Rock band SteelHeart built a following during their heyday in the late ‘80s to early ‘90s, most importantly their vocalist Miljenko Matijevic, who penned anthemic love songs like “She’s Gone,” “I’ll Never Let You Go,” and “We All Die Young.” In 1994, SteelHeart had planned to release the cover of Badfinger’s “Without You,” but R&B singer Mariah Carey had released it first in the same year. 30 years after recording their cover, Matijevic finally released it to the world, becoming a full-circle moment and a testament to SteelHeart’s remarkable career.
As the story goes, Carey had heard the song somewhere and decided to record it herself. When Matijevic heard her version of the song come out, he knew that there was no way he could contest her version and decided to leave it on the back burner. More than three decades later, Matijevic returned to it and re-recorded the version, starting with a piano. Then Matijevic knew that he needed to add a 50-piece orchestra in Macedonia. He then produced the track in his Los Angeles studio and had it mixed in Sweden, pulling in global collaborators along the way.
Honesty in Writing Music
Matijevic’s lore goes beyond his hits. He started to immerse himself in different cultures decades later, most especially in South Korea in 2016, when he joined South Korean entertainment agency Bad Boss in the same year and appeared in popular singing competitions like King of Mask Singer. Matijevic mentioned that South Korean culture has taught him that “love has no face nor judgement and borders.” In 2022, he released “Trust in Love,” an ode to South Korea and the years he’s spent immersing himself there.
“That’s the lesson Korea gave me,” he says. “Once you learn to step into someone else’s world with humility instead of expectation, you can [make] it anywhere.”
“That’s really the whole story of a long career, isn’t it? It’s not ‘remember when.’ It’s ‘listen to who I became — and everything it took to get here.’”
Matijevic has already had a couple of timeless classics under his belt. He would mention several factors of what makes a song “timeless” in his own words. First and foremost, is honesty. Regardless of the emotion, whether happy or sad, as long as the song is “true” and “it comes from the heart,” people will eventually feel it.
“That’s what evokes real emotion in the listener,” he says. “Even recordings that aren’t technically perfect — if those elements are honest, if they’re real — that’s what makes it a true Picasso.”
Matijevic says what he’s lived through is what actually taught him to sing. He’s experienced gaining and losing loved ones and fought battles nobody saw. Matijevic says that with all the experiences he’s had, once he sings, it’s not about hitting the note anymore.
“They still see the young man with the big hair and the bigger voice. And that’s beautiful — I’ll never take that away from anybody’s memory,” he says. “But I want them to discover that the voice grew up right alongside the man. That’s really the whole story of a long career, isn’t it? It’s not ‘remember when.’ It’s ‘listen to who I became — and everything it took to get here.’”
Frequently Asked Questions
Miljenko Matijevic is the lead vocalist and songwriter of rock band SteelHeart.
Matijevic appeared on the South Korean singing competition King of Mask Singer in 2016, where he performed while concealing his identity behind a mask.
SteelHeart’s best-known songs include “She’s Gone,” “I’ll Never Let You Go,” “Everybody Loves Eileen,” and “We All Die Young.”
Matijevic finally released his version of “Without You,” which he originally recorded in 1994 before Mariah Carey released her own version.
Miljenko Matijevic recorded the song with a 50-piece orchestra in Macedonia, had it cut in his studio in Los Angeles, and mixed the song in Sweden.
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