Thanks a lot to Boris, Dragan and Andrej! I wrote about the superb Serbian band Mizu some time ago and was lucky to get in touch with the band members afterwards. I knew very little about them then. I was aware they recorded and album with a bunch of great songs that for some reason or another it wasn’t available anywhere. I had so many questions. Happily today they all got answered!
++ Hi Boris, Dragan and Andrej! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still based in Bečej? Still making music?
Boris: We have a half-and-half situation. Two of the four members of Mizu are still based in Bečej (Marko and Igor). Dragan moved to Novi Sad (some 50 km south).
I have uprooted and moved Becej>Novi Sad>Belgrade>Chester, UK. We are all still making music, more or less. And we all know that less is more.
++ How was Bečej in the late 90s? Where did the Mizu gang used to hang out? Were there any like-minded bands? Any good record stores? Has it changed much compared to today?
Dragan: Late 90s in Bečej, as in all backwater Serbian towns back then, were slow and dead. If you wanted something to happen, you had to make it happen. So, it just so happened there were a bunch of people liking pop music. Some instruments floated around along with a substantial amounts of zeal and dreams of youth, so various bands popped up, sparked by Eva Braun, of course, who proved you can actually make some good songs and record them. Noone really thought about a next step, it was just out of bounds for us; a song recorded was the ultimate goal.
Yes, it felt like something was going on, a movement of sorts. Bands were forming and evolving, people rehearsing in same rooms sharing equipment, gigging at the same places, writing songs, helping each other out in various ways. Looking back, it seems that the focal place where all the mingling happened was a pub-bookstore on a town square called Libero, where all the new music was played, where all the art and social and political issues were discussed, different views shared. A feeling that we were all part of the same torrent still remains vivid to this day.
In the meantime life happened, and I’m absent from Bečej for more that 15 years, so I really wouldn’t know what it’s like today. Rare visiting occasions are just not enough to get even a rough picture of what’s going on there.
++ What would you say are your earliest music memories? What sort of music did you hear at home while growing up?
Dragan: My older brother had EVERY Beatle album. Even ‘My Bonnie’ single with Tony Sheridan. I was marinated in them before teens even began. Later on it gets hazy, then there was a short punk period, and then The Stone Roses and Pixies and the likes emerged. It was then the music really got to me.
Boris: Rather than focusing on earliest music memories, I would point most inmportant one. Back in early 90s I’ve got cassete from my older sister, on one side it was Teenage Fanclub “Bandwagonesque” on the other Mazzy Star “She Hangs Brightly”.
I had that one on repeat for a long time and from that moment onwards I’ve been on amazing journey.
++ Had you been involved in any bands before being in Mizu? What was your first instrument and do you remember how did you get it?
Dragan: Yup, there was a punk band obnoxiously called Sniffin Glue, then there was Cricetus Cricetus which evolved into Vini Pu, later on it was My Melody Dreams. Somewhere in between was a band called Marry Popins.
I got my first drum set when I was 17. It was a yellow no-name set with make-shift and kludged parts which I bought for 400 Deutche Marks. I got them by convincing my dad it was a “very good investment in my future”. I still, to this day, don’t know how I pulled it off.
Boris: Yes, I’ve started to play with Dragan and my firend Vasko in the band we called My Melody Dreams, later evolved in Mizu. I’ve got first cccoustic guitar Melodija (copy of Ovation guitar) back in ’87 or ’88 and around ’93 I ‘ve got my first Squire Stratocaster guitar as birthday present from mom and dad.
++ When and how did Mizu start as a band? How did you all know each other? Was there any lineup changes?
Boris: As previously mentioned Dragan and I played in My Melody Dreams and later on our friend Srđan Čiplić (Čipa) joind us. Unfortunate event when Čipa suddenly passed away, My Melody Dreams stopped working.
It was quite some time later that Dragan and I joined some friends from Vini Pu (Igor Batinić and Saša Ajdanov) to form Mizu. Later on Marko Vujkov replaced Saša on bass and Saša remains spiritual guru of the band.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? Is it true that it comes from an Eggstone song?
Andrej: It is true. One of the early band members and one of the scene’s key protagonists Saša Ajdanov was always on the lookout for great new music. At the time we were all particularly interested in what was going on in Sweden, and Eggstone had a small cult following in Bečej. Saša got hold of the April and May EP and was instantly smitten by “Mizu”. He became so connected to the song that people around town even started calling him Mizu. After he joined the band — which was then in-between names — it somehow transcended his own persona and was imediately adopted by the four guys.
++ What bands would you say were influences in the sound of Mizu?
Boris: Eggstone obviously, but equally Ride, Stone Roses, Oasis, Supergrass etc. I am sure each of us would put a long list.
++ How did the creative process work for Mizu?
Boris: There were three songwriters in Mizu, each with a somewhat distinctive style and aproach. But we worked on each and every song collectively, arranging and re-arranging them until they seemed just right. I think that in the end we managed to make an album of seamlessly connected songs that reflected the inner dynamic of the band.
By the way, this is how Andrej describes it as being close to Mizu throughout it’s creative and recording phase.
++ What do you remember from the recording session for the self-titled album? Where was it recorded? And how much did Dušan Ševarlić from Eva Braun add to it?
Dragan: Looking back, I’d say we as a band didn’t know exactly what we were doing and were fortunate to have Ševa guiding us. He and Slobodan Misailović have recorded, tweaked the sounds and arrangements if needed, gathered additional equipment and people, took care of technical matters, even played on some of the songs. In a word, they performed one hell of a babysitting and had a tremenduous amount of patience with us.
Boris: to add to Dragan’s points above, it was really long recording, due to studio availability limitations. We also had a lot of friends joining/participating, so pretty cool party that lasted over a year.
++ Your album was supposed to be released in 2000 by the Automatik label. What happened? Why didn’t it come out?
Andrej: To be frank, the case of the lost Mizu album is still a bit of a mystery to us. Automatik Records at the time was a fairly successful label ran by the infamous Slobodan Nešović Loka. He played guitar in a couple of bands during the Belgrade New Wave but remained a bit of a footnote in the music history. During the 1990s he became an enterpreneur, and as it seems his enterpreneurship was of a specially exploitative kind. By the end of the millenium the indie pop scene in Serbia probably turned out to be less lucrative then he expected. And our album was recorded just as the time was ripe for him to start cutting costs. We’ve actually signed a contract with Automatik. Everything was ready for the publication. Then Loka insisted on minimizing the layout of the CD cover, to what we grudgingly agreed. And after that… It just never happened.
Boris: Once again, Andrej put quite good reflection of situation at that time, however I would like to add that in our case Loka was a proper prick. He was playing role of some record label mogul. He got fully recorded/produced album and video for the song 22 without investing single dinnar. Never understood why he did not release the album. if we only had soundcloud at that time.
Partly he done us a favour. By not releasing the album, it became rare piece of work not everyone could get hold of.
++ Some promo copies of it did get out, I guess thanks to them I got to listen to it in the early 2000s. Do you have any clue how many of those promo copies were made? And where did these copies go?
Andrej: The fact that the album had not been published was really painful. The band was practically shut down. There was the single (which in Serbia was the euphemism for the video), there were some gigs, some radio play, but this major thing that we worked on really hard was simply silenced. And we knew the album was good enough to be published. To hell with it, we knew it was much, much more than just good enough. So we took what we had – the CD of the album before the final mastering — did some in-house tweaking, digitally printed the covers and made some copies. Guerilla warfare it wasn’t, but at least a few people got the album in the form it was meant to be published in.
++ Eight years after, in 2008, the album was finally released as an MP3 release on Label Star. What made you make that decision? Who were Label Star? And how did it go?
Andrej: Label Star was a short-lived small label formed by Milan Glavaški, the man behind the band Rebel Star (and a former member of Eva Braun and Popcycle). We are friends (to say the least; I (Boris) played in Rebel Star for a while), but I think that his idea to publish the album was based on something else. It was an honest attempt to do at least some justice to this unfairly discarded product of our joint work, hopes and dreams.
Boris: Sptify just opened option to upload own albums. Finally in 2019 plan is to get in on spotify where it belongs.
++ And were the versions of the songs different from the Automatik album and the Label Star album?
Boris: No. Same songs. However we did not like post production of the album and left it with Dragan Bašić to do it again. Believe, only for us, music geeks to hear difference.
++ I love the song “Dobar Dan”, I think it is brilliant. If you don’t mind, care telling me the story behind it?
Dragan: THX. It was brought to a rehearsal, band gave it thumbs up. Igor surprised us with an excellent solo he came up with. While recording, Ševa and Vladimir Kolarić (Veliki Prezir) had an input with backing vocals; Ševa also pushed us in the right direction with the middle section; originally, it was ment to be more like one of the Dodgy Mid8s.
++ A song from the album, “Dvadeset i Dva“, had a promo video. When and where was it recorded? Did it take many days? And did it get much rotation on TV?
Andrej: The video was recorded in Belgrade, at the beautiful building of the department store of the now defunct textile manufacturer Kluz. Trivia says that the place is now a chinese store. Anyway, the focal point of the interior of the building is this huge crystal chandelier that you can see throughout the video. What is now obvious is the mercantile take on pop music that surrounded the scene at the time. We were filmed playing the song “Dvadeset i dva” inside a (stylishly post-socialist) department store, Mizu represented as a brand, there was even a female model stripped down to a bikini, for crying out loud. I guess that the whole commodification spiel perfectly represents the idea behind Automatik Records.
++ I notice that the band had a logo, which appears on the album cover as well as on your t-shirt on the video. Who made that logo? And were these t-shirts sold at all?
Dragan & Andrej: It was made by Dragan and Andrej Dolinka (who later designed the CD cover for the album in collaboration with Aleksandar Maćašev) at Saša Ajdanov’s home, on his PC, while waiting for a water to boil for their coffees. The approach was so hands-on that the logo was made with what was luying around. Believe it or not, it was designed in Microsoft Word! It was later applied in different ways. We only made a limited edition of the t-shirts and pretty much gave them away to friends and family members. OK, and some fans.
++ Do you think someday there will be a physical release for this record? I think it does deserve it!
Boris: I will make sure digital version remains available on Soundcloud &/or Spotify or similar. I would like to have an LP record of it one day. Who knows, maybe only few copies to keep it rare.
++ Did Mizu appear on any compilations?
Boris: Honestly, can not recall.
++ Are there any unreleased Mizu songs?
Boris: I do not think so, but there are unreleased My Melody Dreams songs that were later recorded on Mizu album.
++ From all the Mizu songs, what would you say was your favourite and why?
Dragan: I guess it is “Kraj”. Boris wrote it. I love it for a bunch of reasons, but the main thing is: it always came out right, from the first time we played it. Btw, I was always driven by the melody of Igors solo in it to hit cymbals and insert fills here and there; as I couldn’t be bothered to remember the pattern, poor Igor had to play a solo for me when drums were recorded. And that wasn’t done in a first take either.
Boris: Korpa Cveca, for the reasons that are difficult to explain apart from 2 chords song being my favourate structure.
++ Did you play many gigs? Do you remember which cities you played? And what would you say are the best Mizu gigs and why? Any anecdotes you could share?
Boris: We have played quite a few gigs around Serbia, mainly as opening band for Eva Braun, Popcyle or Veliki Prezir. Actually in my memory, travelling (Saša Ajdanov used to drive us in his Zastava 101 listening great music) and hanging before/after gigs with friends was the best part.
There was a live show at NS Plus TV (Andrej might be able to help as show is still available somewhere on the net) which I remember as great expereince.
++ Did you get much attention from the radio or music press? What about internationally?
Boris: We have mostly been present in local press, radio and TV stations. No international reach.
++ You appeared on TV on a live session for NS Plus. Who were NS Plus? How was that experience? Was that the only TV appearance by the band?
Boris: NS Plus was part of Radio Television Novi Sad and Nikola Šujica had his live show. We’ve been invited to play live and it was only TV appearance we had.
It was really kind from Nikola, we’ve been treated like stars.
++ Then what happened? When and why did you call it a day?
Boris: As Dragan previously mentioned, life happened. It was difficult to progress without having record out and we’ve invested everything in first album. It was just tiring.
++ What did you all do afterwards? Did you continue making music?
Dragan: Boris, Andrej Dolinka and me came together as Super Studio. I still feel I’m a Super Studio member, although this hiatus lasts a fair number of years. Generally, I get stuck at the first base, ie, fooling around with an instrument at home.
Boris: I’ve been playing with Milan Glavaški (ex. Eva Braun and Popcycle) in Rebel Star and as Dragan mentioned we started Superstudio (can be found on soundcloud) I am extremely proud of. As it is formed as very spontanious low fi music expression of 3 friends, I expect some ocasional, unpredictable surprises to continue form different parts of the world.
++ Are you all still in touch? Is there any chance of a Mizu reunion someday?
Boris: Every year around Christmas with few bottles of local spirit, there are big plans. I am more believer it was always meant to be music for family and friends, but who knows….
++ And today, aside from music, what do you do? What other hobbies do you have?
Dragan: You got me thinking now – I’ve got no other hobbies. Aside from making my own wooden shelves or some other simple piece of wooden furniture if I need one. It always turns out ugly, but gets the job done.
Boris: Taking advantage of living in the UK to see some great bands/gigs.
++ I’d love to visit Serbia one day, and why not Vojvodina and Bečej. Wondering if you could tell me what are the sights not to miss from your town, or the traditional dishes or drinks one shouldn’t miss? And if there is a good band there these days, recommend that too please!
Boris: You are more than welcome, but would suggest you plan/visit to Belgrade. In any case, I would be more than happy to organise you visit/stay and to meet/see some amazing bands.
++ One last question, looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight for Mizu?
Dragan: Being interviewed by a fan from Peru, there’s no higher light than that.
Boris: nothing to add to Dragan’s point.
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Listen
Mizu – Dobar Dan
