Russian music lovers know Andrei Sapunov well for his work in the Resurrection band as a guitarist and vocalist. In addition to this group, he was a member of other well-known groups - the group of Stas Namin, "Gems", "Lotus" and some others. Sapunov is also the author of the music of many songs.
Childhood and youth
Andrei Borisovich Sapunov was born in the city of Krasnoslobodsk near Volgograd on October 20, 1956 in a family of teachers. Andrei is the second child in the family, his older brother Vladimir was born four years earlier. In the late 1950s, Sapunov’s parents moved to live in Moscow. Here Andrei went to the first grade of a comprehensive school. Parents attached great importance to the physical development of their sons, so Andrew was intensively involved in sports such as table tennis, badminton and football.
The Sapunov brothers have been sick with music since childhood. Vladimir gave Andrey a guitar, and he very quickly learned to play it. At school, the guys organized their vocal and instrumental ensemble: they went to all kinds of tricks to gain access to school equipment, rehearsed daily, and then performed at dances and school evenings. The ensemble's repertoire consisted of popular songs of domestic and foreign pop. Young musicians tried very hard to bring the performance of each song to perfection.
Incomplete education
After graduation, Andrei Sapunov entered the Astrakhan Institute of Fisheries, but studied there for only a year. After that, he returned to Moscow and transferred to the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, but he also did not stay there for long: six months later he took the documents. At first, Andrei only talked about this to his brother, and when her mother found out about the departure of her son from the institute, she, according to Sapunov, became ill. But Andrei could not do otherwise: all his thoughts were occupied by music.
Interrupting higher education, Andrei received a summons to serve in the army. He spent two years in the air forces near Kaluga. Here he continued his musical activity: he performed at cultural events, which played a positive role for him - for example, helped him get rid of manifestations of "hazing".
Musician career
Returning from the army, Sapunov became a member of the group of Stas Namin, where he worked for almost a year. And in 1979, the 23-year-old musician became a student in the jazz singing department of the Gnesins State Music College. The vocal teacher for Andrei was the famous Mira Lvovna Korobkova, who put the voice to many artists of the national pop. And in the first year, a significant event took place in his biography: famous musicians drummer Sergei Kavago and bass guitarist Evgeny Margulis, having left Andrei Makarevich’s band “Time Machine”, created a new band - the resurrection rock band, and invited Andrei Sapunov as guitarist and backing vocalist. The leader of the group was Alexei Romanov, who came from the Kuznetsky Most group; he was the author of the songs of the band's first album, Resurrection.
In 1980, Sapunov invited his acquaintance musician Konstantin Nikolsky to the group, who also wrote songs. A year later, the group recorded their second album, and the musicians organized the studio in the basement of the Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
In 1982, the Resurrection group broke up, and Andrei Sapunov decided to focus on his studies. In 1983, he graduated from the Gnesinka, worked a little in the Olympia group, and in 1984 he got into the Gems ensemble. According to Sapunov, in this group he was not attracted by the repertoire, but by the opportunity to earn money, since Gems were very popular and in demand. For two years of working in a team, Andrey carried out his plans: he earned money and bought a cooperative apartment in Moscow and a car.
In general, Andrei Sapunov did not stay long in any one project. After leaving Gems in 1986, he worked in the Lotus group, created by him along with pianist and arranger Alexander Slizunov. The musicians managed to obtain the status of artists of the Philharmonic, due to which they had the opportunity to tour the country with concerts, as well as perform at festivals, for example - "Rock Panorama-87". During this period, the famous song "Ringing" appeared, permeated by the Christian-philosophical idea. The text was written by Alexander Slizunov, the author of the music was Andrey Sapunov, he also performed it as a vocalist. In addition, Sapunov composed several songs on the texts of the famous Russian philosopher Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov.
After a couple of years, the Lotus disintegrated. In 1990, the musician for some time participated in the recording of the album "I Know" and concert performances of the group "SV", and then became a member of the third composition of the band "Trio" together with Alexei Romanov and drummer Andrei Kobzon, the son of the famous Joseph Davydovich. The main principle of the "Trio" was a live performance, that is, without a phonogram, so Alexander Barykin invited them to participate with pleasure in his program "Living Water".
In 1992, Sapunov left the Trio. And in 1994 it became part of the revived "Resurrection", and this was the longest period of the musician's work in one team - until 2016. Together with Eugene Morgulis, Alexei Romanov and Mikhail Shevyakov, Andrei Sapunov took part in the recording of the group's studio albums - "All Over again" (2001), "Slowly" (2003), in numerous concert performances and their studio recordings. In addition, in 2001, Sapunov created his own band "Sapunov Trio" and recorded a live album "Live Collection".
The split in "Resurrection" occurred in 2016, when the group was invited to tour in the Crimea. Andrei Sapunov and Alexei Romanov had fundamental disagreements over the accession of the Crimean peninsula to Russia: Romanov spoke in support, and Sapunov was categorically against it. "Resurrection" went to Simferopol without him, and already at the concert there was an incident when Romanov had to explain the absence of one of the famous members of the group. In fact, relations between Sapunov and Romanov deteriorated for a long time, and the position on the Crimea became the final point. Despite the departure from the group of Andrei Sapunov, his older brother Vladimir continued his work in Resurrection as the director of the group and supported the political position of Romanov; Vladimir Sapunov died of cancer in the spring of 2018.
Today, Andrei Sapunov performs solo concerts, sometimes joins the Resurrection group at some performances - for example, anniversary, is engaged in studio work, collaborates with other groups and performers.
