Balance Croatia 032: Jerpa

From Slovenia to Croatia, Jerpa is one of the region’s most familiar selectors…

DJ, curator, and co-founder of Sinergia and Flows Festival, Jerpa, aka Jernej Pavlič has become a fixture in the region’s electronic scene, lighting up stages from Ljubljana’s K4 and Gala Hala to Croatia’s Flows Festival and Zagreb’s Boogaloo.

More than just a selector, Jerpa is a scene-shaper, curating culture through his events and the Sinergia Flows podcast, which spotlights global talents pushing melodic house and techno forward. “The dancefloor is looking for connection,” he says. “My role is to tell a story that guides us through those feelings — and into something shared.”

Name: Jernej Pavlic
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Alias/Producer name: Jerpa
Labels affiliated with: Coming Soon…

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Music has been a big part of my life since I was a kid. One of my earliest musical memories is dancing around to “La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens when I was about four or five. We used to record songs off the radio onto cassettes, and I’d rewind that one over and over just so I could keep dancing.

But I guess my first “DJ” moment goes back to when I was about 9 or 10, back in elementary school. You know how every school has a speaker system for announcements?

Well, our school decided that once or twice a week, during the longest break, students could bring in their own CDs and play them through the speaker system for the whole school—15 minutes of fame.

I used to spend those breaks waiting in line for my chance to show everyone what I was listening to. It’s funny now, but back then, it felt like an obsession. I think I had a CD compilation of various pop songs, and the entire school had to listen along with me—haha.

Later, I spent my teenage years deep into rap and hip-hop—producing, writing lyrics, and recording my own tracks. Then, pretty late in the game, around 25 or 26, I discovered electronic music… and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I’m from the MTV generation, so I grew up on pop music—and early 2000s pop was packed with electronic elements. But the track that truly changed everything for me was hearing “One” by Swedish House Mafia in a club.

I didn’t have Shazam back then, so I frantically typed the lyrics into my phone and spent the rest of the night googling it like a man on a mission. That moment opened the door—I realized there was so much more to electronic music than just EDM.

I started exploring different genres and eventually got into DJing at private events.

I started clubbing later than most—probably around 26 or 27. Slovenia used to have this iconic venue called Ambasada Gavioli, where legends like Carl Cox and Tale of Us would play. At first, I just enjoyed the experience, but it wasn’t until a few years later, around 2016 or 2017, that I became truly obsessed with the art of DJing.

The first performance that really blew my mind was Carl Cox at the Ultra Resistance stage. I was there with a friend, and I remember us just looking at each other in disbelief at how the energy kept building—it was pure magic.

That moment shifted everything for me. From then on, I started seeing DJing less as just a party, and more as a form of storytelling.

I get inspired by all types of music, to be honest. Lately, I’ve been really into the Hermanos Gutiérrez brothers—their sound just hits a certain mood. It mostly depends on how I’m feeling, and since I listen to a wide range of genres outside of electronic music, I often find inspiration in rock, hip-hop, and disco as well.

But if I had to name the artists who consistently inspire me, it would be Hernán Cattáneo and Nick Warren. The way they tell stories through music—the flow, the emotion, the journey—is everything I love about DJing.

I also admire how they introduce new tracks or even entire genres in their sets so seamlessly.

I remember Nick closing an event in Belgrade in 2019 with AC/DC – Thunderstruck, and thinking to myself: “Wait a minute, we’re allowed to do that in an electronic set?” It worked so well. Moments like that really remind me to keep looking for inspiration beyond the boundaries of electronic music.

Very modest setup, honestly. I use an FLX10 controller, a laptop, and a pair of monitor speakers at home. It gets the job done and keeps me focused on the flow and feel rather than the gear. No hardware obsession here—at least not yet.

My first releases are coming later this year, and I’m really excited about it. I’m currently working on a few tracks with fellow Slovenian producer Uroš Bošnjak, including our first collaboration ID, which is featured in my Balance mix.

One project I’m really proud of is Flows Festival—a summer gathering that I help organize and also perform at. It takes place on Ugljan Island in Croatia, where we blend a progressive/melodic electronic music festival with a retreat-style program that includes workshops and wellness sessions. This year, we hosted Roy Rosenfeld and Peter Makto as headliners.

We also run a winter edition called Sinergia Festival, which I think is a pretty unique event. We take over an entire hotel located just beneath the medieval Trakoščan Castle, and everything—from the parties and workshops to wellness sessions (pool, sauna) and accommodation—happens under one roof. It’s truly a vibe.

I also play regularly at regional events and clubs like K4, Cvetličarna, and Gala Hala, and I’m a resident at the Sinergia event series, which we host at various locations throughout the year.

On top of that, I run a SoundCloud series on my @jerpamusic profile called We Love Mondays, where I post mixes featuring some of my favorite tracks of the moment.

I think the set is packed with my favorite tracks at the moment, but one I’m completely mesmerized by is Ranj Kaler’s 2nd interpretation of Fauxplay’s Unchained. To me, it feels like the sky is clearing and the sun is breaking through—just beautiful.

It’s not released yet, but somewhere in the middle of the mix its my first track ID, I collaborated on with Uros Bosnjak.

I went to my Rekordbox and sorted all tracks by the number of plays (all time) and the no. 1 track with the most plays.

I like to keep my holidays quiet and calm, so my favorite destination is our small village house near Zadar, Croatia, where I go with my family every year to unwind. It’s an old house in the village where my grandfather was born, surrounded by nature and farms—a perfect escape from the busyness of everyday life. The village feels like a window into the past; there’s even a shepherd who walks his herd past the house every morning.

On top of that, Flows Festival, which we organize every summer, is just a 15-minute ferry ride away on Ugljan Island, so the whole area is filled with good memories for me.

 

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