Rambo Amadeus is one of the rare musicians in southeast Europe who dedicates a considerable amount of his time and effort to increasing awareness of ways to save energy and preserve the environment.

The artist, whose real name is Antonije Pušić, was born in Kotor (Montenegro) in 1963, where he graduated from the Naval High School. Later he got a degree from the Faculty of Tourism in Belgrade. In an interview for Southeast-Europe: People and Culture he described himself as a man who currently "lives, works, experiments and philosophises in Belgrade (Serbia), and plays wherever he is called".

Rambo Amadeus has been involved in promoting solar powered boats, had a solar powered water heater installed in his home, endorsed the use of electric cars and is always busy giving ecologically minded advice via his website (www.ramboamadeus.com). For instance, he advocates applying white paint used for pedestrian crossings to colour roofs. This is because white paint reflects the sun which, during summer months, reduces the need for air conditioning.

Rambo Amadeus often takes part in concerts whose aim is to promote ecology. Recently, he lay down in the middle of the busy Kralja Aleksandra Boulevard in Belgrade in protest against the cutting down of the almost hundred year old plane trees along that street. The city authorities deemed the veteran trees too old and unsafe for the passers-by.

Watch Rambo Amadeus protesting on Kralja Aleksandra Boulevard:

In the early 1980s, one of his first musical undertakings was the Concert for 28 Vacuum Cleaners in Belgrade. Until now, he has issued around 15 albums of different musical styles coupled with satirical lyrics concerned with human nature, the absurdity of politics and the general human plight.

On his first album, O Tugo Jesenja (To the Sorrow of Autumn) in 1988, he satirically put together pop, rock and regional folk music, and he even coined a new term "turbo-folk." During the 1990s, this neologism, however, soon came to describe a genre of music which drowned Serbia and much of Southeast Europe in its banal lyrics and sounds performed by clumsily dressed pop sequins.

From mid-May until the end of June, Rambo Amadeus and his band will be touring Europe. In addition to their participation in the events of Southeast Europe: A Cultural Journey in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, they will play in clubs in Oslo, Gothenburg, Malmo,  Dortmund and Cologne.

When touring European cities, apart from people from former Yugoslavia who live there, do the local people also come to your concerts? How do they perceive your music and can they understand the problems and events that you talk about in your songs?
Rambo Amadeus: It seems that our compatriots who live there, in an effort to show something that is both international and ours, do simultaneous translations of my songs. Everyone seems to find my songs extremely amusing.

You are a promoter of environment protection. What are the things that everyone can do to contribute to the preservation of the environment?
Rambo Amadeus: The list of things that people can do to help the environment is long. Just imagine if all people who have balconies, instead of using them to store their old furniture, carpets, barrels and bags, used them to plant green things there. Imagine how wonderful it would be if all the balconies in the city were full of flowers and greenery. Belgrade, for example, would be like Nice, and this would require no additional expenses, no politicians and people would even be required to decide on these things, people could do it on their own. If everybody were to do it, the temperature in the city during the summer months would drop by at least three degrees.

You have announced the making of a film concerned with the downing of the plane trees in Belgrade. Do you believe that the people of Belgrade were firm enough in their defence of the trees?
Rambo Amadeus: No point in finding faults with deals already done. The best thing to do now is to fight to stop the cutting down of more trees. This is something I cannot understand. At present, many well off people living in Belgrade like nothing better than to drive their jeeps up and down Strahinjića Bana Street (where most of the fashionable cafes are located). This sort of primitive behaviour should not be encouraged.

How would you describe the state of affairs in music in Southeast Europe in 2010? Is it still awash with turbo folk?
Rambo Amadeus: The media are constantly serving this kind of aesthetics to the people, as if they were trying to do their best to keep the people under some sort of sedation. Turbo folk has become mainstream. It has penetrated all aspects of society.

The media, and sometimes the public, are paying more and more attention to your lyrics and it is a less known fact that among the members of your band are some of the best local jazz musicians. Would you say that your music is somewhat neglected?
Rambo Amadeus: I would rather say that people put up with my music only to listen to the lyrics. This music of mine is the music of those who never learned to play other people's music and had to come up with their own.

You have lived in the Netherlands for a while. What are the good things that we should perhaps learn from the Dutch and what things they could learn from us?
Rambo Amadeus: The Dutch are extremely cost-conscious and modest, that's why they are also well-off. Arrogance, laziness, disdain....they got rid of those negative features already centuries ago.