What sets DJ Balthazar apart from many of the people one encounters in life, and ultimately, the quality that has led to his success, is his belief that dreams are possible. In which case, they could be called goals but without being as fixed as such.

It was his hobby of playing with music and its mixing possibilities that somehow got him into the DJ field as a career. He says that in 1996, he went to Germany and bought some records at a vinyl store “for no specific purpose” – he started to seek out that culture and the first step was taken.

“I’ve always liked to play music that I like to people, to see their reactions, their emotions,” he says.

A few years later, he was still into this, but “at that time, there were almost no DJ parties in Bulgaria or inviting of foreign DJs to the country”. A club called Indigo stood alone in this field. It was there that he got his start on whatever DJ circuit then existed in Bulgaria.

The name Balthazar soon followed. He says that about 10 years ago, there was a gamebook about pirates in this country, and the captain of the pirate ship was Balthazar. One of his friends said that Balthazar (whose real name is Georgi Mateev) resembled the character, and the name stuck. It was not until later that he understood the layers under this name, including what is thought to be the name of one of the biblical Three Wise Men, and also a 1970s Croatian cartoon personage. And as to the “h”, which is not pronounced in Bulgarian (“Baltazar” is more like it), Mateev decided to always spell it with the letter when Spartacus (or, the legendary club Spartacus, since defunct) spelt it such at one of his first official DJ performances in 1998.

This had all been preceded by a degree in computer systems and music technology at New Bulgarian University, and then “lots of years of practice”.

Not content with the then-house and -techno music world in the country, he decided to create what he found lacking. “Ten years ago, there wasn’t really a DJ scene. There were clubs introducing new things, but more so they were people who were just playing with what already existed,” he says.

As he explains it to The Sofia Echo, “a DJ is not just a part of the inside of a club, but also a very important element in the atmosphere of a party. If a DJ is bad, it can kill a party”. Realisation of this started to come nationwide in about 1996/97.

In 2003, together with the disc jockey JackRock, Mateev created what he describes as a “DJ organisation” called Renesanz. It was around that time, also, that what was there and had been experimental, cutting edge (remember, as he reminded me, large gatherings, DJ parties, underground music events were totally prohibited under communism, so what there was in Bulgaria following 1989, whatever one’s opinion of its quality or attractiveness, was new and exciting) was becoming du jour and old hack.

The two men brought, thus, a new birth. “The Bulgarian DJ scene was in stagnation,” he says, “and we had a new organisation, so (Renesanz) was a good word for it.”

The company has two spheres: activities, like organising all types of happenings and parties with DJ music, and a brand under which it releases and produces electronic music.

Despite its creation four years ago, the name is still current, he says, because they want to change things, to always be finding new work as DJs, as producers and in the music field. (Five people in total work for the organisation).

It was this belief that he can do what he envisions, or maybe of what he does not even yet have a clear picture, that has brought him to success. “Pri nas, nyama ne mozhe,” (“With us, there is no ‘it’s not possible’,”), he says, wryly explaining away the established Bulgarian excuse for anything not being able to happen.

He gives the example of Renesanz bringing Chris Liebing, a techno DJ from Germany, for their first mega-party of the 2007/08 season, held in September in Hristo Botev Hall in Sofia. “We’ve been in contact with Chris’ manager for a year – we did not give up – and one year of work resulted in success,” Mateev says. “But it’s true; it’s not an average Bulgarian way of thinking.

“People have gotten used to ‘no’ being the end of possibilities. But it’s not that way.”

And this is how he personally approaches challenges and set-backs, he says, calling it “a normal way of thinking” for himself, though acknowledging that for many it is not. He also describes himself as “practical and methodical”.

“With a lot of work, there is always a way,” Mateev says. And the years of work are starting to pay off, with last year marking the start of the company’s large-scale successes. In spring 2007, they wrote song called Welcome to the Loop, part of the greater welcometotheloop.org campaign, which aims to present itself as a large-scale nationwide club tour of solely Bulgarian DJs. And with that song, the Balthazar-Deep Zone duo received wide-spread airtime and placement on DJ charts.

“Commercial success is new for me,” he says. “I’d been part of the underground until then.”

But as part of a commercial enterprise, it is not possible to completely ignore a more general audience.

Renesanz has thus started to hold all-night mass parties for 2000 to 3000 people, with various DJ sets. The one that was held in March 2007 he calls “the best in Sofia” as of yet; and as for the event in September, it was an “exceptionally good” party, with the full hall grooving to the beats of Liebing, Terry Francis (UK) and Eric Sneo (Germany).
For the happening on December 1 this year, Mateev says that it will be the largest to date. They’ve invited eight DJs from abroad – including John Acquaviva and Umek – and it will take advantage of a certain 3D technology on special screens to visualise the entire arena.

These are big gigs, with guest DJs from all over mixing the whole night through, which he compares with a typical club having one DJ an evening. Part of the appeal is the chance to hear some renowned name’s work blasting over the loudspeakers, someone that would rarely come to this part of the globe. “With the passing of time, people are interested in seeing someone from another country, to see his perspective on things. It’s still a new happening for Bulgaria,” Mateev says. “We invite expensive artists and this draws more interest. You cannot hear them every week in Bulgaria.”

Such events are part mainstream (the mass publicity and advertising avenues), part underground (the artists that are not heard on radio waves), which draws both hardcore DJ music fans and those just curious enough to attend. This variety of attendees makes for a “fun” time, which, for Mateev, is the most important aspect.

Recently, Balthazar and JackRock remixed old Bulgarian songs, like oldies and goodies. He says that the people at the party where the music played did not know the songs, because they were younger, but “the reaction was good. They kind of heard Bulgarian words and thought it was hot”.

Unfortunately, he does not see Bulgarian society as valuing its musical history enough, it having, as such, turned to chalga (pop-folk). The result, he says, is that people connect chalga to all Bulgarian music.

“It’s a question of mentality. People in the Balkans have hot blood and need hot rhythms. There are some deep historic reasons, and it’s only in this region.”

Having travelled and DJ’d abroad, he has seen how the culture of music is in other cultures. He retains his preference for Bulgaria above all, “not because it’s ours, but because it’s still new; there’s so much emotion”.

In addition to upcoming appearances and mass parties, Balthazar and Deep Zone have written a song for audition in the coming year’s Eurovision competition.

As with following Mateev’s philosophy of overcoming every hurdle, he says that if a person stops developing and changing, he becomes bored. And after fulfilling invitations to mix in Japan and in Brazil, he’ll just keep on charging ahead.

For more information on DJ Balthazar’s projects, go to djbalthazar.com.