S V O Y

From Wikipedia

Svoy is a multi-Independent Music Award winning recording and performing music artist in the genre of pop/electronica. He has three self-produced albums released via Mack Avenue Records/Sony Music Entertainment, P-Vine Records/Blues Interactions and Thistime Records, respectively. In 2009, his single "Beautiful Thing" reached #69 on the Billboard Japan Hot TOP 100 Airplay and #82 on Billboard Japan Hot 100 Singles chart. Besides remaining in top 40 and 100 airplay charts of numerous major Japenese radio networks for over 8 weeks, the song peaked at #3 on Alpha Station FM Kyoto 89.4's TOP 40 Overseas Chart. Also in 2009, Svoy's album Automatons reached #100 on the Billboard Japan Top Independent Albums and Singles chart. In 2011, Automatons and its title track were nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Dance/Electronica Song at The 10th Independent Music Awards, subsequently winning in the latter category, as well as winning IMA's Vox Populi in both categories. 10th Independent Music Awards judging panel included Seal, Fall Out Boy, Portishead, McCoy Tyner, Counting Crows, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Suzanne Vega, Jesse Harris, Tom Waits, Aimee Mann, Jonatha Brooke among other notable artists and music industry professionals. In 2004, Svoy won the BMI John Lennon Award for songwriters and received the award personally from Yoko Ono. In 2002, he won BMI Pete Carpenter Fellowship for film composers, that led to studying with Mike Post and Atli Orvarsson for one month at Post's studio in Los Angeles. Svoy is a writer/artist for Universal Music Group and a Yamaha-endorsed keyboardist/producer. He is presently residing in New York City.

Biography

Svoy is a New York-based one-man band: music, lyrics, performance, production, recording, mixing, mastering, art direction, graphic design.

Born in the Russian Far East, Svoy began taking classical and jazz piano lessons as a child. As a teenager, he moved to Moscow to experience music and life in a big city, and ended up studying with top jazz professionals in the country (including pianist Igor Bril and, the late, great composer Yury Saulsky). Svoy also won the 3rd Grand Prize at Jazz Improvizacija Solo Piano Competition in Vilnius, Lithuania, received an Exclusive Prize from the Russian Federation Academy of Composers for original instrumental composition, earned a Professional Diploma with Honors in Jazz/Classical Piano Performance and Sound Engineering from the GMUEDI Moscow State Music College, and a Degree in Jazz/Classical Piano Performance and Music Education from the elite Russian Academy of Music named after Gnessins. Both schools were attended on a full scholarship.

In 2000, Svoy got a full scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he earned a Degree in Professional Music. While in Boston, Svoy explored songwriting and production. In 2002, he won the BMI Pete Carpenter Fellowship and spent six weeks studying with Grammy and Emmy-winning TV composer Mike Post (writer of such TV themes as Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, among others) and Atli Örvarsson (composer for The Fourth Kind, Thick as Thieves, Babylon A.D., Vantage Point, Season of the Witch) at Post's studio in Los Angeles. In 2004 one of Svoy's songs won the 3d place at BMI's John Lennon Competition for songwriters in New York. The judges included legendary Grammy-winning record producer Russ Titelman (George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, James Taylor) and hit Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn. Thousands of applicants participated in the competition that year. In June 2004 Svoy received the award from BMI and Yoko Ono, personally.

While still at Berklee, Svoy began working on a number of songs that he planned to eventually have as a demo. Fascinated with many different styles of music, including electronica, rhythm & blues, rock, he experimented using a portion of each influence, when writing and producing at his home studio. Once several tracks were finished, Svoy played the new material to friends and music industry professionals, and was surprised to learn that the tracks were more than just demo-quality. Svoy went back to recording and by the end of 2005 had a full-length album completed. Self-produced Eclectric was released independently, which led to getting signed to a record deal with Beverly Hills-based label Rendezvous Entertainment (Universal Music Group Distribution), a publishing deal with Universal Music Group and an endorsement deal with Yamaha. Rendezvous released Svoy's debut record in the U.S. in May 2007 to wide critical applause.

In summer 2008, Svoy recorded 4 new versions of songs from Eclectric, and a cover of Bjork's 'Unison'. In February 2009, 5-track Consequence EP 1.0 was released digitally on Svoy's Sixteenth Republic Records. An updated version, Consequence EP 1.1 followed in December of the same year.

Svoy's second self-produced album, Automatons, was released on August 19, 2009, on Tokyo-based historic P-Vine Records, featuring collaborations with multi platinum-selling songwriter/artist Adam Levy and MTV Award-winning multi hit songwriter/artist Ilya Lagutenko of Russia's superstar band Mumiy Troll. In September 2009, album's single "Beautiful Thing" reached #69 on the Billboard Japan Top 100 Airplay and #82 on Billboard Japan Top 100 Singles chart. Album also reached #100 on the Billboard Japan Independent Albums and Singles chart. In November 2009, Svoy was granted a Permanent Resident Alien of Extraordinary Ability status in the United States. Automatons was released Internationally on November 2, 2010. In February, 2011, the album and its title track received two nominations at The 10th Independent Music Awards in Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Dance/Electronica Song categories, winning in the latter category in March, 2011. 10th Independent Music Awards judging panel included Seal, Fall Out Boy, Portishead, McCoy Tyner, Counting Crows, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Suzanne Vega, Jesse Harris, Tom Waits, Aimee Mann, Jonatha Brooke among other notable artists and music industry professionals.

Svoy's 3rd self-produced album, Grow Up, was released on Tokyo-based Thistime Records on June 22, 2011. In July 2011, it was announced that the album's opening track "Never Grow Up" was picked up for power rotation by Japan's FM Ishikawa 80.5MHz with the song debuting at #95 and peaking at #63 on the station's HOT 100 Chart. In the same month, it was announced that another track from the album, "Right Here, Right Now", was chosen for Hyper Power Play by Japan's FM Kento 76.5MHz, with an exclusive feature of Grow Up album cover artwork on FM Kento's internet home page.

On July 19, 2011, it was announced that Automatons won 10th Independent Music Awards' Vox Populi (fan-based portion of the annual awards) in both Best Dance/Electronica Song and Best Dance/Electronica Album categories.

In November, 2011, Russian version of "Never Grow Up" entitled "Navsegda" (Russian: "Навсегда") was added to rotation by Moscow's major radio network 94.8MHz RU.FM and as of January, 2012, remained in steady rotation.

© 2012 Sixteenth Republic Productions