“One day I promised God to do everything to fulfill His plan”. Andrey Vesnin.

In year 1998 after another youth ministry Andrey Vesnin, who was a youth ministry leader as well as praise and worship team leader of the youth ministry of Good News Christian center (Riga, Latvia) understood that he had to change his attitude to ministry, stop entertaining Christian youth at church and go into the streets to preach the Gospel through music. Such songs as "Где бы ты ни был, куда бы ни шёл (Wherever you are, wherever you go)", "Тот, Кто был вчера (The one who was yesterday)" and many others have already been written. The new band comprised of young people and also Andrey Vesnin (vocal and guitar). Later on the heart of the band consisted of passionate and fearless Paul Renner (percussion), balanced and always stylish Arnis Betinsh (keyboard), and also a very modest guy Eugenie Galitsky (bass guitar). 

Concert activity started from the opening of a popular music shop RENDOMS. The performance went surprisingly well. There were lots of young people from church who came to see it as well as other young people. The listeners were very excited, they whistled, clapped and were far from hiding their emotions. This was the time when the young people understood that everything they did should praise God and lead to salvation those who do not know Him yet. After that tree charming young ladies joined the group - Alla Nikitina (saxophone), who added a bit different notes to the sound of the group, Aleksandra Lizlova (back vocal) and Ilze Stepane (back vocal). Then concerts in schools and night clubs started. The band played for schoolchildren and bold-shaved men who tried to offer them beer or vodka. After some time the band has suffered a significant loss - Eugenie Galitsky (bass guitar) has a severe both hands injury and he could not continue his musical career. The band was left without a bass guitar. The other team members tried not to lose heart but continued their ministry with eagerness.

After a couple of months a very special musician Pavel Struga (bass guitar) from Poland, who came to study in a “New Generation” church bible school, had joined the band. On the very first rehearsal with him Andrey suggested playing one of his songs "Парусник белый" (White Sailboat) and it acquired a new sound together with the new bass. Trips to different churches continued as well as regular participation in Gospel Hits musical events. Comes to memory one crusade trip we made to a city Apatity, Kola Peninsula. The group went there with their concert program and for most of them such a long trip was first time in their lives. First they had to travel by bus, then in St. Petersburg they had to take a train. As one songs says "…at any road at any cost". The band members played on a youth conference where they set their own hearts on a revival fire and were eager to share it with others. They started thinking of a recording of their first album and began moving into that direction. By then it was time for Pavel Struga to return to his home town and the band again was left without a bass guitar. Nevertheless they managed to record demo version of some songs for the future album. At the same time Aleksey Nikitin (solo guitar), who got saved at one of the services with the group Hearts on Fire, had joined the band.  

In spring of 2000 the band has finally decided to record the album. Viktor Isayev praise and worship team leader of a church “Morning Star” (Jurmala) was invited to take place of a bass guitar player. He became a great spiritual and professional support for other band members. Many hour long recording process had started. It took place in basement premises of a Baptist church “Matisa Draudze". The recording studio was not very big but turned to be very cozy. Studio Director and sound operator David Lagzdinsh assisted in recording. Young musicians were in a hurry to record their first album and wanted to do it very well but they lacked experience and skills. Besides, one more team member had to leave the bang Hearts on Fire - Paul Renner (percussions).

His parents, famous ministers Rick and Denise Renner had to move to Moscow and establish a new church there. By that time the band had been able to record instrumental bass and drum parts. Paul Renner had to leave for Moscow without finishing the album recording. All guitar instrumental parts and even keyboard parts for some songs were ready. It was almost the end of the project when everything had to be stopped due to the lack of financing. Andrey Vesnin, being a leader of the project, was very disappointed by the situation. He started working very actively to get money and continue the recording of the album. In spite if all his tries the circumstances were against him. There was a decision of the church management to stop the activity of the band Hearts on Fire for an uncertain period of time. Financial difficulties, misunderstanding as well as problems in work with the band Hearts on Fire threw Andrey off his ministry at church. He directed all his attention to work and studies.

Seven years had passed. In year 2007 Andrey, being a director of a small building construction company, in a critical situation gave his word to God to fulfil His will, if He helps to overcome this situation. God had saved Andrey from bankruptcy and also gave his company profit that compensated the loss of all previous years. Andrey found tidy premises in a basement, bought musical equipment and started gathering a new band in order to fulfil his promice to God. He called his old friend Arnish Betinsh and offered him to come back to the band Hearts on Fire. Arnis gladly agreed. The new band comprised young people from different churches: Sergey Grib (bass guitar), Igor Sidorishin (percussions) and Eduard Rozenvald (solo guitar). The rehearsals took place two times a week for a couple of months. The band gave a performance at a youth festival “It is time to take a stand-2006” at church “Word of Truth” and presented newly rehearsed song “Blood”. Then there was a performance at a musical evening at Christian Centre “Good News” where the band presented their songs "Тот, Кто был вчера (The one who was yesterday)", "Я иду по дороге (Lonely Road)", "Побитый жизнью (Hit by Life)". Unfortunately, most of the band members had their own plans for the future and all of them left the band except for Arnis Betinsh (keyboard). It has to be mentioned, that the old friend of Andrey, Viktor Borisov (technical support) came to help him in that time. Viktor got Masters Degree in Technical Sciences and all previous years he worked as a technical equipment repair and exploitation engineer. That is why he became a great help and support to Andrey, who was new to all that. 

In April of 2007 Andrey invited new group members to join the band. Agreed upon the purpose and vision of the project Hearts on Fire they started their rehearsals: Dmitry Karpov (keyboard), praise and worship minister of church «Божья Река» (God's River) in Aizkraukle, Yuriy Rizhikov (solo guitar), a wonderful musician, with a great sound and unusual choice of notes. Vladimir Shalom (drive guitar) added a special rhythm to the music of the band. Roman Murashov "SCREAM" (bass guitar) created an unusual dynamics in songs.  Other musicians, such as Aleksander Merzlikin "SHULTC" (percussions), Valdis Indrishonoks (acoustic guitar) and back vocal support Eva Kerevica and Yuliya Matvejeva joined the band during the recording of the album.

In August 16th, 2007 new team came in to the premises of the sound recording studio Sound Division with their newly prepared repertoire. All instrumental parts were recorded within two days. It has to be noted, that a famous musical producer Edis Gnedovskis was involved into recording of the album. He tuned up all the equipment very quickly and started the recording. Later on the work was continued at GEN musical studio, owned by Edis Gnedovskis. Some keyboard parts were recorded there as well as vocal and back vocal. After three months of hard work and bringing the recorded sound to a desired level, thorough work on the design of the album, long awaited disc called "Хватит мечтать (Stop Dreaming)" finally came out. It was a great joy not only for the band leader and producer Andrey Vesnin but also for all of those, who was involved into this project. 

The same year in November 30th Andrey had a performance at one of the conferences in Tallin, Estonia, which was broadcasted in life regime of a TV channel Estonia Life TV. The next day after coming back to Riga Andrey presented the songs "Хватит мечтать (Stop Dreaming)" and "Пустыня (Desert)" at the youth festival «It is time to take a stand-2007» in church "Word of Truth". Listeners appreciated highly the content of the songs as well as their sound. After that performances at different churches started as well as the album sales. Long before that Andrey had a big desire present the album "Хватит мечтать (Stop Dreaming)" on a very high level in a DVD format and be available to listeners as much as possible. 

In March 2008 the band gathered together in Andrey's studio to discuss a plan of further rehearsals. Andrey shared his idea of making a concert presentation of the album. The rehearsals schedule was arranged and finally the concert date as appointed on May 31st. Andrey had meetings with musicians and singers two - three times a week.  It has to be noted that each of the participating musician or singer have their own projects, ministry, job, studies and family. In spite of that most of them were 100% involved in order to see a success of the project Hearts on Fire. Deepest gratitude to all of them for that.  As it very often happens in life, a week before the concert the band found out that Vladimir Shalom (drive guitar) had to leave the country for family reasons. Andrey being deeply upset by the situation started looking for another adequate substitute, somebody who could quickly learn all the guitar parts. It was a very difficult task as all serious musicians were already involved in different projects or concert tours. Viktor Borisov remembered of his good friend Aleksander Kudrjavcev (drive guitar). Andrey called him and got his positive answer. The band had time to have a couple of rehearsals before the concert and was perfectly prepared for the performance. 

Andrey wanted this event to become unforgettable and he invited Riga Gospel Quire. When he met the quire director Rally Orava he offered her quire to take part in a song "Парусник белый White Sailboat)" and received a positive answer. But this was just not enough and he invited professional dancers. Andrey called his friend Vladimir Beliy to assist him in this question. After two days three of them were sitting at Double Coffe and discussing work conditions and dance style for the song "Хватит мечтать (Stop Dreaming)". Olga Korsak-Zadvornova, choreographer and stage director of a group "Dance Studio Axel" started her work. Everything was prepared, in general, but anyways, Andrey kept asking himself a question -"What have I missed?” Company PRO1 and show designer Eugeniy Juhnevitch were responsible for the lights. Stage System Service company represented by project manager Arthur Cirtinsh and sound director Artis Rudiens took care of the sound. Advertising campaign was launched, and the program was prepared. They only had to pray God for this evening and for the good fruit to come out of all of that.

In May 31, 2008 the long awaited exciting moment came. The concert took place in a Christian Centre “Good News”! This was a splendid presentation of the album “Хватит мечтать! (Stop Dreaming)”. Further you can read one of the articles that came out on a news portal Baznica.info.