Siddharta

Tomi Meglič, Siddharta frontman with a famous half-shaved head, at the concert in Cvetličarna Mediapark, 2011

Siddharta is quite possibly the single most popular and successful rock band to emerge from Slovenia since Laibach appeared in the late 1970s. Siddharta was formed in 1995 when four friends - Tomi M (vocals, guitar), Primož B (guitar, back vocals), Primož M (bass) and Boštjan M (drums) - got together and named themselves after a well-known Hermann Hesse novel. Soon they started developing their own sound, distinctively enriched by the saxophone. Cene R joined the band, and towards the end of 1996 they played their 14 demo tapes at Klub K4 in Ljubljana.

After five album releases, Siddharta (with Laibach as special guests) presented the 38 songs (among them the 12 new ones) in 2011, initiating the Ljubljana Stožice Stadium as a huge new music venue.

Discography

Siddharta's debut album Id went platinum shortly after its release, selling 13,000 copies. With this Siddharta was catapulted to sudden fame, and following a headline performance at the Rock Otočec, Siddharta produced its second album Nord in May 2001. Sales of Nord are only topped by U2 in Slovenia. On 13 September 2003 Siddharta, accompanied by the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and 60 dancers, played before a crowd of over 30,000 people. The event was unprecedented in size and received incredible media coverage.

Siddharta's next record Rh- was produced by Kif-Kif Records and the band was managed by Multimedia Records Ltd. At the time the band focused its efforts on overseas markets. After its world premiere in September 2004 Siddharta's latest video My Dice was aired exclusively on MTV Europe for a week, also being MTV's Artist of the Week. It was also aired on other important music TV stations and on radio stations across Europe. The English version of Rh-, was remade and re-released internationally in spring 2005 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Croatia and Slovenia.

Siddharta’s turn from its symphony-based sound towards “the garage” came close to the band’s original sound in the fourth album Petrolea (2006). In 2009 Ross Robinson produced with the band (now a group of 5 and without the sax) a new album Saga. It was released in November 2009 with a promotional concert in Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture.

Lineup

The lineup consists of: Tomi Meglič (guitar, vocals), Primož Benko (guitar), Jani Hace (bass), Tomaž O. Rous (keyboards, programming) and Boštjan Meglič (drums, percussion).

External links

Gallery

Opening night of the theatre performance Zadnji Livingstonov poljub (with members of rock band Siddharta) at Anton Podbevšek Theatre in Novo mesto, 2010