Gediminas Svilas

Bio

I was born in 1989 in Vilnius. My father was an artist at the time, so he did a lot of painting and photography, and the house was always full of all sorts of weird devices. The desire to express myself in art probably came from there. I got my first electric bass at the age of 16, so I consider 2006 as the beginning of my new life.
My first experience was in a funk-rock band with drummer Gediminas Stankevičius. Although we had only a few gigs as a band and after just over a year we parted ways, the common approach remained and we still work well together with G.Stankevičius to this day. A year later I met Linas Karaliūnas and in 2007, at his suggestion, I entered the Vilnius Juozas Tallat-Kelpša Conservatoire, where I studied electric bass with the teacher Sergej Sopelev. During my years at the conservatory, I met the drummer Viktoras Krasauskas. At that time we formed the first trio with L.Karaliūnas in the front, and while working in the basement of the conservatory the idea of RMSC was formed. The knowledge and practice that I had accumulated during that time helped me to find myself.
At the Conservatory I also started to study piano and drums. In 2008 I joined the rock band "Arbata", and before long I was invited to play together by the rapper Messiah and the soul-hip-hop band "King Flow". My musical tastes were changing and at that time I quickly moved from funk and rock to jazz and Latin American music. In 2009 I graduated from the Conservatory and entered the Faculty of Arts of Vilnius College and continued my studies with S.Sopelev. Since 2010 I have studied double bass with Vytis Nivinskas.
As the RMSC activities expanded, I went to represent the RMSC tradition in Dusseldorf, West Germany.

I participated in the following festivals:

'08 Birštonas Jazz "Tango Extremal" (with V.Chekasin)
'08 Nida Jazz "Tango Extremal" (with V.Chekasin)
'08 Lviv Intercultural Literary Festival (trio)
'10 Birštonas Jazz, international project with students from Edinburgh (Scotland) (with V.Chekasin)
'10 Jazz Fountain (trio)
'10 Vilnius Mama Jazz
'11 Vilnius Jazz: Vilnius Jazz Young Power
'11 Vilnius Mama Jazz
'16 Kaliningrad Jazz Festival (with RMSC quartet and US vocalist Mandy Gaines)