Luxurious Illnesses

Exactly twenty-three years ago, in May of 1974, Goran Bregovic presented himself to the Yugoslav public in Ljubljana as the leader of the band Bijelo Dugme. On Djurdjevdan (Saint George's day and the heralding of spring weather) of this year, the main rock-ethno-roller is kicking off his first south-Slav tour leading the Balkan "Wedding-Funeral Band". In the meantime he has lost his country, some dreams and a few delusions.

He has recently raised a slight fuss with parts of his conversation taken from Zagreb's Playboy issue. The interview for VREME was conducted at his new Belgrade address between the kitchen, in which the host is preparing a Bosnian dish for his workers, and the large studio in which the computer-communications center is located. Goran is simply passing through. He arrived from Paris the previous day where he is synchronizing his music for Depardier's new movie. The very next day he is off to Athens to check the Greek lyrics for Dalares's new record. He is completing a single with an Irish singer for the English film "Serpentine Kiss" and is finalizing his preparations for his band's performance at the July jazz festivals in prestigious Montreal and Istanbul. He is working on the long-awaited Zdravko Colic record mostly at night. The conversation is ruthlessly interrupted by constant telephone calls.

Zvezda's stadium can be seen from the window. Malicious people claim that he moved there on purpose in order to be in a position to control things when the largest choir sings his song "Djurdjevdan".

VREME: I suppose it wasn't easy to be Bregovic in the nineties, bearing in mind your political and family situation.

BREGOVIC: More family. I never took politics personally. I believe that every Yugoslav who takes it seriously must be very naive. Politics were always outside of quality, something that works against us.

The situation is changing now. The war is over. When people are now talking as they did in 1990, you can see that time has passed them by. Those who are still at war seem comical everywhere. Even while it was going on, I kept saying that it wasn't my war. I didn't know what to do with it, especially now. To go back to a state of war when war has been concluded, and war has been concluded? I feel sorry for those who fail to understand this.

Still, various traumas from that war have remained. In America today people are still suffering from the Vietnamese and Gulf War syndrome.

Those are luxurious illnesses which belong to the rich nations. We are hungry for bread due to that war.

Word has it that you have recently received an official invitation to return to Sarajevo?

I haven't. First, I don't believe there is a policy there by which people are invited or kicked out. Who could invite me to return to Sarajevo? I don't know those people who are now in power there personally. The war has launched them. I can be invited by Sidran or Davor, friends, however I can't identify them -as a paranoid person would- with the government.

At one time you had great problems due to an inaccurately interpreted statement on Milosevic?

All in due time probably. The man who beat me up on account of that statement would most probably today beat up the very person on account of whom I was beaten then. At the time (the end of 1989, author's note) I had conversations with various people who were totally engrossed with that topic. You didn't have to be too intelligent to comprehend that nothing great would come out of it, that it is all of short duration, and that all shall, after a few years, feel as nauseous as one does after a bad meal. When I look at those things now, I wasn't overly surprised by it all even then, and now it all seems normal to me.

You are a person who can only with difficulty be extracted from the ex-Yugoslav collective remembrance? Why?

Prior to the war I sold millions of records in Yugoslavia. In the last couple of years I have seen Yugoslavs all over the world and it is difficult to find those records there. Still, it is difficult to imagine a certain region of the former country where there are none of my records. Whether I like it or not, I exist somewhere in the code of the average Yugoslav, regardless of the fact that he is now called a Croat, Macedonian, Serb, Slovene, Bosnian or Sarajevan. They themselves are now uncovering this fact again. Croatia Records has reissued Dugme's old records and it was proven that they were among the best-selling items, just like here. There are no make-believe stories on that. I am now doing different things and people are curious to hear that, too.

Do they know of those new movies you have made tracks for?

They do, naturally with prejudices. When Croats hear my trumpet players from "Underground", they remind them of Vukovar. Naturally, we don't have such associations, yet they do. Those records are sold there and I know those movies can be found in their video clubs. Officially they are prohibited, yet people watch them. They shall probably release my new records officially, since interest exists for them.

Last winter you publicly supported the students...

When they called me, I truly felt as I did when they appointed me to be the president of the boxing club Zeljeznicar. I was so proud. Because they called me into their company, as their equal, the people who are fighting so the battle can be fought according to the rules. Because battles which are not carried out by the rules are not chivalrous battles but brawls. I appeared because they invited me to, and all they were demanding was that the political battle should not be a brawl but rather something beautiful. I had no political illusions to support anything other than that.

Do you know whether any of these younger politicians grew up with your songs?

Well, no. However it was nice when Momir Bulatovic told Zdravko (Colic, author's note) that, when he came to Sarajevo on excursion as a pupil, he went to see where he lived. I thing it's wonderful when a president of a country admits he was your fan. Before they became what they now are, they were all our sympathizers.

Your statement on Bono from U2 had great publicity here. You, yourself, are aware that he is a great star of the most influential band of the eighties, and even now he is undoubtedly popular in all regions of the former country...

I mentioned his name solely because he was treating Sarajevo as a topic to a great extent and someone is probably wondering why I didn't deal with the same topic myself. How come Bono visited Sarajevo, performed at humanitarian concerts, had his picture taken in the rubble - and I didn't? In that sense, I said I couldn't do it since I am from Sarajevo, I'm not Bono. Lots of things connect me to that place, my whole life links me to it. I cannot use Sarajevo for show business since it is my city. When you look at it, what purpose did all those corpses serve other than to have such people walking about and having their picture taken, so that hordes of cameramen and journalists could earn some dinars. It has all been overpriced. That was the only thing that came to my mind. Since I move in similar circles, I know exactly how the organization of management, house and promoter works. It is a nicely-packaged business. In the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening they meet with so and so, hold a press conference and rush home. The newspapers come out with your pictures splashed all over them and Sarajevo remains exactly as it was. I can't do that. I feel stupid in it all. A lot more water shall pass under the bridge, we shall not die this year. In time...

You have our passport. Rumors have it that you have been offered various others.

Nothing is offered but I would like to have a more practical one. The Yugoslav passport is not practical. When someone makes a passport out to be a question of patriotism, that has nothing to do with it. Citizenship is a practical issue. I could have a certain foreign passport since that is the most elegant solution so that things are in the procedure for an American, French and Greek one. We'll see what comes out of it... I suppose the issue of dual citizenship shall be resolved between Yugoslavia and Croatia.

How is it possible that you of all people got a green card in the American lottery

Who else? Is there anyone who is luckier than I am? I'm that kind of person. And what is even more surprising, even my obligatory AIDS test is fine. Such two important issues rarely coincide.

Five years ago it was imputed that you would never go back to Sarajevo. Now we hear that you have stated how you would like to be buried in your place of birth? Which of these is true?

The first were lyrics from my old song someone had taken too seriously, and the second has come about as a consequence of a conversation on funerals. We talked of our mutual acquaintances who have died in the meantime. I then recalled certain funerals which I had attended recently. After all, I am from Sarajevo. When a person says - "Sarajevan, what does that mean?" It is not something that can be easily explained in words. Still, when I say Sarajevo, my heart is full. I never comprehended Sarajevo as something political, as a group of buildings in which certain enemy policies are being carried out. Sarajevo is my emotional place, neither civil nor political. I grew up there, went to school there, I have a thousand memories there. Not from the position of someone who is past his 40th birthday and is now rummaging through his memories. I don't have that in my character. If the police were after me, I know of exactly ten doors I could knock on. That doesn't mean that I don't have those ten doors in Belgrade, still Sarajevo is my city. I believe all those who were born in Belgrade can understand how a person feels when people from outside ask him where he comes from and he says -Belgrade.