Childhood
Roma was born in the southern city of Taganrog in early December 1977. In addition to Roma, two more sons were growing up in the family - the eldest Eduard and the youngest Pavel. Roman’s parents were simple people: his father Vitaly worked as a turner at a factory, his mother Svetlana spent more than twenty years of her life working in a taxi, and before that she was a racing driver.
At school, Roma studied as usual, and in general was an unremarkable boy - like everyone else. He hung out in the company of friends like him, spent time as is customary among young people. And in high school I suddenly became interested in music, learning to play the guitar on my own. True, at that time nothing foreshadowed the fact that that long-haired, lanky, awkward boy would become the frontman of a pop-rock band five years later and conquer the whole country.
Biography
Roman was born into a working-class Taganrog family. His father was a turner at a large company, and his mother drove a taxi. As a child, Roma managed to live in Donetsk and Mariupol, and at the age of 16, together with his mother and younger brother, he returned to his native Taganrog. Our hero became interested in music at the age of 12 - he mastered playing the guitar and sang songs by Tsoi and Rosenbaum.
After finishing 9th grade, Roman went to study at a construction vocational school. In his last year of study he joined the musical group “Asymmetry”, created by students of the same school. At first the young man played the second guitar, but soon took the place of the soloist. Audio and video recordings of this group can still be found online.
After graduating from vocational school, Roman moved to the city of Novocherkassk, where he entered the Don College of Construction and Economics. However, the main reason when choosing a place for further study was the availability of decent musical equipment in the college. Together with his diploma from this educational institution, Roman went to Moscow. In the capital, he worked for a short time in his specialty - as a finisher in the Zurab Tsereteli Museum, which was then under construction on Prechistenka. At the same time, he did not give up his music studies and wrote his own songs.
In 2000, our hero accidentally meets the famous producer Alexander Voitinsky, founder of the Tatu group and one of the authors of the famous advertisement for Imperial Bank! Alexander highly appreciated Roman's songs and invited the young man to make a test recording. This is how the debut hit “For You” appeared, and Roman Bilyk found musicians via the Internet, founded the group “Zveri” and took the stage name “Roma Beast”.
Studies. Moscow
Many people believe that if you are an artist, then you should receive an appropriate education. However, not all artists have the necessary qualifications. Here is Roma the Beast - an absolute self-taught person. And he received his profession... at an ordinary technical school in his hometown - he studied there to become a builder, and later received the same specialty at the corresponding college. Moreover, for some time the future musician even worked in his specialty. At the same time, Roman was already seriously interested in music, began to compose and play something. And then there was a failure in love, his hometown began to seem gray and uninteresting, and Roman thought: there was nothing to lose. So, almost lightly, but full of inspiration, plans, hopes and enthusiasm, in the summer of 2000 the aspiring musician arrived in Moscow.
Childhood and youth
The future leader of the “Beasts” was born on December 7, 1977 in Taganrog. His father, Vitaly Evgenievich, a Ukrainian, was a turner, and his mother, Svetlana Borisovna, a Russian, worked as a taxi driver.
Roma the Beast in childhood and now
When Roma was 6 years old, his parents divorced. With their mother and brother Edik, who was 3 years older, they moved to the Ukrainian city of Druzhkovka, then to Donetsk. In 1986, he had a younger brother, Pavlik. from 1989 to 1993 they lived in Mariupol.
Later, in his autobiography “Rain Pistols,” Roman noted that all three children in their family were from different fathers.
Roma Zver at the presentation of his autobiographical book
At the age of 12, he became interested in music and began to master the guitar. His repertoire then consisted mainly of hits by Alexander Rosenbaum and Viktor Tsoi, and over time, songs of his own composition also appeared. At school he did not have excellent grades, but he was in good standing. Once he was even rewarded with a trip to Artek. After 9th grade, the young man entered a construction vocational school.
Roman Bilyk in his youth
At the age of 16, he returned to Taganrog with his younger brother and mother. By that time, their mother had divorced Pavel’s father, and Eduard remained on one of the collective farms near Mariupol - there he did an internship while studying to become a tractor driver, met a local resident and married her.
In his hometown, Roma continued to master the profession of a tiler at a school of a similar profile. True, a surprise awaited him there - in his group of 30 people there were only young ladies. At first, this circumstance puzzled him, to put it mildly, but then he even found its advantages in it - he sang songs about love to his classmates, and they gave him water and food. In his last year at the school, the group “Asymmetry” was formed, where he became the second guitarist, and then the frontman.
Taganrog is the hometown of Roma the Beast
Roma continued his education at the Taganrog Construction College, where he went solely because it had good musical equipment. After graduating in 2000, he went to Moscow in search of a better life, fame and adventure.
Already on the second day he got a job as a finisher at the construction site of the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery. In the first days, he spent the night on the floor of an unfinished high-rise building, then a relative took him in.
Roma worked as a finisher at the construction site of the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery
When the musician first arrived in the capital, he had a serious breakdown - out of melancholy and loneliness, he tried to commit suicide by drinking a pack of pills. He was saved by neighbors who were homeless at a construction site and called an ambulance. When he came to his senses, he decided to radically change his life.
It was after this incident that the young man got a job as a security guard at a nightclub, worked during the day, and in the evening walked around the center of the capital and called production companies using a directory. Thanks to his work, he met people from show business, including the future producer Alexander Voitinsky.
Roma Zver, his wife Marina and Alexander Voitinsky
First time
The first steps in Moscow were not easy. In order to sell songs (and record them), a producer was needed, connections were required, which Roman Bilyk (photos presented in this article) did not have.
But there was a need for food and housing, and therefore it was necessary to earn it all. At first, Roma worked in his specialty. And then he pulled out a lucky ticket.
Upstairs
The musicians' debut single was called "For You". In February of the following year, a video was released for it. It immediately attracted the attention of the audience and brought the beginning group some popularity. This year, 2002, the year the “Beasts” started, generally turned out to be very successful for both Roman Bilyk and the entire team. They somehow immediately, as they say, “got it.” First, they successfully “shot” with their debut song, then, in the summer of the same year, they performed at the “Invasion” festival, where all rockers are invited... In the fall, their second video for the second single was released - the song “Simply Such Strong Love.” Both the track itself and the video for it immediately fell into rotation on major music radio stations and entertainment TV channels.
On this wave of success, “Beasts” recorded their debut album entitled “Hunger”. It was released in 2003 and only strengthened the position of the team, significantly increasing the number of fans of the gang.
The main stages of creativity
In 2001, the group’s debut video for the song “For You” was released, in which Roma the Beast in a formal suit and a girl in a wedding dress acted out a plot reminiscent of the film “Bonnie and Clyde”. The captivating video sequence and the languid voice of the vocalist ensured the video rotation on MTV. Animals - For You (2001) In 2003, the musicians released their debut album “Hunger”, which included 12 compositions. The absolute hits of the record were the lyrical “Rain Pistols” and the perky “Simply Such Strong Love,” which never left the Chart Dozen hit parade. A year later, a re-release of the album was released, which included a new song “Heroes”, as well as several concert recordings and a duet with Tatyana Bulanova. Animals - Just such a strong love In February 2004, the second album “Districts-Quarters” was released. Listener opinions were mixed. On the one hand, the track list included very driving compositions: “Southern Night”, “For Love from the Neck”, “That’s Not the Point”, reminiscent of the yard ditties “Lyuba” and, of course, the song “Everything that concerns you” , which became the calling card of “Beasts” for a long time.
The second album of “Beasts” was a commercial success
On the other hand, it was no longer “school rock” from the time of “Hunger” - the sound had changed, the record included many melancholic songs with sometimes even suicidal motives: “About Love”, “Oceans”, “Playing Yourself”, “Remember Me” ", "Stronger beverages". Nevertheless, it is this album of “Beasts” that is considered a breakthrough - in 2005 it brought Bilyk the Muz-TV Award in the “Best Album” category.
In 2005, the team began creating the third album, “When we are together, no one is cooler,” which was released in March 2006. The musicians again experimented with sound, as a result of which critics found references to the style of indie rock Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys.
“When we are together, no one is cooler” - the third album of “Beasts”
Listeners noted an increase in sound quality, but complained about the loss of individuality. If the first album of “Beasts” was compared to a nugget that did not receive a worthy cut due to the small experience of Roma and the company, then in the third, few people managed to find something new. The group was accused of an initially commercial approach, targeting a teenage audience and infantilism. However, there was no need to talk about a drop in popularity - at live performances, “Beasts” still put on a spectacular show and charged visitors with the energy of youth. However, there were rumors that the third album would be the last, that the Beast decided to disband the group in order to pursue solo work. Animals - See you soon However, in 2008, the fourth album “Further” went on sale, which also received mixed reviews. The track list includes only 12 songs, and the singles “To You”, “I’m with You” and “Brunettes, Blondes” have already been thoroughly “heard”. However, thanks to the songs “My Love”, “Eyes”, “Speak” and “Bye”, fans began to hope for the upcoming revival of the old spirit of “Beasts”. The album also includes the old song “Tram,” a recognized stadium hit.
In the fall of 2009, “Beasts” got a new sound engineer, Dmitry Dobry, and the previous one, Alexey Martynov, left the team. The group began work on the next numbered album.
“Beasts” never stopped looking for a new concept of creativity
In 2011, the group released an anniversary album, which collected the best hits of the entire existence of the group (25 songs in a new arrangement), as well as a studio rock and roll record “Muses”, which included the tracks “Mickey”, “Mickey”, already well known to fans. Nobody" and a cover of Viktor Tsoi's "We are waiting for change", which turned out to be much harsher than the original. Roma Zver argued that “Muses” ended the previous era of the group and opened a new page.
Concert of "Beasts" in Yubileiny
The 2014 album “One on One” turned out to be small (only 9 songs and 1 remix) and very sad, with deep lyrics and a ballad style. The former “Beasts” awoke only in the aggressive “Juliet”. Videos for the songs “Youth” and “Vows” were released, but, like the entire record, they went almost unnoticed. The rightness of the second category was proven by the seventh album “No Fear” released in 2020, which featured both a heavy “rock” sound and romantic lyrics that deeply revealed the poetic side of Roma the Beast. Trying to keep up with the times, “Beasts” paid a lot of attention to creating music videos: for half of the 10 songs included in the album, five videos were released: for the title “No Fear”, “Fly”, “You are so beautiful”, “Serenade” and "Ships".
The Beasts continue to perform around the world
"Beasts": along the way with luck
Usually, musical performers have ups and downs, but fortune has never failed Roman Bilyk’s group. And that's great! New videos, new songs, new albums, active concert activity... Seventeen years have passed since the moment the band was formed. A lot happened to the group itself - the lineup changed, someone left, someone came. The participants themselves grew internally, and the frontman of the group, Roman, also changed. Now forty-year-old Bilyk is, of course, no longer that young Roma, not quite twenty-three years old, who came to conquer the capital with sparkling eyes.
Romance has decreased, wisdom has increased. This, undoubtedly, is reflected in the group’s songs: more precisely, in their lyrics, because Roma himself is the author of most of his tracks (sometimes he collaborates with other poets, for example, with his longtime St. Petersburg friend Viktor Bondarev). However, despite all the changes, the work of “Beasts” has always been and remains invariably high-quality and sincere, touching the soul, and the team itself is still loved by listeners.
Group "Beasts"
In 2001, with the assistance of Voitinsky, Roman Bilyk founded the rock group “Zveri”. They found its members using the Internet: the team included Kirill Antonenko, Volodya Khoruzhy, Andrey Gustov and Mikhail Kraev. The first video of their team was called “For You”. The talented frontman composed the song for him in just one night. Zveri - “For You” Soon after the video got into MTV rotation, “Beasts” signed a contract with the CD-Land label. The next video, “Love Just So Strong,” topped the MTV charts. In 2003, the debut album “Hunger” and the brilliant hit “Everything That Concerns You” were released. The video for the title song instantly became the star of the country's main music channel. Animals - “Everything That Concerns You” A year later, they presented their second album “Districts-Quarters”, performed at the Luzhniki to a full house, went on a grand tour across the country, and offered the people of St. Petersburg an incredibly driving and large-scale performance at the Ledovoy.
Roma the Beast in his youth
In 2004, at the first MTV Russia Music Awards in the Russian Federation, the video clip for the song “Everything that concerns you” was recognized as the best video of the year. The title of “best” was then given to the group “Zveri” itself, led by its constant vocalist. And when in November their team represented Russia for the first time at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rome, they felt real recognition of their work.
The concert dynamics of the Beasts were impressive - they gave up to 28 performances a month. Compositions from the next studio disc, “When we are together, no one is cooler,” were heard throughout Russia. In 2007, Forbes included “Beasts” in the list of the wealthiest Russian stars.
The group "Beasts" is the winner of numerous awards
In 2008, fans enthusiastically greeted the group's next work - the album "Next" with the main hits: "My Love", "I'm with You", "Bye". In 2010, they recorded a number of compositions in the capital of Ukraine, including them in the fifth studio disc “Muses,” released in the spring of next year.
Then the sixth album of “Beasts” was released - “One on One” with the most popular track “The Best of You”; in 2016 the seventh album “No Fear” was released. Roma called the composition of the same name a “hymn” to the skills of people in extreme professions, showing acrobatic sketches of breakdancers, slackliners, skaters, and firemen.
In 2016, the seventh album “No Fear” was released.
In the video for the title song of this disc, “The Fly,” he filmed Irina Gorbacheva in the image of a Hollywood star who received an Oscar. And in the video for the song “You are so beautiful,” he starred with his wife during their vacation in the Maldives. Animals - Fly In 2017, his team performed in Los Angeles and New York, including their most popular compositions in the “The Best” program. During the same period, the artists became winners of the “Window to Europe” competition by releasing the video “Ships”.
At the same time, the musician presented his second autobiographical book, “The Sun for Us,” and his band presented their first mini-album, “Friends in the Ward,” performing an acoustic concert of the same name in London.
Roma the Beast has released his second book
In 2020, “Beasts” became the first Russian group to star in the domestic version of the famous MTV-Unplugged TV show.
Roman Bilyk in cinema
The mini-album “Beasts in the Zoo”, released just a couple of months ago, is a collection of soundtracks for Kirill Serebrennikov’s film “Summer” - its premiere took place in June of this year.
However, Roman has a much deeper connection to this film: the whole point is that Roma the Beast played in this film, dedicated, by the way, to Viktor Tsoi, one of the main roles - Mike Naumenko, Tsoi’s comrade and colleague. The director himself persuaded the musician to become an actor, and, judging by the reviews, Roman coped with his task well.
Personal life of Roma the Beast
Unlike many representatives of show business, Roman is an exemplary family man. He has long been happily married to a former St. Petersburg model named Marina (she now takes care of the children and the house), they have two daughters growing up - ten-year-old Olya and three-year-old Zoenka. My eldest daughter Roman Bilyk is a close friend - they do homework together and go surfing (like her father, Olya is an avid surfer). My youngest daughter is still looking into this sport.
The Beast generally loves to spend time with his family - they often fly together on vacation, Roman takes his girls with him to some performances. Roman Bilyk and his wife spend a lot of time alone - they go to museums, visit exhibitions, theaters - in general, they lead the ordinary life of an ordinary happy family.
Interesting facts about Roma the Beast and his group
- Roman and Alexander Voitinsky recruited the first cast of “Beasts” via the Internet.
- Roman has published two books of autobiography. The first book (“Rain Pistols”) appeared in 2007, the second (“The Sun for Us”) ten years later.
- Lately, Roma the Beast has become interested in photography. He takes pictures a lot and even held several of his photo exhibitions.
- The group “Zveri” played its first major concert at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium in 2004.
- Roman's height is one hundred and seventy-two centimeters, his Zodiac sign is Sagittarius.
- One of Roman's first jobs in Moscow was working at the Zurab Tsereteli Museum.
- At birth, Roman weighed more than four and a half kilograms; his parents were expecting twins.
That's all you need to know about the talented musician, actor, writer, photographer Roman Bilyk. And, as one of his songs says, “see you soon”!
Professional activity
Arriving in Moscow in the summer of 2000, at first he worked as a master finisher at the Tsereteli Museum of Contemporary Arts, made repairs and simultaneously composed various compositions. There was a period when the young man gave up and even wanted to commit suicide, but he was saved in time.
In the fall of 2000, in search of creative solutions, he met music video director and composer Alexander Sergeevich Voitinsky. Together with Roma, they founded the group “Beasts” in 2001, gathering a team of like-minded people from Khabarovsk, Minsk and Rostov using the Internet.
In 2003, their first debut studio album, “Hunger,” was released. In March 2004, the group achieved such popularity that they gathered the entire Luzhniki concert venue. In the same year, the second studio album of the group “Districts-Quarters” was released. According to Forbes magazine, in 2007 the group was included in the list of the richest Russian stars.
Roma is the author of all the songs of the Zveri group. During the existence of the group, seven studio albums were released, 23 videos were shot, in addition, the group received many different music awards.
Among them, for example, the group won the “Best Rock Group” nine times at the Muz-TV awards. In 2020, the group updated its lineup for unknown reasons; the guitarist, drummer and bassist changed.
Already with an updated lineup in the spring of 2020, the group successfully performed the concert program “The Best” in Los Angeles and New York. And today Roman and the group continue to tour periodically.
The artist is talented and multifaceted; in addition to working with the group, Roman writes autobiographical books : “Rain-Pistols” (2006) - about his life before moving to Moscow, and “The Sun for Us” (2017) - about the creation of the group.
In 2010 he made his debut as director of the video “Nobody”. In 2011, he starred in the series “A Short Course in a Happy Life” directed by Valeria Gai Germanika, where he played the veterinarian Safonov. From 05/22/2011 to 08/14/2011 he was the host of the extreme show program on NTV “Game”. In the same year, the artist released his clothing line under the Zveri brand.
In 2014, Roma took a directing course. In 2017, at the invitation of director Kirill Serebrennikov, he starred in his film about Viktor Tsoi “Summer”.
In the film, the artist played one of the main roles for the first time; he embodied the image of frontman Mike Naumenko . The role of Mike's wife in the film was played by actress Irina Starshenbaum.
In May 2020, Roman Bilyk, together with German Osipov, received an award at the 71st Cannes Film Festival for the best soundtrack to the film “Summer” by Kirill Serebrennikov.
The artist is creatively versatile, his schedule today is scheduled by the hour. He also tries himself not only as a musician, actor, but also as a director and video camera operator. He continues to periodically tour with the group, write songs and develop creatively.
