I was born on the 30th of October 1974 in Satu-Mare, a small Transylvanian town in North-West Romania.
The School of Arts:
At the age of seven, showing musical abilities, I was sent by my parents to study music at the School of Arts - Aurel Pop, in my birth town. The first studied instrument was violin, and four years later I was also introduced to the piano as a technical instrument. At this school, I had also developed some musical theory and solfeggio knowledge, and until my voice broke, I was singing in the school’s choir as a countertenor soloist and as well as part of the soprano section.
Rock times:
By the time I finished school, I was already an adolescent with a strong appetite for rock music. Being a violinist was just not “cool enough” any longer. But with the theoretical knowledge and the practical experience of playing the violin, it was not at all difficult to teach myself how to play the guitar. At the age of fifteen, I was already playing with my rock band on the local scene, achieving some level of popularity.
Around the age of nineteen, after a few years of practicing, changes and searches for the right formula, style and personality, I achieved a certain level of national recognition with my band at that time - The Jesters. The Jesters were playing all across the rock festivals in Romania, and the national specialist magazines and radio stations were giving them some attention.
At the age of twenty-two, I was taken in the army (compulsory national service), for a whole year and by the time I returned, each member of my band had different commitments, most to do with university studies in different Romanian cities.
As the commercial radio was flourishing in Romania at that time, around the late 90s, rock music lost a lot of its popular appeal and instead, the easy-listening pop and dance music were becoming more and more in popular demand. A whole new generation of artists were breaking into the industry, and I felt like there was definitely a place for my skills too.
Stigma:
In 1998 I formed my new pop-rock project: Stigma, as a co-writer, backing vocalist and sole producer / arranger. Together with the former lead singer from The Jesters - Emanuel Mirea, the duo quickly recorded a demo, and by the end of 1998 they were signed to A&A records - Warner Music licensee.
In 2005 I released my last Stigma album in Romania, entitled Antistar.
During this time, Stigma had achieved a fantastic national success, with thirteen top ten radio hits, seven LPs and a “Best Of” compilation, hundreds of live, TV and Radio shows.
Around this time, I started to write and produce for other Romanian artists and the studio work was taking more and more of my attention. Doing the live shows no longer felt exciting for me and I mostly found the media attention shallow and fake. Everything was trapped in a certain routine and nothing was challenging enough.
Downtown Artists:
In 2007 I decided to break the pattern and start over, so I moved to London. A bag of clothes and my guitar, a new circle of friends, a new job, in a new cosmopolitan city.
In only a month, I found a job at Downtown Artists in Soho - London, where I still work today, full time, as an in-house music producer / recording engineer.
Downtown Artist is an artist development company therefore I had the chance to work on hundreds of songs from artists of many different backgrounds. But having a very busy full time job, meant mostly training the skills I already had. And I felt that my work was lacking some sparkle at a technical level. Something was missing when it came to the quality and definition of my mixes, and I felt the need to go back to some basic understanding of the science behind the art. I was also starting to dream about a career in the film scoring industry. I was realising that I spent a little too much time being a pop star and the level of my specialised education might be an impediment in fulfilling this dream.
SAE Institute:
In January 2015 I enrolled at SAE Institute London - Audio Production, full time course with the intention of specialising in scoring for film.
During my time at SAE, I kept my full time job at Downtown Artists, and continued to invest and develop my own recording studio: Wilhelm Scream Audio, in Seven Sisters - London.
Apart from my regular work, I wrote a few scores for a few theatre plays, such as “THE TELEGRAM” by Aldo Nicolaj, which was premiered at the United Solo Festival in New York City on September 2015. Director: Joan Kane, Dramaturgy & Stage manager: Bruce A! Kraemer, or "M DE LA IEPURE" by Andreea Radu, directed by Ovidiu Caiţa and staged at the National Theatre Targu Mures in Romania.
“I am Monster”
In January 2017, I started to think about trying to find a home for what is almost ninety minutes, twenty three pieces of my Classical crossover Ambient Electronica works. After managing to sign in one way or another, exclusive or non exclusive, all the works on this album to publishing / sync companies around the UK, USA and other territories, I felt the need of making these works immediately accessible to the public. Releasing an album was the way forward.
On the 5th of May, “I am Monster” was released on the most important digital stores and streaming services in the world.
On the 21st of July “I am monster” has ranked Nr.5 Best Selling Classical Album on Amazon