Emir Hot Interview
Hi Emir how are you doing?
Very well, thank you. I hope you're doing well too
Why have I never heard of you before?
Probably because I have just released my first record as a solo artist.
Before this project I had a couple of metal bands back in my country but we never made it to the rest of Europe.
You started to play the guitar when you were 5. You also went to the music school in Tuzla when you were 10 years old.
Yes I started at the very young age and have never stopped. When I was 10 years old I started taking classical guitar lessons at the music school in Tuzla (the city in Bosnia where I was born).
Can you tell us more about the period when you were at that school?
I liked classical music a lot.
In Bosnia we didn't have, and still don't have, modern school of contemporary music so that was my only option if I wanted to be musically educated.
I learned a lot about musical theory and improved my musical skills to a much higher level.
However, I didn't want to continue that way.
Later I moved to electric guitar and started to rock !!!
In 1989 you joined the band Hatred.
You were only 11 years old. Very young :) hehe.
At the age of 11 I showed a great talent and almost all musicians from the city soon heard about some young guy who can accurately play all Iron Maiden albums.
I received a call from a trash metal band Hatred who needed a second guitarist.
They were all about 10 years older than me and that was funny.
The guitar was almost taller than me and I wasn't able to jump much around with that heavy thing.
We lasted for about a year and a half until the founder of the band decided to move abroad which resulted the end of an interesting line up.
With Retard you played the first war concert in Rock Club Stelekt in Tuzla too! Playing under these circumstances was very difficault?
Retard – the project (as the funny name can tell itself) was nothing more than a bunch of trash/punk fanatics who I joined for fun and spend some spare time playing with friends.
When the war in Bosnia started we couldn't get out of the shelter for a long time.
After about a year people couldn't stand those conditions anymore so they started to walk normally on the street and do their normal daily things knowing 100% that they are under a big risk of death at any moment.
The city was bombed daily about 15 times in series from the local hills which surround the highly inhabited area.
The same was with the musicians who wanted to play live without thinking that they can die any moment.
The band I was with announced the live show and everyone thought we were heroes, playing a metal show while the city is being bombed.
The place was packed with metal fans and we did the first war concert in our city.
It looked like they wanted to show their protest to the non-sense war and they absolutely didn't care if they get wounded.
Shortly after, the city government forbade gathering like that on the public places which proved later when 72 died from just one bomb in the city center.
You led your own private school of guitar.
After the war I had some private students who later became great guitarists.
I enjoyed transferring my knowledge to young and talented guys.
That job wasn't the main thing I was doing but I could make some money and I was also enjoying playing with talented people.
Do you give guitar lessons and workshops these days?
I have some people in London who come to my place twice a week for guitar lessons.
Again that's not my primary profession but it's a good experience if I want to become a proper teacher one day.
I haven't done any workshops or clinics in the UK but I have done several in my country.
You wrote a soundtrack for "Forgotten Saying", a TV drama… Can you tell more about this?
That 60 minutes drama was the first post-war project fully produced by the Bosnian national TV.
I have a friend Asim Horozic who is much respected teacher of music theory at the Music Academy in Sarajevo.
He wrote the first Bosnian Opera and numerous different pieces for symphonic orchestra.
Kids learn about him in primary schools.
He was offered to write the soundtrack but he struggled with some modern arrangements and decided to give me a half of the job.
I was very happy to have it written in my musical CV that I've done a soundtrack.
Everyone was more than happy with my music and the movie director wanted to get me involved in many other serious projects.
Unfortunately the director passed away from cancer before he saw the final premiere but the movie got many awards.
About Sevdah Metal: Why Sevdah Metal for the album
The title "Sevdah" means the style of Bosnian traditional music which elements I use a lot in my music.
Sevdah is a very old term and its roots are coming from Turkey and other Eastern countries.
500 years ago we were under Ottoman Empire so the traditional music in Bosnia and Herzegovina sounds very "Eastern".
Sevdah can also be defined as a state of mind where someone is dying of love and strong feelings for a loving person.
That's why I call it Bosnian blues but musically sounds totally different than any blues.
My idea was to try to mix that style with heavy metal in order to create something new and interesting.
Spanish people have Flamenco, black people have Blues, we have Sevdah etc...
Someone might find it as a weird way of mixing two totally different styles but this mixture opened me door to the metal industry.
On your debut-album you can hear many tradional instruments like accordeon and saz for example.
Yes. Those instruments are mainly used in "real Sevdah" so I wanted to include them to make the music as original as possible.
I love it! Was it not a big risk , to mix these instruments with metal?
Of course it was but I would have never got recognized if I sounded like hundreds of other similar prog/metal bands.
I didn't know what will people think of that but I just decided to continue and see what happens.
I have read many different opinions and reviews but generally it's all very positive.
I don't know where my music will go in the future but this was the formula to get signed and start something fresh and serious in my musical career.
How do you came up using the work of Romanian Violist Grigoras Dinicu?
Grigoraş Dinicu (April 3, 1889 – March 28, 1949) was a Romanian composer and violinist.
I wanted to have one instrumental track on my record but not neoclassical like every other metal guitarist has.
Because this album has that Balkan vibe, I wanted the instrumental to sound like that.
I was searching through some interesting melodies and for some reason I liked his famous Hora Martisorului.
It's fast, interesting and sounds very "Eastern".
Maybe not for a metal album but that wasn't important to me when it comes to an instrumental track.
Why you choose for Mike Terrana and John West to work with?
I've known Mike since 2003.
He played with a friend of mine Damir Simic – Shime. Damir is a Croatian shredder who lives in L.A.
I organized their show in my town in Bosnia and since then we have been in contact.
When I had my songs ready for the studio I asked Mike to play on the album and he accepted it.
He is an amazing drummer and I have no words to explain how cool it is to work with him.
I had a couple of guys who tried to sing on this record but I was not happy with what I heard.
Both Mike and my Label "Lion Music" helped to get John West who was the real deal.
John had just left Royal Hunt so he was available to fly in to London and do a great job as always.
John really felt a strong energy on this record and he delivered something that has both feelings and amazing power.
Sometimes I read people's comments on his "myspace" saying that this record is his 100%.
I am happy if I was the one to give him something where he can show his 100%.
He is also an incredible vocalist and a great person.
The recordings took place between June and october 2007.
Yes, I recorded in the studio of a friend Misha Nikolic who was also my teacher at the London Guitar Institute. He is great with sound engineering and has produced many great records.
We used his studio only for the recording.
I mixed and mastered in Croatia.
Were Mike and John both available that time?
Fortunately yes.
Mike is always busy as hell so it felt like I got 6 numbers on the lottery when we confirmed that he has time to play on my record.
John had already started playing in Ten Man Push but that's probably almost incomparable to how Mike is busy.
I have spoken to Mike yesterday on the phone and he said that he hasn't been at home since he finished my record.
Sounds crazy but it's true.
He plays and travels non-stop.
The album is Mixed by Dean Clea Brkic.
That Croatian guy is a great friend of mine.
We recorded an instrumental album together "Quarterworlds of Fantasia" but he hasn't mixed it yet.
He is a singer of a very popular Croatian rock band "Osmi Putnik" but he wrote the whole instrumental record on which I played all guitars.
He is a genius for mixing all different music styles and he loves prog/melodic metal.
We spent about 2 weeks in the studio in Split-Croatia working 18 hours a day.
I am very happy with the sound he achieved on my CD.
From all that pro and semi-pro equipment we had, and not really much time, I am happy with the result.
Daniela Hot is one of the people who did the choir-parts/section. Family?
She is my wife :-)
She has a lovely voice and plays the flute.
She is not seriously into music but she has great music talent.
I invited choir for some tracks and all those people are my friends.
She was also in the choir.
Many of them are vocal students from London Vocal Tech School.
Charlie Squire did the vocals on track 10.
She was also a vocal student at the time of recording.
She sang many of these songs when they were in the demo stage.
John learned some parts by listening to her voice as she first recorded "Devils in Disguise" and "Skies and Oceans" on the demo.
Her part on track 10 "You" is actually the same part from the demo I had.
John suggested keeping that because he liked it.
I just took those parts in the new studio project and mixed it together with John's voice.
She is very good! And her voice together with John West's vocals it's a good combination!
I think it worked really well in the end.
About your technique, you play very fast guitar riffs, but also in some parts a bit slower.
I have only one rule when it comes writing music.
I like a nice and catchy melody.
A nice melody can be achieved both by fast or slow playing.
Of course you should never overdo it.
That's why I like to slow down sometimes and make the music accessible to more people.
Not everyone likes fast stuff.
To be honest, when I listen to my record I hardly think of my guitar playing.
I almost don't hear that.
It just doesn't catch my attention as much as a song in general.
I always listen to a song not just to one instrument.
If someone wants to analyze my guitar parts on purpose, that's something different.
My idea was not to stand extremely out with my guitar.
I gave space to everybody to be equally heard on the record.
That's my way of arranging music.
I saw a picture on your myspace page with 5 guitars.
Those are not all mine.
Some of them are from the studio in London.
I used about 9 different guitars.
Did you use them all for the recordings?
Yes, and many more!
Which guitar is your fave guitar, with the best sound and why?
My old Hamer. I customized it completely to what I like.
That guitar rocks!!!
You can see it on almost every picture on myspace.
Any shows in the planning?
At the moment we are working on the tour dates.
Some Italian and Croatian shows we should play in July.
The full European tour should follow in September.
I am still waiting for an answer from my management which is based in Italy.
It will be announced on my website www.emirhot.com as soon as we have it confirmed.
Thank you very, very much for this interview Emir
Thank you and I wish you good success with your magazine.
Interview: Silvana Breur
Photos: Source: Emir Hot Myspace