Nikita Shatenev (Shein), Akado group: biography, personal life, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"AKADO" is a group that has been exciting the hearts of fans around the globe for more than a year, actively touring and releasing new material, as well as conquering critics with its unique image developed by Nikita Shatenev. The biography of this man is as original as his music, and everyone can envy his diligence, talent and perseverance.

Biography

Nikita Shatenev was born on February 24, 1987 in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, in the family of an aspiring rock star and a fan of his band. Nikita's father was a rather successful musician, with fame and little authority on the music scene in Finland, and the mother of the future vocalist was a schoolgirl who met his father at a concert.

From his youth, Nikita was attracted to the creative sphere, since all his childhood passed in the atmosphere of his father's continuous tours, family musical gatherings with famous personalities of Finland, as well as the first attempts to createsongs, which was facilitated by the unique musical ear revealed by the teachers.

At the age of 15, Nikita moves with his family to St. Petersburg, dispelling the standard stereotypes about Russia in his mind, and tries to gather his first school group, while filling out documents for permanent residence in a new country for him.

Early years

In 2001, Nikita gathers his first group, giving it a sonorous name - "Blockade". The melodies recorded together with talented classmates served as the basis for the band's debut album, called Quiet Genealogical Self-Expression. The album was released on cassettes by the group's own resources, in a small edition of five hundred copies, and sold out in the blink of an eye, providing the group with local popularity, as well as making Blockade a regular guest of low-budget festivals and joint concerts with other groups.

An interesting feature of the band that the listener liked so much was the skillful combination of youth trends and rock music: along with heavy riffs, recitative and beat melodics were actively used. It is this scheme in creating songs that will later bring great success to the new brainchild of Nikita Shatenev.

AKADO

In the spring of 2003, Nikita Shatenev receives Russian citizenship and stays permanently in St. Petersburg. Having decided on a new home, the young man decides to create a serious group based on the Blockade and devote his life to the art of music.

All summer Nikita has been developing a new name,logo and image of the musicians for the future project.

The original name of the group "Blockade" was edited and turned into a new word - AKADO, meaning "red path" in Japanese culture, that is, a difficult road full of trials. It is assigned the Japanese characters for "red" (Jap. 赤 aka, "red color") and "path" (Jap. 道 michi or do, "road", "way").

However, despite this interpretation of the group's name, Nikita recommends that each person put their own meaning into it.

The process of determining the musical style of the future band did not take long: Nikita immediately set a course for modern Japanese rock music, choosing the visual rock style as the main genre for the project, and ordered an individual costume according to his own sketches.

This is how the AKADO group appeared, which later became the legend of the Russian alternative scene.

Image

In various interviews, Nikita Shatenev said more than once that the visual part of creativity is almost more important than the musical one, and in any case, it needs to be given great attention.

The image of the androgyne was first demonstrated by Nikita in 2004, when the group began active concert activity. This choice was due not only to Nikita's personal desire, but also to commercial considerations, which were completely justified, because the AKADO group was recognized as unique not only at the level of Russia and the CIS, but throughout the world.

The music scene in Russia at that time was rather monotonous, and the appearance of an androgynous vocalist at first shocked both the audience and colleaguesgenre, but it was this image that became the memorable hallmark of AKADO.

The origins of this image originate in the culture of Japan, in the images of samurai, as well as the philosophy of equality of male and female principles in any person.

Popularity

2007 brings the band incredible popularity with the release of the mini-album Kuroi Aida, which included three songs and a generalized remix - Oxymoron.

Nikita makes a commercially difficult decision - to put the album on the Web in order to popularize the band on the Internet. And the decision paid off - in a day the album was downloaded 30,000 times only from the official site, not counting cases of piracy.

Next Nikita Shatenev, whose biography is beginning to interest both fans and music publications, understands that now the group has no right to take a wrong step in its development or release low-quality material. In this regard, a number of replacements take place in the composition, and Shatenev also hires a new director for the group - Anna Shafranskaya, who has extensive experience in the music industry. A month later, AKADO is already giving concerts at major venues in the country. Two months later, the group shoots a video for the song "Bo (l) ha", and also goes on a long tour of the CIS countries.

The whole year is incredibly eventful. Endless concerts, interviews and photo shoots for leading music publications exhaust the musicians, as a result, before recording their debut album, all members leave the group due to creative differences, leaving Nikitaalone.

"AKADO" - a group that has always consisted of one person, which was soon proved by its leader

Shatenev gives himself a five-month sabbatical, after which he turns to the production center Diagilev Production, reserving the duties of artistic and musical director of the group.

In 2008, Nikita recruited a new line-up for AKADO, as well as selecting the best from the available material, and the team in the updated line-up starts recording a full-fledged debut album, and in the spring presents a new program at a Moscow concert. In addition to the new program, the soloist of the AKADO group, Nikita Shatenev, developed a conceptual image for all participants, as well as models of stage behavior, thereby turning AKADO concerts into a theatrical show.

The band's studio activities were marked by an agreement with the recording studio Uniphonix, which allowed AKADO to release a new mini-album Oxymoron No. 2, as well as shoot a video of the same name.

The new release entered the top ten of the most diverse rock charts, allowed the group to play a concert on Moscow television for the first time, and also go on the Join The Oxymoron Tour 2008-2009, which consisted of three parts and covered more than 30 cities in Russia and neighboring Abroad.

Social activities

In addition to active creativity, Shatenev and the AKADO group were seen in active social activities:

• In 2008, the group received the RAMP2008 award in the nominations: "Discovery of the Year", "Clip of the Year", "Hit of the Year" and went tofinal in the Discovery of the Year nomination.
• In 2009, the AKADO group became the official Russian representative and leader of the American youth clothing brand Iron Fist. In the same year, the band's bass player, Miomi, was selected as one of 24 bass players from around the world to test the new RH450 bass amplifier manufactured by TC Electronic, Denmark.
• In the same year, "AKADO" received the prestigious Moscow Alternative Music Awards 2009 (M. A. M. A.) in such categories as "Discovery of the Year" and "Clip of the Year".
• In 2010, Nikita Shatenev takes part in the project "Names of Russia" and takes third place in the category "Russian rock and alternative"

Hobby

Nikita Shatenev Shein, in his free time from creating music and producing a group, actively studies the culture and traditions of Japan, the Japanese language and devotes time to a detailed study of the nuances of sound recording and programming. Also on the list of integral things in the life of a musician are fishing and cycling, helping to relax after hard work in the studio.

Private life

Nikita Shatenev, whose personal life raises questions from many journalists and the genuine interest of fans, is used to not talking about his family affairs. Throughout his life, being under scrutiny and being a media personality, he never mentioned his love affairs, and was also not seen with any of the fair sex.

It is clear that a career in music is a priority inlife of Shatenev, and he does not plan to be distracted by creating a cozy family hearth in the near future.