Band Members Dušan Pešić (guitars/vocals) Bojana Bianca Milosavljević (vocals) Željko Zec (guitars) Stefan Radojković (bass) Marko Chella Mrčarica (drums)
How did you all meet, and were any of you in bands before Rain Delay?
Dušan: Our first singer, Ana, is my sister, so we sang together right from the start when Rain Delay was an acoustic trio. However, we wanted to play our songs in metal arrangements, and we needed a drummer, so I asked Marko a.k.a. Chella, who went to same high school with me and my sister. Later on Chella invited Zeljko to play the guitar, and I enrolled Stefan on the bass, my best friend, also from the same high school. Bianca is our third female vocalist, and she came after the elaborate audition.
What kind of feedback to you get from people who have listened to your music, do you ever find any negativity from the crowd?
Dušan: I must say, we have some pretty AMAZING fans. So dedicated, so warm, people who are not afraid to show (in variety of ways) what our music means to them. Their number is growing by the day. Of course, living in Serbia, and appearing on this scene brings as much trolling and hate as you can imagine. Success is that one thing that is rarely forgiven here. We kinda see that negativity solely as a confirmation of our success.
To date what is the band's favorite song, and what are your favorite songs individually for Rain Delay?
Dušan: On concerts, people like to hear songs such as "Fulcrum", "Shiseido", "Falling Asleep in Real Time", "Hummer Pierced through the Central Square", because they are all really dynamic; and also "Par ti, San Marco" and "My Summer Sojourn", because they have huge choruses. However, our fans, being really open-minded, also love some more complex songs of ours like "Veneto Slumber Recon", "Departure" and "Empty as I Am"; and they also love the light ones like "Selena" and "In Early Somnolence"... My personal favorite song is always the last one I wrote, or the one that I am currently writing, so at the moment it is "Kyoto Daylight Recon", the song for our fourth album, which we still haven't even played together. There you go, you got yourself some exclusive news - a new title for an unreleased RD song!
Do you have any plans to tour in 2012 and if so where?
Dušan: We are doing our best to book a mini tour in Veneto (region in Italy), in cities like Padua, Mestre, and of course Venice. To perform in Venice was my biggest dream ever since RD was formed.
Stefan: Also, we are planning some concerts and festivals in Serbia and former Yugoslavia republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina). For time being, Time Machine Music promotion&booking has booked us for Adrenalin Festival (Bečej, Serbia) and we have booked concerts in Novi Sad (with Dream Epic) and Belgrade (with Went and By-pass). This year touring is all about promoting our latest album – “Slumber Recon”!
Will we ever see the band in the States, Canada, or another country?
Dušan: United States and Canada are pretty remote for us... also to acquire an entrance visa for the whole band would be an enormous nuisance. So, realistically, chances of that happening are pretty slim.
Stefan: Not just that, there is a question of transportation. It doesn’t come cheap to cross the Atlantic Ocean and if, by any chance, we have opportunity to come to States it would be necessary to stay at least a month (to recover our expenses) and this is not possible. All of us, in Rain Delay, have jobs or other obligations that holding us down to stay in Serbia. Perhaps, that will change in the future.
The music is such an interesting marriage of vocals and instrument, and switches from a gentile echo to heavy depending on the song. What is the source of inspiration for you all as a band?
Dušan: As my friend Vladimir from the band Organized Chaos (you should totally check them out) once said: LIFE. My lyrics, and of course the music, is based on the events, persons, and emotions that I experienced in my lifetime. Our albums are conceptual (all of them except the second one), autobiographical, personal, and the songs are lined-up chronologically as the events have happened.
You've been around since early 2003, what changes have you noticed in your music scene since then, and have they been for better or worse?
Dušan: For better - new fans. For worse - the CD are selling less.
Stefan: To elaborate on Dušan’s thought! This century is golden era of Internet. This means that digital technology has huge impact on music industry and it has its good and bad sides. Good sides are that is become much easier to promote your music, even to the distant corners of the Earth but there are bad sides of that story.
How to distinguish your band from thousands of others? Internet is swamped with really bad music and, of course, there is smaller number of bands that play some good tunes. Furthermore, if you want to record your songs (professionally) that will cost you dearly! We all know that band will never recover those expenses due to piracy and especially not in Serbia (small and poor market).
So, either you do this from pure enthusiasm and love (our case) or you don’t do it all!
To all readers of Metal Master Kingdom, from Rain Delay – keep listening quality music, discover new bands on the Internet (especially from Serbia) and check out our latest album – “Slumber Recon”! Every constructive critic is welcome!