Art should illuminate the world, not fuel chaos
Who is he?
Stefan Valdobrev is an actor, composer, musician, singer and film director. He was born on May 20, 1970 in Stara Zagora. He graduated from NATFIZ in Sofia. To this day, Valdobrev is actively engaged in acting and music, and is ambitious to help the next generations. For the readers of “Bulgaria Today”, the artist gives a special interview in which he talks about his career, the news around him, about the youth and about current topics.
– Mr. Valdobrev, when did you discover creativity in yourself?
– The artistic in me came in a very unexpected way. Let’s say between fifth and seventh grade. My first exposure to anything related to artistry was poetry. As unexpected as it is logical. Everyone at school scribbles something on the last page of their notebook. Thoughts with which he begins to discover the world and explain it to himself. More sensitive people explain it to themselves through poetry, and that’s how I started. Without knowing it was something artistic. That’s how it came to me from within, but I had good teachers who noticed and encouraged it. After a few years, I started to have publications in the local press in Stara Zagora. It is no coincidence that this city is called the City of Linden and Poets. This somehow influences and subsequently I got to bigger editions as well. When they publish your poems somewhere, it is very encouraging and winging. I felt recognition and responsibility. I found it meaningful to continue with this, although after a while the music came. I played a lot of piano and then guitar. I started composing melodies for my poems, and then I discovered the theater stage, but I never abandoned poetry.
– Do introverts seem to express themselves best in writing?
– I was an introverted person when I was engaged in poetry. The moment I stepped on the stage and decided to do theater, there was no chance that I would be. Stepping on it, you begin to express yourself with other means of expression – through the body, speech, gesture, role and facial expressions. This transformation took me a long time. I even imposed an experiment on myself. I went through my own course to become a street musician. I have also taken the guitar with friends, and some times I have gone through different Bulgarian resorts alone. I have gone out and sung with the guitar in front of random people to overcome this introversion and get used to communicating with them. But somewhere deep inside me it still stands. My nature is still that of that boy who writes poetry.
– Today is International Book Day. Which work can you say is your favorite?
– I have read too many books and many of them have influenced me. I still do, but lately it’s been harder to find the time. I prefer to write recently. I myself wrote a book 4 years ago “Book of Songs”. Thank God she has a very good record. There is only one book that I would single out above all others. Very late, towards the end of the tenth grade, when I was a student, religion was banned because of socialism. It was then that I read the Bible for the first time. The Old and the New Testament. It had a huge impact on me and changed me forever. Not because I understood everything. These stories seemed to me wonderful, moral, honest and bright, as an example to live by, but not exactly that. The language it was written in, the word order and the words were very close to me because they were like poetry. It was not like any ordinary book I have read.
– Do you think that most of the values we discussed are lacking in young people?
– I am not one of those who give categorical assessments. People are what the weather is. It is always different. I never allowed myself to say: “Well, once upon a time there was…”. This is very far from me. I believe that all young people will have such needs that one way or another they will reach them. I am convinced of that. I find them worthy and wonderful. People’s paths are different, but the needs are the same in every age. The path to satisfying these needs is already different.
– The idea of culture is to unite people, but lately there seems to be a big division in our people…
– This happens because of all kinds of views and it is not only among our people. What I observe all over the world are extremely divided and aggressive layers towards each other. It is a sign of the times. I have witnessed other similar times where the same thing happened and it was overcome and passed. I don’t see this as something exceptional and illogical, but as something cyclical. What is happening now in the world will pass and other times will come. Regarding art, I believe that its mission is precisely to unite people and make them one. Each artist must collect them and extract what makes them one. I have a favorite thought from a show I did back in the day – “The Boy on the Last Rank” – art should light up the world, not fuel chaos.
– Can you tell us more about your new album with “The Usual Suspects”?
– This week is very important for us because we have to seal the album and finish it. Let’s put it into production before the Easter holidays so that it can already be on the market after them. On May 19, we are doing an official promotion of the album and I invite everyone to “Sofia Live Club”. Its title is “!AMAZING QUESTIONS?” because it is full of questions. Every song is a question. All of them are in our style – major and elevated, with philosophical lyrics and fun. A month after that, in June, we are going on a national tour, and I missed that terribly – the meetings with the people in the cities. For me, tours around Bulgaria are like an addiction. I love the country, people, nature and our cities. The meetings I mentioned are now 8 in number and everyone is saying “wow, lots of cities” and to me it seems like a few and I want a lot more. We start from “Arena Ruse” on June 27, passing through Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Burgas, Sliven and end on July 17 in Sofia at the summer club “Stroezha”. The fun will be great.
Listen to the entire interview on the “Bulgaria Today” podcast with Stiliyan Vorukov. Only there you will hear more details about Stefan Valdobrev’s new album and “The Usual Suspects” and an interesting story about how the artist almost became a professional football player.
