Veja is a Croatian world music band. It’s focused on researching Istrian traditional folk music and performing the same in more modern arrangements by using various traditional instruments from all over the world. Up to now, Veja has had many performances around Europe.
Name “Veja” is term for an istrian custom of gathering around a dead person and watching his body all night. It was usually accompanied by eating and drinking which then often led to singing. During one of the very first Veja rehearsals, an old man sitting in the room said: “Boys, you sound like veja”. Having in mind that Veja’s mission is to bring the traditional songs back to life by rearranging them, after some minutes of laugh, the name was a logical choice.
Perhaps the ancestors of Veja’s members would at first be astounded with the way in which their descendants are using mih (Istrian bagpipes), gajde (Slavonian bagpipes), kaval, fiddle, accordion and guitar together with bass guitar, djembe and cajon, but in time they would accept the fact that everything changes – thus grows, and all that grows – lives, inspires and opens new opportunities for creativity.
Sebastijan Demark was born in 1994. He was first interested in playing bass guitar at a young age, influenced by bassists such as Geezer Butler and Christ Novoselić, but also his father who played guitar in several local rock bands. World music in the way Veja plays it was first introduced to Sebastijan just a year before he entered Veja, but his affection to it keeps growing ever since.
Sebastijan is a student at university of Rijeka.
Sebastijan’s gear consits of both Warwick and Ibanez SR505, Markbass preamp and Roland amp.
Ljuban Rajić was born in 1976. His first instrument was a piano and he started playing it when he was 8. Many, many years later, Ljuban first saw a cajon, gave it a couple of slams and then bought one. It didn’t take long for him to start experimenting with various styles and ways of playing it, and finaly, he joined Veja.
Ljuban is probably the guy with the most nicknames in the town where he lives, many of which came with improper pronounciation of his name (try it for yourself). His profession is pargeting and wall painting.
Ljuban plays Walter percussions cajon, Stagg cymbals and tambourins and a RhythmTech cabasa.
Advancing in music, Ljuban started taking singing lessons from the Veja’s lead vocal Goran, and is now on its way to sing backing vocals in some of the songs Veja plays. As he says, combining foreign instruments with traditional singing is a challenge he accepted.
Marijan Jelenić was born in 1970. His first instrument was the accordion for which he finished 6 years of education. He played in several local bands before meeting Gabi, the woman of his life, with whom he started a very successful Croatian band Nola. He wrote the lyrics and music for all Nola’s songs.
For 25 years Marijan is building his sound engineering experience. Knowing all this, he also established himself as a producer. He has been 9 times nominated for the prestigious Croatian music award Porin, and won two times.
Marijan’s profession is music: composing, producing, recording, playing, singing (not that much), creating music in every possible way.