Richardine Bartee
Less than a month after watching him live at the Soho House in New York City, Australia’s rising heartthrob is a musician’s name that quantum leaps from the density of my tongue when asked, ‘What [or who] are you listening to right now?’ There are hundreds of names, that nest at the thickness of my vocal chords, to be the first in the line to fight for the spot, but they haven’t won this month. The twenty-three-year-old singer, songwriter and record producer Bobby Andonov, who performs as Bobi Andonov, opens up to tell me about his preparation for his special night at the happening boutique hotel near the High Line.
“We had a show, the previous night as well, so I think it felt ‘well prepared’. It was more of a chilled-out kind of livingroom-session vibe, so I enjoyed it a lot.”
As witnesses in the dimly-lit room, we can attest to what he stated about the overall vibe that night. Nonetheless, when the tall musician stepped onto that stage, the energy he and his band emitted was everything but chill. To best describe the feeling, think of an active high-voltage frequency that has gone array. The experience was electrifying!
On that evening, he sung a fiery record called, “Faithful”. It’s a song about commitment and remaining with someone you feel is a necessity to your being. We didn’t want to continue to be abstract about the intention and its lyrics, so I asked about the inspiration behind the songwriting.
“Yeah, well, the first thing was it was already a production idea [that] the producer mixed. He just kind of sent me this dark track. I am usually a ‘melody’ person, so I try to see what feels good. I think [literally] one of the words that came out within all the gibberish was ‘faithful is impossible’, which I don’t know if it’s a weird subconscious feeling or just the darkness and intensity of the track just brought that out. But yeah, I think that’s the inspiration behind it.”
After hearing his explanation about the process of how ‘Faithful’ came together, my mind travelled into personal territory. Subsequently, I couldn’t help but ask if he [personally] thinks faithfulness is impossible. Personally, I want to believe that to be faithful and to be monogamous [or to practice serial monogamy] are two separate ideas. Faith and loyalty are for all relationship styles.
“No, no definitely not. Not necessarily. Again, I think everyone is different. I think in kind of my reality now and my age group, I think there are lots of temptations that I find very strong. Personally, I’m strong enough.”
As he continued to answer the question concerning faithfulness, the singer shared that he thinks we, people, sometimes, fall through the cracks. We aren’t perfect, and we succumb to ‘lustful temptations’ from time to time. Once you’re in, you’re in—usually hard to shake, but it is natural and relatable.
As a realist, those ideas aren’t far-fetched. Nonetheless, the beauty of will and achieving an unswerving focus is also possible. Perhaps, it just insisted activated for other people, and more about a personal goal we’re looking to accomplish.
Speaking of faith, Bobi Andonov, stylistically, reminds me of English singer-songwriter and producer George Michael, who rose to fame as a member of the musical duo, Wham! A similar [smaller] cross earring like the one the late multi-platinum selling singer wore in his class music video for ‘Faith’, dangles from the Australian’s earlobe.
Today, just based on my daily music discovery, I find that there a lot of new and aspiring artists who need development, guidance and to be told the truth. The truth is: Pristine talent is a rarity. Furthermore, I want to believe that artists who are influenced by groundbreaking artists like Prince, George Michael and Stromae and Childish Gambino, tend to make marks of their own. During our call, I shared pertinent thoughts with him about my observations.
“Those two guys are definitely at the forefront. I grew up listening to them. My mom was in love with George Michael. I got into Prince by myself, which felt like a very personal thing when I watched ‘Purple Rain’ for the first time. It just blew my mind. I would say, like, especially now with all this new music that comes out every weekend… There’s a French artist that’s named Stromae. He’s just like one of these artists that has the same vibe that all these legendary old-school artists give out. He’s just not scared to [as a male artist] to push the boundaries as far as playing with his femininity. There’s, literally, a video where he’s half man and half a woman. He tells the story [from] a woman’s side of a relationship and a man’s side of a relationship. I think he’s such an important artist for new artists and artist who are established as well to the cape on listening to because he’s always pushing the boundaries. He’s [definitely] one guy I look up to;
Another one is Childish Gambino. I have nothing to say. I watched the ‘This is America’ video and the SNL performances. He just constantly is—Yeah, he’s on another level. You just can’t. There’s no one on par with it. I think as far as the old-school artist (including George Michael) out of London, they did everything. As far as modern day artist, I think Stromae and Childish Gambino have this kind of similar power of pushing the boundaries of music their music and what they’re saying, creatively what their music videos are, all those guys have all that in common.”
Recently, he budding artist moved to Los Angeles, California from Australia. In reality, the flight is at least sixteen hours (one way), so if one is having a change of heart, it’s not a simple ‘fix’. Andonov referred to the flight as ‘brutal’ for someone like him.
“I can’t sleep at all so by the end of it I look like I’m sick or something.” He talked about his transition. “Yeah, the transition is interesting. I’ve never moved out of [my] home. I’ve lived with my parents. [They] paid the bills. I had food on the table. I was super excited [to move to Los Angles]. As soon as I landed, on the way to my apartment, it kicked into me: I was here alone. I don’t know anyone. I can’t just get in a cab [to] go [drink] with my friend, or whatever. All of these emotions just started rushing in. In the first six months, I struggled a lot, but I think I grew up quickly. I think it was good for me.”
Bobi Andonov is from Melbourne, Australia. When he was growing up, he attended an afterschool programme, where he was unable to be creative. During his time there, he would write and produce music. As a thirteen-year-old songwriter, he didn’t have much life experiences to pull from, but later, he wrote with Day Jazz and Afro Jack. Also, he wrote a single for the X-Factor in Australia some years after. He referred to the moment, as ‘a good confidence booster’ for him as a songwriter. We don’t know where, or how far he will go for sure, but we’re willing to bet it will be far!
