The musical group "Mandry" was created as a hub (or creative laboratory) in 1995-1997. At first, these were Thomas Chanson slide projects.
Sergey Fomenko (author) wanted to show that there is another kind of chanson, not similar to the blat-pop genre, but which resembles European chanson.
We are talking about songs about life, love, and not about prisons and scary stories from the Russian "outback". It was an experiment of real Ukrainian chanson.
The Early Years of the Mandry Group
In early childhood, Sergei Fomenko wanted to become either an artist or a driver. Already in his teens, the guy learned to play the guitar and button accordion, then he began to compose songs on his own.
Sergei finally matured only at the age of 23, then he realized what he would do in life. At that time, he liked the "dinosaurs" of domestic rock, among which were the groups "Vopli Vidoplyasova" and "Brothers Gadyukin".
Team building
Once amateur musicians, who often gathered in the apartment (for parties) and played different instruments, were heard by a diplomat, who called the guys to a diplomatic reception with a request to play a few songs at the event.
The guys only needed to come up with a name for the team. Among the options, Sergey and the children liked the word “mandry” the most. Since that time, this name has been assigned to the team.
For their performance, the guys received $ 50, which they divided among 20 people. After a successful performance, the musicians were actively invited to perform at various events.
As it turned out, very good texts were written in Ukrainian then. But it was almost impossible to hear Ukrainian songs on the radio, since most of the performer's environment was Russian-speaking, and the songs were sung only on it.
But the young musician wanted to be unique, and he created songs in Ukrainian. Sergei even began to speak it every day.
However, the singer did not receive significant support from the "fans" at that time, everyone was surprised, because most of his songs sounded great for the general public and in Russian.
Group members:
- Sergey Fomenko - songwriter, guitarist;
- Sergey Chegodaev - bass guitarist;
- Salman Salmanov - percussionist;
- Leonid Beley - accordionist;
- Andrey Zanko - drummer
Over the years, the musician learned not only to write songs in Ukrainian, but also to perform them professionally. Just for this, a wide audience appreciates his work today.
Music collaborations
When Sergei Fomenko liked musical groups and singers, he himself called them and offered cooperation.
For example, string quartets such as Asturias took part in some concerts. The quartet consisted mainly of fantastic girls. He was the best among many Kyiv groups.
The musician began to collaborate with the quartet during the recording of the song "Don't Sleep, My Native Land", and then they continued to play together at concerts.
How did Fomenko create video clips?
Sergey Fomenko was involved in the main concepts and was the creative director, director of all video clips for musical compositions.
Meanwhile, he said that he did not edit video clips. However, he tried to show visually how he feels them.
For some time, the group collaborated with clip makers who could not understand what Sergey wanted from them. But once Fomenko was the operator of a life clip for the Tartak group, and soon he liked it.
Then he himself became the director of the songs "Carpathian Song" and "Chereviki". Interesting video clips were created for almost all songs.
In 2014, the group actively took part in the Orange Revolution, they often came with concerts to front-line actions, which was a significant support not only for the military, but also for musicians. The team came to the east to perform more than 23 times.
Later, Sergei was the promoter of the exhibition, which talked about the heroism of people on the Maidan.
In 2017, the famous Ukrainian band "Mandry" celebrated 20 years since its inception. In honor of the anniversary, the musicians released the album "An Hour to Fly".
Mandry group today
More recently, it became known that the last album of the Mandry group was practically a bestseller and took eighth place in Ukraine.
Today, Fomenko works not only on songs, but also does business, and is also a producer of many projects. He says that he does not have enough time for songs now, but he still loves to make music and create appropriate video clips for it.
Sergey is also involved in charity work and takes part in charity concerts.
