"The simplicity, and the soul. The aim to make a good song, today we have so many amazing technicians and shredders, but it’s very rare to find a good song that sticks in your head. Too much is computerized, and while technology is great in one way, I do think it took away all the beauty of imperfection away. That would also be the fear, as you can already notice how people are looking more and more to themselves, not having compassion and understanding for each other and are getting more estranged. Everything is just going so fast, living just got too fast and busy."

Vanja Sky:

Reborn with the Blues Rockin' Feeling

Vanja Sky (Vanja Krbavcic) picked up the guitar at the age of 19, inspired by an evening visit to a live music venue near her hometown of Buzet. She ordered a cheap guitar on the internet, began taking lessons from the guitar player whose performance had inspired her and eventually quit her job as a pastry chef to dedicate herself to music. Vanja Sky is Croatia's answer to Sheryl Crow and Norah Jones. An artistic career couldn't develop much faster. Five years after learning to play the guitar, Vanja recorded her debut album with renowned artists from the international blues scene. Quickly, a highly successful follow-up work titled Woman Named Trouble was released. Now it's time for the release of her third album, reborn (2023), on the Kick The Flame label and distributed by Broken Silence. While the blues was originally the spark for the young pastry chef, she has since embraced rock without neglecting her blues roots. The album represents a significant evolution of her own musical personality.

(Vanja Sky / Photo © by  Frank Schemmann)

Among the ten songs, there are eight newly written songs and two cover versions of legendary rock titles, featuring special guests who are members of the respective original bands. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the song I'd Love To Change The World, Vanja spontaneously invited Ric Lee, drummer, Woodstock legend, and founding member of Ten Years After, to the studio to re-record the track with him. Continuing her tribute to Rory Gallagher, which has become a tradition, Vanja includes another song on reborn. In the new recording of I Take What I Want, none other than Garry McAvoy takes on the bass part. He played alongside Rory Gallagher for over 20 years. Another highlight of the new album is a duet with Carl Sentance, the current singer of arguably the most successful Scottish hard rock band, Nazareth, and the vocalist for Deep Purple keyboardist Don Airey's solo project. The title Müha refers to the transience of life and the appreciation we should develop for what we have here and now. The inspiration for the new song came from the unexpected death of a colleague close to Vanja in the music scene.

Interview by Michael Limnios

How has the Blues and Rock Counterculture influenced your views of the world and the journeys you’ve taken?

It made the world a better place for me. Music is the healer!!

How do you describe your sound and songbook? Where does your creative drive come from?

Rock-Blues mainly, but you can also find other genres in some of the songs. I wouldn’t put our music in a drawer, music means freedom, and it depends on the inspiration or the idea I have. If I get an idea to make an opera, I wouldn’t hesitate to mix it up with blues and rock haha… Expect the unexpected! Most of the inspirations I get from everyday situations, things that happen to me, or people around me.

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications? How do you want the music to affect people?

It’s very important. Nothing can bring the people more close than the music. I wish especially that the younger people go more out to the live shows and support the bands. Because there is much more to be discovered than the massive media is presenting regarding music.                                 (Vanja Sky / Photo © by Guido Jünger)

I think that depends also on the music you do. For blues, rock soul is more important in my opinion, as you express your feelings, and the audience can really feel that a normal spectator just wants to feel something and doesn’t really care if you can play 1000 notes. Of technique is also important ,but not in the amount as the soul! If you do jazz, classical music or such, than technique is number 1!"

What moment changed your music life the most? What´s been the highlights in your life and career so far?

I would say the way how my music journey started in general. I was a pastry chef and didn’t had any connections to the music until the ae of 19.

I went out to a local bar to have a few drinks and listen to some live music. Denis Makin was playing guitar (his band is called The Screaming Wheels) and I was absolutely blown away, I have never felt anything like this before. So that night I decided I wanted to learn to play guitar. Luckily for me, as I found out - Denis lived just 5 minutes’ walk from where I used to live! So, in the next days, after I got some courage, I knocked on his door, actually his mother opened and was very surprised when I told her why I`m looking for Denis haha So she called him out, I told him how his playing really touched me and if he could teach me a few chords, and he did! I will always be so grateful to him, that event changed my whole life.

That's the highlight for me, because its amazing what music can do. Career wise so far-our album Reborn, collaboration with Carl Sentence (Nazareth), Gerry McAvoy (Rory Gallagher), Ric Lee (Ten Years After) and opening the shows for UFO and Suzi Quatro.

What do you miss most nowadays from the blues of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

The simplicity, and the soul. The aim to make a good song, today we have so many amazing technicians and shredders, but it’s very rare to find a good song that sticks in your head. Too much is computerized, and while technology is great in one way, I do think it took away all the beauty of imperfection away.

That would also be the fear, as you can already notice how people are looking more and more to themselves, not having compassion and understanding for each other and are getting more estranged. Everything is just going so fast, living just got too fast and busy.

What's the balance in music between technique and soul? Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues?                    (Vanja Sky / Photo © by  Frank Schemmann)

I think that depends also on the music you do. For blues, rock soul is more important in my opinion, as you express your feelings, and the audience can really feel that a normal spectator just wants to feel something and doesn’t really care if you can play 1000 notes. Of technique is also important, but not in the amount as the soul! If you do jazz, classical music or such, than technique is number 1!

"I wouldn’t put our music in a drawer, music means freedom, and it depends on the inspiration or the idea I have. If I get an idea to make an opera, I wouldn’t hesitate to mix it up with blues and rock haha… Expect the unexpected! Most of the inspirations I get from everyday situations, things that happen to me, or people around me."

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

That is not as easy as it seems…

It takes a lot of dedication, hard work, strength, stubbornness and not giving up. You miss many birthdays, family and friends’ reunions, it is in the end a very lonely road, but its all worth it once you go on stage and can share it with the same misfits!

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