Rock This Macedonian Party

Struga's DuoSlide

This story could be easily referred to most of the creative people seeking for success in music industry today. Nowadays it is pretty hard to surprise the fastidious public, which we present with an image of ourselves. We desire more, we ask for more amazement and entertaining positivism in the enormous world of sounds as well as cute attraction points in every song we hear, which makes us if not scream along in euphoria then at least make a little finger-play on a wooden bar-table producing 'echo-effect' along with the original drum beats of the song.

To be an artist is a hard work to do which nevertheless is mixed with feeling of enjoyment. It's harder than before to shine among numerous underground amateurs trying to fulfill their dream to be heard. It's life of a poet as you never know what you will get, but you never stop creating. You never stop searching for the reflections of your rich imaginary world and making them appealing to the rest of the world. You just never stop.

So what's going on here in Struga in terms of musical talents? I can tell it's a town full of very talented kids [surprisingly they stand out with an ability to play more than one musical instrument] that grew up with the sounds of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Depeche Mode and Metallica. Metallica more than other bands for sure, as you can hear them [these very talented kids] quite often trying to repeat and master the magnificence of Metallica's solos on their electric guitars.

Bitola's Shine

So what is there to enjoy from these full-time young orchestras performing? When we speak of performing their own songs then I must say you don't hear them a lot. If you do then they're mostly made in pop-rock genre with a gentle touch of ska. However, when going for a concert of a local band playing in one of the town's numerous pubs what you can hear very often are revivals of old, well-known hits of the last decades of 20th century or the hits of nowadays, which is a bit disappointing. Maybe a factor that plays a huge difference here is a public demand for this type of content. Macedonians are a very open-hearted nation that enjoys spending a lot of time socializing in public places like bars, pubs, cafes [also during the day]. It explains a little bit the logic behind the question of why performing popular songs in pubs is a quite typical practice in Macedonia. Accordingly, it might take a while before your own song by luck or hard work becomes popular, which was the case of Struga's DuoSlide whose song 'Neobičen Krug' recently became famous countrywide. During their performance they also played their own songs, however the public got excited only in the moments when their famous song was played again and again, and the public could sing along. After their performance, the next band on the stage was Shine from Bitola, who entertained the public by performing well-known hits and sadly enough the public seemed more entertained. Anyhow, if you forget about the fact that someone else already performed a song and gained the rewards for it and just enjoy the new sounding of it, then you'll probably find yourself singing along with the crowd too... 'Sweet Child of Mine', 'Fly Away' or 'Cocaine'. All in all it's not that bad. Beside hearing the well-known hits I could sense a search for new ways to express the well-known songs in different, more individual or uniquer ways. It was catchy for the ear to hear pop or electronic music hits in various rock versions. For example, Lady Gaga's pieces performed in male voice and with some added rough interlude sounded pretty awesome. However, I hope there are more unique artists to be discovered on the Young Macedonian music scene than just plain cover-bands that fulfill demands of the public, though that is one tough road to go.