Ger Duijzings, Professor of Social Anthropology (University of Regensburg)
One of the most exciting bands that has emerged on Germany’s indie pop scene is Bulgarian Cartrader. The Berlin-based band’s name betrays the origins of its songwriter and lead singer, Daniel Stoyanov, who plays around with this alter ego to reflect on his identity as a migrant from Bulgaria growing up in Germany. In March, he gave a concert in Nuremberg, which members of the seeFField team attended.
Responding to the often asked question “Why the name Bulgarian Cartrader?”, Daniel Stoyanov states on the music platform Bandcamp: “BCT is a role, a character, but it’s completely based on my personality. Some things are maybe a bit grotesque, so that I can be more relaxed myself”. As is common for artistic alter-egos, its purpose is first of all to provoke and counter stereotypes. As he explains in a video, “the West often has a ‘fantasy’ about Eastern Europe. Eastern European artists often play into the cliché so that they can connect. I would love to break up this thing a little bit, there’s a lot of contradictions. People read ‘Bulgarian Cartrader’, and so their imagination starts painting a picture. Then they hear the music, then they see me, and they are confused. This is a good starting point”.
Nonetheless, his love for automobiles is genuine: as the child of two actors who left Bulgaria in 1989 and worked, amongst other things, at a petrol station in a village in southern Germany, he grew up in an environment in which cars were omnipresent. The owner of the petrol station had crazy cars, which Stoyanov admired, and his father purchased and repaired old vehicles. Hence, at a very young age, he developed a fascination for cars: “There was a baker in the village who had a Ferrari and I knew where the garage was and sometimes waited until he drove out there and I could see the Ferrari, that’s how car-crazy I was” (rbb24). In promotional pics, Stoyanov wears a track suit with Volkswagen printed in large letters on the jacket’s sleeves. With the VW Foundation funding the seeFField project, my interest was born: to write about Bulgarian Cartrader was impossible to resist.
In March, he had a live gig in Nuremberg. While some of his fans donned Volkswagen sweatshirts, Stoyanov entered the stage wearing a red jacket with a racing car and ‘Ferrari’s Pizza’ (and a phone number) on the back, putting his audience on the wrong footing with another Italian car brand famous for its speed – sporting a ‘super-fast’ pizza delivery jacket, so it seemed at least, typically worn by deliverers of migrant background. Cars keep popping up in his biography: when asked about his alter ego, he explains that he helped his best friend to transport second-hand cars from Germany to Bulgaria, so that was how the name was born. “Trading cars is a tough business and Bulgarian Cartrader sounds tough, so that’s what I wanted. It should also counteract the softness in me and in the music” (småll talk; rbb24).
With his persona, he plays to stereotypes about migrants from the Balkans, some of whom make a living as second-hand car traders: since the 1990s, numerous old and written-off German cars have been exported if not ‘dumped’ behind the former iron curtain, on the East European second-hand car market. It is often migrants who run the trade, freeing Germany from a potential ‘waste’ issue by shipping used cars. For some, the name may indeed evoke some of the negative connotations and prejudices associated with migrants from Eastern Europe or the Balkans, like backwardness, informality, second-hand trade and tinkering. These are the stereotypes and prejudices that Bulgarian Cartrader tackles head-on.
Stoyanov has built his persona not only through his song texts and music videos, but also through funny instagram and tiktok posts, accompanied by observational comments that show the absurdity of human existence. A case in point are four videos posted recently under the title ‘Mein Wahlkampf‘, filmed with a mobile phone from his studio, capturing and commenting the ‘tragic’ spectacle of two middle-aged men struggling to hang up an election poster for the AfD. Trying again and again for twenty minutes, they finally manage, providing Stoyanov with plenty of time for reflections and political commentaries.
‘Motor Songs‘ (2022) is Bulgarian Cartrader’s debut album. Many songs are autobiographical, while the texts are replete with associations and memories that are not always easy to interpret. Only Stoyanov knows what he is refering to, which, as form of artistic license, is absolutely fine. In some songs, like ‘Mavrud’, he evokes his Bulgarian origins through musical ‘citations’: staying faithful to his indie roots, he carefully avoids the usual ‘world music’ or ‘Balkan Beats’ cliches. His music is sophisticated, contemporary, catchy and melodious, with jazz and other influences. Only once in a while, one hears a tune or sound that echoes his Balkan background.
In his texts and visuals, however, Bulgaria is all over the place. ‘Mavrud’ is an ode to a Bulgarian wine that gives the person that drinks it magic powers. Bulgarian grandmas figure prominently in his videos: they run his social media campaign, and apply magic and voodoo to boost his popularity in algorithms and rankings. The Album Visualizer of ‘Motor Songs’ shows his grandmother setting up a table with Bulgarian food in her small and crowded kitchen, for a full fourty-two minutes, in one static long shot without any cuts or edits. And then there are the joyful moments in the recent history of this small Balkan country: as he explained during the gig, ‘1994 euphoria’ is about the football World Cup quarter final that Bulgaria won against Germany, with a decisive goal that he narrates in an overexcited manner – like a sports reporter on TV – in the middle of the song, apologizing to the German audience afterwards.
His eight-and-a-half-minute long ‘Embrace’ is the most autobiographical piece on the album. In this ‘epic’ spoken-word song, he tells how he, born in 1986 (the year of Halley’s Comet), is followed by a slow bullet that forces him to constantly move in order not to be hit by it. It talks about the first years of his life in Bulgaria, his parents, his homesickness, traumatic images, such as pictures of dead people in Sarajevo and other war zones, the music he listens to, and his first gigs. The bullet compels him to get unstuck and stay in motion, gaining a sense of freedom on the way. The accompanying video shows the apartment of his maternal grandmother in a northern Bulgarian town – she took care of him during his parents’ first year in Germany – and ends with Stoyanov running.
As we saw at the gig, he is a crowd-pleaser, who makes a real effort to provide some context about his songs, for an audience that may be looking for clues. Let’s end with one such explanatory note, about ‘Camden Free Public Library‘, one of my favorite songs. He declares his love for public libraries, as places where one can unwind, find dignity, discover unknown worlds and new opportunities. As he explained during the concert, a book has a beginning and an end, unlike this ceaseless scrolling on mobile phones, which makes all of us restless. That sounds like a pretty good piece of advice from a car trader.
‘Motor Songs’ (Album). URL: https://bulgariancartrader.bandcamp.com/album/motor-songs
Schneider, Pia: “Bulgarian Cardtrader: Soul-Pop mit Balkan Tradition” (DIFFUS). URL: https://diffusmag.de/p/bulgarian-cartrader-souliger-pop-mit-balkan-tradition/ (14.07.2022)
Schröder, Hendrik / Schrag, Christoph: “Ich komme aus jedem Loch glücklich wieder raus”. URL: https://www.rbb24.de/kultur/beitrag/2022/12/musikistkeinhobby-berlin-bulgarian-cartrader-seeed-produzent-saenger-songwriter.html (29.12.2022)
Weiß, Katharina Viktoria: “Bulgarian Cartrader: Ich würde keinen Tag als Autohändler überleben” (Interview in “MYP Magazine”). URL: https://www.myp-magazine.com/interview/bulgarian-cartrader-ich-wuerde-keinen-tag-als-autohaendler-ueberleben/ (31.10.2022)
Wonderland Magazine: Bulgarian Cartrader – A different kind of jump. URL: https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2022/11/11/premiere-bulgarian-cartarder/
YouTube:
BULGARIAN CARTRADER im Interview (German) für Småll Sessions (YouTube). URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-p9UlUW6Hg (05.10.2022)
Europavox: Interview with Bulgarian Cartrader (YouTube). URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcnbwgK5gPI (19.01.2024)
Social media
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@bulgariancartrader4498
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@bulgarian_cartrader
Instagram: www.instagram.com/bulgarian_cartrader
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