Ilya Igorevitch Lagoutenko was born in Moscow on the 16th of October in 1968. A while after his birth, his family moved to Vladivostok ( Port in the south east of Russia near Japan). Ilya grew up in a single parent family because his father died after his birth.
As a child he took accordion lessons and joined a choir, singing patriotic songs, travelling accross the former USSR.
When Ilya was about 12 years old, he started to listen to British rock 'n pop bands like "The Who". Back than this kind of music was banned by Communism. But Ilya could stay in touch with his fave music because Vladivostok is a harbour and he could find records, magazines and other things related to Western culture from the ships tat stopped in the harbour. He used to translate English magazines with a dictoionary, so he knew what te world was into.
Listening to rock helped the band that he formed when he was only 11 years old, named Bonnie P. It helped to write their own songs instead of covering the material of others. By the time he was 14, Ilya was able to write his own songs thanks to his maturity and gift to understand music..Around his 15th birthday, the band took the name Mumiy Troll. Later MT would become the super band of Vladivostok. By the time Ilya turned 18, MT was performing in lots of clubs in Vladivostok.
In 1987 Ilya joined the Navy, so MT sometimes had to perform without him. Those performances were usually disasters, so they decided to better split up. That year Ilya decided to to study Chinese economy and history. When his servicein the Navy ended in 1988, his son Igor was born. Lena, his wife, gave birth to his only son.
After some time, the new Lagoutenko family moved to China due to a students exchange programme. Ilya, Lena and Igor staid in China for 2 years. In China Ilya had various jobs like translating Chinese to English and Russian and he also worked for a boutique.
In 1992 the Lagoutenko family decided it would be best for everyone if tey moved to London. Since then his residence is in London. All those years Ilya continued songwriting.
One day in 1996, when he was in Moscow, he came accross one of his old friends from Bonnie P : Leonid Burlakov. Burlakov convinced Ilya to record his songs. Within two weeks, the 1st MT album Morskaya was finished with the help of Burlakov and some other British musicians. Morskaya was recorded in London in a small studio. Some songs of that album were even played in the airwaves of Radio 1.
The album was released in Russia in 1997. Overnight the album became one of the most wanted albums ever. Ilya decided to find is old friends from the Mumiy Troll of the 80's to be part of the band. Finally they start out with Eugene Zdvizdiony, Olig Pungin and Denis. In the mean while in Russia, they held auditions for the guitarist of Mumiy Troll. And the winner of it all...Yuri Tsaler. Their last member was put in before one of their concerts: Oleshya Lashenko, who would be doing the backing vocals. Morskaya broke loads of records in the Russian charts and Mumiy Troll became one of the most succesfull bands ever.
Before the end of 1997, Ikra, the 2nd MT album was released. The album was produced by Chris Bandy and MT with the help of some British musicians friends of Ilya. Ilya now gave great concerts and every time he performed he becomes better and better. The spotlight concentrated on him and rapidly he became a role model and the sexy idol of Russian girls. MT now became wellknown in the ex USSR and more and more people got to know the band from Vladivostok.
In the end of 1998, MT became 4 because Denis and Oleshya left the band. From 1997 to 1999 they have been touring in Russia and Ukraine. In 1999 they recorded their 3rd official album/ Tochno Rtut Aloe. In November they released their first single: Nevesta and on the 31st of December 1999 they released Karnavala Net. In February they released Tochno Rtut Aloe which was recorded in London with Oleg, Ilya, Yuri and Zdvig. TRA is a rather different album from Ikra and Morskaya. That's why it took time to be recognised as a good ollow up to Ikra.
In 2001 MT released a live album whic was recrded at Gostiny Dvor, where they performed with a big orchestra. In May they represented Russia in Eurovision. They took the 12th place which is rather good for a rock band from Russia. The critics were both bad and good about MT. Now when Ilya thinks about Eurovision e says that he has nice memories and nothing else.
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