Instrumental music is for those with refined taste and sensibility.

Guitarists often like to rank among the best, but the real test comes when they have to stand on stage side by side with world-class names. It is in such encounters that Bane Jelić sees a special adrenaline rush, but also a dose of anxiety. After having the opportunity to compete with Steve Vai, he recently played with Michael Anđel Batia, who was delighted with his performance of “Bumbarovog leta”, played at an extreme tempo of 340 BPM. However, in an interview for “Vijesti”, Jelić says that virtuosity is not measured only by speed.

His creative world does not end with music. Jelić is also professionally involved in painting and literature, which, as he says, additionally influences his creativity and gives it a special weight. Through his own art, he builds a recognizable expression, and he recently presented a video for another composition from the current album “Illuminations”.

He talks about all this for "Vijesti"...

You recently released a video for the song “Blooming Hearts,” which was included on your album “Illuminations.” Considering that the aforementioned project was released last year, are you satisfied with how it went and why did you choose this particular instrumental to continue the promotion?

The video “Blooming Hearts” was uploaded to my YouTube channel a few days ago and I only recently started to go on TV, so I don’t have a real insight into how it went yet, except that I see on my networks, Facebook, Instagram and in the comments that people really liked it. This instrumental is perhaps my most commercial in terms of composition, brightness and expression, although I didn’t neglect my virtuosity, it’s just tastefully packaged in the arrangement. Before this track, I released the videos “Via Dolorosa” and “Space Joker”. I plan to make seven more videos, which means that I will have videos for all the songs.

Considering that in the Balkans, music is often experienced through text, emotion, and the message conveyed by the lyrics, do authors of instrumental music have to make an extra effort for the audience to recognize the story they want to tell? Can it be said that instrumental music is only for the chosen few?

We live in a time when culture and real art are on the margins, and it is very difficult to intrigue the majority who, it seems to me, prefer junk and kitsch. Instrumental music is for the special, for those with refined taste and sensibility. More often than not, these are musicians, especially guitarists, who listen to or understand the value of what I do. So it is, in a way, true that it is music for the chosen ones, those who are perhaps, in a way, also the avant-garde in the shadows.

You have long been one of the best guitarists in this region. For decades, you have built your technique, as well as your recognizable authorial expression. When you pick up the guitar today to practice and create, what are you trying to push - the limits of your physical capabilities or the limits of musical expression?

What surprised me unexpectedly was that I have progressed as a guitarist in recent years. On the album “Illuminations”, which in my opinion is perhaps my best album, I brought new expressions, both technically and virtuously, and completely as an arranger and producer. I also surprised myself by being faster on the guitar than ever. This can be seen in particular in the Shorts video on my official Bane Jelić YouTube channel, where I played “Bumblebee Flight” at an extreme tempo of 340 BPMI think only 10 or 15 people in the whole world can play it at that tempo. Of course, such an achievement requires a lot of experience, but also a lot of work.

Is there a danger that a guitarist, especially in the world of virtuoso music, becomes trapped in the need to constantly be faster and more technically impressive? Is there a line between virtuosity that serves the music and virtuosity that serves only to prove itself?

Of course there is, if his goal is only speed. You know how, in addition to speed, I make sure that when I play blues or fusion, I also deal with various styles, and it is especially important to nurture the composer's spirit. There are a lot of home players on YouTube who know nothing but play fast and that's their only purpose. They don't even perform anywhere, and they don't even have their own compositions. If they do have them, hardly any of them have any taste or value. It is one thing to be a great virtuoso, another to be a great composer, and a third to be a complete musician. I had a lot of students who were fast or wanted to be even faster and more virtuoso, but if I notice that their blues is bad, I go back to that and we work on it, because then everything else will have more soul and quality. But it is a broad topic and I would not talk much about it now. I am one of those who learned from Jeff Beck, Jimmy Hendrills, Al Di Meola, Richie Blackmore, etc. I was particularly influenced by Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Van Halen, Gary Moore, Steve Vai, Alan Holdsworth... Each of them had their own role models and influences, and that's completely normal - and you can hear it. Somehow it seems to me that here, in the Balkans, many people are critically concerned with the topic of who looks like whom, and that's not the case in the world. As Radomir Mihajlović Točak says: "It's better to look like something and have a level than not to look like anything at all." I certainly have my own expression, regardless of influences, and an expert will understand that. There is also something unusual about me, in addition to music, I am professionally involved in painting and literature, which has additional weight and influence on my creativity.

You recently had the opportunity to perform with American guitarist Michael Angelo Batia. Given that this was a kind of jam session for which you did not prepare in rehearsals, how important is experience and the ability to react in the moment, and how important is technical preparation in such situations?

I had no problem with speed or virtuosity. We are on that level. The bigger problem in such meetings is the technical conditions. For example, I was at a sound check with Steve Vai and he asked to hear how I played. I showed what I knew in just a few minutes and that was crucial for him to decide that we would play, but I didn't know what. The original agreement was that we would play Jimi Hendrix's song "Voodoo Child", however, later he told me that we would play Frank Zappa's song "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama", which I didn't know. Then you go on stage and you do what you know and can do. All I knew was that the song was in F major. It was a similar thing with Batia. Before the concert he told me that we would play Jimi Hendrix's song "Little Wing". I knew that, however, we didn't have a sound check because he was in a hurry. And what happened? When I went on stage, they were playing that song in drop tuning, in D, while my guitar was tuned in E. I was confused and didn't know what was going on. I was playing the notes and nothing was fitting, until I realized that they were out of tune. He actually forgot to tell me before the show. After the show, he found me on Instagram, which surprised me, so we started texting. He wrote me a great message about my general playing: You sound great! You're a great guitarist! Again, I'm glad we played together last night!” Michael is a great guy. There's another interesting piece of information. The day before that, they had a splint removed from my right index finger in the hospital's emergency room. I had a small crack in my finger joint for a while and it hurt a lot while I was playing with Michael.

Batio listened to your “Bumblebee Flight” and particularly reacted to the speed of 340 BPM. Do you think that audiences and musicians today sometimes value speed itself too much, and not enough what the guitarist is actually saying through that technique?

Speed ​​itself is not the most important thing, but I mentioned it. In fact, everything is important: technique, speed, manner, feeling, expression, sensibility, focus, flow, emotions, composition, stage movement, concert performance, etc. For me, all of that is balanced in a composition, so there is a lot of melody and emotion, but also a shorter part where I will express myself as a virtuoso with exceptional speed. I fit speed into the arrangement as a small part, not as a goal or sole purpose. A composition should touch a person with something, certainly me too. If it is only speed, for me it is limited and scarce, and even immature. I am one of those who enjoy beautiful melodies, but also the power of everything else.

You played with Steve Vai, now with Michael Angelo Batia. When you compare those two experiences, what do they reveal to you about different approaches to virtuosity and what could you learn from each of them?

Steve Vai is, in my opinion, the greatest, precisely because he is the most complete and original, although he also had his role models, such as Joe Satriani, Frank Zappa and Ravi Shankar. Vai does not have such a fast staccato as Batio, who belongs more to the neoclassical direction and extremely fast musicians, but they are certainly both at the very top. As a guitarist, I can play both Vai and Batio. I have long been technically superior, but my feeling for music is closer to Satriani and Vai than to a neoclassical person like Michael Angelo. What I would especially emphasize is that it is a great honor to play with such guitar geniuses of world caliber.

I'm really proud of that part of my career, because I had enough courage to even stand on the line with them on stage, regardless of some minor problems that existed. I must also mention that there were some indications that I could play with Yngwie Malmsteen, who was in Belgrade last year, but the maestro does not practice jam sessions at his concerts. Just so you know what kind of adrenaline, feeling, and even anxiety it is when you have the desire or the opportunity to play with the best guitarists in the world.