The Road to Glastonbury
We were thrilled to find out that one of our team members , Simeon Leonidov was selected to perform at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, with his band, Ritmos Negros. We asked Simeon to give us an insight into his life outside of Tryzens and how his love of music impacts his work at Tryzens as a Salesforce developer.
How did you get into music?
I started to play guitar at the age of 9, when my brother was taking lessons and bought a guitar home to practice. I just picked it up and started to try and figure out how to play and later on when my friends started to get into music, we started to try and figure it out together, which lead to my first band in school.
When I finished high school, I wanted to get into music, so I spent a bit of time perfecting my craft and decided that I wanted to go to the National School of Music for private tuition and in that time, joined a band called Banda del Padre, which kick started my passion for classical guitar and South American music.
How did you join Ritmos Negros? How did the band get together?
Ritmos Negros was started by myself and Piero Epifanía (our main songwriter, singer and percussionist) after we met in 2015 when I was working at a small theatre for the contemporary arts as a sound and light technician where Piero played a gig. As a Peruvian expat, we got talking about music and he was keen to put together and teach other musicians to play South American music, that I had just taken an interest in.
We started by covering melodies and then eventually we started to work on several original pieces together and as our project grew over the years, we added Boris Taslev, one of Bulgaria’s most sought after bass players and Arnau Garoffe, on saxophone, clarinet and flute.
How were you selected to perform at Glastonbury?
Our manager and close friend Boyan Boiadjiev has been in touch with the management of the festival for a few years with the idea to bring bands to Glastonbury and perform to a wider audience to encourage the local music scene. In 2017, he was able to secure a spot on the bill for another Bulgarian band, Outhentic, to play alongside big international acts like Ed Sheeran and Radiohead. He was able to negotiate for us to play at the festival this year after sending the organisers a sample of our music.
We are very excited by the thought that we are going to be playing at one of the most important and noteworthy music festivals on the globe next to artists like Jannele Monae, Snow Patrol and the Chemical Brothers to share our sound and the talents of the Bulgarian music scene with the world.
Do you have fans in the office?
I am very happy to say that we have a small fan base in the office and they frequently attend our shows! It’s great to see that they are supporting local acts and we very much appreciate that they come along to see us play when they can and bring their friends along.
How does music influence your job at tryzens?
Music is my passion, which gives me energy and focus, so it is one of the main tools that I use during work because my job at Tryzens has a creative aspect, and my musical training and experiences plays an important part in the way I approach what I do and how I solve problems for clients.
Make sure you catch Ritmos Negros at the Toad Hall stage, Glastonbury festival on Saturday, 29th June. Tryzens is very proud to support as a sponsor on their journey to Glastonbury.