Here I would like to show you some of the artists who have inspired me a lot and left indelible marks in my mind.
Of course, the first one is Schturzite, a Bulgarian rock band because of which I started to play the guitar. Their magnificent, bright and rich melodies performed with a vital guitar sound have determined my way in music.
The second one is Iron Maiden whose energy, traction and brilliant melodies have fixed me to the direction that’s right for me. There are special feelings and spirit in their music that differs them from all the rest…
The rest ones are shown here in alphabetical order…
| ABBA | for the plenty of melodic and beautiful songs that are loved by so many people… |
| Al Di Meola | for the very beautiful and emotional music which gave me tremendous inspiration; I was always finding jazz too boring however he and Gershwin revealed to me that the pleasure of music depends on the artist and not on the style… |
| Bony M | for Hands Up and other songs that have become my favorite in my childhood |
| Chroming Rose | for Louis XIV and Garden Of Eden; much pleasure listening to them… |
| Deep Purple | for the avid pleasure and desire listening to A Gipsy’s Kiss on the socialist radio in the distant 1985; and many other songs later… |
| Dolly Parton | for all the emotion in the music, for White Limousine album and, of course, for her big, exciting …eyes |
| Dream Theater | for the first song I heard /Another Day/ just when I fell in love and all the joy that happened and all the pain that followed when death appeared… |
| Ennio Morricone | thank God for blessing him to create so great and shattering film music! |
| Enya | for the beautiful and tender lyric music with piece of magic… |
| Eruption | for One Way Ticket that has given me supreme child pleasure |
| Extreme | for Pornographity and the excelent guitar implementation |
| FSB | for one song that had made me say that there was another grear Bulgarian band apart from Schturzite; the song’s name is Pak Shte Se Pregarnem /We Will Again Embrace/ |
| Gary Moore | for Wild Frontier, especially Over The Hills And Far Away that I heard on a TV advertisement not knowing who is playing and after buying the album I was extremely surprised and happy |
| George Gershwin | I watched a movie about him and fell in love with his music, after that I bought a vinyl and listen endlessly to Rhapsody In Blue and Concert in Fa |
| Gloria | for one song that sounded every day on the radio when I was in the army. I was happy to hear it although usually I didn’t like that style /Balkan fop-folk/ – another conclusion that the pleasure of music depends on the artist not on the style; the song was a Bulgarian cover of the Greek song Epimeno and was performed with such a beauty and emotion – it touched me much more than the original song… |
| Gloria Estefan | as well as the Bulgarian Gloria she gave me tremendous pleasure when I listening to her songs and showed me that style doesn’t matter, the most important is the artist and his influence on the people |
| Heavenly bodies – Soundtrack | for it was the most played vinyl home except Schturzite, of course! |
| Helloween | for the albums Keeper Of The Seven Keys, part 1 and 2; maybe one of the best epic music in the galaxy…. |
| Hristo Yotsov | one night I occasionally saw a small orchestra /Hristo Yotsov sextet – clarinets and others/ on the Bulgarian national TV and was amazed that there was so magnificent and nice Bulgarian music and so good multi instrumentalist |
| Joe Satriani | for the surfing with aliens, extremists and other similar stuff…. |
| John Petrucci | for Suspended Animation, especially Curve and Glasgow Kiss, and many, many guitaring in Dream Theater |
| John Williams | of course for the music of the best saga for all the times Star Wars; probably without this music Star Wars wouldn’t have its majesty and place in the hearts of men… |
| Johnny Cash | for the exciting voice and dramatics in his songs when playing just with a guitar… |
| Judas Priest | for the most aggressive and at the same time very melodic guitars and sounds in heavy metal – Defenders Of The Faith, Ram It Down, Painkiller……. Respect! |
| Kanzas | for Carry On Wayward Son, I was very pleased once to hear it on the radio and this is repeating more and more… |
| Lady Gaga | for Alejandro and some other very strong and impacting songs… |
| Lana Del Rey | for Summertime Sadness feeling when I heard it for the first time on the radio |
| Madonna | for everything from Material Girl till now, I’ve never heard her song on the radio that I didn’t like! |
| Manowar | for the albums Fighting the World and Kings Of Metal; bright and power music together! |
| Metallica | for Ride The Lighting and …And Justice For All; gradually I become to like their music more and more… |
| Michael Jackson | for the original music and performance that made him one of the best in the galaxy… |
| Panayot Panayotov | for the first ever favorite Bulgarian song in my childhood – Iskash Ogun Da Ti Dam/ You Want Me To Give You Fire; sincere child joy and happiness listening to it endlessly |
| Queen | God has given them four times the talent that He gives to other great artists! Respect! |
| Queensryche | for the pleasure when listened to Empire and the next when I found that there was another great album called Operation Mindcrime |
| Rainbow | Respect to Ritchie, he’s the Lord…. |
| Ritchie Blackmore | for everything from Deep Purple via Rainbow to Strangers In Us All, for Blackmore’s Night’s concert in Sofia where Ritchie was greeted like a god – when he appeared in the spotlight on the stage he picked just one note and the whole the arena erupted like a volcano! That was a welcome waited for more than 20 years! |
| Roy Clark | for the concert at The Golden Orpheus Festival in Bulgaria and the pleasure to watch it |
| Running Wild | for all the pirate music stories, especially Port Royal and Pile Of Skulls; they inspired me very much for the marine themes in the music |
| Sandra | for the incredible 80’s lovely songs and perfect performance of Michael Cretu’s music |
| Sandra Kim | for the unforgettable moments listening to her vinyl in my high school |
| Sprint | for the album The Robot – maybe my second favorite Bulgarian band after Schturzite; I had a cassette with compilations of different artists .There were very good short music tracks between the songs when the DJ presented every next song. After buying The Robot I was super pleasantly surprised that those track are part of Sprint’s songs… |
| Steve Morse | for his perfect guitar picking that made me thinking about mine |
| Steve Vai | for Flex-able and Passion And Warfare, especially the adorable I Would Love To – still remembering the love and feelings to an unfamiliar girl met in the bus… |
| The Beatles | when I was in love with Schturzite a friend of mine often was saying to me that the real band was The Beatles and Schturzite are just simulators; of course he wasn’t right for the last. Long time I was refusing to listen to The Beatles becoming faithful to Schturzite, but later I found how many great songs belong to The Beatles and they are among the ones which are very blessed by God; that didn’t decrease my love to Schturzite, it’s right that in their first years there was a stronger influence of The Beatles. But after that they built their own style and created unique great songs which according to me put them on the same place together with The Beatles in my music history of the world. |
| The Doors | for the magic I felt when heard for the first time on the radio Light My Fire… |
| The Rembrandts | of course for I’ll Be There For You that I still connect to an unrequited love… |
| TOTO | God is good and generous but twice about what He has given to them |
| Vincenzo Bellini | similar to my love to Gershwin I watched a movie and found the beauty and drama of his music |
| Vinnie Moore | for Meltdowm and most of all Deep Sea and Cinema, listening to them endlessly day by day… |
| Whitesnake | for Slip Of The Tongue and the excellent implementation of Steve Vai in the band |
| Willie Nelson | like Dolly Parton except the eyes… |