His name is Strahil Velchev, best known as Kink, one of the most successful Bulgarian DJ’s of our time. He has played in clubs and parties all over the world and now he is telling us about the music, the vinyl and the internet platforms that took over from the record companies.
Hello, KiNK, you are already an artist who has seriously created a name on the electronic music world stage, you have taken part in some of the most popular clubs and festivals around the world, and you’ve won prestigious awards. Tell us, how did that music spark your passion?
The most popular platform in the electronic music is to be DJ, to play records of other artists and I used to do this for a long time, but for the last 10 years I entertain the crowds by playing my own music live. The DJ abbreviation dropped off some 10 years ago. I decided that I want to make music in the early 90’s when I discovered the electronic music. I found many similar elements in the tracks I used to listen to, but there were motifs and parts in the records, that I thought were not necessary. I imagined how I remove the elements I don’t like and prolong the ones I do. Technically I was still not aware how, but I could imagine it.
This musical industry attracts a lot of listeners in our time due the fact, that the music and the necessary basic technique are easily accessible. It looks like you need to have a wide range of authorship and personal artistic style in order to succeed at a world level. How did that transition happen with you?
I started creating music as DJ with а standard equipment, players and records around the mid 90’s, to no success and that tendency continued for quite a while. I was about to give up around 2006, I was thinking of a regular job and this is when I discovered the social networks. The MySpace platform was very popular and active back then and a lot of artists and record companies responded through it and I managed to get connected with publishers and producers who began to promote and release my music on vinyl, which is our visit card, our ID in our field. The internet and the social networks helped the most, because it is back then when I started travelling, I could afford more instruments for my studio and I did a video demonstration in my YouTube channel after every purchase, people started watching them. I was invited to one of the best techno clubs in the world, Bergheim in Berlin, thanks to a video I just released.
A lot of people still think that an artist could succeed through the record and production companies. How did contemporary communication technologies and social networks change the situation?
Well, internet did change a lot of things, the situation now is not much better, it’s just different. The big companies had the power to create and establish an artist before. They also had the power to own them by telling them what to do, how and what to play, with big budgets. Today these companies also have power, but much less than before, because the sales have dropped drastically as well as the physical imports. Now a lot of artists have the freedom to promote and sell their music themselves, every artist is a channel, that can send its message to its audience. The problem is that there are millions of channels these days, everyone can be an artist, while some 20 years ago the used to be not that many artists, but with more audience, now it’s more artists with less so. So in a way, the networking is so called the necessary “evil” (laughing).
What are the benefits of a huge online audience?
I can talk about my own field which is not very commercial. I’m not sure about the pop music, but in my field it is very important for an artist to develop and establish a good profile in every possible online platform, to have a steady fan base, because the incomes from streaming or any kind of broadcasting are scarce and not enough at all.
A few years ago a famous rock musician once said, that bands make most of their incomes from touring these days, because the record sales have dropped a lot and music is downloaded online. How’s in your field?
If this is the tendency in the rock music, it is even more intense in my field, because there is a lesser audience, compared to the music played on the TV and radio. The techno music is completely isolated and has no presence on the TV and radio. The are some specific shows, for example Essential Mix on BBC 1, a long term show presented by Pete Thon, but in terms of percentage, our music is no more than 10 % compared to the pop music. Our presence is majorly on stage, and people, who buy vynil records are rather collectors.
The passion for vinyl could reach extreme level. Tell us what is the difference in the feeling about vinyl?
Vinyl has specific sound qualities and that’s why a lot of people did not give up this format for many years and it is popular among some young people too. The digital sound for example is too perfect, but cannot be modified; it is the way it is recorded. While the sound that gets pressed on a vinyl (imagine a seal on wax of an old letter) can be modified by the record player. The needle vibrates and it can function as mechanical musical instrument. That’s why a lot of people consider the record player sound softer and warmer.
One probably trivial question, how did you come with the ‘’KiNK’’ name?
I needed a nickname. Strahil Velchev is relatively hard to pronounce especially overseas and especially in the clubs where is very loud and it merely impossible to tell a listener what my name is. I started a search for a pseudonym around 2004 when I still studied animation and graphic design in NBU and a friend of mine suggested the name he saw in the dictionary. He gave me the idea to spell it with capital letters except ‘’I’’, so it can look like a logo, no matter what shrift is used. It’s short and easily remembered, but there’s a detail, that I detail, that I didn’t know back then – ‘’kink, kinky’’ in the English language, apart from ‘’ a sharp twist or curve in something that is otherwise straight.) it also means strange sexual preferences. It was around the time whe I created my Myspace profile and and I was very surprised why so many weird individuals started adding me, but in the end, sex sells, so I kept the name. ( laughing)
This kind of music has a big stage in Europe, especially Western Europe; there are plenty of clubs, which are fully packed on a regular basis, what is the situation in Bulgaria?
Unfortunately, the stage is not quite big in Bulgaria. When I’m saying quite big, I mean, for that kind of artists to support themselves and make living professionally.
But world class performers like Armin Van Burren, Carl Cox ets, always fill the stage when they perform?
Yes, but they are already pop performers, not techno house artists. I consider myself successful in Western Europe, but not at the level of Van Buren or Tjesto, they are at another stage, kind of like the big bands, but with their style. They started with the electronic music, but already make a lot more commercially and more easily graspable material for the wider audience. Their performances are rather concerts and the audience is much bigger and you don’t necessarily have to be a hard techno fan in order to go to a Armin Van Buren concert, everyone who likes all sorts of music would enjoy the show. I would be very happy if someday I end up in this category, but that means to make some changes about my music, to make it more approachable for more people.
Although Bulgarian techno scene is improving lately, a lot of Bulgarian artists like you work overseas. What advice would you give the newcomers, who want to succeed in the field?
Those who want to start doing that should not be discouraged by the moderate scene in Bulgaria, because the music is online today. You can start at home with small investments for pleasure and still be seen and heard throughout the world. Territory is not that important for the artist these days, we can be everywhere.
What’s your opinion, about the future in your country, are you an optimist?
I’m an optimist, because the laws are more liberal regarding how clubs and bars function. In countries like US and UK in most towns clubs should close about 2 or 3 am and that this very inconvenient for many promoters inviting artists, because they have a short window from 11 to 3. The problem is the difficult economic situation and if people live better, the economy will rise, the arts will rise and of course the electronic music along.
