Tesla Boy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tesla Boy is a Russian synthpop

Synthpop

Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...

/ new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

band formed by Anton Sevidov, Dima Midborn and Poko Cox in late 2008.

History

The band's name is taken from the title of a song written by Anton and Dima during the beginning of their collaboration about a boy who could conduct electricity but could not control it and hurt those who came too near him. The idea was inspired by the apartment in which Anton lived for most of his life which was above a huge electrical transformer that made him constantly feel the presence of electricity.

The band started by recording a five-track demo entitled "The Tesla Boy", distributing it amongst friends and on the internet. It was later published under the title "The Tesla Boy EP." The promo CD features full artwork by DW Design studios. Bloggers took note of the demo, describing the band's music as "some of the most exciting electronic music of the year", "the best thing to come from Russia since vodka" and "the finest pop group in the world today". The band were quickly booked for sold-out concerts in many major Soviet cities and headlined three major Russian music festivals: Afisha, Stereoleto and MIGZ. In July 2010, they played the Elektrana stage at Serbia's EXIT Festival

EXIT (festival)

Exit is an annual summer music festival in the Petrovaradin Fortress of Novi Sad, Serbia. It is staged annually since 2000 and usually lasts four days ....

.

Since August 2009, the band has been signed to the British label Mullet Records. The label released the aforementioned demo "The Tesla Boy EP" along with a "The Tesla Boy" remix EP, and the band's debut LP "Modern Thrills" in May 2010, which was followed by the three singles "Electric Lady, "Thinking Of You" and "Liberating Soul". The debut album is the band's first official physical release on CD, with the cover design contributed by the New York City-based design studio Mogollon.

In 2010, Tesla Boy collaborated in a live-only project with Poko Cox for many live performances, which included some of Poko's tracks. Their first live performance together was in Kiev, Russia, followed by shows in the country.

Their songs "Fire," "Electric Lady" and "It's Not Loving" have been in heavy rotation at Radio Maximum

Radio MAXIMUM

Radio Maximum is a Russian radio station, specializing in pop and rock music.Maximum was founded in 1991 as a joint venture of Westwood One, Harris Corporation, StoryFirst Communications, and The Moscow News weekly. It started broadcasting in Moscow on December 25, 1991 on the frequency of 103.7...

since 2009, as well as the track Spirit of the Night starting in 2010. "Electric Lady" and "Fire" entered Radio Maximum's 2009 Top 100. The music video for "Electric Lady" has been featured on Muz-TV Russia since 2010. "Electric Lady" was featured on the Nu Disco compilation released by Hed Kandi Records, and an extended mix of the song was featured on the A Blues From The Gutter compilation mixed by Blackstrobe.

The band has remixed tracks by Anoraak, Manicure, Sally Shapiro

Sally Shapiro

Sally Shapiro is the pseudonym of a Swedish vocalist and the name of the Italo disco/synthpop duo composed of Shapiro and musician Johan Agebjörn.-History:...

and Alla Pugacheva.

All music and lyrics are written by the band members; all stylistic decisions, regarding the concept, the direction of music and production, are made by the band.

Anton Sevidov

Anton is the vocalist, keyboardist, and the principal writer of music. He is also in charge of sound production and contributes songwriting. He collects vintage analog synthesizers and uses them during live performances and music production. One of his favourite synthesizers is the Roland JUNO-60

Roland Juno-60

The Roland Juno-60 is a popular analogue 61-key polyphonic synthesizer produced by Roland Corporation in the early 1980s and a successor to the slightly earlier Juno-6. Like its predecessor, the Juno-60 has some digital enhancements, used only for clocking the oscillators and for saving and loading...

, which has been also used by popular New Wave acts such as The Cure

The Cure

The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...

, Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...

and Eurythmics

Eurythmics

Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...

.

Anton's music career began in his childhood. He was featured on the popular Russian television programme, "Morning Star", and performed as a teenager on the show "Russian Talents". He was awarded with the grand prize at the international music festival "Crystal Note". Later, he worked with Chris Corner from IAMX and Sue Denim of Robots in Disguise for his project Neonavt. During the mid-2000s, he became an in-demand producer, working on tracks by artists such as Brazzavile, Esthetic Education, Bi-2 and Punk TV. Anton also composed music for various fashion shows, theatrical productions, and films. Anton has a partially completed degree in jazz piano from studying with Michael Okun at State Musical College Named After Gnessins (now State Music College of Jazz and Pop).

Dima Midborn

Dima is the bassist and provides backing vocals. He contributes in writing the music and is the main songwriter.

He was in the bands Banana Princess from 2004 to 2007, and Big City Bastards during 2007 to 2008.

Dima went to music school and graduated from a university with a degree in linguistics.

Boris Lifshits

Boris was the drummer. He has a partially completed degree in drums from State Musical College Named After Gnessins (now State Music College of Jazz and Pop).

He was in bands with Nike Borzov (2002–2005), Neonavt (2001–2003), Zemfira (2005–2006), Lakmus (2006–2009) and "Art Ceilidh" (2002–2007). In 2003, he played a single gig with Damo Suzuki, and in 2009, he participated in two live shows with Rubies (US). Currently, he is in the following bands: Bi-2 (since 2006), Zvonok Hip Rock (since 2009), also collaborates with Big Black Boots (since 2003). In 2010 Boris has left the band.

Singles

Year	Title	Album
2009	"Electric Lady”	Modern Thrills
2010	"Thinking of You”	Modern Thrills
2010	"Liberating Soul”	Modern Thrills
2010	"The Tesla Boy (Remixed)”	The Tesla Boy - EP
2011	"Rebecca”	Modern Thrills

Music videos

Year	Title	Album
2009	"Electric Lady”	Modern Thrills
2010	"Thinking of You”	Modern Thrills

All releases are by British label, Mullet Records.

DJ Projects

The band members Anton Sevidov and Dima Midborn perform as DJs under the names Antonionni and Midborn, respectively. Their friend and Tesla Boy's manager, Denis Pomortsev, is also known as DJ Futures.

Released mixtapes:

July 2009 - Tesla Boy Mixtape №1 (by Antonionni );

January 2010 - Don't Be Afraid Of New Music Vol. 1 (by Futures);

March 2010 - Tesla Boy Mixtape №2 (by Midborn).

In February 2010 the Follow Me studio recorded and later demonstrated the Anton Sevidov's mix-tape "Dj Antonionni @ Follow Me Studio"

Press coverage

Publications: Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

(RU), Citizen K (RU), L`OFFICIEL

L'Officiel

L'Officiel is a French fashion magazine. It has been published in Paris since 1921 and targets upper-income, educated women aged 25 to 49. As of 2006, it had a circulation of 101,719. A men's edition of L'Officiel and eleven foreign editions are also published...

(RU), GQ (RU), HARPER`S BAZAAR (RU), In Style (RU), Афиша (RU), Time Out Moscow (RU), Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

(RU), Собака.RU (RU), Black Square (RU), Rolling Stone (RU)

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

, Q (UK), Metrolife (UK).

Online publications and blogs: Russia.ru (RU), Lookatme.ru (RU), Сноб.ru (RU), Gay.ru (RU), Raketa 4000 (RU), Fuzz.ru (RU), Zvuki.ru (RU), 41000Hz (RU), Relax (BY), KYKY (BY), The Music Fix (UK), Valerie (FR), Discodust (DE), Prefixmag (US), Pop Justice (UK), Obscure Sound (US), Soopure (USA), Binary (US), French Express (FR).

Radio: Maximum (RU), BBC RADIO1 (UK).

TV: MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

(RU), Muz-Tv

Muz-TV

Muz-TV is a Russian music TV channel, broadcasting since 1996. It is largely modelled after western MTV and predates launching of MTV Russia in 1998. Muz TV was founded by Sergey Lisovskiy...

(RU), Дождь (RU).

External links

Articles

Interviews

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