Opex Arno’s swan song, was accepted by the readers of Humo voted bestBelgian record of the year. Because a reaction from Arno is no longer anoption, we called Mirko Banovic, bass player and Arno’s right-hand man formany years in the studio, on stage and when writing songs.
Jurgen BeckerJanuary 4, 20233:00 PM
Mirko Banovic: “Arno and I have always had a very good connection, bothmusically and humanly. If necessary, I can be very honest and _to the point_and I think he appreciated that.”
Do you remember when you first met Arno?
Banovic: “That must have been at the Lokerse Feesten, in 1998 if I’m notmistaken. He asked me to come over to his apartment and talk about music. Notmuch later, things got very hectic at an audition. ‘Play da ne times’, ‘Do netimes sister’, ‘Do ne times like this’… I thought: what the fuck is that allhere? After two or three songs Arno said: “It’s done, I’m gone.” I thought hemeant he didn’t like it, but suddenly his manager was standing next to me witha list of tour dates. Arno had already left, apparently he had an appointmentwith a madam ( laughs ).”
How hard was it making that last record with him?
Banovic: “Heavy. Afterwards we were all devastated. Arno wanted to make astatement at all costs, as a parting gift of sorts, and because he wanted tobe in it 100 percent, he refused to take painkillers. Because we didn’t knowhow much time we had, we also had to work very quickly. When Arno was tired,he would go home, and sometimes I would have to reluctantly call him and say,”I need another take.” Whatever he got out of it despite the pain: I couldn’tdo it.”
‘La vérité’ sounds like it was sung with his last breath.
Banovic: “’La vérité’, ‘I Can’t Dance’ and ‘One Night With You’ were the lastthings we recorded. And his vocal take of ‘La paloma adieu’, the duet withMireille Mathieu.”
With songs like ‘Honnête’ and ‘Boulettes’ there was also room for humor on’Opex’.
Banovic: “He didn’t want the whole record to point to the fact that it was theend. There also had to be those typically surrealistic ones fuck you songson. ‘Boulettes’, that’s actually literally kiss my balls, isn’t it ( laughs). Raising his middle finger, that was very important to him, right up to thelast moment.”
What was your best moment with him?
Banovic: “If I had to choose one, it would be the one on which he, at the veryend of the recordings of Opex , said to the musicians: ‘Guests, I love youso much, thank you for giving me strength.’ A little later, as he was leaving,he said to drummer Sam Gysel: ‘Sam, see you then, huh’. To which Sam, whowas still working on an overdub, said: ‘Yeah yeah, see you.’ He never sawhim again.”
A quote from you: ‘If you sat next to Arno on the plane, you were guaranteedto have coffee all over your pants.’ Something you won’t miss?
Banovic ( laughs ): “On the train, the plane, the car… If you took itsomewhere, your car was a garbage can anyway. A sandwich under the seat, aspilled coke, you name it. Arno was chaotic, it was stronger than himself. Onthe plane, he was guaranteed to piss at the time of take-off. Or if there wasjust food in front of you. He would have been happy to have a private jet from