Goran Tomasević: The region should cooperate more and exchange musicians

For eight years, the Croatian electronic music scene has proudly organized the Ambassador Award, which recognizes and celebrates the most prominent players in this dynamic industry. This project, initiated by Goran Tomašević, founder of the Klubska Scena portal, has grown beyond the borders of Croatia and has become a regional symbol of unity and creativity in electronic music.

In the following interview, Tomašević discusses the reasons for the change in categories, the industry's challenges, and the Ambassador's importance in connecting artists and professionals across the Balkans.

Why do the categories change from year to year?

Goran Tomašević: “Electronic music as a part of the cultural and creative industries is one of the most dynamic scenes in the world, and it is in this context that certain changes occur from year to year. Namely, in Croatia and the region, many artists of various professions are part of this culture, such as DJs, producers, bands, live performances, selectors, radio hosts, managers, VJs, technicians, sound engineers, lighting engineers, designers, photographers, PRs, organizers, copywriters, social media managers, etc.

In this regard, the scene is quite susceptible to change, because many of the aforementioned actors in the industry unfortunately still cannot make a living from music, but it comes to them more as a hobby or passion, and some are just passers-by in all this. That is why we have to actively monitor and feel the pulse of the scene from year to year.

Based on all this data, research, analysis, and conversations with jury members, journalists, and other electronic music lovers, we find out what was current during the election year and which categories will be created. In this complete scanning of the scene, our portal itself helps us a lot, as it tries to follow everything in a broader context, as well as to open the door to everyone who does something creative.

That is why some categories have existed for years and do not change, while others are periodically activated, and some categories are created in a short time because sometimes there are not enough candidates/projects to compete for nominations, and we want to avoid nominating the same projects every year in a certain category because that is not an incentive for new artists. We must monitor all of this carefully and create as many categories every year as we think the expert jury will be able to fill with their proposals, which is not an easy task. We appeal to the entire region to engage with as many journalists and others who follow the scene as possible who would help as part of the jury in proposing projects.

We are often criticized for having too many categories, but many do not take into account that since 2016 we have expanded to the entire ex-YU region. It should be borne in mind that some categories are unsustainable, so to maintain a certain niche of the scene in life and encourage artists to continue working, we decided to create such a category at the regional level and to connect the scene a little. .

We also had two years of the coronavirus pandemic, which completely changed the environment in which we live and shut down the event industry. But musicians and creatives from the scene were very alert and imaginative in production and other spheres, such as broadcasting live sets, and shooting videos from beautiful locations, so I can freely say that we are very happy that the award ceremony did not stop during those years, but was one of the rare events that was held despite various bans and measures. I think that at the same time, the project was – perhaps not the only one, but definitely a great hope for return and an incentive for work for many in Croatia and the region. "

What is the Ambassador Award's contribution to the club scene in Croatia and the region?

Goran Tomašević: "With it’s performance, the Ambassador managed to do something that no one else has managed to do, not only in Croatia but also in the entire region - in the eight years of the event, we have gathered the majority of the players in the electronic music industry in one place eight times. That is what we live for with this project - gathering, socializing, connecting, exchanging ideas, networking in the ex-YU region. I would say it is a great asset for the scene itself, which we are not even aware of how much it means.

I invite all those who are part of the the scene to contact us with ideas and to come to the award ceremony at least once and feel the experience that many say is unique. It doesn't matter where they live and where they come from, because the cost of coming to the award ceremony can be nothing when compared to the experience and the acquaintances made.

It is very important that all those who are part of the scene, understand, how important the very idea of Ambassador as a non-profit project.

In 2018, we were in Paris with 18 artists from our scene and represented Croatia at the Paris Electronic Week conference organized by the team responsible for Techno Parade. We brought the very important people of our scene, we opened the door to cultural exchange, our DJs performed in the barge club Concrete, we held a panel about Croatia as a festival destination... and collected wonderful experiences that have been engraved in our hearts.

In addition to awarding awards, the Ambassador is a project that encourages everyone to work continuously; and through the award itself, it generates a large number of impressions on social networks and in the media space, which increases the visibility of electronic music and everyone involved in the project.

And at the end, we have that moment that I am particularly proud of, and it came about quite spontaneously - we managed to gather the industry in one place. Later we saw that a platform was created for cooperation and exchange of ideas. We have a wonderful pre-programme with exhibitions, presentations of associations, and equipment. And at the award itself, between the presentation of awards and the performances of bands and live acts.

Finally, we want to turn this gathering into a three-day music conference, which I hope could be created in a few years when we manage to secure stable finances from sponsors. Because without education, there is no better and better scene"

Has the regional cooperation of the club scene improved in recent years?

Goran Tomašević: "In the context of a better overview of what is happening at the regional level, we found out through the Ambassador award and the pre-nomination cycle itself about many more projects and creatives than we knew before, and that helped us in our work on the portal because we got the opportunity to we write about a much larger oeuvre of artists and projects than we did before. But as far as cooperation is concerned, I can't say that we launched any new projects, even though there were a couple of initiatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, which remained just initiatives.

However, what we believe should be worked on not only on our side, but on the side of other portals in the region, is better connection and exchange of author's content between the media, as well as radio employees, shows, etc.

Serbian online portals write too little about contractors from the region, and I would also say that Croatian online electronic portals also write little about projects from countries in the region.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia, there is no media at all that follows electronic music, and kudos to Kosovo Clubbing, which always follows events in the region.

The owners of the media must experience enlightenment connect to the network and exchange content more, which would bring them more readership, and the actors of the scene themselves more visibility and maybe a few more performances.

The region should cooperate more and exchange musicians.

We often invite regional artists through Klubskascena birthdays in recent years, and I would definitely mention last year's Endorphine festival, where we barely covered the costs because the audience is spoiled and only appreciates foreign artists. We did a festival with 37 DJs from the whole region because we wanted to present musicians from the whole region on 3 floors in Zagreb who had mostly never played in the Croatian capital, and we consciously took that risk because we knew that we would do something good for the electronic music, and because of that, Klubska Scena has been a part of the electronic music scene for 23 years now.

And through the promotion of that party, we received over 60 author's articles about new performers that we had never talked to or were not talked about in the Croatian media space. Even today, I see that a large number of musicians from that line-up started getting gigs that they never dreamed they would have. Kosovar artist, Uran B., has already performed twice in Zagreb.

Let me come back to the topic - of regional cooperation - everything is still very fragile, music is just as independent as it is, it is just as fragile and subject to various external influences and factors. Although politics supposedly doesn't interfere with music, I think that's not true, because without those politicians, our scene wouldn't get any significant support either. You just shouldn't rely on them because it's unstable and not long-term.

You should try to rely on independent funding sources and sponsors. However, in my experience, music is the same as politics. It is full of some kind of clans and if you are not part of a clan you will not succeed, and you will not get money in public competitions, and if you have your own unique project, it is very possible that the team from the ministry and music associations will steal it from you, copy it and make it as their own project with with much larger means. That also happened to us in Croatia.

I think that music associations should have invested that money in young producers and their stay in Croatia, which of course did not happen because they spent it on something that heals the sick ego of individuals.

It's very bad for all those who work from the heart to develop an independent scene or just have a passion for music. But these are things that our societies must solve mentally in the evolutionary process that has been going on since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Corruption, nepotism, clans. I hope that before we retire, we will experience such a transformation and that all of us, cooperating through the Klubskascena and the Ambassador, will be able to make some progress forward. "

Can the Balkan electronic music scene compare to the club culture of the rest of the world?

Goran Tomašević: "The offer of festivals and musical events can certainly be compared, as well as numerous author's releases, but there is still a lot to work on in an attempt to compare with the rest of the world. But definitely during the year we have a few hundred festivals, and thousands of parties where each is a story in itself and foreign visitors can have a good time, especially in the summer months when you have festivals on the continent that are a story in themselves, as well as those on the coast that have their own charm In terms of comparison, many events are still not up to the safety, production and visual standards you can see in the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and other countries.

But we can say that things are slowly but surely moving in the right direction and that our creatives from the scene also travel a lot and learn from others and implement new things in their events, whether it's about production, line up, security, ticket sales or drinks and down to other smallest details that any visitor can notice.

For example in the USA at the Ultra Music Festival they distributed free water provided by the sponsor "Heineken". In Amsterdam, during ADE, free ecstasy was distributed in order to reduce harm among 400 thousand visitors from all over the world.

There are many festivals in the world that are environmentally conscious, while here in Balkan it is still very rare. Numerous festivals in Europe have so-called drug testing stations that are completely anonymous because they want to help young people who consume drugs to check the content of the purchased drugs.

Unfortunately, talking with colleagues from the Porat association in Zadar, there are more and more bad drugs on the market every day, which means that young people are taking all sorts of things without any checks and thus getting killed.... these are just some of the examples that are still only science fiction in our country..."

Through the conversation with Goran Tomašević, it becomes clear that the Ambassador Award is much more than an ordinary recognition - it is a platform for the growth and development of the electronic music scene in Croatia and the region.

Tomašević emphasizes the importance of cooperation, innovation and support for young talents, as well as the necessity of overcoming challenges such as financial problems and lack of regional connectivity. With a vision for the future that includes a three-day music conference, Ambassador continues to build the foundation for an even stronger and more connected scene, inspired by a shared love of music.