ANDREY KUZMENKO. LIVE SHIP
It is inexplicably difficult to talk about or talk about this person in the past tense. Looking at his optimistic photos and videos, it is impossible to believe that Andrey Kuzmenko is no longer among us. It seems that his life is as bright as a comet, life could not have ended so absurdly in a car accident when such creative experience had already been accumulated, and there are so many plans, plans and hopes ahead.
An incredible life buoy, a landmark musician of our time, a man with an infinite soul and an immense heart – so Andrei Kuzmenko remained in the memory of his loved ones, friends and thousands of fans of his work.
Dreams of garbage truck
The appearance of a wonderful songwriter, singer and producer of Ukrainian culture is obliged to the group The Beatles. The fact is that it was the song “Lady Madonna” performed by the legendary Liverpool singer Andrey Kuzmenkocheverkie predetermined Andrey’s musical path. After hearing this song at the age of 10, he was so impressed that he decided to play it on the piano. And picking up the song The Beatles, Andrew realized that he was able to create music himself. Then he realized that in his works you need to invest your soul and brains so that these creations could interest someone. And if not for this song, the ranks of garbage truck drivers would have been replenished with one more specialist, since Andrei Kuzmenko had dreamed of this work since childhood.
Pedagogy with slippers
The future musician was born in Lviv. It happened on August 17, 1968 in the city of New Rozdol. Andrei’s mother was taught by singer Andrei Kuzmenkomuzyku, so the boy’s connection with this type of art arose from early childhood. After many years, Andrew will turn to his mother with heartfelt lines in his song “Mom”.
Andrei was the only child in the family, so he did not experience a lack of parental attention. Mom had a strong influence on the formation of her son’s personality. As a child, Andrei loved music, but he didn’t really want to attend music school. Sometimes my mother had to resort to non-pedagogical methods and drive her son to school using the threat of slippers. These bright moments of childhood so crashed into the memory of Andrew, that he repeatedly told about them in an interview.
From punk rock to neo-romanticism
In the 1980s, Kuzmenko’s family moved to Novoyavorovsk, where Andrei was also not allowed to be bored. He went to school with in-depth study of English, at the same time mastered Polish, played volleyball, went swimming and even became a candidate master of sports in biathlon. By that time, Andrew was already a fan of punk music, which he first heard on the wave of Polish radio in 1983. singer Andrei Kuzmenko So he became acquainted with the work of the British group The Exploited. Later the musician said that it was punk who influenced the formation of his personality.
The kind of debut of the guy in the role of DJ was not long in coming. At the disco, he played a composition in the style of punk rock. But it seemed to him not serious, Andrei himself wanted to write music. Then he joined the group that played dance, and became a guitarist in the band. Over time, a punk band called “Lantsyugov Reaction” (“Chain Reaction”) was formed from this school group. The head teacher of the school imbued with the guys to work and allowed them to hold rehearsals in the assembly hall.
Performing punk rock, Andrew himself did not notice how he became interested in the style of the new romantic. At that time it was terribly popular, especially many Polish groups appeared in this direction. Of course, the young man was not spared the work of the recognized neo-romanticists Depeche Mode, Ultravox, The Cure, Alphaville. At the age of 14, Andrew naively believed that he was the only admirer of Depeche Mode in the Soviet Union.
“Career” Medic
When in 1985 it was time to decide on a profession, Andrew succumbed to the influence of his parents and filed documents with the Lviv Medical Institute. In such prestigious singer Andrei Kuzmenkovuzah there was always a big competition, and the guy failed to enter. He decided not to give up and became a medical student at the Karelian University. A year later, he was drafted into the army, where he became deputy head of the neurology department of a military hospital in the town of Kalinin, a town near Moscow.
In the army, Andrei met with Vladimir Shkonda. He had similar musical tastes, and soon they began to play music together. Andrew considers this tandem to be the prototype of the Scriabin group. And shortly before the demobilization, he saw the TV program “Morning Post”, in which they showed a video for the song “Tantsi” of the first Ukrainian rock band “Voply Vіdoplyasova”. Hearing such an organic sound of the Ukrainian language in rock music, Andrei Kuzmenko made sure that not only in English you can create rock compositions. Later he thanked Oleg Skrypka and his group more than once for such enlightenment.
After demobilization, Andrew transferred to the Lviv Medical Institute at the Faculty of Dentistry, although this profession did not attract him. But the persistent persuasion of parents to get a diploma did their job. He continued to create songs in English, if necessary, translated them into Ukrainian, then he made sure to listen to his mother.
