The band Tesla Boy: history, success, best songs and albums, frontman Anton Sevidov today

New Wave and her unimaginable love of synthesisers and energetic rhythms became popular in Europe and the US in the 1980s. Depeche Mode and Eurythmics were tearing up the charts with their pioneering approach to thinking about new wave through synth-pop, and gave birth to a new "beast" - music that made you want to sing along to it all the time dance. The maestros of soul and rhythm and blues, such as Stevie Wonder, were also into synthesisers and analogue piano-like machines: it was virtuosic and very futuristically. Going beyond certain genres with the music of digital keyboard instruments has become a trademark of many artists. Was there something similar in Russia?

It is safe to answer this question in the affirmative. In the 1980s, popular music in the USSR, despite the heyday of underground rock, was taken over by synthesisers. The bands Forum, Alliance, Coffee and Biokonstruktor skilfully introduced future aesthetics, the "echo" effect on vocals and advanced synth parts. Now the popularity of the genre is being revived by Anton Sevidov and his incredibly cool project Tesla Boywho has gained fame not only in Russia, but also in the West. He is the subject of this article.

It all started with... the internet

Anton Sevidov, the mastermind of Tesla Boy and the band's frontman, became interested in music as a child. Then he actively listened to records collected by the future star's father. Among them executorsSome of the musicians who significantly influenced Anton's musical taste were jazzmen, as well as soul singers such as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder.

Young Sevidov quickly learnt the basics DJingHe was promoted in his musical knowledge by the famous Russian saxophonist and jazzman Alexey Kozlov, who taught Anton how to make arrangements and use his own music recording software. home studio. His love for vintage synthesisers made Sevidov a true professional: he became a sound producer and gained popularity as a session keyboardist (for example, for the bands Auktsyon, Bi-2 and Splin)

Sevidov's first real band appeared in 2002 and was called "Neonaut.". Apparently, the musician wanted to combine the Greek prefix "new" and the word "cosmonaut". It can be concluded that the love for futuristic records has not gone away, but the Neonaut project was more inclined towards the "futuristic", "futuristic" and "cosmonaut". real instruments - it was more guitar music, similar to Muse and Radiohead.

In 2007, a musical group appeared on the Russian scene Tesla BoyAnton Sevidov returned to the roots of his activity. Anton Sevidov returned to the roots of his activity, he needed to "liberate" the musical programme. energyand there were a lot of demo recordings. That's when Tesla Boy appeared, which included both his casual acquaintances and colleagues from Neonavt, in addition to Sevidov.

Mini album "Tesla Boy EP" was entirely recorded in a home studio, and initially its demos were distributed by Anton on the Internet. The public appreciated his endeavours, so the young band began to perform at exhibition openings and then gave their first full-length performance. concert in a Moscow club.

The success was overwhelming, both Russian and foreign media wrote about Tesla Boy, and a pleasant bonus was the offer from the British recording companies "Mullet Records", which was ready to produce and release their debut EP. Since then, the band's activity went uphill.

Popularity has come

Debut album Tesla Boy released in 2010 with a slightly different line-up. "Modern Thrills." The band turned out to be futuristic and eclectic and even had elements of disco in it. Bright drum machine and percussion parts of Mikhail Studnitsyn were perfectly complemented by tender vocals of Anton Sevidov. Dima Midborn's bass guitar and Konstantin Pokhvalin's guitar with unique effects gave the sound real dynamics.

The success of the first record allowed the band to go on tour abroad. They performed at various festivals in Spain and Norway, travelled to Sweden and Finland in 2011, and visited New York in 2012!

The release of the second studio work "The Universe Made Of Darkness" came in 2013. In it, Tesla Boy continued to develop their long idea of promoting English-language synth-pop from the future to the masses. The singles "Fantasy", "Split" and "1991" were to their liking fans of the collective.

In 2018, the band is releasing a third album titled "Remedy.". This work somewhat departed from the band's previous recordings and was completed with a revitalised line-up. Nevertheless, the record turned out to be very mature and left that "electronic backbone" for which the band was loved Tesla Boy.

"I would like these songs, corresponding to the title of the album, to become a medicine for the soul for people," Anton Sevidov admitted.

The first Russian-language work...

Tesla Boy was recognised in the West as well, because they always released English-language music. This was the reality that Anton Sevidov always adhered to. Writing songs in English was for him easily и pleasantlyThe band's frontman easily let the phrases that nobody needed this language and there was nothing to speak it in Russia pass his ears and continued doing what he really wanted to do. like.

However, in 2019, Sevidov stunned the public with the release of his first Russian-language song, which was called "The cold will go away.". This tender single epitomised a new era in Tesla Boy's work. And in 2020, the world heard the album "Andropov."which turned out to be quite conceptual.

As noted Anton SevidovIn the band's understanding, he reflects control in his image. Sevidov sings about how to cope with this control in oneself. In general, he was inspired to create such a record by memories from deep childhood, the aesthetics of late. USSR and Kirill Serebrennikov's film Summer.

Tesla Boy and Anton Sevidov today.

After the release of "Andropov," Tesla Boy went into the lullperforming only at concerts and festivals. New material was postponed until a certain time. And now in August 2022 Anton Sevidov shared with fans long-awaited with photos from a St. Petersburg music studio. And then he surprised with the release of his first single since 2020, titled "She Took My Money"which once again impressed fans of the band's work with its beautiful electronic sound.

In January 2023, Tesla Boy continued to release songs: this time a dark, next-level composition called "Hate.". Sevidov rejoined his "electronic" to their roots, but have no plans to release a new album yet.