Sell Out: “We really enjoy playing music!”

Rok Černe, Kristjan Kožuh Krist, Uroš Obranovič Uri, Igor Rančigaj Ige, Duško Kranjc Dule, Miha Krkovič, Kristjan Jesih Kisli, Marko Stijepić Stipe, Maxi Vovk and Miha Gorše are all members of an interesting Slovenian band named Sell Out. The band from Kočevje, comprised of nine members signed up for this year’s Slovenian national final for Eurosong EMA, where a 4-member commission decided that their song deserves to be a part of the 2017 line-up. This is why we decided to make an interview with them.

Can you tell us something about your work?

We are SELL OUT from Kočevje, a city of forests and bears. There is nine of us, so we are more of an orchestra than a band. We really enjoy playing music. We are not professionals, but self-proclaimed good amateurs. Every producer up to date said that we’re a „live“ band. That might have been because we made them lose their mind in the studio. (laughter)

You have been on the scene for almost 15 years. What made you sign up for EMA 2017?

Well, we had a smaller crisis with making new, original songs. We thought about making several new songs as soon as possible so we could publish a new album after five years. And so it came. We saw the post about EMA 2017, had a whiskey after the rehearsal and enthusiastically decided that we need realistic goals in order to make a new song specifically for this contest. Now we have +1 song and are almost on the final number for the new album.

Your genre is a mix of ska, punk, swing and reggae. How hard was it for you to match so many music genres and create your own identity?

Those are all genres with a beat, made to feel good, for a party. Now that’s us.  Modern-day troubadours, entertainers with a slightly rougher tone or more electrical energy. So many of us are different in this band and we have to play a variety of genres.

On December 23 you have a 15th birthday celebratory concert. How are the preparations going?

The preparations are going full steam ahead. We’re tearing the strings, smashing the drums, playing until we drop. It will be a great party with good energy and a lot of fun.  The concert is held in our city Kočevje, where all the people know us very well and have been following our work throughout the years, they also know all the lyrics. That is the best thing that can happen to a band at their concert.

Can you tell us what your song is about and who wrote it?

In a nutshell – “don’t panic”, not everything in your life is bad, when things aren’t going as planned.  Think of life as a game and it will get better.

The song is a collaboration of our guitarist (Uroš Obranovič) and keyboardist (Miha Gorše), and the text was written by Tina Muc.

At the end of this short interview, do you have any messages for the readers of Eurosong.hr?

We hope that by next year we’ll have concerts in Croatia, too, but up until then, enjoy our songs!

The Editorial Board of Eurosong.hr would like to thank Sell Out for their free time and wishes them all the best on forthoming EMA!

To read this interview in Croatian, click here.

Translation: Doris Šimundić