After a period of music experimenting, cooperating with various musicians and genre-trips, Anže joined his ideas and inspiration with Dejan Baloh, a former guitarist of a local punk-rock-ska band Pudding Fields, whose music he could no longer relate to. After leaving the band, Dejan spent a couple of years searching for an inspiration in art, mostly painting. A period was followed by a creative and interesting year in a studio with Anže, working on a music project that could fulfill an empty space in their music life.

Aleks Komel is an industrial designer and a musician with an inspiration bigger than the world he lives in. He was a frontman of a metal-rock band and after their break up, he worked on developing his skills in the technical area - at least until he was invited to join the project with Anže and Dejan. Only a few sessions later behind the walls of their studio, it was obvious -

PROTEUS NOIR must be formed...

For more on Proteus Noir please go to their MySpace page.

PROTEUS NOIR INTERVIEW:

The three of you come from a fairly different musical background and have different experience. How did you at all come together to start a common project?

Dejan: It is true that all of us were into different music styles before. Anže was an active member of a prospective electro-house band called Soundtrap, and they had some successful performances in different clubs. For a few years, I had been a guest guitar player in Pudding Fields, a punk-pop-ska-rock group, while Aleks was a lead vocalist in some grunge-rock band. Anže and I go way back, and we have been planning to work together for quite some time. Actually, it all started when I came to the studio with a new keyboard. I was renovating my apartment and needed some more space... So, Anže and I started to spend our nights turning the switches in search of the right sound.
Anže: We did not really know what exactly we were after, so we just went with the flow. I think we wanted to be a duo in the beginning and Dejan even took up singing. There were many ideas, but they were unperfected, because we did not even know what kind of music we wanted to make. When you are trapped in a studio, it is easy to get lost in a whirlpool of ideas. Soon, we started looking for a real singer. We even tried with a lady-singer, but once Aleks showed up, it became crystal clear.

How do you manage to come together, despite the difference in your musical taste? How can you make music together?

Anže: Our tastes are not as different as it seems. While driving in the car, all of us listen to similar music. It is true, though, that we somehow got into the habit of listening to the music we had never listened to before; even Aleks started to like techno. Our music is created in a spontaneous way. Each of us does what we know best. I compose the rhythm and the base line, and then play with some far-out sounds to make a musical background. I am also the producer in charge of the final mix. Dejan jumps in to find an interesting consonance on his guitar, or sometimes even takes up an exploration of a synth. Aleks, on his terms, is such a good vocalist and song-writer, that finally, a song is created in no time.
Aleks: When I joined the group most of the material was already done, songs were already recorded, and the lyrics were Dejan's emotional trippings. Together, we then introduced some changes and the music gained a whole new perspective. I took some old ideas and transformed them into new lyrics. I would have never thought they could find their place in electro music. Still, this music was different. When Dejan first rang me to invite me to cooperate with them on their project, I had no idea what it was all about. So, they played one of the songs and I instantly liked it, and we even recorded the vocals for it on that very day.
Dejan: Interestingly enough, the final version of that song still contains some of the vocals we recorded that day. Aleks simply never sang it that well again.

How did you manage to record the album, considering the fact you are all very busy and also live quite far apart? Anže and Dejan are from the Coast, Aleks from the continent.

Anže: We are lucky to share our studio with our good friend Daniel Lovšin, an ex Soundtrap member. While the studio belongs to him, the equipment belongs to all of us. We are really grateful for his patience, time and trust. I am not so busy as Dejan and Aleks. I am a sound producer, and therefore I am always in the studio. During all these years of being a producer I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience, and discovered tricks and secretes that you cannot learn in school. I love to experiment with the electronics, and Proteus Noir has become my passion. We usually meet on weekends, because this is when all of us are free from work. In the beginning, we would only meet to record the songs, but with time, we became an interesting bunch.
Aleks: Actually, there is more to it than that. I call it "doing magic", but I guess all of this can be perceived in our music.

So, you have recorded an album. Where and how can we get your music?

Aleks: The album Children of Light is now finished, but it took us almost a year to record it. We would only come together to record when we had time. When the recording part was over, we started to practice for live concerts and sent our recordings to different labels. We knew that without putting on live shows we cannot really be profitable, so we never really expected any answer.
Dejan: Our focus is more on concerts than recordings. If someone wants to publish our records, they will surely find us. Still, we are quite a good offer, because we record everything ourselves, so no recording expenses. At the moment, the best way to get our music is at a concert, where you can also get CD copies. Some of the music is accessible through our web-page, which is currently being renovated.

People who like to compare would certainly compare you to the most prominent electro-pop group, Depeche Mode. What do you think about that?

Dejan: Well, that sounds quite complex; it could be taken as a compliment, because we are great fans of Depeche Mode. On the other hand, it could mean that our music is not authentic. I would not make such limitations. There are, of course, some common points. Still, there are many more bands like this it is just that people do not know them. Depeche Mode became so prominent that by comparing us to them people easily understand what it is all about.
Anže: We follow musical trends from the eighties and early nineties when the era of good quality music came to an end. The production used to be much better, clearer and more dynamic. In those days music was creative, while today is only 'created'. Just think of Billy Idol, Michael Jackson, Grace Jones or Sade. Today no one makes such music anymore and there are no albums with such production. Even musicians are no longer such icons as they used to be, when they were cherished for what they were doing.. and what they represented.

Children of Light