"Meeting of The Music Teacher"

The Very Beginning

Well, my music education started in about 1996. I was a teenager. My family had just moved to a new house and I was looking for some music challenge to start. The house I lived in was pretty big. There were two guys with who I decided to learn to play the guitar.

There was a place for people who wanted to play called Rose of Winds. A good thing about that place – lessons were for free. The bad thing about that place – there was a guy who was absolutely keen on military music we didn't quite like. At that time I liked hip - hop bands like The Stag Night; I liked solo singers Lada Dance, and Michael Jackson. We usually went on the road trying to imitate Michael Jackson's famous moonwalk.

After about one year of military lessons I met a guy who had a real impact on me and who completely changed my view on music. He was just outstanding. During this time, I was a student of Navy College...

Meeting of The Music Teacher

It was quite a strict place, but students who had the ability to play music, perform or do something interesting on the stage were allowed to rehearse in a very unique place I would probably never forget. The building itself was built in the 18th century or so, and had a very magic atmosphere.

To get to the place of rehearsal you had to go up the spiral staircase along big doors that were like the Gate of a famous middle age Castle. Then you needed to go through another door and here it was the place of rehearsal itself. Some day I was just sitting and playing some of the Russian Rock songs; that, I thought, was perfect, when it happened.

The doors opened and I saw two guys with guitars in their hands. They asked me whether I wanted to jam. I refused because I was very shy and I just sat down watching. The guys got out their instruments, looked at each other for a moment and then started playing. It was unbelievable. Human beings can't play like this but they could.

After this I completely reconsidered my musicianship and started to take lessons from one of those guys, his name was Sergey Kiselev who probably was the best guitar player I could imagine.

During three educational years, I played as much as I could. I used the library a lot and every summer I jumped with my head into music learning, looking forward to meeting my teacher again after his round-the-world practice trip. On his return, we met and I showed him all the stuff I learned during the summer. I was excited when he played me new musical phrases he learned or composed during his experienced voyage.

Stage Experience

Then I went to university and gathered a real heavy metal band, that we called Ad Infinitum. We played here and there and were quite happy and popular. After about several quite successful performances we thought that it was time for a change so we changed the style, the vocalist, and general approach to music making.

The new band was called Tears of The Heliades. The new vocalist was – Sveta Doyanova, who came to our rehearsal with big keyboards that were probably bigger than she herself. She found us by ads I carefully stuck on the wall of the Music College, she was a student of, at that time. At the first rehearsal, we jammed a little and then composed about five pretty songs, just for one our gathering; that was definitely not bad for our first meeting.

After a few rehearsals, we started to play at the clubs of our city and got very deserved applause. After a small month touring – student's club At Bulls, café Baltika, Kaliningrad Technical College Performing Stage, Educational Department Of Independent Music Styles called – S.M.E., Kosmodemyansky House Of Culture, we went to our drummer's home studio and recorded all our new songs.

Then we became more popular and were invited to several big musical occasions of our city – Balt Fest, Storm Show – the Winter Festival of Music, Kaliningrad In Rock – the Summer Festival of Music, Tilsitsky Invasion – Annual Festival Of Rock Music in Sovetsk; after that we were invited to the radio show, where we played live and were asked questions by our local true fans. We had a good time.

After taking a breath for a while we started our new touring along cities of our region, where as usual were successful. Having finished this one we were invited to play in Vagonka. We performed with the band that had a very intense hard-core style called Boom, they also were representing their new album and some guests from Moscow. The audience was outstanding. We had a good experience.

Then we went to the studio and recorded our new three songs that were very musical and unique. The songs ‘Wringing Her Hands’ and 'Silence' were successful on the radio.

After that, we shot the video of one of our best performances, but couldn't release it because we split up suddenly. Nobody still knows why.

Background

For the first time after splitting up of the Tears of The Heliades band I was quite upset, but then I thought: 'Well, this is a good opportunity for me to be creative,’ and took my whole life under control. I changed my technical university to the humanities. I started strong theatrical training. I found a local contemporary dance group and joined as a dancer. I started to take jazz singing lessons. In addition, I was a student learning English. After two years of such strong activities I focus on my voice and guitar instrumental music.

In this Elizaveta Chukanova's drawing, I'm standing with my acoustic guitar in front of my new uni, about to dive into the world of art.

The Magic Of Writing 2006 - 2023 Doggedly Extracted From The Adventurous Midst Of Turquoise Imagination Via Sergey Denisov