FIRST MAN OF SKY CORPORATION SPEAKS ABOUT EVENTS PRECEDING ALL OF HIS LIFE SUCCESSES ACOMPLISHED. LOVE TOWARD MUSIC WAS HIS FIRST CHAPTER OF RESPECTABLE CARRER BUT CREATIVE ENERGY AS A MOTIVE MAKES IT IMPRESSIVE EVEN TODAY.
Mister Skaric, you are a guitar player, a pianist and economist, and you lead one of the largest business groups the Sky Corporation Int. It looks like you have balanced love and profession well. How do you see it? What is music to you, and what do you listen to in these days?
To me, love for one’s profession is the ultimate goal. I have met a lot of successful people in my life, and they are mostly divided into those to whom profit is the challenge and those who truly love what they do. I am of the privileged in the second category. I have dealt with music since childhood, but the music itself is not enough. What I can really call my motivation is the creative and inventive energy, and if I ever lose it, I will immediately retire. I am currently listening the new songs by Coldplay, and if I had to single out a favorite band, it would definitively be them.
It seems that, in the past few years, even more people from Europe and the world choose Serbia and Belgrade as the destination for their vacation or sightseeing. Since Skymusic, i.e. Sky Group, deals with organization and production of concerts, festivals, fairs, gatherings, conferences, fashion shows… around the country, and owing to you, the most popular mainstream stars have held their concerts here and it seems to us that you are also responsible, to a large degree, that more and more people wish to come to our country. How do you see Serbia as a new place on the tourist map of Europe? What else needs “to be done” so that everyone who comes here wishes to return, considering that we do not lack natural beauty and festivals? Using your vocabulary, how should Serbia “sound” like?
No matter our thoughts that our general offer of festivals and entertainment is at remarkable level, the truth is completely different. Since we are very limited in terms of natural tourist attractions, we are lacking just what we call contents. Serbia could easily become a brand if we only would work on contents which attract foreign tourists. We have great prerequisites, such as low prices, geographic position, but also very hospitable people. Foreigners experience us as very pleasant folks, but unfortunately, the most of them simply do not have a big enough reason to visit Serbia, without appropriate contents.
You are a Belgrader. What would be the mandatory Belgrade route you would recommend to tourist who visit our capital, and where you personally take you friends and guests? Where do you personally feel the best? Where do you like to be alone and recharge your batteries after a stressful business time?
Unfortunately, that is always a quite standard route, Beton Hala (Concrete Hall), waterfront restaurants, Kalemegdan, downtown, but it’s always high above their expectations if they’re come for the first time. Almost everyone comes with prejudice.
And which place in Serbia would you recommend? Where do you like to go or get away for a few days?
I personally like Kopaonik, both during winter and summer, and I often run away with my speedboat near Belgrade for good freshwater fish.
When you look at the annual schedule of festivals in Serbia, it seems there are quite a few of them. Which one do you feel the best for?
Of course Exit, the festival in which we are partners. I consider it an event which should make entire Serbia feel proud. We began our cooperation with Exit in 2014, but I often say that it is remarkable what these young people managed to do, and what they’ve been through in all these years to keep this festival running and become what it is now-days.
Owing to you, we have listened to and watched live Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez, Robbie Williams, 50 Cent, the Gipsy Kings, David Guetta, Bob Sinclar, Carlos Santana, Rihanna, Lenny Kravitz, the Pussycat Dolls… and many others… Which concert makes you particularly proud? What energy is necessary to have Rihanna, for example, appear before us?
What to say, these are all my kids, it’s hard to decide. I will single out our first concert, it was the group Toto at Tašmajdan. I still remember the troubles we went through while we were inexperienced, but full of good energy.
You did sound production for all the concerts, and it seems you strive for perfection in that. For last-years Exit, you provided the top-notch sound systems, that are rare even in Europe. Tell us something about sound quality importance and what system was it about?
It was top-notch sound system of Anaya’s American producer Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW). We are very proud to have brought this technology not just to Serbia, but to Europe as we are still the first to have this sound system. Even though we thought that all was invented in the field of sound, this was one big cold shower for all of us in this business, but for visitors as well. The experience with Anya gives us the impression that we have just started to reveal the sound, and that, that was such an important shift, that it seems like we had no idea how far technology could go.
autor: Ivana Čikarić