Matija

First Act. "The Prehistory"

The fat Indie years in the late nineties, when almost every month a sensational new band with hellish charisma came around the corner, are over. It's the year 2017. Pop culture is fragmented, diffuse, much faster than a few years ago. The Money Boy joke has long since become independent, is now called Cloud Rap and has morphed into an independent genre. The half-life of trends has become short in times of Virals, Memes, Apps and Co. "I bims" will be out again before this text is finished. The world divides into reddit readers and non-reddit readers. Frank Spilker no longer understands the underground. The guitar is no longer considered the coolest instrument among kids.

The ensemble appears. A talented, charismatic young band appears in the spotlight. Four boys who could barely walk at the time. Four young men who have known each other for half their lives. Together they went to school, appearing as a gang at parties and in the club. Most of the time, however, the four early-20s spend in the rehearsal room and tour bus.
As with most bands at the beginning, it covers, but already tracks from Hendrix, Led Zeppelin even Pink Floyd and such progressive stuff. The four musicians are not lay people, the musical early education comes to fruition. Consequently, the band is soon allowed to write their own pieces. They write a lot and reject a lot. Perseverance and desire for the thing sharpens her compositional talent. At that time they were still called "The Capitols".

It does not take long for the young band to record first successes, sign a first small indie deal, play fast in front of 1,000 or more people, get noticed by the media, appear on television for the first time, play the first major festivals.
Then in 2016, the big record company comes on the scene. A longer studio stay in the Clouds Hill Recording Studios in Hamburg is a turning point: The Capitols becomes Matija.

Act II. "The Transformation"

"We did not want to carry an artificial name anymore, it should be something personal."
Matija, the first name of the singer with German and Slovenian roots, becomes a band name. Does not sound German, does not sound English, sounds more international and explains itself against the background that anyway many international influences in Matija play a role. Slovenia, Slovakia, Jordan, the USA, Hamburg and not least Munich are ingredients in the conglomerate that makes up the band.

Jani Salgovic (lead guitar, synthesizer, Fender Rhodes), Johann Blake (bass, synthesizer, backing vocals) and Sami Salman (drums, percussion) join Matija Kovac (vocals, rhythm guitar and electric recorder). Matija is one of those bands where everyone plays every instrument.

"We always want to be happy with our songs," emphasizes the quartet. "It works faster, sometimes it takes longer," they say credibly calmly. There is the band just too long, you have various ups and downs already behind. Despite the young age of the protagonists, one can rely on many years of experience.
Since 2011, the band has played in London, Vienna, Hamburg and Berlin; shared stages with Wanda, Kensington, The 1975 and Catfish And The Bottlemen.

Act Three. "The Agenda"

Inspired by freethinkers like Bowie or Warhol, they want to break the "wall of normalcy". With influences from Radiohead, Foals or Lana Del Rey and lyrical sometimes characterized by the hip-hop poetry of a Kendrick Lamar.

"Today everything is happening so fast that we have forgotten to listen to our inner voice," singer Matija explains. "On this album, we're talking about a generation that is stunted on social networks and still close," he smiles shyly, barely daring to complete the sentence: "There is loss and love on the album. You can find both. "

Together with producer Johann Scheerer (Peter Doherty, Bosnian Rainbows, among others), the balancing act in the many-sided and varied pieces succeeds in maintaining a common thread. Hard to say exactly what holds everything together. Probably the voice of Matija. Maybe the virtuosity of the band. Probably both.

There is so much to discover: The floating nostalgia of the first single "Song For Celine" carries dreamy shoegaze momentum, behind "5th Avenue" hides Upbeat funk, "White Socks" is indie disco, "Justify Your Love "A desperate love song," Hello My Creator "is about growing up in a patchwork family and" Mexico "is a soulful blues breathing space, loneliness and wanderlust.

The word eclecticism comes to mind. Typical of a generation that grew up with the Internet and for whom access to the entire music catalog is a matter of course. Young people who know both the hippest new crap while working through the Beatles catalog. Maybe that's why John Lennon sounds when Matija adds, "If we tried to be guided by love and music, we could make a difference. And yes, "he adds," I know how trite that sounds. "

Music is more than just sounds. Music is visual and quite ideological. Can be fashion, can be escapism, can build cultural and social bridges. The power of art plays a not to be underestimated Matija role. Matija are aesthetes, gentlemen, young masters, freethinkers, punks, androgynous dandies and nerds.

The debut album "Are We An Electric Generation Falling Apart?" has been published in autumn 2017.