Biography of the group “Little Big”
The Little Big group is the brightest and most extraordinary phenomenon on the modern Russian music scene. The powerful rave energy in the work of Little Big is reinforced by the carefully thought-out image of the participants, satirical texts with “cranberries” (editor’s note) and references to popular culture, and each clip of the group is a masterpiece that deserves special attention. Although for a long time she had to deny the label “Russian” Die Antwoord “”, the team nevertheless proved its originality.
Little Big is loved far beyond Russia
The team owes its success to the frontman and ideological inspirer Ilya Prusikin, better known on the Internet as Ilyich, who was recognized as the most influential character on Russian YouTube in 2016. “There are no more repulsed than we are,” the musician characterizes his offspring in this way.
History of the group
The founder of “Little Big” Ilya Prusikin from early childhood was distinguished by outstanding creative abilities, he graduated from a music school in the piano class, and as a teenager he became interested in rock. From the age of sixteen, he performed in various bands and tried a lot of musical styles, including being the frontman of the emo band Tenkorr. After school, Ilya went to study as a psychologist, which helped him master the mechanisms of media influence on the mass consciousness and delve into all the intricacies of the advertising business. In parallel, he shot video clips and collaborated with video bloggers, and soon he himself launched several original and very successful projects on YouTube.
Little Big founder Ilya “Ilyich” Prusikin
The idea of creating the Little Big group was born spontaneously, after the unexpected success of the video for the song “Everyday I’m Drinking”, which Ilyich shot together with Alina Pyazok, his faithful partner in YouTube projects. The video was shot at the highest level and ridiculed the stereotypes of Russia, but at the same time showed life in Russia without embellishment, with alcoholism, poverty, gopniks and dull rooms in communal apartments.
In such a contrast, the video received a viral effect (more than one hundred thousand people watched it on the first day, which was the best indicator for 2013), and although there was no band as such, Ilyich was offered to perform as the opening act for the South African zef group “Die Antwoord” in the St. Petersburg club A2. Just a month before the concert, the members of the newly minted band wrote six songs, which were enthusiastically received by the St. Petersburg audience.
In 2013, Little Big opened for Die Antwoord.
In a word, April 1, 2013 (the release date of the video) was the official birthday of the new musical group. In addition to Ilyich, it included Sergey Makarov, who is also the bass guitarist of the Jane Air band Gokk, Jane Air frontman Anton Lissov (it is he who wears the Evil Clown mask) and two miniature girls Anna Kast and Olympia Ivleva, who, with their height ” provoked” the name of the team. Soon, due to creative differences, Anna left the team, and Sofya Tayurskaya took her place.
The date of birth of the group is April 1, 2013
The main stages of creativity
Video clips were shot for all the new tracks, which were not inferior in outrageousness and creativity to “Everyday I’m Drinking”. Ilyich came up with the scripts for the videos, and Alina Pyazok was still the director. Thanks to this, each new clip of the band became a shocking art object that evoked a wide range of emotions among fans. For this, the band members were ready for any trick, such as eating maggots in the video for the song “Life in Da Trash”, which became one of the most expensive in the Russian segment of YouTube.
A year later, “Little Big” released their debut album “With Russia From Love”, which caused a stormy and very ambiguous reaction from the public, however, like all the rest of the band’s work.
Photo from Little Big concert
Due to the wide popularity of English-language clips on YouTube, the group became a welcome guest abroad and soon went on an international tour. Their work was especially liked by the inhabitants of France and Holland, where the musicians were invariably welcomed with a warm welcome. “Little Big” became regular participants in prestigious European music festivals, where they performed on the same stage with such world celebrities as Snoop Dogg and Skrillex.
In the photo: Anna Kast (left) and Olympia Ivleva
In 2015, the band’s second album “Funeral Rave” (funeral rave) saw the light, which alerted the band’s fans with its name. Many thought that in this way the musicians were hinting at the end of their creative activity, but Ilyich quickly dispelled these assumptions. He said that this is how their musical style was dubbed in the foreign press, and in the nearest plans of the group “pump” the whole world and make them talk about themselves in all corners of the planet.
Frame from the clip “From Russia With Love”
Two very extravagant videos for songs from this album were noted at the Berlin Music Video Awards: the video for the song “Big Dick”, which is ironic over modern pop culture, is distinguished by hypertrophied sexual overtones, and “Give Me Your Money”, which could be described in one phrase – “rural luxury”. This was followed by a bright clip “Hateful love”, in which photographer and model Elena Sheidlina took part.
Elena Sheidlina in the video “Hateful love”
It is worth noting the music video for the song “LollyBomb”, the central figure of which was the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. According to the plot, he falls in love with a nuclear warhead, goes on dates with her, has sex, but their love story ends tragically. The audience was struck by the similarity of the actor, a native of Hong Kong, with the President of the DPRK. The video won the Berlin Music Video Awards for the most trashy video and the Global Film Festival Awards for best video. In 2018, the musicians recorded another album, Antipositive, which is a wild mixture of rave, hardcore, punk and rap. A music video was shot for the song “Punks Not Dead”, which was watched by about three million people in a month. On April 1, 2018, Little Big turned 5 years old. On the birthday of the group, Olympia posted a farewell post on Instagram. She left the group because, according to her, she realized that she gave this project everything she could, and she needed to move on. “I’m not a rock star. … This is not my story, ”the girl claimed.
Little Big approached its fifth anniversary with a solid baggage of three hundred concerts in Russia and abroad, fourteen clips, each of which scored millions of views on YouTube, and three full-fledged studio albums, distinguished by their bright individuality and originality.
The group operates under the auspices of its own label, Little Big Family, under whose banner a talented team has gathered, capable of generating creative ideas for creating new musical projects, as well as video products of a commercial nature. So, recently Ilyich has been actively promoting his wife Irina Bold (Tatarka), who became popular thanks to the video for the song “Altyn” and filming in Samsung advertising.
In October 2018, the second part of “Antipositive” was released, which included 7 songs, including the dance hit “SKIBIDI” and a new hit with Tommy Cash “Follow me”.
Discography
- With Russia From Love (2014)
- Funeral Rave (2015)
- Antipositive, Pt. 1 (2018)
- Antipositive, Pt. 2 (2018)
little big now
On March 3, 2024, it became known that Little Big will represent Russia at Eurovision with the song “Uno” in an expanded line-up: with Yuri Muzychenko from The Hatters and Florida Chanturia from Leningrad. The video won the hearts of foreign listeners and collected more than 20 million views in record time. The audience was especially touched by the well-fed young man from the music video, whom the band, having heeded the requests, promised to take with them to the Netherlands.
However, the fate of the competition this year was in doubt due to the coronavirus epidemic. On March 18, the Eurovision organizers announced the cancellation of the event.
