It's been a while with no updates, but that was pretty much it for my listenable back-catalogue, so these last two post mark the transition into completely new stuff. I only just finished working on this piece and I'm really happy with how it sounds. Has a sortta pre-classical feel to it. Anyway, enjoy!
I've got a really special update for you guys today. It's my very first commissioned song! For those who know me, I'm sure it'll be quite a surprise, and for those who have actually read anything on the blog, you'll know that I'm trying to branch out into more positive-sounding music. I think I succeeded with this song, it's pretty upbeat and, I hope, it prepares you for a fun time. The lyrics are pretty tongue-in-cheek, too.
This is the intro for Jesh Nyx' internet review show on blip.tv - Movies in Bed. He's only got a few episodes out right now, but they show a lot of promise and he's a really cool guy, so I hope he gets loads of views. You can find this video and his blip channel right here. Show him some love, guys!
Time for some more shameless plugs! Here we have two more songs off the band Bloodlines'(Facebook) demo. Hopefully by the end of the year we'll have entered a proper studio to record our debut album. In the meantime, enjoy these terrible-quality demo recordings!
My catalogue of previously recorded, listenable songs is drawing to a close, so I'll have to start recording some of the old ones and composing some new ones, which means updates might be slower from now on, but I'll try to update once a week at the least. Sorry, but making music is a pretty time-consuming endeavor. I hope everyone's been enjoying what I've posted so far. I'll try to post some more 'positive' sounding songs, but I don't have a lot of those and most of what I compose is usually more mellow or melancholic or outright depressing. Or metal. Or just plain weird.
A big shout-out to Dimitar Vasilev for composing the violin solo for this song. For anyone into death metal, check out his band, Impenitence(Facebook). Dimitar is a very versatile musician, who dabbles in quite a lot of styles, hence the violin solo and playing in a death metal band.
This update is a bit more special than the previous ones, since it's a live recording. This was recorded in a local club, which unfortunately had to close down a little while ago. This is part of my friend Petar Yordanov's set, where he does covers of songs. He usually invites me to sing on some of the songs. I'm a little off-key for parts of this, but oh well. This is Opeth's Face of Melinda.
Petar Yordanov and I performing Face of Melinda by Opeth
As you can hear, Petar is an extremely talented guitarist and he actually plays in my band, Bloodlines(Facebook). I posted a song of ours on my first post on this blog, in case anyone's forgotten. He also plays guitar and is the lead vocalist in a death metal band called Act of Grotesque(Facebook). Any death metal fans out there really need to check them out!
If there's anyone out there that actually reads and listens to all this stuff, maybe I should explain a bit better where I'm coming from with these last two updates. I play in metal bands and the music I listen to the most is metal. I'm extremely picky about what bands I like, but most of the music I listen to can be classified as some kind of metal. That's not to say that's all I listen to, however, as you can tell by listening to the stuff I have posted here. I love diversity in music and I hate the fact that people cling to genres. I find nothing inherently superior in any form of music - it's just different. I can enjoy anything from death metal to classical. From jazz to pop. I even enjoy some jpop and electronica now and again. I hate the fact that if you listen to Gorefest and Krisiun, suddenly it's unacceptable to listen to Savage Garden and Elton John. And I have no idea why that is. I love music in all of its forms, as long as it comes from the heart and is a clear expression of a genuine emotion. I don't like overproduced, oversaturated, manufactured music. But anything that sounds like it was made with care and love for the art... I'm a sucker for that. Welp, time to get off the soapbox.
Also, here's the download link for my cover of Roadlife by Mental Destruction from Update 2:
So for today's update, I've got something special. It's a cover I made of some friends of mine's band. I wanted to see how different I could make the song sound without removing anything from it. And for the most part I succeeded, I just removed the solo. I'm actually really happy with how this turned out. The drums could use some more work, but otherwise, I think it's pretty good, considering the gear I used to record it. No downloads again today, because the mp3 is on another computer. Sorry! I'll edit this update and include a download link as soon as I can!
Roadlife (Mental Destruction Cover)
And here's the original version for comparison! The band is really good, so check them out if you have time and you like thrash metal! :)
As promised - an update! One more theme with two variations on it that are pretty different, I think. This is, once again, from my attempts at making an RPG soundtrack, though these two are definitely not just background music for wandering around, I imagined them being used during a scene of great personal loss. The only difference is that the first one has a glimmer of hope in it, while the second one is bleak as hell. Enjoy!
And as an apology for the oversight in the original post, here's two more versions of this song. One is more violin-centered, the other is more piano-centered.
Anyway, I neglected to include download links for my previous three songs, so here they are. Well, two of them, at least. The third one I'll upload a bit later, since I don't have the mp3 on the laptop I'm posting from right now.
I guess I should introduce myself. I don't really like talking about myself a whole lot, so I'll keep this short. My name is Chavdar Zhechev, I'm 25 years old, from the city of Burgas in Bulgaria. If anyone actually reads this thing, I'm sure all two of you are wondering "Where the hell is Bulgaria?". To that I say - Google is your friend and will explain it better than me. Short version: Tiny country on the Balkan peninsula in Europe.
I'm a musician and I mostly specialize in composing stuff. All kinds of stuff. Well, not all kinds, but quite a few different kinds. I also sing and play guitar, though recordings of me doing either of those will probably be rare, at least for now, until I can get a better microphone and figure out how to use my line6 pod without making my guitar sound like shit.
I'm sure the both of you are already bored to tears, so to show my appreciation for being so patient, here's a small sample of the music I make:
Solitary Mind
This particular song is pretty old. I originally composed it at least 4 years ago and I made this ambient arrangement about a year later. Then two more years passed and I decided to finally uploaded to my channel. Like most of my music, it was just and experiment to see if I could make something ambient. I'm pretty happy with the results, though I definitely could've spent a bit more time working on the mix and mastering.
Calm Town Theme
This song is quite the departure from what I usually do. Even taking into account that I usually experiment. I was trying to compose something you might hear in some kind of old-school JRPG while your party was in a town. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This was probably my first recorded venturing into the sadly still-not-well-known to me major key. I'm working on composing more light-hearted and, dare I say, 'happy' songs.
And the last addition for today would be my band's song Fearless. I compose all the music in the band and perform lead guitar/vocal duties. The quality of the recording is pretty terrible, but it was made with some extremely cheap gear in my own home. I also did the mixing and mastering. In fact, this was my first ever attempt at doing that. For a first try - I think I did okay, but objectively speaking, the sound is absolutely terrible on this. The recording process was also quite rushed. Couldn't do more than one take on the solo, vocals were supposed to just be temporary until I could go record them with a better microphone, stuff like that. So yeah, I'm still a little pissed about the vocals. It's like having a writer publish their original draft with all the corrections, typos and etc., instead of the final one. Oh, well.
I am SO not kidding about the 'cheap equipment' thing...
I guess I should end this first post by talking about why I'm making this blog. I'm trying to get my music out there, get noticed, and possibly get a job composing soundtracks. Particularly video game soundtracks. I realize I'm nowhere near good enough to be working on AAA titles and such, but if any indie developers need a tune or two for their game - I'd love to help. If this blog gets off the ground, I'll probably use it to rant about stuff other than music, but most of it will definitely be music-oriented. I have quite a few more songs to upload, so check back for those, I'll be uploading them periodically. I might even take requests for songs to do.
