The group "December" must be known to all admirers of rock music. Today the guys give a lot of concerts, including charitable ones, record albums and help new talents appearing on the horizon of the national stage. But their own path to fame was very long and thorny. From the very beginning of the formation of the group no one was sure of its long-term. Fortunately, tremendous efforts were made for good reason.
How was the group formed?
The initiator of the creation of the group, which would write and play music combining hard rock, punk rock and alternative rock, was Mikhail Semenov. He has made countless such attempts since 1993, but ... At best, he managed to acquaint the public with his works in clubs, and at worst in the subway.
Despite the constant activity of the team, the willingness of its members to perform anywhere and even without material gain, as well as its presence at a rather high technical level, I had to wait five long years for my first recording at the studio. The group “December” gave its first concert in February 1999, which marked its birth.
Hard steps to true fame
At the time when the group "December" was just formed, the composition of the musical group was as follows: Mikhail Semenov - songwriter, guitarist and vocalist; Alexey Afanasyev - vocalist and bass player; Igor Yuganov - guitarist; Oleg Bondarenko is a drummer.
The first years of the group’s life, the musicians worked a lot. Making and putting up posters, recording and distributing audio tapes - all this had to be taken care of by ourselves. The albums “December 1999-2000” and “December in Milk” released during this period were distributed by the guys directly at their concerts. Some of their songs became the soundtracks for the cartoon "Masyanya".
Exit to a new level
At the rock festival in St. Petersburg, the December group became a laureate twice: in 2000 and 2004. After that, she takes part in many other festivals, at one of which she is awarded the prize of audience sympathy. The group “December” recorded their first studio album entitled “Winter's Tale” in 2003. This pushed her to a completely different level.
The success was obvious when, in 2004, the song "Aerobics", owned by the group "Alice", after processing "December" for quite some time held out in the hit parade of Our Radio. Two years later, in their own hit parade, their own song “Wounds of the Earth” was held for a long time. In 2007, a similar fate befell the musical composition “Gone into the Darkness”.
The years 2006, 2007 and 2009 were marked by the release of the group's new albums: “There Will Be No Silence”, in the recordings of which the children were helped by musicians from other groups, “Through the Smoke” and “Love. War. Vera". An endless series of successful events in the life of the team led to the fact that millions were already dreaming of getting to the December concert.
Composition change
During the existence of the group, many events took place, but from 1999 to 2011, the musicians in the December collective never changed. The group began to undergo internal changes since 2011, when bassist Alexei Afanasyev left it. Instead, the bass player is taken by a member of the St. Petersburg punk band Alexander Kamensky. In this composition, the guys are releasing an album, which includes all of their best songs, entitled "December Gold."
During the same year, the December band unexpectedly lost their drummer Oleg Bondarenko, who passed away the next year due to heart disease. Stepan Krasavin sits down at the drum kit , already as a member of the December band. The group, whose songs began to quickly gain publicity, did not stop in their achievements because of the experienced shocks. In the following years, new compositions were released: “It's OK, guys”, “Fire and Ice”, “Guys Don't Cry.”
And at the end of 2015, changes again took place in the December group: now Pavel Storozhik from the Theory group took the place of Stepan Krasavin. By the way, he became the third drummer in the band. Such a replacement took place due to the desire of Stepan Krasavin to give his debt to his homeland - he joined the army.
Life within the team
The guys from the December group admit that it was not always easy for them to come to a common denominator. There were disputes and aggressive proceedings. However, now everything is not so. Either a new level of professionalism is affecting, or they have worked together, got used to and become a single organism.
In any case, the atmosphere that reigns now within the team is always friendly and working. The guys rush to rehearsal even when there is no special need for this. They are always happy to just play together. Sound engineer Leonid Sibirtsev and music producer Yevgeny Trofimov help their difficult, but grateful work.
The path to the big stage for rock musicians is especially difficult. The members of the December group were convinced of this by their own experience. At the level of their fame, they had to lay plexuses of colossal labor and patience. Their example perfectly illustrates what can be achieved if you have a specific goal, spare no effort to achieve it, and not wait for instant success.