Bad weather is gone and the sun gives us joy… This is a good moment to lift our mood with some reggae music. The Rebelites gathered in 2011 as an instrumental formation. Today the band includes eight people, among them two singers. Tsvetan Chobanov /keyboards/, Mihail Lyulev /vocals / were guests in the studio of Radio Bulgaria.
"For most of the musicians in the band this is not the first reggae project as we have performed in ethno music bands. Mihail was born with a guitar in his hands and we are happy that we found Bisso – our Ethiopian pearl,” Tsvetan says.
"I got into reggae by accident. I've listened to all kinds of music and I liked hip-hop very much. Once I downloaded an album expecting it to be a hip hop album, but it turned out to be reggae from the 70s. I was so impressed by the rhythm and the message of the music that I have been listening to this type of music for 10 years now.”
According to Tsvetan Chobanov, music should be accessible to a wider audience.
"When one hears the word ‘reggae,’ people usually imagine a strict framework for the music. We go out of the frame as our songs are not pure roots reggae. We use modern hip-hop and R&B elements, refracted through our Bulgarian prism. We also make music in Bulgarian and fans like it.”
“Rebelites” is a combination of "rebel" and the Patois greeting of “ites.” "On the other hand there is a pun with ‘heights’ and the name of the band becomes something like ‘an elevated rebel,’” the boys say jokingly.
The band has two songs in Bulgarian. "Pesha na more” (Walking to the Sea) is part of the soundtrack to a documentary, entitled “Kom-Emine - the Ridge of Stara Planina," which follows the trail of tourists from the Kom Peak to Emine Cape.
Most often author of the lyrics of the band is Mihail. Musicians hope that by the end of the year they will be able to complete the songs they plan to include in their debut CD.
"A week ago we released a new song in Bulgarian – ‘Chakam te’ (Waiting for you). “We made a very nice video to it. We shot it in Sinemorets, at the end of last summer. I want to give special thanks to the entire team. The video is directed by Nina Orlinova and Kalin Penchev was the cameraman."
The video stars beautiful actress Dessislava Morales, known from “The Fourth Estate" television series.
The Rebelites will have a summer full of concerts.
"It recently became clear who the Bulgarian artists to perform at the ‘Spirit of Burgas’ Festival will be,” Tsvetan says. “We are grateful for the trust we received. In the summer we are to take part in other festivals - in Montenegro and then in Veliko Tarnovo during the "Nature of Hip-Hop" Festival. The summer season is very suitable for playing reggae outdoors, and the effect on people can only be positive.”
English: Alexander Markov
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