Ivo Atanasov was born and is currently living in Bulgaria's coastal city Varna, as music has been present in his life since early childhood. In the beginning he drummed on the table to the tunes played by his father, an accordionist, and at the age of 16 he got his first drums. Several years of actively mastering the instrument and playing with various bands followed, until 1993, a critical year for the young man, when he began to progressively lose his sight. Within a year he was completely blind, which provoked severe depression and a long period in which he even stopped leaving home and relied on his family for everything. 

In 1998, he put himself together and gradually began to learn to move around with his white cane, to be more independent and tried to get back into drumming. It turned out not to be so easy as he got turned down after band would find out he was blind. However, it wasn't long before he started playing in the Spectrum Folk Music Orchestra at the Cultural Home for the Blind in Varna. 

"With Akord BG we are quite colourful. We play melodic rock, art rock, progressive, funk, fusion and even a bit of jazz. With my other band, The Old School Kalpazans, we play hard rock, but all original songs. I've been in it since the autumn of 2021 - two guitars, bass, drums and vocals. We've done a lot of club and festival gigs with them this year," explains Ivo.

There is a love between people that stays forever, Ivo Atanasov believes. Such love can also exist for inanimate objects such as drums, the musician is adamant.

"No matter what happens I will never let them go and despite the depression I experienced, the music has been in me and I have never stopped being excited at every moment. As for the emotion on stage - it is incomparable, as well as feeling the love of the audience eager to hear you," Atanasov is convinced.