Glans Penissis was the work of Zlatko ‘Vuka’ Vuković (R.I.P.) & Vedran Meniga (‘Nula‘ drummer), both from Šibenik (city on the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea).
Jadranko Mlinarić of Fanzini 80-ih made 2 issues available:
#4 (1991): gig-reports & reviews; ‘ interviews with ‘Motus Vita Est’ (Zagreb), ‘Oi Polloi’, ‘Ritam Nereda’ (Novi Sad, Serbia), ‘Schliessmuskel’, ‘Emils’, ‘Internal Autonomy’, ‘Mere Dead Men’; presentation of ‘Gottschee’ (Kočevje, Slo); presentations of Zagreb bands, and more…
#6 (1994): booklet with info/lyrics that came with ‘Nula’s tape Pobjedimo Laž (“let’s defeat the lie”); plus an interview with ‘W.O.R.M.’, presentations of local bands ‘Antitude’, ‘Apatridi’, ‘Enklava’, ‘Frontalni Udar’ & ‘My Life/ My Dreams’), etc.
Nowadays Vedran labels himself as a “publisher, journalist, DJ, promoter, organiser, producer, party-animal, underground music activist, sound provider and positive lifestyle supporter”… He’s the owner of Pozitivan Ritam (“positive rhythm”) agency and PDV recs (label). He was a pioneer of the MonteParadiso festival (Pula) and still organises festivals…<< (e.g. SeaSplash festival)
‘Motus Vita Est‘ was a HC/punk band formed in Zagreb ’88, Croatia (still Yugoslavia then; Croatian independence was internationally recognized in January ’92). The line-up at the time of the interview (after their first LP was released) was ‘Hogar’ Rade Preradović (vocals), Dalibor Knežević (guitar), Zoran Stojanović (guitar), Damir Mihulja (bass) & Nenad Koporčić (drums).
[Translation below; with help of Dejan Požegar]
MOTUS VITA EST [latin for “movement is life”]
(answers by ‘Hogar’)
I did this interview after attending a ‘Motus’ gig, and their first LP confirmed all that, i.e. the quality … /N. [???]/
Tell us a bit about the beginning of ‘Motus’.
The first rehearsal of ‘Motus’ was in the tenth month of 1986, I gathered some friends and suggested that instead of drinking and being bored, we’ld start with a band. It was a wild bunch but we lost it and split up; only to start again a year later.
Line-up changes?
There were a lot of changes.
Do you have any role-models or favourite bands?
Hogar: We don’t have a role-model and we all like divers bands. Personally I don’t have any favourites since ‘Dead Kennedys’; I even don’t have time to listen to other new bands poperly.
Many people talk about how your music used to be HC, and nowadays is crossover. How would you describe your music?
Well, listen…we’re a HC band but it would be a sin against music and ourselves if we’ld be limiting ourselves to a certain rhythm or way of playing the guitar. Depending on the atmosphere of the lyrics, we make music regardless of the style. The functionality of the music is important, not whether or not hammering is used.
You’ve released a lot of demos. Now there’s vinyl. How did you manage to realize it: through an independent label or self-financing, D.I.Y.?
We were financed by Sacro Egoismo from Vienna and everything else we did ourselves.
You appeared on the compilation-LP The Return Of Yugoslavia [Street Tuff recs & Sacro Egoismo, 1990]. I recently noticed that it’s sold by foreign independent labels; do you receive letters or calls from abroad regarding this?
The letters are coming in and have been arriving at a constant pace, because our tapes are being distributed a lot outside [of Yugoslavia]… It’s not like the Return LP it’s a turning-point for us.
Does your city support you? I was in Zagreb, most of the people love you, but still there was teargas used at your show. Was that a coincidence or are there problems when you play?
Those for whom our gig was intended love us and that’s important. We’re only in conflict with some wanna-be rock-critics. That teargas was thrown by some moron but it didn’t ruin our concert. The reason was that we kicked two people out of the band because they wanted to do commercial music. There were no excesses before and there won’t be any in the future either, because we cleared things up.
Speaking of Zagreb: are there any young bands that are progressing and could get somewhere?
There are cool bands and the more they try, the more they will achieve. The most active of the youngsters are ‘Hell’s Bells’.
Do you cooperate with Zagreb noise bands such as ‘Patareni’, ‘T.M.P.’ [Total Mošt Proyekt] & ‘Buka’?
No. Otherwise: what you listed is one band. [Dejan: same members – different projects]
What do you think about the Yugo scene as a whole? There are more and more great concerts and independent labels.
We have everything but there’s no significant progress: instead of tapes, records are made; that’s all. Those ‘independent’ publishing labels behave like Jugoton [national record-label/-company, pressing-plant and recordstore-chain], only they have less money. Their goal is mostly the same: to make profit.
You’re definitely one of the best Yugo bands. Do you happen to like and listen to any Yugo bands?
Thanks for the compliment. As for local bands: I like them just as I like foreign ones. The last few days I’ve been listening to ‘Ludilo’ [Dejan: “maddness/insanity”; trashmetal from Bosnia], ‘Distress’ [raw punk from Belgrado], ‘Overdose’ [Serbian HC/crossover/industrial band], ‘Hogari’ [Dejan: “punk/oi from Belgrado]; I also like ‘Gottschee’ [Slovenian thrash band]. There are many good and interesting ones.
About your concerts. You often play in Zagreb. Where else did you play in Yugoslavia?
The furthest away from Zagreb, we played in Koper [Slo] and Smederevska Palanka [Ser].
What’s your opinion about the concert at the Gallery, that you did to promote your album?
We played a standard [Dejan: quality-wise] set for ‘Motus’, we didn’t make any mistakes, the audience reacted well, even when there was teargas. I’m glad that ‘KBO!’ [Serbian punk band], ‘Zadruga’ [Croatian punkrock band], ‘Hell’s Bells’ [HC from Zagreb], ‘Ex-Sandra’ [Dejan: don’t know that band] responded to our invitation. ‘Zadruga’ pleasantly surprised me. By the way, I still didn’t get my amplifier fixed that got broken there. Not to forget: I really liked the attitude of the ESCE Gallery [important place of alternative culture at the time of the break-up of Yugoslavia] staff and the P.A. guy.
Have you played outside Yugoslavia, and if so: where?
The first time we played outside of Yugoslavia was in Vienna, at the Arena [venue] on 25/05/1989. Now we have promo-concerts in Austria in March. Besides Austria, we have only played in Germany. This season we have some more countries coming up.
Did you continue working after the release of the LP? Are you thinking of trying to reach a wider audience: you mentioned shooting a video for TV?
I will try my best to arrange as many gigs as possible and I believe that this should be echoed in the media as well, because HC is also part of the culture.
Anything to end with?
Oats to the horse and fuzz to the guitar.
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