I guess it all started way back when I was a child. I grew up in a quite desolate city of Omsk in Siberia, witnessing the fall of the Soviet Union and the sprouts of capitalism breaking through the ruins. I was a curious child and a happy one, especially happy in a world of my own creation. It was truly magical. At times I could not draw the line between what was real and what was a product of my imagination. My mind never had a rest, it just would not stop or even slow down. Moreover, I was hugely affected by my remarkably vivid dreams, which would stay with me for days, weeks or even years. I think that’s why I always had this desperate urge to let it all out in one way or another. And on top of it all, inevitably, there are feelings, weather, music, memories, scents, excerpts from conversations and books, people, dusty TV sets and films, desires, relationships, everyday life, they all emerge in your heart at once. It needed an outlet, which I originally was lucky to find in a pen and a piece of paper and ever since it has evolved into so many different mediums.
My interest to gig posters came after I visited the United States, I was 18 years old back then. It was there, when for the first time ever I actually went to a concert of a band that I loved - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Needless to say, I was absolutely overwhelmed. It was so raw, so dirty, pure rock’n’roll, full of sex and leather jackets, so sleek and slicked back. As I say, I loved the band, but what I really got obsessed with was the
atmosphere they had around them, which translated so well into the visual side of their music, especially into the gig posters somehow, simple as that. There was this precise simplicity, which is so iconic, undisputed, complete and just plain cool. It was a whole new exciting discovery for me, I never even thought about working on something like this before. A gig poster can be seen as a one off piece of art for an event, almost disposable. But on the contrary, it’s timeless, it’s like a dear photograph which reminds you of a certain moment in time and space. So when I got back from the States to my hometown, I got involved in what I used to call “Omsk Rock’n’Roll Bohemia”, where everyone had a band, like they always do. So I just offered my friends to work on the visual side of things. There was some utterly terrible, terrible art that I did. But no shame, we all need to start from something.
In 2011 I joined The Underground Youth on drums, which resulted in meeting Keith Miller, the man behind Bad Vibrations, a London-based promoter, who “puts on the bands he likes in the venues he likes”. My main collaborator and my very good friend, who helped me to become the artist I am these days. With Keith,
I drunkenly mentioned that I did some graphics for the gigs in Russia and he proposed that I design a few posters for his upcoming shows. Evidentially, this worked out just fine for the both of us!
So when I receive a request to work on a poster, I always listen to the band’s music, pay attention to their
aesthetics, lyrics, song titles, album covers, etc. Sometimes the influences and a concept are obvious, which is for me never a bad thing at all. Sometimes I’m probably the only one (hopefully not), who can see the intricate details and connections. There are also a few favoured ingredients I try to include in each piece, for instance escapism, solitude and irony. I wouldn’t say that I have a specific style. What I long to do is to mould an
other-worldly, secret and mysterious, more often than not dark, moody atmosphere. Like a puzzle, thoroughly put together piece by piece. And it brings me so much joy! There’s only one never-changing obstacle I
confront from time to time, and that is an eagerness to be better or merely questioning whether or not I’m good enough. This ghost of perfection has been haunting me all my life, he’s unforgiving and doesn’t have days off. And that’s my alarm in the morning, my insomnia and my biggest motivation.