Thievery Corporation for Pop&Culture about the concert in Belgrade: The journey through the past!

The world music attraction Thievery Corporation, composed of the duo Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, will hold a big summer concert in Belgrade. In the organization of Long Play, Thievery will organize a true musical eruption on June 26 at 20:30 at Tashmajdan Stadium.  

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Exclusively for Telegraf and the first time for Serbian media, Rob Garza reveals what is this duo preparing to their loyal fans, what they like about Serbia, Belgrade, which domestic performers they know of, what is their message, the goal, why is this due so powerful... 

• Thievery has been creating music for more than two decades. You have 10 albums behind you, you performed all over the world, you were in Serbia three times, and you are coming again for the fourth time... What did Rob and Erik think about back in 1995 when they started? What was your personal goal and did you accomplish it?

At the beginning of our career, we did not really know what we were doing, but our goal was to create good music. We were well supported by equipment, keyboards, music records of various artists and music styles, such as jazz, Bossa nova, dab, reggae, Indian music ... We combined it with each other, we did not know what we were creating and what would happen. We just started to create and threw out 12 singles, and then calls from all over the world followed. The world became interested in what we were doing. We never set a master plan of what we were doing and what we will make about it.

• Your first album which saw the light of the day is "Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi", which was published in 1996. Is there anything you would change in that first album? When you look back, is there anything that you would have done differently in your career?

That record was confirmation of everything we have been doing up to that moment. We have somehow emphasized and showed who we are and what do we plan to do with music.

If I were to change something in my previous musical opus, I would probably put some other versions of the records, in particular, in that first album, since they are too raw if I look at them at this perspective. But it was our first thing, our first album. We were excited and somehow we just wanted it to get out. We are both very happy about all the albums that have been published.

• Is the older Thievery satisfied that young Thievery has done the job?

Foto: Jen Maler

Yes, certainly. It was something special at the time. In a short amount of time, from Washington, our music managed to reach the entire world, to get its audience, to travel... I am proud of what we have done and what we are doing today.

• You have been in Serbia in 2005, 2010, and in 2017. What are your memories? Is there anything that you liked with us, what did you try, what did you do, what did you visit?

I have been a lot of times in Serbia, on business and private, to listen to other DJs on EXIT festival. We like it in Serbia, the audience is great, Belgrade is a wonderful city, we made a lot of friends. I have gone through the city, I went to parties with my friends and it is a city where we are always happy to return.

• Are you familiar with the music from our areas? Any performers that you know of?

I know of Darkwood Dub, we shared a scene once with them. I don't know what is currently happening at your music scene, but I have heard a lot of traditional songs from your areas.

• What is the first thing that you are going to do when you come to Belgrade? How long will you stay?

We plan on staying for three days in order to meet all of our friends and to feel the city.

• There is a word on the street that you plan on recording a video here? Is that just a rumor or? 

A music video no, but we will probably record the performance itself on June 26.

FOTO: PrintScreen/Facebook/Thievery Corporation

• What can the Belgrade audience expect? Do you have a surprise for us?

The public can definitely expect great music. Belgrade audience has never seen such an explosive Thievery. We will create a great show, it will be a mix of different styles, it won't be relaxing as everybody expects it from us. There will be around 10, 11 musicians on the scene, it will be a powerful show. I think that people will be happy.

• Which song which will open the set?

It will be a set of all kinds of things, but what will be the first thing? That changes with every minute. We decide on that on the day of the performance. We will mostly play music from our last two albums, we will have different performance, it will be a journey, we will play the music from the past and something new that we published in the last year and a half.

• Your message to Serbia, to the world?

We are sending a message to the world through our music, we communicate through it. I consider that the world should be a bit more open-minded, to listen and to hear someone else talking because I think it became popular in America for people not to listen to each other.

(Telegraf.co.uk / nikolija.kosak@telegraf.rs)