After leading rock and metal bands for two decades, releasing several noticed albums, playing in clubs and theatres from Detroit to LA, this Bosnian-American musician is back with his latest single and video. But there is a twist!
Haris Cizmic’s “Romantic Cowboy vs Space Aliens” is a combo consisting of a very cool (almost instrumental, but not quite) electronic tune (with splashes of old western, eclectic European folk and experimental sound), and a vintage-looking, provocative, cartoon-style, over-the-top animated music video. Those two go hand-in-hand and accent each other in a highly intelligent, artistic and ironic way. This is different from most current stuff that’s popular today (spoiler: there are some very cool bloopers and outtakes at the end, too).
“Romantic Cowboy” is Haris’s “Corona Project”, which was created during the ongoing time of a global pandemic (thus also featuring a comical cameo appearance of B. Gates). There are small easter eggs sprinkled all over the four minutes of video, which cocky humour and sarcastic underline resonated with the audience—so it has received over 20K views in the first two weeks after its release in April 2021. Elements from a sci-fi saga to some space-spaghetti-western are tangled and merged in a remarkably interesting way. Cuts and transitions are delightful and original. There is a stare-down moment of “Good, Bad, Ugly”, and a Star Wars-like standoff at the end, and there are elements of classic tales of a kidnapped princess and a dragon (or an Alien in this case). In Haris’s own words: “Romantic Cowboy …” is a classic story of love, hope and revenge, but without a twist and was done as my answer to this global idiocracy, and these very strange, ugly, insecure and paranoid times we’re living in.” Usually, I would just record a heavy rock album or something, but (just like everything else today), this is different. It’s almost cheesy, predictable and seen before, but I twisted a popular folk storyline, trying to squeeze more juice out of it. I don’t know if I’ve managed to do so, but people find it amusing and refreshing!”
More of Haris’s music (including his ex-bands AXA, INGRAY and solo projects, music for film, TV and theatre) can be found on his official page (hariscizmic.com/music) and a fan-made page that includes most of his (mostly earlier) work at (ingrayfans.com). Haris’s YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/c/hariscizmic and his music can be found on Spotify and other streaming places.