After viewing the Daniela Kostova’s documentary Body Without Organs, the filmmaker, featured DJ Joro-Boro, and house DJ Pete Spynda answered some questions concerning the film and Pittsburgh showing. The three discussed everything from the history of the Bulgarian Bar, fucking for free vodka, and setting up everything in Pittsburgh.

Interview by Miles Dinnen

Daniela, why did you use the title “Body Without Organs” for your film?

Daniela: BWO is the way DK Joro-Boro described the party in the Bulgarian Bar in the interview that he gave me for my movie. It refers to a concept used by Deleuze and Guattari in their book A Thousand Plateaus. Body-without-organs is a body before identity, it that doesn’t have sex or color; it is not defined but constantly changing. It is a body that incorporates as supposed to separate and breaks the opposition of “self and other”. I hope that it is clear. In the film, I juxtapose the “state philosophy” of the Bulgarian Cultural Ministry that used to control the Bulgarian Culture with the “nomadic thought” coming from immigrant experience and created an alternative hybrid culture. The meeting point for these two tendencies is the Bulgarian Bar in NYC that is also called “cultural center”. So the title fit very well. It is about this hybrid body/identity that I also experience myself.

What is the history of the Bulgarian Bar?

Daniela: I am giving the microphone to Joro-Boro who knows the history much better than me. I came later in the process, but I should say that I am always amazed by the fast paste life of this place. The place now lives its second life in a new place at the Lower East Side.

Joro-Boro: It was started by the owner as a place for Bulgarians to hang out. Wasn’t intended as a club, began as a restaurant then he started getting bands to play every now and then (some but not all of them Gypsy), then some DJ’s (all sorts of music), and eventually Eugene [Hutz, lead singer of Gogol Bordello] and I started doing nights there. In the beginning we were doing our things independently and unaware of each other, so each had a more distinct sound (Eugene with more emphasis on punk, Russian stuff, and Balkan Brass, me with more Arabic, Indian and Gypsy) but inevitably we found out about the other’s gigs and influenced each other’s sound. This was going on for about 6-7 years until the place shut down to free space for a Ramada Hotel.

Is it really true that if you have sex in the Bulgarian Bar, you get a free bottle of vodka?

Joro-Boro: See the sign (right). This is the second version of the sign (painted over the first one which was falling apart). It’s signed on the bottom by the first couple that followed it to the bottle. Unfortunately, somebody loved it so much that they stole it from Mehanata. There’s another one with Venus de Milo and a manga girl currently replacing the stolen one.

Is Mehanata the name of the Bulgarian Bar? What does the name mean?

Joro-Boro:Yes, but a lot of people couldn’t pronounce it, so they nicknamed it the Bulgarian Bar. Not to mention it’s confusingly close to Manhattan, and there is a restaurant called Manahatta (or something like that). Mehanata means ‘the tavern’ - very, very typical name in Bulgaria.

What is the music scene like in Bulgaria? As compared to America?

Joro-Boro: Haven’t been back in awhile, but when I left in 1997 the soundtrack to Bregovic’s “Underground” was in pretty heavy rotation at every party, so it was inevitable to bring that to the States. When I last went, the club scene was pretty deep into all sorts of electronica; then there were places that played only chalga, then some alternative spaces with a mix of things from Detroit techno to Bulgarian punk.

Daniela: We’ve both lived in USA for quite a long time, and it is hard to say exactly what is happening [in Bulgaria]. The problem with countries like Bulgaria is that they often develop a secondary culture that borrows from already established Western models. This tendency is very strong in the pop scene, but there is something that is different: the folk element. I really appreciate the folk music that comes straight from “the people”, but the mix with the pop is making it scary. It becomes commodified by people with power and money and turned to a wallpaper. Otherwise, we have great talented musicians. Some of them you can hear even here in NYC, people such Iuri Younakov. Of course, there is a rock and roll and electronic music scene over there with some good groups in it, but there is not much experimentation or an alternative scene that could give birth of really new sound. This is just my opinion.

What is “Chalga” music?

Joro-Boro: Thank you for this question, by the way. Chalga is the urban form of folk, a modernized version of traditional songs about love, money and drinking. It’s danceable, a lot of times rhytmically similar to cocek. Drum machines galore with, oftentimes, amazing instrumental solos and absurd lyrics (my personal favorite: “stones are falling, falling from the sky, a drop fell on my heart; i’d like my dear lenche ( a girl’s name) to live with you and while with you to sing you - that stones are falling, falling from the sky…”). chalga is associated with street culture, the ghetto, the working class, lowbrow taste. in this way it has equivalents in a lot of other cultures - let’s say, baile funk in Brazil. Today in Bulgaria, chalga is facing its biggest competitor in pop-folk: a more recent genre heavily influenced by western production values. Pop-folk only has a ‘flavor’ of folk, its essence is pop. It’s closer to MTV, Starbucks, putumayo. chalga is closer to traditional weddings, rakiya (bulgarian grape brandy) and dirty jokes.

What do you think about what the young woman said in the film about how the Bulgarian Bar used to host more of an “international” crowd as opposed to a mostly American crowd?

Joro-Boro: I’ve heard this complaint in one version or another a million times throughout the years I’ve been there: “It’s not the same anymore”. Truth is, it was never the same - it was one thing when Eugene was bringing a bunch of his artist and model friends from eastern Europe to avoid the New York club scene; it was another when I was spinning to a mix of Bulgarians and international students desperate for a hit of nostalgic sound; it was another when movie and music stars started coming to the parties; yet another when yuppies heard about it from third-hand accounts and went to see what the fuss was all about; and another when Daniela decided to make a documentary about it. Just like New York, the place has never been the same: one can only maintain the intensity by continuously reinventing. If you try to keep it the same, you die. Even now, with the new place open, people will be saying that it’s not like it used to be, but nobody was trying to recreate what used to be. The point is to make it even better.

Joro-Boro, when did you become active in music? Have you always been a DJ? Have you played in bands?

Joro-Boro: I’ve never been active in music. Always was out there collecting cassettes (vinyl wasn’t very popular in my circles in Bulgaria) from Dead Can Dance and Siouxsie And The Banshees to Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, Diamanda Galas, but never with the idea to play them to others. In New York, I used to go to Mehanata pretty often - there were a couple of Bulgarian DJ’s spinning Bulgarian and Euro Pop, electronica and rock. I wasn’t too crazy about the music, but most of my friends went there. For some reason, the DJ’s wouldn’t play any chalga or brass (maybe because it’s considered kitschy in Bulgaria), so when the owner invited me to try to do parties there, it was only natural to spin different kind of music. It was an interesting process of learning - I have some DJ friends who gave me some pointers, but overall I was left on my own to figure out how to work with a crowd of people for 6 hours. Never been in a band - didn’t see the need to since my instrument was the CD deck, but now I’m finally putting a project together.

Why did you decide to come to Pittsburgh for the show? What are your impressions of Pittsburgh, the venue, the show itself?

Joro-Boro: I was invited by Pete Spynda (thanks Pete). Pittsburgh is an amazing city, love the layout, the architecture, the bridges, the steel, the lofts, the galleries, and most of all, the people. Everybody was very open and felt like a regular crowd at Mehanata. The space - BrilloBox - rocks. It feels almost like a clone of Mehanata: not in a negative way, it has an indentity entirely its own. Love the new royal psychedelic wallpaper, turns out it makes excellent backgrounds for photo-ops. Can’t really say anything negative about a city that has converted several of its churches into bars.

Daniela: Pete approached me some time ago with the idea to show my movie in Pittsburgh. I am not sure how he found out about it. He told me about the Pandemic festival and all the amazing groups that he brought to Pittsburgh for each edition of the festival. I was thrilled and decided that I want to be part of it. I love to show my movie together with a party made by DJ Joro-Boro, this is how initially we started doing it- theory and practice. Joro embraced the idea and here we are in Pittsburgh. We loved it: the people, Brillobox, Pete, everything was wonderful. Once again, I want to say how much I appreciate the great job that Pete is doing for introducing this particular music and lifestyle to the local audience, and to bring these amazing musicians over there. I also learned that Pittsburgh has huge eastern European community and long traditions related to it: tamburica (?) orchestras and others. Joro and I went only for a night, but we both want to go back.

Pete, If you could describe pANdEMic in a sentence or three, what would you say?

Pete Spynda: It’s an international dance music night. I hate the term “WORLD MUSIC”. We play contemporary dance music from around the world, such as Baile Funk, Bosnian Hip Hop, Bhangra, Bollywood, Ukranian Dancehall, Turkish Reggaeton, Bongo Flava (Swahili Rap from Tanzania), Gypsy Brass and more… It’s a night where we play music from around the world that is new to people. At first, you don’t know how to dance to it, but then you realize the music is so good you don’t care if you know how to dance to it. You just do. It’s an opportunity for people to dance to something new, and to just let go and have a good time.

How did you all meet?

Pete Spynda: I met Joro-Boro last year the the NYGYPSYFEST. Air Guitar Magazine (my band) was included in the first gypsyfest, and we played the Mehanata Bulgarian bar. It’s a little bar; well, you konw about it now. Anyway, we played, then Joro-Boro spun a dance party. He hosted us there and was great. We had alot of fun, and at the time i was talking with Caulen Kress and Justin Hopper about starting one here in Pittsburgh (a world music dance party). Then i emailed Joro a couple times about music, and I told him once we got things rolling (if it worked), he could come out and dj a night. And there you have it…

Joro-Boro: As he said, I met Pete at last year’s New York Gypsy Festival. He came with his band Air Guitar Magazine and I loved what they did. Apparently, they liked the party after their concert, and we were in touch more or less regularly exchanging music and info. Then Daniela told me she was going to do a screening of BWO in Pittsburgh, and asked me if I’d like to go with her and do what was already established as a pretty successful formula. I didn’t know any of the other DJ’s, but loved their sets as they were playing very open mixes. Anytime I hear Brazilian funk, South African house, Turkish dancehall, and Bosnian hip-hop in the same night, I am not complaining.

Daniela: This was my first meeting with Pete Spynda and the other guys involved in Pandemic. They are all great and built a dedicated community around the festival and Brillobox. I truly believe that the festival has a future, because everything they make is with passion and enthusiasm. Pete knows so much about Gypsy and Eastern European music and has great collection. He is also a very good photographer, and I hope to have him throwing a Pandemic party in NY in the beginning of the next year, yeee!

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