optional media to play while reading – a song with amazingly played
guitar AND drums that connects me with my interviewee!
For my community connection assignment I chose to get in touch and talk with a friend of my father (Dimitar Karabov). Supposedly I’ve met him when I was younger, but obviously that’s far beyond my memory. I chose to interview him because he is in a band which is something I’m super interested in and want to be a part of in the future. He is Bulgarian, as am I, and he plays the drums which I want to get into – at the moment I play the guitar.
so, CAN YOU EXPLAIN YOUR ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES WITH YOUR CURRENT POSITION?
Dimitar replied to my first question with : “I am the engine of
the band. The drums are the foundation of the groove
in the music”
awesome and true ! drums are one of the most important aspects in a song – they keep the rhythm flowing, keep a tempo, add more to the music, and all that! my next question is, WHY ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUR JOB/ROLE?
His response to this question was : “I am passionate
about my role because I am helping to keep everyone
in the band together like glue.” He added,
“I also like making noise.”
and I couldn’t agree more. How about obstacles? WHAT OBSTACLES HAVE YOU FACED TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
“The biggest obstacle is finding time to practice.
Finding the right balance between practicing/playing
music and the rest of my life”
I can relate to that. You’re either too deep into practicing, or too deep into being involved in other stuff – WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU WISH YOU COULD SAY TO A YOUNGER YOU?
For my fourth question, Dimitar responded with : “I wish I could
say to my younger self to not skip the basics. Because if you
don’t, you will have to go back and learn them later.
Ex. “learning to read music””
well, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU PASS ON TO SOMEONE INTERESTED IN WHAT YOU ARE DOING?
His answer was : “The advice I would like to pass is again, don’t
skip the basics :). Put the work into it, to create
a stable foundation for growth.”
I agree, it’s important! I’m still working on building that foundation. My last question is, IS THERE A SPECFIC AGE RANGE OF PEOPLE YOU PREFER TO WORK WITH?
For my last question, his answer was : “In music,
age doesn’t matter if you really love it. Music is a
universal language without any limitations.”
I originally contacted Dimitar through my dad’s messages after he showed me some of his gigs on FaceBook. My dad messaged him asking if it would be okay for me to ask him a few questions for a school assignment with someone who is in a profession that interests me, and he happily agreed.
THE CONVERSATION: (translated from Bulgarian)
Mitak, my younger daughter – Andrea, has a sort of school project
for career development, and sice she plays the guitar amazingly and wants to
be in a band, she has to do a 5-6 question interview with a musician, who she
doesn’t know personally! That cancels out her teachers and peers. Are you okay if we
take up 5-10 minutes of your time this week to ask a few questions
from a teenager? Whenever you’re comfortable!
Yeah, I understand, no problem!
Super, thanks!
The conversation ended and a few days later after I was done adding my own questions, my dad messaged Dimitar again with my 6 questions :
Here are the six questions! 🙂
I can call you when you’re free, if you’d like!
Okay, I’ll message you later, because right now my
family and I are watching the super bowl.
And that’s where the conversation finished – he then went on to send me his unique answers and perspective in response to my interview questions.
Doing this interview with a musician who isn’t super close to my age helped open up opportunities for me – maybe I’ll start doing gigs. Maybe I’ll ask someone older than me if they’d want to play together because like Dimitar said, “age doesn’t matter if you really love it”, and I do. I felt connected with Dimitar while reading his answers – there’s no logical explanation for why, but I just felt at one. Connecting through interests of music, and being from the same background just had me happy reading his responses to my questions. Somebody that is from the same background as me, that I KNOW, is successful. And it made me feel some type of joy – hope, even. That could be me someday. If I find that same connection with other people, WE could be successful.
A link to his bands YouTube account “Boy Breaking Glass” – https://www.youtube.com/@Boybreakingglass
And, my favorite works of theirs is two of their songs ! They’re called Cocoon and Leviathan