EMQ’s with TWISTED TALES
EMQ’s with TWISTED TALES
Hi Everyone. Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview with Kuršumlija, Serbia based Metal band Twisted Tales! Huge thanks to lead guitarist Miša Milovanović for taking part!
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
How do you do, I’m Miša Milovanović, and I play the lead guitar in Twisted Tales. Well, we formed in 2004 in our home town of Kuršumlija. At that time we were playing melodic death metal which sounded a lot like black metal on downers haha. We recorded a demo called “Behind The Gates Of Eternity” in 2005, and shortly after we kinda called it a day, but didn’t quite call it a day. We just, as personnel, went our separate ways, going to school, work and such. After a few years we decided that the hiatus didn’t work for us, so we took up the band stuff again, but with a new kind of energy going more in the thrash metal vein.
Ljubiša Đorđević, our main songwriter, has always been a huge thrash metal fan and we kinda went in that direction, so in 2009 we wrote a couple of songs for a local guitar festival and we liked how it sounded, how it felt, so it stuck. Thrash metal with screaming/growling vocals, what’s there not to like, right? Afterwards we went on a tour around Serbia, which is funny because at that time we didn’t even have enough material for like a half of an album, but that didn’t really bother us; we even called it Total Destruction Tour, pretentious fucks! ! But it was all good; we did lots of clubs and festivals in Serbia, worked on new songs, so at the end of 2010 we went into the studio and had half of our first album recorded. In early 2011 we recorded the second part, and that was it, we had our first album “We Shall Be Heard” done. It took us a while to find a label to get it out, but we found one, and in September of 2012 it was on. Then again we went on promoting it, playing out and about, went touring Poland and Slovakia in 2014, then back to Serbia.
Finally we sat down to record a new album in 2016, and pretty much all of it was done then, but since we wanted to do it all by ourselves with our equipment and in our let’s call it studio, it took us a while to prepare it for releasing. So it came out in Serbia in May 2019 with the title “Bringer Of Woe”. A European release happened in September 2019. Besides me and Ljubiša who is on microphone and rhythm guitar, we also have Nemanja Velicki on drums, and Stevan Dinić on bass guitar.
How did you come up with your band name?
Well we had some pretty dumb working titles back then and then on one drunken night in December 2004 Ljubiša and Nemanja got an idea to name it Twisted Tales, we all liked it so we went with it. It’s a versatile name! You can call a melodic death band that and it won’t get mad, you can call a thrash death metal band that and it will not get mad. Hey you can even call an alternative rock song that, or a cartoon, and it will stick. Not that we knew of the latter two at that time, just sayin’.
What country are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
We’re from Serbia and the scene is like baaaands, musicians, instruments, stage equipment, clubs, festivals, drunk people, sober people, young people, middle-aged people, people getting along, people not getting along, I guess like everywhere else, except smaller because we ain’t no Finland.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single or Video)
I think I said it before, but our latest release is “Bringer Of Woe”, and it is a long play digital download.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Oh boy there’s so many of them really. For our band maybe Death, Kreator, Pantera, Dio, Motörhead, early Metallica & Megadeth! Personally – Andre Olbrich, Adrian Smith, Glenn Tipton, Kirk Hammett, Tony Iommi, Matias Kupiainen, Alexi Laiho, Emppu Vuorinen, Mattias IA Eklundh!
What first got you into music?
The song Paranoid by Black Sabbath! I wanted to learn it so bad, and once I nailed it I thought to myself why not try and become a heavy metal guitar player? Still working on it!
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Well, personally, it would be maybe Omnium Gatherum and Wolfheart, and regarding individual musicians, probably Adrian Smith or Roy Z.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
That’s an easy one, Wacken of course! It’s the metalhead’s Mecca.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
A bra… Size didn’t fit so I had to throw it away!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Idle hands get in the way of the devil’s work.
If you could bring one Metal/Rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Never been much of a necromancer, but if I had to choose I’d say Peter Steele. His departure was so untimely, that I believe he would have had yet more to offer had he lived a while longer.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Love them power chords, pinched harmonics and whammy squeals! I don’t care much about changing the strings…
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Well, I’d turn back the clock like thirty-forty years, so pretty much the majority of things.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Just one?! That’s a bit stingy. Okay, Iron Maiden – “Somewhere In Time”, I suppose!
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Well I’d be a hypocrite if I’d say anything other than Downloads haha, fuck, even our latest album falls under that category exclusively 🙂 I mean, Downloads are definitely something I resort to most frequently when looking for new what-to-listen-to. But if I’d take all things into consideration, then I’d go with the Vinyl, because it is the most tangible, most aesthetic, even the best sounding format in my opinion. Currently I don’t have like an extensive collection, I have some records, and when circumstances allow it I practically only listen to music from that medium. But they, the records that is, are a bit harder to come by here.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Hah, I’d probably say one we did in Poland in a small town of Krasnistow, where we played in a vacated classroom of some, I don’t know, was it elementary school or something, and a prison was across the street. Well, those Polish tax evaders did have a good time that evening for sure. The entire night was pretty crazy, we were pretty amped up to play to the local crowd who gave us their vodka and stuff, and we had some issues with the promoter, which later turned out to be just a misunderstanding, but got us pretty angry at the time, so we agreed to be total assholes, playing louder than we were supposed to, playing longer than we were supposed to… And it was complete madness.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
A day job!!
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Nah I’d much rather invite myself to somebody else’s dinner party and decline the invitation. Not a great host myself, I’m afraid.
What’s next for the band?
Promoting the current album and starting to work on a next one.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
Now, there’s our own website:
http://www.twistedtalesofficial.com
Then you can find us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Twisted-Tales-205348076167509/
As far as streaming platforms and whatnot, here are the links:
https://open.spotify.com/album/67aoFYH4EE4rqcswwuqYCw
https://music.apple.com/us/album/bringer-of-woe/1482706257
https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Twisted_Tales_Bringer_of_Woe?id=Bdyhgfcuahg3kthcxnafcljdd4q
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YTNHK4Z/
https://www.deezer.com/us/album/114036972
https://tidal.com/browse/album/119657336
https://us.napster.com/artist/twisted-tales/album/bringer-of-woe
https://www.iheart.com/artist/twisted-tales-33482780/albums/bringer-of-woe-81646343/
http://www.mndigital.com/content-experience/music_content/albums/472000063/Twisted_Tales/Bringer_Of_Woe/
https://www.shazam.com/track/499093101/bringer-of-woe
You can also look us up on Tik Tok, Pandora, ClaroMusica, Saavn, Anghami, KKBox; just enter Twisted Tales Bringer of Woe.
Jaffa Cakes! Are they a cake or a biscuit?
Confectionery biscuit?
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
No, it’s all good fam Cheers!
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
