Sydney band ''StoNaSat'' last Sunday night launched a new CD album at a packed out Punchbowl Croatian Club. The Croatian Herald's social correspondent MARIJA SESAR was on hand to interview the popular ''StoNaSat'' band member and personality, Perica Frketic.

She began by asking who were the various band members of ''StoNaSat''?

PERICA FRKETIC (PF): The members of StoNaSat are myself, Perica Frketic: I sing, as well as play the keyboards and the accordion, Darko Zoric is the vocalist and also plays keyboards, Tomislav Graso is the lead guitar and third harmony, while Damir Cosic plays the bass guitar. There is a 16-year-old called Marko Ojurovic, who is one name to look out for in the future. He occasionally performs with StoNaSat and there is no doubt that this guy is going to be a star.

Also, mention must be made of our former, original founding member of StoNaSat, Boris Ribaric, who has recently taken some time off from the music scene, was there on Sunday and gave an amazing performance.

MARIJA SESAR (MS): What are some of your achievements as a band?

PF: I think one of our greatest achievement as a band was to be the New Year's Eve support act for Marko Perkovic Thompson, it was truly an honour to share the some stage with a Croatian legend such as him.

The Australian ''Gori bora, gori borovina Tour'' with Mate Bulic and singing with Kico Slabinac was also fantastic... but I have to say our bread and butter is performing at weddings and doing more than 65 performances in 2007 is a great personal achievement for StoNaSat. We opened our show with 'Igra bez granica', by the late Tose Proeski. Tose performed on the same stage as us at Punchbowl two weeks before his tragic death. We dedicated our performance to Tose and may he rest in peace.

MS: How did the idea of this venture - recording your own album - first come about?

PF: I had the idea of doing a Croatian Dance Mix CD which would include hit songs that we perform as StoNaSat week in, week out. This project started in 2006, where I started putting together the mixes, and programming all the arrangements into a dance mix. I recorded a solo CD in 2002 and over the last 6 years people have asked when the next one was coming out.

MS: Great song choices! Was it difficult to pick the songs and how did you go about selecting them?

PF: The song selection was influenced by what I thought we, as StoNaSat, performed best on stage, as well as what songs the crowd responded to the most. Songs like ''Majko stara'' (Matko Jelavic) and ''Nisam te zaboravio'' (Zlatko Pejakovic) have been my personal favourites for sometime now.

Back in 2003, StoNaSat performed at a CroBar function at Darling Harbour... it was the first time we put these 'zabavne' songs into a dance beat and the crowd's reaction was very positive. This became the signature sound of StoNaSat and soon enough, we were booked out with weddings a year in advance, with all of our clients requesting these Croatian dance mixes be performed at their weddings.

Over the years, we have had the pleasure to perform with Mate Bulic, Mladen Grdovic, ET, Kico Slabinac and more recently we were the support act for Thompson for the NYE gig at King Tom, so adding songs from these performers was somewhat sentimental.

MS: Was it a time consuming, laborious task or something you really enjoyed?

PF: We recorded at Darko Zoric's studio, JumboNote Productions in Beverley Hills. Darko and I have been singing together for about two years now. The time we spent in the studio recording was very pleasurable and enjoyable. We have a good working relationship and a strong friendship which made the hours spent recording and mixing fly by really fast. The only difficult thing about this project was the time spent away from our families, and for that we like to thank our wives, Marinela Frketic and Lucy Zoric, for putting up with us and for giving us their full support.

MS: What was and is your aim with this CD?

PF: Our aim with the CD is to promote StoNaSat not only locally, but around Australia and hopefully Europe. In 2006, I turned down an offer to perform with Mate Bulic on a tour with (Miroslav) Skoro and (Mladen) Grdovic around Canada, Germany, Austria and the US because I was getting married. Hopefully another opportunity arises in the near future, and our CD will be a stepping stone for bigger and better things. Our ultimate goal is to perform our original material back in Croatia.

MS: How did you feel the launch went last Sunday?

PF: We were over the moon with the our CD launch on Sunday. These days, you are lucky to get 100 people to a zabava... 200 people if there is something big going on. To have 750 people - both young and old - turn up to support StoNaSat was amazing. We had some amazing feedback, and it was a concert like atmosphere with everyone having fun. As musicians, it was probably our best ever performance, where everything just clicked. It was a special night that we won't forget for a very long time.

A special thanks to Tony and Helen Nobilo, Marinela Frketic and Monique Despot for all their hard work at the launch, and MC Elvis Miletic and his wife Anisija, not only for the friendship and support of StoNaSat, but also for their efforts in making the night a success.

To our major sponsors for the launch, Red Bull - a big thank you to Emily and Ella. Congratulations to David and Cindy Maruncic and their family for winning the major prize, a mystery flight donated by Imperial Travel, Willoughby.

And finally, a big thank-you to the excellent staff at the Croatian Club Punchbowl, led by Jozo Brkic and Svjetlana Stjepic.