A Music Getaway — MENT Ljubljana
Earlier this month I had a chance to visit the MENT music festival / music tech conference in Lubljana, Slovenia. In this review I summarise my main impressions and takeaways so after reading it’ll be almost as if you were there with me 😀🍻
A gathering of music industry pros
First up was an interesting panel on the future of graphic design in music. One of the key questions was what will happen to all the great graphic design hiding under Facebook banners in 10 years — will they be archived in some way or will they just disappear? As a counterpoint to this digital-only future, the conference hosted an exhibition of beautiful posters custom-made for the performing bands.
The keynote of the second day was an interview with DJ Kevin Cole, a host at KEXP — an independent radio station from Seattle.
Kevin’s talk was mostly anecdotes and experiences from the station’s past — how it was founded, how they still manage to support it mostly through listener donations and some corporate sponsorship. They avoid political discussions, but they express political opinion through music — like when they played good music from 7 countries affected by the Muslim ban throughout the day. Kevin’s thought that stuck with me is:
We decided to make a radio station with one revolutionary, but simple idea — play good music.
Another cool lecture was on Icelandic music. Sigi Baldursson from IcelandicMusic, their national music promotion agency thinks that the key reason why their scene is making such a global impact despite their tiny population is the tightness of the community.
Some good music stretching into the night
As for the music side… It’s been quite a blast! Already on the first night, there were a few bands I’d recommend. First, there were the punk rockers Koala Voice who sound like something that came straight out of CBGB. Then there was Heymoonshaker — a blues duo comprising a singer / guitarist and a human beatbox — they put up quite a performance. Finally, to close the night there was the post-soviet version of Eminem by the name of Tommy Cash. He’s quite a persona. I recommend taking a peek at his Instagram profile to get an impression of his style & then go experience his videos.
Over the next two days, there was a wide variety of musicians. To mention a couple of cool ones, Birthh is a bit more melancholic indie / post rock artist. Straight Mickey and the Boyz are punk rockers that really threw an energetic live performance. Lynch are stoner rockers inspired by… David Lynch. Žen are a post rock band from Croatia with some cool VJ-ing that I really love and they just rocked everyone’s socks off at MENT.
There were many other bands worth listening to, so it might be a good idea to put this festival line-up playlist on as a music backdrop 🎧.
The late-night part of the festival took place in Metelkova, a Berlinesque squat / alternative arts centre, so that was something to experience as well. You can catch a glimpse of the great atmosphere in this after-movie created by the organisers…
All in all, I really recommend visiting MENT 2018 if you get a chance 😎. Thanks for reading! BTW, I’m already working on the next story — Building Your Online Brand on a Budget…
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