Gleb Rudolfovich Samoilov (born 1970) - Soviet and Russian musician, poet, composer, leader of the rock group The Matrixx, formerly one of the soloists of the Agatha Christie group. The younger brother of Vadim Samoilov.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Gleb Samoilov, which we will discuss in this article.
So, before you is a short biography of Samoilov.
Biography of Gleb Samoilov
Gleb Samoilov was born on August 4, 1970 in the Russian city of Asbest. He grew up and was brought up in a simple family that has nothing to do with music. His father worked as an engineer and his mother was a physician.
Childhood and youth
Gleb's interest in music began to show at an early age. According to him, during that period of his biography, he was fond of the work of the Pink Floyd group, Vysotsky, Schnittke, and also loved operetta.
It is worth noting that his older brother Vadim also liked this genre of music. For this reason, as a child, the boys began to make plans to create a musical group.
When Gleb Samoilov wanted to learn to play musical instruments, his parents sent him to a music school to study the piano. However, after attending several classes, he decided to drop out due to heavy stress.
As a result, Gleb independently mastered playing the guitar and piano. At school, he received rather mediocre grades, showing no interest in the exact sciences. Instead, he read various books and was a very dreamy and intelligent child.
In the 6th grade, Samoilov played the bass guitar in a school ensemble several times, and in high school he tried to create his own rock band. At that moment in his biography, he was already writing songs. An interesting fact is that he composed his first composition, "The Janitor," at the age of 14.
Gleb's elder brother, Vadim, had a great influence on him. It was he who found records with Western groups, which he then gave to Gleb to listen to.
Having received a certificate, Samoilov intended to enter the local institute at the Faculty of History, but could not pass the exams. After that, he got a job at the school as an assistant laboratory assistant.
When Gleb was about 18 years old, he became a student of a music school, class of bass guitar. However, after studying at the school for six months, he decided to leave him. This was due to a lack of time, since by that time he was already performing with his group.
Music
By the end of 1987, Gleb Samoilov began to travel to Sverdlovsk to rehearse with his older brother Vadim and his friend Alexander Kozlov, who had already performed at city amateur competitions on the basis of the radio engineering faculty of the Ural Polytechnic Institute.
The guys rehearsed within the walls of their native university, where they made the first electric program. The musicians were looking for a suitable name for the group, going through a variety of options. As a result, Kozlov proposed to name the team "Agatha Christie".
The first concert "Agatha Christie" gave in the assembly hall of the institute on February 20, 1988. A few months later the guys recorded their debut album "Second Front".
A year later, the group presented the second disc "Treachery and Love". At the same time, Gleb Samoilov was actively working on the recording of a solo disc, which was released in 1990 under the name Little Fritz.
Cassettes with "Little Fritz" were distributed only among Gleb's friends and acquaintances. In 5 years the album will be digitized and released on CD-ROMs.
Since 1991, Gleb has been the author of virtually all the lyrics and music of Agatha Christie. An interesting fact is that during that period of his biography, Samoilov played bass while sitting on a chair at the edge of the stage.
According to the musician, he preferred to be on the sidelines due to stage fright. This continued until 1995. At one of the performances, Gleb experienced an attack of claustrophobia. He stood up abruptly, pushing back the chair and after that he played the guitar only standing.
In 1991 Agatha Christie presented the album Decadence, and a year later Samoilov released his second solo disc, Svi100lyaska.
In 1993, the rock band recorded the iconic disc "Shameful Star", which, in addition to the song of the same name, also featured the compositions "Hysterics", "Free" and the immortal hit "Like in War". After that, the musicians gained fantastic popularity along with a huge army of fans.
A couple of years later, the release of the legendary disc "Opium" took place, which brought them even greater fame. From all the windows came the songs "Eternal Love", "Black Moon", "Heterosexual" and many others.
Despite the incredible rise in their careers, there were many serious disagreements between the musicians. Gleb Samoilov began to use drugs and abuse alcohol, which was noticeable not only in his behavior, but also in the manner of singing.
He was able to overcome heroin addiction around 2000, and later he managed to get rid of excessive addiction to alcohol. He achieved such success thanks to treatment in the appropriate clinic.
By that time, Agatha Christie had released 3 more albums: Hurricane, Miracles and Mine High? In 2004, the musicians presented their ninth studio album “Thriller. Part 1 ”, which was published after a 3-year creative crisis associated with the death of keyboardist Alexander Kozlov.
In 2009 the group decides to cease to exist. The reason for the collapse was the different musical preferences of the Samoilov brothers. The last album of "Agatha Christie" was "Epilogue". In the same year, this disc was presented by the collective on a farewell tour of the same name.
The last performance took place in July 2010 as part of the Nashestvie rock festival. Soon Gleb founded a new group "The Matrixx", with which he gives concerts to this day.
In the period 2010-2017. musicians "The Matrixx" recorded 6 albums: "Beautiful is cruel", "Thresh", "Living but Dead", "Light", "Massacre in Asbestos" and "Hello". In addition to touring with the collective, Gleb Samoilov often performs solo.
In 2005, the rocker, together with his brother, participated in the scoring of the cartoon "The Nightmare Before Christmas". After that Gleb, together with Alexander Sklyar, made a program based on the songs of Alexander Vertinsky, calling it "Farewell dinner with Raquel Meller".
Conflict of the Samoilov brothers
At the beginning of 2015, at the request of his older brother, Gleb Samoilov agreed to take part in Agatha Christie's Nostalgic Concerts, after which a conflict began over the unpaid fee.
Vadim continued to tour different cities and countries using the Agatha Christie brand, as well as performing songs written by his younger brother. As soon as Gleb found out about this, he sued his brother, accusing him of copyright infringement.
The musician also filed a lawsuit related to the unpaid royalties that he was entitled to after the end of "Nostalgic Concerts". This led to protracted legal proceedings, which were actively discussed in the press and on TV.
As a result, the claim for copyright to Gleb was denied, but the financial claim was found justified, as a result of which the court ordered Vadim to pay the corresponding amount to his younger brother.
Relations between the brothers worsened even more against the background of the conflict in the Donbass. Gleb was a supporter of the integrity of Ukraine, while Vadim stated the opposite.
Personal life
Over the years of his personal biography, Samoilov married three times. His first wife was the artist Tatyana, whom he married in 1996. In this union, the couple had a boy named Gleb.
Over time, the couple decided to divorce, as a result of which the child was left to live with his mother.
After that, Samoilov married the designer Anna Chistova. However, this marriage was short-lived. After that, he met for some time with Valeria Gai Germanika and Ekaterina Biryukova, but none of the girls was able to conquer the musician.
In April 2016, journalist Tatyana Larionova became Gleb's third wife. Interestingly, the man is 18 years older than his beloved. She helped her husband undergo a difficult operation, after revealing a benign tumor in that.
The disease negatively affected his appearance, behavior and speech. Rumors began to circulate that the man had a stroke or started drinking again. However, he denied all this gossip.
Gleb Samoilov today
Gleb is still actively touring different cities and countries with The Matrixx. The band has an official website where fans can find out about upcoming concerts of the musicians.
In 2018, Samoilov sent a note of protest to the Irish group D.A.R.K. regarding the song "Loosen the noose", which had an identical resemblance to his hit "I'll Be There." As a result, the Irish paid the corresponding money to the ex-soloist of "Agatha Christie" and marked his name on the cover of their album.
Photo by Gleb Samoilov