Svoy

SVOY
Eclectric

SVOY’s Eclectric is, as music critic Bryan Baker put it, “the world seen through the eyes of a lovelorn automaton who speaks in three minute electro-pop songs.” An ambitious collaboration of richly textured electronic sounds, yearning pop melodies, and articulate poetry, Eclectric is electronica from a romantic’s heart and a singer/songwriter’s soul.

SVOY’s music evokes a yearning for human connection. He explores the emotional dichotomy of personal growth through both solitude and companionship. His lyrics express an acceptance of the problems in the world today while still maintaining an unwavering optimism that change can happen and begins from within. He writes in “Cared More,”

but if your faith is your fate / - you expect, you wait / hold-anticipate / you procrastinate / and all that happens to me / is happening now

People can choose action, they can choose love.

SVOY comes from one of the last generations of the former Soviet Union, born in a small port city in the Russian Far East. “I would go to bed every night listening to my neighbor play the piano, the sound filtering through the wall we shared in our apartment building,” states SVOY. Wanting to know more, he began visiting his neighbor, who rewarded his curiosity with a seat at her piano bench. Formal lessons ensued. The musical seed was planted.

At the age of seventeen, SVOY had discovered music as his calling and, seeking the next step in his musical education, left his family and home, moving to Moscow to attend the Russian Academy of Music. This move proved to be not only a major step in his musical career, but also a pivotal step in his maturation as a young man, as described in the aptly titled, “On My Own,”

picture blink and motion blur / dust and dirt along the railway / in freedom trapped – no him, no her / on my own

In Moscow he studied with the top jazz piano and composition professionals in Russia, including instructor Igor Bril, the legendary and beloved Russian bebop pianist.

SVOY’s journey was only beginning. Boston’s Berklee College of Music, one of the pre-eminent musical schools in the world, held international auditions for prospective students in Helsinki, Finland. Seizing the opportunity, SVOY auditioned and was offered a scholarship to attend Berklee. At Berklee SVOY further explored songwriting, composition and production. He found his songwriting naturally gravitated away from Jazz. SVOY jokes, “I entered Berklee as a Jazz pianist and left as a Pop Electronica artist. I think a lot of my professors won’t forgive me for that.”

In 2002, while still in school, he won the BMI Pete Carpenter Fellowship Film Music Competition and spent six weeks studying with the renowned TV composer Mike Post (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and Law and Order) at his studio in Hollywood.

It was at Berklee that SVOY began recording original compositions. Fascinated with many different styles of music, including electronica, R&B and rock, and influenced by artists ranging from Boards of Canada and Prefuse 73 to Me’Shell NdegeOcello and Maxwell, he embraced each influence when writing and producing his new songs.

With a few completed tracks under his belt, SVOY began sharing the new material with friends and music industry professionals such as jazz legends Kenny Garrett and Lenny White and Sony Publishing VP of A&R Eric Beall. He was overwhelmed by their enthusiastic response. In fact, he considers his meeting with Eric Beall to be the turning point his career. “Eric’s feedback after hearing my music inspired me to keep going as an artist,” SVOY recalls. Further affirmation came in his winning of the 2004 BMI John Lennon Songwriting Competition in New York. Yoko Ono presented him the award.

Armed with the encouragement of his mentors and peers, SVOY went back to recording and by the end of 2005 had a full-length album, titled Eclectric. He sent a copy to record label Rendezvous Entertainment and within 2 weeks, got a response back from VP of A&R, Frank Cody. “SVOY is a one-of-a-kind singer/songwriter who uses the palette of electronica to create a vivid, colorful landscape. The melodies are wrapped in complex harmonies and rhythms. The lyrics are often unexpected. We’re fortunate to have him in the Rendezvous family,” Cody states. Written, produced, and performed by SVOY, Eclectric will be released nationally on May 1st, 2007.

Now living in New York City, look for SVOY touring locally in the Northeast this spring with a West Coast tour coming this summer. Also, check out his incredible music video for “Driving Away,” directed by Dutch/German visual artists Praful and Vimal. And, of course, join him at his Myspace page (myspace.com/svoy) where he’s chronicling in his blog the transition from unsigned musician to nationally released artist.