Interviews by Dan and Uma: Major Moment, P1
The Boston-Based Alt-Metal Pop Band Is Hitting Its Stride
Major Moment is poised to have a major year as the indie band from Boston prepares for the release of its first album
The band talked to us about creating meaningful music and the challenges of a band doing it all by themselves. This is Part 1 of our interview! Part 2 drops tomorrow.
There isn’t quite anything like Major Moment out there right now. Is the four piece band nu-metal, prog rock, power pop? Depends on which song you listen to. In my case, a Facebook algorithm happened to drop the band’s single, “Toxic” on my wall, and I was hooked after the first 30 seconds.
Heavy riffs and thunderous drums give them a driving sound, but there’s tons of melody synths in there as well, sort of the kind of sound that Linkin Park brings to their music with Chairman Hahn’s electronic programming.
What really sets them apart though is the duel lead vocals of Andrey Borzykin and Sasha Razumova - Major Moment was doing male / female lead vocals well before Emily Armstrong joined Linkin Park. The back and forth adds layers and layers of texture to the driving music, and the fact that the couple are married gives their softer, power ballads that much more authority.
The two Russian-born musicians formed Major Moment in 2018, a couple years after meeting thanks to an on-line Linkin Park community meet-up in Boston. They hit it off immediately.
When we learned about Major Moment they already had two EPs out, one of which was being offered for free to music fans. And when the package arrived, complete with personalized autographs, pics and stickers, Uma and I knew we wanted to see them live and interview them.
We’ll catch them live for the first time in August. But until then, Major Moment sat down to chat with me (with input and questions from Uma) about the band’s touring plans and their new album, “The Pain That Makes Us Grow.”
That album drops officially today, June 20, 2025 just as the band is in the middle of what they are calling the Not A Tour Tour as they hit major venues all across the East Coast. Tonight they’ll be in Providence, R.I. for their album release party, and tomorrow in Ridgewood, N.Y. Check out their upcoming shows here: Major Moment Touring Schedule
The band’s line-up consists of:
Andrey Borzykin - vocals / synths
Sasha Razumova - vocals
John Williams - guitar
Steve Matin - drums
As always, for more information on Major Moment’s tour, merch or music, their website is here: Major Moment Website. They also have a growing Patreon. Interviews By Dan and/or Uma can be read right here, just search our archive for Interviews.
Watch the band’s official video for “Toxic” below and then enjoy the interview!
Interviews by Dan & Uma: Major Moment
Dan Szczesny: How did the band come together and end up being Boston-based? Have you found there to be any advantage or disadvantage to being New England based? Give us a little background on members.
Andrey Borzykin: It feels like there are definitely more disadvantages of being Boston-based at the moment, haha. Despite having the most famous music school in the world, the music industry is just not present here otherwise. There were only a few smaller venues, and in 2020 a lot of them closed permanently, so it’s a struggle for up and coming artists to find venues to perform at. On the other hand, in the current day and age your location means less than it used to back in the day, so we’re here for the time being. Major Moment has quite a backstory, it’s multi-layered, so for the purpose of keeping this interview digestible, I’m just gonna invite anyone who wants to read more about it to our Patreon page, where we recently got asked this question in our monthly Q&A. Joining is totally free, and if you choose to support us, it will help our journey big time.
My background is pretty wild: A law school in Russia, managing and owning multiple businesses in the past, just to give it all up for the love of music. I attended a couple years of music school back in Russia as well, when I was like 10 years old. I wish I had the patience and wisdom to push through it back then, it would’ve really come handy now.
Sasha Razumova: I was actually a professional tennis player, traveling all over the globe and ranked among the top 500 players in the world. Now, I'm planning to achieve even greater success with Major Moment. 😁
Tennis has been a huge part of my life since I was 6 (still is, since now I’m teaching tennis as my day job - yeah, we still have those), but I’ve always had a passion for music. I’m pretty quick at remembering the lyrics of songs I like, so I constantly tested my parents’ patience, singing almost every song that came on the radio from the back seat whenever we were driving somewhere. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to attend music school or anything like that, but I did take a bunch of vocal lessons here and there. I even went on a trip around Italy and Poland with a choir I was part of for a few months. We sang in all kinds of places like in churches, or under bridges, or simply on the streets. It was very cool!
Steve Matin: I actually dabbled in several instruments when I was young; piano, alto sax, guitar. I took guitar lessons for a few years, but drums stuck through the longest - which is the only instrument I received no formal training in. I played solo for a long time, posted some covers on YouTube and whatnot, but it was only around a few years ago when I really started taking it seriously. I knew that I needed to do something with music. I tried several outlets; played in a few bands, freelance recording, reached out to studios for internships, etc. Then I found MM and things started to fall into place.
John Williams: When I was in middle school, I got really into the Rockband/guitar hero games. Eventually I realized that I should just be playing real guitar instead! That journey started 16 years ago, and I never actually thought I could be in a band. That was until I had a firm goal last year to start seriously working towards putting my guitar skills to use, and work toward being a part of something more. As soon as I saw Major Moment needed a guitar player, I jumped on the opportunity, and couldn't be happier to be a part of an amazing band. As my day job, I am a software engineer for a travel website, which is actually coming in handy for hotels on the road!
Dan: While your sound is generally rock / hard rock, I hear all sorts of unique elements in there, from synth pop and electronica to growls to ballads. Linkin Park comes to mind, in fact. Can you talk about your musical influences and what you hope / want the band’s sound to be?
Andrey: I have many influences across different genres. If there’s one thing I’m not trying to plan ahead it’s what the band’s sound will be, I just know it will be Major Moment.
Sasha: I just wanted to add that you nailed that Linkin Park influence! Both myself and Andrey were die hard fans of the band for years, so naturally, it comes through in our music.
Dan: Currently, you’re independent. Can you talk a bit about the pluses and minuses of being a fully indie band? I assume you all have other jobs on the side – what’s a day or week in the life of an indie band look like?
Andrey: There are many pros in being an independent artist nowadays: full control over your business and artistic vision; flexible release schedule; ability to choose whatever team you want to work with, as long as you have the budget. Being your own boss is amazing and empowering, I haven’t been anyone’s employee for over 15 years now. The pros of being signed are: having better representation, relationships with the DSPs, booking agents and promoters, guidance and mentorship, established connections throughout the industry.
I was actually thinking about filming “A day with Major Moment” video for our socials or YouTube channel, but in short there are some routines, but each day is different from another. We get up pretty early, around 5-6AM, start the day by checking mail, socials, responding to comments that came overnight, then it’s coffee time, we go and start packing merch orders that need to be shipped (not every day, but 2-3 times a week, we get about 50 orders a week, it’s a lot of work to pack them). Checking social media for new opportunities, researching them, if something caught the eye, reaching out about them. Sometimes there are rehearsals, sometimes there are shows. Those require significant prep tech-wise, gear-wise: research, upgrades, backups, maintenance, etc. Communicating with other bands, promoters, venues, calls with potential partners like labels, managers or distributors - all of this takes a significant chunk of our time each day.
As far as jobs on the side - I drive Uber, and deliver catering orders. The flexibility of those gigs is unmatched, it helps me to focus more on the band’s business whenever it’s needed.
Sasha: Social media marketing takes a huge chunk of the day too, from coming up with a concept for each video, to filming it, to editing, to posting. Sometimes it all happens on the same day, but ideally it would be done in sections over a few days. We try to post 2-3 times a day now, but at the very least once a day. For merch, I also have to keep track of the inventory (and there are two shops: online and for live shows), make sure we have enough of everything, or if we want to add a new item, the designs need to be made and the company found to make it come to life. We do have a system in place, and every day we’re trying to make it better and more efficient, it’s a lot of work.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, I teach tennis full time. I love my job and it feels incredible being able to share my experiences, help people to stay in shape, and learn something as amazing of a game as tennis!
Dan: You’ve been getting some pretty good gigs and touring a decent amount this spring. What are you learning from setting up your own tours and being on the road?
Andrey: That it’s a TON of work haha. We’re lucky to have Kevin Razlog of Olympus Talent Agency on our side. Me & Kev are a great team, and spend hours in the chat together every day. I often find leads or shows I’d like us to hop on, and we try to make it happen. Sometimes it takes a dozen emails sent into the abyss, sometimes just one DM is enough, often it’s a combination of anything you can possibly try. There are no rules.
Being on the road is fun for me, I enjoy traveling, I love driving. Every new show at small clubs presents some kind of a challenge, but I like solving problems. Getting up early and getting ready fast, leaving for the next city earlier than needed helps us stay on top of our schedule.
Sasha: I gotta admit, it’s addicting. This year we’re finally focusing more on playing live, we figured out (sort of) the transportation issues we had, bought the most beautiful red trailer that fits everything we need, and were on the road for up to 5 days in a row, which was amazing! In each city we meet new people, whether they’ve heard of us before or not, we’re able to share our music with them, hear their stories, it is wonderful! One of my favorite things to do is to talk to fans at the merch table before and after the show.
Steve: It's been a learning experience for sure. At the same time, it's been awesome to see the growth and progress along the way. The schedules can get pretty challenging; you're up early, driving for several hours, loading in/out alone, then finish at 12-1am and pray there's a sub shop that's still open. It's not always easy to get proper rest/nutrition while doing these runs, and that doesn't translate well to the physicality of what we do on stage. But it's a process that can be improved/refined.
Tomorrow, Part 2 of our interview with Major Moment when Uma will take over and talk to the band about their favorite animals and what it’s like for Sasha to be the only girl of the band! Join us at 10am on Saturday, June 21 for that!
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Interviews By Dan and Uma is a regular question and answer feature developed by ten-year-old Uma Szczesny and formatted and managed by her journalist dad. The column focuses on interviews between Uma, sometimes with Dan, and some of her favorite musicians, artists and teachers. Uma is also a kid reporter for Manchester Ink Link. Her interviews have been published in several media journals and newspapers in the United States and Canada. For more information on Interviews By Uma, to read her archive or to propose or suggest an interview, email interviewsbyuma@gmail.com. Check out Dan and Uma’s books here:
As with many up and coming groups touring and making a living at it can be tough. Keeping a day job is almost an essential until and if that big breakthrough comes. I think this band would fit well at the Bank NH Stage in Concord. I'll let them know about the venue. Good interview Uma & Dan!!