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M  U  S  I  C
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E. Shaun Russell

    
    Sasha        Human Accomplishment

E. Shaun Russell's musical career began roughly when he was seven years of age. Growing up in a small town 300 miles northeast of Vancouver, Canada, he discovered that by touching the various ebony and ivory keys on his parent's old and dilapidated cabinet grand piano, certain distinct sounds would be emitted. He further discovered that these magical black and white keys could unlock a door to a utopian portal, when used properly. Never one to neglect his curiosity, E. Shaun voiced his interest to his parents, who promptly assigned him to piano lessons. After two years of learning the meanings of squiggles and dots on pages, he grew very bored with reading music, and sought out a different music teacher who focused on music itself, rather than the interpretation of such. It was here where E. Shaun's talents came to fruition. Rather than teach him traditional and "proper" music, his teacher urged him to choose contemporary music which he liked. Subsequently, at assorted music recitals, purists were aghast when a ten year old E. Shaun Russell mounted a piano bench and started bashing out the Billy Idol version of "Mony Mony." Despite the chagrin of the critics, the audiences were always entertained.

After two years of this ear-training and contemporary teaching, E. Shaun's parents separated, with his father moving to his native New Zealand. As a result, E. Shaun, now twelve, and his mother decided to "start anew" and move to Vancouver. Though the transition was both important and necessary, it also was not easy. Due to the relocation from a 2000 square foot house to an 800 square foot apartment, that old and dilapidated cabinet grand piano could not make the journey. E. Shaun was essentially pianoless for about three years, and was forced to vent his musical expressions via pianos at his high school. In the meantime, his father returned from New Zealand, and his parents resumed their marriage. Not long after, the whole family was able to relocate to a larger house on the outskirts of Vancouver. It was here that E. Shaun's musical life began to truly take shape.

In Langley, the suburb of Vancouver where the Russell family had relocated, existed a unique high school --one which incorporated a primary focus on the fine arts with a traditional curriculum. Naturally, E. Shaun enrolled as a music major, though the piano would turn out to not be his main instrument. Enter the drumkit. E. Shaun took to the drums and percussion even quicker than he did to the piano, and after having less than six months of very general training, he was allowed to perform a timpani solo during a classical band piece at a school recital. His musical career at the school was cut short in a very unfortunate way, however. Due to his lack of natural aptitude towards music theory, his grades were brought down considerably in that major area of training. Concurrently, his teacher's animosity towards his outright atheism (and perhaps E. Shaun's own animosity towards his teacher's outright theism) caused him to be kicked out of the extracurricular concert band course. E. Shaun finished the year with very mediocre grades in music, and he resolved to forego Music as his major for his two senior years of high school. In its place, he selected Drama, which also complemented his expressive ability. Fortunately, he was still able to feed his musical inclinations by choosing Electronic Composition as a minor. This turned out to be a very prudent move indeed.

Enter the synthesizer. At home, E. Shaun's parents had purchased another, albeit smaller, piano; however, despite the amount of enjoyment he once again derived from that instrument, Electronic Composition proved to bring out the best of E. Shaun's abilities. Run by a different teacher, Electronic Composition featured an assortment of Korg O1W/FD workstations midi-connected to PCs running Cubase Score. With such superlative instrumentation, E. Shaun's creative ability was allowed to set flight. His musical passions began to override him to the point that he would spend countless hours after school composing music. While his other classmates (all Music majors, naturally) were composing pieces in the style of Bach, Mozart or any other socially acceptable musician, E. Shaun began composing multi-part epics more akin to Rush or King Crimson than anything classical. Though he was noted as being very "peculiar" in his musical methods, he nevertheless received an A+ grade in the course. Three of the pieces he composed in those early days are still in his active playing repertoire today.

During this time, E. Shaun alternately played bass, keyboards or was lead vocalist/lyricist for various local bands including Beyond, Pillar, Discord and Neverness. Having purchased his own keyboard as well as a copy of the Cubase Score software, he began composing at home. Though he had strongly considered a career in music before, he began to focus on it fully around the time he turned eighteen. Working in the warehouse of a bookstore in the daytime, and composing by night, E. Shaun discovered that despite the diverse range of music he listened to (including bands such as Dream Theater, Rush, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Ozric Tentacles and musicians such as Mike Oldfield, Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Peter Hammill), his style bore more of a semblance to new age musicians such as Liz Story and Vangelis.

The one obstacle to E. Shaun's compositional ability was that he tended to start more compositions than he finished. For every ten pieces he began, there would only be one that he actually finished. Part of this stemmed from his penchant for writing bass and drum lines, but a lot of it was due to his perfectionism. Nonetheless, in the fall of 1999 work began on his first album, The Seduction of Integrity. The first song written for the album was an adaptation of an older composition entitled "In the Shadow of a Burning Moon." Though the original version featured a synthesizer melody, the remake was a fusion of a solo piano piece with a hard rock piece. Though the piece was a good attempt at bridging a musical barrier, the lack of an electric guitar prevented the piece from realizing its potential. Five other pieces for the album, including the cornerstone "Dogs of Ganymede" were written in the next few months. The Seduction of Integrity was scheduled to be released in May 2000, but a tragic event occurred which delayed the release for two weeks.

On May 8th 2000, one of E. Shaun's idols, Alexander "Sasha" Chislenko took his own life. Though E. Shaun had only met Sasha a few times in the past, Sasha's attitude towards transhumanism and life in general had had a significant impact on him. As a result, his death had the same effect. Within a few days, E. Shaun initiated a new composition dedicated to the life of Sasha Chislenko. Simply titled "Sasha," the piece turned out to be the most heartfelt of any of E. Shaun's compositions, and it is the only solo composition of his own which he voluntarily listens to. Upon its completion, it was immediately added to the album, which was then publicly released on Mp3.com near the end of May. However, rather than market the album as he had previously planned, E. Shaun Russell's focus began to change. Rather than continue his pursuit of music as a career, he decided to focus on actively working to spread transhumanism and help to catalyze the future. In the summer of 2000, E. Shaun began working for Extropy Institute in the capacity of Operations Officer. This proved to be very fulfilling, though it still required that he have a regular job. Finally, after sourcing out alternatives, he was presented with the opportunity of relocating to Southern California to help found a new cryonics service provider called Kryos. He pursued this opportunity and currently makes his residence in Greater Los Angeles.

Despite the change of career focus, E. Shaun Russell still views music as much more than merely a hobby. Though it is currently secondary to his work in the field of transhumanism and cryonics, it is by no means in the background. As of May 2001, he is currently hard at work on producing a compilation of Extropian music entitled Extroversions. He is also in the midst of composing music for a new album which is tentatively scheduled to be released this autumn. For more information on E. Shaun Russell, please contact him at e_shaun@uniserve.com. You can also view his compositions and purchase his first album at http://www.mp3.com/EShaunRussell.