CultureLoad

Alyona – in her own words

I was born in the middle of Russia - a big city called Chelyabinsk by the Ural Mountains in 1984, 1st june. My dad’s name is Valeriy Yarushin, he is a musician and composer, he formed a band called Ariel in the 70s. It was the most popular folk-rock band in Russia during many years, and it’s still one of the most favourite bands over here. He plays bass and he’s the lead singer. My mum is a piano teacher. My older brother is a great keybord-player, he works at Moscow TV.

At the age of four I was playing the piano, when I was six I went to a music school and I was studying piano for 9 years and then I went to a Music college as a conductor of a choir. I was singing opera stuff there too. Then I had to quit after almost 3 years studying there because at the age of 18 my family moved to Moscow. In 2003 I became a student of Moscow University as a jazz-pop-singer and a vocal teacher.I started to perform on stage when I was four. After this in my native city I had some shows where just me and my dad were singing songs for kids. And I started to go to festivals. My first festival was in January 2004, I won the Gran-Pri (in Russia it’s the highest price, higher then 1st) After this I have been in Macedonia and Lithuania and I got prices there too.

And since 2004 my band goes to Liverpool to perform on Beatles week each year. In 2007 I lived in the UK for several months. I play piano, guitar, do Arangements myself and write own songs, boththe music and English lyrics. Some weeks ago my first album was released in Germany and it won 2 Awards by the German Pop & Rock Musicians Association, it was voted “Best CDProduction 2008” and I was voted “Best foreign Singer”. Right now I perform all over Russia with a Moscow Beatles Tribute Show and also with a Led Zeppelin Tribute Band.

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Mike Wilbury (Musiker, Komponist, Produzent) über das gemeinsame Album Sie ist mehr als nur eine Sängerin: Sie ist eine Erscheinung. Ich hörte sie zum ersten Mal 2004 während der Beatles Convention in Liverpool. Ihre Band spielte nach uns im CAVERN CLUB auf derselben Bühne. Ich hätte es nicht für möglich gehalten, daß ein solch zierliches Mädchen eine derart kraftvolle Stimme haben kann. Das Liverpooler Publikum war offensichtlich ebenso verzaubert. Als ich vor einigen Monaten eine Sängerin für ein Spanisches Projekt suchte, fragte ich Alyona (sie heißt wirklich so!) – und war vom Ergebnis erneut so beeindruckt, daß ich ihr spontan anbot, ein ganzes Album mit ihr zu produzieren. Sie willigte ein und wenige Wochen später waren 17 Titel komponiert und eingespielt, von denen sich 13 auf ihrem ersten Album wiederfinden.

Unsere gemeinsame Philosophie war es, ausschließlich echte Instrumente zu benutzen, keine Sampler, vorproduzierte Grooves & Styles, nichts, das an die heute übliche musikalische Einheitskost erinnert. Die Drumspuren wurden von Peter Kalff (Köln, SILVER BEATLES) eingespielt, ebenso die „Miles Davis–Trompete“ auf „Eternity“.

Weitere Instrumente steuerten 2 britische Musiker bei, Ian Watts (Nottingham, SILVER BEATLES 2003-2007) und Rick Benbow (London, THINK FLOYD).