About Paraf

Paraf was a punk rock and later post punk band from Rijeka, Croatia. The band was formed in 1976 by three teenagers from Rijeka, influenced by early punk music: Valter Kočijanić (vocal, guitar), Zdravko Čabrijan (bass) and Dušan Ladavac (drums). Their first single was Rijeka/Moj život je novi val, released in 1979. One year later they released their first LP A dan je tako lijepo počeo... (translated: "But The Day Started So Good..."). It was a straight-forward punk-rock album. record was put under a high tax rate and censorship due to provocative lyrics and attitude. After the first album, frontman Valter Kočijanić left Paraf. He was replaced by female singer Pavica Mijatović who was always presented under the pseudonym Vim Cola, and also with a new guitarist. Second album Izleti (translated: "Excursions") was released 1982. From this album and previous single Fini dečko/Tužne uši (1981) band started to experiment with keyboards and soon moved from classic punk-rock sound to more post punk oriented music. The third LP Zastave(translated: "Flags") was released 1984. This album logically followed musical path from "Izleti" but with even more references to the early seminal gothic sounds of the likes of Siouxsie & the Banshees, Joy Division, Bauhaus and The Cure. It was also the last release from Paraf, (although they had never officially announced their disbanding). At the time of the release guitarist Robert Tičić committed suicide; Zastave didn't achieve almost any commercial success and attention in the media and the band didn't tour and promote this album. However, this highly conceptual and artistic album achieved a cult status and, in due time, became hailed as one of the all-time best releases of Croatian rock.