‘Sarajevo’ from your new album Dvojka is a beautiful song. Does it speak to people from all walks of life? Does it bring people together in the sense that they all share the same feelings about what happened during the war, whichever side they were on?

“It would be very superfluous for me to give the full interpretation of the song. But some keys to its understanding are always good to have. I wrote it after a lunch I had with friends who remembered Sarajevo as it was in 1960s and 1970s. They told me about a bunch of important people I didn’t even know existed. It struck me that we tend to remember only bad things: hate and negativity. Every new generation has a feeling that they’re starting anew, that no one before them dreamt big dreams or tried to emancipate themselves from conservative notions of the past. I wrote it out of this feeling.”

In the 20th Century accordion and saz were used to accompany sevdah music, and traditionally it was performed unaccompanied, with lots of flexibility in the timing. Yet you tend not to use the accordion or saz much in your own arrangements. Why is that?

“I still haven’t met the accordionist who could play the way I hear it should be played in order to do justice to important sevdah accordionists of the past. The Saz I don’t use because it’s too limiting in terms of harmonic movement. I did, though, put together two excellent Bosnian craftsmen: a saz maker Ćamil Metiljević and a guitar maker Mirza Kovačević, in order to build a new instrument that would be a combination of a guitar and saz. That is the one I play now. It is called ‘tambur’ and I recorded my last album ‘Dvojka’ with it.”

That’s very interesting, the fact that you have devised a new instrument specifically for accompanying sevdah music in this day and age. Now with the band sevdah Takht the arrangements sound more contemporary, but perhaps not so rhythmical flexible. The new album ‘Dvojka’ has a nice ‘live’ sound to the recording, but is perhaps a little less intimate than the solo recordings. Tell us a bit about the difference between working solo or with a group.

“I’m aware that my work with bands is always different from my solo work. And it is true regardless of the band: be it my first Trio, or co-operation with Bojan Z and Eric Vloeimans, or my new band sevdah Takht. In sevdah Takht we make arrangements that are strict in terms of timing and need to be precise in execution, but the duration of some parts can be really free. It depends on the feeling. Some people like my work with ensembles, some people prefer the solo stuff. For me both are equally important, and I intend to continue working on both fronts.”

So tell us about the musicians on this new album ‘Dvojka’. How did you meet those musicians and what were the reasons you decided to work with them in particular?

“I met Ivan Mihajlović (electric bass) and Nenad Kovačić (percussion) in the music scenes of Belgrade and Zagreb respectively. We jammed together. I was a guest at musicians at the concerts of Nenad’s band at the time (Afion). When I decided to form a new band I invited them not just because I loved their sounds and musicianship, but also because I loved who they were as people. What we set out to do required some years in the making, joint development and patience. I met Ivana Đurić (violinist) through my brother because she worked as a session musician in his studio. I fell in love with her traditional sound, not even knowing that she had much more potential. Later on we witnessed her creating a very personal sevdah sound, and I invited her to join the band.”

Do you think that your contemporary interpretation of the music is new and different, and may be taking sevdah in a new direction?

“It is strange: I’m just playing it the way I hear it. I never made a conscious decision or thought “I’m gonna make something new!” It just came out that way. We all play because of who we are, and who we are is a result of a long and painstaking process of becoming. That is why it is important what kind of music we’re listening to, what kind of films we’re seeing and so on.”

We understand that the film-maker Marina Andree-Škop worked with you, and it’s claimed the film she made introduced the old sevdah tradition to a younger audience. Looking to the future, is there a rise in the number of young people in your region who listen to sevdah music now?

“Sevdah is a very popular music. Though, I have to admit that I mostly explored its meditative and story-telling side. Therefore my work attracted people who loved my approach to music regardless of their age. But year by year I think we have won over many younger people. Marina’s film definitely was a breaking point in those efforts.”

So does that mean that people engage with it in the same way that they do with popular music?

“Well, not only that. Being a genre with a long tradition sevdah is usually perceived as a music/poetry with a truth-value, i.e. if something is being said in a Sevdalinka it is true! I really don’t know what aspect of the music will always remain the same, but I just hope it will stay open for the stories of those who need them to be told. Pop songs usually get forgotten within a couple of years. Sevdalinkas last for a long time and carry on their body traces of past times. That is a powerful thing.”