BIX have always been in the spotlight, the band has always been ripped to shreds, but they still manage to deliver surprises. A week before the anniversary concert of BIX, band leader Saulius Urbonavičius-Samas recalls the most important facts of BIX's history and reveals details that few people know so far. "This time at our musical ball, everything will be the other way around, so some spicy details and our little secrets will help you not get lost in time," smiles S. Urbonavičius-Samas. The only BIX concert will be held on November 16 in Vilnius "Siemens" arena.
- The BIX group was founded in 1987. in Šiauliai. Interestingly, the name BIX was coined only a year later. S. Urbonavičius-Samas released an underground, single-copy album BIX with Kursiok. He went from hand to hand. The name BIX comes from the word "bikas", which means smoke. "It sounded nice," Sam explains of the name idea.
- The first performance of BIX took place on December 1987, 31, in Šiauliai. S. Urbonavičius-Sama was enticed to get on stage by an unrealistic prize at the time - the winner of the competition announced by the Šiauliai House of Culture will have the opportunity to rehearse in the basement of the house of culture and use the music equipment there. Seven songs were born during the nightly rehearsals that lasted for a month and BIX won the competition. "Officials sat on the competition commission, then Vytautas Katilius, the leader of the very popular group "Vairas". It wasn't until many years later that we found out that he had convinced the commission that something would come of this group," recalls Sam.
- BIX's path to music Olympus began in 1988. at the "Lituanika" music festival. For the first time, bands that were not allowed into the country before came to Lithuania - "Die Toten Hosen", "Boom Operators", "Brigada S". During the festival, BIX's performance impressed foreign guests, and a month later the group went to West Berlin to perform.
- in 1989 BIX in one of the cities of West Germany was warmed up by the group "Nirvana", which soon gained world fame. The legendary group had not yet released the album Nevermind (released in 1991), with which they received worldwide recognition.
- In 1991, BIX performed a lot. released his debut studio album "Blind soldiers". A year later, such works as "La Bomba", "Doozgle", "True Sound", "7", "Rat City" and WOR'S saw the light of day. Some of these albums had both Lithuanian songs and English lyrics. This is how the group tried to adapt to the foreign market that liked it. 1996 was a time of change and merit: the group abandoned the previous brass instruments and received laurels in almost all nominations at the prestigious Bravo Music Awards.
- BIX was never just a music group. This is a group of artists who express themselves in other artistic fields as well. BIX has always distinguished itself with original, never-before-seen, surreal music videos. They fascinated the band's fans no less than the music they created. The author of the ideas for all the clips is Saulius Urbonavičius-Samas. BIX was one of the first Lithuanian groups whose music videos were shown on music channels MTV and VIVA. in 1993 at the global Cannes video competition, BIX received the "Palm Branch" for the best script for the video for the song "Pressure". "The clip was filmed in a Lithuanian film studio, and the editing work took place in West Germany. The whole life of a person is told in the clip, and many meanings about the human being can be read in it," says Samas.
- in 1990 Marius Brasiūnas, the group's manager, died tragically. The BIX manager of bright memory was going to the Riga film studio, where he had to finish filming the video clip "Between Europe and Hong Kong". Unfortunately, tragedy struck. The car crashed into a tree, the manager died in the hospital. "He was the most talented manager in Lithuania. He was built for the job. If fate had turned out differently, I have no doubt that BIX would have had more opportunities to gain a foothold in the Western market," Sam says.
- BIX also stood out from the others with unusual, daring photo shoots. S. Urbonavičius-Samas took care of the style of the group members. Here is 1992. BIX was not afraid to expose herself in front of the lens of photographer Rolandas Parafinavičius. "With BIX, we were never afraid to break standards, we raised sharp questions and proclaimed ideas of freedom with our music. Back then, taking a naked photo was something like that, there were no such photo sessions yet," says Samas.
- The band's path is marked by countless concerts and tours JAV, France, Germany, Holland and many other countries. in 1990 In New York, BIX was immortalized in a photo shoot by the Brooklyn Bridge. The photos fascinate fans to this day. The second US tour lasted eight months. BIX recorded several songs at the Long View Farm recording studio, where such music greats as Aerosmith, Alice In Chains, Rolling Stones worked. In America, the group had huge career plans. Family plans prevented them from being fulfilled. "We could no longer sign a five-year contract with Virgin Records. Children were born to BIX members, everyone wanted to go home, to their families, to Lithuania," said Samas.
- in 1997 the rest of the quartet took a musical break. BIX performs less frequently and closed the studio doors for a while. The group members began to participate in various art and music projects. in 2008 BIX released a compilation of the best songs "XX. Part I". 2015 was another turning point in BIX's musical path. The group is again actively spending time in the studio, performing at the biggest Lithuanian festivals and preparing the album of new works "Bix Ray", which has attracted great interest.
