Djordje Stijepovic

Djordje Stijepovic (, Đorđe Stijepović, ) is a Serbian-American double bass player, singer and composer. He is best known as bassist for the psychobilly band Tiger Army and for Nickelodeon star Drake Bell. He is also a former member of Lemmy Kilmister's (Motörhead) side project The Head Cat (with Stray Cats' Slim Jim Phantom on drums).

As a bandleader, Stijepovic fronts the rockabilly band Atomic Sunset and performs as a solo artist under his own name. He has also recorded and performed as a guest musician with Tommy Emmanuel, Marco Beltrami, Wanda Jackson, Molotov, Rachel Brice and Beats Antique among others.

Beginnings Djordje Stijepovic grew up in a music family in Belgrade, Serbia. His mother was a music professor and his father was a professional folk dancer in Serbian National Ensemble Kolo. He decided to become a musician at 10 years old, after hearing Elvis Presley's and Stray Cats' records for the first time. At 11, he formed his first rock'n'roll band Lonesome Train. He started on guitar and switched to double bass when he was 13 years old.

Music career 1995–2004: First bands in Serbia At 18 years old, Djordje Stijepovic joined Balkan Music Club, one of the first world music bands in Serbia. As a member of this band, he is considered as one of the initiators of the world music scene in Serbia. Soon he developed an interest for Middle Eastern music as well, so he joined Shira Utfila in 2000. Shira Utfila received the RASA award as the best world music band in Europe. In 1999 he founded Marsya with Georges Grujic, a band dedicated to the traditional music of the Balkans. This band is considered a turning point for the Serbian world music scene. Their debut album Flammable was released in 2002 for PGP-RTS. Radio Television of Serbia filmed and broadcast a rockumentary of the same title about the band in 2002. When Stijepovic disbanded Havana Whisper in 2003, he formed the rockabilly trio Atomic Sunset. Occasionally he still performs with this band. With Atomic Sunset he released one album titled Hot Rods & Pin-Ups.

During this period, he also played in a symphony orchestra for 7 years.

2004–2006: Move to the US Stijepovic moved to San Francisco in January 2004. At the beginning he mostly played with local bluegrass and rock'n'roll bands, including the Blue Note Cats.

In 2006 he joined Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics and started touring nationally. That same year, he played a concert with Joe Clay in Hollywood, and was noticed by Danny B. Harvey, who invited him to join him, Lemmy Kilmister and Slim Jim Phantom in the Head Cat. The band was joined by Guns N' Roses guitar player Slash at the 3rd Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival at the House of Blues in Hollywood.

In 2007 he also joined Fishtank Ensemble, an eclectic band that plays Gypsy music from all over the world (Balkan, Turkish, Flamenco ...) and hot jazz. Their music is featured in the movie Wild Target starring Emily Blunt, Bill Nighy and Rupert Everett. Fishtank Ensemble has something of a cult following, including celebrities like Tim Robbins and Sue Wong. thumb Stijepovic performing with Tiger Army in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2016.

2013–present: Drake Bell, Tiger Army, Molotov In December 2013, Stijepovic received an invitation to play in Drake Bell's band as a guest at the Christmas concert of Brian Setzer Orchestra at the Dolby Theatre. Bell was thrilled by Stijepovic's musicianship and energy, so he became a steady member of the band. In February 2020, Drake Bell released The Lost Album with Stijepovic playing double bass on songs "The Party" and "Pots & Pans".

In October 2015, Stijepovic became a member of the psychobilly band Tiger Army. To promote the EP, they've played 2 sold-out concerts at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. Full-length album Retrofuture was released on September 13, 2019, on Rise Records, followed by 2 music videos "Devil That You Don’t Know" and "Mi Amor La Luna". The Retrofuture tour concluded with 2 sold out nights at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. In January 2020, the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame updated their Right Here, Right Now exhibit, which focuses on current pop stars, with artifacts from Tiger Army, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Adam Lambert, and Kacey Musgraves, which included Stijepovic's custom made shirt, shoes and bass strings.

In April 2018, Stijepovic joined the acoustic lineup of popular Mexican rap rock band Molotov. He was a special guest, alongside Ana Tijoux and Money Mark of the Beastie Boys, on their MTV Unplugged performance. El Desconecte tour included 10 sold out nights at the Teatro Metropólitan in Mexico City.

Solo work Djordje Stijepovic's solo work is greatly influenced by traditional jazz and world music, especially from the Balkans and the Middle East. He insists on perceiving music as a whole, with different genres just being a matter of taste. His band included some of the best Serbian musicians: Aleksandar Sedlar on guitar, Vasil Hadzimanov on keyboard and Predrag Milutinovic on drums. On December 18, 2019, he was awarded the "Vojin Draskoci" statuette, for his contribution to the development of World music and played another solo show with the same band members. left Money Mark (Beastie Boys), Tito Fuentes and Stijepovic during Molotov concert in Mexico City, in 2019.

Other collaborations Djordje Stijepovic has performed and recorded with many world known musicians from very wide music genres. His session studio work includes Beats Antique (electronica), Tina Guo (Classical crossover), Rupa and the April Fishes (reggae), Kiosk (Persian), Marcelo (hip hop), Kal (Romani) and many others. Two albums he recorded with Kal reached top of World Music Charts Europe (Kal in 2006 and Radio Romanista in 2009).

Some other live collaborations include guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel; rock'n'roll pioneers Donovan, Wanda Jackson, Dale Hawkins, Scotty Moore band, DJ Fontana, Sonny Burgess, Joe Clay, Eddie Bond, Gene Summers; blues giants Billy Boy Arnold, Jody Williams; jazz legend Don Randi; swing sensation Squirrel Nut Zippers; pop star Aaron Carter and many others. He also worked with movie composers Marco Beltrami and Danny Elfman. SummerSounds (Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA) and Everyman (Atelje 212, Belgrade Serbia). He also appeared in movies Lemmy, It's a Rockabilly World! and Flammable.

Playing style Stijepovic is often referred as the world's best slap style double bass player. Slap bass is a mostly percussive technique that was developed in New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century. He is writing the first book about the technique. |

Influences Stijepovic most often cites Stray Cats, Clash, Motörhead, Tom Waits and Charlie Mingus as his main musical inspirations. Thomastik-Infeld, Orange, Mogami,

His main instrument since 2011 has been "The Great White", a custom double bass made under his specifications by the Blast Cult in Orange, CA. It has a one of a kind 3 pickup system. The symbol that can be seen under the strings is Stijepovic's logo, which is a stylized combination of the first letter of his name (Ђ – DJ in Cyrillic) and bass clef, made by the artist Zeljko Gajic.

He also uses Mogami cables, Mojave microphones and CodaBow carbon fiber bows.

Art of slap bass Since 2002, Djordje Stijepovic has been intensively working on the development of slap bass technique, and researching its history. With the goal of its popularisation he started the web site www.artofslapbass.com on June 10, 2009. He publishes articles about slap bass on the web site and promotes other exponents of the style. He has interviewed legends like Marshall Lytle, Ray Campi, James Kirkland and discovered new players like Nicolas Dubouchet, Ryan Gould, Beau Sample and others.

Awards and honors

2019 – Nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for best rock album El Desconecte with Molotov. Music Video 2023 DJORDJE - Hurtless Music Video 2020 Slapstream with Djordje YouTube Series 2020 Tiger Army - Last Ride Music Video 2019 Tiger Army – Devil That You Don't Know YouTube Series Djordje played bass on Gimme tha Power, Marciano and Oleré y oleré y oleré el UHU"

Season 16, Episode 83: "Elisabeth Moss, Lauren Ash, Tiger Army" Season 16, Episode 64: "James Gunn, Halston Sage, Tiger Army"