interview

08/06/05
brought to you by joe 90

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1. Hi guys, please introduce yourself for those who may not know you?

Eddy: Hi i'm Eddy Ramich, now living in Zagreb, dj and producer for last 10 years..maybe more..founder of the Kontrapunkt club in Zagreb, was a part of the Eddy & Dus project and now workin on the new stuff with Yannah for compost records!

Yannah: Hi i'm Jana Valdevit..I do music in any possible way that my knowledge let's me, started with classical musical education (piano and theory) at the age of 7 that i still keep on with, singing and writing for 8 years, and programming and arranging for last 3 years.

2. Tell us how you got together as a musical duo?

Eddy: In the eddy & Dus period we founded a session band called 'Jazzalektro' and as we been hangin out in the studios in Zagreb one day we got introduced to new Zagreb jazz vocalist and songwriter Yannah...and in the moment she joined our project as a vocalist for studio and live sessions! While working with Yannah on Eddy & Dus projects we started to feel the same vibe for the music, so as Yannah started to programme and use her keyboard skills we decided to start our own project today called Eddy meets Yannah !

Yannah: Working with Eddy & Dus got me into the new sounds, as i was not really a party animal, and a little bit lazy for exploring, without this work i would probably missed it all, and think for the rest of my life that all the good music was already made. ÝÝ

3. How would you describe the album and how does it fit into the current scene?

Eddy: It's a simply laidback...hopefully listenable album with the touch various styles of music that we feel ! To be honest I don't know how it fits into the scene..for example my, dj set's are sounding different then the sound of the album.. but the most important thing was to try to produce and write songs not only tracks..as I think that for a album is more important to have songs and that u can listen to the album from beginning till end!

Yannah: Eclectic, non pretentious album with the touch of sunny places and influenced by music from the past ! As the scene is open minded there is no reason not to fit in !

4. The record is very summery, beautiful, and laid back - is this the zagreb vibe?

Eddy: Hmm..maybe not the Zagreb vibe, maybe yes....but definitely the vibe of some parts in Croatia that influenced us and which we are feelin...especially for me is important the feeling..octopusediterranean feeling..octopus salad, pinot bianco and soulful music!

Yannah: Not really, it's more an inside thing, reflex of imagination. Zagrebs' vibe is Ýeveryone having their own vibe, but there are few of us vibrating in the same frequency, hopefully the town has potential to develop to a place described in a question.

5. Gorgeous cover of 'can't hide love' - how do you approach covering such a classic?

Eddy: Actually would never think about to make a cover of such a classic..but it happened...Yannah was workin on some beats and sampled for fun a part of the cant hide original...pitched the sample to 125bpm and it sounded interesting...and then came the moment..aahh, maybe we should do a uptempo cover...hmm..anyway we done a version before this one, but we didn't been satisfied and we decided not to do it !! after sending the album without this cover to compost, Michael Reinboth said that we should try one more time to work on it and that it would be nice to have a cover song Ýon the lp and at last it happened...I remember I was that weekend somewhere djing and when i came back Yannah made already the version..and I was like, yes,yes.

Yannah: First of all with a big respect, but on the other side you have to move from the original as far as you can, because it's hard to do a similar rework of something that was already done great, it's all about being spontaneous, using elements that sound natural in new arrangement, without megalomanic approach...

6. What does the title 'just like' refer to?

Eddy: Maybe just like...? actually no big meaning ! just a moment in life ! just a song with some message ! Just some feeling that comes and goes ! Just sounding like the moment when we done the album ! Actually only just like..???

Yannah: Wide picture of the world around us and the expression of it inside. ÝÝ

7. Zagreb is rarely acknowledged as being part of the 'scene' - is it good or bad to be a bit apart from the places where most things are happening?

Eddy: The good thing is that we are not so close to London or Berlin..cause then we don't feel the pressure of the mentioned city's but we are building are own thing and we are happy about it ! The Kontrapunkt club night is going now for seven years what i think is more then great and it is on the scene maybe longer then some other nights and movements somewhere else ! Also Kontrapunkt become one of the favorite clubs for usual suspect from all around..also we have the festival which is quite unique in Europe for this kind of music, and also there are lot of artist which are every year checkin if they can be a part of it....so things are happening...definitely we are always trying to push the things and to build somethin that makes us happy...I remember that few years ago we been one of the rare clubs outside London that played broken beats or whatever, and we will always push and play new stuff that we like.....the only bad thing is that sometimes people in Zagreb don't know that Zagreb has the potential to be really upfront !

Yannah: I never spent long period in some of scene centers so I can't compare it, but if you like workin' it doesn't matter where you live, of course less socializing, but also less stress. Thanks to Eddy and Kontrapunkt we had and have lot of artist playing in zagreb and we're up to date with all the new stuff.

8. What else are you guys up to apart from your work as Eddy and Yannah?

Eddy: Mostly Eddy meets Yannah stuff..new tracks for eps and for next album..at the moment workin on the Freddie Hubbard remix and Cubismo remix ! Also we will start some new projects cause we have too many ideas and it's stupid to put it under one name...cause sometimes i wanna do pure dj tools tracks or some darker sounding songs..so there will be some different projects !

Yannah: Doing a few tracks or songs monthly, some will be part of EMY new projects, some i'll keep for solo projects .

9. I hear rumours of a rather brilliant yannah remix of Sun Ra?

Eddy: I'm crazy about that one !!! Love it ! It's the first Yannah official solo remix ! I think she made a great job !!

Yannah: Hope so...

10. Acid jazz come back. Discuss?

Eddy: I think todays music is the logical follow up to that what's been called acid jazz..but who cares about the names, at the end it's always fusion in some way ! but i'm sure that the journalist or someone will push through media kind a acid jazz come back and why not..for me was that period a great time and also through acid jazz i got deeper into the jazz and soul stuff, so if there's gonna be 'the return of acid jazz' i'll be happy cause it reminds me on good times !! but i'm sure that for example broken beats or some other beats will become more and more and more musical so that could be in one way the return..actually it's happening!

Yannah: I agree, and am happy about it because in that period i was to young to participate, it would be nice to feel that vibe for real...it would be a good spice for todays' music.

10. The future's bright, the future's .....?

Yannah: Boogie...and everything else, no limits, lot of colours and flavours, higher quality of life, world peace...it sounds like I was brainwashed, but we all want that... not brainwashing, better world...

Eddy: Aah..let us be surprised!!!