Speaking from the communication side of this industry, we are a small group of people who really follow the novelties on the scene and try to tell a story about each event – including their motives, music preferences and overall experience one can expect. However, as a result of music enthusiasm and the level of engagement in the scene, we also often find ourselves on the other, essential side of it – event planning, aiming to share our vision of clubbing and to connect with the audience.
For this occasion, I had a chat with Karla Močković, a young specialized journalist from Osijek, who recently joined forces with Goran Kolak, known as DJGK, and created a new clubbing brand called WARM Groove. As Karla likes to say, she is primarily a music enthusiast who writes for glazba.hr portal and recently became a radio host, but the WARM Groove project combines everything she initially does and the music she prefers while bringing a new concept of partying to eastern Croatia. From her connection to music to Osijek’s electronic music scene, Karla and I covered everything you need to know about WARM Groove and their views on clubbing.
Hey colleague, first of all, how are you? How do you balance your daily journalistic work with organizing club events?
Hello to you too, colleague – this is a really sweet greeting! I will take the initiative to move away from the sterile interview answers that I often get and say – chaotic! Chaos is what most often accompanies me through everything I do and combine, but I function best in creative chaos. I am currently in the process of combining all the fragments of my interests and areas of activity into one functional business entity, which will be a new chapter for me, or similar but in a different form, and I am really looking forward to it because I hope it will bring me space for better organization, sustainability, and efficiency. Music is stretched as a leitmotif through almost everything I do and do – through journalistic work, media work, and recently radio. In a way, I have specialized in music through various formats. So the organization of events came more or less as a natural sequence of interests and events, and it goes hand in hand with everything I do.
I dare say that there aren’t many journalists in Croatia who specialize in music – what is your connection to it and how did you decide on that niche?
I grew up in a family where musical culture was nurtured and I discovered very early on that I had a special feeling for it. I also realized very early on that I was not fortunate enough to be musically gifted in any sense, but already in the first grades of elementary school I discovered that I had a certain way with words and a need to communicate. I also discovered that I had a tendency to observe, consider and interpret things, phenomena and works in detail. Somewhere at the beginning of college I saw that a music portal was looking for volunteer journalists and at the same time I first experienced a shock because honestly, I had never even thought about the existence of such a profession and that you could also engage in music as a non-musician, and then a sense of relief because it called me so much that from then on I no longer worried about what to do or in which direction I would go. However, I still always say that I prefer to call myself a music enthusiast than a critic or journalist.
Can you tell us more about the WARM Groove project? How did you come up with the idea, who are the initiators and what are your main goals?
WARM is a novelty on the Osijek scene that will have its third edition this Saturday. The initiator of the project is Goran Kolak, known as DJGK, a man whose fingers have long been in the Osijek electronic and event scene. I have always been the most excited about the events he has organized in the past, and they have always been a little different in genre from some of the Osijek standards of the time and very close to my taste. A year ago, Goran organized Epic Boiler Groove, an event that was a kind of prototype and “test run” for WARM – it was the first 360 event in Epic, whose visual component of the interior was given special attention with the desire to personalize the already well-known space. That event turned out to be a complete success, so it was logical to expand it into a project and program. I have known Goran for a long time, we have talked about potential cooperation many times and explored in conversations what form it could take, and before the first WARM, he contacted me with a concrete idea and an invitation to cooperate. This cooperation has turned into my complete involvement in the project, and I mostly contribute to it from the side of social networks, digital content, organization assistance and artist liaison and hospitality part with guests.
Osijek’s electronic scene is persistent and has always been a bit of a positive anomaly. However, a lot of the content has started to feel like copy/paste events that are hard to tell apart. WARM’s primary goal is to offer the Osijek audience a refreshed and redefined event experience that improves on existing elements and takes them to a higher level. By providing a more direct experience and creating a more intimate environment through dedication to detail, we strive to create a more complete, refined and unique electronic music experience.
Osijek and the whole of Slavonia is unfortunately a region from which many people have moved out. How does this affect the Slavonian scene? What does the electronic music scene look like in Osijek?
I dare say, based on the statistical data from the last few years that I am familiar with, that the wave of emigration in Osijek and the surrounding area (especially in the “tragic” context used in this narrative) has certainly stopped, and in the last few years there has been a greater number of immigrants and returnees than emigrants. My prediction is that this trend will continue and progress, a new current and freshness is increasingly noticeable in the city. Osijek is also largely a student city, so the concentration of young people who are mostly interested in events is quite strong. However, even during the dry years that Osijek experienced in this regard before the pandemic, the electronic music scene managed to remain stable and strong. As I said earlier, the electronic scene in Osijek has always been a kind of positive anomaly and, given the ratio of population to the general situation, has at times led the electronic scene in Croatia. The problem with the Osijek scene has never been the size of the audience and demand, but rather the possibility of its quality and sustainable implementation in terms of adequate space and the opportunities that the city offers for it. That is a completely different story that I persistently thematize in my work with the desire to see change, recognition and adequate support for the electronic scene department.
You mention that WARM Groove is dedicated to groove techno. How did you decide on that particular subgenre and can you describe it in more detail?
WARM was built on the foundations of the Rave Your Soul label, which Goran founded with Marin Kuprešak in 2022, and the label itself is oriented towards such a sound and brings together artists who are its representatives on the world stage. The background of both WARM and Rave Your Soul is largely determined by the framework of Goran’s tastes, and even before these projects, he represented this subgenre in his DJing. It is characterized by a fast tempo, and its core is inspired by the essence of the golden age of electronics of the 90s and 2000s, but it has a contemporary look. Techno was previously perceived as dark or aggressive music with an associated dystopian atmosphere, but with the newer generation of producers, the sound has finally returned closer to its organic roots. This direction is increasingly forming as a current trend on the world stage, and I am extremely happy about this, because electronic music is taking on more and more faces, and some of them really reflect the basic postulates and spirit.
In your events, you have a 360 dance floor concept and you also give opportunities to visual artists. What does the process of lineup selection, stage design, and event realization look like for you?
We are very picky about the guest selection process. In all spheres, we are run as a project and event with a modern approach – from organization to promotion and focus on the newer generations, but with the stamp of the old school spirit and atmosphere that we advocate. The formula so far is more or less the following – the main guest and “big name” is usually a DJ from the newer wave of the world scene that has happened in the past few years, and along with him or her we also engage a guest from the regional scene who is close to the sound that we represent in order to connect and strengthen each other. When designing the lineup, we deviate from the habit of piling up guests and hour-long sets – we create lineups with a smaller number of DJs, but who can play longer sets and, if necessary, all-nighters. Accordingly, the criteria for their selection are formed: in addition to genre matching, we are looking for guests who know how to create the concept of the introduction, plot and denouement of the set, have the ability to read the audience, and have two-way communication with it, and following this, the ability to improvise and spontaneity with which they can fit into the context of the moment that took place on the floor that evening. At our events, the audience begins to gather quite early and remains in large numbers until the very end, the ‘programming’ of the evening is extremely important to us – it is equally important that the music in the opening part is at a high level, just like in the peak of the evening or at the end of the party – so that the whole WARM experience is complete and in line with our approach.
For everyone who will be visiting Osijek for the first time, can you give us some tips on where to go out, which DJs to follow, and which locations to visit?
If you’re looking for quality electronic content, you should definitely check out the program held at Epic and the Oxygene Club. Epic has more or less defined itself as specializing in electronics for the past ten years or so, with the exception of some non-electronic events. Oxygene started operating again two years ago, and it was one of the first places where electronics arrived in Osijek in the nineties, so its return makes us all happy and expands the possibilities and offers. They often hold non-electronic events, but always quality and interesting ones. An extremely interesting and important place in the city is the space of the Slama association, which currently operates as the most alternative space and program, mixing gigs, rock, punk, electronics, but also interdisciplinary content with exhibitions.
A place that is definitely worth visiting, if it’s dry and ideally sunny, is Bajta on the left bank of the Drava, especially on weekends. Bajta is a beach bar that is open all year round, and on weekends they often have daytime/afternoon programs where local DJs always play, playing electronica, house, techno, disco and funk, – it is something very valuable and special in the city.
Most importantly, as far as the gastronomic part is concerned, please do not go to fast food and boring restaurants, but go to one of the čard or restaurants that offer traditional Slavonian offerings – fish, shepherd’s stew, meza and kulen, and the key is to drink (some) rakija (brandy) and wine to fully enjoy the hedonism of Osijek.
What can we expect from the upcoming WARM Groove event this weekend?
It’s not that it’s ours, but the most special thing about WARM is that on every issue, an alchemical process of all factors and a culmination of energy takes place, which creates an extremely warm and cheerful atmosphere. For a long time, until WARM, I didn’t hear laughter on the floor with which the audience reacted to the drop, transition, and track, along with the standard cheering, whistles, or the occasional positive swear word. As for the musical part, this time we are listening to Goran’s all-nighter, which I am personally very much looking forward to. It is a discipline in which he is definitely at his own with the progressive, conceptual, and creative shaping of the eight-part music program – in this sense, you can expect anything and everything, but everything is top quality and carefully selected.
As Croatia is quite centralized with the majority of events happening in the capital except for summer months, it is great to see that new initiatives are happening in other Croatian cities. Therefore, this is a perfect excuse to hit the road towards the east and support WARM Groove’s upcoming event.
