Laibach - "We Are Sophisticated Prostitutes"

Laibach is known abroad also to those people who know Slovenia just by name, even that you are not a mainstream band which would prostitute yourselves to media. So where from comes your cult status?

We do prostitute ourselves. Except that we are doing it with sensibleness, and more sophisticated, so it stinks less.

Some people take the irony of your performance dead serious. Frontman Milan Fras once said, that you are as much Nazi's as Hitler was a painter. So, how is it for Laibach to look at it's own mirror?

We are dead serious too. And when we answered, are we Nazi's, we stated that we are Nazi's as much as Hitler was artist. And we didn't joke with that. We thought that dead serious, and we were stating also much more. And when we look at our mirror today, what we see is not funny at all.

In previous (political) system you have had quite some troubles with censorship. But, how was after Slovenia became independent?

Power is today no longer in power, and matter fact, it doesn't have anything in power really. Practically it is disowned, or even more dis-powered, and practically it is discharging it's function of protocol. Censorship is being exercised by civil society, kapital, and free market. What is not by the taste of the first one, or the other two, is quickly shoved away on margine and condemned to unimportance.

Do you attend elections?

We have our own state NSK, and there are no elections. There is in power the eternally enlightened absolutism.

Once you said, that Rammstein is Laibach for teenagers, and Laibach is Rammstein for adults. What kind of relationship you have with them nowadays?

Actually none. We met couple of times, we scented each other superficially a little bit, and we went our respective ways.

Your last studio album is Volk. Are you preparing any new material material for a new »zgoščenka«? (*)

Don't you think that »zgoščenka« is utterly misplaced expression ? With great difficulties we could prepare anything serious for »zgoščenka«, but, we are preparing material for new stories.

In documentary film Divided States of America, which is about your tour in USA, it looks like that authority was constantly on your heels. Did you ever feel endangered?

We are living in such a times when feeling to be endangered is normal. How else could we exercise the courage, civil disobedience, and will power for life?

In all these years you performed all over the world. Do you have any specially interesting memories from anywhere?

Lot's of them, of course. Most memorable were tour adventures from Siberia and Belarus, where we were few times seriously in life danger.

Are there any names in Slovenian musical scene which you really esteem and respect?

We rather wouldn't count up the names, but we do respect many. Mainly, all of them are too good for Slovenia.

22.11.2007, Izak Košir

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