Skryabin (band)

Skryabin
Background information
Origin	Novoiavorivsk, Ukraine
Genres	Alternative rock new wave synthpop pop rock
Years active	1989–present

Skryabin (Ukrainian: Скрябін, also transliterated as Scriabin or Skriabin) is a Ukrainian rock, pop band formed in 1989 in Novoiavorivsk, Ukraine. Prominent Ukrainian musician Andriy "Kuzma" Kuzmenko (Ukrainian: Андрій Кузьменко) was the band's lead singer until his death in 2015.

During its existence, Skryabin has gone from synthpop to rock and pop music. As it progressed, the band's style has been divided into "classic Skryabin" and "new Skryabin". This transition took place between 2000 and 2003.

The group was named "Best Pop Band" in 2006 at the "ShowBiz Awards" held in Kyiv's National Opera House.

Before the formation

Andriy Kuzmenko began his career in 1983 after being inspired by the Scottish band "The Exploited" and fell in love with post punk music and from this. He began to go dance and go to discos and spread punk among youth.This is how the chain reaction group appeared in the assembly of the hall of the school where Andriy studied was used for group rehearsals. After he graduated from Lviv Medical Institute, in 1986 he met with Volodymyr Shkonda, who was a guitarist. They only listened to music for a while and later on Andriy called this the formation of the appearance of the group. They started creating music later in 1986, and in 1987 they wrote the songs "Lucky Now", "Brother", "Так То Вже Є". Andriy wrote songs in English (which appears in the earliest songs) and then translated it to Ukrainian.[1] He continued singing both solo and group until 1989.[2]

1989-1991

From 1989 the band had formed and continued to make experiments with different music genres such as New-wave which were mostly unreleased as they only appeared as demos that were later leaked or published in anniversary albums that contained these songs. The new underground album "Чуєш біль" ("Feel the pain") was released on May 30, 1989. It is a partially lost album that contained a lot of unknown songs from that period. A fragmental album was released for the English songs that were found (except "Nobody Fools After Me"). The "original" "Чуєш біль" song that is claimed to be a totally different song is officially lost since all the "official" records are only remastered records of the original from 1990 to 1991. The claim is heavily debated. In 1990, the band remastered old recordings of the old 1989 songs and began to release only Ukrainian songs.In 1991, They gave a concert in Odesa with the new song "На Даху"[3]. The band also lost a member Igor Yatsyshyn who had allegedly died from his dad's aggression after he went back into (then) Russian SFSR, to Siberia in 1990.

"Classic Skryabin", 1992-1994

After the fall of the Soviet Union. The group began to release techno songs which mostly appeared in the album "Мова риб" ("In the language of fishes") released in 1992 and remastered in 1998. This period was also full of lost demos which were mostly instrumental and were also taken during the archive leak. Even though they were removed because they were either re-recorded into totally new songs or did not fit the album. The end of the period was signed with the new song of "Train" and the album "Птахи" ("Birds").

1994-2000

The album "Птахи" ("Birds") reached a lot of charts and became the earliest country-wide success they had reached. During this period, due to the famousness and popularity, Andriy Kuzmenko had to live in Kyiv for the invitation of the much better and modern studios. The album "Казки" (Fairytales) was released which made him enter into the Territoria "A" Ukrainian television back in 1996 when he gave a concert with the new song "До смерті і довше" ( Until death and longer).In 1999, They released the new album "Еутерпа" (Euterpa) which was only released in Canada since it did not gain enough popularity in Ukraine. The album contained remixes of Ukrainian folk songs collected by Andriy Kuzmenko's mother, Olga Kuzmenko. In the same year, the album "Хробак" (Worm) and "Технофайт 1999" (Technofight 1999) were released which were the very last success of the "Old Skryabin".

"New Skryabin" and split, 2000-2003

In 2000, the band had broken up with the band members who demanded to continue the old style and after the breakup the band got a new direction and the mood changed which first appeared in the new album "Стриптиз" ("Striptease") ,just after the breakup which was the first album of the redirected band. The album "Озимі люди" (Winter People) was urgently requested to be released before the Spring elections with other albums. The band had required the change since the old style had gained loss of popularity of the band and Andriy switched to a "More angrier" style of his which had stuck to him and kept up success until his death, even though his popular style and appearance is still popular among today's Ukraine.

After 2003

The renewed Skryabin celebrated its first 14th anniversary(1989-2004) in 2004.

During the Orange Revolution, Rostyk and Shura had publicly apologized on Channel 5 for participating in the first round of the elections in October, 2003.

The possibility of restoring the old composition of "Skryabin" was crossed out and a new era in the band's history began. Kuzma began to create radically different music than the old composition of the band. On April 14, 2005, the album "Tango" was released, which became very successful. The new permanent composition of the band was established:

• Kuzma - vocals, music, lyrics,
• Oleksiy Zvolinskyi - guitars, arrangements,
• Kostiantyn Sukhonosov - keys, arrangements,
• Kostya Glitin - bass guitar,
• Vadym Kolisnychenko - drums,
• and later Olena Rozumna - backing  vocals .

The album "Гламур" (Glamour), released on September 14, 2006, sold 70,000 copies.

On May 20, 2007, the band's new, significantly redesigned official website was launched. On July 27, 2007, a project album of Latin American versions of the band's best hits was released - " Scriabinos Muchachos ".

For the fall of 2007, "Skryabin" planned a big tour in 25 cities of Ukraine in support of the new album - "Про любов?" (About Love?) . However, the tour was canceled for unknown reasons.

Scriabin's new album "Про любов?" (About Love?) issued on November 22, 2007. Clips were shot for the songs "Хлопці-Олігархи" (Oligarch's Boys), "Шмата" (Shmata) and "Мумітроль" (Moomitrol) (the latter was officially banned on television due to the immoral content of the song). In January 2008, Olena Rozumna left the group in order to create her own project.

The band's next album called "Моя еволюція" (My Evolution) was released in December 2009. Clips were shot for the compositions "Тепла зима" (Warm winter), "Кінулі" (Kinuli), "Градація" (Graduation), "Відпусти" (Let me go) and "Квінти" (Quintus). In support of the album, a concert tour of Ukrainian cities was organized. In November 2010, " Andriiivskyi Unplugged " was released - a recording of a performance at the studio of radio "Lvivska Khvylia" .

In 2011, the group gave a concert in Russia, which took place on May 21 in St. Petersburg . A video for the song "Route" is being shot, in which the bands Payushchie Trusy and DZIDZIO starred . The clip was released in two versions - a shortened version, which was shown on television, and a full version, which was censored due to the presence of profanity and was distributed only via the internet.

On April 28, 2011, a performance was held at the Lviv Opera House . All the most famous compositions of the group were performed accompanied by the Orchestra of the National Theater named after M. Zankovetska, which gave them a special sound. This concert became one of the most desired performances of recent years for the Lviv audience and fully lived up to expectations. Kuzma gave out compliments to the Lviv public, joked a lot and talked with the audience.

In autumn, on September 24, 2011, Skryabin performed at the Gothic festival "Children of the Night: Black Council" (Діти ночі: Чорна рада) with a retro program. The group performed 8 old songs.

In April 2012, a new album "Radio Love" was released, which included 10 compositions. A limited special edition of the album was also released, which included 7 more bonus tracks, as well as videos for the songs "Talking and Smoking", "Місця щасливих людей" (Places of Happy People) and "Мам" (Mom). At the same time, Kuzma's solo project called "Злий репер Зеник" (Evil Rapper Zenyk) was released, which was distributed for free over the internet.

On July 5, 2013, in Kyiv, in the Green Theater, the premiere of the new album of the band called "Добряк" (Kind Soul) took place.

In the spring of 2014, an all-Ukrainian tour was held in support of the album with the simple name "25"[4].  As part of the tour, a big concert show was held on April 4 in the Kyiv club Stereo Plaza.  Andrii Kuzmenko's book "Я, Пейт і армія" ("I, Pate and the Army") is also presented  this evening.

Shortly before his death, Kuzma was planning a new album, but the fate of the album is currently unknown. On the internet you can find demo versions of unreleased songs ("Лист Президентам" ("Letter to the Presidents"), "Українець" ("Ukrainians"), "Пляж Шар" ("War Bitch"), "Маленька дівчина" (Little Girl)).

The death of Andriy Kuzmenko

On February 2, 2015, the leader of the band died in a car accident near the village of Lozuvatka, Kryvyi Rih Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. On February 4, a farewell ceremony was held in the Transfiguration Church in Lviv. Andrii was buried on February 5 at the Bryukhovytskyi cemetery near Lviv.

On May 20, a tribute concert dedicated to the memory of Kuzma took place in Kyiv. More than ten thousand people came to listen to the concert and honor the memory of the idol. The Palace of Sports, in which the concert took place, was full. The band's songs were performed by famous representatives of Ukrainian show business together with the musicians of "Skryabin". A memorial sign was erected at the place of Kuzmenko's death.

Current state of the band

The band continues concert activity. In particular, Zhenya Tolochnyi, Zhenya Halych and Yurko Yurchenko visited the soloist's place .

With the song Suka Viyna [5], he participated in the campaign "Так працює пам'ять" ("That's how memory works"), dedicated to the memory of Danylo Didik.

Private archive leak

In 2015–2016, just after Kuzmenko's death, an unknown user posted Skryabin's unreleased tracks from 1986 to the 2000s and 2010s on ex.ua, including demo tracks from before the band was even formed. The archive file also contained many unreleased songs from the early years, 1986 to 1990s, such as Буржуазниє or an unreleased version of "Нема нас/predecessor of "Шось зимно" from 1988. After the incident, the whole forum page had lost all the files and pieces, these were most likely reposted to YouTube. It is still unknown who is responsible for the release of this file.

Discography

This list contains only full albums excluding singles, compilations, remixes, lives and other projects.

• 1989 — Чуєш біль (Feel The Pain)
• 1992 — Мова риб (Fish Language)
• 1993 — Технофайт (Technofight)
• 1995 — Птахи (Birds)
• 1997 — Мова риб (Fishes Language, re-release)
• 1997 — Казки (Fairytales)
• 1999 — Хробак (Worm)
• 1999 — Еутерпа (Euterpa)
• 1999 — Технофайт 1999 (Technofight 1999)
• 2000 — Модна країна (Fashionable Country)
• 2001 — Стриптиз (Striptease)
• 2002 — Озимі люди (Winter People)
• 2003 — Натура (Nature)
• 2005 — Танго (Tango)
• 2006 — Гламур (Glamour)
• 2007 — Про любов? (About Love?)
• 2009 — Моя еволюція (My Evolution)
• 2012 — Радіо Любов (Radio Love)
• 2013 — Добряк (Kind Soul)
• 2014 — 25
• 2015 — Кінець фільму (End Of The Movie)

External links

• Skryabin on Facebook
• Music video for "Падай" (Fall) on YouTube