Making yet another discovery at the usual spot by Union Square where many musicians I came across usually perform, I found a young man named Steven Bartashev, 23, of Brooklyn with drumsticks in his hand rocking out.
Bartashev showing off his skills on the drums!
To my shock, Bartashev happens to be a Senior at Baruch College just like me. “I don’t perform as often as I like, I’m majoring in philosophy and minoring in math,” he said. “Sometimes I go play the piano at the school. It’s so nice to sit there, I tried cello once in high school though and that was hard!”
Since we were in the Union Square train station, I decided to ask if he plays here a lot. “This is my first time even performing in Union square,”says Bartashev. “I go to the subways to play because I can’t play at my house, so this is where I go to play. The cops can’t stop me and my mom can’t stop me either.”Growing up Bartashev used to play drums alongside his brother, but with his brother already being a guitarist for another band it didn’t work out and that’s when Bartashev realized he wanted to go solo and do his own thing.
Pure focus as he drums to the beat of one of his songs.
“Currently I’m in a band called Rhino House band, its indie rock, pop type of music, but I play a lot of stuff different genres outside of that also” he said. “We get paid sometimes, but other then that I work at a print and design company too.”
For the past couple of years being with the band, Bartashev talks about all the places he has played music at “We performed in Rockwood Music Hall, I’m also trying to throw my own shows at somebody’s loft it’s really rinky dink but it’s getting off the ground so we been playing there,” he said. Being friends with the front-man of his band since they were just 15, and playing the drums when he was about 10 years old Bartshev shares some of the struggles he had to endure as a drummer in New York.
Bartashev’s first time performing at Union Square was a success!
“I have been stopped and threatened with a ticket or arrested by police, In some places you can’t make any noise and they have rules on top of the city rules, you need to be quiet and its annoying because the zone is residential, their rules are definitely a lot stricter than city rules,” he said. “Also one time a homeless person tried stealing my money, he didn’t get physical but he was verbally trying to convince me it was his and take it from me. Then there was a saxophone player who asked me to join him play and he saw this feud I had with the bum and he was super hard about it and told him to leave us alone. His name is Dusty he was a good guy.”
After graduation Bartshev plans to make a career in music a goal of his, until then it was good to bump into a fellow Bearcat and get to know the person he is behind the drums.