Svilen from “Ostava” marries his beloved Nevena in Syria to music sent to him via messenger

• The singer saved himself in the barracks by listening to grunge
• He will present his new single with the group on April 26 with a concert in Sofia

Tso dumb you’re not on anymore, we had a lot of laughs with you, you were very funny. This is what people told the vocalist of “Ostava” Svilen Noev when they met him on the street after he dropped out of the Dancing Stars show.

The dancing, lots of training and having to exercise every day – this turns out to be the most challenging part for Svilen during his participation in the BBC show. “Singing and dancing have nothing in common. I know how to adjust as a singer, but as a dancer it’s completely different”, says the vocalist of “Ostava”. He wished he could have stayed a little longer in the show to “pro-dance”, but he is glad that he now has more free time. Otherwise, there were also good sides – “I lost weight by 5-6 kg”.

Since he’s not on the show, he’s had more time to focus on recording new tracks with Ostava. They are already working on 4 songs, one of which has finished lyrics. Before that, however, the band is preparing for their upcoming concerts – on April 26, they will play in “Sofia Live Club” and on the 27th in Plovdiv. In addition, they released a new single called “Test”.

Noev has repeatedly admitted that he doesn’t like cheerful music, but prefers the sadder and more dramatic ones, as evidenced by the playlist of his 10 favorite tracks.

10. Supergrass – Alright

Svilen Noev and Nevena Spasova got married on this piece in Syria 15 years ago. At that time her father was the ambassador there and they both went to see him. However, they decide to get married on the plane, so they do – in the residence. Then the internet in Bulgaria is better than the one in Syria. “We didn’t have music and my friends would send me some songs via messenger,” he recalls. But it took them 5-6 hours to send some 10 songs. “All evening we were spinning only them,” says Noev. And the song Alright was the first they listened to.

Of course, after that they had a wedding in Bulgaria with friends and relatives in a cafe in Korekom. “Some then fell in love, others had children,” he recalls.

9. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush

When Svilen was 18-19 years old, grunge was very popular in the world. Back then, Noev was a soldier and when he went on leave, he always bought tapes to listen to in the barracks. “All my fellow soldiers were mega-chalgars and I had to save myself with headphones and grunge,” he says.

At that time he also discovered the group Stone Temple Pilots, whose song Plush was “an absolute smash hit on all MTV and rock and roll radios”. The song is the second single from their debut studio album Core. “With this album, I saved myself in the barracks for a long time”, admits Noev. Otherwise, he includes the song in his playlist because he can both play it and sing it. “The band gave me a lot of energy during the times when I had to be a soldier and I wanted to be a rock musician,” he says. He always had an acoustic guitar with him in the barracks. During one of his vacations, some “supposedly smarter guys” broke it for him. After that, Noev started learning the piano.

8. The Strokes – You Only Live Once

“This band changed a lot of things in my life as a rock musician,” he says. In fact, at first he didn’t like The Strokes, but when he heard the song You Only Live Once, part of their third album, he simply “fell into it”. That’s how he listened to their previous albums. According to him, the group is a continuation of Lou Reed, whom he likes very much. “All the people who like darker (dark – b.a.) and sad music that starts in the 70s and then turns into new wave post-punk, this is the band for them.”

7. Broken Bells – The High Road

14 years ago, Noev quite by chance discovered the American band Broken Bells, which, according to him, is not heard much in Bulgaria. At that time, Svilen and company often went to a radio cafe in Sofia. He hears the song The High Road, the first single from Broken Bells’ first album, when they play it in this place. “I had never heard music like this before. I immediately went to the DJ to tell me who sings it, I got the album and I’ve been following them ever since,” explains Noev. And he always discovers some music on his own, either from music applications or if he happens to hear a song. Otherwise, constantly monitor what’s new.

6. The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

This is the band that changed half of modern alternative music. This is how Svilen Noev describes The Smiths. He discovered the band relatively late, along with its vocalist Morrissey, whom he likes very much. The song There Is a Light That Never Goes Out defines her as one of the best love songs in the world. And yet Noev is in “this profession” – he writes and sings sad love songs. After all, the song became very popular again along with the movie “500 Days of Summer”.

5. Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony

There is no way not to have a Britpop song in Svilen Noev’s playlist, as he and “Ostava” are very much influenced by this style. “The Bitter Sweet Symphony, both musically and lyrically, is absolutely brilliant. Even if you are a chalgar, you have to like him”, the musician is categorical. Even when he listens to it on the radio, he thinks: “how could you write such a nice text, you scumbag”. He connects the song mainly with the period when he and “Ostava” moved to Sofia. “It was a big misery, we came to Sofia to make music, and maybe that’s when this album came out and changed the whole musical environment,” says Noev. He admits that he would care if he also had such a video – how he walks along “Vitoshka” and pushes people without eating a fight.

4. Radiohead – Karma Police

“When Radiohead’s Ok Computer album came out, which made them world stars, every day we went to the music store to ask if they had it,” Noev recalls. A girl who worked there kept asking, “What is this band? Why are there 20 people asking about this album every day?”. Karma Police is a single from the album in question. “This is one of the biggest hits,” says Svilen.

I remember how at the time when they often visited music stores, cassettes were sold for BGN 3 and CDs for BGN 10. But there was mostly commercial music, alternative rock was not the most popular in our country then, explains Noev.

3. U2 – Ordinary Love

U2 is Noah’s favorite band. He listened to it three times live – in Istanbul, Zagreb and Berlin, but not the song Ordinary Love. It was made into a movie about Nelson Mandela, and Svilen describes it as a masterpiece. The musicians from U2 are idols for the vocalist of “Ostava. It is no coincidence that there are quite a few books at home dedicated to the Irish gang.

2. REM – Losing my Religion

Before his 20th anniversary, Svilen was not a fan of REM, but after that he turned out to be one. “This is music for people over 30, because it’s not the first signal, it’s not like punk and rock for children and teenagers, but it’s music on many levels, you need time to listen to it and like this style”, claims Noev. Every time the song Losing my Religion comes on the radio, he turns it up to max. Nye is impressed that the piece features a mandolin – “it proves you can make songs with anything”.

1. Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares to You

This is the piece that Svilen always plays when he does acoustic solos. It was written by Prince but remains famous for being performed by the late singer Sinead O’Connor. The text is very nice and sad, says Noev, adding that the text of one of the new tracks they make with “Ostava” will be similar to Nothing Compares to You. It tells about the state in which a person falls after parting with his beloved.