[Muhamed Hasanović & Brent Björkman]

Muhamed Hasanović: “That was an experimental period for me where I was exploring music, you know. I started learning about classical music when I was eighteen, nineteen years old. I didn’t know classical music exists, you know. I didn’t know there was Vivaldi, I didn’t know there was Mozart, or Igor Tchaikovsky, you know, about different kinds of music. I didn’t know there’s Chinese classical music, I didn’t know there’s Aborigine classical music. Stuff like that, and other. Exploring that. It’s still like.. I learned back home, sevdah is a big part of my life, because you know, I’m engaged and I love-and I’m loved, so that’s why, I guess, plus, it’s music from my home. And it’s kind of like, go back to the roots and..”

Brent Björkman: “Tell me, tell about your interpretation of sevdah and is it something that’s performed, or how is it shared here? Or is it something we listen to or something we get together and do? Just maybe for starters, what is sevdah?”

MH: “It’s love songs. That’s what it is to me. And uh-”

BB: “Singing for a girl, or love of where I live? Beauty of the surroundings?

MH: “Uh, just like anything else, there are different kinds of love, of course. But it’s mostly about love, woman love, you know. There are songs about country and patriotism love, but mostly its about love, you know. Love songs. That’s the ones I enjoyed the most.”

BB: “Are, are they created, uh, is it something you have to sit and compose or is it something extemporaneous, it just comes? Like uh, maybe there’s different ones?”

MH: “Well, uh, it, um. Right now in the twenty-first century I don’t think someone composes or writes sevdah songs anymore. It’s more of the millennials now, taking the old stuff and giving it new energy. You know, it’s still got a touch of sevdah, but it’s like trying to get that woman going again.”

BB: “Do you sing sevdah yourself?”

MH: “No, I don’t. I don’t.”

BB: “So you just enjoy it?”

MH: “Yeah, I enjoy it. I enjoy it, yeah.”