All I Know | Bojan Cvjetićanin

Epilogue Three: One Year Later

One Year Later: Summer 2024

"For the next song I'd like to invite some very close friends of mine to the stage, please give it up for Joker Out!" I called out in my microphone before turning towards the side of the stage where the five men came running from. I greeted each one of them with a hug before they each took their position on the stage.

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If one year ago today someone had told me I'd be on stage in Wembley of all places I'd have them checked into a mental hospital. Yet, here I was. Ever since stepping in for Nace at the end of last summer making my own music started to itch again. I recorded new songs I had written that I didn't promote to other artists as well as rerecord some older songs that I had always considered to be too personal to be performed by someone else. It wasn't until March when I made the final decision to release them on a studio album, a decision that was mostly celebrated by Bojan who had encouraged me to release music pretty much since officially getting together.

Things happened rather quickly after making that decision. Twelve songs were selected, including a collaboration with Joker Out. It started off as a song that Bojan and I wrote together back in January. In March, we only had the demo ready which the boys recorded with Žare, their main producer, when they left for writing camp in London not long after Bojan and I signed the purchase agreement for the house. We finalised the recording in a studio in Liverpool while the boys had a day off on their See You Soon 2024 European tour.

The studio album, New Beginnings, and its lead single, All I Know, were released on Friday April 19th, 2024. My first solo shows in seven years were announced a week later. Initially, two shows were planned in each London, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles and Ljubljana over the course of the summer, with the first ones planned at the end of June. Beyond my wildest dreams, the demand for the tickets turned out to be huge and the decision was made to change from the approximately 20.000 capacity arenas to 50-80.000 capacity stadiums.

At the time, it seemed like the most logical thing to do. So many people wanted to buy tickets. Throughout planning the shows, Bojan was acting like a rock for me to lean on. He told me all about his experience with planning for their Stožice concerts and he was able to quickly calm me down whenever I started to worry. I had gathered a group of people around me that I fully trusted, band members, sound engineers, light engineers, and others to help make the most of the upcoming shows. In contrast to seven years ago, I no longer felt pressured, like I was being lived through. No, I felt like I was in the driver's seat, in control. I had matured, and was confident enough to ensure my voice was being heard. That things were happening the way I wanted them. It wasn't like I didn't listen to any of the people I had gathered around me, but I definitely made sure to sound my own voice this time around. 

Thursday June 25th, 2024 was the day of the first concert in London at Wembley Stadium. For both concerts in London Joker Out were coming on stage with me to perform our song. Unfortunately they weren't able to be there for every show due to their own scheduled concerts, but I couldn't be happier to have their support for the first go around. Soundcheck went just fine, and it increased my excitement for the upcoming shows even more. But as the doors opened and people started to fill up the stadium, the nerves started to appear. I retracted myself backstage to prepare for the show. I tried to calm down with some tea, did my vocal exercises, listened to some music, and talked with the crew to go over every single aspect of the show. It definitely helped. Everything was ready for the show. Everyone who was involved knew what to do in every scenario. We had prepared for such a long time for today. And the more we discussed all the details, the more I realized everything would turn out fine and the more the nerves seemed to disappear.