With his Bucovina Club nights in Germany in the mid-nineties, Shantel became known for playing tracks from the emerging “Balkan pop” scene. Although the seed of inspiration was from Shantel’s Bukovinian family heritage the nights simply wouldn’t have been able to fertilise and grow without German dance music.

But Bucovina Club Orkestar is a world away from the drum machines and stringy synths - it’s a living breathing orchestra with frenetic fiddles and passionate percussionists, where a brass section is more like a movement playing barmy army songs for a country that doesn’t exist.

DD: Where in the world do you like to play?
Shantel: The thing is I go everywhere where people invite me I never had a master plan - I'll go this way or that way or whatever.  I think performing in Eastern Europe is kind funny in a way, because I always feel like a weirdo alien over there. Even though you can't generalise or whatever. I mean, we did a lot of shows in several countries in Eastern Europe, our sound is more like diaspora music you will hardy find music like this in Eastern Europe, it's impossible.

My general view regarding Eastern Europe is that it has come very very down to earth in my experience, it's a bit funny when you do interviews most people thing think that Eastern Europe is something like a mad Edelezi movie but it's absolutely not like that right now. You have to struggle with things like nationalism, anti-semitism anti-europe movement or just an ignorant point of view especially when it comes to live shows that are more like art presentations. We did three shows in Romania I found it so paradoxical, I think these countries turn more western than the West I think.

DD: The Balkans don’t recognise their own culture?
Shantel: I think the psychological thing was when the Berlin wall fell down all these post-Stalin countries became democratic countries, getting rid of communist dictatorships. The most important thing was to be focussed on Western influences so nobody was really into the roots or cultural source, of course the young generation were the least interested and over the years it became worse, and so the Balkan pop phenomena never really caught on in the Eastern Bloc as a result. There are a few projects that recognise there is something going on with this tradition but they’re mostly Western bands that are adopting this idea than the artists from the mother land. There is no market, no structure or club scene. We play live in clubs where they do techno or euro house or electronic stuff. There are some traditional festivals but these are really really traditional, these are more dogmatic than the Catholic church. Anyway, I'm traditionally a rock and roll musician that's really where my roots are.

DD: So how did you stop being a club DJ and move into a live band situation?
Shantel: Well, I started when I was a teen playing in school bands, with electric guitars. At that point electronic music became much more vibrant in the late 80s early 90s with the techno uprising in Germany. With DJing you could attract the girls much more and suddenly live music wasn't the fashion anymore. But later I found if you really wanted to go big time, wider and international then a live band is much more effective. When I started the Bucovina Club with this sound, very quickly I found myself being contacted by festivals and promoters. They’d come to me and say “we really wanted to book it but we don’t know what it is could you give us an idea of what's going to happen on stage?” I was let's say trying to navigate the territory in a kind of DJ manner rather than DJ the music. We found that with playback and musicians jamming over I don't like that at all. That's why creating a real band became much more uplifting, excitement, I love it!

DD: Is it because playing live music over recorded is cheating? Do you find the freedom of live music a more honest process?
Shantel: The thing is I started like that, it felt like bad sex if you know what mean? From my personal feeling I love this dynamic playing, it’s real life with all the surpises of things that can happen. I think the turning point when the electric cut out at a live performance and we had to deal with it - it was a great experience! After that I was like “why should we do this with a machine.” I don't want to be a photocopy of a European Gypsy Band, you know I want to be more like the Ramones, you know "1,2,3,4 bam"



DD: How did you get involved with your current orchestra?
Shantel: Over the years there was a bunch of musicians in the studio and they’d join me on stage, then after a year they might need a rest or whatever. What I like about this project is that it's constantly changing and it keeps it very fresh, there's no real master plan of where the musicians are coming from. I think at the moment we are inspiration to the maximum. In Mexico our drummer had a bad accident and we had to play without him but the musicians are so effective it works brilliant. So you you see we are able to perform in any “constellation”.

DD: So what’s the show looking like for Village Underground?
Shantel: It depends on the visa thing, you know! We'll do the hits for sure and other new material, the Kiez Is Alright is a bit different but live it's great. Even if you were to do Chuck Berry it would still sound like us. The style character and flavour is in the Bucovina mood.

Official website:
bucovina.de

Next gig:
19:30, Wednesday 21st November 2012
Shantel & Bucovina Club Orkestar
plus support from The Roustabouts
at the Village Underground
54 Holywell Lane
London EC2A 3PQ
villageunderground.co.uk