He could have been a pilot in the Soviet air force, or even an American rock star, but he chose instead to launch a solo career as a musician at home.
He is Alexander Marshal, 44, the former frontman of rock band Gorky Park.
"I spent some time watching popular Russian rock bands performing and haven't seen much potential. I came to the understanding that Russian rock is in trouble," Marshal said.
For this reason, Marshal, whose real name is Alexander Minkov, has chosen to play music that is something between heavy guitar-driven rock and melodies that are suitable to Russian tastes.
Marshal's father, Vitaly Minkov, was a military pilot who persuaded his son to begin a career in the Soviet air force and helped the younger Minkov to be admitted to a prestigious air force academy in the Stavropol region where the elder Minkov served as an instructor.
But Alexander, who was nicknamed "Marshal" by fellow cadets for dreaming of that higher rank, left the school during his second year as a student.
"I wrote a report and was invited to an academy board meeting with all those generals and colonels telling me how much money the country spent on me," Marshal recalled. "I told them that I want to play music and they proposed that I go into the army choir."
But neither Marshal's father nor any of the academy higher-ups would have imagined that, years in the future, that young boy with dreams of music would become the head of the only Russian band to achieve a level of fame in the United States with its English-language songs.
Founded in 1987 by prominent Soviet rock producer Stas Namin, Gorky Park (Park Gorkogo in Russian) soon became the Soviet Union's answer to Western pop-metal bands Poison and Bon Jovi. In fact, Bon Jovi leader Jon Bon Jovi would eventually give his blessing to Gorky Park and recommend the band to Polygram records.
Shortly, Gorky Park ?€” which took its name from the popular Moscow amusement park ?€” moved to the United States, where the band gained popularity as an exotic import from behind the Iron Curtain.
In 1989, the band's song "Bang" was in constant rotation on MTV and had reached No. 40 on the Billboard charts.
Despite the success, however, Marshal wasn't happy.
"We thought that we'd arrived in a free country and could play what we wanted to and look how we wanted to," he said. "But everything turned out to be the other way around."
In their efforts to turn Gorky Park into the West's poster group from the Soviet Union, music industry producers didn't allow band members to interact with members of the local emigr?? community in Los Angeles, where the band was based, or even to get in touch with fellow musicians from home.
"We saw [Aquarium frontman] Boris Grebenshchikov on the David Letterman show. That was the extent of our communication with him," Marshal said.
In addition to their isolation, Marshal said he regrets letting the band's American producers take total control of the band's finances.
"They brought me thick volumes of contracts and asked me to sign. I said I didn't understand a word and they said 'Trust us. We're family,'" he said. "Then it turned out $800,000 had disappeared somewhere."
Financial problems and the death of the band's manager forced Gorky Park to leave the United States for good in 1996.
Today, Marshal attributes the failure of the band's last two American albums (released in the mid 1990s) to the fact that the band chose to use complicated rhythms "that nobody needed."
When the band returned to Russia, the musicians were hailed as living legends, musicians who'd made it to the top in the United States, but the adulation was short-lived. Eventually, Marshal went his own way, to begin a solo career ?€” making music he said is a mix of "guitar rock and the usual human melodies."
Music critic Boris Barabanov attributed the band's failure to catch on in Russia to its late return ?€” several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"[Gorky Park] was a perestroika project, and that trend was over," he said. "The band was experimenting with their sound and they had a lot of interesting innovations, but that type of music was already out of fashion here."
Now, Marshal is looking to the future.
"We've decided that we won't play [as Gorky Park] anymore," he said. "Gorky Park should remain in the past."
Alexander Marshal performs Monday and Tuesday at the Kremlin Concert Hall. Tickets are available at city theater kiosks.
He is Alexander Marshal, 44, the former frontman of rock band Gorky Park.
"I spent some time watching popular Russian rock bands performing and haven't seen much potential. I came to the understanding that Russian rock is in trouble," Marshal said.
For this reason, Marshal, whose real name is Alexander Minkov, has chosen to play music that is something between heavy guitar-driven rock and melodies that are suitable to Russian tastes.
Marshal's father, Vitaly Minkov, was a military pilot who persuaded his son to begin a career in the Soviet air force and helped the younger Minkov to be admitted to a prestigious air force academy in the Stavropol region where the elder Minkov served as an instructor.
But Alexander, who was nicknamed "Marshal" by fellow cadets for dreaming of that higher rank, left the school during his second year as a student.
"I wrote a report and was invited to an academy board meeting with all those generals and colonels telling me how much money the country spent on me," Marshal recalled. "I told them that I want to play music and they proposed that I go into the army choir."
But neither Marshal's father nor any of the academy higher-ups would have imagined that, years in the future, that young boy with dreams of music would become the head of the only Russian band to achieve a level of fame in the United States with its English-language songs.
Founded in 1987 by prominent Soviet rock producer Stas Namin, Gorky Park (Park Gorkogo in Russian) soon became the Soviet Union's answer to Western pop-metal bands Poison and Bon Jovi. In fact, Bon Jovi leader Jon Bon Jovi would eventually give his blessing to Gorky Park and recommend the band to Polygram records.
Shortly, Gorky Park ?€” which took its name from the popular Moscow amusement park ?€” moved to the United States, where the band gained popularity as an exotic import from behind the Iron Curtain.
In 1989, the band's song "Bang" was in constant rotation on MTV and had reached No. 40 on the Billboard charts.
Despite the success, however, Marshal wasn't happy.
"We thought that we'd arrived in a free country and could play what we wanted to and look how we wanted to," he said. "But everything turned out to be the other way around."
In their efforts to turn Gorky Park into the West's poster group from the Soviet Union, music industry producers didn't allow band members to interact with members of the local emigr?? community in Los Angeles, where the band was based, or even to get in touch with fellow musicians from home.
"We saw [Aquarium frontman] Boris Grebenshchikov on the David Letterman show. That was the extent of our communication with him," Marshal said.
In addition to their isolation, Marshal said he regrets letting the band's American producers take total control of the band's finances.
"They brought me thick volumes of contracts and asked me to sign. I said I didn't understand a word and they said 'Trust us. We're family,'" he said. "Then it turned out $800,000 had disappeared somewhere."
Financial problems and the death of the band's manager forced Gorky Park to leave the United States for good in 1996.
Today, Marshal attributes the failure of the band's last two American albums (released in the mid 1990s) to the fact that the band chose to use complicated rhythms "that nobody needed."
When the band returned to Russia, the musicians were hailed as living legends, musicians who'd made it to the top in the United States, but the adulation was short-lived. Eventually, Marshal went his own way, to begin a solo career ?€” making music he said is a mix of "guitar rock and the usual human melodies."
Music critic Boris Barabanov attributed the band's failure to catch on in Russia to its late return ?€” several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"[Gorky Park] was a perestroika project, and that trend was over," he said. "The band was experimenting with their sound and they had a lot of interesting innovations, but that type of music was already out of fashion here."
Now, Marshal is looking to the future.
"We've decided that we won't play [as Gorky Park] anymore," he said. "Gorky Park should remain in the past."
Alexander Marshal performs Monday and Tuesday at the Kremlin Concert Hall. Tickets are available at city theater kiosks.