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Andrej Vujicic is originally from Belgrade, Serbia and met up with future wife and musical partner Fancesca ‘Cikka’ Grima at the university of Malta.
Together they lived in Australia and more recently in Spain where 'Cikka' practises, performs and teaches flamenco dancing. Andrej plays a very unusual instrument, the cajon and together with Cikka they have become a regular feature of Malta’s leading ethnic band: Etnika. Andrej, together with Etnika, will be taking centre stage on 27, 28 and 29 August in 'The Giant Dream'
at St. John’s Ditch, Valletta (see also page 33)
When did you start playing music and what led you on to Etnika?
I started playing in Australia in 1997 in a venue called La Campana together with Francesa ‘Cikka’ Grima and a guitarist Manolo Varela and his group. I pretty much learned on stage, and the pressure of performing live made me pick up things faster. At first I played without a microphone for several months until I got used to the basic patterns of flamenco.
Then I got the bug. I spent most of my time listening practising and playing flamenco and performing every weekend for over two years, until we moved to Spain. In the summer of 2001 we came down to Malta on holiday and met up with Etnika’s Andrew Alamango who was a friend from University days and also lived together with us in Australia. He told us about his Etnika project and we told him about our flamenco and we started talking about working together. Then we decided to put up a show. That was the start of the Etnikafe experiment.
You live in Spain for most of the year, what do you do there both musically and otherwise?
For the past four years we have been living in Triana, a flamenco suburb of Seville (except for summer), in a small flat right above a flamenco academy. I think that pretty much sums it up. Learning, practising, getting to know the people, playing and finally performing. Both of us were very lucky to have integrated in the scene and have been performing and touring abroad with high-calibre artists. It was an absolute dream come true, working with some of the artists who I used to watch on video or listen to on CD since Australia.
Your instrument is quite unusual what can you tell us about it?
Yes, as far as I know it is the only instrument you sit on in order to play. It used to be a very crude, wooden fruit box, the black slaves in Peru found as a practical substitute for their African drums. Later it evolved into a percussion instrument and was introduced into flamenco by Paco De Lucia and his sextet, through the skilful use of the percussionist Rubem Dantas some time in the seventies. Since then flamencos adopted it as an almost integral part of the sound, although some purists still consider it intrusive. I think the cajon has its space in flamenco and more recently in other Latin and jazz setups, but it has to be approached carefully. It has a very exciting sound and it is very easy to overplay it.
You accompany Cikka when she dances Flamenco, do you dance yourself?
What God gave me in my hands he took away from my feet I think, no, dancing I leave up to Cikka. In flamenco (except for the more folkloric Sevillanas) a dancer is alone. When I play for Cikka I feel like I dance through her, and my beat is there to hold her like a handful of water in a cupped palm.
What is music adding to your life?
There is a tendency to think that art is an addition, an extra to one's life. As if it is not serious enough to constitute the solid and cumbersome illusion we call life or reality. To me art is a way of interpreting existence. It is like a religious practice that focuses you everyday onto the workings of the universe. It requires a lot of mental energy, discipline and sweat, but it is extremely rewarding gaining insight into the very fabric of life. This insight is then shared with others and the full circle is closed. The moments when oneness occurs on stage are worth living for.
Can you tell us about a high point and a low point in your musical career?
Well, there are the official high points one puts in a CV, and the real musical high points which can occur at a big event, or sometimes in a spontaneous jam with friends or at a small gig. The lows are performing in an inappropriate venue for an unappreciative audience. I was very lucky to have more of the first ones, and have performed in the Sydney Opera House, the Aichi Centre in Japan, and the two largest flamenco festivals: the Bienal de Flamenco in Seville and the Festival de Jerez. The Etnikafe shows are also very special events, and the magical energy created in them is unique. This year we have travelled a lot with Etnika and did some really good shows but obviously the Montreux Jazz Festival was an absolute spin out!
You recently were in Montreux and Libya, what can you tell us about those experiences?
Montreux was a bit like being in a dream. The place is gorgeous and we stayed in a mountain chalet overlooking the town and the lake. We got a taste of celebrity treatment and performed on the same nights as Phil Collins, The Corrs, Pat Metheny and Michel Camilo. We gave it our best and the audience responded really well. They really looked after us and we have to thank Marylin Hodgson for her efforts in getting us there. The person who invited us to Libya was Dr Richard Vella Laurenti, and that was a very special experience. We never felt so welcome and the hospitality and genuineness of the people overwhelmed us. The Sabratha theatre is an amazing venue almost 2000 years old and the architecture and acoustics were sublime. We would like to revisit both countries in the future.
What plans for the future?
At the moment my life stops on the 29 of August which is the last of the 3 nights of our annual Etnikafe show this year to be held at St. John's Ditch Valletta. We have put over six months of work into this concert and did a complete change of repertoire and added extra visual and narrative elements. The story is very intriguing and the music shows the bands evolution and a fresh musical direction. The work has been intense but it's finally paying off and if all goes well this years Etnikafe will be a very memorable experience.
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