I have been obsessed with writing music type of posts and today is not an exception. However, it is a music post with a twist since it is also an inspiration session. I have been following the work of a particular artist and I was super happy to see him release some singles – each one better than the previous. As an upcoming musician, singer, and songwriter I was sure he has lots of meaningful and inspiring things to say. To make it more certain, I know him personally and I have been looking up to his decision to go all-in into music so I just had to interview him. I hope you enjoy this one!
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Stanimir Ivanov known as TylerSon is a 23-years-old Bulgarian self-taught musician, singer, and songwriter. If you see him on the street you would immediately tell he is someone tightly connected to the creative world and very likely an upcoming rockstar. And you would guess correctly.
Stanimir made the decision to go all-in into music and dedicate his time, energy, and passion to this type of art to the fullest, spending almost every free second he has generating ideas, developing songs, or writing the music for one of his next singles. He released his first ever song – Innocent on the 9th of Febraury and since then he put out two more songs – Keep Lying and For A While. Which I dare to say was the best thing he could do – releasing singles and trying to make each one better than the previous instead of trying to perfect them is the way to go and I can definitely see it is working. An eerie and melancholic sound with heartfelt lyrics sang with a voice which you can tell is feeling the emotion of the lyrics with every word. You can see the influence of lots of big names in the music world including Billie Eilish, Twenty One Pilots, Highly Suspect, Linkin Park, and more but the important thing is that the personality and essence of TylerSon as an artist is even more visible. It’s definitely a good start for an artist.
No, that’s not young Johnny Depp
I really admire the fact the Stanimir made the decision to put behind everything else and pursue his passion for creating music. This was one of the many reasons I decided to dedicate an inspiration session to him. I would have loved if I could meet him, preferable in his workspace where I can see how the magic happens and feel the creative energy, but unfortunately, this was not possible at this stage. However, Stanimir was kind enough to sacrifice some of his time and agreed to a video call so we can have a conversation instead of me just sending the questions and him filling them out as if he is doing some kind of a lame survey. I have to say I am really happy we did it and we had a really nice talk about various things mostly music related. I hope this is inspiring not only for me but also for you and in case you are a musician or someone working in the filed I highly recommend you reach out to TylerSon and see if you can do something together, it’s worth considering.
I really regret I didn’t take some screenshots of the video call so you can see the atmosphere and get an idea about the scene. When TylerSon picked up a blurry picture of someone who is clearly an artist pops up with a background of a wall filled with CDs ranging from Eminem’s records to old-school classics for the era of 90’s kids – Thirty Seconds To Mars and Linkin Park’s early albums. You could tell this person knows his stuff well. Posters and artwork of Bring Me The Horizon, Twenty One Pilots, and more Thirty Seconds To Mars were also a present indicator for what inspires the artist and who he looks up to. Cheerful and with a smile that only leaves his face during recordings and live performances TylerSon really looked happy to talk about music and so was I. The ray of sunshine over the left side of his face and the smoke coming out of his cigarette really made this look like a scene from a movie where this guy is about the share the simple but not so obvious wisdom he is aware of.
V.G: I’m jumping right in – what does music mean to you?
T.S: Well, music for me is something which has saved me lots of times. I mean outside of the zone of friends and family because sometimes even those people are not there. But music is always there, it never disappears. I have a very simple philosophy about music in the 21st century -it’s as if you have a shelf with medications and you have a different bottle for each situation and emotion. You feel depressed – you take a certain type of music, you feel sad – you take another one, you feel overwhelmed, happy and so on… You see where I’m going? It’s a matter of emotion and what you need at the time. There are all types of music for all types of emotional states and situations.
I mean this from the perspective of a music fan and listener of course when it comes to being an artist it is completely different.
V.G: That’s a really nice metaphor for using music as a way of treatment. And yes, actually my next question is related to your artistic self and your connection with music. Why did you decide to go all-in into this type of art and what made you start writing songs in the first place? What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t making music?
T.S: For this one, I have to go back a bit honestly, cuz it’s a long story which started a long time ago. So get comfy and sit back *laughs*
When I was finishing high school I had decided I was going to go into programming, go to university and so on. Music was not at all involved in my plans, I wasn’t considering to make any music or art at all. Even tho I was in a band at that time and we were jamming regularly, I didn’t think I was gonna take it further.
It was a harsh year for me honestly, it was 2015, lots of things happened. I wasn’t getting along with my girlfriend, she was acting weird and being mean, I basically just wanted to get out of my small hometown and seek new opportunities in the big city (in the capital precisely). On top of all shitty things happening we found out my mother has cancer that year and this totally put me down in the dumps. I felt like I suddenly went six feet under and I had no idea what to do and how to get out of this dark and unhappy place I was in. I tried to move on from this and I tried to accept things as they are without getting too affected and letting them scar me mentally and emotionally.
I came to the capital as I was planning but I couldn’t get into the university since I did really bad on the entrance exams. Therefore, I had to change my plans and instead of programming I enrolled in Engineering physicsand, found a job so I could support myself and send some money to help with my mother’s treatment. This kept on for a year which was really rough and the next one I decided I’m going to drop this and stop studying this crap cuz it really wasn’t my thing, I didn’t like it at all, I couldn’t find any people to get close to and so on. I was almost completely alone – I knew no one except a friend of mine from my hometown who was also in the capital. I decided that the best thing I could do was to just drop out and start over studying something which I actually enjoy. However, I felt that I need a rest after this rough year. This was my top priority actually – I needed to get away.
So this and that happened and in the end, I decided I’m going to the Czech Republic to work for the summer and make some money. I had an uncle there who found me a job but things turned out in such a way that I went there and he came back to Bulgaria for the summer so, in the end, I was alone again. But at least I was alone in a different place away from all the things that exhausted me so much back home. And I actually really liked it there, I was working and when I wasn’t I was exploring the city I was in, I was biking a lot, kayaking, and I even flew a plane for a few hours. I met some really great people there who helped me cheer up and get back to myself. They helped me a lot to be honest.
One day we were kayaking with my new friends along the Vltava River. Let me tell you something important – one thing you need to know when you are kayaking is that when there is a waterfall you need to gather speed before you reach it cuz otherwise you are going to fall down with the stream. Obviously, we did not gather speed in advance, we were pretty dumb and we had had a few beers beforehand so we fell head down at the waterfall. We survived, of course, nothing serious, we swam back to the shore but, of course, I just had to forget my valuables – my phone, wallet, and everything essential you need for your survival in the 21st century in the pockets of the kayak which was swimming away gradually. So, another super smart thing I decided to do was to go back in the river in the super-fast stream trying to get to the kayak. And the current was too strong so it started dragging me forward, I couldn’t swim or navigate I was just tumbling around hitting into various stones and trying not to drown.
So yeah, I almost drowned basically. I saw my life pass me by in front of my eyes as the people in the movies do and the entire time I was struggling to survive this amazing swim I was thinking to myself “You fucking stupid idiot, what are you doing with your life”? It was a super weird and confusing experience, I tell you that. I eventually made it out alive and one thing that popped up in my mind while I was lying on the grass was all those frontmen of bands I like who were giving motivational speeches between songs and hyping you up. I have really looked up to those people who do this kind of thing ever since I was a kid and it just popped up in my head and I started thinking – “No for real, what the hell? What am I doing? I was in a band and I love making music and now I am going into a completely different direction and putting my passion behind me”.
When I came back to Bulgaria I started making music because this has always been my true passion. I have never tried songwriting before and my English wasn’t even that good at the start – I’m still working to improve it. I don’t have any music education but I’m writing out of passion and it kinda works.
V.G: This sounds like one hell of a journey honestly. I know you for quite some time but I had no idea you went through all of this, I didn’t even know you were ever in Czech, not to mention the life-changing experience there. But I am happy all of this helped you find yourself in a way. The next thing I wanted to ask you is about the first time you went on stage.
T.S: This was quite some time ago as well *laughs*. It was actually kind of… I didn’t even realize what was happening. It was on a small stage in my hometown, I was in the band I mentioned and I wasn’t a frontman, I wasn’t singing at all so I guess there wasn’t this much pressure on me. I was only playing the guitar back then.
Right now I feel lots more pressure and nervousness before I go on stage but it’s a completely different thing, of course. I care a lot more about how the show is going to go and how the people will perceive me because now I want to connect with the people I play for and reach them in some way. So the stakes are way higher, back then it was just for fun. When you go on stage you have a very short time to win the people who are watching you. It doesn’t matter if you are singing, playing, or rapping you have a very short timeframe where you have to make a good impression. In this short window of opportunity the people will decide if they like you and be like – okay, that’s cool let me see more of what you can do or hate you and be like – yeah, whatever get out already.
The first time I went on stage was a completely different story – I was young and I thought I am some great guitarist, all of the band thought we are the best basically. We had just learned playing some cover songs and we thought we rule the world *laughs* but to be honest it was super fun. I enjoyed it a lot and I was just doing my thing and looking at my legs *laughs* – I guess I was still scared of facing the audience but I was definitely enjoying it and having the time of my life. I guess that looked really lame from the perspective of the audience but I remember it as a really fun experience.
V.G: Actually, it was pretty cool, I remember that performance. And the covers were awesome as well. Well, yeah it’s definitely not the same now when you are doing this way more seriously and you want to make people remember you. Next, I would love to hear your thoughts on creative blocks and being demotivated. Do you sometimes lose your motivation and what do you do when this happens?
T.S: I am happy to say nowadays I am in the completely opposite mind state where I am super motivated and hyped about what I am doing. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and get those ideas and I record them real quick so I don’t forget them even though I can barely talk since I’m half asleep *laughs*.
But, of course, I sometimes get into the other end of things and I get super demotivated. I believe it also has something to do with my astral sign – I’m a Taurus so I usually go to extremes and there is no middle ground with me. The thing I do is every day I wake up I ask myself if I still want to make music, it’s like a rule to me. If I cannot answer honestly I usually take some time away from this but I end up getting into this hole of negativity and being upset. I often get so demotivated I even sell my instruments – I have done this so many times and I feel so stupid after a week or so cuz I realize how dumb this was and I have even bought them back from the people I sold them to several times *laughs*.
The way I learned to cope with that is that I really give myself some time and get a decent break. Because I came to the realization that we all have those types of days where we are super hyped and we feel we can do and achieve anything we want and we are extremely motivated. And then the next day we wake up and we are like “Why am I even alive, this world sucks and nothing is worth it, why am I even trying”? I think the answer is in the middle of those two states but in order to get to the middle, you have to pass both extremes at some point. I have this metaphor which I love and I often use – life is like a pendulum – when you are in the middle everything is fine and you feel okay, then you swing a bit towards one end and suddenly everything is fucked up and terrible. You stay there a bit and you go down again and reach the middle – the balance where things get better and you feel fine. Then you keep swinging and you reach the other extreme where things are super good and you feel on top of the world, you are overflowing with motivation. Then you start swinging in the other direction pass the balance and reach the other extreme and this is how it all goes – it’s a cycle which you cannot avoid and you just need to remember that times will change no matter the situation.
So I try to be patient and I try to remember each state I am in is natural and it has to happen but it will pass. It’s not that easy but once you learn to accept it things get way better.
V.G: That’s another pretty accurate metaphor, I have to admit.You have released three great singles so far and there is an album on the way. Tell us more about it, how was the idea about it born and which is your favorite song you have made so far?
T.S: My favorite so far is without a doubt For A While. It actually happened really sudden and fast – we recorded the guitar in one take and then I just put the lyrics on top which also didn’t take many changes and reworking. And this was just wow for me since this was also the first time I was working with this producer but everything went super smooth. I think it happened this way because I was recording with the right mindset and emotion and I was completely feeling it while singing so that’s why it all ended up being so good. I even listen to the song by myself sometimes and I actually enjoy it. And this is my indicator I have done a good job because if I manage to enjoy the song and I keep listening to it this means I have achieved what I want – I made a song which I like listening to. The other two singles – Innocent and Keep Lying I’m not gonna comment on *laughs* – they could have turned out better but you know – we live and we learn. I’m trying to be more professional and I’m just trying to go with things, release stuff and learn from them instead of waiting 10 years to make the perfect songs – all the motivation and emotion I put into will be lost if I take too much time.
The idea about the album is something really new. I first wrote Innocent and actually, this was the very first proper song I wrote with the lyrics and instrumentals, arrangement and all of this stuff. I wrote it thanks to my friends since at that time I wasn’t really making music or even writing songs. The thing I wrote was about my true love, so to say, with who I am not together now.
The story of the song is that when we split I was extremely angry and upset but I couldn’t say this to her for several reasons. First of all, I was no longer able to see her and when I was around her or I talked to her the positive emotions and warmth took over me because of that fact that I love her and I just couldn’t get aggressive or angry, you know? So, in the end, I decided to take these emotions I couldn’t express and put them into a song, I added some guitar to it and I wanted to just send it to her and let the music speak my mind and heart. So one day I played this thing to some of my friends – it wasn’t a complete song or anything like that it was just a small improvisation so to say – and they were like “Dude that’s sick you should turn it into a proper song”. Of course, I said to myself “Yeah, right, that’s bullshit, I’m not gonna waste my time with this crap”.
Some time passed, probably two months or something like that, and I went to visit those friends. I remember we had a party with lots of people – I found a guitar and I just started playing the melody I had written before for that “song” and all of a sudden someone comes and starts singing the lyrics. And I was like “What the hell, how do you know this song”!? so it turns out the friend whom I sent the song to had sent it to other people who sent it to other people and it spread around quite easily. So I got encouraged because lots of people supported the idea of turning it into a real thing and liked it. In the end, I am not super happy with how it turned out but the story of why it happened is really fun *laughs*.
This is how I made my very first song. And from this point on it started getting way easier because I was past this barrier and fear of trying to do something and speaking my mind in a song. Now I do it quite easily and without too much consideration – if I feel something I just put it into a song.
Another song is coming out next month and actually, the thing I’m doing is not an album but more like an EP. I’m releasing all the songs as singles on purpose because it takes me a long time to record them and I don’t want to wait for all of it to be done, I don’t have the patience and I want to share things when they are ready so I can get feedback and improve for the next one. The EP is called The Hollow and all the songs are super dark and eerie and the single I am about to release next is the darkest of them all I think. I love it tho, it’s definitely my favorite of all I have written so far. But yeah, all the songs are really dark and I originally wanted them to be more melodic and not so depressing. I wanted to have more piano in the songs for example because I love how it sounds and I think it will be a great addition to the sound I want to go for.
I have planned nine songs for the EP –some are under development, some are just ideas. But I have plans to make it step by step and I also want to incorporate more electronic sounds in some of them. Some will be influenced by Billie Eilish, some by Twenty One Pilots, Highly Suspect, Linkin Park – it’s a huge diversity of styles and I always add my own touch and individuality to it in order to create something new.
Innocent was the first song TylerSon released back on the 9th of February
V.G: Well, this basically sounds like the best combination ever, I mean the artists you described are all amazing.
T.S: I hope it turns out fine. I want to mix styles and add twists to things because nowadays it might be hard to make something completely original but you can be a very good DJ and mix various things up. I love crossing over different styles and genres and I think awesome things can be born from experimenting in this way. I mean, I can’t be TylerSon without being influenced by my favorite artists, it just wouldn’t work. My biggest inspiration is music itself so.
V.G: I can totally see that and this leads me to my next question. I cannot skip asking you – who/what is your greatest inspiration?
T.S: To be honest, my biggest drive is the pain. Because no matter what you are missing in your life, thank God I am not missing anything right now, there is always some pain left. It is always there even if you have lost your happiness, motivation, will to live, or whatever, there is always some pain left. And I always use it when I am in some kind of a creative block. I can always go back to the old things that kept me moving and write a song which might be quite depressive but I know it will work. It is always my plan B which I sometimes feel is actually plan A cuz I often resort to it.
A good example of that is For A While – it is a song I wrote about my lack of faith. And I had a talk about it with a friend of mine recently. He was like – “But wait, isn’t that about a girl”? And I was like “Well. No. Not really”. Because yeah it has that part – but it is more about when you are sitting all alone and fucked up after things have gotten bad and you are blaming the one above for your misfortunes. It is the most helpless feeling ever when you have no one else to blame but God himself and you ask “Why? Why is this happening, how did I deserve it?” And yeah the song sounds like it is about a girl and it is definitely influenced by that but at the same time, there is a bigger thing behind it all. I mean what I am singing in the song is quite literal – I was literally sitting on a big stone in my hometown with nothing but my guitar and some cigarettes and I just started jamming and I came up with the melody. I started thinking “Okay cool, it’s a nice melody and instrumental but what kind of lyrics can I add”? And I was like “I’m here right now and I just want to sit here for a while” and the lyrics started falling into place *laughs*.
V.G: If you could collaborate with any artist who would you choose and why?
T.S: Oh damn. Just one? That’s hard to choose, man. I will answer like this – I think there will be great chemistry between me and Tyler Joseph (Twenty One Pilots). He has a very high pitch voice and mine is lower so if we make a song together I can sing the lower parts and he can sing the high pitched ones. The way I imagine it is that I will be the more negative part of the songs and he can bring contrast with high pitches and more positive parts. But yeah I feel we could make a great song together and you could say this is a dream of mine.
V.G: Hell yeah, I really hope it happens one day. You can be the Blurryface in the song so he doesn’t have to switch character so often *laugh*.
T.S: Yeah, exactly. I think what would be a nice addition to Twenty One Pilots is another singer. I mean they aren’t missing anything, they are doing super good as a duo obviously but if they had another singer on stage it would be easier, because right now Tyler is the only singer on stage and he has to do so many things and change character all the time which is super exhausting I think.
Another artist I would love to collaborate with is Eminem. He is the first artist I fell in love with and I have huge respect for him and everything he is doing so it would be great to make a song with him. He also matches my inner self really well cuz I have lots of aggression and anger inside me. I actually started freestyling from time to time to let those emotions out. I even plan on releasing some rap songs (in Bulgarian tho) this summer because I will have some time on my hands and I want to experiment. What I have in mind is quite aggressive actually because the rap scene in Bulgaria is really getting commercial and shitty and I am pissed about it. So there will be a lot of dissing *laughs*. One of the drafts I have starts with the line “I tried making a song without dissing anyone” and then I keep on by explaining why this simply couldn’t happen. Something like Killshot in a way.
V.G: Yeah, you can ask Jluch (Bulgarian rapper who often disses commercial artists) about making songs without dissing anyone, he will tell you it’s hard *laugh*.
T.S: Exactly *laughs*, that’s part of the rap game– the feud and the battle.
V.G: As a musician you need to get better every day, right? How do you do that, what helps you improve?
T.S: In terms of performance it’s about practice and mentality. Right now I’m really bad in this sense because I am sick, I haven’t played guitar in a long time and if I have to go on stage right now it would be a terrible result. So during this time, I am trying to improve my skills in songwriting instead. For this, I have to be extremely focused and it’s best if I’m not playing any instruments at all during the songwriting – I need to let my head rest from multitasking. When I get ideas I write them down or record them immediately before they fade away. Sometimes I write down some stuff and I think to myself – I can’t work with that, that’s just absurd. But maybe exactly because it is so absurd it has potential and I can develop it into something, even if it is in a comic sense or as a joking line. I usually carry a small notebook with me so I can write down ideas as they come spontaneously if I don’t have the notebook with me I use my phone. The thing is I don’t sit down with the goal in my head that I’m gonna write a song right now. It doesn’t work like this, it happens naturally and spontaneously and it takes time – ideas might come while I’m going to work, shopping, or being in the metro, but they eventually come and it just takes patience and time to develop them into songs.
Improving as a live performer is easy I think – it just takes shitloads of practice and performing and you eventually become good at it, it’s not rocket science. But to start writing quality songs is the harder part in my opinion and it takes more effort, more practice, and more creativity. And this is where I am trying to progress at the moment.
V.G: In terms of giving advice – if someone wants to make music and is just starting out, what is the most important thing he/she should always remember?
T.S: Frankly – Don’t lose yourself and protect your personality.
I work in a place where I meet lots of different artists every day. A big part of them have a really blurry vision and they see the world totally distorted because their ego is huge and they think they are some kind of super incredible human beings. For examples, yesterday there was a guitarist from a band which came by and this guy had such big self-esteem it was overwhelming. And honestly, I don’t see myself as a really good player or a master, as I said I am self-though and I am learning on the go, but I still think I can do way better than this guy. But he was so confident it was just stunning *laughs*. He even started fighting with the vocalist of the band because he didn’t want to play the song she picked. He thought he is so good everyone should listen to his opinion and he is in command.
V.G: I am not sure if that’s funny or sad *laugh*.
T.S: I was laughing a lot the entire time. But honestly, this is the death of any artist and if I have to give one advice to an upcoming musician or artist of any kind I would say – stay true to yourself and don’t lose your personality. Don’t allow the ego to distort your vision and destroy you. Everything else is manageable and you can deal with any type of emotion and whatever happens to you via your art and music but once you allow your self-esteem to go beyond a line of being reasonable you are done with.
V.G: Yeah I guess it’s easy to fall into this trap once you start making cool stuff and you start progressing in some way.
T.S: Well, I don’t know, honestly. I can’t feel it that way. I haven’t reached the level where I get too high on power so to say that it will affect my ego and my skills. I am a person with very low self-esteem in general and this helps me a lot now. Sometimes I send some songs to people who are way better than I am to get feedback and stuff and when I get positive comments this helps me get a bit of confidence naturally. But my goal is to reach people with my music not to be the best in the world. The best feeling I get is when someone texts me saying that he likes a song I have released and says a few nice words for my art – this is priceless. If I can reach even a few people with what I’m doing that’s all the matters. As Twenty One Pilots say – if there are even 10 people enjoying what we do this means we have succeeded.
The cover of Keep Lying – the second single of TylerSon
V.G: I totally agree – the point of making art is expressing yourself and transmitting emotions to others, isn’t it?
T.S: Yes, and I think this is the biggest mistake most commercial artists make. They turn into a one hit wonder and a one night star, you know. They make catchy songs which just sound good on the outside, they boost their promotion like there is no tomorrow but the content of the songs is absolute zero. They reach a million people during the course of one summer, let’s say, that’s cool! But then people just forget about it and you disappear. You get a temporary song which makes you temporary famous and you get temporary fans which, in the end, forget about you and everything goes to hell.
If a song is real and has a meaning it will stay forever and get even better with time.
V.G: Yeah, we have tonnes of examples of songs like that from Linkin Park, Queen, Metallica and so on.
T.S: Exactly, something which has quality and meaning might be harder to understand and appreciate at first but once you get it it stays there for a very, very long time. Because you connect with people. If people can relate to it they will keep listening. It’s a different level of art.
It’s like selling empty bottles because they are cheap, easily accessible, and look good on the outside – that’s the mainstream music. People like it and they get it because it is there and it looks pretty but once they find out there are other options – bottles with content inside they switch because it is better and it fills their souls with something.
V.G: You have very descriptive metaphors! I agree. So, in that sense – what does the music industry need nowadays? What would you say is the current situation in the music world?
T.S: Oh, the music industry. That’s the most cunning thing there is.
The music industry is basically robbing artists. There was even a really good movie which shows the real face of the industry – Artefact by Jared Leto (Thirty Second To Mars). It is the brutal truth.
Even Spotify and iTunes are trying to rob you because you get like 0.003 $ per stream which is absolutely nothing. You need millions of streams to get any decent money and considering the amount of energy, passion, and hard work which goes into the creation of just one song this is totally insane. At the same time making a record costs a lot, just for the recording. Add advertising to this. Especially if you are doing everything alone it’s crazy. You need to be working 5 full-time jobs to be able to pay for all of this and imagine if you don’t have the instruments to make the song – they cost a lot as well. And the truth is most studios don’t even have all the instruments, for example, the studio I am recording at now doesn’t have an electric guitar. It’s a struggle in general.
My advice is – go solo and don’t enter any obligations towards labels and stuff. This is suicide. The only way is to really trust the label and see them as friends, not as business partners. Because the goal of the labels (usually) is to make you famous for a little while so they can make some money out of you, squeeze you to the fullest, get everything you have – sell it and keep the money. After that, they just throw you out and go for another fresh artist who has no idea what is happing and they squeeze him/her. In my opinion, it’s better to take it one step at a time and make it slowly but surely on your own. Each new listener is a potential fan and supporter and the good thing is that in the 21st century the Internet is helping a lot. You have so many channels with the potential of reaching millions of people – you never know where you will find your place.
But yeah I think the way to go is without getting involved with the industry because all they are doing is taking everything you have and leaving you with the breadcrumbs. That’s what they have been doing for a very long time. They find a fresh lemon, squeeze it into a cup, sell it for lots of money, toss it away and get a new one to repeat the process. It’s like a fucking lemonade stand.
Macklemore, for example, is a great inspiration for me because he had the chance to work with Interscope, which no matter how we view it is the biggest label in the music world. But he refused and he even made a song on the topic, which I have no idea how he managed to release, where he describes how everything goes in detail. In the end, they offered him 3.5 % of all the profit which is just ridiculous and infuriating.
Chester Bennington had an interview where he said that the most stupid thing in the world is to go in a coffee shop order a damn espresso and spend all the money you have made for pouring your heart and soul into a record you have been working on with your blood, sweat and tear for years. So a cup of coffee is worth years of hard work? It’s ridiculous.
V.G: Yeah, I have seen lots of interviews and songs about these issues. I remember Fort Minor – Mike Shinoda specifically – saying it purely as it is in Get Me Gone. It’s insane.
T.S: It won’t be an exaggeration if I call the music industry thieves honestly. The guy I am working with now is super cool and it’s one of the few guys in the business I can really get along with perfectly. He has a goal of starting a label where the focus would be the artists and helping them instead of trying to exploit them to the fullest. And I think this type of label is what the music industry needs.
This is another thing I respect in artists – when they become their own producers and also help others because they know how much of a struggle it all is. For example Marshal (Eminem) – he is working as Eminem as an artist – writing songs, playing shows and so on and on the other side, he is also producing as Marshal Mathers.
V.G: You mentioned Eminem a few times and I am just itching to ask you about the beef between MGK and him. It was more of a joke question but I’m still interested in your view *laugh*.
T.S: *Laughs* Yeah, well I love MGK a lot but I have to go with Eminem here. I mean as an artist and as a rapper Eminem is just on another level. He just entered the game and owned it. MGK is, first of all, another type of rap artist and he surely became successful and proofed himself but he is not fighting hard to dominate and be the best or something like that. I mean – huge respect for that, I am trying to say he doesn’t have the competitive mentality of Eminem. He just does his thing and supports his daughter and himself and he is having fun with it which is fucking awesome. Same with Macklemore – he wanted to reach a certain level where he can make his music, he can support his family and now he is just reaping the benefit of his hard work, that’s all. That’s kind of my goal as well – I don’t want to be the best of the best, I don’t want to be Eminem, I just want to make a few successful albums and be able to feed myself and my future family enjoying the life.
V.G: Last one – where do you see yourself in 5 years?
T.S: Honestly, I have no idea. I just hope I am not at the same place I am today. I don’t want to be in stagnation and stop my progress. I am trying to follow Matthew Mcconaughey’s rule.
When he was receiving an Oscar he told a story which affected me in a great way. When he was 10 years old someone came up to him and asked him who is his hero and Matthew said: “I don’t know, I can’t answer that question at all”. Then 5 years later the same person comes up to him and asks him the same question “So have you figured it out – who is your hero”? Then Matthew said “Yeah I have. It’s me 10 years from now”. So ten years later when they asked him if he managed to become his hero he said he is not even close because his hero will always be him 10 years from now meaning that he is trying to be a better version of himself every day.
So in a few years, I hope to have released a few albums, I hope to travel more and see more places. And I also want to learn to enjoy life more because I kinda have the problem of not being able to do it. I feel like I might be missing out because I don’t even like going out, to be honest *laughs*. I like going out for walks in the nature or going out on stage and that’s about it. I am that guy who would choose to stay in instead and just chill or read a book *laughs*.
But honestly, who knows what might happen in 5 years, I might decide to become a businessman. Everything changes fast. As I said I will keep asking myself the question of whether or not I want to keep making music every day and I will see where it takes me.
It seems that the atmosphere tried to match our talk and the ray of sunshine got even stronger highlighting the picturesque wall filled with CDs and passing through the cigarette smoke. What seems like a really long interview was actually quite the short talk and time passed by quickly. I wanted to talk with Stanimir about lots of other music (and not only) related topics and I plan to do it sooner or later. I want to thank him sincerely for taking the time and participating in the interview, I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did! I am super excited about his new songs and The Hollow and I can’t wait to see his progress and development. I am definitely keeping an eye on it and I recommend you also do it so go follow him on YouTube and Spotify. His music is great and I am sure lots of you would enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who read this blog, thanks to Stanimir again – keep this artistic smile on your face and keep working towards your goal, I’m sure you will get there. And this goes to all of you!
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