The band was formed in 1993 in Irkutsk, Russia. First it played Hard'n'Heavy and had the name of BIG TROUBLE. After several substitutions the stuff became stable and was made up the following musicians:
ALEXANDER AIDAROV - VOCALS
MAX POPOFF - BASS GUITAR, VOCALS
VALERY SHUKEVICH - GUITARS
YURI TOMISCH - DRUMS
In May 1994 the band was awarded the prize for professional skill at Sarma-94 Festival in Angarsk. Later on in November it won Grand Prix among 25 groups at the Festival in Bratsk.
1995. The band changes the drummer for Dennis Popoff (Max's namesake) In February the group starts its so-called theatrical activity. All the musicians go in the cast of Irkutsk Pilgrim's Theater participating in the following rock-operas: The Suit, Antigona, The Murders. The Bands passion for the theater and large music forms ejected its solo creative work.
1996. This year was marked by the beginning of a close collaboration with Irkutsk State Musical Theater. The famous Russian rock-opera Juno and Avos by Alexei Rybnicov and the musical tale The Bremen Musicians by Genadi Gladkov were staged. By the New Year the band composes the rock-tale Mukha Tsokotukha with Vladimir Sokolov as a co-author.
1997. In August the premiere of the rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar by A.L.Webber took place in Russian. The performance is of a great success among critics and spectators. Being a part of the theater's cast the band goes on tour at Moscow Art Academic Theater between 31 October and 6 November. Gradually the band is returning to its solo activity in spite of being fully occupied in theatrical performances. With a broadening of the repertoire the band gives solo-concerts outside of the theater.
1998. In Spring another rock-opera The Star and the Death of Hoakin Murrieta was staged. In summer BIG TROUBLE gets the award in the nomination Mr. Drive at the international festival Baikalsk-98. The band starts working at its debut album.
1999. Irkutsk company Music Most releases Four Elementsa long awaited album in English. After having been recorded the album was presented on the stage of Irkutsk Musical Theater in May, 12. Besides their own compositions the musicians presented 4 compositions by Antonio Vivaldi from the Seasons series with the participation of the ballet troupe of the theater. This summer the band spent on tour in Kemerovo and Vladivostok. In December, during one night the drummer of the band Dennis composes and records his solo album called Drumonoid produced by Max Popoff. In the recording also took part the drummers from symphony orchestra of the Musical TheaterIgor Migunov and Pavel Rantsev.
2000. The premiere of the rock-show Stairway to Heaven took place on the stage of the theater. It included cover-versions of most famous rock compositions which became the classic of the genre. The band comes to a final decision to change the name. So BIG TROUBLE turns into STIHIYA. (ELEMENT) The musicians began to present their songs in Russian and the style converted into progressive rock. The band feels an apparent lack of a keyboardist, so necessary for such music. The summer the group spends on tour with the theater in Yaroslavl. In fall the three musiciansMax, Dennis and Valera make an instrumental project AGARTA with the participation of Irkutsk guitarist Myth. The disc called Under the same sky was recorded and released in December 2003 by Starless Records, Moscow.
2001. The band takes a permanent keyboardist Dmitry Iskсhakov and starts to work at new material. During the concerts and rehearsals a misunderstanding between Alexander Aidarov and the rest of the band emerges. In summer the band goes on tour to Voronezh.
2002. In January the band composes and together with the ballet troupe of the theater stages the rock-ballet Silver string... or where reality ends.
In spring Alexander leaves the band because of personal and creative disagreement. He is replaced by Vladimir Antipov known by his activity in the Pilgrims Theater and also taking part in the performances of the Musical Theater. In Jesus Christ Superstar he plays Judas Iscariot. In June the band records the demo called The Mazes of the way. July the group spends on the theater tour in Kiev where the performances with the band's participation have a great success.
2003. The band continues its productive work in the line-up of the Musical Theater performs actively at the venues of Irkutsk and composes the stuff for their debut album.
July - August. The band enters on recording the album (the drum parts for the album and for the ballet "Silver String" are being recorded). Up to the end of the year the band is busy with the recording. In December on the Moscow record-label "Starless Records" the Agarta's CD is released.
2004. In May the guys unite in Agarta again and on May 23rd they do the presentation of the album on the stage of the Musical Theater. Aside from the stuff off of the album the musicians play some new compositions and an improvised jam-session.
In June the drummer Denis Popoff decides to leave the band. The reason was a musical disagreement. Due to the limited time in the studio and the busyness in the theater the recording of the album lasts till July. In July - August the band with the theater is on the concert tour in Astrakhan. Denis is still on the drums. In August Alexei (BOB) Bayev becomes a new drummer. From August to November the album is being mixed. In September the band enters into negotiations about releasing the album with different Russian and Western record-labels. At the same time the band decides to change its name which due to some reasons wasn't appreciated by the musicians. After a long search everybody came to the conclusion that from January 1st the band's official name would be EXTROVERT. The album "Making the ocean awake" and the music for the ballet "Silver string... or where reality ends" will be released by the band called EXTROVERT.
2005. On January 24th on the stage of the Musical theatre the first performance of the band EXROVERT took place. The band played all songs off of their recently recorded but yet not released album and some compositions from the ballet "Silver String" featuring the theater's troupe.
In March Alexei (Bob) Bayev had time to take part in the recording of the album having sung some back-vocal parts. In April the band and a Russian record-label "Blacksmith Productions" concluded an agreement of releasing the album. The musicians immediately entered the studio to record the rest of tracks for the ballet which is to be released as an instrumental album. On May 29th the band took part in a regional rock-festival taking place in Zelenogorsk and made a hit. On June 17th the album "Making the Ocean Awake" was released. On July 2nd the band officially announced that the vocalist Vladimir Antipov had left and Boris Golik would be a substitute for him. The band at once recorded two English versions of their songs featuring Boris Golik. In August the band with the theater was on the tour in Vladivostok. On December 5th on the stage of the Musical theatre the presentation of the album "Making the Ocean Awake" took place. It was Boris Golik's debut performance with EXTROVERT. The concert had a great success and was considered to be the best of all EXTROVERT's performances. On December 14th the band quit the Musical Theater. On December 20th and 21st the last performances of "Juno and Avos" featuring EXTROVERT take place.
2006. In February the band finished recording of the English demo and starts distributing the demo package to different foreign labels together with regular concerts at the clubs of Irkutsk and other towns of the region. In March the band started to write the music for the children's musical ''Thumbelina".
On April 21 EXTROVERT permormed in St. Petersburg at the Metal Blast Festival and on April 23 the band enjoyed a great success in Moscow at the annual INPROG festival.
On May 13 the local G3 show in which Valery participated took place in Angarsk.
From June 24 to July 23 the band were on tour in Vladivostok. On Jule 2 the band played before 50 000 people at the Day of the City. Having come back to Irkutsk the musicians built their own studio for rehearsals and recording a new album. On December 13 EXTROVERT performed for the legends of rock NAZARETH who visited Irkutsk on their Russian tour. Twice during the performance Dan McCaferty was on stage with EXTROVERT.
2007. On January 3 the band entered the new studio and started recording the missing tracks for the rock-ballet SILVER STRING. By the middle of the month the recording was over, the mixing was done in February and the musicians began working on the stuff for the next album. In April the board of the Musical Theater asked the band to take part in rock-operas. From June 14 to July the band was on tour with the theater in Chelyabinsk. In addition to rock-operas EXTROVERT played a lot at the clubs and visited Yekaterinburg to give two performances in a day.
2008. The year began with a bad luck for EXTROVERT. Boris made up his mind to leave for Moscow and separate ways with the band.
THE CURRENT LINEUP:
MAX POPOFF - BASS GUITAR, BACK VOCALS
VALERY SHUKEVICH - GUITARS, BACK VOCALS
ALEX (BOB) BAEV - DRUMS, BACK VOCALS
DMITRY ISKHAKOV - KEYBOARDS
Source : http://extrovert.ru/?id=2&lng=e
