What later became Dissident Saint started in the summer of 2003, with the co-operation of Gera Kisselman and Sergey Perunov.
They did not intend for a certain genre of music, nor any mission
statement for the band at the time. It was simply a collection of some
ideas which they knew they had to act on, and those ideas would later
become the early Dissident Saint songs (or else, lurking jokes).
Perunov
and Kisselman assembled a band out of their acquaintances, practiced
and wrote some material. Faces changed along the way, but the band’s
life came to be with its first show on November 25, 2004. By then, Alon Shenfield, who was a long time friend of Kisselman’s, joined on as the bassist while Ilya Maximenko
got onboard playing guitar and introduced the band to a new drummer –
Dimitry Chebanov, while Ilya Kosukhin was playing keys.
Although it was never planned to happen this way, Dissident Saint
assembled itself out of a musically diverse bunch. With influences old
and new, classically trained and self taught, the band established its
unique sound. The various musical tastes of all the band members made
it impossible for Dissident Saint
to submit to one particular style – a unique characteristic that helped
the band stand out from the numerous other groups in the Canadian music
scene.
The early days of Dissident Saint
were extremely productive. The second show of the band’s existence was
a “Band Wars” in which they won first prize. Subsequent gigging
hardened the band, and its members picked up some prizes along the way
like a first-place turnout in a Supernova Band Wars.
At some point, it became obvious that Dissident Saint
needed to make an album – a first definite step that the band had to
make to solidify its existence. With more material ready than it was
possible to learn, the question boiled down to time and financial
constraints. It also became apparent to that whatever the members did
as a band, they had to do it themselves. Their experiences with the
more ‘professional’ commercially-oriented sides of the music business
left them in a disenchanted state of mind. They began working on
recording The Rise at some point in the summer of 2006 – a process that would take more than a year.
The
first major setback was Ilya Kosukhin’s departure from the band while
having recorded only one song. His reasons were his own, and despite
parting on good terms, the morale ran rather low at the time. Dissident Saint’s
problems were also amplified by the fact that two (out of the then
five) band members would live in a different city for the major part of
the year to fulfill their studies. The band had session keyboardists,
but playing shows was nonetheless difficult and constantly relearning
the same material daunting. At times, the future of the band was
extremely uncertain with the changing interests and lifestyles of the
band members.
In the first quarter of 2007, the recording was well under way when Dissident Saint finally found a new permanent keyboardist – Andrei Zaretski. He quickly fit into the dynamics of the band, and everyone continued to work hard on completing The Rise.
With some new blood came some new strengths and motivation. Andrei
employed talents that were not expected of him by designing the sleeve
for the album and redesigning the website (an image overhaul that was
definitely in order). Pretty soon, Dissident Saint started looking ahead once again, as opposed to just “getting through with it.”
With the release of The Rise,
the band finally obtained something to show for the time and effort put
forth. Talk of the second album was already underway as well as some
serious plans being made in terms of promotion.
However,
yet another hurdle emerged as Dimitry Chebanov announced his sudden
resignation on January 1, 2008. The future of the band was once again
questioned. It was a blow to the remaining members' confidence, but
after a detailed meeting, it was decided that Dissident Saint must go on and the search for a new drummer became yet another task.
It
took over a month of searching, with the dust slowly collecting on the
empty drum throne. However, in early February of 2008, Dissident Saint held a rehearsal/audition with Jeff Marshman.
The entire band was blown away by his ability to improvise on the spot
as well as his unique, tasteful flavour in the band's sound. A decision
was made instantly and Dissident Saint was a six-piece once again!
Dissident Saint
has come a long way as a band, and all the overtaken obstacles have
only strengthened the members’ musical ambitions. With the follow-up
album already in the works, there is definitely more to come...