Yevgeny Margulis

Content:

• Childhood
• "Time Machine", "Sunday", "Arax"...
• Personal life of the musician

Evgeny Margulis is a talented guitarist, singer and songwriter. For many years of his creative activity he managed to be a member of "Mashina Vremeni", "Sunday", "Araks" and other groups. Nowhere having not revealed himself to the end, Margulis started his solo career, becoming one of the brightest representatives of the blues direction in Russian rock. Even now, when the musician celebrated his 60th birthday, his rousing lines "My friend plays the blues better than anyone else" still sound as inimitable, lively and modern.

Childhood

Evgeny Margulis was born in Moscow (year of birth - 1955). His father was an engineer, his mother was a Russian language teacher. Parents for a long time could not decide whether to separate or live together, so the boy lived with his grandmother.

Music in the life of little Zhenya was present from childhood. His grandmother, who survived the war, was very afraid to miss the alarm, so the radio in the house was never turned off. Eugene had to listen to all the songs of those years, which he did not like at all. However, as well as violin lessons, which the boy was forced to attend at the insistence of his parents. To Zhenya's great joy, it did not last long. His grandmother, tired of listening to her grandson torturing the instrument, trying to play etudes, threw the violin out the window.

Yevgeny Margulis' musical career could have ended before it had even begun, but chance intervened, as usual. First Zhenya heard Vladimir Troshin's songs and was completely blown away by his low velvet voice, then by Chubby Checker's composition "Twisted Again". It turns out that music can be completely different, and you can sing not only in Russian, but also in English. In the consciousness of the teenager there was a real revolution. He begins to take a serious interest in the work of Alexander Galich, is fond of the Beatles and even tries to play in yard groups on a guitar worth 7 rubles. 50 kopecks.

The young man did not plan to become a musician. Such a profession in the USSR was not considered serious. A young man from a Soviet (especially Jewish) family had to get a higher education and then do whatever he wanted. Margulis chose medicine. But his studies did not work out: the institute was abandoned for the sake of music.

"Time Machine", "Sunday", "Arax" ...

In 1974 a friend invited Evgeny to work as a loader. Dragging Moscow concert equipment, Margulis met Andrei Makarevich, who offered him a completely crazy idea: to become a member of an amateur band. In 1975, 19-year-old Evgeny came to the "Mashina Vremeni".

This event became the starting point in the creative biography of the musician. However, the work in the ensemble did not go well. According to Evgeny himself, everything was "funny, cool, but unpromising".

Having worked in "Mashina Vremeni" for 4 years, Margulis left the ensemble, taking drummer Sergey Kavagoy with him. Together the young musicians created their own band - "Voskresenie". The repertoire of the group consisted mainly of songs of the famous bard Konstantin Nikolsky and ex-participant of "Mashina Vremeni" Alexey Romanov.

The main character of the compositions was a man who had experienced the collapse of his dreams, went through life's vicissitudes, but did not break down.

A year later Margulis decided to leave the band and start cooperation with the group "Araks". In his opinion, it was from that moment that he became a real musician. In "Arax" Evgeny played for 4 years, then 5 years he was a member of Yuri Antonov's "Aerobus", after that he cooperated with the group "Nautilus" from Moscow.

In 1988 Margulis created the collective "Shanghai", adding a couple of solo albums to his discography. The compositions were a success, but the musician more and more often caught himself thinking that he lacked drums, powerful guitar, amplified equipment.

In the 90's he was again called to "Mashina Vremeni", and then - to "Sunday". Evgeny Margulis agreed and began to perform together with these groups, simultaneously recording songs on his poems. Interesting fact: he sketches the lyrics in small notebooks, because he can't stand long texts.

The musician stopped working in "Resurrection" in 2003, in 2012 he left "Mashina Vremeni" and began to devote maximum effort and time to his solo career. Simultaneously with the recording of songs Eugene:

• played one of the roles in the rock play "Jesus Christ Superstar";
• voiced the Master in radio plays based on Alexander Korotich's fairy tales;
• starred in two movies;
• participated together with Makarevich in the creation of the program "Smak", having invented a name for it.

In 2015, the channel "Che" began to broadcast a new program in an unusual format. The project, where famous musicians perform their best songs, was called "Apartment at Margulis". Over the past time among the guests of the program viewers could see Alexander Galanin, Maxim Leonidov, Valery Syutkin, soloists of the groups "Bi-2" and "Noga Svelo". In 2017, "Kvartirnik" moved to the NTV channel.

Personal life of the musician

Not much is known about the personal life of the musician. His wife - Anna Margulis - by profession a family psychotherapist, is now seriously engaged in ceramics. Her works are regularly shown at exhibitions.

Son Daniel works in a banking institution, is engaged in financial analytics. In addition, Margulis Jr. played a role in "House of the Sun", representing his father in his younger years. Yevgeny Shulimovich has no other children.

Today, the musician continues to perform at concerts, where he performs his best songs and new compositions. Details about these events can be found at kontramarka.de.

Discography:

1978 - "It was so long ago"

1979 - "Who's to Blame"

1989 - "Shanghai"

1995 - "Goodbye, Friend!"

1996 - "More Alive Than All the Living".

1998 - "7+1"

2001 - "Yevgeny Margulis"

2002 - "Best"

2004 - "45 Years"

2007 - "To be continued"

2013 - "Margulis"

Famous songs performed by him:

• "Shanghai Blues" (E. Margulis - V. Syutkin, Sergey Mirov);
• "New Spring Will Kill You" (E. Margulis, A. Kutikov - A. Makarevich, V. Matetsky);
• "Our Roads Diverged" (E. Margulis - A. Romanov);
• "Angel" (Evgeny Margulis, Olga Tsipenyuk);
• "Cart";
• "My friend plays the blues best of all";
• "Freelance Commander of the Earth";
• "Let It Become the Sky";
• "I'll Let You Know";
• "I'm Right By Your Side";
• "The Conductor";
• "When We Go Crazy";
• "Don't Cry for Me";
• "Which One Am I."
• "Old Songs";
• "Deep Purple in Rock";
• "Whatever."
• "The wind is getting stronger."
• "Sakura, katana, sake."