Getting to know personal stories of our most recent artists
Getting to know personal stories of our most recent artists enables us to understand better our target group and their needs. Behind every performer, there is a story which led him to the place he is now. For lots of them music is a way of living developed at a very early stage.
L e V a N — (stage name — editorial note) — His appreciation of music was evident at an early age & his natural aptitude for listening, responding to music & his absolute sense of hearing, have all played an important role in his development. Both classical music & jazz helped him to determine priorities of creative appreciation. Very often the intonations from classical works would provide the nourishment & ‘spark’ for his imagination & stimulate creativity in his own works. In his own compositions, it is possible to easily trace the mix of rock, soul & other genres. These compositions are distinguished by rich melodies, a highly developed sense of harmonic thinking & the feeling for musical form. His musical ideas & concepts are directed at a search for synthetic forms that appear as a result of the interaction between different genres. All of these complex ideas create works which are in a strong tradition of this genre.
In autumn 2013 L e V a N participated in international festival in Vilnius (Lithuania) where he was awarded Grand-Prix for the best pop vocal performance, as well as got awards and certificates for songwriting and in the other categories, he was represented, as well as announced a laureate of 1st degree. L e V a N is inspired by such singers like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Celine Dion, Anastacia, Christina Aguilera, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, The Beatles, Abba, P!nk, Within Temptation, & Nightwish, and many others. All of them have influenced his works in a significant way. At the same time the greatest composers of classical music such as Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Mozart, have influenced the development of his musical preferences. Currently, L e V a N lives in Dublin, Ireland, where he released his self-titled / self-produced /written Debut Album in the style of rock (Various genres of rock — pop-rock, acoustic, symphonic rock etc.).
OPUS (O): As you know, Opus is based on blockchain technology, which you seem to be fairly into. How started your connection to the decentralized music industry?
L e V a N (L): Mostly finding out everything on my own, researching possible music platform that might be a help to move on a next level, making next steps more fascinating and hopefully easier for a larger audience exposure.
O : What are the biggest advantages that the decentralized database can give their users so that you decided to join Opus?
L : Any exposure for an artist is important so it is a pretty good advantage itself, especially for unsigned/independent artists.
O : What are the challenges the music industry is facing right now and how new technologies, including blockchain, can help them?
L : For me the most difficult, is reaching out the major record labels, get magazines & etc. to be interested in further interviewing etc. as well as “pitching” to Music Producers to work with, as everyone wants already established artist to work with, hence it is pretty hard for independent/unsigned artists to get noticed and signed.
O : What is the direction music based on blockchain is in your opinion heading?
L : In my opinion, it is solving some of the major problems currently in the music industry. With blockchain, musicians are able to receive equitable royalty payments, record companies can easily trace music streams and instantly pay all artists who contributed to songs or albums.
O : What are your music plans for the future?
L : Releasing music video for one of my songs, as well as carrying on with collaborations with different artists/producers/songwriters are my main interests at this stage, as well as to get in touch with record labels for further development of my music career on a higher level.
O : Thank you very much for this discussion! The entire OPUS team, wishes you all the best for the future!
L : Thanks!
