Sergio Galoyan talks with George Shilling at London's Townhouse Studios
We caught up with Sergio at Townhouse Studios, London, and George Shilling asked Sergio about his unique talents and his unusual route in to making records.
Sorry for the poor audio on this video.
Sergio Galoyan, record producer, artist and recording engineer is best known for his work with Tatu but has recently been working with the Prodigy and Marilyn Manson.
Born in Moscow on Christmas day 1981, Sergio Galoyan grew up surrounded by music. His father was a lead guitarist in a band that specialized on Western Rock & Pop classics. While being influenced by the music his father was playing, including songs by legendary bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Queen and the Beatles, Sergio was also exposed to classical music. However, it was when a friend gave him the Metallica album “…And Justice For All” that his life started changing.14 year old Sergio was inspired: he started taking guitar lessons from a Jazz guitarist Dmitry Maloletov, a legend of its kind in Russia, known for creating ‘2-hand tapping’ (a revolutionary way of playing electric and acoustic guitars). Dmitry still regards Sergey to be one of his most talented students.
After 2 years of studying the guitar Sergio discovered DJ-ing, and was offered an opportunity to spin records at a local club. The experience introduced him to the House & Dance music from the mid nineties including hits by the likes of Daft Punk, Underworld, Prodigy, Faithless, Mouse T, Basement Jaxx, Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim. Soon Sergio set up his own band called The Noise, where he became the lead guitarist.
While The Noise was enjoying exposure on Moscow’s club scene, Sergio realized he was missing House and Dance rhythms and began working at home, producing his own Dance tracks using simple equipment and limited resources. Some of these early tracks were picked up by a cult Moscow dance station Station 2000. By the end of 1999 Sergio wrote and produced about 3 albums worth of material that frequently got airplay on Station 2000. His tracks became a bit of a phenomena in Moscow and soon caught the attention of the people at the studios of the renowned Russian producer Vladimir Osinsky, who immediately put him in contact with manager Ivan Shapovalov, a manager working with an unknown at the time girl duo Tatu.
Convinced about the songs Sergio demonstrated, Ivan Shapovalov asked him to write and produce for the girls’ first single “Ya Soshla S Uma” which became a massive #1 hit in Russia September 2000. Sergio is also responsible for writing and producing the 2nd single, “Nas Ne Dogonyat”, the 3rd “Pol Chasa” and two more tracks, “Pokaji Mne Lubov” and “Malchik Gay”. Al of the songs written and produced by Sergio were featured on the highly successful album “200 Po Vstrechnoy” released by Universal Music Russia, selling several million copies in the Russian Federation alone.
Following huge success in Russia, the album was licensed by Universal Music to Interscope Records in the US. The prolific producer Trevor Horn was commissioned to do the English translations resulting in the songs written and produced by Sergio, such as “All The Things She Said”, “Not Gonna Get Us”, “Show Me Love”, “30 Minutes” and “Malchik Gay” being included on the international release "200 KM/H In The Wrong Lane". The album subsequently became the biggest selling debut release by a Russian Pop act in the history of music selling more then 4.000.000 copies worldwide (not including Russia).
Come 2004, Sergio is truly part of global music history. Besides being responsible for unique, immediately recognizable musical style of t.A.T.u., he has already been working with other internationally renowned and highly respected artists like Keith Flint (Prodigy), Marilyn Manson, Jennifer Lopez, new UK girl group CLEA and Russian superstar Alsou. His remixing skills haven't gone unnoticed either and in 2005 Sergio has written and Produced 6 tracks on the new t.A.T.u. album – “Dangerous and Moving”.
Special thanks to Scott Mathews for the sound track and to Townhouse Studios. Check out the fab Resolution Magazine for the full article. Produced 2006 Copyright RecordProduction.com
