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North Macedonia's Number 1 Podcaster Damjan Gjorgjiev - The Break It Down Show welcomes, Damjan Gjorgiev to the show. Jon and Pete in an effort to improve the show brought Damjan onto the team to allow him to continue to improve the quality of the show, while the fellas put work into more future-focused projects.
Damjan is from Macedonia. Technically, North Macedonia a country in the former Yugoslavia or what's regionally known as the Balkans. Damjan also produces podcasts for a number of other clients with over 1000 episodes produced. Check out our newest addition to the team, Damjan Gjorgiev. #skopije #macedonia #balkans #podcast #episode #international Haiku Pivo and Schlivo Introducing Damjan He’s the Balkan’s best Similar episodes: Scott Huesing Dr. Chris Endrinal Jason Mackenroth |
Transcription
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is dumb young go to GF. You thinking who have heard of this guy? Well, that's because he has the exotic name of an international player. And if you really have heard of him, then perhaps you two are from scope EA the capital of North Macedonia. We're dumb. Jaan is an audio engineer and a student of public relations with a focus on music, media and entertainment. He's also the newest addition to the breakdown show team. He helps us with editing and the construction of each episode. He's been the music editor at Fm 92.
Jon Leon Guerrero 0:00
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is dumb young go to GF. You thinking who have heard of this guy? Well, that's because he has the exotic name of an international player. And if you really have heard of him, then perhaps you two are from scope EA the capital of North Macedonia. We're dumb. Jaan is an audio engineer and a student of public relations with a focus on music, media and entertainment. He's also the newest addition to the breakdown show team. He helps us with editing and the construction of each episode. He's been the music editor at Fm 92. Nine scope gay for the last six years. And as a freelance audio engineer, he's got well over 1000 podcast episodes under his belt. Now dummy on he is living his dream of working with people around the world. And if you care about the things that put people like us together, do us a solid, man. Take a moment right now. And hit subscribe. Go ahead, hit it. See that was easy. Now. Also real be easy. Give us a five star rating on iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you listen to the break it down show and write us a review doesn't have to be long or complicated. You don't need to write the scope gay entertainment journalist Manifesto. Just something simple. Like man, these guys are cool, or that dumb Jaan sounds like a sexy motherfucker. And I bet he's the favorite song of all of North Macedonia. Short poignant and you'd be right. And if you really want to hook a brother up, share us with your friends. You know the ones who love music, culture, entertainment, and a good time. That's our tribe. And we love you long time. If you write that review and Cyrillic that Mian designed our break it down show t shirts with the Cyrillic logo, and that has instantly become my favorite piece of clothing, and is the perfect topper to single life board shorts. If you're enough of a player to have a pair of lows. Now, if you go to music festivals around North Macedonia, you've probably seen the Mian or hurt his work as a stage manager or production manager. Or perhaps you see him hanging with his dog, Ziggy. Yes, he's named after Ziggy Stardust. And when we recorded this episode, Damien was on vacation in Greece. Nice life. I think he had just gotten home from the club. It was like five in the morning. Anyway, he does a great job for us. And it stems from his personal motto, which is pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. We couldn't have said it better. You're going to find pleasure in this episode with our guests. Our teammate, our North Macedonian, homeboy, here's Dom Jaan got GF
Joel Manzer 2:39
lions rock productions
Unknown Speaker 2:44
This is Jay Mohr and
Unknown Speaker 2:46
this is Jordan. Dexter from the
Unknown Speaker 2:48
naked Sebastian youngsters, Rick Marana Stewart Copeland.
Unknown Speaker 2:53
Scott Baxter. Gabby Reese is Rob LE this is Johnny Andre
Pete Turner 2:56
and this is Pete a Turner.
Damjan Gjorjiev 3:00
Hey, everybody, this is Damjan Gjorjiev. And you're listening to break out show.
Niko Leon Guerrero 3:07
And now the breakdown show with john Leon Guerrero and Pete a Turner.
Pete Turner 3:13
Yes, indeed, We are excited to have Damien on he helps us with the show. He's our first international team member, really, besides me and Pete, on a technical level, he's our first team member. And, man, you do a great job. I'll tell you I have to say, Damien. I was, you know, Pete started this operation with you. I was skeptical to begin not you know, anything against you personally, but just editorial decisions are such an important part of the process. And to entrust somebody to make editorial decisions, for me was difficult thing to let go of, it was hard for me to accept that that somebody else could have that kind of control of the show of the audio quality of the sense of timing and
Jon Leon Guerrero 4:01
And as soon as Pete started sharing with me the shows that you had done, I was able to really relax. So I appreciate your work. And I appreciate your your the level of quality you deliver is great, man.
Damjan Gjorjiev 4:14
Thanks. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate thanks. I yell at him quite a bit though.
Jon Leon Guerrero 4:19
Give us some background, tell us how you came up and how you began your own processes and where you are artistically and what things influenced you all that stuff started to beginning. That's again, the audio anyway.
Damjan Gjorjiev 4:32
Well, since I remember myself, I guess interested in music and music production and always wanted to go on concerts and music festivals. And as a dream job as a kid, my idea was work somewhere in music. Actually, I started playing guitar on when I was six years old. And then about making music. I started like when I was teenager kid, some bands playing bass guitar there, and sometimes singing. And when I was 17 years old, that was showing home and a friend of mine called me and asked me Hey, man, do you want to work in a radio station? And I was like, wow, this is my dream job. Like, let's do it right now. She invited me to a local radio station. And he showed me how to produce a review and how to work on a mixer and, and show me a lot of things. And yeah, that's how I started and mom still there actually still working in the student Fm 92.9. Radio Network, they got you hooked. Yeah, they got me hooked like yours.
Jon Leon Guerrero 5:44
Yeah. So it in this path, your personal path as a musician? How are you as a musician? Are you still playing? Are you still active? Are you still? Or have you gravitated more towards the audio side? And concentrating on that? What are you doing?
Damjan Gjorjiev 6:01
Well, when I started, it was really good. We want on our local festival. As a group, we were playing reggae music. That was That was really good. All right, but we were all teenagers and like seven members in the band, and you know, when you have seven members in a, in a band, and they're all teenagers.
Jon Leon Guerrero 6:20
There's a lot of opinions. Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 6:23
A lot of different minds. So we broke as a band. Then I made some new events. And that was okay. We played some jazz, hip hop was really good. But the other band broke up. This them I'm just focused on producing and making electronic music with one of my friends. Actually, we made a songs for theatrical showing ratio. So that was our last project. Now. Yeah, yeah, that was that was really good. Yeah. I
Pete Turner 6:55
want to ask you a little bit about the Macedonia part of things, because a lot of folks in the world and there's a lot of people all over the world that listen to this show. So give us an idea of where Macedonia is in Europe,
Damjan Gjorjiev 7:06
geographically or politically, or both? Yes, yeah. First of all, geographic play, Macedonia or? No, it's called northeast Sonia. That's the political part is located in the Balkans, south from Serbia, not from Greece, is from Albania and west from Bulgaria. So if you by any chance, know where that is, is a small country with 2 million people can landlocked. Yeah, yeah. Politically, it's, it's not a good country actually is not a democratic country.
Jon Leon Guerrero 7:40
So we don't want to get in trouble. But it's not not all that much fun right now.
Damjan Gjorjiev 7:45
Yeah, that's my opinion. So yeah. Okay. Yeah. And our hopes is to probably join European Union. So maybe one day will will make it?
Jon Leon Guerrero 7:56
Would you say that that hope is shared by your friends, family generation, who when you say we hope to join the European Union, who is we?
Damjan Gjorjiev 8:05
I think the major part from the country wants to be a part of the European Union. Okay, of course, there are some people that want to join the Russia politically, just like normal in Eastern Europe region. Sure. Yeah. But I think that majority of the people want to become a part to European Union because of the standards and, and everything and the connection with the countries and I see Macedonia as a closed country with bad foreign relations, especially with the neighbors. Like we had a 25 year problem with Greece. Right now. And kind of we we solved that problem, but there's still tension between the people and lingering bad feelings.
Jon Leon Guerrero 8:52
Yeah. Well, how about artistically? It seems like artistically, you'd run and be part of the EU seems like a better free flow of information. Is that is that true?
Damjan Gjorjiev 9:02
Yeah, I can agree with you that like we geographically we belong there. So in any way we we are part of it. So we can deny that. So whether it's politically or artistically or I don't know, in which other way I think we should replace and, and then there's no turning back. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But there are some key things like I think that the people are nice, the tourism is good. You should visit sometimes. Also, it's cheap. So
Jon Leon Guerrero 9:35
that sounds great. Yeah, that's, that's like a plus.
Pete Turner 9:38
Nice and cheap is our kind of style.
Jon Leon Guerrero 9:40
Let's say, Pete, and I come and visit you in Macedonia. What are we going to do? Where are you going to take us? What are we going to see? Describe like the the, I would say, Pete, when we go there, we're going to have to spend at least four or five days, right? So yeah, for sure. What are we going to what are we going to do, man? That's not enough. Like then they say or 15? Maybe? Oh, man, now we need 10 or 15 days be?
Damjan Gjorjiev 10:06
All right. What are we going to do? Well, you have one of the oldest lakes in the world. Okay, the orange lake. I don't live there. I live in Skokie. But this is part Macedonia, too. So it's one of the oldest towns in Macedonia. And there are like 365 churches down. Like how many days in the year? That many churches? Wow.
Jon Leon Guerrero 10:31
Yeah, you could go to a different church every single day of the year.
Damjan Gjorjiev 10:35
Yeah, yeah. In one city. Wow.
Jon Leon Guerrero 10:37
Yeah. Wow. That's a neat point of trivia. But that's not what I want us to do on our 10 day journey of Macedonia.
Damjan Gjorjiev 10:44
No, no.
So what's next? Yeah, maybe it's some local food like Ivor accredits fish. Like it's called bass drum corps. So the fruit is good.
Pete Turner 10:57
Okay. I like to Bobby that stuff. Good job. Yeah. And then bricks are awesome. things.
Jon Leon Guerrero 11:04
You know what I tend to like, pretty much whatever Pete likes. If Pete likes it, it's a pretty good bet. I'm gonna like it.
Pete Turner 11:10
And it's like, it's like feel the dough wrapped around sausage. Oh, and then you chance that wishing Evo and rock Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:18
Yeah, rockin people. Yeah, that's like, awesome.
Jon Leon Guerrero 11:22
Yeah, but what what is it? What do you feed me? I'm eating it. I'm already eating it. I'm down. Now tell me what it is. So
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:30
brick is like bread with myths. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. And Rocky is itself a cold. So
Pete Turner 11:40
like I said, if Pete likes it, I like it. MP bows or beers.
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:43
Yeah. Haha.
Pete Turner 11:45
Yeah. So yeah, you Borek and your PVO. And then you chase it down with some Rocky and then you get some really good coffee to afterwards?
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:52
Yeah. Really good. Turkish.
Jon Leon Guerrero 11:55
All right. I like where we're headed with all this stuff.
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:58
Yeah. And also your can visit the mountains because the stone is really just like 10 or 15. Mountains. Yeah, like, if you like hiking kids is great for hiking. Terrific. Yeah.
Pete Turner 12:10
Damien. Let me let me ask you a question. So we started working on this, you know, a couple of months ago, we've been slowly working on giving you more and more work. But I don't have a sense for what do you think about what you've gotten yourself into? I mean, I'm sure you weren't planning on being a full time part of a show. But what do you What's your thoughts? How did this whole process go for you?
Damjan Gjorjiev 12:31
Let me start from the beginning. I started freelancing, audio production two years ago. And I had no actually hopes or I thought that is not going to go like I had no hope. Because there are a lot of people that are doing this. And I wanted to quit actually working as a freelancer. But somehow I, I states, on on the podcast platforms. One day, like so many clients wrote, and I started working a lot, not just you, like father clients, and then gave me a motive because I like to work audio production. I'm working in a radio station where I basically amazing radio podcasts in Macedonian. And I don't mind doing that. Because I think there are two kinds of people in the world like listeners and storytellers. I feel like both of of that, I like to listen, and I like your stores. So when I added podcasts, I listened to a lot of stories. And either I get motivated, or I get sometimes set from the stories or I learned something about some topics. I don't I don't read or, or anything. So yeah, I really like doing that. And I don't know how far can I go with this? I want to do it full time job, just anything can and working on it. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I think it's going. It's going great right now. And it's really interesting. Like, I'm editing the podcast, and then I'm listening to the podcast again. So I like go to the stories from the people that are on any show that I'm on. So. So yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 14:23
that's pretty cool. Do you find that you're doing a lot of you know, like, when you're way in the process, and you're doing the editing, you're listening differently? Right, you're listening from a technical perspective, you're listening from, you know, the, just to sew it together properly. And then separately, you go back and you listen to it for the content.
Damjan Gjorjiev 14:46
Yeah, that's right. Yes, that's exactly. That's exactly what I meant. When I'm editing. I'm looking for a mistake. Like, or I don't know, bed said sentence that meets a cart or long pause, and I'm like, machine working on it. And then when I listened to the show, I'm like, Oh, she said that. How did I not hear that? Or? Or something like that? Yeah,
Pete Turner 15:12
that's what I'm yelling that I'm going god damn it. Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 15:18
And I know that I'm making comms right now. So
Jon Leon Guerrero 15:22
but you know, you can get rid of them. Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 15:24
Yeah, I'm gonna cut this. So I want to apologize to myself for
Jon Leon Guerrero 15:31
making work for yourself to do Yeah, well, I
Pete Turner 15:33
tell people, when I'm advising on how to do podcasts, and I say this slow down, it's hard to hear that to hear you go. Um, you know, when you can slow down long enough to hear yourself say that and you're the one editing it, you definitely feel the pain. And so you clean up your language. It's remarkable.
Damjan Gjorjiev 15:52
I never ended the episode with my voice on it. So you're, you're in for a treat.
Pete Turner 15:58
Hey, so I am to the opportunity to produce some episodes with some folks from the Balkan area. What do you have in store for us? What are you thinking about bringing to the table, though?
Damjan Gjorjiev 16:09
Yeah, I think I have good guests for you guys. Like really famous director, actually world famous director, Michelle Manchester. Wow. Yeah, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign movie in 1994. The movie is called before the rain. I really want to interview him with us. Yeah. She has a lot. A lot to say. Then some music stars like lots of different obscure. She's a guitar player for a band called lap he sold this bread and salt in English. She's world famous guitarist. You secure him. Yeah. And made a fight with him. Yeah,
Pete Turner 16:50
yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll be fun.
Damjan Gjorjiev 16:52
Yeah, I don't think the politicians could be interested in making podcasts. But I think that movie stars or directors or musicians or whatever, in the culture industry, they could be interesting. Yeah, of course.
Jon Leon Guerrero 17:09
Yes, I agree with you. I'm really interested in this show that you're going to do with with Michel CHATZKY, because you know, as a filmmaker, I really want to know what his you know what his outlook is for what he's been doing. But I know that he also is very involved in American entertainment.
Damjan Gjorjiev 17:27
Yeah, she made a music video for a rep called Arrested Development.
Jon Leon Guerrero 17:33
Yeah, he shot the he made the Tennessee video. Yeah. And that was a really good and kind of groundbreaking video. I remember at the time, they were really different. And they were really culturally a lot more internationally appealing. And I really dug that about them. And he got them completely.
Damjan Gjorjiev 17:53
Yeah. Well, actually, he, I think that he's professor in, in the United States for film.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:03
Yeah, he works in New York, right?
Damjan Gjorjiev 18:05
Yeah, she works in New York. And as sometimes he's in sculpture, like he brings viewers in the bar some going God. So yeah.
That's cool. Yeah, he's around.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:17
Wow. Well, you know, even before you get him on the show, let him know that we're fans, we dig his work. We've been you know, we've been watching since since he did that Tennessee video with a
Damjan Gjorjiev 18:29
review or watch one of his movies.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:31
Uh, you know what, I'll go back and watch before the rain now. And I'll watch because he's made five or six features, right. And a lot of them have been spaced out. But he's still making features now.
Damjan Gjorjiev 18:42
Yeah, he released the movie, like a year ago. And he's recording the next one. So he's active on the scene. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:49
Okay. I wonder why he didn't get used more as a music video director, because that video was so good. It seemed like a natural pro choice that he would work in that genre for, you know, as much as he wanted. So I have to speculate that he just wasn't interested.
Damjan Gjorjiev 19:08
I think that his focus is movies. Yeah. Yeah. Because he's a film director. So I guess that His focus is movies. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 19:20
Okay. Well, I can certainly respect that. And I'm glad to see that he says still hanging around in the bars. Hey, let me ask you about our Macedonia trip. Not that I want to pull you away from the topic that Pete started, because it's it's good topic. And we want to talk about what you're going to do professionally. But I'm kind of fixated on coming to to Macedonia and hanging out with you. What else do you have in store for us? Because I asked you where, you know, if you're going to take us around for a couple weeks, I don't want to go to church every day. I certainly don't want to go to a different church every day. You know, as much as you know, Pete, and the way that Pete and I operate, I would imagine that you'd have a pretty good idea that we probably wouldn't come to Macedonia to go to church at all.
Damjan Gjorjiev 20:04
Yeah, I know that. Yeah. From architecture. Yeah, point of view. You would like to go like in one or two. I don't believe in guts, either. But I like to visit churches like,
Jon Leon Guerrero 20:16
Hey, take it easy. We didn't say we don't believe in God. We just said we don't want to go to church every day. Yeah, okay. Okay. I'm just kidding, man. I'm giving you a hard time.
Damjan Gjorjiev 20:27
I don't know.
It's interesting city. You wouldn't go in winter. Because it's a little boy. Yeah. Okay. You can take a breath. So is that a good idea? But I think in in summer, it's really good. I would go to a music festival.
Jon Leon Guerrero 20:47
Oh, yes. Now he speaking our language. Pete Mm hmm.
Damjan Gjorjiev 20:51
Yeah. Some jazz music or world music. There's a good World Music Festival.
Pete Turner 20:56
Yeah. That's terrific. What if we took a week and went to the Dalmatian coast?
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:02
Oh, donation coast. That's not that close. Have you been there?
Pete Turner 21:06
Yes. It's not that I look if we're coming halfway across the world, something that takes a couple hours to get to that ain't no thing.
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:14
I was two months ago from the automation goes. And yeah, there's it's really nice. This in Croatia. Actually. It's gorgeous. There. That is beautiful. That's the beautiful part of the world. Yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 21:28
yeah. And what's it on the coast of? I mean, what body of water is that?
Pete Turner 21:31
It's right across the it's like the Gulf of Baja from from Italy? Uh huh.
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:37
Yeah. And the seas called Ionian. Yes. Yeah.
Pete Turner 21:42
And it's not like, you know, we would fly into Rome, take a bus or train over to print DZ hop on a ferry, and we could be in the Balkans. A couple hours.
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:54
It's not bad Balkans, with Slovenia, then Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and must known as the Balkans, and plus Albania Bulgarian goose. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:06
Alright. So the lingering question though is how does the chicks like American guys. This episode of the breakdown show is brought to you by lions rock productions. That's us. We publish, evaluate and develop podcasts just like this one, consult others to build their own and create associated content and content marketing strategies.
Pete Turner 22:27
So if you're launching or expanding your social media presence, your business or your personal brand, or if you just want to take your media presence to the next level,
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:34
reach out to us on Twitter, at Pete a Turner, or at john LG 69. had to break it down show. There's 1000 ways to get a hold of us. Now enjoy the show. Alright, so the lingering question though is how do the chicks like American guys?
Unknown Speaker 22:51
They love All right. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:56
I'm going to get I'm going to get us in trouble.
Damjan Gjorjiev 22:58
I don't want to sound racist or or something. But when a black guy comes in, in a club, like all the hot chicks blend in. So I see because yeah, there are only only white people or, or just a foreign guy. It doesn't matter. Like this guy goes. Yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:19
yeah. Just anytime you have, you know, really homogenous population, when somebody shows up and they look different people get curious about it. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. What segment of the population there speaks English,
Damjan Gjorjiev 23:32
I would say the young people, mostly, but some of the young people can speak English. It's because English language is really foreign to us. Our mother language the must don't mean it's really different. Yeah, if I, if I say a sentence in Macedonia, you You wouldn't understand the word. Maybe Pete will do because he was in Boston been around? Yeah, yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:57
he's been around, but it's completely different language, different language, Slavic language, how about your sentence structure? Because I know, you know, like, I have a friend who is Russian. And he says, if you take a simple sentence with four or five words, in Russian, you can say those four or five words in any order. And the sentence means the same thing.
Damjan Gjorjiev 24:21
Yeah, it's pretty similar. Yeah, he's right. It's in Russian. It is the same way. in Macedonia, you can mix the words in one sentence, and that will sound correctly. Okay, you can do that in English. No, we've overcomplicated things in English. I think it's easy to learn English in Macedonia or or anywhere in the world because the pop culture's and English. So
Jon Leon Guerrero 24:47
pop culture and business we have going for us. So if you want to, if you're interested in pop culture, or you want to do business with
Damjan Gjorjiev 24:55
if you watch movies or listening to music or read books, English, right, you you're gonna learn it. Yeah. Okay, I know that my English is not perfect. You do a great job, man. Yeah, but that's I think that's normal. Because I my mother languages really different. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 25:13
Yeah. For somebody whose primary language is so different. You do a great job with English. Thanks. Appreciate. And it's clear that you have, you know, artistic references and stuff like that, that you call on so that that works, too.
Damjan Gjorjiev 25:27
I'm learning a lot English from the from the podcast. Oh, good. Yeah. Because there are some people that speak a complicated English in some of the episodes I work on. So I'm hearing the word and then I'm translating to Google Translate. Right? Yeah, I get the I get the meaningful of the word if I don't know the word meaning. It's great.
Pete Turner 25:51
Yeah, we got a lot of smart folks on the show me we have PhDs throwing out all kinds of words. And and there's times when I can infer what the word means. But I don't have a command of that words definition. There's plenty of times like that.
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:04
Yeah. Yeah. I want to point out that my favorite so to end it so far, was the ONE WITH STEVE cotton, the manager of Killebrew.
Unknown Speaker 26:14
Oh, well,
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:14
yeah, remember that guy? Yeah, that was definitely my favorite.
Unknown Speaker 26:19
What did you like about it?
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:20
She stories about working in music industry? Because that's my bike topic. Yeah, I work as a stage manager on festivals. His stories were really cool. Yeah. How he started like she worked with Kid Rock. That's, that's really cool.
Jon Leon Guerrero 26:39
That is cool. At a very crucial moment in his development of his career. Yeah. Tell us about some artists you really like.
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:48
I like the gorillas a lot.
Unknown Speaker 26:50
All right.
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:53
Yeah, okay. Doors are one of my favorites. Yeah. Okay. Also, Fatboy Slim. DJ is like, and producers like him or Moby if you heard about it. Sure. And yeah, some old school rock bands like, like Seta, or
Unknown Speaker 27:13
so a real mix. Yeah, no kidding.
Damjan Gjorjiev 27:16
Yeah, like classic rock and everything that has growth, like it has growth. I like, I don't see it. Like, I have to listen to this genre. And, and stick it to that. Like, I like listening from Bob to hip hop to rock and roll to just blues or anything. Everything. Music yet. I like Johnny Cash a lot. Smart. All right, you're smart.
Pete Turner 27:41
Hey, let me ask you this about podcasting over where you're at. I know that in America, gosh, there's a new podcast every instant that someone's like, I'm gonna start podcasting. And that's great. I love the creative aspect of it. How was it taken hold in the Balkans? I mean, is it? Is Kosovo, the same as bosnia? I mean, do you sleep, even care about podcast? What's your sense?
Damjan Gjorjiev 28:03
Actually, when I was in Split, I was talking with some of my colleagues from there, and I was talking to Slovenians are creations and Serbians. And nobody in that region actually makes the podcast, everyone sticks to the radio, to the FM radio. And I don't think that podcasts are really popular around here. Because radio networks are still in, in power and business. I don't know how it goes with radio stations in in the United States. But I know that podcasting is really popular and trending right now.
Pete Turner 28:42
I'll tell you how it goes here. United States I was I live in LA one of the biggest media markets really in the world. And the radio station the other day had an ad for the radio station. Hey, advertising on radio is a great idea. So that's that's how it's going. And and that's coming for you guys. I mean, look at the power of what we're doing here. We're connecting across continents and oceans. You know, today, I've had conversations with three different PhDs and author of a fantastic book. And and no one was stopped for a stupid commercial break. It wasn't point CounterPoint. It was good conversations, you know, so
Damjan Gjorjiev 29:18
yeah, there were no stupid songs in the background, like in the radio stations and, and there's a guy coming out. Yeah, listen to my radio show later on or something like that. Yeah. I know that. radio networks can be boring, sometimes. And against that. So David day,
Pete Turner 29:38
like as, as you, you know, promote the show and everything because I know we talked about this a little bit. What do you do them to get your friends to pay attention? Because I mean, what you're, what you're part of is a really big show, right? Like there's 500 episodes, we've talked to world famous people. It's a pretty big deal to your friends get it yet.
Damjan Gjorjiev 29:56
Certainly they do. Like the guy that sits actress to me right now my export angle, he listens to the show. As soon as I started working with I talked to him. So I told him, Hey, man, I am working on a show that interviewed the drummer of the police or the singer of the offspring or, or something like that, actually have spent our history with Ben so he he took a lesson from that show. The I think that my friends are acknowledged that also my brother, my brother listens to a lot of podcasts. He listens to normal podcast or she's a jujitsu fighter. So she listens to the UFC episodes with Tito Ortiz or I don't know them guys, I don't I don't watch that. But look, the young people actually listen to podcasts and the older ones the know how to open a show on a mobile phone. So so there's lots of opportunity to to grow and expand in the market. I love that. And and the more reason for john and i to pop out there and do a video. I think I think that people are listening to podcasts. I was reading a story from some some journal in the United States that podcasts are getting so popular, more popular and more more popular in in the world. Like, I think that was like 30% from the year before. So podcasts are coming into into Europe, but I think they're mostly popular in the United States and Australia. I know that Australia produce a lot of podcasts. Yeah, people are stick to radio shows. And they sit there sitting in a car and listening to whatever it comes on the radio you like, I like the the free flow of the podcast that you can play any episodes you want. Like, the the night before I was sleeping with podcasts. And this is normal to me, but a lot of people don't. Don't listen to it. And they're watching stupid videos on YouTube. Yeah.
Pete Turner 32:24
Man, I speaking from me speaking for the show, and all of our friends that Listen, I love it, I love it, that you're part of the show that you're helping me out, I'm able to grow we're doing to be even bigger things to know that, you know, you get it you to find someone who gets it. It's always special, whatever country they're in. So for me personally, I just, I love the service that we're giving people the ability to whether they're going to sleep or driving to work or in their cubicle. It's just it's a chance to share stories of humanity and fellowship. And you know, I always say we illustrate life. This is this is proof of it and mean, here we are living across john and i are fright 500 miles apart, and then you're in a different continent altogether. 1010 hours away timezone wise. And yet, we're all connected in this common moment. And I love stuff like that.
Damjan Gjorjiev 33:14
Yeah, yeah, that's true. And I like working with different kinds of people. Like I like it when I'm when I'm meeting new people and share my stories with them. And they share their stories with me, and basically learn learn something from them. And hopefully they learn something from me. Of course, also, I had a get an idea started start a podcast in Macedonia, obviously in in Macedonia language. But I saw that there was only one existent podcast in Macedonia. And he didn't make it. Ah, that's terrible. Yeah, that's their Jihad like 20 or 30 episodes century with. So I don't know. Maybe I'll start in the future. I want to do a comic show. a comic book guests with a friend. Maybe we'll we'll do it.
Jon Leon Guerrero 34:08
Yeah. You mean you mean a podcast centered around comedy? or? Yeah. Are you like comic books? Okay,
Damjan Gjorjiev 34:14
yes, centered around comedy, because we like to make jokes with each other. And she's my best friend, actually. And he's an actor. So we might do that in the future. But right now, I don't think that there's a market for Macedonian podcasts in in Macedonia. Well, yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 34:37
Yeah. I'm with Pete. That means that now's the time to get started. Yeah,
Pete Turner 34:41
yeah, exactly. Get in and start laying the land the tile down and establishing a floor and make it so that every every comedian anywhere in the Balkans anywhere, anybody who tours that area, regionally, they know that the your voice and even a five people listen. Five is the next number x number in line is six. And then it's 789 10. Next thing you know, you've got hundreds of people paying attention because you're bringing the funny in a way that nobody else can.
Damjan Gjorjiev 35:08
Yeah, I know. But when you talk in English, the world is markets. And when you talk in Macedonia is 2 million people. I think there's the problem is picking your mother language like in Macedonian. So the market is so small that I don't think that radio networks are listened enough for the TV shows are watched, or the books are read in great numbers, because the market is so small when you're talking in English. Actually, the world is your market. That's beautiful.
Pete Turner 35:43
Perfect. Is there a base language for you guys, whether it's you know, the Serbian flavor, or the Croatian flavor of, of your Slavic wing is like is there like, like, again, America, we have certain regions where we're like, that's like the Voice of America. You know, it's very, it's very accent neutral. The newscasters kind of speak that. Is there a thing like that for you guys? And yeah,
Damjan Gjorjiev 36:05
that's Serbian, because most countries in the Balkan region speak Serbian. Yeah, that's like Croatia. Slovenia speaks mixed Serbian, their language. That's Bosnia. That's Montenegro. And of course, Serbia and a lot of people in the majority of people Macedonia speak Serbian and listen to Serbian music and watch Serbian always. So I think Serbian is, is the basic language in the Balkans. So we, we might do it in Serbia, I don't know. We gotta think about
Pete Turner 36:41
john and i are the kind of guys are like, we're going to kind of tell you to start doing it. And and if you use Serbian as the base language, I mean, if you speak Macedonian, they'll know your Macedonian, but they're going to understand what you're saying. I mean, it's not that different, right? Like, it's just, it's a dialect difference. So so they'll, they'll understand it. And I'll would say that if you did it with comedians would be great. But also, all people in the Balkans who are in entertainment need a voice. And they go on radio now. But you start asking, and you provide this new area to get a voice, you're going to exchange influence with them. So if it's the if it's the 15, most notable musicians and you get half of them on your show, what's going to happen is, the other ones are going to come the comedians are going to come, the authors are going to come and all of those elements of your culture are going to come because you're respecting what you guys do. And you're giving them a voice in a way that nobody else is doing it. So I just it takes a long time. But I say you do it, just start building the market out.
Damjan Gjorjiev 37:40
that's a that's a good advice. Thanks. Yeah, of course. And there are a lot of notable people to to interview in, in, in Macedonia.
Jon Leon Guerrero 37:51
Yeah. I think you're right. A lot of people want to get out there. Yeah, no, I think, you know, I'm just glad to get this. This amount of information. I'm glad to get some participation from Damien in terms of our aspirations to come to Macedonia. I'm glad he's committed to taking us out to the nightclubs and introducing us to all the ladies who will find us interesting. And it looks like we're going to drink well and get fed. Well, so we, we gotta get started. Pete.
Pete Turner 38:19
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it looks like it's $600 to fly to Rome. And in late October, so we can go do that for a week
Damjan Gjorjiev 38:29
from Rome. Just copy it's like $50. So yeah,
Pete Turner 38:33
yeah. So so for 500 or so dollars we can get all the way to Rome. And then yeah, $50 hundred dollars whatever it's going to be from Rome disco P and will be
Damjan Gjorjiev 38:45
unit like $30 to it and drink for a week. So for a what? A week or a week. Yeah, not 30. But hundreds.
Jon Leon Guerrero 38:56
Yeah, shit, I my blue there. Hey, you know, the other thing is we can get an Airbnb. And, you know, hopefully get one in a neighborhood where we can really get to know the village really well. And
Damjan Gjorjiev 39:09
yeah, or you can take a place at my home and with my dog.
Jon Leon Guerrero 39:13
Well, we'll do that too.
Yeah. But I want to definitely stay out late at night and meeting people who are who are, you know, eating, eating good food late at night because people eat good food late at night. Those are my people.
Unknown Speaker 39:27
Yeah.
Pete Turner 39:30
All right, man. Well, listen, I appreciate you coming on. You're on vacation, by the way. Yeah. And also, you've helped us check off Greece as a place that we've recorded from Yeah, so Greece is off the list. We're going to get you live in Macedonia. And And listen, I want you to create your podcast. But in the meantime, let's just start hosting some shows and building the name. Yeah, that's what to break it down show and then we'll do
Damjan Gjorjiev 39:51
I would love to do it.
Pete Turner 39:53
Yeah, we're gonna make it happen.
Jon Leon Guerrero 39:57
Right on. Hey, Damien. Thanks a lot, man for years for your great work with us and look forward to seeing how your career unfolds.
Damjan Gjorjiev 40:06
Yeah. Thanks, guys for the opportunity. And I love doing this. So we're going to do
Jon Leon Guerrero 40:12
terrific. Hey, thanks. Thank you
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is dumb young go to GF. You thinking who have heard of this guy? Well, that's because he has the exotic name of an international player. And if you really have heard of him, then perhaps you two are from scope EA the capital of North Macedonia. We're dumb. Jaan is an audio engineer and a student of public relations with a focus on music, media and entertainment. He's also the newest addition to the breakdown show team. He helps us with editing and the construction of each episode. He's been the music editor at Fm 92. Nine scope gay for the last six years. And as a freelance audio engineer, he's got well over 1000 podcast episodes under his belt. Now dummy on he is living his dream of working with people around the world. And if you care about the things that put people like us together, do us a solid, man. Take a moment right now. And hit subscribe. Go ahead, hit it. See that was easy. Now. Also real be easy. Give us a five star rating on iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you listen to the break it down show and write us a review doesn't have to be long or complicated. You don't need to write the scope gay entertainment journalist Manifesto. Just something simple. Like man, these guys are cool, or that dumb Jaan sounds like a sexy motherfucker. And I bet he's the favorite song of all of North Macedonia. Short poignant and you'd be right. And if you really want to hook a brother up, share us with your friends. You know the ones who love music, culture, entertainment, and a good time. That's our tribe. And we love you long time. If you write that review and Cyrillic that Mian designed our break it down show t shirts with the Cyrillic logo, and that has instantly become my favorite piece of clothing, and is the perfect topper to single life board shorts. If you're enough of a player to have a pair of lows. Now, if you go to music festivals around North Macedonia, you've probably seen the Mian or hurt his work as a stage manager or production manager. Or perhaps you see him hanging with his dog, Ziggy. Yes, he's named after Ziggy Stardust. And when we recorded this episode, Damien was on vacation in Greece. Nice life. I think he had just gotten home from the club. It was like five in the morning. Anyway, he does a great job for us. And it stems from his personal motto, which is pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. We couldn't have said it better. You're going to find pleasure in this episode with our guests. Our teammate, our North Macedonian, homeboy, here's Dom Jaan got GF
Joel Manzer 2:39
lions rock productions
Unknown Speaker 2:44
This is Jay Mohr and
Unknown Speaker 2:46
this is Jordan. Dexter from the
Unknown Speaker 2:48
naked Sebastian youngsters, Rick Marana Stewart Copeland.
Unknown Speaker 2:53
Scott Baxter. Gabby Reese is Rob LE this is Johnny Andre
Pete Turner 2:56
and this is Pete a Turner.
Damjan Gjorjiev 3:00
Hey, everybody, this is Damjan Gjorjiev. And you're listening to break out show.
Niko Leon Guerrero 3:07
And now the breakdown show with john Leon Guerrero and Pete a Turner.
Pete Turner 3:13
Yes, indeed, We are excited to have Damien on he helps us with the show. He's our first international team member, really, besides me and Pete, on a technical level, he's our first team member. And, man, you do a great job. I'll tell you I have to say, Damien. I was, you know, Pete started this operation with you. I was skeptical to begin not you know, anything against you personally, but just editorial decisions are such an important part of the process. And to entrust somebody to make editorial decisions, for me was difficult thing to let go of, it was hard for me to accept that that somebody else could have that kind of control of the show of the audio quality of the sense of timing and
Jon Leon Guerrero 4:01
And as soon as Pete started sharing with me the shows that you had done, I was able to really relax. So I appreciate your work. And I appreciate your your the level of quality you deliver is great, man.
Damjan Gjorjiev 4:14
Thanks. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate thanks. I yell at him quite a bit though.
Jon Leon Guerrero 4:19
Give us some background, tell us how you came up and how you began your own processes and where you are artistically and what things influenced you all that stuff started to beginning. That's again, the audio anyway.
Damjan Gjorjiev 4:32
Well, since I remember myself, I guess interested in music and music production and always wanted to go on concerts and music festivals. And as a dream job as a kid, my idea was work somewhere in music. Actually, I started playing guitar on when I was six years old. And then about making music. I started like when I was teenager kid, some bands playing bass guitar there, and sometimes singing. And when I was 17 years old, that was showing home and a friend of mine called me and asked me Hey, man, do you want to work in a radio station? And I was like, wow, this is my dream job. Like, let's do it right now. She invited me to a local radio station. And he showed me how to produce a review and how to work on a mixer and, and show me a lot of things. And yeah, that's how I started and mom still there actually still working in the student Fm 92.9. Radio Network, they got you hooked. Yeah, they got me hooked like yours.
Jon Leon Guerrero 5:44
Yeah. So it in this path, your personal path as a musician? How are you as a musician? Are you still playing? Are you still active? Are you still? Or have you gravitated more towards the audio side? And concentrating on that? What are you doing?
Damjan Gjorjiev 6:01
Well, when I started, it was really good. We want on our local festival. As a group, we were playing reggae music. That was That was really good. All right, but we were all teenagers and like seven members in the band, and you know, when you have seven members in a, in a band, and they're all teenagers.
Jon Leon Guerrero 6:20
There's a lot of opinions. Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 6:23
A lot of different minds. So we broke as a band. Then I made some new events. And that was okay. We played some jazz, hip hop was really good. But the other band broke up. This them I'm just focused on producing and making electronic music with one of my friends. Actually, we made a songs for theatrical showing ratio. So that was our last project. Now. Yeah, yeah, that was that was really good. Yeah. I
Pete Turner 6:55
want to ask you a little bit about the Macedonia part of things, because a lot of folks in the world and there's a lot of people all over the world that listen to this show. So give us an idea of where Macedonia is in Europe,
Damjan Gjorjiev 7:06
geographically or politically, or both? Yes, yeah. First of all, geographic play, Macedonia or? No, it's called northeast Sonia. That's the political part is located in the Balkans, south from Serbia, not from Greece, is from Albania and west from Bulgaria. So if you by any chance, know where that is, is a small country with 2 million people can landlocked. Yeah, yeah. Politically, it's, it's not a good country actually is not a democratic country.
Jon Leon Guerrero 7:40
So we don't want to get in trouble. But it's not not all that much fun right now.
Damjan Gjorjiev 7:45
Yeah, that's my opinion. So yeah. Okay. Yeah. And our hopes is to probably join European Union. So maybe one day will will make it?
Jon Leon Guerrero 7:56
Would you say that that hope is shared by your friends, family generation, who when you say we hope to join the European Union, who is we?
Damjan Gjorjiev 8:05
I think the major part from the country wants to be a part of the European Union. Okay, of course, there are some people that want to join the Russia politically, just like normal in Eastern Europe region. Sure. Yeah. But I think that majority of the people want to become a part to European Union because of the standards and, and everything and the connection with the countries and I see Macedonia as a closed country with bad foreign relations, especially with the neighbors. Like we had a 25 year problem with Greece. Right now. And kind of we we solved that problem, but there's still tension between the people and lingering bad feelings.
Jon Leon Guerrero 8:52
Yeah. Well, how about artistically? It seems like artistically, you'd run and be part of the EU seems like a better free flow of information. Is that is that true?
Damjan Gjorjiev 9:02
Yeah, I can agree with you that like we geographically we belong there. So in any way we we are part of it. So we can deny that. So whether it's politically or artistically or I don't know, in which other way I think we should replace and, and then there's no turning back. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But there are some key things like I think that the people are nice, the tourism is good. You should visit sometimes. Also, it's cheap. So
Jon Leon Guerrero 9:35
that sounds great. Yeah, that's, that's like a plus.
Pete Turner 9:38
Nice and cheap is our kind of style.
Jon Leon Guerrero 9:40
Let's say, Pete, and I come and visit you in Macedonia. What are we going to do? Where are you going to take us? What are we going to see? Describe like the the, I would say, Pete, when we go there, we're going to have to spend at least four or five days, right? So yeah, for sure. What are we going to what are we going to do, man? That's not enough. Like then they say or 15? Maybe? Oh, man, now we need 10 or 15 days be?
Damjan Gjorjiev 10:06
All right. What are we going to do? Well, you have one of the oldest lakes in the world. Okay, the orange lake. I don't live there. I live in Skokie. But this is part Macedonia, too. So it's one of the oldest towns in Macedonia. And there are like 365 churches down. Like how many days in the year? That many churches? Wow.
Jon Leon Guerrero 10:31
Yeah, you could go to a different church every single day of the year.
Damjan Gjorjiev 10:35
Yeah, yeah. In one city. Wow.
Jon Leon Guerrero 10:37
Yeah. Wow. That's a neat point of trivia. But that's not what I want us to do on our 10 day journey of Macedonia.
Damjan Gjorjiev 10:44
No, no.
So what's next? Yeah, maybe it's some local food like Ivor accredits fish. Like it's called bass drum corps. So the fruit is good.
Pete Turner 10:57
Okay. I like to Bobby that stuff. Good job. Yeah. And then bricks are awesome. things.
Jon Leon Guerrero 11:04
You know what I tend to like, pretty much whatever Pete likes. If Pete likes it, it's a pretty good bet. I'm gonna like it.
Pete Turner 11:10
And it's like, it's like feel the dough wrapped around sausage. Oh, and then you chance that wishing Evo and rock Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:18
Yeah, rockin people. Yeah, that's like, awesome.
Jon Leon Guerrero 11:22
Yeah, but what what is it? What do you feed me? I'm eating it. I'm already eating it. I'm down. Now tell me what it is. So
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:30
brick is like bread with myths. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. And Rocky is itself a cold. So
Pete Turner 11:40
like I said, if Pete likes it, I like it. MP bows or beers.
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:43
Yeah. Haha.
Pete Turner 11:45
Yeah. So yeah, you Borek and your PVO. And then you chase it down with some Rocky and then you get some really good coffee to afterwards?
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:52
Yeah. Really good. Turkish.
Jon Leon Guerrero 11:55
All right. I like where we're headed with all this stuff.
Damjan Gjorjiev 11:58
Yeah. And also your can visit the mountains because the stone is really just like 10 or 15. Mountains. Yeah, like, if you like hiking kids is great for hiking. Terrific. Yeah.
Pete Turner 12:10
Damien. Let me let me ask you a question. So we started working on this, you know, a couple of months ago, we've been slowly working on giving you more and more work. But I don't have a sense for what do you think about what you've gotten yourself into? I mean, I'm sure you weren't planning on being a full time part of a show. But what do you What's your thoughts? How did this whole process go for you?
Damjan Gjorjiev 12:31
Let me start from the beginning. I started freelancing, audio production two years ago. And I had no actually hopes or I thought that is not going to go like I had no hope. Because there are a lot of people that are doing this. And I wanted to quit actually working as a freelancer. But somehow I, I states, on on the podcast platforms. One day, like so many clients wrote, and I started working a lot, not just you, like father clients, and then gave me a motive because I like to work audio production. I'm working in a radio station where I basically amazing radio podcasts in Macedonian. And I don't mind doing that. Because I think there are two kinds of people in the world like listeners and storytellers. I feel like both of of that, I like to listen, and I like your stores. So when I added podcasts, I listened to a lot of stories. And either I get motivated, or I get sometimes set from the stories or I learned something about some topics. I don't I don't read or, or anything. So yeah, I really like doing that. And I don't know how far can I go with this? I want to do it full time job, just anything can and working on it. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I think it's going. It's going great right now. And it's really interesting. Like, I'm editing the podcast, and then I'm listening to the podcast again. So I like go to the stories from the people that are on any show that I'm on. So. So yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 14:23
that's pretty cool. Do you find that you're doing a lot of you know, like, when you're way in the process, and you're doing the editing, you're listening differently? Right, you're listening from a technical perspective, you're listening from, you know, the, just to sew it together properly. And then separately, you go back and you listen to it for the content.
Damjan Gjorjiev 14:46
Yeah, that's right. Yes, that's exactly. That's exactly what I meant. When I'm editing. I'm looking for a mistake. Like, or I don't know, bed said sentence that meets a cart or long pause, and I'm like, machine working on it. And then when I listened to the show, I'm like, Oh, she said that. How did I not hear that? Or? Or something like that? Yeah,
Pete Turner 15:12
that's what I'm yelling that I'm going god damn it. Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 15:18
And I know that I'm making comms right now. So
Jon Leon Guerrero 15:22
but you know, you can get rid of them. Yeah.
Damjan Gjorjiev 15:24
Yeah, I'm gonna cut this. So I want to apologize to myself for
Jon Leon Guerrero 15:31
making work for yourself to do Yeah, well, I
Pete Turner 15:33
tell people, when I'm advising on how to do podcasts, and I say this slow down, it's hard to hear that to hear you go. Um, you know, when you can slow down long enough to hear yourself say that and you're the one editing it, you definitely feel the pain. And so you clean up your language. It's remarkable.
Damjan Gjorjiev 15:52
I never ended the episode with my voice on it. So you're, you're in for a treat.
Pete Turner 15:58
Hey, so I am to the opportunity to produce some episodes with some folks from the Balkan area. What do you have in store for us? What are you thinking about bringing to the table, though?
Damjan Gjorjiev 16:09
Yeah, I think I have good guests for you guys. Like really famous director, actually world famous director, Michelle Manchester. Wow. Yeah, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign movie in 1994. The movie is called before the rain. I really want to interview him with us. Yeah. She has a lot. A lot to say. Then some music stars like lots of different obscure. She's a guitar player for a band called lap he sold this bread and salt in English. She's world famous guitarist. You secure him. Yeah. And made a fight with him. Yeah,
Pete Turner 16:50
yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll be fun.
Damjan Gjorjiev 16:52
Yeah, I don't think the politicians could be interested in making podcasts. But I think that movie stars or directors or musicians or whatever, in the culture industry, they could be interesting. Yeah, of course.
Jon Leon Guerrero 17:09
Yes, I agree with you. I'm really interested in this show that you're going to do with with Michel CHATZKY, because you know, as a filmmaker, I really want to know what his you know what his outlook is for what he's been doing. But I know that he also is very involved in American entertainment.
Damjan Gjorjiev 17:27
Yeah, she made a music video for a rep called Arrested Development.
Jon Leon Guerrero 17:33
Yeah, he shot the he made the Tennessee video. Yeah. And that was a really good and kind of groundbreaking video. I remember at the time, they were really different. And they were really culturally a lot more internationally appealing. And I really dug that about them. And he got them completely.
Damjan Gjorjiev 17:53
Yeah. Well, actually, he, I think that he's professor in, in the United States for film.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:03
Yeah, he works in New York, right?
Damjan Gjorjiev 18:05
Yeah, she works in New York. And as sometimes he's in sculpture, like he brings viewers in the bar some going God. So yeah.
That's cool. Yeah, he's around.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:17
Wow. Well, you know, even before you get him on the show, let him know that we're fans, we dig his work. We've been you know, we've been watching since since he did that Tennessee video with a
Damjan Gjorjiev 18:29
review or watch one of his movies.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:31
Uh, you know what, I'll go back and watch before the rain now. And I'll watch because he's made five or six features, right. And a lot of them have been spaced out. But he's still making features now.
Damjan Gjorjiev 18:42
Yeah, he released the movie, like a year ago. And he's recording the next one. So he's active on the scene. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 18:49
Okay. I wonder why he didn't get used more as a music video director, because that video was so good. It seemed like a natural pro choice that he would work in that genre for, you know, as much as he wanted. So I have to speculate that he just wasn't interested.
Damjan Gjorjiev 19:08
I think that his focus is movies. Yeah. Yeah. Because he's a film director. So I guess that His focus is movies. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 19:20
Okay. Well, I can certainly respect that. And I'm glad to see that he says still hanging around in the bars. Hey, let me ask you about our Macedonia trip. Not that I want to pull you away from the topic that Pete started, because it's it's good topic. And we want to talk about what you're going to do professionally. But I'm kind of fixated on coming to to Macedonia and hanging out with you. What else do you have in store for us? Because I asked you where, you know, if you're going to take us around for a couple weeks, I don't want to go to church every day. I certainly don't want to go to a different church every day. You know, as much as you know, Pete, and the way that Pete and I operate, I would imagine that you'd have a pretty good idea that we probably wouldn't come to Macedonia to go to church at all.
Damjan Gjorjiev 20:04
Yeah, I know that. Yeah. From architecture. Yeah, point of view. You would like to go like in one or two. I don't believe in guts, either. But I like to visit churches like,
Jon Leon Guerrero 20:16
Hey, take it easy. We didn't say we don't believe in God. We just said we don't want to go to church every day. Yeah, okay. Okay. I'm just kidding, man. I'm giving you a hard time.
Damjan Gjorjiev 20:27
I don't know.
It's interesting city. You wouldn't go in winter. Because it's a little boy. Yeah. Okay. You can take a breath. So is that a good idea? But I think in in summer, it's really good. I would go to a music festival.
Jon Leon Guerrero 20:47
Oh, yes. Now he speaking our language. Pete Mm hmm.
Damjan Gjorjiev 20:51
Yeah. Some jazz music or world music. There's a good World Music Festival.
Pete Turner 20:56
Yeah. That's terrific. What if we took a week and went to the Dalmatian coast?
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:02
Oh, donation coast. That's not that close. Have you been there?
Pete Turner 21:06
Yes. It's not that I look if we're coming halfway across the world, something that takes a couple hours to get to that ain't no thing.
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:14
I was two months ago from the automation goes. And yeah, there's it's really nice. This in Croatia. Actually. It's gorgeous. There. That is beautiful. That's the beautiful part of the world. Yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 21:28
yeah. And what's it on the coast of? I mean, what body of water is that?
Pete Turner 21:31
It's right across the it's like the Gulf of Baja from from Italy? Uh huh.
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:37
Yeah. And the seas called Ionian. Yes. Yeah.
Pete Turner 21:42
And it's not like, you know, we would fly into Rome, take a bus or train over to print DZ hop on a ferry, and we could be in the Balkans. A couple hours.
Damjan Gjorjiev 21:54
It's not bad Balkans, with Slovenia, then Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and must known as the Balkans, and plus Albania Bulgarian goose. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:06
Alright. So the lingering question though is how does the chicks like American guys. This episode of the breakdown show is brought to you by lions rock productions. That's us. We publish, evaluate and develop podcasts just like this one, consult others to build their own and create associated content and content marketing strategies.
Pete Turner 22:27
So if you're launching or expanding your social media presence, your business or your personal brand, or if you just want to take your media presence to the next level,
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:34
reach out to us on Twitter, at Pete a Turner, or at john LG 69. had to break it down show. There's 1000 ways to get a hold of us. Now enjoy the show. Alright, so the lingering question though is how do the chicks like American guys?
Unknown Speaker 22:51
They love All right. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 22:56
I'm going to get I'm going to get us in trouble.
Damjan Gjorjiev 22:58
I don't want to sound racist or or something. But when a black guy comes in, in a club, like all the hot chicks blend in. So I see because yeah, there are only only white people or, or just a foreign guy. It doesn't matter. Like this guy goes. Yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:19
yeah. Just anytime you have, you know, really homogenous population, when somebody shows up and they look different people get curious about it. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. What segment of the population there speaks English,
Damjan Gjorjiev 23:32
I would say the young people, mostly, but some of the young people can speak English. It's because English language is really foreign to us. Our mother language the must don't mean it's really different. Yeah, if I, if I say a sentence in Macedonia, you You wouldn't understand the word. Maybe Pete will do because he was in Boston been around? Yeah, yeah,
Jon Leon Guerrero 23:57
he's been around, but it's completely different language, different language, Slavic language, how about your sentence structure? Because I know, you know, like, I have a friend who is Russian. And he says, if you take a simple sentence with four or five words, in Russian, you can say those four or five words in any order. And the sentence means the same thing.
Damjan Gjorjiev 24:21
Yeah, it's pretty similar. Yeah, he's right. It's in Russian. It is the same way. in Macedonia, you can mix the words in one sentence, and that will sound correctly. Okay, you can do that in English. No, we've overcomplicated things in English. I think it's easy to learn English in Macedonia or or anywhere in the world because the pop culture's and English. So
Jon Leon Guerrero 24:47
pop culture and business we have going for us. So if you want to, if you're interested in pop culture, or you want to do business with
Damjan Gjorjiev 24:55
if you watch movies or listening to music or read books, English, right, you you're gonna learn it. Yeah. Okay, I know that my English is not perfect. You do a great job, man. Yeah, but that's I think that's normal. Because I my mother languages really different. Yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 25:13
Yeah. For somebody whose primary language is so different. You do a great job with English. Thanks. Appreciate. And it's clear that you have, you know, artistic references and stuff like that, that you call on so that that works, too.
Damjan Gjorjiev 25:27
I'm learning a lot English from the from the podcast. Oh, good. Yeah. Because there are some people that speak a complicated English in some of the episodes I work on. So I'm hearing the word and then I'm translating to Google Translate. Right? Yeah, I get the I get the meaningful of the word if I don't know the word meaning. It's great.
Pete Turner 25:51
Yeah, we got a lot of smart folks on the show me we have PhDs throwing out all kinds of words. And and there's times when I can infer what the word means. But I don't have a command of that words definition. There's plenty of times like that.
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:04
Yeah. Yeah. I want to point out that my favorite so to end it so far, was the ONE WITH STEVE cotton, the manager of Killebrew.
Unknown Speaker 26:14
Oh, well,
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:14
yeah, remember that guy? Yeah, that was definitely my favorite.
Unknown Speaker 26:19
What did you like about it?
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:20
She stories about working in music industry? Because that's my bike topic. Yeah, I work as a stage manager on festivals. His stories were really cool. Yeah. How he started like she worked with Kid Rock. That's, that's really cool.
Jon Leon Guerrero 26:39
That is cool. At a very crucial moment in his development of his career. Yeah. Tell us about some artists you really like.
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:48
I like the gorillas a lot.
Unknown Speaker 26:50
All right.
Damjan Gjorjiev 26:53
Yeah, okay. Doors are one of my favorites. Yeah. Okay. Also, Fatboy Slim. DJ is like, and producers like him or Moby if you heard about it. Sure. And yeah, some old school rock bands like, like Seta, or
Unknown Speaker 27:13
so a real mix. Yeah, no kidding.
Damjan Gjorjiev 27:16
Yeah, like classic rock and everything that has growth, like it has growth. I like, I don't see it. Like, I have to listen to this genre. And, and stick it to that. Like, I like listening from Bob to hip hop to rock and roll to just blues or anything. Everything. Music yet. I like Johnny Cash a lot. Smart. All right, you're smart.
Pete Turner 27:41
Hey, let me ask you this about podcasting over where you're at. I know that in America, gosh, there's a new podcast every instant that someone's like, I'm gonna start podcasting. And that's great. I love the creative aspect of it. How was it taken hold in the Balkans? I mean, is it? Is Kosovo, the same as bosnia? I mean, do you sleep, even care about podcast? What's your sense?
Damjan Gjorjiev 28:03
Actually, when I was in Split, I was talking with some of my colleagues from there, and I was talking to Slovenians are creations and Serbians. And nobody in that region actually makes the podcast, everyone sticks to the radio, to the FM radio. And I don't think that podcasts are really popular around here. Because radio networks are still in, in power and business. I don't know how it goes with radio stations in in the United States. But I know that podcasting is really popular and trending right now.
Pete Turner 28:42
I'll tell you how it goes here. United States I was I live in LA one of the biggest media markets really in the world. And the radio station the other day had an ad for the radio station. Hey, advertising on radio is a great idea. So that's that's how it's going. And and that's coming for you guys. I mean, look at the power of what we're doing here. We're connecting across continents and oceans. You know, today, I've had conversations with three different PhDs and author of a fantastic book. And and no one was stopped for a stupid commercial break. It wasn't point CounterPoint. It was good conversations, you know, so
Damjan Gjorjiev 29:18
yeah, there were no stupid songs in the background, like in the radio stations and, and there's a guy coming out. Yeah, listen to my radio show later on or something like that. Yeah. I know that. radio networks can be boring, sometimes. And against that. So David day,
Pete Turner 29:38
like as, as you, you know, promote the show and everything because I know we talked about this a little bit. What do you do them to get your friends to pay attention? Because I mean, what you're, what you're part of is a really big show, right? Like there's 500 episodes, we've talked to world famous people. It's a pretty big deal to your friends get it yet.
Damjan Gjorjiev 29:56
Certainly they do. Like the guy that sits actress to me right now my export angle, he listens to the show. As soon as I started working with I talked to him. So I told him, Hey, man, I am working on a show that interviewed the drummer of the police or the singer of the offspring or, or something like that, actually have spent our history with Ben so he he took a lesson from that show. The I think that my friends are acknowledged that also my brother, my brother listens to a lot of podcasts. He listens to normal podcast or she's a jujitsu fighter. So she listens to the UFC episodes with Tito Ortiz or I don't know them guys, I don't I don't watch that. But look, the young people actually listen to podcasts and the older ones the know how to open a show on a mobile phone. So so there's lots of opportunity to to grow and expand in the market. I love that. And and the more reason for john and i to pop out there and do a video. I think I think that people are listening to podcasts. I was reading a story from some some journal in the United States that podcasts are getting so popular, more popular and more more popular in in the world. Like, I think that was like 30% from the year before. So podcasts are coming into into Europe, but I think they're mostly popular in the United States and Australia. I know that Australia produce a lot of podcasts. Yeah, people are stick to radio shows. And they sit there sitting in a car and listening to whatever it comes on the radio you like, I like the the free flow of the podcast that you can play any episodes you want. Like, the the night before I was sleeping with podcasts. And this is normal to me, but a lot of people don't. Don't listen to it. And they're watching stupid videos on YouTube. Yeah.
Pete Turner 32:24
Man, I speaking from me speaking for the show, and all of our friends that Listen, I love it, I love it, that you're part of the show that you're helping me out, I'm able to grow we're doing to be even bigger things to know that, you know, you get it you to find someone who gets it. It's always special, whatever country they're in. So for me personally, I just, I love the service that we're giving people the ability to whether they're going to sleep or driving to work or in their cubicle. It's just it's a chance to share stories of humanity and fellowship. And you know, I always say we illustrate life. This is this is proof of it and mean, here we are living across john and i are fright 500 miles apart, and then you're in a different continent altogether. 1010 hours away timezone wise. And yet, we're all connected in this common moment. And I love stuff like that.
Damjan Gjorjiev 33:14
Yeah, yeah, that's true. And I like working with different kinds of people. Like I like it when I'm when I'm meeting new people and share my stories with them. And they share their stories with me, and basically learn learn something from them. And hopefully they learn something from me. Of course, also, I had a get an idea started start a podcast in Macedonia, obviously in in Macedonia language. But I saw that there was only one existent podcast in Macedonia. And he didn't make it. Ah, that's terrible. Yeah, that's their Jihad like 20 or 30 episodes century with. So I don't know. Maybe I'll start in the future. I want to do a comic show. a comic book guests with a friend. Maybe we'll we'll do it.
Jon Leon Guerrero 34:08
Yeah. You mean you mean a podcast centered around comedy? or? Yeah. Are you like comic books? Okay,
Damjan Gjorjiev 34:14
yes, centered around comedy, because we like to make jokes with each other. And she's my best friend, actually. And he's an actor. So we might do that in the future. But right now, I don't think that there's a market for Macedonian podcasts in in Macedonia. Well, yeah.
Jon Leon Guerrero 34:37
Yeah. I'm with Pete. That means that now's the time to get started. Yeah,
Pete Turner 34:41
yeah, exactly. Get in and start laying the land the tile down and establishing a floor and make it so that every every comedian anywhere in the Balkans anywhere, anybody who tours that area, regionally, they know that the your voice and even a five people listen. Five is the next number x number in line is six. And then it's 789 10. Next thing you know, you've got hundreds of people paying attention because you're bringing the funny in a way that nobody else can.
Damjan Gjorjiev 35:08
Yeah, I know. But when you talk in English, the world is markets. And when you talk in Macedonia is 2 million people. I think there's the problem is picking your mother language like in Macedonian. So the market is so small that I don't think that radio networks are listened enough for the TV shows are watched, or the books are read in great numbers, because the market is so small when you're talking in English. Actually, the world is your market. That's beautiful.
Pete Turner 35:43
Perfect. Is there a base language for you guys, whether it's you know, the Serbian flavor, or the Croatian flavor of, of your Slavic wing is like is there like, like, again, America, we have certain regions where we're like, that's like the Voice of America. You know, it's very, it's very accent neutral. The newscasters kind of speak that. Is there a thing like that for you guys? And yeah,
Damjan Gjorjiev 36:05
that's Serbian, because most countries in the Balkan region speak Serbian. Yeah, that's like Croatia. Slovenia speaks mixed Serbian, their language. That's Bosnia. That's Montenegro. And of course, Serbia and a lot of people in the majority of people Macedonia speak Serbian and listen to Serbian music and watch Serbian always. So I think Serbian is, is the basic language in the Balkans. So we, we might do it in Serbia, I don't know. We gotta think about
Pete Turner 36:41
john and i are the kind of guys are like, we're going to kind of tell you to start doing it. And and if you use Serbian as the base language, I mean, if you speak Macedonian, they'll know your Macedonian, but they're going to understand what you're saying. I mean, it's not that different, right? Like, it's just, it's a dialect difference. So so they'll, they'll understand it. And I'll would say that if you did it with comedians would be great. But also, all people in the Balkans who are in entertainment need a voice. And they go on radio now. But you start asking, and you provide this new area to get a voice, you're going to exchange influence with them. So if it's the if it's the 15, most notable musicians and you get half of them on your show, what's going to happen is, the other ones are going to come the comedians are going to come, the authors are going to come and all of those elements of your culture are going to come because you're respecting what you guys do. And you're giving them a voice in a way that nobody else is doing it. So I just it takes a long time. But I say you do it, just start building the market out.
Damjan Gjorjiev 37:40
that's a that's a good advice. Thanks. Yeah, of course. And there are a lot of notable people to to interview in, in, in Macedonia.
Jon Leon Guerrero 37:51
Yeah. I think you're right. A lot of people want to get out there. Yeah, no, I think, you know, I'm just glad to get this. This amount of information. I'm glad to get some participation from Damien in terms of our aspirations to come to Macedonia. I'm glad he's committed to taking us out to the nightclubs and introducing us to all the ladies who will find us interesting. And it looks like we're going to drink well and get fed. Well, so we, we gotta get started. Pete.
Pete Turner 38:19
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it looks like it's $600 to fly to Rome. And in late October, so we can go do that for a week
Damjan Gjorjiev 38:29
from Rome. Just copy it's like $50. So yeah,
Pete Turner 38:33
yeah. So so for 500 or so dollars we can get all the way to Rome. And then yeah, $50 hundred dollars whatever it's going to be from Rome disco P and will be
Damjan Gjorjiev 38:45
unit like $30 to it and drink for a week. So for a what? A week or a week. Yeah, not 30. But hundreds.
Jon Leon Guerrero 38:56
Yeah, shit, I my blue there. Hey, you know, the other thing is we can get an Airbnb. And, you know, hopefully get one in a neighborhood where we can really get to know the village really well. And
Damjan Gjorjiev 39:09
yeah, or you can take a place at my home and with my dog.
Jon Leon Guerrero 39:13
Well, we'll do that too.
Yeah. But I want to definitely stay out late at night and meeting people who are who are, you know, eating, eating good food late at night because people eat good food late at night. Those are my people.
Unknown Speaker 39:27
Yeah.
Pete Turner 39:30
All right, man. Well, listen, I appreciate you coming on. You're on vacation, by the way. Yeah. And also, you've helped us check off Greece as a place that we've recorded from Yeah, so Greece is off the list. We're going to get you live in Macedonia. And And listen, I want you to create your podcast. But in the meantime, let's just start hosting some shows and building the name. Yeah, that's what to break it down show and then we'll do
Damjan Gjorjiev 39:51
I would love to do it.
Pete Turner 39:53
Yeah, we're gonna make it happen.
Jon Leon Guerrero 39:57
Right on. Hey, Damien. Thanks a lot, man for years for your great work with us and look forward to seeing how your career unfolds.
Damjan Gjorjiev 40:06
Yeah. Thanks, guys for the opportunity. And I love doing this. So we're going to do
Jon Leon Guerrero 40:12
terrific. Hey, thanks. Thank you
