You're reading: Lunch with … Okean Elzy’s Milos Jelic

Talking music, family and Ukraine with the top rock band’s new Serbian

ted to join top Ukrainian rock group Okean Elzy as their new keyboard player.

In autumn 2003, Jelic, now 23, was asked to create a string arrangement for the band. He had come to Kyiv to attend music school in 2000, and word of his talents as a composer had spread beyond the circle of his professors and classmates.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know how big the group was at that point. I’d only heard three or four of their songs,” says Jelic before sampling his sweet Ajvar salad (Hr 22), assorted meat platter (Hr 65) and special Serbian cheese pie (Hr 20) at local Serbian restaurant 011.

A month passed before an Okean Elzy producer finally called back, but by Dec. 19, Okean Elzy was performing its “Tykhy Okean” (Quiet Ocean) acoustic program, featuring arrangements by Jelic, at the historic Lviv Opera House.

“It was a true pleasure to create in such a positive atmosphere,” recalls Jelic of his work with the band. “Even now, while working on new songs, starting with ‘Dyakuyu’ (Thank You), I’ve more than succeeded in trying to express my creative ideas. I am not an egoist; for me it’s great if I can use my musical education to help the band. Moreover, in a band, each member contributes his ideas as well, and it’s exciting to try to work in synch with them.

“I truly believe that each of us has a chance to say what he wants.”

From scratch

Now a fifth-year student in the composing department of the National Music Academy of Ukraine, Jelic arrived in Ukraine not long after the protests in his home country that brought down the government of Slobodan Milosevic. At the time he didn’t know any Ukrainian or Russian at all. Since then he’s spent as much time studying Ukrainian – it’s part of his course load – as he does on his other subjects. Then there’s his work with Okean Elzy.

“In my studies right now I face a lot more scheduling problems than ever before. And to tell you the truth, I don’t know how to solve the problem,” Jelic says.

“I felt sad not having enough time to visit the academy even before [his collaboration with Okean Elzy], but now that, too, has become a problem. Even though I have free time to compose, there’s no time left in my tight schedule to attend classes or meet with my teachers,” Jelic adds, taking a sip of Rakiya, the Serbian liqueur (Hr 5 for 25 ml).

When Jelic told his father he had joined the successful Ukrainian band, the older man was ecstatic. His mom, on the other hand, feared that her son would get involved with drugs and prostitutes.

To ease his mom’s fears, Jelic invited his family to visit him this year for Ukrainian Independence Day in August. They got to see Okean Elzy perform, and later met the other band members, including lead singer Slava Vakarchuk and lead guitarist Pavlo Hudimov.

Life-long encouragement

For as long as he can remember, Jelic’s parents encouraged him to practice music. They bought him a simpler synthesizer when he was just nine. Five years later, when he turned 14, they gave him a guitar.

“My first musical composition, I wrote when I was 14,” Jelic says, leaning forward on the table. “I sent my notes to the jury of a local music contest and became one of 10 finalists out of 300 participants. I realized I had a talent for music and wanted to create constantly.”

These days Jelic is trying to spend as much time as possible with his girlfriend Elena and brother Svyatoslav, who joined him in Ukraine last year to study journalism.

“Thank God I don’t have any serious troubles in my life so that I’d have to ask my friends for support, but if I had to, I know I’d have people to count on,” says Jelic.

“I don’t regret anything that’s happened in my life, including the war in my native country,” says Jelic with much emphasis. “Everything that happened in my life before today made me who I am and gave me the great life I’m living now.”

011

18 Illinska, 416-0011.

Open daily from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m.

English menu: Yes.

English-speaking staff: No.