On their travels through regional and European stages, the Slovenian sensation stopped by in Rijeka, putting on a concert spectacle for the Rijeka audience in the sold out Pogon Kulture.
Huge international hype, triggered by the recognisable song “Carpe Diem”, threw this Slovenian indie rock five into a demanding concert tempo which has resulted in several European mini tours, confirming the growing popularity of the band outside of their country’s borders.
Despite their dense schedule of sold out concerts, just before the sound check, we caught the members of the band, frontman Bojan Cvjetićanin and guitarist Kris Guštin, and talked with them more about all current events and changes that will follow in the upcoming time period.
A series of “flying” gigs
“Our lifestyle has drastically changed in the last few months. For the first time, we’re travelling as a band and encountering new situations that we’ve never dealt with before, new great experiences and new small problems that, of course, come with it.
More or less, logistics on the road are the biggest problem, but we’ve just returned from our third tour this year. We played in Poland, Lithuania, and Czechia, and it was a really great tour that lasted about two weeks,” said Bojan.
Rijeka, as the last concert in the current cycle, marks the end of travelling with a tour bus. After a week of rest, the band will go on a series of “flying gigs”, which includes Skopje, Munich, The Hague, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, and, of course, Slovenia at the end of the year.
The fact that Joker Out has already won the hearts of the audience is certainly confirmed by the awarding of "Carpe Diem" with a Golden Record in Finland, as well as recognition by the prestigious booking agency Wasserman.
“We have always welcomed people into the team according to some key to enter our circle more or less naturally, and we were lucky when things rose to the point where actually Ryan, our booking agent from Wasserman, got in contact with us because he was at our concert in London.
He liked how things worked and wanted to start working together, so we were more than happy with the fact that a man from abroad was the first to join our team, somebody who first enjoyed our performance and saw a bigger picture and saw himself as a part of it, in maybe an even bigger version, in the next few years,” revealed Bojan.
Käärijä and Let 3
As much as the process of recognition and breakthrough came suddenly, the discography of the band came at a similar pace. From their beginnings in Ljubljana in 2016, they released their first album only five years later, and the second one - less than a year after the first.
The longer process of musical growth, which began in the band’s high school days, dictated the slow pace of searching for their own sound in singles which eventually, with disruptions due to COVID, culminated in their first serious discography steps, and then in the revolution called Eurovision.
Lightning fast popularity has brought a series of strong music acquaintances to the band, of which their close relationship with Käärijä and Let 3 certainly stand out.
“We met Käärijä at a pre-party in Madrid, he was on a similar energy level as us - he didn’t take himself too seriously and we didn’t either. He was quite open-minded and had a positive approach to the whole situation, so we really connected on that level during Eurovision when huge things were happening to everyone, in the form of media pressure and new situations every day, so it suited us all to have each other to share those feelings.
We stayed in regular contact, we even performed together during our Finnish tour. He left literally everything he had scheduled in his calendar and became a part of the band for four days,” Bojan and Kris remembered.
In a way, the Jokers are an even bigger anomaly in a region marked by a certain language barrier towards its western parts. Despite the cultural and genre homogeneity, Joker Out managed to suspend the primacy of “Serbian and Croatian trap folk music”, showing and proving that Slovenian shagadelic rock and roll also has a place in this whole genre cauldron.
There’s nothing like it in the Balkans
The guys therefore confirm that Slovenia has a lot of quality to offer in terms of new artists, and concert events as well, which are richer compared to the rest of the region.
“Before we started with ex-Yugoslavia, there was always the question of if there was space for a band of this type in the Balkans, because we know this genre of music isn’t the most popular right now. Actually, there’s no band like this in the Balkans, maybe just Buč Kesidi, so we didn’t know what to expect in terms of our popularity in these regions.
I think everything went really well, we were surprised how many people were eager to hear a live band, regardless of the language they sing in,” Kris pointed out.
And it seems that the regional (and worldwide) audience welcomes every new Joker Out show with open arms, because they sing along with equal intensity to the melodies in Slovenian, and also in English, which will certainly take over the steering wheel of the band’s creative direction in the coming period.
The same is evident in the fruitful collaboration with Elvis Costello, who was delighted with the single ‘Novi Val’ and earlier this year joined in the English version of the song, ‘New Wave’, and also the latest single ‘Sunny Side of London’ - which leaves little room for doubt about where Joker Out will set up their new creative camp.
“Next year in January we are moving to London, where we plan to absorb new energies in an unfamiliar living space, so we will change our environment in order to create a new album that will be released by the end of October 2024 at the latest.
We will be more in contact with the English language, which on the one hand represents a mental break for us, because we are used to creating music in the Slovenian language, but there will still be all kinds of material - mostly English, but also songs in Slovenian, Serbian, and Croatian,” Bojan and Kris concluded.
Translation by @moonlvster, reviewed by @klamstrakur.
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A Thousand Ways
Chapter 5: "Forests, Farms, and Family"
In the middle of the night, Legend finds himself dropped into an unknown forest with nothing more than an assassin's knife and magic he only just learned.
First | <<Previous | Next>>
Not Febuwhump (aka continuing plot)
Read On AO3
Warnings: None :)
He woke up falling.
Legend cursed loudly when he hit the ground. He dragged himself to his feet and flicked out the knife he'd kept on his person since the assassination attempt.
He was in a forest, tall winding trees in numerous shades of green. The ground didn't have much in the way of fallen leaves but soft grass and underbrush.
The portal must've come in the night. He hated it when they did that.
He didn't recognize the forest nor its magic. It was familiar, that was for sure, and dark. He'd been here before, but with how much time travel he'd done, he still was unsure.
"Okay, okay," he let out a soft breath, "you're in an unknown forest— boots!"
At least the portal had dropped his boots with him. He pulled the shoes on, raising his head to study his dark surroundings.
He didn't have anything else, he didn't see anything else. So he looked up at the stars and almost pouted at seeing nothing. A cloudy night then, no wonder it was so dark.
"Right," he muttered. "Unknown forest, unknown era... no equipment. Adventure number four all over again."
He'd be fine. At least he had a weapon this time.
"Not fine!"
Legend cursed all that was holy as he weaved through the trees. He tried to catch the half dozen monsters trying to kill him off guard. He managed to flank the moblin and tore a fairly deep gash in its side only to nearly get cut in the face by one of Wild's stupid lizalfo's tongues.
He managed to steal a sword off an armos and though it was as brittle as its armor, he used it long enough to take out the two bokos before it snapped and he threw it in the lizalfos' face.
The moblin, black blood seeping from the gash in its side, lumbered toward him completely unhindered.
An explosion of fire sent it flying back.
Legend panted, staggering a bit as he scanned his surroundings for more monsters.
He had to find either civilization or the others. Where the first monsters he ran into had been homogeneously from Warriors' era, this one had been from all across the timeline and two —the moblin and one of the bokos— had black blood.
He pushed himself to his feet and kept running.
He really needed to find safety.
He found a farmhouse.
It'd have to do. He needed bandages or at least directions to the nearest town.
Despite the time, he went up to the front door and knocked, trying to subtly hold his side to apply pressure on a gash. His hair ended up tied up with the remains of his green under-tunic, leaving it in a high ponytail as a result.
The door opened. "Yes—oh!"
It was a young woman, she had blonde hair tied in pigtail braids, wearing a white shirt and a pink skirt.
"Sorry," he winced. "I just need directions to the nearest town, that's—"
"Oh no you don't." She pulled the door fully open. "Come on in. Momma! We got a hurt kid!"
Legend startled back, but the girl grabbed his arm and tugged him inside. An older blonde woman came in, gasping softly.
"Oh! Linkle go get some bandages and a potion!"
The older woman took Legend from the girl, Linkle, and tugged her over to the sofa.
"No, I don't want to—"
"You are just fine, young man," the woman said sternly. "We are helping you and don't you make a fuss about it. The closest town's a two hour journey from 'ere."
Legend sighed. He knew better than to argue with farm women who had their minds set on things. His grandmother was the only person in his life he hadn't been able to dissuade from things they had their hearts and minds set on.
He reluctantly complied, Linkle and a younger red-haired girl coming in with medical supplies. It didn't take long to clean and bandage the gash in his side, and the older woman had all but forced the potion down his throat when he tried to argue against using it.
The young girl suddenly returned with a cup of tea and the older woman pushed it into his hands.
"Drink up, young man," the woman told him. "Can you tell us what happened? Where's your family?"
Legend snorted a bit. "I ran into monsters trying to catch up with them. I'm on a sort of trip with... with my brothers, and we got separated a while back. I can usually handle myself fine, but someone kinda stole my supplies, so all I got is a knife."
"Oh that sucks," Linkle grimaced. "What's your name?"
"Link."
"Really? My brother's got the same name, though a lotta people do really. I'm Linkle, this is my baby sister Lily," the younger, red-haired girl who'd brought him the tea smiled brightly, "and this is my Momma, Leah."
"Thank you," he told them sincerely. "I owe you big time."
"It's no problem, dear," Leah assured him. "We're glad to help."
"Besides, Linkle's got too much of a savior complex to not help," Lily teased.
Linkle rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up."
"You can stay here for the night," Leah told Legend, holding up her hand before he could argue. "Linkle will take you to town in the morning, she's got plenty of allowance from the Queen to help you get back on your feet. And don't you try and avoid it. I want you with a full bag of provisions, and a sword before you and her split ways, you hear me, young man?"
Legend stared at her. "I really don't need—"
Leah gave him a pointed look.
He sighed, slumping a bit. "Yes ma'am."
He learned their surname was Tailor, they had a whole herd of sheep and a cotton field, along with cuccos that Linkle insisted on introducing Legend to.
He made a note to visit his grandparents soon when he got back to his time. He missed them, the Tailors reminded him of them and he hadn't been there in a while. He hadn't seen Epona or Piyoko in ages...
As he and Linkle headed for the village, a portal appeared in front of them.
"Whoa!" Linkle pulled out a crossbow and shoved him back. "What's that?!"
"It's a portal," he said, pushing her arm down. "I, uhh... that "sort-of trip" I'm on with my brothers? It's kinda across time?"
She stared at him. "Oh. Wait, so this is for you?"
"Yep. And it doesn't really like to wait otherwise it just appears under my feet. So—Thank you so much for the help, but I got to go."
She sighed, scowling at the portal. "Rude. We had plans today!" The portal didn't respond. "Oh fine. Go. But be careful!"
"I will. This isn't my first rodeo."
She laughed. "Ain't mine either, but that don't mean I'm not careful. Go back to those grandparents of yours in one piece, you hear me?"
He smiled and nodded. "I intend to. I'll see if I can bring Piyoko with me, maybe I'll be able to introduce you."
"You better! Now git."
Legend laughed and he went through the portal.
The next world was definitely Wild's. He figured that out quickly when he found himself on a cliff overlooking a vast kingdom.
The cliff turned out to be a plateau with exactly zero ways down.
He cleared the plateau of monsters, stealing a few brittle swords as he went and using them to go for the bright yellow, practically golden, lynel, cursing the Champion's world as he did.
He internally thanked Twilight's Zelda for teaching him some actually offensive magic. Din's Fire was unbelievably helpful and Nayru's Love had already saved his life against the lynel multiple times.
He ducked behind one of the few remaining trees, panting heavily. The lynel roared behind him.
The plateau was uninhabited, he'd searched the whole thing. Despite the ruins of a temple and the old hut, there was nobody except monsters and animals. Monsters hell-bent on killing him.
"Alright, magic don't fail me now."
Farore's Wind took him from behind the tree to another spot about ten feet to his left. He ran at the lynel, which roared when it took a second too long to notice him.
He slid beneath the lynel, dragging a brittle sword through its stomach. It broke but did enough that he was able to swing himself onto its back. Exactly like the Champion had shown him what felt like ages ago. He had called it ride or die... a very apt name.
He teleported above the lynel and drove the only other weapon he had, a short sword, into its skull with a downward thrust.
It sent him flying that time and he tumbled across the ground. He hissed out his pain, quickly recovering to his feet out of pure necessity. Was that stupid thing dead yet—
It was. It crumbled to the ground and stayed there, smoking away.
He let out a sigh of relief, dropping to one knee as he breathed heavily. He assessed his supplies and situation.
The weapons were definitely broken. He suddenly understood why Wild was always breaking weapons, the ones in his era were incredibly deteriorated, brittle, and cheap.
Legend dragged himself back to his feet and made his way to the alcove near the temple ruins. A weak fire spell had a campfire going just as the sun set, and he ate a few apples before leaning back and letting himself rest, not sleep, never sleep.
He'd find a way down the plateau in the morning.
Legend walked around the edge of the plateau, looking for the lowest point. He didn't have his Roc's Cape or a hookshot, Farore's Wind didn't go as far as the wall was. It was at least fifty feet up, if not more.
He could just fall, use the spell, and hope for the best...
No, he could see the monsters down there. He was not doing that.
He didn't want to just wait out the portal. Maybe he could make some kind of rope from vines and repel down...
He ended up waiting out the portal, repelling down to the ground only for the portal to show up ten feet after he landed.
He cursed loudly but walked through.
This time he was in another forest, with... big glowing mushrooms.
He hardly hesitated to tap the luminous fungi and they bounced and jiggled in response. Legend stared, very confused by the odd flora. He pulled out his knife and carefully tried to cut it.
It cut easily, but very quickly it just... fixed itself. He brushed his hand over the gash he'd made and felt no difference, no seam, nothing.
"Huh," he muttered. What in the name of...
He tried cutting out a whole piece of it, holding the mushroom piece in one hand, and as the large mushroom reformed, the one in his hand became almost liquidated and he quickly tried to drop it.
A new, smaller mushroom had sprung up where it had landed.
Okay... probably should not make a mushroom army that may or may not one day become sentient. He did not need that on his conscience.
"Hey!"
He whirled around, Din's Fire burning up his fingers and knife spinning into a reverse grip in his hands.
A girl, probably mid-twenties, stood there in a magenta-pink tunic somewhat similar to the one Twilight wore, with steel chainmail under the tunic. She had ribbons weaved into her very blonde hair, framing her face.
That wasn't the big thing though. The big thing was how bright she was.
Her magic positively glowed, she was brighter than the sun itself and so thick with divinity as well. He was near certain she was a goddess except he knew the Golden Three's magic, and she wasn't any of them.
Who was that goddess that Sky and Wild worshiped? It was a lake— Hylia? That sounded about right, the reflection of Lolia.
"Who are you?" She questioned, eyes alight with curiosity that burned through him, her eyes flicked all over him, to his fingertips, chest, and face, he didn't like it. "I've never seen you before."
"Link," he said. "Who are you?"
"Zelda," she approached him but didn't come that close, "Knight of Skyloft. There's no humans on the Surface, and the only Link around is my fiancé. The humans all died to Demise's armies. But you... you have Heart in your blood."
"I think it's 'blood in my heart,'" Legend corrected, letting Din's Fire fade back into his blood. The constant thrum of fire in his veins was a nice if not weird change since he learned the spell.
"No," she shook her head, "you have Courage in your soul, it was built into it, integral to it, and just like the Courageous Spirit you have, you have Heart, Love, Light, in your blood."
Legend studied her. He realized the brightness she had, the origin of her magic, it was the same as Fable's. Twilight's Zelda had it too... he'd attributed it to wielding a piece of the Triforce, which was why he had it too.
"You have my grace in your veins," she moved even closer and Legend took a matching step back. "You've time traveled," she concluded.
Legend stared at her. "Excuse me. What?"
"You're not from here, but Nayru has left her mark on you. I know every human alive and you clearly have my power in your blood." She grinned as she leaned forward. "You're my descendant! I can feel it--No, wait, Link and I plan to have kids someday--you're our descendant! That's why you have both Farore and I in your being more prominently than Din or Nayru, even though they've both left their mark on you as well. You are very familiar with the three's power."
Oh, so it was Hylia. This was Sky's Zelda, the goddess reborn as a mortal. The goddess whose bloodline was that of the royal family's.
"You're a child of the goddesses," she concluded.
Legend found his voice failing him. "No—I'm not. I couldn't—Yes I'm of Farore but I'm not— I don't have—I'm not descended from—"
Her grin softened into a gentle smile. "You didn't know?" She guessed, her voice far softer. "I may not exactly have experience with having a child, but I can tell you that your blood has divinity in it, and I know the golden three's blood claim intimately. You have my blood claim. I can see it."
He felt faint.
He couldn't even argue it, her point wasn't a feeling or an observation, it was something—it was a literal, divine revelation.
The goddess —mortal though she was— herself had to tell him that he was her descendant.
"Oh," he breathed, his voice shaking.
She smiled. "Here, we're building a settlement here on the surface. Why don't you come see it?"
The beginning of Hyrule... of...
He managed to give a small nod. When he didn't move, Zelda grabbed his hand and led him through the forest.
"You don't seem very prepared for this time, there are many servants of Demise around still. A knife and some magic? Oh, do you more often fight with your magic?"
Legend shrugged a bit. He wasn't sure what to say and so he fell back on silence. Zelda smiled at him.
"Link does that too when he's overwhelmed," she informed him softly and he was not accustomed to the fondness she displayed, Twilight's Zelda had done the same. "How much do you know about Skyloft?"
Feeling a bit called out, he cleared his throat and forced out, "Not a lot." Sky had said a fair bit about it, but not as much as Legend would probably info dump about Labrynna or Holodrum, and therefore wasn't all that much.
She nodded and soon launched into a full-blown history lesson on how Skyloft was raised.
Legend listened, trying to hold onto her words and remember them while also trying to keep his world from spinning and flipping on its axis.
Twilight's Zelda had been right.
Zellie and Little Link — They were Fable and Legend, just... from an alternate timeline.
Fable was his sister.
Why... How didn't he know this sooner?
As they walked, they heard a loud blaring horn. A war horn echoed through the forest and the ground trembled with it.
To Legend's absolute horror, a whole horde of monsters were filtering through the trees toward them.
"Get back!" Zelda pushed him back, drawing a sword. "Go straight east, Hyrule Town is—"
"Respectfully, I'm not leaving you alone," Legend said bluntly. He counted thirty-ish monsters about forty yards out. He flicked out his knife.
"You can't—"
"I promise you, I can. You take care of yourself, I don't doubt you can, but Sky would kill me if I let anything happen to you."
Zelda faltered. Then she must've recognized something in him. "You have..." her voice trailed off. "You have his..." Then her face hardened and she nodded to him. "Be careful. Come out of it alive."
Legend grinned. "Of course."
They both rushed the monsters the last twenty yards between them.
Fighting with a tiny knife was not easy, fighting with magic was a bit easier.
He managed to modify Din's Fire, mixing it with Nayru's Love and essentially forming a sphere of fire around him.
He stole blades off monsters, dancing through the battlefield to a melody he'd long trained his steps to follow. The beat quickened as his heartbeat raced faster and faster from adrenaline. The melody matched his heart rate.
Then he ran into the black blooded monsters.
He didn't miss a beat, he had a great rhythm going. He slashed through one, leaving it to recover in order to dive beneath the swinging arm of another, scale its back, and drive the horribly crafted blade he'd stolen off a bokoblin into its nape and drag it down over the recovering other black blooded monster.
One would not be getting up and the other would take a moment.
Legend burst both into flames, fire exploding from an orb and he dodged to the side from a sharp tongue shooting out.
He cut the tongue with his knife and the lizalfos it was connected to screeched loudly, had it spoken any of the half dozen languages Legend spoke, he was certain he would've heard many profanities.
He ended up nearly kicking a head or two off. Rolling into his landing and springing up onto another moblin's back to carve its spine open.
More monsters filled in the spaces above fallen bodies.
His hands were slick with red, purple, and black blood. His clothes soaked. His hair was beginning to come loose and he couldn't stop it either.
The moment the last monster was gone, Legend turned to find Zelda and she was grinning at him.
"We did it!" She exclaimed, covered in blood too. "Are you alright? Do you need a potion?"
Legend laughed. "I'm fine. Are you..."
He spotted someone over her shoulder and that adrenaline suddenly shot back up.
"TRAVELER!"
Hyrule stared at him in clear shock. "VETERAN?!"
He tried to run toward the other hero, but one steady step was followed by air beneath his foot.
A portal formed beneath him and the last thing he saw before falling through and instinctively curling to try and minimize damage from his landing, was Hyrule's bright eyes filling with shock, hope, and a bit of disbelief.
He slammed onto new ground. His head spun and he almost wanted to vomit as he hit his knees and elbow on the soft, grassy surface.
A groan escaped him. That was an awful portal.
He dragged himself to his feet and looked around, blinking away stars.
"Traveler?" He called out. "Traveler!"
Nothing.
Legend cursed loudly and he ignored how blood trickled down his arms and hands, tightening his grip on his knife and began searching the area for any sign of the other heroes. He hadn't sustained so bad of injuries that he was going to be feeling faint any time soon.
He'd been so close, goddesses, he had been so close.
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