An interview with Mladen on the occasion of the concert of the wild surf-punk/trash-blues band RAGMAN in Sofia (this concert took part on the 16th of November 2007). Mladen is the front man and the drummer of RAGMAN, and also a bassist in the legendary Serbian garage-punk group of the close past – The Corrosion, spoken about here.

gocitizen: Which bands and musicians did you grow up with?
Mladen: Well, lot of bands! In primary school - Sex Pistols and Ramones at first place. Then I had look back in past and found Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls, all the way to the Sonics, Chuck Berry and some 50’s stuff! I’m still searching…

gocitizen: Which are your favorite bands from ex Yugoslavia from the past and today?
Mladen: We started to play guitars by listening to Pekinska Patka, Psihomodo Pop, Kud Idijoti and other ex-yu bands. Today we have lot of good bands in Serbia: Blitzkrieg, Red Union, Mighty dogz, DMT, Hosenfefer… It’s very hard to say witch one is favorite… personally I like Psihomodo Pop, they are the best ex-yu band!

gocitizen: How did you decide to form the band? Your previous band is The Corrosion, which doesn’t exist anymore. Is there a connection between Ragman and The Corrosion and what is it?
Mladen: Well, The Corrosion is primary school highway rock’n'roll band. We played more than 15 years and we had tired a little, and decided to put band in stand by position. I also like surf’n’ beat music so I found two people and we formed Ragman. Interesting thing is that Ragman and Corrosion are people from same primary school class, and very good friends!

gocitizen: RAGMAN - Super Hero, or?
Mladen: Yeah! Very cool guy! It’s sounds cool and powerful when you say - RAGMAN!

gocitizen: Tell us something about the Rock’n'Roll activities in Novi Sad. What is the people attitude to styles like garage-punk, surf-punk and trash-blues?
Mladen: Well, people from Novi Sad like our style! There is no surf punk, or trash blues bands in Novi Sad, so we are pretty much unique band! You have lot’s of shapr punk rock bands but not surf or beat style. Now we have very good club called CK13, this is cool place for gigs! I think that this place could be very important in future NS-r’n'r scene!

gocitizen: Where you take the information about world music scene from (especially the styles you like)?
Mladen: Well, internet is place where you can find everything you need! I also go to flymarket every Sunday and search for old records… that’s my secret!

gocitizen: Long years here in Bulgaria the word “cover” had a negative associations and means that somebody who plays covers is not good musician. What do you think about the covers? Do Ragman make some covers and which?
Mladen: We have same situation here in Serbia. But we don’t care about it! As long as we play hard and not compromise we will play any song we like. No meter is it Alice Copper or Ramones song, some old surf classic or some movie soundtrack… if Ragman likes it, Ragman will play that song! We do what we like and that’s the power of RAGMAN!

Old photos of Ragman