How it all began
My story began in 2002. I had already achieved success in sports, becoming the champion of Belarus and the CIS in race walking, and even trained at the Olympic reserve school. But I soon realised that sports were not my true path.
My real passion appeared in middle school, when I first got interested in music. Everything changed the moment I heard the song Carefree Angel by Aria. That track awakened something inside me, and I knew I had to learn to play it on guitar.
It took months of convincing my parents, who still believed only in my sports career, but eventually I got my first acoustic guitar, “Borisovdrev,” along with a self-study guide. From that moment, I spent days learning chords, riffs, and songs until I finally played Carefree Angel.
That was the beginning of a new journey — and the big question arose: what’s next?
Nightfall
Once I learned to play, I started writing my own songs on just a few chords. In 10th grade, together with drummer Yuri Shikunets, I founded my first band — Nightfall. We quickly gathered musicians, found a rehearsal space, and began playing heavy metal at local concerts and festivals in Soligorsk.
It wasn’t real fame, but in our town people already knew the name Nightfall.
FL Studio
In 2004 I finished school and moved to Minsk to study journalism. I had dreamed of entering the music faculty, but without a music school background it wasn’t possible. Still, I kept writing poetry and prose, so journalism felt like the right choice.
My first band, Nightfall, stayed behind in Soligorsk. In the capital it was difficult to find new musicians and a rehearsal space. But everything changed when a fellow student showed me FL Studio.
This software became a revelation: I could finally create music entirely on my own — no more searching for bandmates, rehearsal rooms, or adjusting to others’ schedules. I threw myself into it with passion, learning how to build arrangements and write tracks from scratch.
At the same time, I didn’t abandon the guitar and even played for a while in my institute’s band.
Bruce
By 2006 I was ready to step into a new role — not only as a composer, but also as a producer and lyricist. Together with vocalist Yulia Vorokh, we recorded Let’s Invent a Dream at NESTANDA Records. The song spread quickly and was warmly received, which gave me confidence to continue. We followed it with several more tracks, experimenting and growing with each one.
Everything changed with the track Shadow. The rapper we invited never showed up, and the sound engineer suggested I try recording the part myself. That’s how Bruce was born — a nickname my friends had given me back in school.
The song Julia Vorokh feat. Bruce – Shadow surprised everyone, and soon I was being asked to record more as a rap artist. I created tracks like Like Raindrops, Give Me Strength, So Many Times, When She’s Gone, and began selling my music to other performers, mostly in hip-hop and pop. During this period I also wrote a lot of music on demand, organised different creative projects and even helped put together festivals.
By 2009 I was performing at hip-hop festivals in Minsk and beyond. With vocalist Natalia Zaretskaya, I recorded two albums — From Earth to Sky and Black to White. Our shows reached different cities in Belarus and even St. Petersburg. In 2010 we presented From Earth to Sky at R-Club in Minsk, joined by some of the best rap artists in the country. Around the same time, I also co-founded the rap collective SNTO with fellow artists from Soligorsk.
By 2011 my focus began to shift. Rap gradually faded, and I turned toward chillout and ambient music. That period gave birth to tracks like The Wings, My Light, Touch, Clearer Than Me, and Serotonin. This was also when I began my first steps as a teacher of electronic music — my first student being DJ Karina from a local nightclub.
Family
In 2012 I met Evgenia, the woman who would later become my wife. Our story inspired many of my songs — All These Subtleties, Lights, Happiness, It’s All of Us and more. We married in June 2013, and in December 2014 our daughter Maya was born.
Music, however, was no longer enough to support a family, and I went back to Soligorsk to work in the mine. It was a tough and exhausting period, when I almost completely left music behind — but at the same time it gave me the strength and resources to take the next step.
In 2019, with savings from the mine, I founded a company in Estonia and launched a startup called STAJIN, designed to connect people with resources for their personal events. But when the pandemic hit in 2020, the project was put on hold indefinitely.
France
In September 2020 we moved with my family to France. The first years were tough — I didn’t know the language, and most of my time went into paperwork, studying, and adapting to a new life.
When I finally had a chance to think about the future, I knew I had to return to what I always loved: music. Our finances were shaky, but Evgenia believed in me without limits. On almost our last money we invested in the basics of a new studio — studio monitors, a Pioneer DDJ-200 controller, an electric guitar, a sound card, and a guitar processor.
That moment marked the true restart of my musical journey.
Boris StajiN
In May 2023 I released my first track after years of silence — Just Night. Step by step I began building my new artistic identity as Boris StajiN, while performing at local events and preparing my debut album.
At the same time, I kept creating new opportunities: I hosted Deep d’Azur electronic parties, returned to teaching both offline and online, and organised songwriting workshops in Nice and Fréjus.
In early 2025 I released my first official album, Jemaliya — named after my wife Jenia and our daughters Maya and Aliya. On the day of its release, I performed a special DJ set where I played the entire album live.
Over time, tracks from Jemaliya began to attract the attention of international labels. Feel was signed to INKOGNITO Records in Dubai, Until I Found My Wings went to the major Brazilian label G-Mafia Records, Alterego was picked up by the German label Deep Woods, and Stay, recorded with American singer Clxrity, was released on the UK label Almighty1 Music.
Both Until I Found My Wings and Alterego were also featured on American radio iHeartRadio, bringing my music to an even wider audience.
Today I am still at the beginning of a new chapter in France, but my ambitions are as strong as ever. I continue to believe — as always — that nothing is impossible.