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Srdjan Brankovic and EXPEDITION DELTA



Last Updated: 12/3/2009

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Friday, November 20, 2009 
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10:51 AM 
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Sunday, September 27, 2009 

"Together with singer Ralph Sheepers (Primal Fear, Gamma ray), Srdjan Brankovic (Expedition Delta, Alogia) will be a guest musician in the song "Strong" from the upcoming SHADOW GALLERY album. The 6th effort of this legendary American progressive rock/metal band will be released on October 26 in Europe and November 3 in North America via "InsideOut Music".

SHADOW GALLERY always had the tradition of cooperating with other musicians and friends. On the other albums they have worked with many important names from progressive scene, such as : James Labrie (Dream Theater), Mark Zondar (Fates Warning), Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) & DC Cooper."

"I was so glad to play in the same song with Gary, Brendt, Carl and Ralph. These guys actually infulenced my own style. I always was a fan of Shadow Gallery and I was truly so happy when Gary asked me to play some stuff for their new album", Srdjan said.





Posted on 22 Sep 2009
11:48 PM 
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Sunday, March 29, 2009 
10:58 AM 
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Saturday, January 17, 2009 
Interview by Paschalis Koutsogiannis
Answered by Srdjan Brankovic & Gary Wehrkamp


Since it is the first time we are having you here, give us an introduction to the band. Members, biography etc...

Sir John Brankovic : "Expedition Delta" is a kind of musical project that gathers a lot of great musicians from all around the world. If you are into metal or prog rock music, there is a great posibility that you already know some of these guys, as they are all coming from well known bands. I'll mention a few of them - Erik Norlander, Richard Andersson... and also some guys that play for bands such as Labyrinth, After Forever, Shadow Gallery, Aghora, Edenbridge... This is the project that I have been working on since 2004 and it finally came out this year. It is released by Prog Rock records/SPV (and by "One records" for Serbian market).

I'd like to say that this is not one of rock operas, I just have recoreded some music and I thought it could be interesting if I also involve some of the guys I really respect. I really enjoyed the working process and recording of ED music, it was very funny and I'll surely do it again.

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When did you start your activity with music in general and metal in particular?

Sir John Brankovic : I started playing during 90's. It all begun with my mate band called"Psychoparadox". But in the beginning of 2000's, we started another band called "Alogia". We played a lot of gigs with this band, many big festivals, a couple of big solo concerts and we also opened for some huge bands, such as Whitesnake, Apocalyptica, Savatage...


How easy was for you in your country to deal with metal? I'm asking cause many bands here in Greece find it quite difficult to get a proper confrontation from labels etc.

Sir John Brankovic : We have the same problem here. We have a lot of cool bands and musicians here, but we hardly have a couple of labels that are interested in investing the music. It is very hard to sell music nowadays, and that's why many new bands have the problem to get the record deal.

Songs like Asunder Hearts or It Needs A Happy End, have a very optimistic feeling. What are the emotional state you usually prefer to be at for writing songs?

Sir John Brankovic : I write songs anytime, anywhere - I don't have "a part of the day for composing the music". I also don't find it matter enough if it sounds optimistic or depressive. It is only important for me to make it sound emotional and to make it reflect what I really feel. So, I can never know how my music will be sounding, it all depends on "the colour of my day".

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 Do you have any specific subjects you usually write for?

Sir John Brankovic : No. I don't know how the lyrics or music will sound until I start to write it. It is also inspired by the things that happen at the particular period in my life. That's why I really love making music -every song I make hides the atmosphere od the period when it was composed.
 
Do you get inspiration from other artists? Who are your favorite artists? Of course I don't mean only in metal…

Sir John Brankovic : I always was a big metal/rock fan, but I am inspired by many different kinds of music - from Celine Dion to Engelbert Humperdinck. Speaking of my metal oriented favourite artist, I'll mention some of the bands that I have been listening to through almost all of my life - Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Malmsteen...

Let's go a into the album. What was the way of creating it, the way you wrote the songs?

Sir John Brankovic : As I told you earlier, I started composing it back in 2005/2004. Actually, i wanted to record an album that would sound absolutely different from anything I have done before. I had the ideas for lyrics and a lot of music that wouldn't feet well with the bands that I have been already playing with. At that time, my key player was chatting with Alex Argento. Alex sent him some of his stuff which sounded great and.. i don't know how, but it happend spontaneously when I decided to ask him to record a solo for my song - and he did it. I found it very funny and that's how I came to idea to involve some other guys into it. It was very interesting for me to listen to my own songs with the recognizable playing-mark of many great musicians I really respect. It all brought something really new to my music, all of these guys had their own unique style of playing, so it all brought the "new spirit"to my songs.

Was it easy to gather those artists around you for the participation in the album? I'm referring to Gary as well of course, since I guess he has a very busy schedule…

Sir John Brankovic : The most of them were very busy, but they liked the music and decided to participate. I had to wait for some of them for some time, as there were a couple of guys who were working on their own albums at that time. I found Gary with the help of Arjen Lucassen and after a couple of months I found out how great guy Gary was.  He helped me a lot with the record deal, actually - he became the manager of the whole project, and later on - we were supposed to play an opening show for Judas Priest on "Castle festival", also including DC Cooper in line-up.Unfortunately, the whole festival was cancelled. We were also supposed to record that show and release DVD.

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What do you think about metal nowadays? How easy or difficult is for new artists to start a career or even just to get their work shown?

Sir John Brankovic : I think that metal became very boring. The most of the bands sound only aggressive, and it really isn't enough to me. It never wasn't. I always was a fan of melodic metal music, mostly.

It is very difficult to start and it is very hard to get somebody paying attention on you. Seems like there were much more magic in the music back in time, when everybody were listening to tapes, cd's..Another big problem is with the labels which earn more money from selling t-shirts (for example) than from selling music.  Seems like music industry is in a big problem.

Do you know any bands from Greece, do you have any sort of connection or communication with any?

Sir John Brankovic : I know some bands. For example, "Inner wish". My key player was in contact with their drummer. I also remember "Acid Death", band from 90's. They were cool, but I didn't hear about them since then. I know of band "Trademark", too. Of course, Ana Visi is ok! :):) By the way -Greek people are very loved in Serbia, really!  And, you should maybe know that Serbia is almost always with you every time when your representation plays the sport games! Serbs also prefer your seaside. I also was in Greece a couple of times. You are very kind and you have the great tradition, of course. I was in Stavros and Thessaloniki and really had the good time there.
 
Could you give us a top-5 of your favorite artists and albums?

Sir John Brankovic : Speaking about metal albums : Iron maiden - Somewhere in time, Dream theater - Images and words, Yngwie Malmsteen - Odyssey,  Shadow Gallery- Tyrrany,  Helloween - Keeper 2... I have a lot of fave albums, it is really hard to chose a couple.. 
 
Plans for the future and other projects? As far as I know, you are also in the band Alogia,yes? And what about Tina Kic's Infidia, are you a part of that too?

Sir John Brankovic : Infidia? No. I don't play with them, but I know them, they are from Solovenia.  I also know Tina Kic and HEY -  she is a great girl! We became friends by e-mail, but I was also happy to meet her last summer. We were playing with Alogia in Montenegro and she was on holiday there, so she came to see us live. I was really suprised by her kindness and we had a nice day there.  You should also check out the band "Metalsteel", her brother is a guitar player of that band, they are really cool band.

You can posibly expect new AlogiA and ED albums by the end of 2009.

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Tina & Srdjan
 
Thank you very much for your time Srdjan, close this interview the way you want!

Sir John Brankovic : Hey, thank you for being interested in ED. I wish all the best to you and your readers!

Gary, I've learnt the tragic accident with Mike Baker and hissudden death…Are there any plans of breaking up or too early yet to say that? 

Gary Wehrkamp : The band will not break up.

Gary, are there any plans that you have for soon-to-come releases? With Amaran's Plight or anything…

Gary Wehrkamp : We will continue to record the new Shadow Gallery material. We have finished writing this winter.  We will resolve our singer issues as we go and look forward to putting out our best in order to honor the terrific fans who have written us such heartfelt letters, emails and comments, and also to honor our brother and singer Mike.

Gary, can you tell us more about what you planned to play with E. Delta on Castle festival...

Gary Wehrkamp : A huge Shadow Gallery medley inclusive of Shadow Gallery material fromall eras of the band's career, mixed in with songs from ExpeditionDelta,
Dc Cooper solo material, Amaran's plight and more...
it would have been a nice show :)

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Shadow Gallery
9:56 AM 
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Sunday, December 28, 2008 
Srdjan have played in Sashka's song "Budi decko moj" that she did for competition on HELLO site. You probably know Shaska from the ED opening song "Asunder hearts". Check it out and vote for song 301 here!!!

Together with Sashka, the song was sung by Maja. Srdjan played bass guitar, guitar parts and did some programming. He also produced the song and worked on arrangement.

The musicians :

Sashka i Marija - vocals; Milosh Nikolic - trumphet; Srdjan Brankovic - bass, guitars, programming; Ana Sretenovic - keyboards

There you can hear it :




Sashka
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12:52 AM 
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Friday, December 26, 2008 
4:41 AM 
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Thursday, November 27, 2008 
Hey!

Here it is - another Srdjan's interview translated in English.

And if you would like to read original Greek version, check it out here!
8:37 PM 
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Friday, November 14, 2008 
Hey!

Here I am again with some new Expediton Delta reviews...
Although I am tired a little bit of all these reviews (there have been a lot of them), however I decided to put here a couple of new ones...

www.metalliville.co.uk (England)

www.metalist.co.il (Israel)

www.hmpmag.pl (Poland)

www.seaoftranquility.org (USA)


R.I.P. Mike Baker


 
9:27 PM 
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Monday, October 13, 2008 
Check it out here.
3:08 PM 
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Monday, September 29, 2008 
Srdjan was interviewed (in Serbian) by Jovana Reljic for "Balkanrock" site.
Check it out here :

READ ME READ ME READ ME...




3:15 PM 
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