by Major Moment
Major Moment is a fairly new band, but already has plenty of stories to be told. Uniting members born on four different continents, and speaking different languages, in Boston, MA in early 2017, coming from different backgrounds, the band is disrupting the steadily declining rock music scene with their heavy guitar riffs, emotional lyrics, melodic vocals, and multi-layered synth pads.
Listen to Major Moment’s first single while reading the text.
Born and raised in a suburban Russian city, mostly known for the meteor that struck it in 2013 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor), Andrey Borzykin (vocals | rhythm guitar) was on the way to obtaining a degree in law, but quit just before a senior year, and moved to United States to pursue different life goals.
“Looking back at it now, it seems crazy and reckless, but I didn’t have a single doubt about it, even though I had no idea what I was doing” – shares Andrey – “It wasn’t scary, it was an exciting adventure I was taking on, everything felt like an RPG video game where you have to develop your character, perform certain quests, tasks, go through some trial and error to collect certain achievements. Except those were real-life mistakes, but also real-life achievements. Growing up, you could find me jumping around our apartment, singing songs, pretending I was a rockstar performing on stage. In the early 2000s a wave of western alt.rock swallowed me, inspiring me to improve my English skills by translating and singing back lyrics, trying to imitate the originals. One particular band that has made a huge impact on my life was Linkin Park…”
When the American dream is not enough…
In 2006, Andrey moved to Boston to pursue his music career dreams, but the harsh reality of an immigrant’s life quickly took over, and music had to take a back seat for a while.
“I had to establish my life from scratch. With no connections or friends’ support to fall back on, I had to find solutions to the most basic problems: employment, housing, transportation, etc. I was also making long-term goals, hoping that one day I would save enough money to afford not to worry about my day job and to finally start making music. Years went by, I switched a dozen of jobs, built several businesses, and some people could say I’ve made it, but in the back of my mind I kept cherishing my interpretation of the American Dream, the one where I make a living off my music…”
Coincidences are not accidental
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Alexandra ‘Sasha’ Razumova (Vocals), was living in Moscow, Russia, and had stable work as a tennis coach. Being a professional tennis player her whole life, Sasha knows what it takes to break through in this world: a lot of work, persistence, some support, but most importantly, a strong belief in your success.
Sasha recalls:
“Since early age I had to wake up early in the morning (which I hate, btw), practice for 3 hours straight, then we had about an hour-long fitness training before lunch, then some rest, and 2-3 hours of practice in the afternoon. And this whole process repeats every day for the whole week, except Sunday. Fun times. And I loved it! Because you could see the result of this work the next day, and then at the next tournament. It wasn’t always positive, so I had to keep my emotions in check at all times, and keep the sharp focus on my goal.
Music was a huge part of this routine, especially Linkin Park with their powerful sound and emotional lyrics. Unfortunately, (or fortunately!) at some point, even though my ranking in WTA was still pretty good, things got seriously out of control. At the same time, I got injured, my sponsor has tragically died, and I had to part ways with my coach. It’s like somebody was trying to tell me I’m doing something I’m not suppose to, so I decided to quit professional sport.
It was the hardest time of my life, it was like somebody came and stole everything you’ve had, and burnt it. And that person is you! But I had to do something. That’s when I finally started to work on my vocals, because I always loved singing. I would annoy the hell out of my parents and friends singing everything that was on the radio! But I couldn’t imagine my life without tennis, so naturally I started teaching. And I still absolutely love doing that.”
Another thing Sasha is passionate about is traveling. You can imagine how many different countries a professional athlete can visit during their career, so even after she quit, the love of traveling kept driving her to different places and continents.
“It’s funny, because in 5 years of my pro career, I’ve never visited the United States. I have even received multiple invitations from the tennis academies around here, but I’ve never considered this as an option. On the other hand, I was curious to explore it, so when my friend invited me for a trip to the east coast, I jumped right in.”
This friend at that time was an admin of the biggest Linkin Park Community in Russia and was an online friend of Andrey as well, so he agreed to host them. When they finally arrived in Boston for just three days, Andrey and Sasha met for the first time. Who knew where it all would go after that…
“We had such a great time together! Being born in the same country, having a very similar musical taste, we were definitely on the same page. On our last day of staying at Andrey’s apartment, he pulled out his acoustic guitar and started playing one of Linkin Park tunes, and of course I started singing. It was so special and memorable, that I think this little moment definitely played a big part in our relationship. The next morning, when me and my friend were driving back to NYC to catch our flight back home, he asked me sarcastically, – “So when are you coming back?”, and of course I laughed, but little did I know, that in less than a year I would move in to Andrey’s apartment in Boston, and then 4 years later would join his rock band! It’s INSANE!”
A sad catalyst
“I finally got fed up with procrastinating in early 2017, joined a cover band as a vocalist and started to work on some of my original ideas. Rock music was (still is) at its all time low, and I seriously miss some new heavy-hitting tunes that my teenage years were full of. But there was also another catalyst that made me the person I am today. The news of Chester Bennington passing on July 20th hit both me and Sasha really bad”
– shares Andrey –
“after the initial shock effect faded away, I’ve made the decision to quit my business and invest all my resources in making music. We took this terrible tragedy as if it happened with our family member, mainly because of the impact Linkin Park have had on our lives, on how our destinies intertwined.
While going through this, I came to a simple realization that tomorrow is not a given, and I better start working on something that I’m passionate about now rather than wasting my energy on things that don’t matter to me in the long run. Going through grief, I also needed an outlet to be able to express myself through, to help me cope with this tragedy, to take it and make something positive out of it, anything. So music, once again, became it. Only this time I was the one making it.”
We got tired of waiting for the music we wanted to hear, so we wrote it!
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