When it comes to defining this band’s music style, critics get lost. Is it Rock? Pop? Polka? Reggae? Blues? Hardcore? Death Metal? Folk? The answer is all, and none, of the above.
Multivitamins were born in 1992 in Minsk, Belarus, as a hardcore satire project. Three original members of the group did not speak English at the time, so, instead, they sang in pseudo-Esperanto, which in essence was simple gibberish. To cover up the lack of meaningful lyrics (for which, frankly, nobody cared), musicians came up with the idea of Libretto – an introductory explanation of what the coming song was going to be about.
These little short stories were filled with black humor and nonsense and were meant to be undetachable from the songs they were introducing. Some people actually liked the stories as much as the songs. In January 1996, the guitar player Alex and keyboardist Olga emigrated to the USA where, after a one-year break to learn English, they resumed playing with 2 aborigines, Pat and John. This line-up didn’t live long because of the differences in priorities. A year later, an all-Russian band was formed: Igor and Aleksandr (bass guitar and drums, respectively) composed new and rearranged some old songs thus influencing the group's performances and styles.
The years 1998 through 2002 were the band’s most productive years. Multivitamins played in many clubs all over Chicago, New York, Boston and Toronto, and participated in the 2002 Independence Day Festival in Kiev, Ukraine, with some of the most prominent stars of the Russian rock scene. While in Chicago, Multivitamins opened up for such tycoons of Russian Rock as Leningrad, Agata Kristie, VV, Tequila Jazz, Auktyon, Krematoriy, and Aquarium. After a two-year intermission from 2003 to 2005 due to heavy substance abuse by the band’s core members, Multivitamins are back.
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