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My name is Aleksandar Nikolov, my artist name is Alek Sandar. It's my real name
split in two halves. I was born in Sofia in 1987. When I was
8 years old, my family moved to Germany, where my dad works as an opera singer.
I started as a singer and actor in the State Theater.
I moved to Berlin 5 years ago to study International Business Management and
started producing music for various artists.
Three years ago, I moved to New York, where I became more successful as a fashion model
and continued writing and producing music.
I was a little afraid about how the people in Bulgaria would react to this video.
I have lived in Bulgaria, in Germany and in France and know that Europeans are not
big fans of what is considered "different". When living in Germany, I was
the "immigrant", and frequently had to justify my heritage. People are prejudiced.
It's probably normal. Whereas in New York, I found out that
there is nothing wrong with being from "Bulgaria", "dark-haired"...
We are all different in some way, no human is a "norm".
This is why I was curious to see the reactions in Bulgaria. All in all, I must say
that people reacted in a very positive way. It seems that they understood me.
At the same time I must admit that certain media - popular music TV
channels - claimed that the video is not commercial enough for them.
The song is called "Creature In Me". I would like to express that we are all
unique and different from each other. We are all creatures of God, of the Universe,
of the World, but all of us are unique and individual. The clip represents the three years I spent in
New York, involving the individuals I met there. They cannot be more unique: we see
dinosaurs, performers, Mirror Man... I don't only express that we are different..
There is also a battle between Good and Evil, between Belief and Disbelief,
Religion, God... Towards the end, there is a culmination of
all these elements. The music and the visuals become more extreme, more
turbulent. At the end, there is an "explosion"...
The end can be considered as a little Genesis. Me and the female protagonist
are both nude and purified. Meaning that, although we all are different and unique,
although sometimes we even have stereotypes and prejudice, in our core we
are good and pure; showing two pure souls who find the way to each other
in the end. I hold up a cross, symbolizing that
I have found my belief. I believe in the good in people.
I am on the edge of 'commercial' and 'not commercial'. In New York, I go to very
popular places as well as a lot of underground events, where I meet most
of the performers from the video. That's why for the video, I use designs of
Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, as well as underground
designers known to certain insiders of the New York fashion world only.
Musically, I also think that the song is a mix of commercial house combined with
sinister sounds, dub step elements. It's not 100% radio friendly.
The sound and the visuals represent me: a mix of the commercial
and the avant-garde world.
We see Cirque Du Soleil artists, popular NYC performers, like Yozmit. He sings in
a very exclusive club called "The Box" where sometimes stars
like Madonna or Beyonce go out.
My professional career in music started when I moved to Berlin.
I met Jonathan Wuermeling. We created the band "Splendid Sounds". We performed
in popular clubs in Berlin, followed by first requests to remix other artists' music.
Until now, I have produced a big variety of songs. Not a lot of people know about
the music producers, since the singer is mostly in the spotlight.
The German singer Oscar Loya represented Germany in the Eurovision
Song contest in 2009. I produced an album for him.
I remixed an artist based in London - Frankmusik - and Far East Movement.
Last summer, after gratuating, we created the music label "Splendid Sounds Records".
The first single we released is "Your Dream". It has the message to
It has the message to follow your dreams, to believe in yourself and your capabilities.
Only if you believe in what you can do, , you can succeed.
It happened that I became the Creative Director of my videos. I did not realize
that in the beginning, while ideas and concepts were born during conversations
with friends and colleagues. One day I asked my camera operator: who will be
the creative director? Would you like to take over that role?
He answered that I am actually this person, since I had come up with the
entire concept in my head.
I follow all reactions and comments online, on Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook.
We live in a world where contact with the audience is very easy. After my arrival in Bulgaria,
several newspapers and magazines wrote about the new video, comments on the
internet grew and the so-called "haters" appeared. I read weird comments like
"He looks like a Hungarian horse" - well I will speak it out. Everybody can
read that online. "He is Gypsy - the song sucks"
In the beginning, I felt bad reading all this, but now I am more confident. Cameras expose and
present me, so that people can get to know me and judge after. I disregard
quick judgments like "He is Gypsy". Does it matter if I am? Would this change anything?
I would like to make people think. That's why I included a variety of performers in
the video, including things people consider "weird or ugly". To make them think
"why?". The model Melanie Gaydos is part of the
clip, she is born with an anomaly in her face, has no teeth, but she has a very beautiful
body. There is a mirror-scene, where Melanie is on the one side of the mirror, a
beautiful girl is on the other side of it, both brushing their hair. I wanted to
create this scene, raising the question: does it matter who is the "real" one?
Does the pretty girl see the creature in the mirror or does the creature see
another truth?
Yozmit's face cannot be seen in the video, as it is hidden by a costume. In a
final scene, she is holding my naked body. It is my modern interpretation of
the "Pieta". Mirror Man is a contortionist performing
around Manhattan and the world. His costumes is made of many small mirrors.
I present variety in the video, a battle between Good and Evil.
A performer unknown to the public is Chip Cirrhosis, who is a female
character. I told him "You can do whatever you want to do for the video",
he had 30 minutes to play around. He arrived with two big cans of ice cream -
blue and red - sprayed it everywhere, painted hearts with it. This was the last
scene we shot, as the studio was devastated after it.