In conversation about the new album End The Party, musical influences, the hard work behind creativity, and a home that is about more than truffles and beautiful beaches.
Anyone who only knows Baby Lasagna from Rim Tim Tagi Dim might be surprised by his more recent music. With End The Party, released today, Croatian musician Marko Purišić is taking his sound in a heavier, more focused direction. Metal, electronic elements and a healthy dose of humour are still very much part of the mix. But these days, he seems to have a clearer idea of what Baby Lasagna should actually sound like.
When I put together my questions for this interview, I was travelling through Istria. Between coastal towns, olive oil and truffles, I encountered a region that likes to present its culinary charms to visitors. For Marko Purišić, who grew up here, Istria means something rather different.
We talked about musical heroes, the not-so-romantic reality of songwriting, and why metal could do with taking itself a little less seriously. And about a home that cannot be reduced to what tourists see.
End The Party sounds heavier and more focused than your first album, at least judging by the singles so far. You’ve said that Sedated was one of those moments where you felt: this is what Baby Lasagna should sound like. Does it feel good to have found that sound, or does it also make you want to break out of it again?
For now, at least, we are satisfied and feel like we have a blueprint of what we want this project to feel like. Of course, I’m counting on our appetite to grow and our urge to explore other artistic directions will take over at some point, but for now we know what thread to follow.
Baby Lasagna can be heavy, emotional and completely ridiculous, sometimes all in the same song. Do you think metal sometimes takes itself a little too seriously?
Definitely. Even as a kid, 20+ years back when I started to listen to heavier music, I remember thinking, ‘Why is everyone insisting on being serious?’
Now I can understand why. It’s a part of the almost gatekeeping metal community. It’s the pride that comes with it and other emotional laws, but still, I feel like there’s room to be goofy sometimes.
To be honest though, I feel like times are changing and the culture is evolving. Now you can see one of the heaviest metal vocalists, Will Ramos of Lorna Shore, talking about pink cars and puppies, or George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher of Cannibal Corpse collecting plushies and stuff like that. I don’t think that communicating with those kinds of lighthearted hobbies takes away from the brutality of their music.
Full disclosure: I’m an Electric Callboy fan, which is probably why your music clicked with me so fast. You’ve named them as an influence yourself. How do you take inspiration from bands you love without ending up sounding like them?
I’m kind of angry at myself when I think about how I also thought to form a band that would play metalcore techno fusion 15 years ago, but I just kind of ignored it and a few years later there they were. Hypa Hypa was all the rage. Although, I got to be honest with myself, I wouldn’t do it as well, haha.
To answer your question, I sometimes write a song, and I’m so hyped about it, I show it to my wife and she tells me, “Sounds too much like EC.”
It hurts like hell but if you’re being honest, you know that it’s too close to their sound, but you didn’t want to admit it. You just must start all over again and watch out not to use their signature tricks.
But getting inspired by others is a part of every artist’s process and it always has been. You try to sound like your heroes and hopefully along the way you find your own unique style.
You’ve talked about writing more than 130 songs in 2022 alone. What did writing that much teach you about making music?
That is not all romantic as one may assume. You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to work in every sense of the word.
I learned that I’m not some magical box full of unpredictable ideas that will explode and enchant the world, but that I have patterns and subconscious repetitions that I have to break and escape from.
Do you ever write a song and realise halfway through: “Oh. Apparently, this is something I need to deal with”?
Uh, I hope that one day I will, but music for me is not therapy, it’s a great tool to present what already happened or what you already know.
Songwriting hasn’t been a cathartic experience. It was eye-opening in a sense that I found something in me that I didn’t know was there.
We’re spending some time in Istria right now. When people from outside think of Istria, they usually think of the sea, wine, truffles and holidays. What’s something about the Istria you grew up in those tourists usually don’t see?
Truffle culture in Istria is fabricated, haha. Ask any ‘nona’ (grandma) and they will tell you that truffles are not something that was ever used in Istrian cuisine. We even have stories of truffles being fed to the pigs when local people would accidentally find them.
Yes, there were small parts of Istria that had somewhat of a truffle culture, but it was scarce, it was trivial to the culture.
Profiling Istria as a truffle destination is an invention copied from French and Italian tourism in an attempt to earn more money.
Also, got to be careful, genuine truffles and truffle products are surprisingly rare. Most of those products that you find here are made from synthetic gas, not real truffles. It is a coincidence that when the gas prices went up, the truffle products’ prices skyrocketed here in Istria, haha.
Anyway, now that I have got that out of my system, for me Istria is obviously not cuisine or beaches. It’s the people, the language, customs and general culture specific to this part of Croatia.
It’s home.
Rim Tim Tagi Dim is about a young man leaving his home in search of a better future, so the place you come from has clearly found its way into your songs. How much of Istria is in your music, even when you’re not writing about it directly?
I think I’m a product of Istrian culture so therefore there must be layers and layers of Istria in my music, but it’s hidden from me since I’m Istria.
Outside of that, I think it would be cool to include more Istrian sounds, instruments and general feel in our music in the future. Would need to make note of that!
And since the new album is called End The Party: when the party really does end one day, what do you hope is still there?
I vaguely know what’s out there, I read it from a specific book :)
End The Party is released on 23 October 2026, followed by a European tour in November.
For more information and tour dates, visit babylasagnamusic.com.
