Guitarists To Know: David Maxim Micic

Written by Walter Bryant

There are guitar players, and then there are composers who play the guitar. David Maxim Micic is a prime example of the latter. Dabbling in every genre imaginable with his compositions, Micic’s music is the epitome of the word “fusion”. A native of  Belgrade, Serbia, Micic has had the privelidge of learning from a number of great musicians including Danilo Karamarkovic, Petar Jelic, Bata Kostic, Nenad Gajin Coca, Joe Musella, Thaddeus Hogarth and David Fiuczynski. While having attended the Berklee School of Music, David Maxim Micic has written music for commercials, movies and TV series, and produced and arranged for many great musicians around Eastern Europe; all by the age of 20.  In addition, by this time he had already written over 8 hours of music, some of which would be released on his debut solo-album entitled “Bilo”. Sending a wave across the experimental-metal scene, “Bilo” gained him an immense amount of exposure and acclaim. The album was a collection of four tracks packed with a number groovy polyrhythmic moments that would surely get anyone’s head bobbing. The album contained a dynamic of soft as well as aggressive scenes that would eventually be alluded to in the forth-coming albums appropriately titled Bilo 2.0 and 3.0.

Micic’s style can most notably be associated with his loose-sounding tone during tight rhythm sections and solos, with allusions to a lot of folk and world music. It all comes together to create a powerful and emotive series of movements. His releases also all feature vocal appearances by his band-mate Aleksandra Djelmas, from his group Destiny Potato. As his music develops with each consecutive album, the grandiosity of the orchestrations continue to grow with it. The music from his second and third releases can be compared to that of elaborate symphonies, developing out of as little as one note at the start of a piece. Although his compositions may exhibit an array of complex melodies and rhythms at particular moments, Micic stresses that nothing is written out of the desire to write something complex. Micic lets the music write itself and emphasizes that his work is “music for the sake of music”; a line that flashes at the culmination of the according video to his third album; Bilo 3.0. His latest work also features guest solo’s by the likes of Jakub Zytecki, an up-and-coming guitarist from Poland, and Per Nilsson of Scar Symmetry.

David Maxim Micic is one of those musicians that you should follow if you are in love with music. His down-to-earth personality and humbleness make him all-the-more fascinating of a person to admire as well. You can check out a lot of Micic’s work on his Bandcamp as well as his YouTube channel. Below is the album stream video for his album “Bilo 3.0” as well as a medley performance of songs with his band-mates from Destiny Potato. Enjoy!