Annie Trippah

Author:
Ivan Belchev

Issue 3 – December 2015

a creative personality in Finland

Aneta Atsova is known for its musical pseudonym Annie Trippah.

Years ago, a local legend from her home town gave her that name. Of course, later a friend of hers told her that this nickname was given to her because she always seemed as if she was somewhere else.

Despite her initial irritation, over time she started realizing that this was the best compliment, so she began to perform under that name.

Ivan Belchev for Success Stories Mag:
You are a creative person, who unites composing music and sculpture. How do you combine these performances of yours?

Annie Trippah:
Now it is easy because at the moment I am mainly occupied with music and pictorial art.

It was hard, when I worked in aviation for six years.

I did not have much time for creativity, survival was first on the agenda.

Listen to her music while reading:

You compose music in different styles – jazz, drum’n’bass and chill out. I am interested, how the idea of a piece of music is born?

This is a terribly complex issue. I myself have tried to streamline the process, but inspiration is elusive and does not obey my worldly logic. I can feel it when present, and when absent, I focus my attention elsewhere, without panic, because in art panic is evident to the naked eye. Anyway, it is nothing else but a coded emotional intensity aimed at a specific audience, a language of communication.

It is a pity when it becomes an end in itself or a mechanism to satisfy selfish instincts. This usually marks a decline in personal aspect. What I have noticed is that my ideas are born after a long deprivation of something vital.

One day something breaks loose, something I want to scream out … Then I become engrossed and find the appropriate language. If not music, it will be sculpture, painting.

Sometimes I need to use the language of words, then I take out my short story about the village of Krushovene. I named it “Notebook for accidents.” It is my secret time machine, which I have been “building” for a few years and I hope it will come to light, before the places and the events of my childhood fade irreversibly.

By Mahlum (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

You have lived in Finland for 8 years. What kind of people are Finns and what is their attitude to you?

Finns are politely cold people resembling the bees in a hive. Of course, there are also drones. I had the honor to work in a Finnish environment for six years and I was feeling good.

I am an anarchist in beliefs and to some extent I liked a lot the fact that I can freely share my opinion with the superiors and even openly evaluate their attitude towards me, as well as the level of their professionalism. I could forgive everything else in exchange for my freedom of speech and thought.

Recently, a song by you was selected as a song of the week by a radio station in Helsinki. What were your competitors and what comments did you receive by the jury?

I sent a demo of the song, made in my home studio, to the show program “Demo of the Week” on radio “Helsinki”. I was expecting mostly criticism. I myself had not listened to the radio program personally, but friends of mine had told me that the jury is very pretentious. When I heard their feedback after the first of the 5 demo songs (unfortunately, I do not remember the names of any of the other participants, as I was too bemused waiting for the comments about me), my opinion confirmed – they seemed to be just seeking grounds for critics. The songs were different in style, most of them, I suspected, recorded in a professional studio. My song was the third in a row and I already knew that my fate would be no different. But the miracle happened – they liked the song and at first it was as if they did not know how to react. They mostly liked the vocals, the lyrics and the minimalism in the arrangement.

What was your path to this first success in the music community?

I did not start seriously dealing with music until I left Bulgaria. I had a poor and bleak childhood, I buried both of my parents. I had to work since an early age, sometimes at two places simultaneously. Then at the university it was also not easy to balance.

My childhood dream of getting occupied with music was too luxurious for my existence at that time. I turned to philosophy with the naive belief that the answers to the questions that had been tearing me for years would come from someone’s external authority. This is what the Western tradition teaches us. Of course, nothing like that happened. After graduating philosophy, I was hundreds of times more confused.

Having once experienced the obscurantism of the 90s, outside I was facing the uncertainty at the beginning of the new century …

Life tried to mislead me, constantly whispering in my ear: “Grow up!” And every day I said a little good-bye to my childhood dreams, with no reason, just because everybody does so. “Who do you think you are?!”

I came to Helsinki and the satisfaction of my primary needs gave rise again to the longing for art, this time with extreme rigor.

I started painting and studying Logic Express, as if my life depended on it. This is how my first compositions gradually came to this world. Through the years I had several projects – trio, duo, but they all ended with the increasingly strong awareness that I needed to continue alone, true to my instincts.

Imagine youself creating in the same way in your homeland. What would the difference be?

I have no idea. Actually, I have never tried this. In Bulgaria the only issue I was facing was how to get rid of hunger and misery. But I suspect, that would be wonderful… For the first time I felt a terrible nostalgia in the fifth year of my stay here. It was then that I wrote the following poem, which reflected my complicated relationship with my country better than any description.

What would you advise people who are looking for a way to demonstrate their abilities?

In my art, I address people on the brink of despair, having lost meaning, faith and self-esteem.

Usually I seek the path of suggestion with other means of expression, more direct and tangible than addressing in plain text, but in the language of words, my message would sound as follows:

“Do not stop walking, even if you lose direction. All roads lead to yourself. ”