Words, notes, music… it’s all an expression of one’s internal desires, cravings and battles.

4040 (Chavdar Petkov) is a Bulgarian guitar player, singer and producer, born on September 3, 1974 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has a Master’s degree in Theology and completed an online Master degree program using Pro Tools in Berklee College of music.
4040’s musical style is rock and his songs are structured around melodious vocal lines as well as guitar riffs and solos. He performs his songs in English in order to reach a broader audience of rock music fans worldwide.
In 2012, 4040 and his friend and business partner Ivan Kirov founded the music production and sound recording studio Perfect Records www.perfectrecords.bg, where 4040 recorded, mixed and mastered his album “The World Has Changed” – it has 14 rock tracks, including 12 songs and 2 instrumentals.

Career

4040 was only eight when he started playing the classic guitar and at fourteen he became a member of the school rock band White Rose as a lead guitar and vocals. The band recorded a number of songs as Hold Your Tongue, White Rose and Do You Wanna be A Train? They played in concerts and live performances in Bulgaria and became one of the best at the time. Striving for perfection, 4040 played the guitar twelve hours a day, constantly looking for new techniques and sounds, regardless of the scarce information available. Back then, his style was influenced by the legends Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. Resolved to compose, record and produce his own music, 4040 created his own home Pro Tools based studio and started online classes at the Berklee College of music. He accumulated more and more knowledge, experience and equipment in the years. In 2010, 4040 started composing the songs for his project The World Has Changed. He selected and recorded 14 demo versions at home, playing all the instruments: guitars, bass, keyboards and vocals and programmed the drums and percussion.
In 2012, when Perfect Records was founded, in which 4040 is a partner, he started recording the album, inviting some of the best and most talented musicians in Bulgaria to take part. Lead by the desire for perfection of even the smallest detail, 4040 completed the final mastering of the album The World Has Changed on June 1, 2015 for the birthday of his daughter Pam Pam, to whom one of the songs is devoted.

The Album The World Has Changed

The songs for the rock album The World Has Changed were born during the world economic crisis – beyond doubt, a stage of chaos and insecurity, test for human values and time to rethink your life and inevitable changes.
The truth, lie, fear, love, illusion and trying to run away from everybody and everything are a part of people’s life, they not only define their relationships but become the inspiration for the creation of the songs in the album and its name, concluding that The World Has Changed!





The Album consists of 12 songs and 2 instrumentals with 4040 as the author of the music, lyrics and arrangements. The recording, mixing and mastering was done in collaboration with Swe 
 (Svetoslav Borisov) – sound producer in the Perfect Records Studio.

Participants in the creation of the album The World Has Changed:

4040 (Chavdar Petkov) – all guitars and lead vocal
KOPI – Prokopi Andreev – bass guitar
Dimitar Mitev - Dundee (Akaga) – drums and percussions
Kalin Petrov (Akaga) - keyboards
Ivo Kazassov (Akaga) - trumpet
Georgi Velev (Akaga) - trumpet
Krassi Kirilov - Jojo (Akaga) - trombone
SWE – Svetoslav Borisov – back vocals and vocal effects
Sifei Wen - cello
Daniel Tringov – violin
Misho Shishkov – pedal steel and Dobro guitar
Veronika Georgieva – back vocal
The Sofia Soloists String Orchestra



In the mid 90's, Stanislav Stanchev /a.k.a. Stumpy/ - guitars and vocals, Nikolai /a.k.a. Spyro/ - guitars and Angel /a.k.a. Geko/ - drums formed the band Wartime. The style they played was thrash metal. On October 31st ,1995 the band’s first song of was recorded: "Perfect World". The recording sessions took place in studio "City" in Sofia, during this sessions the bass lines were played by Stumpy. By the end of 1995, bassist Georgi /a.k.a. The Evil/ joined the band as permanent member; on January 15th 1996, the band recorded the song “On The Edge Of Time”, once again in the "City" studio in Sofia. After several changes in the name and lineup, Wartime was chosen as permanent name of the project. Two new songs (“Neverending” and “Divide Et Impera”) were recorded in "Cassandra" studio in the city of Levski on March 13th and 14th, 1997.
 At this point the band played many live gigs without neglecting the intense rehearsing. On December 29th 1997, Wartime recorded the song "Addiction" once again using the "Cassandra Studio". During the first months of 1998 the band broke up and the project was put on hold until 1999.
During the diaspora, Stumpy gathered some talented musicians and played on different festivals (Svoge Open Air, Ljulin Stock, KirkOff Rock) the new lineup begun touring the country under the name Zero Tolerance.
 In 1999 the band returned to its original name and the new lineup of the formation gave expression of their ideas by releasing the "Entrapment" demo, recorded in "Studio X" in Sofia in 2000. This event marks the official revival of Wartime.
After these several years of re-adjustments, the band had already established quite a diverse style of its own, which was described in numerous occasions as thrash-power-death with progressive elements.
In the following years the band changes its lineup, trying different talanted musicians and participating in different metal festivals, TV shows (Fraktura) and playing in clubs. During this period, the only original member and leader of Wartime: Stumpy, refines his style and techniques and in March of 2006 the band records what is to be the second demo of Wartime,which includes two new songs:“The Drifter” and “Preordained Game”.
In the summer of 2007, Stumpy and the current drummer of Wartime: Velizar Bolchev (ex-Vile, ex-Regress) turned the rehersal room of Wartime to a soundrecording studio and called it “Warzone”.
In July 2008 the warboys started recording their first album in the “Warzone” studio. The project title of the album was called "Against Destiny" and the lineup of the band was: Stumpy – guitar and vocal, Velizar - drums, Lyubo /aka Chewbacca/ from Virus- guitar and Stefan /aka-Techo/ - bass. The material was composed of 9 songs - 6 old reworked killers and 3 completely new songs called: “Bequest”, “Awareness” and the instrumental “7 years” - a song dedicated to the long fight and persistence of the band-.
The album was produced by Stumpy and Wartime. After the recording,the material was mixed and masterred by Mr. Alex Azzali- an italian sound magician who is known for his work with artists such as Ancient, Steve Di Giorgio, Blaze Bailey, Last Hope, Korozy, Mortuari Drape, Katarakt, Mellowtoy and many more.
The album received critical acclaim and was reviewed by number of Bulgarian and foreign websites and radiostations.
The style of the band was described as Thrash combined elements of Death and Progressive metal. The class of the musicians was proved in undisputable manner with the complex and luxurious vortex of sounds, solos and riffs present in the album.
At this point the band started a long tour in Bulgaria performing in a number of cities around the country. Together with that the band released a special eddition of the album which was deemed to be one of the most refined editions both sound and appearance like ever published by a Bulgarian thrash metal band.
In 2010 the band has suffered more changes in the lineup and is currently presented by Stumpy (guitars and vocals), Ivan /aka Ikarium, aka anomandrus / (vocals), Antonio /ex-Progression/ (bass) and Velizar (drums).
Wartime is currently preparing for their second album,which will include some more progressive notes combined with Death and Thrash metal sounds. The band is experimenting with melodic vocals (Ivan) and heavy growling vocals (Stumpy), thick riffs mixed with bass and guitar solos in their strive to achieve mature and original style, which will allow them to continue successfully their metal journey.


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