because you know, at the end of the day - it's up to us to try, to try to do something for those children, and the rest how it will be - only God knows. You just have to deposit good things in those young organisms. And there are them. Whoever forgets youth is given over to a disturbing old age. Because youth always offered something, great ideals, some uncompromisingness, a clear view of reality, a struggle for some truth of its own, which is lost over time, living with other people - but it cannot be completely lost. A lie can hide the truth somewhere, but the truth is great, the truth is the essence of our existence. Truth is the rock on which we stand and wait for someone to come and get us.
And the one who will not seek the truth - his life is in vain, because it is not life. It is trifling with one's own life. So, again some fringe-frange situation, you live, but in fact you live, fuck it. You are animalizing... in the sense that your life is smoldering.
Bora Grbavi left us recently - Tony Montano, with whom you were friends in some early days, exactly the ones we are talking about now. How do you feel about it all?, what was his life path like?
You know what, we grew up together - meaning parks, the city, punk rock. One of the most beautiful events I remember is related to him. Since he always knew all the people, the entrances to the discotheques, the DJs and all that - once we went at half past four in the afternoon to "Zepelin", the best disco that Belgrade has ever had next to the "Akademija", but considering the fact that "Zeppelin" was the first - it's even bigger than "Akademija"... And that's how we got there, and he always had two or three records under his arm, and while the aunts were already cleaning the disco from the night before, he approached DJ and asked him to play "Ramonese". So, it was 1979 or 1980. And the DJ really played "Ramonese", and we were jumping on "Zeppelin"! At that time, when this disco started, you couldn't go up on the podium, now you're going to dance - no, you had to have an internship, to watch those people who are on the podium, and then half a year, possibly a few places - so that you can also stand on that podium. That's how everything was arranged at that time - and we were jumping on the "Zeppelin" back then. According to the empty "Zeppelin" that was only ours and no one else's.
I was very sorry to hear that he died, he was part of my youth and all, and his life is a very interesting story. He was the first to break the mold, like with the "Ramones", re-singing things and everything that they made a movie and a career out of after "Psychomodo Pop" - so, he is that First the radio. He was very charming, but he didn't pay attention to where he was going and then life took him somewhere... let's not get into the small intestines yet. I was very sorry, because two days before that, our friend Charlie, who was also a member of "Radosti Evrope" and sang "Russian Salad" on Tony Montana's first LP, also died. Manza also played with him, the first drummer of "Breakers", he left when he had enough of everything and continued to play with Boro... So he was a very interesting man, his life is ripe for a movie. Face, he was always face.
Belgrade is otherwise full of such stories, from Zoran Miščević until today - all rock generations seem to have had such personalities?
Well, what can I tell you - rock and roll takes a sacrifice. In one moment, present yourself as everything in life. Blurred your view of other things. It's as if he makes you fool yourself, that he is everything to you, that the audience is everything to you - but it's not. At least not to me. I'm glad that I can sort of separate myself from rock and roll, although it's difficult. Because once on stage - always on stage. Bina is a court-BINA.
At first, I thought, like you go up there, dust off your belongings, come down, no one knows you. How bitterly mistaken I was! They always know you. You have become a part of someone's life, a part of someone's memory, you are a distant relative to everyone and all that. And that's what I'm talking about Crossword - we must always find the meaning and significance of life, through love, through forgiveness, through reflection... We are not irritated by people far away, but by people who stand around and constantly say something that they do not prove by their actions, their attitude towards us. They say they love you, and they'd love to see you down there. How you crawl and beg... Judas is everywhere.
There is a great verse where you say how "You have no chance for lyrics., just a nuisance for the epic". And that style of yours?, and how are you telling us now, it is very epic. Did you read epic folk songs as a child?, Did they fascinate you??
Well, I did, we weren't born now, many of us are from previous ones days. Many things live in us, through genes, through story, through anything else. We are just neki in the continuation of the story. I love history by the way, I love all those old songs, the history of peoples, the history of rock and roll, the history of human relations, the history of art...
Have you ever dealt with roadsides and those records on them?
Well, I'm not, but I know roughly what it is. If you stand next to them, to remember them, drink some water, talk to them and so on.
But it's nice, and it's also some rock and roll records. While we are talking now, we understand how people have had the need to leave a mark here since ancient times. It's almost like the blues…
To leave a mark, and to remain what they are. Every time has its own interpretations, but a person cannot remain what he is - if he chooses what he is not. You have to answer for everything, there must be responsibility and gratitude for everything, in the end. Like when that monk says - I'm not well, thank God. These are things like that, they are actually very simple, but those who don't want to grasp them - complicate things. And they don't just make it difficult for themselves, they make it difficult for everyone.
Speaking of the past, do you know that there is one of the first histories of the blues, I think it was written somewhere in the fifties - The American musicologist is the author. - who actually wrote in that book, and explained it on a few pages, how the original old Delta blues has a lot to do with Serbian epic songs, because in the same way - as oral tradition and wisdom - transmitted from generation to generation through songs, and each performer then adds something of his own to the original epic?
Well, it's like that in all songs, like when you listen to Fred McDowell's Mississippi, for example, and you think he's playing sirtaki, when in fact he's playing Delta blues. Those are our old memories. All of us people - wherever we live - are the fruits of those old memories, which always have modern interpretations, that is, new interpretations in our time. That's it - don't give in and don't allow someone out there who doesn't care about you to compose you, portray you and do whatever they want with you. These are the heroic epics, so - alone against everyone.
We are all then the heroes of someone's future memories?
Yes, we all do it, but it's always been like that with me - nothing on purpose. Over the bar, all around closer. I always loved to read those proverbs, to transport myself in time by reading those epic contents, I could always be like an observer of it all. I'm reading, as far as I know, the Battle of Thermopylae or some other battle from the First Serbian Uprising, so it's like I'm there. Or, let's say, I'm watching the Turks build the Ćele-kula, and I'm standing on the side. That's how it is for you - it just depends on whether you're interested in heroism or whether you'll be satisfied with your cowardice, which is always on your side. And you always take it off when you start to get scared. Cowardice gives security. It's a bit paradoxical, but it's true. So, there is no declaration, there is nothing, you drown in the middle, and bye-goodbye, your conscience does not bite you. And then such an image remains with other people, with generations. And to return to what was before - we gave little to those children, too little. We left them a kind of world, and we will leave them this - Rio Tinto and other nebulae.
Pa, What should we do then??
You know, everything in life is a question of identity. That identity is a measure, and those who don't have it simply don't know how much they need it. It moves in the endless space of the unknown and empty, because it cannot fill that space, and it does not know what to do. She tries everything, and she is in an environment that again has its own norms and is always looking to lower you to some level of its own, so that it can handle you more easily. To manipulate more easily, to put you in a stereotype and to do whatever he wants with you.
There is only one more question left - When will the new album come out? "Partybreakers"?
Well, I don't believe that it will soon, for now there is nothing.
A new collection of poems?
Well, I don't know, everything I do, it's like I'm doing it for the last time. I don't have reserves or any B variant - what I have I give to everyone, here you go, so enjoy yourself. Who wants substance in this darkness, here it is. I never calculated, manipulated, and all that. What's in the mind, what's on the road.
