Svilen Noev

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Svilen Noev (Bulgarian: Свилен Ноев) (born September 22, 1975) is a Bulgarian singer-songwriter, best known for being the bandleader of Ostava. His eclectic, deeply personal work shows the influence of various types of rock'n'roll music - the British indie rock scene, the Seattle grunge scene, the American rockabilly of the 50s, to name a few. Noev cites Elvis Presley, Nirvana, R.E.M., Radiohead, The Smiths as key influences on his style.

Svilen Noev performing live in Sofia.

Noev joined Ostava in 1995 and since has become a key part of the band's sound. He switched places with then-lead singer Georgi Georgiev and the group began playing songs written and sung chiefly by Noev. However, Georgiev is given lead vocals on several songs.

Noev's lyrics are dominated by themes of love, sex, loneliness and social alienation. A Bulgarian music magazine once labeled him an existentialist, which Noev found quite flattering.

A common practice of his is to write the lyrics to his songs in both Bulgarian and English. The studio versions of the songs are, naturally, in Bulgarian. However, when performing live, Noev often sings in English. This was particularly important when the band performed in front of an international audience during their German tours in 2005 and 2006.

Another signature characteristic of Svilen Noev is his falsetto singing, which distantly resembles that of Suede's Brett Anderson, and Placebo's Brian Molko. Irritated by such comparisons, Noev was cited saying "I can't sing in 10 different ways [...] I'm confident in what I do. No one is ever going to say "You resemble so and so" to a poor singer."^{[citation needed]}