Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time on KEXP, is "Golden Rope" by Bulgarian Cartrader, from the 2022 self-released album Motor Songs.
Each artist we're featuring this week is a Music Moves Europe Awards nominee. The MME Awards are the EU-funded prize for emerging artists. There are 15 nominees for these prestigious awards and the winners will be announced Thursday, January 18 at the ESNS festival in Groningen, NL.
Listeners/viewers can vote for their favorite artist for the MME Public Choice Award here.
Berlin-based musician Daniel Stoyanov pays tribute to both his birthplace and his love of cars with his musical project, Bulgarian Cartrader.
"My name sounds Eastern European, and to be precise I was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and came to Germany when I was 4. I grew up in Germany, but stayed connected to Bulgaria, kept the language, and mingled a lot with friends and family," he explained to Exberliner.com. As for the second part of the name, he adds, "If you look at me, you would never think cartrader, but it’s inside of me." (His debut album is even titled Motor Songs.)
Today's Song of the Day is a warm, laid-back groove, that he describes as "not a song that runs behind to grab your attention. It just stays there, it’s slick and mellow. I have energetic songs, and sometimes I need those, but I know that when I hit the mellow strings on the guitar, these songs are more powerful."
