Welcome back to the All Things Croatia podcast,
everybody. We've got a really cool guest today.
I'm super excited to talk to him. We have Mario
Klaric. He is a drummer, and he's been drumming
for a long time, and most recently just drummed
at the Thompson concert at the Hippodrome in
Zagreb, where over 500 ,000 people, half a million
people, were in attendance. It was the largest
paid concert in history ever. So super excited
to hear about that. But before we do, Mario,
thank you for coming on the podcast. thank you
very much man uh i've been a big fan of your
of your podcast and uh thank you for having me
and uh hello to all you all of your viewers oh
man i appreciate that it means a lot yeah super
excited to have you on really excited i want
to talk about the concert and and hear everything
about the concert but first you know i kind of
want to ask you know about you if you could just
tell us about yourself you know where you're
you're from i i hear you're you know born and
raised in karlovac right Yeah, I was born and
raised in Karolac, still living there. It's a
quiet mid -sized town in Croatia, central Croatia.
I have like 25 minutes of driving to the capital
of Croatia, Zagreb, city of Zagreb. So I never
had an ambition to live in Zagreb. And Zagreb
is traffic heavy. And those are mainly the reasons
I'm not particularly fond of living in Zagreb.
But yes, I come from a musical family. My father
is a musician. He's also a drummer. My grandfather,
his father, he was also a musician. He played
accordion. And I have a super talented brother
who is, you know, a super talented drummer, but
he doesn't play. From a very small age, he showed
a lot of stage fright. So he said, I'm going
to support you. You're the man, you know. but
uh his son my nephew uh he's a really talented
drummer he's only four years old but uh and i'm
rooting rooting for for his you know career someday
maybe yeah wow so the whole entire family is
is musical yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah from my father's
side yeah yeah uh -huh so when you were a kid
you know growing up you were were you playing
you know guitar and drums and stuff or well Yeah,
mostly drums, because my father, as I said, he
was and still is a drummer. And our household
was always filled with music. I remember the
first band. first record I heard was from the
Beatles. And the Beatles had a huge impact on
my life and my future musical journey. So the
drums were always set up in the living rooms
and sticks were always... I didn't sleep with
teddy bears, I slept with drumsticks. I always
said to people that that music and drums are
my destiny, you know? That's awesome, sleeping
with the drumsticks, I love that. There was a
time when I was little, you know, I started playing
drums when I was four years old And my father
taught me the first lessons, you know, like first
rudiments, first notes and all that stuff. And
my mother recalled, you know, she told me...
When you were five years old, you were drumming
in your sleep. So I had to ban your father from,
you know, teaching you furthermore because the
things are escalating and getting out of control.
So, yeah, I had a short break, but I was, you
know, revolted on my mother and I've continued
with practices and all that stuff with drums.
And you mentioned the Beatles, so the Beatles
were kind of your first influence. Who were some
of those other early influences? Yeah, the Beatles
were extremely, you know, the first one I've
ever heard, you know, from the foreign music.
When I was more older, I discovered Prljavo Kazalište.
There were, you know, very big... artists and
still are very big artists in Croatia. I also
discovered Marko Thompson. He was like, you know,
he's our national treasure. And when I reached
my teen years, I also discovered Led Zeppelin.
And I also listened and I also play a lot of
jazz music, like Weather Report, Miles Davis,
John Coltrane. and all that artists but yeah
the Beatles were the first one that had an impact
on me and Ringo Starr, John Bonham from Led Zeppelin
those are my number one you know influences.
well playing from what I'm not a drummer myself
I can drum a little bit I mean I play guitar
oh that's cool I'm a guitarist. That would be
awesome. I would love that. Next time I'm in
Croatia, we're going to have to set that up.
Yeah, keep me up, please. It will be my honor.
Absolutely. But I can play a little bit of drums.
And from what I understand and just what I read
and stuff, going from the Beatles playing the
drums to Beatles songs versus Bonham playing
Led Zeppelin skill -wise or sort of technical
-wise, it's a big difference, right? It's a big
difference. I love Ringo, he was like a sound
drummer, you know what I mean? He was serving
the purpose and arrangement of the song, and
he did a lot of creative drumming. You can hear
that on Come Together, for example. A typical
drummer would do maybe two and four on snare
drum, eight note on hi -hat, but he did something
totally... how can I say that out of the box
you know so that's really cool from him yeah
so is that sort of where you got started with
a lot of how did you start liking jazz because
you named a lot of rock bands you know but also
jazz it was a natural transition it was you know
A lot of my friends from high school and music
school, I went to the music school in Karlovac.
They were all into jazz and you know as a drummer
I started listening about the jazz drummers.
and later you found out with whom those jazz
drummers played with. So it naturally came the
first and my biggest inspiration is still today
Miles Davis. He had terrific musicians from all
his periods in his career. Also John Coltrane,
as I mentioned earlier. Weather Report is incredible.
There is one, when we're going to talk about
Thompson, our bass player, Ante Jurinovic from
Marko's band, he played with Weather Report's
keyboard player, pianist Joe Zavenu. And he said
about him, he was a guest in Croatia. He played
with the band from Klagenfurt, Ante. Ante started
in Klagenfurt in Austria. And he was, I don't
know, like 20, 21 years old. And Joe Zawinul
said, this guy on bass player, you know, with
all the bass players I had a chance playing with,
like Jaco Pastorius, you know, Victor Bailey.
This guy's incredible. If I say if he's incredible,
then he's incredible. So it's an honor to be
friends and play with Ante in Marko's band. It's
incredible. So incredible. Well, yeah, must be
an incredible musician. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And
a great guy, great friend, my older brother,
yeah. Yeah, wow. Well, you mentioned music school
in Karlovac. What did you do after that? Were
you still, you know, you were playing in bands?
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, I started to gig around town.
I was like 16 till 18 years old. That was the
period I saved some money. My father always came
with me because I was a minor. He always came
with me to the gigs so he can take care of me.
I always wanted to go to America, in New York
City, to Drummer's Collective. That's a music
school based in Manhattan. And there were a lot
of great musical drumming cats were teachers
there. And it was always my, you know, dream
to go there. And I always knew, you know, America,
you know, that's impossible for a guy from Karlovac.
But I had to, you know, quit my dream about that.
So my professor in Karlovac for drums and percussion.
I wanted to start preparing for a music academy
in Graz. It's actually a conservatory. So we
started to prepare all those exercises, etidas
and compositions and more rudiments and everything
to be prepared for the audition. in the summer
of 2009, there was a seminar from which the teachers
from the Drummers Collective were coming, you
know, teaching the students. And so you can apply
and be there and study from them, you know, like
10 days straight. You hang with them and, you
know, just great learning and hanging out experience.
And the gentleman who, I might say hi to him
via this podcast, his name is Peter Curic. He
was, you know, a guy who organized all this.
It was called East meets West, you know. And
I saw that application, not application form,
but it was, how can I say, a commercial, you
know, a commercial. a paper where you know east
meets west uh uh uh drummers teachers from drummers
collective are coming uh here to teach and all
that and uh and the bottom uh uh sentence had
like uh apply for a scholarship uh competition
for a scholarship at uh one month studying at
the collective you know in the new york so that
was one uh that one motivated me to go there
And I was in that seminar and it came the day
of competition and I won a scholarship there
for one month. And my time, when I finished my
high school in Karlovac. I applied for a full
-time scholarship there in America and I got
it. Two years I was there studying about music,
about various styles of music, about music business,
about studio recording, all that. I came with
a lot of information and it was a very blessing
experience in my life. Wow, that's awesome. Going
from Karlovac to New York is a big change. How
did you like it? It's a big change, yeah. It
was incredible. As I said before, Karlovac is
a really quaint town, a really quiet town. People
are not rushing through the life, but New York,
you've probably been there a hundred times. New
York is an incredible town, a city that never
sleeps, as they say. And I had a blast, you know,
every day studying drums and music, hanging out
with those teachers, going to the clubs, listening
to that music. That's incredible experience for
an 18 -year -old kid, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's
awesome. Yeah, you talked about the Zagreb traffic
you don't want to deal with. But then you're
in New York, it's even worse. But New York City
traffic is even worse. Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, that's a great experience that you were
able to do that two whole years in New York studying
and everything. Incredible, incredible experience.
Well, how did you, let's get into, you know,
talking about Thompson and the concert. How did
you even get in contact with him? How did he
reach out to you? How did that even start? It
was... Actually, Branimir Mihajevic, who is his
producer, he called me and it was last year around
Christmas time. And he said, we're going to record
some Marko Perković -Thompson songs. Are you
in for that? I said, of course. He's a big artist
here in our whole region. And I was really stoked,
you know, when he suggested if we want to do
that. And when time arrived, we recorded at his
studio. And that was the first time I met Marko
after Christmas last year. We started, you know,
the plan was to record three songs. and the rest
of the guys from Split. He was simultaneously
recording his new material in Split. So it was
divided. Some tracks and songs were gonna be
done in Zagreb and some are gonna be done in
Split. So he wanted to do these three songs with
Branimir. He also played the keyboards. He was
a bald guy with glasses. If you're going to look
to the stage, he was on the right side, the right
side keyboardist. And so I met Marco. Marco didn't
know about me. He was the man who suggested me
to Marco. And we met and it was, you know, Marco
has... a magnificent aura uh around him he's
such a great guy you know such a humble person
uh you you know how they say that the the the
biggest artists in world are humble and you know
easy to talk people he's he's all that you know
uh there wasn't uh even a slice of negativity
from his side. I never, you know, he's so calm
and, as I said, humble and very musical and a
genius in songwriting and in producing and making
music. That really, you know, had a big impact
on me from him as a person and as a professional.
So he plays a big part in... I like the musicality
of it all. Oh yeah, he actually... he has an
iPhone, you know, and on his iPhone he has an
app called GarageBand. You're familiar with it,
I'm sure. He arranged the whole songs, you know,
the drums, guitars, string section. He's, you
know, we did, you know, he transferred that project
to the Logic project in Bronimer's computer.
And we actually, you know, I transcribed all
the parts he wrote and actually it was all his
idea. The whole thing you hear and you listen
from his music. Wow. So which three songs were
you recording? The first three songs were Oluja.
That was the first song. The second was Kraj
Tomislav, King Thomas. And the third one was
Neproština pismo, unread message. And the next
day we had a reserved... How can I say? The next
day was also a recording day, just in case we
don't record everything the day before. And we
recorded everything the day before, all three
songs. And he said, I have two more songs. Would
you be interested in recording? I said, of course.
And in that session, we did Zagora and Blyburg.
After that day ended, we were relaxing in the
lobby of Branimir's studio and Marko said, you
know what, we are doing the whole record, the
whole album here and you're playing drums on
it. So I recorded every song except Život Life,
which is the last track on the album. That's
only with acoustic guitars. and uh if you don't
know what happened uh song uh that was recorded
by nano boric and that was recorded way before
we even met so that's you know uh 10 songs on
the album i recorded wow that's crazy and starting
from thinking you're only going to record you
know these three yeah the three song it's a pleasant
surprise and you know a really great honor wow
well so then you know, the concert at the Hippodrome,
half a million people, largest ticketed concert
in history. That was your first performance with
the band. Yeah, and the whole new band and with
him. And okay, we were prepared, you know, we
had like 30 rehearsals, you know, and it was
really detailed rehearsals. You know, we all
had input. Mark always said to us, you were the
guys I selected. I have full confidence and trust
in you and your musicality. You know, there are
always minor things. artists want you know to
adjust but those were very very minor things
you know uh everything was you know uh based
on our musicality and experiences and uh understanding
the the matter of marco you know you know what
what i think i mean you know so uh i played with
a lot of artists and uh in front of a lot of
people. Never in front of 500 ,000 people, but
Marco made sure we all felt safe, relaxed and
happy. He's that kind of person and that kind
of musician. You said you guys rehearsed about
30 times. Were you going over the entire... We
were doing like a month, we were just doing first
10 songs and the first week. The second week
was the second part of 10 songs, from 11th till
20th. And the third week was, you know, the last
10 songs from the whole set of 30 songs. Then
we switched to, we went to Hippodrome's Hangar
where the Arabian Dubai company, they stored
their, you know, PA systems and light and all
that stuff. technicians set up a big LED screen
and a smaller PA system with in -ear monitors
for all of us and we were rehearsing the concerts
from start to the beginning. That was more intense
because we did it without breaks, because we
didn't have any breaks on concerts. so we had
to strategize we had to make a strategy for each
one of other uh in band where we where we can
drink water you know where we can you know relax
for a bit uh but um i was so you know uh hyped
during that rehearsals i wanted to do the concert
three times in a row you know that's that's really
incredible yeah yeah well what it was 30 songs
right that you guys Yeah, 30 songs, plus intro
and outro, which we didn't play, it was going
through the PA and the LED screens. And so not
only, I mean, of course, you know, you recorded
the 10 songs on the album, but you had to go
back and learn all the other songs. Oh, yeah.
What's that process like for you? Oh, that process
was, I was, Marco asked me to officially come
into the band around 1st of April. So when he
asked me, you know, 1st of April, that's April
Fool's Day. I thought when he asked me, he was
kidding, you know, fooling around with me. But
it was true. He wanted me. the band and it wasn't
a joke. So around that time he officially asked
me to come into the band and from that time he
already knew the setlist. It had a minor, you
know, switcheroos and that stuff. I had a long
time, I had two months to prepare the whole...
show. I'm a good sight reader, I read music really
well, so I did a method. First I transcribed
the whole song, I did a song per day. That was
the whole process. And while I transcribed the
songs, I have a good ear memory. I can remember
the melodies and parts. So it was like I wrote
all down and I was playing through the song with
my hit music. And after that, I kind of Bit by
bit, I've moved out the sheet music and I played,
you know, songs by heart. And that was the process
for all songs. Some easier songs, I've done like
two in a day, you know, that were like Mo Ivane
and I don't know which one. Short ones, basically,
yeah. What was the most difficult song to learn?
Oh, most difficult song for me to learn? It actually
isn't difficult as much as it has nine minutes
of music. It's Bosta. It was on track list, if
you remember, it was after Kletva Kraja Zvonimira.
It was fifth, if I'm not wrong. The challenge
was only because... it's a long song it's like
nine minutes long and it's kind of a prog rock
you know symphonic prog rock song which even
has a time signatures in one part it has like
two bars of nine eight and seven eight and i'm
a i'm a fond of that i'm really big fan fan of
uh uh time music uh that one but uh but uh two
songs are really are very challenging for me
to play And that are, on the concert, and that
are Kletva, Klaja, Zvonimira and Čavoglave. Those
were, and I'm gonna say something for your podcast
exclusively. When we were playing Čavoglave,
I had a big cramp on my, in my leg on, how's
that, remind me please, Stanko, the muscle one,
the muscle on your leg. Your calf muscle? Calf
muscle, yeah, yeah. It got cramped. and so we
had a like a minute before that song in the next
song and Bonnie the second keyboard player when
the fireworks exploded you know all that debris
went down and it was all on his keyboard. He
needed to clean it up and I had to get rid of
my cramp in the leg. That moment I will share
only for you and your viewers. But then everything
in the end worked out. It went well and worked
out fine. It was a blessing doing that concert
and I want to thank Marko and Branimir Mihailovic
for calling me and having a faith in me to perform
on that concert. Were you nervous at all? I mean,
even before leading up? No, no, no. I was very
excited. I was, you know, I was like a boxer
going into the match. I was on, let's go, let's
go, you know. I can't wait. I want to feel that,
you know. And before that, I played in front
of 140 ,000 people in South America with one
big Mexican artist. And that was, you know, from
that moment after that concert, I've told myself
I'm not going to play anything bigger than that.
Here came Marko and he broke all the records.
So, you know, the feeling is, people are asking
me, what's the feeling? And the feeling is, actually,
you cannot describe that feeling because that
energy, the togetherness of people, you know,
they all came. uh to celebrate our country and
love uh love between each other and uh you know
faith in god uh that's our creation you know
identity uh they all came in peace and love uh
so uh they they motivated us even more to perform
you know uh big honor big honor yeah that's awesome
not even you know the fact that you're playing
in front of 500 000 people you know say just
had a normal Yeah, it was like a normal bigger
concert, but we had a prayer before the show
and we all believe in God, all of us in the band
and the production team and organizers, so that
was one more thing that made us more secure during
the performance and more uh confident you know
that was a really important part of the performance
yeah i know people in the media they were talking
about you know maybe something could happen and
yeah yeah yeah and there was no incidents you
know there was no way and that's uh that the
the media uh who were spreading that negative
uh connotations were actually uh people who are
against marco and his uh ideology and uh you
know, how can I say that? Not everyone is super
proud of Marco and his accomplishments, you know,
because there are a lot of different views on
religion and politics and general stuff, you
know, but Marco is here to spread love and love
for your country. Be proud of your of who you
are and respect others and love others all religions
all countries Marcos all that, you know, he I've
never as I said before I never heard anything
bad about anyone from him, you know Absolutely,
yeah. Well, yeah, we were talking before the
podcast, before we started recording, you know,
you asked me if I was there, and it was crazy.
I imagine it's different, you know, you're there
backstage and preparing, you know, I was there
with everyone attending, and it was, we turned
on, I came from Shara, the Atish Dostoevich,
and so we walked all the way down there, and
then you turn right. uh on that bridge i forget
what that oh yeah yeah but just and you look
around and this is you know six hours before
the concert is even starting and you look around
and all you can see are people you're just in
this yeah just people all around you all walking
yeah the ocean of people yeah yeah incredible
can i ask you what what was your uh favorite
moment from the concert or favorite song or or
basically favorite moment for yourself Favorite
moment is tough to say. The very beginning was
really cool. It was Ustani Siene, right? Siene,
yeah, yeah. That was incredible. That shocked
even me. Branimir told us, guys, be prepared
for the first song. We're going to activate the
whole set of flamethrowers and fireworks. Don't
get put off from your job, doing your business.
But I've heard when the main screens went off,
you know, with fireworks, I was like, what's
happening, you know? and after i saw the second
one when they all delayed towers were uh throwing
fireworks i said wow you know keep yourself cool
man yeah yeah because you want to enjoy it too
but you also have to play yeah yeah yeah we from
from stage musicians we even we didn't even see
the drone show you know that was you know ah
but uh but we saw at the videos people posted
and it was incredible yeah that was you know
yeah i was going to say that it was another one
of my favorites okay sorry sorry to interrupt
you well no yeah i mean i'm glad you brought
it up because the drones were really cool to
see because it's fun for us you know we see you
guys playing but then we see the drones above
it and yeah yeah really cool images yeah yeah
symbolic images yeah cool cool the also the one
part i forget which song it was but when marco
ran up like upstairs with the sword. Do you know
about symbolic of that sword? You know, what's
the story behind that? I don't think I do. That's
from, you know, the medieval, you know, I don't
know if it is from the medieval times, but putting
the sword on the ground means peace. He's reclaiming
peace and the war is over. That's a symbol of
peace. Wow, I didn't even know that. Because
a lot of media are promoting that as they're
making fake assumptions about that. They mean
that it is like... war proclamation, but now
it's the opposite of that. He's proclaiming peace
and everything is... the war the wars are you
know uh ending and uh stopping and that's that's
the whole point yeah but it was cool that uh
the lightning uh struck uh on the position where
he yeah that's incredible yeah yeah that was
really cool yeah yeah that's that's always on
the song the rival of that's the song name yeah
yeah yeah that part was really cool trying to
think i mean everything was cool i'm trying to
think of the you know top couple moments that
really I mean, Javel Glavé, of course, is cool.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's probably when I felt
like I saw the most flares. Oh, flares from the
hands of people. Yeah, that was incredible. It
was a fog of red flare smoke. Yeah, that's cool.
That was cool to see and to feel that. Yeah,
nice, nice. It's crazy to show, you know, my
American friends, because, you know, we don't
have, people don't have, you know, flares over
here in concerts and stuff. So they, you know,
they see that and they're like, oh my God, you
know, that's crazy. Nice one, nice one. Like
that and for, you know, World Cup celebrations
and stuff. I feel like it's a similar vibe, you
know. We are very proud and we are all together
when anyone from Croatia is performing in the
world and the Croats are very proud of themselves,
you know, as folk people. And that's our identity,
you know. We are really proud. for accomplishing
on the world stages and that's really nice. Yeah,
definitely. Well, Mario, unfortunately, we only
have a couple more minutes here and I have a
few more. It went so fast. I know, it went by
so fast. I wish we had more time. I want to ask
two more quick questions. Oh, yeah. Okay. First
one though, music related. What would be your
walkout song, your entrance song if you had to
have like a fight? Like say a boxing. Like a
fight from a Marcos repertoire or anything, anything.
Oh, that's tough. I've never really, really thought
about it. Entrance song. Let's make it a funny
one. I will go with the Blackbird from The Beatles.
All acoustic guitars. That would be cool. That
would be maybe a diversion for an enemy, you
know, opponent. to you know yeah to throw them
off a little bit oh yeah throw him off you know
yeah that's funny i thought you were gonna say
metallica or something oh yeah yeah yeah he would
that would probably be confusing for the opponent
for sure oh yeah yeah i always i just thought
it's a fun question for me to ask musicians because
i always think about that and i box a little
bit too so i always wonder like oh if i had a
fight you know well well nice But as far as Thompson
goes, I used to think that Kletva Kralje Zvonimira
would be a cool one. That's a really great song
for entrance. Yeah, that's cool. But I know Hrgovic,
you know, famous Croatian boxer. He does Geni
Kameni. That's really cool, too. Oh, yeah, yeah.
On one match, I've seen Marko singing with him.
Yeah, inside the ring. I don't know if you've
seen that video. That was also super cool, yeah.
Yeah, super cool. So, Mario, you've got the scene
concert coming up. That's August. Yeah, yeah.
It's the 4th of August, yeah. 4th of August,
okay, coming up. Yeah, the day before Oluja.
Yeah, yeah. oh okay that makes sense i didn't
realize that um and you know leading up to that
and just here at the end of the podcast we only
have about a minute left but i want to thank
you for coming on but this is something that
i ask all the guests when they come on but what
to you makes croatia special or being croatian
uh what makes being it is special to be a musician
in croatia and to be a musician a musician with
identification of being Croat, if you know what
I mean. As I said before, we are very proud of
doing anything Croatian -wise and based on everything
other than music, so being a musician and having
that proud characteristics, a proud character
in myself. It is a big thing to be inspired by
music and to perform and to perform on a very
big level. So that identification helps me being
an even better musician, if you know what I mean.
That's my answer, you know. Yeah, absolutely.
100 % agree. Well, Mario, thank you so much for
taking the time. Thank you very much.