Ilya Prusikin, the same funny mustache guy from the bright video for the song “UNO,” says in one of his interviews that the group started with an April Fool’s joke. In 2013, they made a funny video as a joke on April Fool's Day, and the video took off. The guys were noticed and even invited, as a real band, to warm up for the famous African team “Die Antwoord”. Ilya recalls that then they had neither a group nor songs, but they had a month...
In a short time, the guys united into the now famous “Little Big” both in Russia and Europe, wrote six compositions and shot the same number of videos. Prusikin admits that he did not invest a penny in promotion. They simply did what they liked: an incendiary rave, original bright videos, a little humor, and now they were at the top of the popularity ratings and charts.
Sophia
The Little Big team has changed several times over seven years. Ilya Prusikin, Sergey Makarov, Anton Lissov - this is the lineup that has been in the group since the beginning, but who “Bigam” is not lucky with is the girls. During the existence of the project, vocalists Anna Kast and Olympia Ivleva left it. That beauty we see in the “UNO” video in crazy bell-bottoms is called Sofya Tayurskaya.
She joined the team in 2014 and became part of it.
Sonya was born in Irkutsk and grew up near Arkhangelsk. From the age of six, the musical girl practiced playing the piano; at 12, serious vocal lessons began. After school, she went to St. Petersburg and entered the Institute of Culture and Arts, in the directing department. When “Little Big” started, Sonya took first place in a prestigious vocal competition in Rostov, and a year later she became the vocalist of the famous team.
History of the group
The team first announced itself on April 1, 2013. On this day, a video for the song “Every Day I'm Drinking” was posted on YouTube. It was filmed by musician and video blogger from St. Petersburg Ilya Prusikin and his friends. The “Little Big” video was filmed as a joke, so it appeared on the Internet on April Fool’s Day. The video became very popular and received more than 21 million views. It was discussed for a very long time by various critics, including abroad.
This video had both supporters and opponents. The first saw in it a good-natured satire on the surrounding reality. The latter accused the authors of denigrating the country, its culture and traditions. At the same time, there were no people indifferent to the video.
A few weeks later, the group was invited to perform as an opening act for the South African hip-hop team Die Antwoord. At that time, Little Big had only one track left, which they told the concert organizers about. They responded by saying that the musicians have exactly a month to rectify the situation. During this time, the team managed to write six songs and shoot videos for the following of them:
- We Will Push a Button;
- Life in Da Trash;
- Russian Hooligans.
As a result, the planned performance of Little Big still went according to plan on July 2, 2013 at the A2 nightclub. After this concert, the group began to be called “Russian Die Antwoord”.
On March 17, 2014, the band's first full-length album, With Russia From Love, was released. It included 12 compositions in English translation, including:
- Every Day I'm Drinking;
- What a Fucking Day;
- Stoned Monkey;
- Russian Hooligans;
- Freedom, etc.
Immediately after its release, the band began regularly organizing concert tours throughout Russia and European countries. The group visited Belgium, France, Germany, and performed on the same stage with such stars as Skrillex and Snoop Dogg. The vocalist of the group, Ilya Prusikin (Ilyich), in an interview for the UTV channel, says that the rave music performed by Little Big is very popular all over the world. Because of this, the musicians did not have to invest a penny in their own promotion. It was enough just to shoot videos that became popular in European countries.
On September 9, 2020, a video for the song “Give Me Your Money” was released. The track was recorded together with Estonian musician Thomas Tammemets, better known as Tommy Cash. Almost simultaneously, the pilot episode of the new mini-series American Russians was posted on the group’s channel.
On December 19, 2020, the band presented the public with their second album, Funeral Rave, consisting of nine tracks. It also gained popularity and in the fifty-second week of the year reached eighth position on the chart of the Russian division of iTunes. The album took fifth place on the same Google Play chart.
The video for one of the songs from the album, Polyushko Polye, was filmed with the help of the band's fans. This work combines landscapes and landmarks from various parts of Russia. People from all over the country sent in their footage. The result was a video in which more than 20 domestic cities were displayed in 4 minutes. The famous model and photographer Elena Sheidlina decided to star in the filming of another successful video, Hateful Love.
On May 21, 2020, at the Berlin Music Video Awards 2020, the group's work was awarded a number of awards. The Big Dick video clip took first place in the Most Trashy category. This video has been viewed more than 35 million times on YouTube. It gained a lot of fame due to its sexy hot imagery and subtext which is a parody of sales promotional videos.
American TV presenter and skateboarder Bam Margera noted on his website that in the video one can find references to all varieties of human sexuality - from techno beat to a huge number of naked bodies and analogies between food and sex.
In an interview with video blogger Yuri Dudya, Ilyich from Little Big explained why it was decided to shoot this video. This is due to the fact that in the videos of both Russian and foreign pop performers this topic is constantly present in order to attract additional attention and interest of the public. The team decided to exaggerate it in its usual manner in order to ridicule this option for promoting videos.
At the same Berlin festival, the Give Me Your Money video received an award. The work took third place in the Best Performer nomination.
On the eve of the fourth anniversary of its existence, the band released its fourth single, Rave On, and a video clip of the same name. On August 25, 2020, a new track Nightlife was released, which was recorded together with the electronic band from Germany Eskimo Callboy.
In March 2020, one of the band’s most famous and successful videos, LollyBomb, was released. This work raised one of the most pressing topics of that period - Kim Jong-un's threats to start a nuclear war. The video shows the Hong Kong-born actor portraying the North Korean dictator caring for his bomb, giving it gifts and even sleeping with it. In February 2020, at the major Los Angeles festival Global Film Festival Awards, this work took first place in the Best Music Video category.
Figure in bell-bottoms
The team loved the diva and affectionately named her Sosha. In the team's bright videos, fans first saw her in 2016. In one of the clips, the extravagant vocalist appeared topless, which, coupled with her beautiful voice, only added points to her.
The wonderful hourglass figure from the most famous “Little Big” video has probably already been appreciated by the whole country.
Sosha admits that maintaining this form is not easy for her. Before the first filming, she decided that she was overweight and went on a strict diet. The singer then lost ten kilograms, and now she simply maintains her figure.
Sosha is in no hurry to talk about his personal life. In an interview she jokes that she is most busy with her pet and, of course, with creative development.
Simple guy
It’s not that Tayurskaya was “married” to Prusikin, but there were, of course, such assumptions, especially after the release of their first world hit “Skibidi,” where Sosha starred in underwear. However, no sex scenes: they, of course, danced, or rather, performed that set of movements, which later became viral and was repeated throughout the country.
Ilya Prusikin
A simple guy Prusikin was born in Transbaikalia, grew up near St. Petersburg, but even after moving closer to the cultural capital he could not even think about world fame. True, it was there that he first felt like a talented guy and, as they say, “not like everyone else.” Ilya liked to shock the audience.
History of creation and composition
The history of the creation of the Little Big group begins in 2013. St. Petersburg video blogger Ilya Prusikin, known on YouTube as Ilyich, decided to make a joke on April 1st. The musician, together with his friends, came up with, recorded and posted a video for the song “Every Day I’m Drinking” online.
The video took off, immediately creating two opposing camps of listeners. Some condemned the musicians as discrediting their homeland, others saw in everything only a satire on the surrounding reality. There were no indifferent people. The group members position themselves as broadcasters, reflecting what is happening in Russian society.
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A post shared by Ilia Prusikin / Ilya Prusikin (@iliyaprusikin) on Nov 15, 2020 at 9:19pm PST
Frontman of the Little Big group - Ilya Prusikin (Ilyich)
The story about the group will not be complete without describing several moments from the biography of its frontman Ilya Prusikin. The future musician was born in Transbaikalia in 1985, but later the family moved to the city of Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg. As a child, he played in KVN and also graduated from a music school with a degree in piano. His musical career began in 2003 with participation in the emo rock band Tenkor, then in Like A Virgin, St. Bastards" and "Construktorr".
Having gone through different musical directions and having decided on his own passions in creativity by 2013, Prusikin creates “Little big” and records the first video. However, despite his popularity, the group might not have worked out. Its appearance can be considered a matter of chance and coincidence.
Little Big - Go Bananas
After the first resounding success on the Internet, the band was invited to perform as an opening act for the South African group Die Antwoord, whose concert took place in July 2013. According to fans of Ilya Prusikin’s team, Russian artists work in a similar genre of music, so it was easy for them to “start” the hall.
At that time, the musicians had 1 song ready. In the month remaining before the event, 6 new compositions were born, which were performed in the capital's A2 club. The public received the group with a bang, forcing the guys to finally believe in themselves and move on.
Then the team included: frontman Ilya Ilyich Prusikin, sound producer, DJ Sergei Gokk Makarov, soloists Olympia Ivleva, Sofya Tayurskaya and vocalist Anton Lissov (Mr. Clown).
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A post shared by Ilia Prusikin / Ilya Prusikin (@iliyaprusikin) on Mar 2, 2020 at 10:34pm PST
The composition of the Little Big group for 2020: Anton Lissov, Sofya Tayurskaya, Ilya Prusikin and Sergey Makarov
At first Anna Kast performed in the group, but she left, and Sofya Tayurskaya was taken in her place. At the beginning of 2020, Olympia left. The singer decided to start her own business projects - producing peanut butter and creating lingerie. The girl also starred in the feature film.
At the moment, its leader Ilya Prusikin, as well as Anton Lissov, Sergei (Gokk) Makarov and Sofya Tayurskaya are appearing on stage as part of the group. Alina Pyazok remains the permanent music video director of the group.
Unknown to anyone
However, he did not come to music right away. At first, the boy was seriously interested in sports, including baseball, which suddenly became fashionable for boys along with American films in the 90s. Later, a guy with a good sense of humor and a writer’s instincts began to study KVN, and only then got into a music school.
But even having discovered a creative streak in himself, he was in no hurry to connect his life with music or the stage, but perceived it as a hobby. After school, the guy studied to become a psychologist, but he understood that this was not his calling. He applied his creative thoughts in various informal groups, where he himself wrote songs and sang, but remained unknown to anyone.
Tin wedding
And now the era of the Internet has come. Prusikin had not yet looked towards music, but he already understood that he could do a show on YouTube. One project, a second, and now, April 1, 2013... however, we have already talked about this.
While Ilya was looking for himself, his personal life was slowly building itself.
For example, immediately after university he got married. Out of great love and for the most ordinary kindergarten teacher. The woman lived with a creative and cheerful, but such a good-for-nothing husband for ten whole years - during a period when he could not use his creativity.
Ideas were in the air, but how to materialize them? Prusikin could not get a permanent job. Even if he earned money, he brought home pennies. Having made it to the tin wedding, the wife simply could not stand the constant lack of money and Ilya, who could not realize himself. The couple divorced.
Brave
And quite a bit later, Ilya met the famous performer Irina Smelaya, who, appreciating his potential, encouraged the guy to promote himself on the Internet. The cute brunette became the artist’s engine, his muse and his second wife. The couple had a son, Dobrynya.
Relatives say that in life Ilya is not at all an eccentric eccentric. He is a kind and very professional person who made “Little Big” not out of thin air, but based on his deep knowledge of psychology and, of course, creativity.
Biography of the group "Little Big"
The group “Little Big” is the brightest and most extraordinary phenomenon on the modern Russian music scene. The powerful rave energy in Little Big’s work is supported by a carefully thought-out image of the participants, satirical texts with “cranberries” (editor’s note) and references to popular culture, and each video of the group is a masterpiece that deserves special attention. Although for a long time she had to disown the label of “Russian “Die Antwoord””, the group still proved its originality.
Little Big is loved far beyond Russia
The team owes much of its success to frontman and ideological inspirer Ilya Prusikin, better known in the Internet space as Ilyich, who was recognized as the most influential character on Russian YouTube at the end of 2020. “There are no more beaten people than us,” is how the musician characterizes his brainchild.
