He describes himself as a man of symmetry and melody. Although he admits that rhythm is not his strong point, he practices it every day. It combines the seemingly incompatible - science and art, and its secret lies in exhilaration. If you ask him out for a drink, you are taking away his time, which he would rather spend reading, studying and exercising. However, his most important value is his family, which he perceives as a pillar of love and stability.
Nenad Milošević is a neurologist and university professor, who devoted a large part of his life to scientific work and treating patients, but managed to find space for his love of artistic creation.
As the frontman of the group "Fabrik za ljubav", through songs and music, he tirelessly juggles between melody, symmetry and constant learning.
First steps in music: From childhood to "Shackles"
It all started in his native Uroševac, when he wrote his first song as a seven-year-old, together with his friend Goran.
And after so many years, the lyrics are still remembered:
"I loved you, but not anymore." You left him, I don't need you anymore. I was left with sadness, from my best friend."
In the nineties, thanks to Nenad, Bojan, Goran and Ivan, Uroševac got its first metal band - "Okovi". As high school students, they wanted to create something authentic in their environment, influenced by bands like Iron Maiden.
"Somehow, we were always eager to implement what was happening here. We didn't want to find 'there', but to bring what was found there", Nenad Milošević tells us.
They wrote the first song the night they decided to start a band.
"Endless roads, red arches, unrest and wildness everywhere...", and he remembers these verses.
They improvised by playing on boards with strings, until they managed to get real instruments.
"Fortunately, I got a guitar from my late father." It was lucky that it was a time of inflation. You know when a guitar costs 1.200 marks, and then in seven days you buy it for 150 or 200. My friend bought it later. He bought it in Pristina, I bought it in Uroševac in a department store. Bojan got a drum, one that was like a toy at the time, but we could play and we got a school room where we will make our songs and prepare for gigs."
After a year of diligent practice and creation, performances followed with bands from Kosovska Mitrovica, Leposavic, Pristina, Uroševac...
New love
And then Milosevic's second love - medicine - intervened.
"We were all excellent students, but as the time approached to decide on the university, as I knew what I would enroll in as my imperative, I kind of withdrew and started to avoid being at one gig, at another... and then it had to stop. I even think it stopped a year before I entered university."
He left the guitar and did not pick it up until he had finished all the schools he had set his mind to.
Back to music: The book and the band "Fabrik za ljubav"
Today, as a neurology specialist and associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pristina with temporary headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica, where he also holds the position of vice dean for teaching, Milosevic continues to create.
Seven years ago, he tried to revive the band "Okovi", but the members were too busy.
So he took a different path, writing twice - for children and adults, but not "on assignment".
His first collection of songs "Factory for Love", published in 2021, was aimed at the youngest audience. The songs cover topics of interest to children, from the weather to schoolwork, with the aim of easing their "worries".
"Whether it's snowing or raining, we're playing football." How do you learn letters? How do you learn the days of the week? Is English difficult or not? What is it like when dad leaves, when mom leaves? What is it like when everyone is there? What is it like when learning a poem... I wanted to cover all the topics that, perhaps, will ease the periods when children worry, and when through these verses they begin to understand that life is not so difficult and that, perhaps, it only gets harder is coming."
And then it was the guitar's turn, which patiently waited for him for two whole decades. And that's the only thing that, due to the war conflicts, he transferred from his hometown.
"Now that guitar I'm looking at symbolizes that past life, but also the desire to express love in an artistic way."
Returning to the guitar, he founded a new band, named after his literary debut - "Fabrika za ljubav".
"We got together around the idea of it being an original rock band, because there are still few original rock bands." If you look at it from the side, people are doing rock and roll, but they are doing covers. If they're into rock 'n' roll, people have a need to deal with it by being angry in some way. You have excellent musicians today, who, if you watch, feel a bit bitter, because you have to be the most popular to pass as a rock band. They will look at you if you are 80 or older, because you are an institution, and there are people who create wonderfully, but no one will look at them."
He decided to dedicate himself to creating songs that, as he says, exude the energy of love that moves humanity, and in each of them he jealously guards the authentic spirit of rock and roll.
He particularly refers to the track "Da ne bude rata", which he initially considered the most commercial that he had written, but over time he realized that it carried a much bigger message.
"When I analyzed the lyrics of that song later, I realized that I wasn't being falsely modest." I live in such an environment and situation that I honestly said: 'I would like there to be no war'. As someone who survived a war, displacement and a difficult financial situation, I can say that I am more and more proud of that song."
Nevertheless, his philosophy rests on the idea that art should be authentic and universal, freed from temporal and spatial-cultural frameworks.
"I don't like songs to be a reflection of this climate or this time." No. Then I won't write, then I won't play. If I'm only playing for this area or if it's just my cry, then it's not needed, because it's not enough.", says Milošević.
In his opinion, rock and roll must retain its primary form.
"There must be a project, a movement that will be artistic, everyone in their own field as much as they can, and we must stick to what is authentic." In my opinion, rock and roll in its original form would be completely authentic," Milosevic is categorical.
He says he practices five to six hours a day, searching for a specific "color" that will mark the band.
"And this procrastination might not be bad, because during that time I might get some color and an idea to incorporate some element into the song that will be authentic." This climate deserves it."
On the other hand, Milošević does not shy away from the fact that he is a self-taught musician, but that does not deter him from wanting to progress and develop the talents he has. The members of the band - Nemanja Mišić and Filip Milovanović help him selflessly in this.
"I couldn't work on the talents I don't have, but on the ones I have." Should someone tell me: 'Wait, doctor, professor, you are entering our sphere...' If I do it badly, the audience will say so. I don't have a problem with being badly 'graded', but I have a problem with someone forbidding me to take an 'exam'. I have the right to an 'exam' and I am preparing for it."
He adds that he works on a song for years, and when the moment comes for its release, it represents the best that he and the band members can provide.
For him, the band, joined in the meantime by keyboardist Slađan Gradočević, is a connection.
"The band is important for accuracy, precision, responsibility towards the group. You know when the brain is alive? When there is contact between two nerve cells. If there is no contact, the brain is dead. That cell may be alive, but if there is no contact, it is like being alone. So, those contacts helped me a lot and I am very grateful to them."
A man of melody and symmetry
He describes himself as primarily "a man of melody and symmetry". Melody is his strong point, while rhythm, he admits, is a bigger challenge and he has a hard time dealing with it.
"If it rhymes, it's symmetrical to me, if the song is melodic, it fits my soul." That way, I knew what I was bringing in front of those guys in the band, and then I got there and got a few technical 'knockouts', because they were 'frapped' by what I don't know, but on the other hand, they were even more ' amazed' by how much I want to continue learning".
That's why he advises us not to compare ourselves to those who currently know more than us, but to focus on personal progress.
"We have to fight with ourselves." What is creativity? Creativity is when you progress, because while you progress you create. It is not the product, but the process of creating the product that is called creativity. If you know two chords today, great. You must have known one yesterday. You are making progress. It's called love. If you are making progress, it means that tomorrow you will have an even bigger one, the day after tomorrow even bigger. Of course, as you master all those materials you deal with, the progress cannot be approximately greater. It cannot be twice as much as before, everything will be less and less, but it is important that you make progress and that way you still have a reason to compete. That means - I defeat myself. I can do better than I did yesterday," Milosevic believes.
Although the band is currently going through challenges due to the busy schedules of the members, Milošević is convinced that the "Love Factory" will become recognizable and appreciated.
"Factory it has to continue to operate and there are probably new challenges ahead of me as to how to continue, but the factory will continue to operate. "Fabrika za ljubav" will have 20 recorded songs in three years, and God willing, it will be a well-known band in Serbia, for sure. Maybe that's overambitious, but only if you set long-term goals, you can do well in life."
And why "Love Factory" and not "Love Factory" as the spelling dictates?
"I have the impression that if it is factory of love, then we are immodest. How do we know how to make love? It would be a bit too ambitious. When we say a love factory, we are factory and we do everything for love, but we don't know if we will produce love. We hope it will be truly love. Only love, as the supreme human act, intangible."
Delight as the key to success
Milosevic's success lies in elation.
"If in the work you do you have a feeling of elation, which does not let you fall asleep, and which makes you wake up as soon as possible and get down to work immediately to continue where you left off, it means that you are in the right place", he is convinced.
He is of the opinion that medicine can be classified as an art, precisely because of the excitement.
"Because both lead to rapture, that is, to love that tends to become greater and greater." Love, art, science are like jealousy to you, but in a positive sense. So, if you have a jealous man, he will be more jealous tomorrow than today, and the day after tomorrow more jealous than tomorrow, because jealousy is a tendency to create pain in the soul that will overcome the pain that was there a few minutes ago. In love, it's the other way around. The more you love, the closer you are to God, that is, you are closer to yourself."
Then, he adds, we become what we all dream about.
"What do we all want to be?" To be directors, managers. Why not be your own director, why not be your own chief manager? If you're a director of food and beverage, then be a director of everything."
And how to be a 'director' of yourself?
"Only if you're sure." And when are you sure? When you are yourself. And when are you alone? When you are calm. And when you are calm? When you do what you love. When you do that, then you have exhilaration. When you have rapture, you have more love. When you have more love, you do more. The more you do, the more exhilaration you have. The more delight, the more love. When that circle is created, then he steps on it", Milosevic is convinced.
When asked how he could not play for 20 years, he readily answers:
"Because it is a great love, and the love for medicine was also great and required a great sacrifice. This meant sitting down for at least 12 hours, preferably 16. If you want to succeed in life, you have to work long hours. You have to be committed."
For Milosevic, medicine is the same as poetry - the exhilaration that comes from learning.
"For me, creating a song is more exhilarating than listening to it." For me, medicine is not about working with patients, it's the 'easier' part of the job. For me, medicine is learning and the exhilaration I get when I fall asleep and say: Today I learned that, and tomorrow I learn this. How will I do tomorrow? There is a connection between the art I practice and medicine - whether or not there is excitement. Where there is excitement, there will be results."
When he says music or medicine he means:
"When I say medicine, I mean learning." When I say music, I mean practicing, not playing. Playing is when you sit down, pick up an instrument and work on three tones for 20 days. Exercise is the essence."
Milošević has a specific view of time - he considers it the most precious resource that he tirelessly "hunts" for learning and practicing.
"I really don't have time, I do." I'm hunting. For me, going out for a drink is a waste of time. I don't have it, so I have to keep it. It is very difficult today to find a person who has more time and uses it properly. If he has it, he uses it by losing it."
Prof. Dr. Nenad Milošević is definitely not wasting time. Soon they will release new songs and the album "U dozi je lek", as well as a collection with 40 songs.
All this, Milošević concludes, would not have been possible if he did not have the support of his family, which for him is a pillar of love and delight...
Listen to the entire show HERE:
