The making of a rock legend: Troja’s Violand Shabani keeps the beat as an artist and drummer

Childish memories from the days in the tight cobbles streets of Dragodan, among Pristina’s poshest neighborhoods, are still fresh for Violand Shabani. Running, skateboarding and stealing apples from the neighbor’s gardens brought amusement for him and his friends.

Story by: Adrian Mehmeti
Photography by: Majlinda Hoxha

As a child, Violand wanted to become an aircraft pilot. Perhaps, it was his home’s position high above Prishtina that gave him a flier’s perspective. But the political, economic and social inequality faced by Kosovo Albanians in 1990s kept his imagination, wishes and plans from becoming reality. His future as an aviator remained nothing but a dream.

“When I was in school, I liked most my art and music teachers,” says Violand. “They gave me all the inspiration to become who I am today.” Music and art as two complementary forces created Violand’s artistic world. By profession, he calls himself a mixture of a graphic designer, scenographer and musician. “At the end of the day, I am nothing but an artist, because, it all goes together,” he says.

Violand’s influences came from the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt and Metallica’s Danish drummer Lars Ulrich. “I liked painting and drumming both, maybe equally,” he says. “I asked my parents to buy me a drum set, and I wonder why they didn’t. Now as a grown up, I think that it could have been my family’s poor economic situation, why my parents wanted me to have a different profession — perhaps something more profitable than art or music.”

A self-made drummer

Without hope of getting a drum set anytime soon, Violand found himself between wishes, imagination and creativity. Ultimately, he decided to make his own kit.

“I spent days searching for plastic water pails of different dimensions to use them as the main drum hardware,” he explains. “Then I needed a practical solution for my drum heads, and first thing that came to mind were those X-ray films, similar to the ones of my grandmother that I found in my house. I got them from the waste corners of Prishtina’s hospital.”

Violand made it through the ’90s practicing and playing his homemade drums for long hours in the coldness and darkness of his father’s garage. But with the outbreak of the Kosovo war in 1998, Violand’s father send him to Istanbul in search for a safer haven. A broken-hearted Violand left behind his passion and his improvised kit.

“When I came back (to Kosovo), I was angry to find my kit miserably destroyed,” he says. “My grandfather, who was the only one living in our house during 1999, told me that KFOR soldiers demolished them during their mine-cleaning operations. Explosive ordnance disposal units of KFOR suspected that my handmade instrument could have contained hazardous materials or explosives, which could eventually harm the people around.

“In 1999, we all began a new life in Prishtina, and I finally bought a real drum kit. It was an Amati drum set, known as a beginner’s set in the world of drumming. Even though it was quite cheap compared to other kits in the market, it served me good enough to master playing the drums,” says Violand, who quickly became Kosovo’s most wanted drummer.

His progressive playing technique combined with the way he moves, jumps and excites audience during live performances were everything the young musician needed to become a Kosovo rock star.

With Troja, a star is born

Violand started in a metal band called Diadema and jammed with different groups from Kosovo. After a couple of years, he couldn’t pass up chance of playing with the members of Troja — now Kosovo’s most famous rock band. As the youngest member of the band, Violand brought big changes in image and music. The new blood shaped Troja, rippled through the entire music scene in Kosovo. Soon after Violand joined, Troja’s popularity reached new heights as fame accompanied awards for their music and for their videos.

Troja’s sound has changed Kosovars’ feelings about metal, which many saw as noisy and destructive. With the band climbing atop almost every radio and TV chart with singles like “The Will of the Clown” and “The Queen Time,” their fanbase expanded beyond Kosovars to Albanians in the region. Troja’s popularity also exploded via the Internet as thousands of users came to know the band via sites including MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.

“The Will of the Clown,” with powerful lyrics that speak against the social and economical developments in Kosovo, was even used by an election campaign of the Alliance for the Future of Kosova, an opposition political party.

In the May 2010, Troja competed in Top Fest live edition, the most famous music event in Albanian modern festival scene. Votes from Albanians in the Balkans and in the rest of the world secured Troja the Best Group Award.

And if playing with Torja wasn’t enough, Violand joined famous rock and metal band Tanelorn while pursing a master’s degree in scenography in Zurich. He now shares his experiences in art and music abroad with Kosovo.

Despite the sophisticated western world, Violand says that “Kosovo’s rock music scene is quite advanced compared to many countries around us, and all that Kosovo needs now is more care and infrastructure for the musicians and bands, including here spaces for practicing and performing.”

Someday Violand would like to have the chance to perform in the same festival with Metallica, perhaps using same drum layout as his idol, drummer Lars Ulrich. In the meantime, Violand has a special gift from Ulrich to tide him over.

 “The greatest souvenir that I have in my house is a whole pack of Ulrich’s drum sticks, signed with a permanent color pen,” says Violand. “He sent it to me through my friend who knew him personally and told Lars that I am his biggest fan.”