morikopen - Tumblr blog

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Jan and Nace at the start of Novi Val

Joker Out at Circolo Magnolia, Milano 27.03.24

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novi val jance this tour has been too strong

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The silly reading the full setlist!

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an actual cat

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glasses nace!!

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~

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'Bluza', which was also translated by our member @moonlvster is now available on our YouTube! 🤩

Watch here with ENG + SRB lyrics:

Video cr: IG GBoleyn123

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'Šta bih ja' is here!! 😍 And our member @moonlvster already translated it!

Watch it with ENG + SRB subtitles here:

video cr: IG GBoleyn123, translation on lyricstranslate.

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the thing with the boys smiling to keep your candles burning was spontaneous, driven by the thought of how much love i see bojan showing for people around him and how much love he has for people in general. and it made me happy, knowing people like him exist, so i thought maybe these smiling pictures of bojan will make your day better as it did to me.

and it inspired a series of each member smiling because i know each of them means different things to each of us. and what i felt about bojan could be what you feel about nace, jure, jan, kris or all of them at once (i do, too). so maybe today jan's, bojan's, nace's, jure's or kris' smile will be enough to keep your candle burning.

i'm sorry for making it so dramatic. probably still recovering from everybody's waiting :)

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the first few notes in everybody's waiting resemble a lullaby's melody or the sound toys make to calm babies.

and it's giving false feeling of calm – external calm, which falls apart as the song continues. the song wants us to look through this surface and to live through the emotions we all experience together.

i guess?

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Why does this make sense?

The tweets OPs are amazing for thinking of this.

https://x.com/notjanpeteh/status/1758403757757399394?s=46

https://x.com/leopardom_/status/1758404833055223991?s=46

https://x.com/winttaetae/status/1758407247250563309?s=46

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Everybody's Waiting inspired moodboard 💡

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“Sounding exactly how I and we felt it.”

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can i comment on jures drums in Everybody's Waiting?? because i absolutely adore how it carries the atmosphere as the song progresses. in the beginning it feels like the protagonist is taking steps trying sober up, and when the final chorus hits, it feels like a carthartic release of pent up anxiety. its intense, not in the way that makes your head bang, but in the way that it carries so much emotion?? its just. beautiful

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Remember that you are loved and strong

Go leave a like on my insta

Update: KRIS REPOSTED?????????

Update2: check out this and other JO pieces on my Redbubble

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Today’s motivational thought brought to you by Bojan

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Thoughts on the choice to write Everyone's Waiting in English

So I've seen a lot of criticism (or implied criticism) within the fandom of Bojan's choice to attempt an emotional song like Everyone's Waiting in English and complaints that his lyrics sound clumsy or less emotional/less genuine because he's not as good a songwriter in his non-native language. While I agree there's room for improvement in that respect, I want to examine and also defend this choice from a different perspective.

More below the cut, but tl;dr: even if the output isn't as eloquent, processing difficult feelings and personal struggles can actually be easier in your non-native language because it provides some distance and forces you to rethink how you view them.

When JO first announced they were moving to London and planning to do more songs in English, there was a lot of pushback, and those of you who remember the live discord Q&A (which I think was moved to IG or TikTok because of video troubles?) might remember Bojan getting a bit annoyed about this and stating that ultimately they make music for themselves, not for the public, and that while they appreciate the resonance their music has found with people, it's still first and foremost theirs.

This statement is always on my mind when I think about their choice to experiment with English songs and new sounds. And obviously I can't read Bojan's mind, but I can imagine that writing songs in English, even if they're not perfect, might give him a kind of personal satisfaction and a tool for working through his feelings that writing in his native languages doesn't.

Disclaimer: the following are just my non-scientific observations.

Some of my mutuals might know that I work as a translator, specifically as a literary translator. I recently translated an incredible book written in German by a Czech author. He is quite a famous Czech writer and this was the first book he had ever written in German, his non-native language. It deals with a lot of difficult themes like WWII, the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, etc. When I met with him to discuss the English translation, he told me that he had to write this book in German because he couldn't write it in his native Czech. It would feel too close, too emotional. So he chose to write it in German, where he could examine these feelings from a distance and write a more honest book as a result.

And honestly, I get it. My native language is English. I learned German, my second language, as an adult, so to me it is and will always be non-native. I struggle with depression and anxiety and have been in therapy in both languages. I have personally made a lot more progress doing therapy in my non-native German than in my native English. You just fall into a lot of familiar thought patterns in your native language... it's easier to think less critically about your feelings in your native language because they feel so natural.

There's a kind of distance you get when processing your own thoughts and feelings in a fluent-but-non-native language that forces you to engage more consciously with them. You have to describe them in different words, in a different language altogether, so you have to reflect hard on what you really think and feel and how to best describe that in your other language. It's not possible to have a kneejerk reaction; you're forced to think things through.

It can also be easier to express thoughts in your second language that might feel uncomfortable in your native language because the words themselves are bound up with so much more emotion and context. And it places you a step away from the family and peer pressure in your native language. Bojan has even said in interviews that he feels more free to be himself in Serbian or English while feeling pressure to be a "good boy" in Slovenian.

All in all, if we take JO and particularly Bojan at their word that they're doing songs in English because they want to and not because they feel like they have to, I can see how writing in English might be genuinely therapeutic for Bojan, even if the end results are not as polished as his Slovenian lyrics. They may be more honest, even if they sound less refined and native.

I guess the question is whether he could have written Everybody's Waiting in Slovenian. From a technical standpoint, of course the answer is yes, but from an emotional one...? I'm not sure. Personally I can imagine that his anxieties might be easier to admit to and examine in another language, and not in the language of the country(ies) where he's so famous and has become such an idol. Maybe he feels like English gives him more distance and freedom in an emotional sense, even if his lyrical output isn't as strong. I can't read his mind, I can only say that I would understand.