Interview: yavor + d.o.f. + dunn deal promotions

What made you decide to become a singer?

My grandfather sang opera as a hobby and he thought I could be directed to music at an early age. I was 5 years old when I got inscribed in my hometown children’s choir and I had some solos. The choir practice was mixed with solfeggio and I remember the teacher's first feedback which she wrote on a Post-It: "sings in key!" As I grew up I often had troubles with bronchitis, so I couldn't keep up with soloing in this choir that much and back up on singing for a few years. Once in high school, however, the music teacher auditioned for the role of Jesus Christ in the Jesus Christ Rock Opera musical and I gave it a shot. I was given the role and by starting to rehearse realized that singing is something I can do and develop. Soul music on MTV was big and I got engrossed in the vocal mastership of Boyz II Men and similar groups. I particularly admired their cover of "Yesterday" and one day decided to cover it with some high-school mates, which set up the foundation of our acapella group Jazzabell. Jazzabell inspired me to dive into deeper textures of musical discoveries and interpretations. I learned then how to orchestrate multi-part harmonies and exist in them next to other singers. Later I transferred that skill to a duo named Jailhouse Chili, where two -part harmonies were essential for the acoustic minimalistic sound we carried. When I started to do solo productions, I had the experience of arranging back vocals, which comprise a substantial part of the sound of the songs.

Who are your biggest music influences and what influences do you take from them?

I have gone through many various styles which influenced my music taste. In my teenage years I was a big fan of Metallica and even went further into listening to trash and death metal bands. In the following years I sharply shifted to jazz, mostly guitar jazz and because I studied classical guitar, I took big fancy in flamenco music, specifically Paco De Lucia. From there I moved on to Soul and R'n'B and spent years in listening and analyzing the multi part harmonies of Take 6 and Boyz II Men. Prince, D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill were big influences for me. I also have a very natural attraction to contemporary country music. Perhaps Billy Currington and Josh Turner are the ones I like the most.

 How was “Illuminate” created?

Very spontaneously. I remember I took a five-minute break from my office job to have a cigarette on the street and instinctively started to whistle this old-fashioned, vintage melody line which later laid down the motive of “Illuminate”. I recorded in on my phone and when I backed it up with some guitar harmonies, it delivered a kind of a jazzy feel. At this point I felt the song would fit a female voice and sent it to Mey, who liked the tune and agreed to feature on it. Our initial intention was to render a clean, acoustic production, but at that moment I had come across the work of Erik Rico, who has a unique style of vintage-soul-electro productions. Erik made the song sound very different from the acoustic demo and we are happy with the result.

What’s the music scene like in your current home country of Belgium as opposed to your birth country of Bulgaria?

In my view Belgium is a quite biased on garage alternative bands. The dirty indie sound dominates here, and it is very often mixed with electro vibes. I feel that there are less pure pop or disco sounding productions, but I may be wrong. As a comparison, Bulgaria is heavily focused on pop, disco beats. To be honest, I think that the quality of production in Bulgaria is quite high, and so is the amount of music media. One essential difference is that most of the Bulgarian music is made in the local language to serve the local market, whereas the Belgian groups tend to use English, which makes the international exposure easier. There are also more Belgian artists which are internationally known, such as Selah Sue, etc.

Are you working on an album?

Yes. The development is threefold. The band in which I am a lead singer, The Sonic Punch, has released an EP named Sound Of Venus, and we are now looking to record further, perhaps in a collaboration with a label. On the other hand, I am working together with a Bulgarian pianist and producer Konstantin Svechtarov, based in Dresden, Germany, with whom we already released our first single “Delirium”  and are working to two further releases. Thirdly, my collaboration with Erik Rico is continuing, we are aiming at putting together an EP, following the release of "Illuminate".