Vlad Motchoulski Biography

Early Life

Vladimir A. Motchoulski was born on March 16th, 1988 in Moscow, Russia. His first memories of life were strange Soviet Era hospitalizations in odd, decrepit hospitals with cold steel chambers and grey apocalyptic court yards. He remembers watching the Russian Constitutional Crisis on live television. A rouge tank battalion spent several days shelling the Moscow White House with artillery. Over 2,000 civilians died during this event. Countless others were affected by the economic crisis that would soon follow.

Vlad's family was not particularly wealthy, but they were not destitute either. His parents came from a science and intellectual background. His grandparents achieved high levels of rank in the Soviet Military. Most Soviet Era families had an apartment and a summer house to their name. Automobile ownership was somewhat more rare in the early 1990s, but not uncommon. The apartment and summer retreat properties were gifts from the Soviet government. All the citizens had to do is upkeep the property and pay their taxes. Legal troubles with Moscow would follow Vlad into his teen years due to Russian military conscription papers being sent to his apartment.

Vlad was a very isolated child. He preferred the company of books, television, radio, and imaginary beings to that of his peers. For him, his pre-school classmates seemed intellectually regressed and very primitive. Soviet pre schools taught relatively advanced concepts early on, and yet, Vlad was still bored with the environment - to the point of despondency and complacency.

It was not until Vlad discovered music and writing in his early 20s, that his talents would flourish. For most of his youth, he merely coasted along through the established system. Often times he had revolutionary thoughts about the nature of life, reality, and the cosmos... however, he did not share them with anybody.

In 1994 Vlad's family moved from Moscow to West Lafayette, Indiana, United States for work related reasons. This move caused a rush of excitement, as well as traumatic shock to Vlad's young mind. Switching countries from the former Soviet Union to the United States was not easy in the mid 1990s. Vlad was lost in the culture shock of mid-90s America. To him, there was an excess of everything. From TV channels, to children's books, to billboards, to breakfast foods... there was simply too much of everything in this strange land of plenty.

Vlad did not integrate well into the first grade. The other kids bullied him for being different and he was traumatized by their actions. By the second grade his intellectual gifts were beginning to show. During one event, students in the classroom had the option of acquiring stars on a bulletin board for completing intellectual tasks. Vlad's star chart went past the wall poster's margin.

Vlad did not complete the second grade in Indiana. His family suddenly moved to Burlington, Vermont... again, for job related reasons. This only caused more trauma and instability in his young and fragile mind.

Burlington was an interesting change of culture and scenery. The family would not stay here long, but Vlad was still able to absorb the natural beauty of the state. He learned how to ice skate on professional grade hockey skates. He spent the crisp and cold New England winter skiing in the gentle slopes of the countryside and ice skating on the crystalline rink of the local high school.

After their stint in Vermont, Vlad's family moved to Columbia, Missouri. It was in this town, that Vlad learned the truths about American society. Money and popularity govern all. Ninety-nine percent of the American population is but docile order-takers who calmly submit to the wills of their Capitalist Overlords. Vlad, more or less, abandoned American society during his time in Columbia (1997 - 2001).

The area sparked new interests and curiosities for Vlad. He gained an appreciation for urban decay and Columbia's archaic downtown structures. In the 5th grade he obtained a copy of the PC game SimCity 2000. It was a revolutionary game at the time. It included an in depth city simulation, moderately developed graphics, and an intricate system of city management which included interesting details such as wealth-based tax codes, utilities, ordinances, and pollution. Despite his young age, Vlad learned the game very quickly. After a few weeks of practice, he successfully built a large, vibrant, clean energy city with a balanced budget and a highly functioning culture without using any of the game's cheat codes or financial gain advantages.

In 2001 the family moved again. Vlad had to say goodbye to the few friends he made in Columbia... and another life began anew.

Their destination was the nondescript suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois.

Young Adulthood

Vlad's family suffered an intense economic cataclysm after 10 years of life in Schaumburg. His parents lost their townhome, an investment of over a third-of-a-million dollars.

This event, in essence, destroyed Vlad's prospective university career due to the financial ruin it brought upon the family. He dropped out and began to take on common jobs in the local economy in order to survive, all the while continuing his multimedia training. His new goal was to abandon capitalist greed and become a virtuoso master music, art, and writing.

From 2009 through 2013, Vlad often locked himself in his room for hours at a time to practice music. It was not uncommon for him to spend 5 hours per day practicing guitar scales and various techniques. He obtained a deep, vibrant blues tone for the electric guitar as well as a unique finger style technique on the acoustic, similar to that of legendary singer-songwriter Elliott Smith.

2016 - 2020

By 2016, Vlad had obtained virtuoso status on guitar and piano. He began running and curating a personal digital archive as well as a YouTube music page. He had already completed several classical compositions and written over 100 songs in the folk and singer-songwriter genres. In early 2016 he began to dedicate more time to the visual arts, as well as time towards economic theory, theoretical physics, psychology, philosophy, and literature.

As of summer, 2016, Vlad continues to live a humble and simple life of prodigious multimedia production and elegant artistic virtuosity.