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Person: Denis Shaforostov
Denis Shaforostov is a founding memeber of the band Make me Famous
He founded the band at the age of 18
Became famous via Internet
making covers on his favorite performers
His Youtube channel makes 50 thousands subscribers
In an unprecedented way the band Make me Famous
from the CIS gained a staggering success
Crossing the country several times with their live concert tour,
the band got an impressive fan support
Having released their first single
the band signed with an American independent label
Sumerian Records
Their debut video on "Make It Precious"
has reached 1,5 million views on Youtube for the first month
The band held more than 200 concerts and was on 7 tours in the US and Canada
Shared the stage with Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance, Asking Alexandria
and others
The debut album "It's Now Or Never"
hit the American Billboard charts in several categories
Top Hard Rock Albums - #13
Top Independent Albums - #26
Top Rock Albums - #37
The Billboard 200 - #15
In late 2012 Denis quits Make me Famous on personal grounds
and comes back to Ukraine
At the moment he is getting ready to come up with material
for his new band
How did you take up playing music?
When I started attending a first class at school
my parents took me to the music school to play piano
I guess 9 months later
with a wild hair up my *** I quit it
Again at the age of 10
I was made to take up playing guitar
Being challenged, I mastered it though with Satisfactory grades
My genuine interest in music appeared, I guess when I aged 14-15
I listened to Slip Knot, Marilyn Manson sort of that
Then I came up with Metalcore
and that's actually where all seems got started from: Parkway Drive
all this time I'd been into guitar practicing
and wanted to find a proper band where I could share my ideas and let them work
And that is how I got into my first one
It was called Dance Red Drops
We performed sort of some time
When I just entered the university
by chance i bumped into the band Origami public group in Internet
and spotted they were missing a guitarist
so I sent my videos
and in a week max
I'd been in Russia already
Having played for a couple of months
I figured out in fact
there were nothing left for me to expect there
I set a target - move to the US, want to play music there, yeah and that's it
So I started to write music
Told parents
I would not attend university, heh
Came back home and just started to write music
and learned how to do mixing, recording
and somehow I came up
with my first successful band Make me Famous
What were the first steps of Make me Famous?
When the first demos were recorded
I aimed to get
that trendy guest vocals that possess top notch American performers
I guess I can't remember who I chanced to write
But eventually I got responses from Attack! Attack! and Jonny and Frank
and Tyler Carter
Well, actually, everything happened in a simple way
I found their Facebook page
and wrote them directly, they are the same normal persons as we are
they check their emails, reply on offers they might be interested in, let's say
Right after we got approval with our first west vocal
I got into searching for people
well, who could help me with sound recording
As I was short for money then
All I could have done and I was 17 that time
I spent on equipment
and we all just got into recording process
of the whole bunch of songs we've already had
instrumentals and putting vocals softly step-by-step
We were doing that by ourselves, carried out recording sessions at home in my room
decided that we are ready to come in full force
and the first true stuff that made a statement was Make It Precious
Truly, after it was released, everything chanced to happen
in 2-3 weeks
If I'm not mistaken,
the very first day made about 200 thousands views
Everything went so fast that we did not actually expect it
Offers were coming from everywhere, like various management companies
In fact, that was a funny story
The first management to contact us was the one of Memphis may fire
The second one - Outerloop and at the same time Danny Worsnop, the vocalist of Asking Alexandria
Looking at the options we had
we decided to pick Outerloop
We had sort of 35 or 40 thousands Likes on our Facebook
I really do not remember
Every day we added about 300 or 500 subscribers
Lots of buzz kept going on very well
Everyone was waiting for news
In fact, we went on to record the album
with all the new songs
and then there started
as they call it in the US - Label shopping
The management company simply took our press-release
and started sending offers to the labels
Well, to be honest
we had enough offers and without label shopping
We were in a great demand
The labels got rival to make an offer
We received such offers
that actually no other band in this genre had a chance to get
We opted Sumerian records
With their lucky ticket that goes on and its stunning success named Asking Alexandria
The way they made their literally striking break-in
and generally to this genre, this business
and how they were taking huge steps in its restless pace
played a significant for us
Watching that
we got the message: it has a reason for that, sort of
that the label actually puts an effort to it, knows the business
what is right and knows better
plus the terms were amazing
and beside that the owner of the Label owns a booking agency as well
if not the most rated existing agency that works in this genre
So if we sign with the Label
we get a contract with the booking agency automatically
Naturally, it meant the best tours in this genre
In turn, the Label set a target
to finish recording the album as fast as we could
and we got booked right away
the early winter
We got fully ready, got visas - P1 visa category
these are the visas for performing artists and entertainers
I think everyone who are into the creative business
they all should get this type of visa
Tickets expenses were covered by Label - it was put in our Contract
We just came to the US
and started practicing
Was it hard to tune to the US life?
As a matter of fact, it was not difficult that much
quite interesting, you know like you
find yourself in your favorite movie
well, yeah, everything differs, the mindset is naturally foreign
people are just people, but stay aliens somehow
though it's kinda funny to be honest, interesting
People are so not like each other in different states
When we moved there, everybody spoke English more or less
on different levels
But everyone mastered language quite fast
it was not challenging enough
In a word, 2 or 3 months and everybody spoke English effortlessly
We had obligations
we came to finish our album records
I was fully engaged into album, taking final steps there
as we were approaching to final, the process was getting too ***
We were putting final touches in hotels
and in our fans' apartments while touring
yeah, remember we were just finishing our track there
in a tour bus I recorded the vocal
and yeah i was mixing some tracks
Where did you have a chance to be on tour?
There were 6 or 7 tours, I do not remember exactly
Each of them is like a new life
bunches of new people, friends
just really overwhelming and crazy emotions
crazy memories
In fact, if to take the whole my staying in the US
the tours
we went trough all the country - from coast to coast
got permitted to Canada visa free, heh
we got a free access there just on a few days
there we had about 3 or 4 performances
What is special about the US tours?
Of course we had not a thought that any band should have its own complete set of backline
and you have only 10 minutes for the backline change
You get no check in fact
Only headliners got the check
The rest got a line check - its when you have 10 minutes to get your equipment ready
So you actually hide behind the screams that are fixed in front of you
to check your sound
The first song - and everyone gets tuned
We couldn't cover expenses on technical support,
sound director during our first 2 tours
that is why somehow we were managing all the process by ourselves
What are the bands you shared the scene?
The bands that we were on tours with
specifically on tours
not on the selective performances
Well, I See Stars
A Skylit Drive
For Today
Attila
The Word Alive
Suicide Silence
Umm...There so much of them
lots of them, really
Just to recall this whole thing at once
If I try to think about the selective performances
they happened to be in a way of like festivals
Shared the stage with such guys as
Bon Jovi
My Chemical Romance
Foo Fighters
So there were many of them, truly legendary ones
And from our genre - Asking Alexandria
We held numbers of festivals with them
Well, there were lots of them
If you want you can look through Make me Famous tours
easily browse all of them
Any shows, posters they are all available in Internet, you can find anything you want
What are the bands you became close friends with?
To me A Skylit Drive, I See Stars and Betraying the Martyrs were the best to get on with easily
These are like Top 3 if to choose
If you mean chatting, yeah, of course
mostly were hanging out with those who wanted, felt free and easy
nobody actually turns up nose there
simply come up, shake hands and talk
We are all normal people
What were the funniest stories on tours?
The loudest tour memories, oh well, were the most *** and craziest
I'd rather say the most cruel ones
like when our bass player was all geezed up
and all our All Stars tour crew from our summer tour
just all 30 bands, the crew and each one in particular
had been searching for him
and in two hours he was found on the field
he'd been sleeping with his pants down, heh, near a puddle and mud
and that is actually one out of other stories that usually get the *** end
Endorsement
I fact, everything is much simpler than it seems
If there is so much buzz around your name, your band and so on
for example, we got equipments supply from Schecter from the very beginning
each one got 2 free guitars
The next company we endorsed was Peavey
these guitar stacks
plus the sound was great! you know, heh
It all depends on how pushy you are as well
Because, for example
we changed Schecter endorsement for ESP Ltd after all
It was then in All Stars tour in Los-Angeles
I met ESP people in person
thanks to a press guy from Sumerian Records
He just come up and said:
Here is the man from this company, the man out there - from that one and so on
than says this man's from ESP
and I was like ok, let's go
take me to get with him
he came up and so we met had a chat
so and how people normally come to settle business stuff?
Let's go to bar, heh
a few shots
and the talk moved on much easier
and so with no hesitation in a Russian manner I say
Dude,
all my life I had a dream to be ESP endorser
since 15 years I'd been with my dear ESP's Horizon
Remember, I begged my father like this
on my knees to buy it for me and so on
All my life I dreamed to play so help, come on!
No problem, deal
so that's actually how we got endorsement ESP Ltd
An in a couple of weeks we received
2 guitars per a person as well
How did you came up with such a success in Youtube?
Often I get asked
whether I was doing this on some purpose
to draw the US audience and so on
Honestly, watched people making covers
and then the uploaded videos
I don't know I always liked to play songs of my favorite performers
Just took my camera and started to shoot
I was uploading more and more just for pleasure
than I spotted that there's a thing
like subscribers and I figured out I made
more than 5 thousands subscribers
so somehow it reached 30 thousands mark
now it's about 50 thousands
but I really quit monitoring a while ago
about 2 years
What are you doing at the moment?
The last half of the year I kept low profile, yeah
though it doesn't mean I've been doing nothing
There were a lot of work, I wrote lots of material
absolutely of different kind
This will be something extraordinary and unlike usual Make me Famous stuff
Sure, we've all grown up and got a level up
At the moment we are about to start recording our first tracks
I'm spending all day in the studio recording vocals
In fact we are preparing a huge release
Soon we will shoot two videos
working on acoustics
It's going to happen very soon
We will make a big statement, next level
Give some advice for the aspiring musicians
The first thing you should stick to
try to put into it as much quality as possible
Do not do any discounts
if you want to achieve the true results
It's all about the usual business stuff
you have to invest in it as well
all your efforts and material stuff all the way
Put as much soul as you can, music is an art itself
and there is no need to make some schemes
write good music
and try not deceive yourself and stay true
everything has to be set on mutual understanding and genuine friendship
none of this kind of business relationships approach
It's clear that you have be responsible for everything you do
but you have to treat each other with respect
As for the real steps
first you need a single, set its release
so you get the first picture of it, put much attention to feedback
If people say there's something wrong
than it seems to be true
In fact, here might be something wrong
Try to listen
naturally to the constructive and expert critics
No way for giving a release for a full version album, yeah
This is the most foolish thing that can be done
to release EP at first, than the album
No, you have to start making buzz, warming up the interest
release one song for a start
yeah of course you want to share your stuff with everyone
but it is much more pleasant believe me
when the first track is out - and yeah it's hot
you come up with a second one - it's getting much hotter
and the third one the same way and so on
You are climbing higher
and everyone is like Come on, we are ready, give it to us, we are here
and this is the one point of view
On the other hand none of labels is going to sign you
if you drop the album
because the label aims to drop the album and make money, heh
That is the truth of life
and this is how it works!