March 19th, 2013 
Brian Leak 
Today we bring you an exclusive interview with Cojones, all the way from Zagreb, Croatia!
After recently reviewing the band’s newest effort, Bend To Transcend, we got the chance to speak with guitarist Nenad Mandic about how Cojones got their start, some details regarding their forthcoming tour, and what we can expect from the follow-up to Bend. So continue to read through and get acquainted with a great heavy rock outfit from Europe.
First off, can you tell me how the band originated?
We have been playing together in different combinations since the early 2000s. It was around 2006 when Bojan the singer and I started talking about playing heavy stoner rock with balls, hence the name. We were really excited about the idea so we called our former bass player Hrvoje who played with us a while ago in a cover group, and Miro, who was drumming for the band I had at the time. It was June 6th, 2006 (06/06/06) that we had our first gig with Ruiz, a local stoner group from Zagreb. In mid 2007 we were looking for a new bass player and found one in the rehearsal space next to ours. It was Gordan from the band Amygdala and since then he has become a key figure in the evolution of the band.
Your name certainly fits your music. What influences do you have that contribute to your sound? I hear everything from Black Sabbath to Foo Fighters. Is that close or way off?
It’s as close as it gets! We have been fans of rock music for a long time, that’s what got us to start playing together but it’s also what drove us individually to start learning to play our instruments. Experience and playing live is also a big influence on our sound. Each time you see a great band perform live you have the chance to learn something from it, it could be a different way to approach or hold your instrument but it can also be the attitude.
It looks like you guys have a lot of shows coming up for the next month. What are you looking forward to about being on the road?
We’re looking forward to seeing our old friends from Austrian bands Go Banannas! and Parasol Caravan, as well as our friend Sui from Regensburg. This is our fifth European tour and there is still so many new places to visit. This time we will be traveling through Austria and Germany. The tour begins in Vienna, with the farthest place being Berlin, and ends in Graz. Of course we are looking forward to the parties and the fun stuff, but the focus of touring in general is the music, the gigs, and playing each one like it’s our last! If we do that part right we just might sell some records and t-shirts.
How would you describe a Cojones live show to someone that’s never been to one?
To be honest, I have never been to one either so I can’t really say what it’s like from the perspective of someone in the audience. But I can tell you what it’s like from the stage view and it’s like punk and waiting for something unexpected to happen. It is probably some crazy karma thing but we were always the band that had blackouts, power outages, broken bass/guitar strings, dead amps, dead cables, cables cut by falling drum cymbal, unplugging of all sorts, falling through festival stages, medical emergencies of band members, police raids. You name it, and we managed to finish every gig despite all that. Sometimes when nothing goes wrong it feels kinda strange but it’s all experience and with every one you learn to adapt to the situation and keep going with the concert like nothing happened.
What is your set list looking like for these upcoming gigs? Mainly Bend To Transcend tracks?
The plan is to pick up where we left off on the last gig of our last tour. It was Saint Gallen, Switzerland and we played until we had nothing more to play. So this time we will take fifteen to twenty songs from our first album Sunrise and Bend To Transcend plus a surprise cover here and there and mix it all up as we go along.
What are your favorite songs to play live?
“Astral Queen” has a great feel onstage; it’s a straight rocker with the big riff in the chorus but as the verses come along it goes pretty psychedelic and undetermined. I think we never played it the same twice. Out of all of our songs, “Astral Queen” is one with the most room for jamming and improvisation. “Superskunk” is also like that. I love the surprise face you get from people who hear that song for the first time at our concerts when Bojan pulls out a plastic flute from his pocket and starts playing it in the quiet psychedelic midsection of the song!
From Bend To Transcend my favorite song to play live is “Indika.” Listen to it if you want to find out why.
Do you think that Bend To Transcend is your best release to date?
I think it is definitely our best release so far. It was written and recorded by a band who spent a lot of time together working on it and I hope that it sounds that way too. Every studio experience is a chance to learn new things about yourself as a musician and your music as a whole. We were recorded and co-produced by our friend Luka Cabo at the studio Radiona in Zagreb and that’s where the Bend To Transcend songs transcended into what they are now and what they sound like.
Have you guys been writing any new material since it released?
We have written a barrel full of riffs and song parts, melodies, vocal parts and only one whole song. But when cooked at the right temperature, with the right seasoning I think there is a whole album in there ready to be shaped. And it’s going to be heavy!
Do you think you can top it with your next effort?
I sure hope so, as I said before each studio experience is a lesson learned. The moment you leave the studio you are leaving it as a better musician than you were coming in. So we already have an idea how we want things to be done and how the songs need to be crafted in order for them to work in the way we imagined it. Since we have done so many concerts we see ourselves as a live band and the plan is to capture that raw live energy on our new record.
What has been the biggest obstacle for you as a band?
Croatian Police!
If you could open for any one band, who would it be?
When you’re in a small underground rock and roll band, playing clubs, carrying your own equipment, changing your own strings, making your own merchandise, you dream of that one big gig with the best band in the world as the headliner and yourself as the opening act, with thousands of people waiting for the show and you are in the backstage thinking this could be the day we finally make it. Fortunately until that day arrives the headliner spot is still open so if any band from Black Sabbath to Foo Fighters hears their influence in our music feel free to contact us for possibility of booking. It would be even more interesting to take the Foo Fighters on a headlining tour with us as the opening act through the rough underground clubs of Europa! Places like Immerhin Wurzburg, or Freysitz club Halein, East German squats like Crass Pub, or even our hometown party club Kset, because those are the places where dirty rock and roll still lives, breaths and throws up every day.
Do you guys have other jobs outside of the band?
The rhythm section is happily employed, and the singer and myself are still in college.
Gordan is a school teacher, teaches physics at a grade school just out side of Zagreb. Miro has one of those jobs that has to do with servers, computers, maintenance and programming. Bojan studies engineering and ship building but earns his two cents working as a DJ in local clubs. I am a student of economics and marketing but have done my share of crappy student jobs; my favorite one being a rat mascot in a popular Croatian children franchise.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?
I think we all would be doing the same thing. Bojan and I would probably be working because we had finished our studies a long time ago, that’s for sure. Don’t know if I would be doing any other art forms. Music was the first one that fully grabbed my attention. I did have an interest in films and cinema before I started doing music but it’s not really that easy to take four friends into a garage and make a film. On the other hand, that’s exactly how bands form every day.
What is your ultimate goal as an artist?
To take it as far as it goes, just like the song. The word “far” is an unknown, it has multiple directions. It could mean kilometers as it often does, but it can also mean experience, knowledge or even success. Just take us as far as it goes.
Written and conducted by: Brian Lion – Follow him on Twitter
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