Zagar is performing this Saturday (12 am) at Basm Festival. We couldn’t wait for this gig and talked a little with Balázs Zságer about the band and many other stuff. Enjoy!
Firstly, an introductive Q&A for your soon-to-be fans:
Tell us, in a few words, what does Zagar mean? Your style is difficult to define, but surely you have some clearer ideas than what we’d try to picture.
The band name profoundly comes from my family name ‘Zságer’. Basically we play electronic music with a some dub, indie and contemporary dance music elements, maybe the common thing is the psychedelic mood wich makes a kind of link of these genres.
Your band is not quite new, although we have just discovered you. How did this project develop in time?
We started as the backing band of Yonderboi in 2001 and after a few years and some critical success, three of us, me, the scratcher Dj Bootsie and the drummer Tibor Lázár splintered off to form our own sound, exploring more experimental avenues in music. We have already achieved strong critical acclaim with our first album entitled Local Broadcast. In couple of years ago we had an International hit single, ‘Wings of Love feat. Underground Divas’ earned heavy radio play and secured the Number One spot for MTV’s Video Chart and was nominated at the MTV Europe Music Awards. We supported Depeche Mode at the Budapest leg of the Tour of the Universe.
You’ve been playing in a lot of places. Where do you feel the most comfortable? Also, you’re coming back to Romania again, what thoughts go through your mind after your last shows here?
It is doesn’t matter where we play if we have an open-minded audience, this is the most important thing for us. If the people let themselves to be influenced by new things, the gig is always a great experience for us. Yes we were playing at the Shelter (Cluj) and Moszkva Café (Oradea) in springtime, both of them were a really good club gigs, there was a cool special mood.
What’s the deal with soundtracks, what are the challenges that you go through while creating this kind of music?
Yes, our tunes have also been incorporated into short, feature films and theatre also. We branched into soundtrack scoring opportunities, the most notably maybe the American CSI series on a few occasions. Anyway we are working on a new soundtrack for a Hungarian feature film called ‘My night is your day’, the movie and the OST album also will be released in this Autumn.
What do you plan in the nearest future?
During the summer we are playing at summer festivals, afterwards we would like to focus and do more special performances, like cinematic gigs with exclusive visual projection based on our soundtrack influenced tracks. Besides I really like to play as a DJ also, It is a real fun for me.
And some Q&A for your already-know-and-love-you fans, inspired by the song titles on Light Leaks, that I’ve been listening to obsessively since your concert in Cluj, at The Shelter.
Dream of a Machine/ Computer Define Love – Does the computer also define music? What do you think is the perfect balance between analog and digital, when it comes to music?
To tell you the truth I don’t really care what is the origin of a tune, just the final stuff matters, the real impact of the sound is important only. The computer doesn’t define the music of course, though if the producer can give a chance for the accidental mistakes, the glitch for example – in this case interesting things can also be born.
Outsiders/ We are alone – Where do you think you stand, as far as the musical industry is concerned?
The music industry is a big black hole. You should not care about it and take it seriously. Much more important is to do something what comes from your personality honestly, the music and the videos for me are just a platform to express my personal attitude. If somebody likes it, that is a good thing but I never do music to become more succesful or to fit for the taste of wide audience.
Toybox on the Shelf – Memories from childhood – what kind of musical „toys” used to fascinate you when you were kids?
When I was a teenager, there was a mini Casio synth (VL-Tone), similar to a pocket calculator and we try to connect it to a Commodore64 with one of my friends. It was our first electronic music experience in the ’80s. That was exciting.
Alien Life – Where from and how come you inserted so many cosmic influenced in your music?
I’m a real sci-fi fan. I love the books, comics and movies also. One of my favs are the Close Encounters of the 3rd kind, The Blade Runner and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. But I really like the new animations also like Wall-E, the idea of the track ‘Computer Define Love’ comes from the famous dance scene of Wall-E also. But you can find Stanislaw Lem quotes on the album as well.
Odd Moments of Eternity – Do you remember some odds moments from your live shows?
Yep, when my computer was crap 5min just before a festival gig. 🙂
Backup your Soul – How do you relax your souls, besides music?
I really like to swim and jogg, the sport is a big deal, I think everybody needs it, you can switch off your brain and connect to the universe during a long running for example. Besides I’m a big movie fan, I’m watching a movie almost everyday.
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The band has been performing since 2001. Apart from Hungary they played in UK, The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Russia. They supported Depeche Mode at the Budapest leg of Tour of the Universe. Zagar’s tunes has also been incorporated into short, feature films and theatre also. They branched into soundtrack scoring opportunities and most notably their tracks have been picked up by American CSI series on a few occasions. Their tracks were remixed by Terry Lee Brown, Jr., Moonbotica or Cottonmouth among many others.
Their latest album ‘Light Leaks’ was released in 2013 worldwide and received warm critical acclaim in the international press and left quite an impression on music blogs and radios worldwide. It’s couple of tracks (Space Medusa, Outsiders) has been played by the BBC radio as well.
Photo Credit: Zagar’s Archive
