Dusan Kalicanin is Creative Director of Pakom Group and Board president of TECHNOKRATIA. He is an electrical and computer engineer, currently on his post-grad management studies. One of the founders of International art organization TECHNOKRATIA, the leading organization of its kind in Southeastern Europe, whose goal is to promote techno culture in all its forms (music, video, fashion, media, design, science, a healthy and athletic way of life). He was editor, producer and author at National Television of Serbia - Channel 3 producing the cult shows: VJ Techno, Supernova, Animania, Mozaik, Late Night Program. He was the initiator and Chief Editor of TV Metropolis, editor and author at Radio Politika, editor and journalist in magazines: Vreme zabave, Beoizlog, Music Magazine, Extreme Magazine and many others. After his DJ career, he became one of the first VJs (video jockeys) in Europe, by performing at large events, mixing, directing and producing video performances, music videos and films. He collaborated with the most well known music TV stations like MTV, VIVA, MCM, TMF. What is not that well known is that he started listening and keeping up with electronic music very early and then deejaying as well. How did it all begin?
Dusan: In my case it was not with special intent. I went to XIII Belgrade High School, I was a programmer. At 15 I worked as an associate for the magazine “Racunari” and “Svet kompjutera”. I mostly wrote professional articles related to algorithms and protections. I was good at writing these so I was soon hired as a journalist-associate. I always liked music, and I listened to alternative music at the time, from alternative rock to alternative industrial bands that played at the time. Then I started reading about it and got interested in the scene from a journalism view, even though I did not actively go out. I went to Spain during summer several times where it all began. Due to circumstances, I happened to be in Spain one summer, just before the famous “Summer of Love” that took place in 1988 (first in Spain, then a reflection in Britain). With a few more people from Serbia I visited the large discotheques where at the time very bad commercial Spanish music was played. A lot of English tourists came who wanted better music. We noticed that during those years the Spanish government invested a large sum into changing the countries entire image, so along with cinematography and art, they invested into tourism and clubbing. And then they practically equipped their clubs, but did not have good music. English disk jockeys started coming. Once I was a replacement to an English disk jockey that wasn’t able to play music that evening.
VSG: How did you get the chance to become a replacement?
Dusan: My friends, with whom I went to holiday, were mostly working at these discotheques, one as a manager, and the other as security. On that day, when a substitute was needed, my friends called me and said: “Come over and be our replacement, you keep up with the music.” I said yes. In those days discotheques had their own record and tape collections inside DJ booths. I did quite well that evening. I was stepping in for that DJ for a few days, until the club owner said: “Let him work, but I want you too”.
VSG: You accepted, right?
Dusan: I did, but considering I was on holiday there, I saw the work more like fun. On the other hand, I used to play the piano so I knew what it’s like to perform in front of an audience. However, the discotheque was big and I felt greater stress and stage fright.
VSG: That was when your career as a DJ actually started, something no one in Serbia knew about?
Dusan: Well yeah, I became one of the first disk jockeys and I did |
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that for a while. No one knew in Serbia just because I was only deejaying when I was on summer holiday abroad, while I lived a peaceful life here, went to school, to college. Deejaying was not so popular in Serbia at the time.
VSG: When did the first wave of electronic music come to Serbia and to which names is the beginning of the club scene tied to?
Dusan: A few people went to London and upon returning to Belgrade they tried to make good parties, but they didn’t seem to succeed. At the club Akademija alternative music was played and there were elements of electronic music. The first two disk jockeys who played electronic music in public in Serbia were Oki and Gavra. That was in the late eighties and the early nineties. They were the doyens of the alternative scene. Along the dark, gothic and alternative sound they started playing industrial and sounds that were really electronic based. They got Tuesday from Akademija and a crowd started gathering every week to dance and listen to good music that could not be heard anywhere else in Belgrade. It was played on tapes because DJs could not get hold of records like we did abroad. On the other side, it would have been pointless if I brought records and they did not have the gramophones to play them on.
VSG: You were in touch with the Serbian scene but you did not play music in Belgrade. Why?
Dusan: I only played music abroad. In the meantime I enrolled at the School of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade and was more and more attracted to technology. I was into programming, and deejaying was slowly ceasing to interest me so I did not want to start anything in Belgrade.
VSG: Did you still try to create a bond between technology and music?
Dusan: That was exactly what interested me the most. I started experimenting with devices for lights and laser control in clubs. We noticed something is missing. We needed the video. I started investigating around Spain, the Netherlands and some other countries where we performed.
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