Ten years ago – in musical terms, an epoch – Assyrian remnant George aka DMC Style was a member of the most famous pop star trio 23:45 in Russia.

As mere students, the trio was as loved by many as The Black Eyed Peas was in their prime, in stark parallel ways. 23:45, cool and critically disregarded, was the wholesome, band that sang upbeat, unapologetically weedy songs about immature love in Russian. The Black Eyed Peas, peerlessly cool and critically exalted, remains a pop icon singing unapologetically uplifting night-life anthems. If popular culture was unrecognizable from 1988, as it should be, one facet remains comparable: the seemingly unreachable standard—disguised in reality as pressure—that record labels place on potential multiplatinum-awarded artists.

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One-third of the band 23:45 George aka DMC Style started his musical journey learning piano begrudgingly while his playmates run around dribbling a soccer ball in the neighborhood. He soon learned to produce the band's (initially a duo) backing tracks performing at underground clubhouses. "Back then, there were no YouTube or any tutorials online so I had to learn it myself without the aid of DAWs (digital audio workstations) like Ableton or Logic Pro," he ponders. He recalls getting in touch with a passionate manager who, at that time, has newly-started his artist management firm.

"We were students in university when we all started. The pressure to make a hit song was real. "We worked so hard to get to where we wanted to be, eating McDonald's breakfast, lunch and dinner." George recalls. "We wrote a ton of songs. We were convinced that every song we produced should be a hit," he adds. It was only when they gave up on creating a hit record that things started organically flowing. "None of the big radio stations played it at first," George said. "One radio station manager even dismissed our track as lackluster." Until fate turned the tides when one radio station took a gamble. 23:45's record began charting. Their accidental hit record was born. "We went from nobody's to multi-platinum recording artists." One of their highlights was winning an award considered as the Grammy of Russia.

The trio enjoyed the blessing of not having unsolicited feedback that comes with social media around. One needs a steel backbone, like the Kardashians, to navigate its ill effects. The price of fame these days is definitely lofty. And the price of falling out of fame is equally high—if not higher.

After the death of their successful manager, the beginning of the end became inevitable. Mismanagement took its toll. "I felt that the band going our separate ways was very organic. There were no riffs whatsoever. We just felt that it was time to move on."

George currently lives in Dubai pursuing a career in music production.

Watch the full interview below.

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