The Croatian selection for Eurovision 2023, Dora will be taking place this Saturday and ahead of it you already had a chance to read our interview with many of the contestants at the show. The next act we present you are a famous Croatian band, Detour which was formed back in 2006, but some of it’s members have even longer performing experience. We had a chance to talk with their frontman, Nenad who told us more about their entry “Master blaster”.

Hello detour, hello Nenade, congrats for being selected to take part at Dora 2023! The band was created back in 2006 after you decided to start anew from the previous project, band Yammat, can you tell us more about detour’s musical beginning?
Hello, hello, thank you very much! 😊 As you mentioned until 2006 the band was creating under the name Yammat, but then we separated from the manager who had copyright of the name and we were forced to changed it and that’s how we became Detour. The style of the music we created remained the same given the fact that I was the author of the majority of songs on the first and only album Yammat has released. In the beginning it was pop music based on  chill-out, break beat as well as drum and bass but with tame it became a defined, recognizable and our music genre.  

What inspired you to take part at this year’s edition of Dora?
A lot of great artists which aren’t typical for Eurovision and for which I heard that they might be applying to the contest. It was obviously such an interesting year when even singer of Sex Pistols, John Lydon wants to go to Eurovision Song Contest.

Since the beginning your band had one female lead vocal which changed several times, Maja Posavec was there the longest and if I may say both her and Gina Victoria (as well as others) had huge influence on the bands performances. Now with the two vocals, Laura and Ivana, detour released the new album, how do the changes affect the band and are they inspiring the creation of new songs and a wish to try out some new music styles?
Change always brings new energy and personality so that of course changes a bit our musical image but in general it is the same band which just changes a bit the style and gets more mature based on the experience and not necessarily by the change of the female vocalists.

Can you tell us more about your entry “Master blaster” and how did the song came to life?
The music idea for Master Blaster existed since 2012. I started writing the lyrics two years ago and it was finished before we submitted it for Dora. That’s my dynamic of writing. It is the song whose title is also the title of the album and it’s a seventh song of it. It should’ve been our next single which announces the album but Dora made us change our plans and it was released earlier than it was originally planed.

What can we expect from your performance? Any hints of it which you can share?
It will be pretty distopic like Kraftwerk, Leibach, Orwel 1984

Last year you won Zagreb festival with “Nekad je bilo bolje”, out of all awards, recognitions and festival appearances which one was your favourite?
Hard question…they all mean very much to me.

You often perform in the region of former Yugoslavia which of the gigs was the most memorable and is there any anecdote from any of your performances which you’d like to share with us?
It’s hard to pick one. We crossed the border with a hidden member of the band which doesn’t have a passport, arrivals to the wrong towns, forgotten members of the band at a gas station, many things happened in almost 20 years of touring.

In an interview you mentioned that your upcoming sixth studio album will be released on vinyl, will that be the only form of release and how was that decision made?
Album will be released on vinyl and digitally but CD won’t be released this time. The idea of vinyl release was present even for our previous album “TourDeTour”  which was released in 2018. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to realize it at that time, but this time record label suggested us to release our album on vinyl and I happily accepted that because I really enjoy listening to the records.

Do you watch Eurovision regularly? Which song/performance is your favourite?
Salvador Sobral – Amar Pelos Dois

What are your plans after Dora 2023?
After Dora we will be finishing our album “Master Blaster” whose digital release we expect during spring and the release of the vinyl is set to happen this autumn. With the release of the album a promo tour in Croatia and region will be happening and it will include lots of gigs during spring, summer and autumn.

Thank you so much for your time Nenade. We wish detour the best of luck at Dora 2023.
Do you want to share something else or you maybe have a message for followers of escbubble?
Thank you😉 Life is beautiful especially if it’s coloured with music so enjoy in both as much as you can.

You can listen to “Master Blaster” by Detour below: