Mumiy Troll Group Net Worth

Biography of the Mumiy Troll group

The Mumiy Troll group (until 1989 – Mumi Troll) with its permanent leader Ilya Lagutenko is one of the most non-standard among the rock groups of the Soviet and then post-Soviet space. Created in Vladivostok. National fame and success came after the release of the album “Marine” (sound engineering by Chris Bundy, London). The clips “Fly away” and “Cat the Cat” (directed by Mikhail Khleborodov) became the visiting card of the “Mumiy-trolls”.

History of creation

In the 80s of the last century, it was very popular for young people to have pen pals from other countries. Ilya Lagutenko, a 13-year-old schoolboy from Vladivostok, also had such friends. The boy found the addresses of Japanese peers in the magazines brought from the voyages by sailors. Some friends sent records and cassettes of Japanese bands to the Russian friend, including the beginning heavy metal band X Japan. In addition, Ilyusha sometimes “caught” Japanese rock music on the radio waves, which he recorded on cassettes.

The desire to create something similar became the starting point for the creation in 1981 of his own rock band under the unpretentious name “Boney P” (apparently, by analogy with “Boney M”) with an English-language repertoire. The seventh-grader Lagutenko, of course, became the soloist, brothers Kirill and Pavel Babiy took over the keyboards and drums, Igor Kulkov and Andrey Barabash played the guitars. The team had the first fans and popularity, albeit “parochial”.

In 1982, having met their future producer Leonid Burlakov and, on his advice, changing the name of the group to “SHOK”, the young musicians recorded Russian-language songs, including “Chains”, “You are the Cross”. At the same time, bassist Vladimir Lutsenko and instrumentalist Alik Krasnov joined the band.

Experiments with the name continued and, finally, on October 16, 1983, the guys announced the birthday of the Moomin Troll group (the name was chosen based on the fairy tales of Tove Janson). To this day, the rock band, which later acquired the letter “y” in the name, considers this date to be the date of its foundation. In combination, this is also Lagutenko’s birthday.

The main stages of creativity

In May 1985, the Moomin Troll group went beyond Vladivostok with their debut album New Moon of April. The title song, written to the words of Leonid Burlakov, sounded on dance floors outside of Vladivostok. The Komsomol members of the university where Lagutenko studied saw political overtones in the words of the composition and connected it with the April meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and therefore recognized the collective as “socially dangerous”. Nevertheless, clips were shot for 4 songs out of 12, which were played on the air of the local Tai-Chu TV channel.

From 1987 to 1989, while Ilya Lagutenko served in the armed forces, the Moomin Troll performances ceased.

In 1990, “th” was added to the name of the group, when Lagutenko, after a not very successful concert, called the band and himself “mummies” in his hearts.

Not the best period for the whole country was reflected in rock musicians. Magnetoalbum “Do Yu Yu!” did not achieve the success that the participants had hoped for. The group retreated into the shadows again. Ilya went first to China, where he was offered the position of a commercial adviser, then to London. But such work does not bring satisfaction, and in the spring of 1996 Lagutenko began negotiations on recording the first studio album in a London studio.

The rise of Mumiy Troll began in 1997 with… the sale of the personal property of Ilya Lagutenko and Leonid Burlakov. To record “Marine” in London, considerable funds were needed, which they hardly collected crumbs to record in the famous Alaska Studios the compositions “Suddenly the trains left”, “Girl”, “Flee”, “Cat of the cat (That’s all love) “. Sound engineering was handled by Chris Bendy, who subtly felt the band’s style.

Finishing work on the album, “Mumiy Troll” performed in the “Sevaturn” program on the BBC, hosted by Seva Novgorodtsev. According to him, in the songs written by Ilya, there was a “string space”, and most importantly, philosophical emotionality was present.

Producer Alexander Shulgin also saw commercial benefits for himself, who took up the “promotion” of the album in Russia. The songs of the group sounded on the radio and on television, the clips “Flee” and “Cat of the Cat” were broadcast every day. “Mumiy Troll” held a concert tour around the country in a new line-up. Ilya Lagutenko was still the vocalist and guitarist, backing vocals were provided by Olesya Lyashenko (she worked in the group for only a year), Evgeny Zvidenny (Shift) became the bassist. Yuri Tsaler played guitars, Oleg Pungin played drums, Denis Taransky played keyboards and saxophone.

The fruitful 1997 brought the group another studio album, Caviar, which was released in the fall. It was also recorded with the participation of Chris Bendy. The lyrical tragedy of the songs included in the album and their weighted sound appealed to fans and critics. Commercial success was obvious, “Mumiy Troll” bathed in glory, collected all kinds of awards and prizes, and the concert tour “So it is necessary” lasted a year and a half.

At the height of his success, he announced that the performance at the Gorbunov Palace of Culture was the last concert of the outgoing millennium. And the entire 1999th “Mumiy Troll” as part of Lagutenko, Zvidenny, Tsaler and Pungin spent in the studios of London. As a result – a chic album “Just like mercury of aloe”, released at the very beginning of 2000.

May 2001 was marked for the group by the 12th place at the international Eurovision Song Contest, which provided Russia with the opportunity to participate in the show in the future. In addition to gaining a new large army of European fans, several foreign companies became interested in cooperation with Mumiy Troll.

All 17 years (2001 – 2017) were filled with creative success and the search for new creative ideas, which, as time has shown, have always been brought to life with brilliance. In 2012, the group went around the world on the Sedov sailboat, recorded several more studio albums, and performed in the crater of an active volcano. Then she received the MTV award in the Legend nomination, released the documentary SOS to the Sailor based on the recording of the album of the same name.

Collaborations with other artists

• Creation of the World – Mumiy Troll ft. DDT
• Run away – Mumiy Troll ft. Gosha Rubchinsky
• Utekay – Mumiy Troll ft. WuMeiGui
• Bear – Mumiy Troll ft. Zemfira
• I feel sad and light – Mumiy Troll ft. Bravo
• Marine – Mumiy Troll ft. Sila Sveta
• Brand DNA – Mumiy Troll ft. John Varvatos

Scandals

The loudest, since it was politically motivated, was the scandal around the Riga tour of Mumiy Troll. The group was accused of deliberately organizing their concert on September 1, when a rally was held in defense of the Russian-speaking schools in Latvia. Lagutenko categorically stated that such a coincidence has no hidden motives.

Once, on tour during a flight from Kiev to Moscow, the drummer of the group was mistaken for a mobile phone thief. Bassist Yevgeny Zvidenny tried to stand up for his friend, but was beaten.

In 2015, Leonid Burlakov (at that time already a former producer of the group) gave a shocking interview in which he accused Ilya Lagutenko of betrayal.

Discography

• April New Moon (1985)
• Do Yu Yu (1990)
• Marine (1997)
• Caviar (1997)
• Shamora (1998)
• Accurately mercury aloe (2000)
• Meamours (2002)
• Book Thieves (2004)
• M&A (2005)
• Amba (2007)
• 8 (2008)
• Rare earths (2010)
• Vladivostok (2012)
• SOS to a sailor (2013)
• Pirated copies (2015)
• Malibu Alibi (2016)
• EAST X NORTHWEST (2018)

Mumiy Troll group now

The songs “Flow”, as well as “Vladivostok – 2000” became the soundtracks for the film “Partner” (2017). On the playground, the guys get acquainted with Jan Tsapnik and Sergey Garmash. In the same year, the composition “Fantasy” sounded in the comedy “Grandmother of Easy Virtue”, and “Bear” and “Moshka” – in the melodrama “Bird”, where Ivan Okhlobystin and Garik Sukachev were filmed.

In January 2018, Mumiy Troll announced the renewal of the line-up. The group, in addition to Ilya Lagutenko, included Oleg Pungin (drums), Artem Kritsin (guitar), Pavel Vovk (bass), Alexander Kholenko (electronic music).

Mumiy Troll also pleased his fans: in 2018, a new studio album, East x Northwest, was released, and the singer himself starred in an advertisement for Megafon.