My Story

Hi there! My name is Artur Mokrushin. I am from Heaven, and I happened to land in Maykop, which is a city located northeast of the Black Sea in the Krasnodar region in Russia. My family moved to the USA in December of 1992 when I was two months old. I am the oldest of three brothers.

I am passionate about European Folk Music, which includes Celtic, Irish, Nordic, and Slavic traditional music. I enjoy both metal and non-metal variations of folk music. My vision is to release my own albums in the folk metal genre—a genre that mixes traditional instruments with metal elements and dynamics. I have plans that extend 10-20 years (and beyond) and I am excited to manifest my gift to the world!

No. I was never a musician by practice or education most of my life. I used to sing in my church choirs for about 8 years from my mid-teens to mid-twenties, but I didn't think much of it in terms of any grand interest in music. I went through a variety of music genres in my youth, but nothing really inspired me towards creating music. This passion was ignited in me when I discovered European folk music in 2013 and birthed a desire to impact the world through music.

In this milestone vlog, I share the story of how my name came to be and the deeper inspiration behind it. From its Celtic roots (“Artos” meaning bear and strength) to the biblical calling of seeking the Kingdom of God, and even the influence of Horizon Zero Dawn’s Seeker title, this video explores the faith, vision, and creativity that shaped my identity as an artist. Watch to learn how my name, my emblem, and my music all connect to the journey of being a Seeker.

Having a creative personality, I have enjoyed drawing and sketching since I was a child, and my inspiration largely came from video games such as Age of Empires II. I was intrigued by themes from the Medieval era and often drew knights, warriors, and battle scenes. Later on, I took interest in drawing manga, which was mostly inspired by Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist anime series. My last official drawing was in April 2011 at age 19.

At age 16, I purchased my first car from my dad. This was a 2002 Acura RSX Type-S in pearl white color that my dad purchased from the auction in 2003 and restored it himself. I started modding the car at age 17 in 2009, which was the start of my next creative outlet. This car became my canvas for creativity, and the passion for cars and modding extended to December of 2020, with my last major car modification being the DC5 Type-R Brembo brake overhaul, which I worked on myself for 24 hours straight. While I have a list of mods that I wish to do on this car, my priorities and passion have shifted elsewhere. This is the only car I have ever owned to this day.

My life and ambitions changed when I discovered European folk music when I was about twenty years old in 2013. I basically stumbled upon the European folk genre, and I finally gained the proper terms that helped me to find this style of music. I feel like I have always enjoyed this genre of music as it was presented in games and movies, but I didn't know what it was called. I had a small playlist of instrumental folk songs—both acoustic and metal—from various artists, but this was enough to spark a desire to create music.

This would be the start of the bitter-sweet shift in priorities as my passion for folk music collided with my passion for cars. While the transition from drawing to car modding happened naturally, the shift from car modding to music was quite conflicting, which may have been due to the strong identity I had as a "car guy." While my priorities and passions are clear today, there is still a part of me that enjoys expressing my creativity through the vehicle I drive. The main underlying factor behind this shift was that I can bless more people through music than I can through my car.

Inspired by the small subset of folk music in 2013, I had a choice between taking violin or flute lessons. I decided on the violin because it's the harder instrument, so I felt that taking violin lessons is the bigger "bang-for-the-buck." I inquired my Lord regarding this decision and sought His will concerning this music endeavor in my life. This was a huge decision. No one in my family is a musician and I wasn't a musician from youth and yet I had this desire and crazy idea to play one of the hardest known instruments. So in Spring 2014, I took Music Fundamentals and Beginner Piano college classes to get a foundation in music and I met a young music major, Chad J. Williams, who was a violinist from youth, at my piano class. After that semester, he gave me violin lessons according to the Suzuki method.

Aside from the violin, I was also inspired by Eluveitie to play the tin whistle and the bagpipes by Arkona—and I also wished to play various guitar/lute instruments, traditional drums, and the hurdy gurdy. This was quite a crazy idea! Nine years into playing music and I felt like my lifetime won't be enough to accomplish what I envisioned. I worked a full time job and I often struggled to find time or strength after work to pursue this music dream. If I were to fulfill my vision, something had to change.

I started my YouTube channel (formerly "Artos Mokrushin") in January 2021 for the purpose of growing as a musician by having an incentive to perfect the music pieces I play for an online audience. My first video performance was all 3 movements of the "Vivaldi Concerto in A Minor" with the violin. After publishing this performance, I built a green screen setup in my room. 

"The Parting Glass" project in August 2021 was the kind of video that I envisioned doing from the beginning. My green screen setup allowed me to use different backgrounds for each project. "Epilogue" was the following video project that was published in December 2021. Then I put more effort into graduating from Suzuki Violin Book 4 with "Bach's Concerto for Two Violins, First Movement, Second Violin." The video performance for this piece was published in August 2022.

Up to this point, I was becoming increasingly aware that I would not be able to fulfill my vision by playing instruments myself. There were just too many instruments to master and I couldn't do it on my own. That's when I made the grand decision to switch from playing live instruments to working with MIDI composition and virtual instrumentation.

I made purchases for several MIDI instruments I needed for my next project in August 2022. In December 2022, I released my first MIDI project, "The Wolven Storm." For this project, the audio and video were separate media. This would be the final video where I would use the green screen setup for my projects.

"The Wolven Storm" is the first track that I mixed and my first track that got mastered by a mastering engineer. This song was a huge success in my estimation and I was highly satisfied with the results.

Furthermore, I enjoyed the whole process of composing and mixing the song. Practicing live music instruments always felt like a burden to me. It would require much willpower to play after coming home from work and I would only have the strength to play no more than an hour. However, in contrast, I can easily get into a workflow state when composing/mixing music and I can spend hours working on it. Upon realizing this, I knew that I had made the right decision and doubled down on it. 

In January 2023, I made purchases for a studio desk, the Komplete Kontrol S88 keyboard, mixing headphones, a 4K monitor to use with my laptop, and several other peripherals—a setup designed for my new MIDI composition workflow. With my new equipment in place, I continued to my next project.

In July 2023, I released my first folk metal track, which was a cover piece of Korpiklanni’s song “Dolorous”, which yielded satisfactory results. For the video aspect of this project, I applied the idea of capturing scenic locations from video games.

March 22, 2024 was the date of my first official release, which was distributed across all major stores and streaming platforms via TuneCore. "Radiant Hope" was an original folk metal single release inspired by one of Eluveitie’s songs, which launched my official artist name “Artos the Seeker." This was a major milestone and only the beginning of my journey. 

Rise of the Seeker was my first album that was released on August 22, 2025. The purpose of this album was to release enough songs to be able to meet the requirement for claiming my YouTube Artist Channel, which was a minimum of three releases in 2024. The songs were planned as instrumentals that would be used as background music in my vlogs. However, by the time this album was released, that requirement dropped to just one release! Nevertheless, in creating this album, it helped me to improve my skill in MIDI composition and learn how to use my MIDI instruments to their fullest potential. The level of excellence that this album presents will be the foundation of all future releases.

My next adventure lead me to AI music with a calling to produce AI folk metal that present the Gospel message of the Kingdom of God, and thus, Kingdom Folk Metal was born. This project goes under a different artist name—Kingdomheim. A single was released on September 5, 2025. More information can be found about this project on its Origin page.