Drums - the passion that Ivo Atanasov will never abandon

published on 10/1/24 6:10 AM

Photo: Ivo Atanasov's private archive

On October 1, the world celebrates the universal language of music. Hardly anyone doubts the ability of this art to heal souls and enlighten thoughts, but today we will add another story that proves it - that of the only blind drummer in Bulgaria.

Ivo Atanasov was born and is currently living in Bulgaria's coastal city Varna, as music has been present in his life since early childhood. In the beginning he drummed on the table to the tunes played by his father, an accordionist, and at the age of 16 he got his first drums. Several years of actively mastering the instrument and playing with various bands followed, until 1993, a critical year for the young man, when he began to progressively lose his sight. Within a year he was completely blind, which provoked severe depression and a long period in which he even stopped leaving home and relied on his family for everything.

In 1998, he put himself together and gradually began to learn to move around with his white cane, to be more independent and tried to get back into drumming. It turned out not to be so easy as he got turned down after band would find out he was blind. However, it wasn't long before he started playing in the Spectrum Folk Music Orchestra at the Cultural Home for the Blind in Varna.

"Until that moment I had never touched a "tapan", I had only played drums. The leader of the orchestra, Nikolai Doctorov, started to show me the rhythms, gradually I got into it and now I have been part of them for 22 years. Half of the orchestra members are blind," Ivo Atanasov says, recalling how it was started in an interview for BNT.

Often after the end of rehearsals with the folk orchestra, the drummer also plays with one of the two rock bands he is a member of. He jokingly says about himself, "I am not a musician, I am a drummer".

"The first band I formed was called Akord BG. In 2017 I decided to track down old friends with whom we had played years ago," Ivo recalls in an interview with BNR Radio Sofia.

"One of them, Konstantin Maimarov, had a rather peculiar last name and I quickly found him on social networks. Along with him I found another one, we got together and started playing covers of songs by Bulgarian rock bands - Shchurtsite, FSB, Signal, Ahat, Diana Express and others. Our goal was just to play for fun, but Konstantin had original songs that we wanted to record. We also started playing in some of the clubs in Varna. In the meantime, a keyboard player joined us, we became a quartet, and in 2019 we entered the studio, where we recorded our first album with 9 songs and two instrumentals."

Ivo Atanasov with the musicians from the band AKORD BG

Like many rock bands, there was no shortage of friction and in 2019 a change of guitarist was necessary.

"With Akord BG we are quite colourful. We play melodic rock, art rock, progressive, funk, fusion and even a bit of jazz. With my other band, The Old School Kalpazans, we play hard rock, but all original songs. I've been in it since the autumn of 2021 - two guitars, bass, drums and vocals. We've done a lot of club and festival gigs with them this year," explains Ivo.

There is a love between people that stays forever, Ivo Atanasov believes. Such love can also exist for inanimate objects such as drums, the musician is adamant.

"No matter what happens I will never let them go and despite the depression I experienced, the music has been in me and I have never stopped being excited at every moment. As for the emotion on stage - it is incomparable, as well as feeling the love of the audience eager to hear you," Atanasov is convinced.

Text: Joan Kolev (based on an interview of Kristiyan Iliev from BNR's Radio Sofia and the TV show "Small stories" of the Bulgarian National Television)

Photos: Ivo Atanasov's private archive, Facebook /АКОРД БГ, Facebook/KalpazaniteRockBand, Raena Hadzhieva

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