Hello!
I remember very well the day when I first became acquainted with creativity Little Big. My friend and I were sitting in the kitchen, chatting about interesting YouTube channels, and then he was surprised that I hadn’t heard of these guys yet. Putting the tablet in front of me and turning on their video GIVE ME YOUR MONEY, he watched with delight as all possible emotions ran across my face in those 5 minutes. At first it was shock and bewilderment, but by the end of the video I realized that this was love for centuries
WHO ARE LITTLE BIG
Little Big- This musical group, which includes these guys:
Ilya Prusikin (Ilyich)- frontman of the band.
Sergey Makarov- deals with sound
Olympia Ivleva- vocals. She has her own channel on YouTube Olympia.
Sonya Tayurskaya- vocals.
Anton Lissov- the clown of the group. Literally.
This is what is written on their channel (my free translation from English):
Little Big is a Russian rave group that blows up dance floors not only in Russia, but also abroad. Each song, video or performance of the group reflects some social event in the world. The musicians touch on the real problems of Russia, as well as the stereotypes associated with it. Real thrash and an explosion of color, which balance on the edge of absurdity, combined with rave, electronic music and elements of hip-hop.
I don’t understand their music as a way to enjoy beauty; I regard them as cool experimenters in terms of the semantic load of the text and embodiment in the video. The recordings from the concerts did not impress me. So that's why I'm lowering the score.
THEIR CREATIONS
Their videos are a hodgepodge of the most unexpected things. For example, video PUBLIC ENEMY made me just laugh wildly. Someone actually spent hours drawing fire on cardboard, sewing cockroach and banana costumes, and making a flat ambulance.
HATEFUL LOVE came out extremely “glamorous”, where beauty borders on very nasty things.
Or a real tank made of inflated balloons?
But the famous Instagram blogger Lena Sheidlina, who, although 20+, looks like she’s 13.
Well, here it is GIVE ME YOUR MONEY- where my acquaintance with the group began:
Is this a weapon? A tank is a weapon.
I still wonder where they found the tank, and even managed to ride it.
Carpets are my forever love<3
But WITH RUSSIA FROM LOVE(yes, that's right). A short video and very psychedelic.
I think it’s clear from these screenshots what to expect. It seems to me that all viewers are divided into 2 parts: those who want to close the video after 30 seconds and never return to them, and those who simply watch what is happening with humor and wait for new videos.
BEHIND THE SCENES
One of the team's latest videos is HATEFUL LOVE. It’s hard to call this video anything other than some kind of madness. It’s very cool that you can watch 2 videos at once about how it was filmed. Olympia published a behind-the-scenes vlog, and Little Big themselves have a more detailed version with before-after inserts.
For example, a closet of men (in the screenshot there is a rehearsal, in the video they are naked)
It was only necessary to think of such a thing!
Or here’s another thing: they decided to set the guy’s head on fire. The video turned out impressive. In the behind-the-scenes video, Ilyich was clearly worried about the guy.
POLYUSHKO POLYE
The guys listen to a lot of criticism about the fact that they are filming some kind of garbage. People who don’t know how to dig deeper don’t understand what Little Big are singing about and what they’re filming. Probably, it was for this reason that it was decided to do something new, in order to open the eyes of not very distant viewers.
"Polyushko Pole" is a non-standard format for Little Big. The video is a compilation of videos from quadcopters, which were filmed by viewers throughout Russia. Periodically, the video sequence is interspersed with inserts of the team itself against the backdrop of nature.
Michurinsk:
Taganrog:
Krasnodar region:
Kamchatka:
This is only part of what is in the video. I can’t say that this is some kind of bomb video, but why not spend 4 minutes admiring the beauty of your country?)
RESULT
These guys need to be treated very simply and with humor. I’m not currently evaluating the musical talents of this group, but I’m talking specifically about the video. You don’t want to listen to them, but you want to watch them again! Little Big is very cool are joking over some things. They are not without self-irony, are ready for the most daring experiments and are not afraid to think globally. If you compare their videos with videos of world celebrities, then this is heaven and earth. Famous musicians sometimes spend tens of thousands of dollars on videos that don't excite. Little Big gets by with much more modest sums and creates I'm not afraid of that word masterpieces.
By the way, Alena Dvoichenkova, who choreographed the Little Big dances, was cast for the 3rd season of the show “Dancing” on TNT.
If this photo seems to the moderator to contain sexual content, I ask you to remember the reviews in thongs for cellulite)
LITTLE BIG – Everyday I’m drinking
The video “Everyday I’m drinking” by the St. Petersburg rave group Little Big blew up the Internet. To the accompaniment of energetic music, two “Thumbelina” in kokoshniks and a tall guy in a tracksuit drink vodka, play the balalaika and imitate sex with a bear. “There is no future here” is the key idea of the track, sung in English. The result is two and a half million views in a few months.
For the first time in Russia, little people are performing outside of the circus arena. “They’re listening to us!” – Anna Kast, one of the vocalists of the Little Big group, admires. On stage she is a “little devil in a snuff box.” Olympia Ivleva has a different image - more gentle. The miniature size of the girls is emphasized by two brutal macho men - musicians Ilya Prusikin and Sergey Gokk.
ANNA CAST. WE WERE TABOOED
Little people – that’s what we should be called, not “disabled people.” Or, for example, that terrible k-word. It is unacceptable in Europe!
I have long been accustomed to being in public. Television, tattoo shows, Fort Bo-yard, theatrical performances... My artistic life began in the erotic theater Never Porn. It was a scandalous project: “Never porn, always art.” Then - “Sado-opera”. And now Little Big is, of course, the most sincere. Here I can not only “work with my face”, but also express myself. This is first and foremost my cry to society: “Hello! There are little people in the world. And they can even be pleasant, kind, and talented.” There are many opponents. "What? How? Where did they come from? There are categories of people who are negatively disposed towards us.
The social theme in Little Big is emphasized by the obvious texture of little people, which makes our cry even louder. If in America you meet little people at every step, then in Russian culture we are taboo. We are not here. Our “ceiling” is a circus arena.
PERSONAL
I hope that little people in other cities are inspired when they see Little Big. Their destiny is mainly to sit within four walls. The overwhelming majority of them have forgotten how to communicate, they grew up in boarding schools, their route is as follows: work - home. And they develop the belief that they should not communicate with the outside world, which can offend. All these are complexes from childhood. I was lucky - my mother raised me differently. When I was born, they frightened my mother and tried to persuade her to give up on me. But she held on and was very proud of me, my every success, every step. I went to the yard kindergarten and delighted her with my exhibitions - I drew. Then I went to a regular school. I kicked the ball with the boys, fought - I have to get through this. My mother sternly told me: “If you don’t learn the poems for tomorrow’s lesson, I won’t buy you a German doll at DLT and I’ll give you a belt.” Of course, in the end I learned poetry and was one of the best! When they said bad things about me, I smiled. Today he will point his finger at me, and tomorrow he will come and ask for a toy... But I’m used to gaining respect thanks to my intellect.
I experienced complexes only once - during my first love, when I was 15 years old. How can this be? He didn’t invite me to a slow dance, but my friend! But I liked him! It's very disappointing...
Relationships with men are excellent. I don't have female friends, but I have male friends. I enjoy the spiritual communication that I receive from them. Now I don’t have someone to cook pasta for every day. But there is a family in the plans, I take this very seriously.
THE HARDEST THING TO GET A JOB IS
I am a librarian by training. In 2007, I came to work at the school through an acquaintance – I had once studied German there. I found out that there is a vacancy for a teacher. She smiled and told the children: “Hello, I will work for you.” At first, someone was whispering behind my back. But years have passed, I already meet them in bars, they have grown into serious people and now they apologize to me for saying badly: “Anya, I’m sorry.” And I didn’t even know about it!
The main problem of a small person is employment. You may be a thieves, tough, with five higher educations, but without acquaintances it is very difficult to get a job. Everything else is nonsense.
There are no problems with clothes now; you can buy anything you want. Second hand is a wonderful thing. In Soviet times it was much more difficult. My mother even thought about opening her own atelier... And now she bought it, folded it and wear it. Dressed correctly, you already create the image of a confident person.
OLYMPIA IVLEVA. HARMONIOUS PERSONALITY
My participation in Little Big is pure creativity. I sing, dance, perform rave. We all discuss video clip scripts, song lyrics, speak out, offer our ideas. Before Little Big, I was a presenter - I opened a company that organizes holidays. When I went on stage for the first time, I felt just like any other person. For example, if you invite a miner to the microphone, he will feel uncomfortable and awkward. So do I. The stage image is developed over the years - Here with you I am a Turgenev girl and I wear a classic manicure. And tomorrow on stage I’m tearing out my hair and clothes. But these are two sides of one personality, they complement each other. Now I am not interested in classics, opera, pop music. I want to experiment, do a rave.
When the Everyday I’m drinking video came out, I thought that my strict, intelligent mother, a true Petersburger, would say: “Uh-oh, how could you?” And my mother surprised me: “Well done, but they went a little too far with the bear.” But if we didn't go overboard, it would be pointless.
MY CREDO IS TO SEEK THE ADVANTAGES
You ask what is the main problem of the little man in St. Petersburg. You are asking the wrong question. Everywhere there is a problem of people who are somehow different from the rest: height, weight, race... And there is a rejection of small people all over the world, I see this very well. Yes, I'm short, I understand that. But for myself, I never focused on this. Each person has his own complexes, and tall ones too.
I had no problems finding employment. My life credo is to look not for difficulties in life, but for the positives. Personally, this helps me a lot.
But there are things that don’t fit in my head. I still live with this. I walk down the street and feel that for some reason people around me are paying attention to me. And I don't understand why. Maybe my clothes are dirty?
Greetings to guests and regular readers of the site website. So, YouTuber and musician Ilya Prusikin, better known as Ilyich, was first released on April 8, 1985. Since childhood I was a creative child.
His parents, seeing their son’s desire for art, sent him to a music educational institution to study piano.
After receiving secondary education, Ilya studied to become a psychologist-teacher.
Already from adolescence, Prusikin was a member of various musical groups. One of the first was Tenkorr, which gained some popularity in Russia. The group played in the rock genre and even released several records.
Our hero also had experience working with the groups Like A Virgin, St. Bastards and Construktorr, who played in various directions - from grunge, glam rock to new rave and hardcore.
While working as a musician, Ilya’s groups sooner or later had to release video works for their songs. As a rule, the guys made most of the videos themselves, which is where the desire for video making came from. Perhaps Ilyich’s first known work on the YouTube video hosting site was “Guffy Guff Show,” made together with Vladimir Besedin. The project had a social and humorous overtones and was stylized as a children's program.
The Guffy Guff Show: Season 1 / Episode 1 (2011)
Later, inspired by the foreign series of videos "Epic Rap Battles", our hero launches the Russian analogue of the "Great Rap Battle" on the resource "Thank you, Eva!"
Prusikin was also one of the creators of the web series “Police Everyday Life,” in which top Russian video makers at that time starred, including Denis Kukoyaka, Sam Nickel and others.
Cop Weekdays: 1 episode, season 1 (2012)
In 2013, he began collaborating with the “Successful Group”, creating with him the association “KlikKlakBand”, where the guys rap on behalf of schoolchildren who want to seem cool.
In the same year, he created the rave group "Little Big". The peculiarity of the group is to show in a satirical manner how foreigners see the Russian people. “Little Big” gained fame far beyond Russia, thanks to the scandalous video clips for their songs, which received millions of views on the YouTube video hosting site.
LITTLE BIG - Everyday I"m drinking (2013)
Ilyich is a real old-timer in the Russian YouTube segment. He has a huge number of completed projects behind him, let’s hope that this is not the limit for the talented St. Petersburger. The group “Little Big” is the brightest and most extraordinary phenomenon on the modern Russian music scene. The powerful rave energy in Little Big’s work is supported by a carefully thought-out image of the participants, satirical texts with “cranberries” (editor’s note) and references to popular culture, and each video of the group is a masterpiece that deserves special attention. Although for a long time she had to disown the label of “Russian “Die Antwoord””, the group still proved its originality.
The team owes much of its success to frontman and ideological inspirer Ilya Prusikin, better known in the Internet space as Ilyich, who was recognized as the most influential character on Russian YouTube at the end of 2016. “There are no more beaten people than us,” is how the musician characterizes his brainchild.
History of the group's creation
The founder of Little Big, Ilya Prusikin, was distinguished by his extraordinary creative abilities from early childhood, graduated from a music school with a degree in piano, and in his teens became interested in rock. From the age of sixteen, he performed in various bands and tried a lot of musical styles, including being the frontman of the emo group Tenkorr. After school, Ilya began studying to become a psychologist, which helped him master the mechanisms of media influence on mass consciousness and delve into all the intricacies of the advertising business. At the same time, he shot video clips and collaborated with video bloggers, and soon he himself launched several original and very successful projects on YouTube. 
The idea of creating the “Little Big” group was born spontaneously, after the unexpected success of the video for the song “Everyday I"m Drinking,” which Ilyich filmed together with Alina Pyazok, his faithful partner in YouTube projects. The video was shot at the highest level and ridiculed stereotypes and Russia, but at the same time showed life in Russia without embellishment, with alcoholism, poverty, gopniks and dull rooms in communal apartments.
Little Big – Everyday I"m Drinking
In this contrast, the video received a viral effect (more than one hundred thousand people watched it in the first day, which was the best figure for 2013), and although there was no group as such yet, Ilyich was offered to perform as an opening act for the South African zef group “Die Antwoord” at the St. Petersburg club A2. Just a month before the concert, the members of the newly formed group wrote six songs, which were enthusiastically received by the St. Petersburg public.
In short, April 1, 2013 (the release date of the video) became the official birthday of the new musical group. Its composition, in addition to Ilyich, included Sergei Makarov, who is also the bass guitarist of the Jane Air group Gokk, Jane Air frontman Anton Lissov (it is he who wears the Evil Clown mask) and two miniature girls Anna Kast and Olympia Ivleva, whose height is “ provoked" the name of the group. Soon, due to creative differences, Anna left the team, and Sofya Tayurskaya took her place.
The main stages of creativity
Video clips were shot for all new tracks, which were not inferior in shockingness and creativity to “Everyday I"m Drinking.” The scripts for the videos were invented by Ilyich, and Alina Pyazok was still the director. Thanks to this, each new clip of the group became a shocking art object that caused a wide range of emotions among fans. For this, the band members were ready for any trick, such as eating maggots in the video for the song “Life in Da Trash,” which became one of the most expensive in the Russian segment of YouTube.Little Big – Life in da trash
A year later, Little Big released their debut album, With Russia From Love, which caused a stormy and very controversial reaction from the public, as did the rest of the band’s work.
Thanks to the wide popularity of English-language clips on YouTube, the group became a welcome guest abroad and soon went on an international tour. Their work was especially liked by the residents of France and Holland, where the musicians invariably received a warm welcome. “Little Big” became regular participants in prestigious European music festivals, where they performed on the same stage with such world celebrities as Snoop Dogg and Skrillex.
In 2015, the group’s second album, “Funeral Rave,” was released, which alerted fans of the group with its name. Many believed that in this way the musicians were hinting at the completion of their creative activity, but Ilyich quickly dispelled these assumptions. He said that this is how their musical style was dubbed in the foreign press, and the group’s immediate plans are to “pump up” the whole world and make people talk about themselves in all corners of the planet.
Two very extravagant videos for songs from this album were awarded at the Berlin Music Video Awards: a video ironic of modern pop culture for the song “Big Dick”, characterized by exaggerated sexual overtones, and “Give Me Your Money”, which could be described in one phrase - “rural luxury”. Next came the bright video “Hateful love”, in the filming of which a photographer and model took part
- Why do the “Khleb” group have concert tickets for 900 rubles, and yours for 1800?
I don't know. I have nothing to do with organizing the concert.
With the participants of “Khleb” - YouTubers who have successfully taken up music - you came out of the same media “Thank you, Eva!”
At that time there were only two platforms - Caramba Media and “Thank you, Eva!” It was necessary to join someone. In "Thank you, Eva!" there was more creativity. I wanted to do this kind of show, but I didn't know vlogging existed. You see, what is the main problem of new video bloggers now - they know that they can become a star and earn a lot of money. This is their goal. And in 2010 it was impossible to make money. There was no video blogging, there was no market. There was Maddison, but I didn’t know about him either.
- Do video bloggers really earn that much money?
A lot, a lot.
- Can you buy an apartment with them?
Someone can. And he openly says that he earns a lot - Sasha Spielberg, for example.
The first video of the Little Big group “Everyday Iʼm Drinking” was released in April 2013 and turned out to be so popular that Ilya Prusikin and his colleagues had to continue. In addition to music, Ilyich has many activities - he is an actor, video blogger, director, screenwriter, creator and simply a popular character in the Russian YouTube scene.
There are two points of view. The first is that Russian YouTube is like the Russian MTV of the late 90s, it makes musicians stars, and it is here that people who say something into the camera (then VJs, now video bloggers) become known throughout the country. The second point of view is that Russian YouTube has turned into a collection of shit. Which one is closer to you?
Well, after all, now everything is developing, new formats are appearing, and production on the Internet is becoming better than on television. What kind of shit collection is this? Vice versa.
- Does video blogging allow you to jump onto TV?
Certainly. There are examples - the same guys from “Bread”. When we made the series “Police Days,” we were all invited to TNT, and the guys stayed there. Now they call everywhere and very actively. But I don't see the point.
- Because your content is not for TV?
You can always do it for TV. But it takes a lot of time. A television project requires 2–3 months, during which I would not be able to do anything else. But if they offered a lot of money, you could still think about it. And so... On television, the simplest jokes, not harsh ones, evoke the reaction “wow, wow, this is impossible.” Because of this, many series look neither here nor there. They could put the pressure on, but they don’t put the pressure on. Not because there are bad people working there, they are just within the limits. HBO also produces the coolest series because they have no censorship. You can touch on any topic. The series “On the Edge,” where members of the American government are shown to be total idiots, would have been rejected at the stage of discussing the idea. They would bring a synopsis, and they would say to us: “Guys, are you fools?”
- What does your work schedule look like?
It's completely packed. We're on tour now. You come back and immediately there’s some filming, editing, new briefs. We have no free time at all. We agreed that we would go on vacation in January, and before that we would only work.
Before Little Big appeared, Prusikin had at least five more musical projects. The earliest of them is the emo group Tenkorr. It is extremely difficult to recognize Ilyich in the hero of the “I Believe” video.
- Who came up with the idea to shoot the “Everyday Iʼm Drinking” video, after which you were recognized?
It, like all the following videos, was filmed by Alina Pyazok and me. We worked together, but a lot of people helped. There are a lot of accidents in the history of Little Big - they just filmed the video on April 1st. It turned out that he shot. And everyone started saying: “Maybe you can start a group?” But the band still might not have existed if we hadn’t been invited to open for Die Antwoord. We were like, “Whoa, whoa, we don’t have any songs.” “But you have a month.” And we wrote six songs, shot videos, and they sold out. Nobody thought that we would make money on these songs. That's how it happened.
- Did you just set yourself the task - to film a cranberry about Russia that would go down well in the West?
We wanted to make a global virus. We have taken all the stereotypes about Russia - is this how you see us? OK. The funny thing is that people in Europe understand that we are laughing at them. But in Russia people...
-...are you sure that you are defaming the country?
Yes. ...[abnormal]! Or they ask: “Since you are for Russia, then why don’t you sing in Russian?” Yes, because we work for the world. Why glorify Russia in Russia? I have a super idea, I want the Russian group to become global. And I’m glad that I can prove to people who insist that it is impossible to become popular there, because we are Russian and no one needs us. Russian guys look at this and understand that they are not shit.
“Big Dick,” released earlier this year, with 20 million views, is Little Big’s most popular video. He then inspired the editors of Afisha Daily to publish a listing of the most disgusting videos of the St. Petersburg project.
- Stupid question - how do you decide what the next song will be about?
Just somehow. For example, they tell us: “Everyone has songs, how cool they are, why don’t you? Still, they compare their pussies.” And we didn’t beat around the bush, but wrote the song “Big Dick.” This is a mockery of world pop culture.
- What did you do to get concerts abroad?
They began to contact us themselves. Two years ago they started inviting us to Belgium. At first we had a booker from France, now we are dealt with by a German agency. We were introduced to him by the drummer Guano Apes, who really loves Little Big. And the fees there were actually higher than in Russia. But over the past year the situation has leveled out - soldier-outs have also begun in Russia. I think it was the last videos “Big Dick” and “Hateful Love” that worked that way.
The “Hateful Love” video has a very glossy, emtivish image. Once upon a time, such videos had exorbitant budgets. How is it now?
There is a little secret: the main thing is not how much money you spend, the main thing is the idea. And the ability to implement it. Skill is the most valuable thing. We just learned to do everything, this big team is a group of like-minded people who initially just wanted to do it. As a result, they united into a large trade union. For others our work is expensive, but for ourselves we can do it almost free of charge. “Big Dick” we just shot at home in 3-4 days. We bought the backdrops, and we also had a budget for cameras, lighting and props - I won’t say it was expensive. For “Hateful Love” we rented a room, set up a cyclorama ourselves, and that’s it.
- Where did you learn this?
Learned on the go. I am a psychologist by training. And it turned out that I am a creator, director, and now also a musician. I also learned to make viruses in practice - I figured out what needs to be done to surprise, how to look for intersections between different generations and social groups. When you love what you do, you learn quickly. Over the course of several years, our production has become on par with television, and sometimes even higher. It is believed that there are professionals who have dedicated their whole lives to this. It’s just that we are not so cool, they are not very motivated.
- Do you, as musicians, need a TV?
No, television rotations have not affected anything for a long time. There is only a one-off product left - like “Evening Urgant”, but otherwise YouTube is long ahead.
- Are you ready in this case that censorship and other content regulation will soon come to you?
It would be stupid not to do this. The media must always be under control. Can you imagine a blogger has a million people who follow him?
- Why do they immediately follow? They just watch.
14-year-olds have almost one hundred percent loyalty. No matter what a popular blogger says, everyone takes it at face value. And imagine that he begins to propagate Nazism. I believe that there should not be censorship as such, but there must be control.
- Which books or films, from your point of view, most accurately explain our country?
I haven't seen these.
- Maybe “Brother”?
I don't think it reflects the Russians. Its main character is a narrow-minded gopnik. Yes, there are some, but there are others too.
- You played up stereotypes about Russia a lot...
We only have a few of these clips.
- No, after all, there were quite a lot of them, plus a show with Tommy Cash about Russians in America - you are on this pedal. Was it necessary to somehow specially study the country and its people for this?
In Europe we met people from Russia, they are the grandchildren of Russian emigrants, they call themselves Russians. I say: “No, you are not Russian. Russian is a state of mind.” Origin is not so important, I have Polish-Jewish roots. You need to be born here and live 20–30 years to understand all this... [mess]. When you live in... [a mess] all your life, but you adapt to it - and, in principle, everything suits you. This is Russian.