Filip Nikolic

Filip "Turbotito" Nikolic (born 1977) is a musician, songwriter, and producer, of Serbian descent, best known for his work with Guns 'n' Bombs and Ima Robot. Nikolic started making music in the mid-'90s, as a member of Ludo X (with Jeppe Laursen and Jesper Mortensen) and later as a solo electronic artist. He ran a weekly reggae club in Copenhagen named Rub-A-Dub, and formed a downtempo dub project around this time called Djosos Krost. After Ludo X ended, Laursen and Mortensen formed Junior Senior, and eventually asked Nikolic to join as their touring bassist. Though not an official member of the duo, Nikolic was a important contributor to the group, playing on their debut album, touring with them through 2004, remixing their single "Shake Your Coconuts," and playing a prominent role in a number of their videos. At the end of 2004, Nikolic left Junior Senior to join Ima Robot as a permanent member, playing keyboards and guitar. His first gig with the band was supporting Duran Duran, and after recording the group's sophomore album "Monument to the Masses," Nikolic took over bass duties from Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who'd left the band to focus on his session work. Nikolic continued to moonlight as a DJ, and it was after a gig in Chicago that he and John Dal Santo, better known as Johnny Love, decided to form an electronic outfit called Guns 'n' Bombs. The group quickly produced two songs, "Nothing Is Getting Us Anywhere" and "Crossover Appeal," and were offered a record contract over MySpace by Gildas Loaec, the founder of Kitsune Records and co-manager of Daft Punk. GNB's debut single was released in 2007, and they quickly began receiving remix requests, and their treatments of songs by Chromeo, The Teenagers, and The Gossip became popular blog favorites and club staples. Pitchfork Media declared that GNB's debut album "should make a serious impact on the culture of U.S.-bred dance music," and the Montreal Mirror said "Unpretentious and unforgivingly badass, L.A.'s Guns 'n' Bombs (including an Ima Robot member) single-handedly put the United States outside New York back on my techno map, blow current German electro standards out of the water and give Paris’s New French Touch a run for its money." Nikolic has also joined with Tim Anderson of Ima Robot to form the production duo the Hammers, who have written the theme to the movie "The Transformers" as well as writing and producing two songs on Kelis' upcoming record. In the summer of 2007, Nikolic began work on three albums: GNB's debut effort, Djosos Krost's second record, and Ima Robot's third LP. After a serious ear problem and then visa issues limited Nikolic's ability to work, he ceased touring with GNB as a DJ, and has since stayed in Los Angeles and focused on completing the various albums. As of March 2007, Nikolic has finished production on Djosos Krost's record, which features vocals by reggae legends like Horace Andy and John Holt, and has also finished work on Ima Robot's album. He has also finished two recent remixes for GNB of Ghostface Killah and Sebastien Tellier. In 2011 Filip and his friend Jeffrey Fare formed Poolside. Filip is a co-founder of Naya Beat Records.