«From outcasts to arena-packing rockers; Russia`s Mumiy Troll, once blacklisted by the Soviets, is on a mission in North America» — Kelowna
From outcasts to arena-packing rockers; Russia`s Mumiy Troll, once blacklisted by the Soviets, is on a mission in North America
Canwest News Service
The members of Russian rock group Mumiy Troll were teenagers when they were publicly blacklisted for being a «dangerous band» in the 1980s by their local communist party committee.
While such condemnation might be a blessing in the Western world, winning rock bands the notoriety on which careers are built, in the Soviet Union that sort of singling out could come with grim repercussions.
Mumiy Troll frontman Ilya Lagutenko knew this well, but he was thrilled by the distinction, nevertheless. «We were blacklisted next to the Sex Pistols and Black Sabbath and I was proud of myself when I heard that,» says Lagutenko, 41, in an interview . «On the same list as those bands. What a great achievement.»
Perhaps, but it wasn`t one to take lightly either.
Formed in 1983 in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, Mumiy Troll (pronounced moo-me troll) emerged in the Cold War era when rock music was forced underground in communist countries.
As a young boy Lagutenko was turned on to bands like AC/DC, Blondie and Kiss when they would appear in communist newspapers, where they were raked over by the Soviet propaganda machine, vilified as poisonous and corrupting symbols of Western decadence.
«I still have those articles back home,» says Lagutenko. «Today I give them to friends to read, for fun. But it was all bad [press]. … They would [write about artists] like Alice Cooper and say, `Young people will listen to rock music and commit suicide.`»
Their interest piqued by the forbidden, Lagutenko and his friends began to seek the banned music out, purchasing it from sailors who smuggled in records to the port city and Trans-Siberian Railway terminus on the Pacific Ocean.
Inspired, Lagutenko formed his first band, Bunny Pee, at the age of 11, followed by Mumiy Troll a few years later – the name is a horror-inspired twist on a Finnish comic strip for children, its literal translation being the Mummy`s Troll.
«It wasn`t written that you cannot form a rock band,» clarifies Lagutenko of the challenges facing Mumiy Troll when it started. «But the moment you wanted to perform a gig, you weren`t allowed because you had to have some sort of licence for the event. Or, to sell tickets. … They would always find something. `Oh, you sang something bad about the government,` or, `You`re holding an illegal commercial activity.` … Many musicians would go to prison for that.»
But the truth is, Mumiy Troll wasn`t trying to subversively usurp the government. Even today, on the pop-rock band`s latest album Comrade Ambassador, their first to be released commercially in North America, there`s little that seems overtly political in nature. Often sexual politics seem to be a greater preoccupation for Lagutenko, who sings the album in Russian, with an English translation in the liner notes.
«I do have some references to modern Russian issues,» says the singer of his lyrics, but he adds those are generally veiled in metaphors. «I would never do politics straight forward. … I do it in a way that people don`t take it straight between the eyes. … For me as a writer, that`s too boring.»
In the band`s younger days though, when they were deemed so threatening by the Soviet regime, Mumiy Troll had no real political intentions.
«When you`re young, you don`t think about that,» says Lagutenko. «You just do your thing … and forming a band was like playing toy soldiers for me. It was pure entertainment. Only later did I realize how powerful it could be, when hundreds of thousands of people are following you.»
Whatever their political motivations were, Lagutenko was happy when the Soviet regime crumbled in 1991. Certainly that development was a boon for Mumiy Troll who went from being an underground band to a pop sensation in Russia, where today they pack arenas across the country. Of course, Lagutenko`s only too aware that the fall of communism did not solve his country`s woes.
«So many people now, especially the older generations, they`re kind of missing the old times, because everything was more or less structured and people had a pretty easy life, to be honest,» says Lagutenko. «Everyone gets a job, even though maybe it`s a job you hate. … It was not fancy but it was predictable, and sometimes people like predictability.»
But Lagutenko was never among those people. «In my teenage years, the only thing I dreamed about was travelling the world, and that wasn`t really possible in those times,» he says. Playing in Mumiy Troll, he says, has given him those opportunities he could only long for in his younger days.
Even now though, as his band tours clubs across Canada and the United States, Lagutenko stresses he has no grand design for breaking big in the North American market.
«The moment you try to force something it always falls apart,» he says. «When you do it naturally, things might happen. … We came to California to record our album and somebody [approached us] and said, `Why don`t you do an American tour?`
„But it`s no different than what we`ve done for years. … We`ve had to tour nine months a year for the last 10 years to feed our families. … We`re just doing it in different places now. It`s this strange sort of musical tourism.“
He jokingly adds: „I wouldn`t call it a crusade. It`s more of a diplomatic mission, like the peace corps.“