HE WAS BOSNIA'S JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE. NO, REALLY

When Gino Srdjan Yevdjevich was a child his parents were so alarmed at his seemingly uncontrollable energy they decided to enrol him in some classes. To give him focus, they wanted him to learn a language. Gino wanted to learn an instrument. When they got to the college, Gino's aunt wanted to pee so badly they were forced to choose the first two things they could: English and Guitar. It worked wonders. Just a few years later, Gino (having graduated from the University of Sarajevo School of Law) was Bosnia's most popular and recognisable pop star. Then war broke out and, faced with death, he vowed to change his life.

Rather than working to re-establish himself as a pop icon, he wrote a critically acclaimed play (Hair, Sarajevo, AD 1992 -- folk singer and activist Joan Baez was an outspoken fan) which eventually took him to the US. There, social security services declared him an alien of exceptional abilities, and he and some friends formed Kultur Shock, the musical equivalent of the smile on a lottery winner's face as they are on the point of conceiving their first child. With accordions. And here we are.

My hero is Julius Caesar. The Roman Emperor.

Yes, he conquered the world. I am not into conquering the world, but that was the goal for him and he did it. By politics. By army. He did it all.

I just admire his personality and his ability to do shit. I have developed that Libran thing that allows me to admire my enemies. He was a big military guy and I am totally non-military.

Of course. As an egomaniac I have asked a lot about myself. I was born on the same day as John Lennon. Somebody did my chart and showed me it is almost identical to John Lennon's.

No, I've seen the place but I didn't go there. I always avoid those bad, bad spots where things like that happen. I was born where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot. I never liked to go there.

I was Justin Timberlake. Not really Justin Timberlake. It was like Sade, that kind of music. Then the war happened. In 24 hours, I lost everything. The two video stores I owned. My apartment in the city was bombed. House in the mountains in Sarajevo. And yet I felt so lucky. My head, my arms, my legs were there. My mother was alive. My wife was alive. It was like seeing all around you how lucky you were that you have lost nothing but material things.

That was the moment I realised I was never, ever going to do anything I didn't want to do again. I was going to do things to keep other people and myself entertained, and let others enjoy it and love it. Once you do a record you like, or a record of any art, if you feel like it then you know a lot of people will like it. If you are just telling the truth it doesn't matter if the truth is do-able or not. You were probably never in the war and I wouldn't wish it on you but from that bad thing... you know, anything that doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, I benefited so much from that bad thing.

My friend was killed in the basement of my flat so you have to sit down and think, and if it is your turn, then it is your turn. You sit in your home and there are bombs flying everywhere and you basically cannot go anywhere. You would get used to it in three months.

Less than three months. All I thought was that I wasn't sorry about losing my material wealth, I was just sorry I didn't spend all my money. You think, right now I have five minutes to live. After that you approach every fieve minutes like it's the last five minutes of your life. Which is great. Then it is like Expressionism just before WWI because they wanted to put it all out and not save anything for later. That is basically what I want to do for the rest of my life. Do every single song like it is your last song. Like you have five minutes to live and you want to sing for that five minutes. That is the logic of Kultur Shock.

It really doesn't matter what direction we are going in. Are you thinking we are metal or folk or alternative or whatever? We play one style and we change it when we get bored because we want something else. This is the first time in my liefe I am doing this for a living and I love it.

It's not that bad. Seriously, it is not that bad. It's bad at first. But you know what? you are on Death Row and they tell you you are going to die in an hour and then in an hour they tell you they've cancelled it and you will die an hour from then, that is much worse. If they do that for a year you don't give a fuck anymore.

There were people who were afraid all the time, but the number of those people was way, way smaller than the number of people who just adapted. Give credit to yourself: we are very, very adaptable animals. You have no idea what you are capable of. After six months I just thought, 'I am stuck in war and I can't get out. I could die at any moment.' In that case you don't do anything you don't want to because time is precious. It is to precious to waste.

Yes. That is me and my friend Roderick. All the band accept it. I don't have an organised religion. I really don't like them. There has been a lot of really bad stuff in my life because of it. So we thought about religion and we were travelling through the mediterranean and we were calling each other 'The Dude'. From there we came up with our own 10 commandments. My favourite one is number seven: 'Every dude must memorise number six because it is complicated.'

Right. That one comes from my obsession with talking the talk and walking the walk. Most people think about doing one and not about the other. You have to inform people and talking about what you want to be doing and not doing it yourself then that is wrong. For example: You have Rage Against the Machine playing in Seattle with all the messages of social justice and charging 60 bucks a ticket. And then you have poor old white, redneck, conservative Garth Brooks charging 10 bucks a ticket. Who the fuck is the conservative here and who is the liberal?

No, no, they are not. OK, they might be a dude, but so? Me too. It is more an inner thing, it is for your own thing and your own satisfaction and opinion about little rules that are made. The 10 commandments are ethics. It is all about ethics. Even if you are following it and you don't know it then you are a dude. Between me and George W Bush, I am sure I am a bigger Christian than he is, in a Christ-type of a way. What the real truth is no-one will ever know, but by the standards and the morals of Christ I am a biggert Christian than George W Bush. That is the Dudeism also. You don't have to know it. You don't have to admit it. You can even deny it if you like. You walk a walk, you don't just talk the talk.