Leiner Boris: Sve bio je ritam

Boris Leiner: Everything was rhythm

The unstoppable force of Leiner's rhythm interwoven with scenes of wild rock'n'roll life reveals a previously unknown side of the most important protagonists of the new wave.

After more than four active decades in music, Boris Leiner wrote a book of autobiographical records that contain hitherto untold stories about the greats of domestic rock (Johnny Štulić, Darko Rundek, Josipa Lisac and many others), written in an authentic, witty style that reveals the reverse side of celebrity life, but also the dedication to art, jumping over barriers and pushing boundaries.

Leiner's prose writings, sometimes in the form of full-blooded short stories, and sometimes almost surreal, frenzied lines brilliantly evoke the adventures of the popular rocker. Leiner opens himself completely to his fans and audience: this book knows no taboos and circumlocutions. On the contrary, Boris Leiner, writing with a grain of salt, will stir up lulled musical and artistic circles with the book Everything was rhythm, and his testimony will want to be read by all generations who grew up with Leiner's playful, dance rhythm from the mid-seventies to the present day.

The book is illustrated by Davor Schunk, an experienced cartoonist and graphic designer, whose ludic drawing and artistic design are intertwined with Leiner's text and make the book Sve bio ritam a magical reader of Croatian rock and a guide to a nomadic life without prejudice.

"You are no longer in Azra, Johnny told you," said Jurica Pađen harshly. He was saying something else, but I didn't hear him. Like a sledgehammer hit by his terrible words, my whole body trembled. I cried, I vomited. How can he just fuck me like that over the Pađen teklić?! After ten full years of loyalty! Didn't I deserve to be told that to my face?! We were on an unfortunate tour and promotion of the album Pleasure in 1987 in Yugoslav cities. The critics cut us down, they only praised my rocker drumming heart. The atmosphere in the band was additionally tense because of the blatantly thieving managers. Everything culminated in a fight in the dressing room. We started at each other - he at me with an ashtray, I at him with a chair. If Jurica had not separated us, there would have been blood. That's the END.

And the beginning? In 1978, I lived in Trnsko. And in the neighboring neighborhood, Siget, lived Johnny...

Boris Leiner was born in Čakovec in 1957. I started my artistic career as a rock drummer. He entered the history of rock'n'roll as the drummer of Azra and by being involved in a number of important Croatian musical projects such as Naturalna mystica, Vještica, Šo!Mazgoon, Aerodrom, Haustor and others. In recent years, in addition to music, he has been increasingly involved in sculpture.

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