AKADO is a group that has been excited for many years by the hearts of fans around the globe, actively touring and publishing new material, as well as captivating critics with its unique image developed by Nikita Shatenev. The biography of this man is as original as his music, and anyone can envy his hard work, talent and perseverance.
Biography
Nikita Shatenev was born on February 24, 1987 in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, in the family of a budding rock star and a fan of his group. 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 by the creative sphere, since his childhood passed in the atmosphere of his father's continuous tours, family musical gatherings with famous personalities of Finland, as well as his first attempts to create songs himself, which was facilitated by the unique musical ear revealed by the teachers.
At the age of 15, Nikita moved with his family to St. Petersburg, dispelling standard stereotypes about Russia in his mind, and trying to assemble his first school group, while preparing documents for permanent residence in a new country for him.
early years
In 2001, Nikita collects his first group, giving her a sonorous name - "Blockade". The tunes recorded with talented classmates served as the basis for the group's debut album, called "Quiet Genealogical Self-Expression." The album was released on cassettes on its own, in a small print run of five hundred copies, and sold out in no time, providing the group with local popularity, as well as making Blockade a regular guest of low-budget festivals and concerts with other groups.
An interesting feature of the collective that the listener liked so much was the skillful combination of youth movements and rock music: recitative and beat melody were actively used together with heavy riffs. It was this scheme in the creation of songs that would later bring great success to the new brainchild of Nikita Shatenev.
AKADO
In the spring of 2003, Nikita Shatenev received Russian citizenship and remained for permanent residence in St. Petersburg. Having decided on a new home, the young man decides to create a serious group on the basis of the Blockade and devote his life to musical art.
All summer Nikita develops a new name, logo and image of musicians for a future project.
The original name of the “Blockade” group was edited and turned into a new word - AKADO, which means the “red path” in Japanese culture, that is, a difficult road full of trials. He is assigned the Japanese characters "red" (Japanese 赤 aka, "red color") and "path" (Japanese 道 michi or do, "road", "way").
However, despite a similar interpretation of the name of the group, Nikita recommends that each person put their own meaning into it.
The process of determining the musical style of the future collective did not take much time: Nikita immediately headed for modern rock music in Japan, choosing visual rock as the main genre for the project, and ordered an individual costume according to his own sketches.
So the band AKADO arose, which later became the legend of the Russian alternative scene.
Form
In various interviews, Nikita Shatenev repeatedly said that the visual part of creativity is almost more important than the musical, and in any case, it needs to be paid great attention.
The image of the androgyne was first demonstrated by Nikita in 2004, when the group began an active concert activity. This choice was determined not only by Nikita’s personal desire, but also by commercial considerations that were fully 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 of Russia at that time was rather monotonous, and the appearance of the bisexual vocalist at first shocked both the audience and colleagues in the genre, however, this image became the memorable visiting card 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 masculine and feminine principles in any person.
Popularity
2007 brings the group incredible popularity thanks to the release of the mini-album Kuroi Aida, which includes three songs and a generalized remix - Oxymoron.
Nikita makes a difficult commercial decision - to put the album on the Web for the sake of popularizing the team on the Internet. And the decision bore fruit - for an day the album was downloaded 30,000 times only from the official site, not counting cases of piracy.
Further, Nikita Shatenev, whose biography is beginning to interest both fans and music publications, understands that now the group has no right to take the wrong step in its development or to release low-quality material. In this regard, a number of replacements are taking place in the composition, and also Shatenev 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 the video for the song “Bo (l) ha”, and also goes on a long tour of the CIS countries.
The whole year passes incredibly intense. Endless concerts, interviews and photo shoots for leading music publications exhausted the musicians, as a result, before the recording of their debut album, due to creative differences, all the participants left the group, leaving Nikita alone.
"AKADO" is a group that always consisted of one person, which its leader soon proved
Shatenev gives himself a five-month leave of absence, after which he turns to the production center of Diagilev Production, reserving the duties of the artistic and musical director of the group.
In 2008, Nikita recruits a new line-up for AKADO, and also selects the best of the available material, and the updated team starts recording a full-fledged debut album, and will present a new program at a Moscow concert in the spring. In addition to the new program, the AKADO soloist, Nikita Shatenev, developed a conceptual image for all participants, as well as models of stage behavior, thereby turning AKADO concerts into a theater show.
The studio activity of the group was marked by an agreement with the recording studio Uniphonix, which allowed AKADO to release their new mini-album Oxymoron No. 2, as well as to shoot the clip of the same name.
The new release entered the top ten different rock charts, allowed the group to play a concert for the first time on television in Moscow, as well as go on a Join The Oxymoron Tour 2008-2009 tour, which consisted of three parts and covered more than 30 cities of Russia and neighboring countries.
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 reached the final in the nomination “Discovery of the Year”.
- In 2009, AKADO became the official Russian representative and leader of the American youth 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 amp manufactured by TC Electronic, Denmark.
- In the same year, AKADO received the prestigious Moscow Alternative Music Awards 2009 (MAMA) in such nominations as Opening 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
In her free time from creating music and producing the group, Nikita Shatenev Shein 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. The list of inalienable matters in the musician’s life includes fishing and cycling, which help to relax after hard work in the studio.
Personal life
Nikita Shatenev, whose personal life raises the questions of many journalists and the genuine interest of fans, is used to not talking about his family affairs. Throughout his life, being under close attention and being a media personality, he never mentioned his love relationship, nor was he seen with any of the fair sex.
Obviously, a musical career is a priority activity in the life of Shatenev, and he does not plan to be distracted by creating a cozy family home in the near future.