Artist representation: Worldwide

At the end of 2012 Serbian DJ and producer Marko Milicevic aka Gramophonedzie came to another major crossroads in his career. After two successful worldwide tours on major stages, fuelled by the global success of his anthem “Why Don’t You”, which crossed over on mainstream charts and radios, ensuring him global fame and record deal with major label as well as MTV music award, he decided to go back to his roots. Those are bound to darker Chicago jackin’ house, though the best selling releases such as “Brazilian”, “Number One” or “No Sugar” (ft. Joey Negro) prove his sound is much more eclectic.

Classically trained musician, head of Disko Zoo label as well as an expert in music mastering has thus rebuilt his Belgrade based studio and is now again focusing on things that he likes the most: producing and mixing quality house music for true house aficionados and exposing young talents, so it’s not a surprise he prefers to play more intimate underground clubs and club culture flavoured festivals.

Though it may seem he stormed out of nowhere, when he conquered Ibiza in the summer of 2009 and subsequently crossed over into mainstream in months to follow, Marko is far from being a newbie when it comes to producing and mixing music. He performed as a well respected DJ and producer in his home country and region years before he became globally famous.

Marko’s production career started at least a decade before his big break. At the very beginning of a new Millennium he was given a chance to participate in the Red Bull Academy in Ireland as one of the greatest music talents from the region, after winning a remix competition. For him that was definitely a life changing experience and additional motivation to follow his long time dream to pursue career in music. He subsequently completed studies of Sound Design at Belgrade University and went on to create music for a number of commercials, movies and television broadcasts as well as producing several Serbian bands along steadily building his own production, remixing and deejaying reputation in the regional clubs and festivals.

Chicago style jackin’ house, full of funky elements, organic instrumental sounds and vocals is the most distinctive common denominator of Gramophonedzie’s artist opus as well as his DJ-sets from the earliest to the latest productions, but his musical taste is much more eclectic and it doesn’t stop at house or even electronic music in general.

This was most vividly expressed in his greatest hit to date “Why Don’t You” – a house track that sampled Peggy Lee’s swing standard “Why Don’t You Do Right” in which he combined his passion for classic organic jazz with modern electronic club sounds. Initially signed to Guesthouse before being picked up by Positiva, a sub label of Virgin\EMI, it was one of the biggest club records of 2009 supported by various DJs and it became one of the rare crossover records which was played by the most underground as well as popular commercial artists, which is the reason for being No.1 dance record all over the world.

It was named a track of the year by BBC Radio 1 presenter Giles Peterson and it reached top 20 in the official UK, Belgian and Dutch singles charts, accompanying video was heavily played on YouTube (6 millions and counting) as well as on MTV, which presented Gramophonedzie with MTV Music Award for Best Adria Act, with aditional nomination for Best European Act alongside artists such as Enrique Inglesias, Swedish House Mafia and Marina & The Diamonds.

Regardless of the global popularity of this tune, Gramophonedzie didn’t succumb to the temptation to start releasing its clones. With his follow-up productions, such are bossa nova flavoured “Brazilian”, filtered disco house Beatbort best seller “Number One”, jazzy jackin’ “No Sugar” (collaboration with his peer Joey Negro) and a cut & sample monster “Outta My Head” he has shown his artistic versatility and gained further support from labels such as Gotta Keep Faith, Yazuka, Nocturnal Groove, Oxyd and Shak Digital.

All this tracks were heavily licensed and assured Marko remixing duties for alternative and mainstream artists such as DJ Sneak (“Cant Hide From My Bud”), Mange Le Funk (“I Still Want You”), Professor Green (“I Need You Tonight”), Doman & Gooding (“Pacific State”) as well as Kraak & Smaak (“Calling Up”). They were also a soundtrack to his two world tours, which took him trough the North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. And this 24-month long touring was so intense he hardly managed to get himself married to his long time fiancé Tamara – the girl who persuaded him to put together the track that brought him into the global spotlight in the first place.

After experiencing the joys as well as some perils of a top world class DJ life, Marko needed to get in touch with his musical roots once again, as he’s not some artificially made superstar but a true musician who is most happy when performing in a hot sweaty underground clubs full of dedicated house aficionados or a good festival where music doesn’t serve just as a soundtrack to spectacular visuals, fireworks and special effects. One of the things he’s really proud of is his improved home studio, which he recently upgraded with a state of the art analogue mastering equipment. This was his long time dream as additionally to working on his own productions he’s also acting as an expert in music mastering for many established labels and artists.