For me David was a lifesaver, miracle sent from the House Music Gods. I didn't even knew him very well and he already offered me help for my RBMA trip, he gave me the money needed to continue pursuing my dream. He opened my eyes so I can see world better, he knew it, that one visit to NYC will change my life, and it did. Now, Intrigued by this organization and its goals he offers to invest in something he felt is destined for success. Thanks to this great man and fortune that sent him DJ UNITY gets to run one club season in CLUB CONTRAST.
OUR CLUB CONTRAST
Yes, It was the first club in the city whose organizers are DJs and people from the industry instead of just money oriented owners. The guy who owned the club space was also owning the restaurant which was located next to the club, so it was extra money for him and his business to rent the club. Previous manager couldn't pay asked price, so we took the chance and jumped into this risky lease. This was a unique chance to raise the level of happenings on a higher ground and present our DJ names together with foreign and successful DJs.
Thank you Mr. David for your unselfish and noble act towards the creation of a better world!!!
Unfortunately, years of destructive and lawless way of life in Serbia have shown that people are undoubtedly damaged and that greed is not seen in uneducated and rich only. Some DJs from our organization thought that all we needed to do is to make money faster with expensive DJs, so called "big names", and to pay for more advertising, and that policy immediately collapsed. Not to mention that our own local DJs (together with me) didn't play much, and we also would not let young rookie DJs to play so often as we wanted from the beginning.
We ended up with not profitable club which was losing the money instead of making it, we fail. To create popular teenage and local mafia hangout place in order to make no money was a compromise that I couldn't take. We started all because of the music and money would come later with our hard work and trust in ourselves. We wanted to make place for educated, young and old clubbers, but I guess we couldn't hold it together anymore.
The end of DJ UNITY
After our DJ organization started to meltdown, I couldn't find any inspiration to update our website, nothing was right to me anymore and site starts to be obsolete. I followed many events, hosted many DJs mixes here, and offered bunch of links and stories about other club events in the country (and ex-YU republics), and now it will all go in history, offline history. Only one season active DJ UNITY also goes into history as one possible outcome if people unite and work together and another outcome if they get lost within the frames of their own self driven ambition.
EXIT FEST, not a big deal for me
We all strongly supported EXIT festival from the beginning, but soon after they made couple of parties, they showed me that this organization was not about music, it was strictly business and politics for them. Since they were started as a student political movement against Slobodan Milosevic, I thought we were sharing same standards, knowledge, ideas about our future after Milosevic. I worked couple of times on EXIT, but I never felt welcomed, never felt that vibe that we had on club Contrast. It was all fake for me, and it still is. Should it exist, yes, even like this. Could it be better and cheaper? Yes, but who cares anymore, you're not 16, right?
NEW NOW MEDIA
All video and audio commercials, as well as print layouts for DJ Unity weekly flyers and radio announcements for Club Contrast were done in dynamic fashion by our own multimedia lab that we later named New Now Media. My friend Igor Lečić Leka (aka LeChe aka MedMan) was in charge of audio production and radio ads, and my wife Milly was in charge of video production while she was also working as video editor on or local TV station. And, I took the webmaster position since I was already building and maintaining our first websites. After we were finally finished with our club Contrast and DJ Unity cooperation, we established our small agency and this is where I found my creative environment in collaboration with energetic group of people.
Next to commercial presentations, NewNow has completed and placed on the Internet more than 20 websites, more jobs were coming and Leka also stated to work with me on web design projects. We also did several multimedia CD ROMs and produced up some nice beat music videos by the end of 2002. Being a part of these projects was exciting and inspiring and we were recognized as one of the city's best fresh multimedia agencies. One of the biggest projects that we finished was website for Serbian National Theatre (SNP - Srpsko Narodno Pozorište).
DEEPLINK
Somewhere at the end of 2002, along with my friend and DJ partner Branko Milovanović aka DJ (Sexy) Buttke, I start to build one new website that we simply named DeepLink. After DJ Unity debacle, Buttke and I realized that we spent so much energy for nothing, and we decided that we're going back to "our" DJ roots. From the beginning it was all about loving and promoting best house music; deep, soulful, funky, vocal, nu jazz, latin, with some new disco production, and best tech house music. With DeepLink, we would finally support and promote only what we personally love, deep soulful house.
For a short period of time we successfully expanded DeepLink network. We performed at many events such as EXIT & ŠLF festivals, played at many local clubs, and we also supported gatherings organized for democratic changes in our country. When Native Instruments introduced world's first professional DJ software TRAKTOR, Buttke and I organized presentation in our city's biggest CD store! It was revolutionary for young people and local DJs to see new way and future of DJ mixing. We also hosted many late nite radio shows on freshly opened Radio AS, where we spent some crazy nights. However, my most important and last DJ residency in my ex home city was Deep House Fridays Sessions @ Lounge Cafe, Novi Sad.
Lounge Cafe
This small downtown Cafe always had cozy atmosphere and very nice crowd, and it was a perfect night and daily spot for me and other Deep and Soulful House Music lovers. Stuff was always welcoming too, and you could have a seat for your company if you pop in at the daytime or early at night. This was a perfect downtown place for a great parties for many, it was easy to find and it was always full. I was DJing there numerous times as a resident DJ, and besides great time that I had playing in the Club Contrast, this was my next favorite place to preform.
This place was tragically burned down after I already left Novi Sad and started new life with my wife in NYC. I heard that one very drunk guy insisted to get more booze, and after they refused to serve him, he used cigarette lighter and lit up highly flammable wall decoration, just near entrance, and that was also cafe's only EXIT! Many innocent people lost their lives that night, I was deeply sad and I cannot imagine what their families went through.
My friend Srđan, who was one of the guys working and organizing things there, ended up in prison for no reason! He was not even there at the time tragedy happened, as I heard, and they arrested the guy who committed this awful crime too. But, that's the court system in Serbia, inspector who allowed them to use flammable material on the walls is not guilty at all... However, I will certainly remember my days in Lounge as one of the best in my life, we all did it for the fun and partying. As I recorded my DJ sets on many of these nights, I posted my mixes online for everybody to enjoy, you can find mp3 sets live here.