Aleksandra Stamenković (a.k.a. Alexandra Lioness) is born on August 5, 1996 in Belgrade, Serbia. She graduated from Faculty of Medicine in September 2021.
Blah blah blah! Boring! I mean, everything I've written is true, but let me tell you a little story about my life.
I was 13 and my sister was 16 when we became interested in Heavy Metal. That's when we first wanted to play instruments. She wanted drums, and I was attracted to the sound of a bass guitar. I downloaded Guitar Pro for tabs and started learning and composing, even though I didn’t have my own guitar. She used pillows, of course.
Since I really wanted to play, I took an old badminton racket and made a bass guitar out of it. Here's what it looked like - since the racket handle is thin, I took a few crayons and arranged them to get the shape of a guitar neck and taped them. Since this wider part of the handle is only 12-15 cm long, I made only a few thresholds, by gluing the toothpicks lengthwise. The strings were some thick black rubber bands and since I couldn't tie the rubber band the entire length of the racket, I tied 4 rubber bands only for that round part of the racket, so I had to train my left and right arm separately. I practiced non stop. At first I rented the bass from the studio, and then my sister's friend lent me his bass guitar when I need it.
At the age of 13, I dyed my hair blond for the first time and that's when my sister and I formed the first female glam metal band "Cat O 'Nine Tails". That band lasted 2 years and in that time had only 2 gigs in totally different line-up. We used to play Vixen, Lita Ford, Def Leppard, Dokken etc. Then our singer bought a guitar - "Rooster" (cheap copy of Stratocaster), and she was supposed to play and sing, but she couldn't do both. It was soon my birthday and I raised some money, and I found out that singer's friend bought the same guitar as her, but she didn't even touch it, and wanted to sell it even for €20. I first wanted to buy a guitar for our rhythm guitarist who only had an acoustic guitar, but my mom told me, "Why don't you buy the guitar for yourself, and then lend it to her?" and I was like "Hmmm... Good point." And so I bought my first guitar. I started to practice the guitar because I knew I'd always struggle with female guitarists if I didn’t take over.
After the breakup of Cat O 'Nine Tails, I decide to form the heavy metal band Jenner.
If you want to know more about Jenner you can read official band biography bellow, and if you are interested in my other bands and projects check out Discography Page.
JENNER BIOGRAPHY
JENNER is a heavy / thrash metal band from Belgrade, founded by sisters Aleksandra Stamenković and Marija Dragićević in December 2013. The band was founded as a quartet, and in addition to Aleksandra on guitar and Marija on drums, the band included singer Anđelina Mitić and bassist Jana Bacić. With this line-up, Jenner played at local clubs covering their favorite heavy metal bands such as Warlock, Judas Priest, Grim Reaper...
In March 2014, Jenner won the recording of a song at the Citadela Sound Production studio at the festival "Hoću da snimim pesmu" and started to play little harder and write their original songs. Their repertoire also included covers of the bands Agent Steel, Megadeth, Overkill, Anthrax. Soon, Jana left the band and was replaced by bassist Mina Petrović, who entered the studio with the band and recorded demo songs "Hear the Thunder Roar" and "On the Judgment Day". In 2015, the band applied for the demo band competition at the festival 49th Zaječarska Gitarijada. Although they remained without a significant placement, they won great sympathy of the audience, which opened the door to their further musical career. The girls continue with successful gigs and dedicate themselves to writing their first album.
Due to Marija's pregnancy and maternity leave, drummer Selena Simić joins the band and enters the studio to record an album. In February 2017, band released first full-length album called "To Live Is To Suffer" for the French record label INFERNO Records. The album consists of 8 fast and energetic songs that were well received by the audience. Marija returns to the band, however, after the promotion of the album in Serbia and the region, Mina leaves the band and is replaced by Nevena Ilić.
After some period, the band goes on a temporary break due to the repeated pregnancy absence of Marija, and then Nevena. That break led to a loss of enthusiasm among the band members, which resulted in singer Anđelina Mitić leaving the band. In addition to the guitar, Aleksandra decides to take on the role of a singer and record a new EP "The Test of Time" with the help of drummer Nikola Simonović. This time, the band continues as a trio consisting of Aleksandra, Marija and bassist Katarina Henc, who temporarily changes Nevena.
In March 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the band released their second release, the EP "The Test of Time", again for INFERNO Records. The EP contains two original songs and a cover of the band Demoniac from Belgrade. The following year, in June 2021, band released an exclusive limited edition cassette "Demo 2015" via label Burning Sun Records from Hungary. It contains two demo songs recorded in 2015 together with a live performance of one song.
Shortly after the release of the EP, Marija and Katarina left the band and in November 2021 Aleksandra was joined by Selena Simić (Nemesis) on drums and Anja Mirković on bass guitar, and in this line-up the band starts playing again and continues working on a new album.
