A Russian Band Looks for a Home Abroad — The Wall Street Journal
A Russian Band Looks for a Home Abroad
Life can be tough for a Russian rock band in the U.S.—what with the unintelligible lyrics, the foreign cultural milieu and the lack of name recognition.
Take Mumiy Troll, for one. Back in Russia, the band fills the country`s biggest venues, like the roughly 25,000-seat Olympic Stadium in Moscow. But in the U.S., despite its efforts, few outside the Russian and ex-Soviet expatriate communities—many of whom were on hand this month when the band performed at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan—have heard of the foursome.
«In Russia, Mumiy Troll is absolutely monumental, and they could easily stay there and earn a lot of money,» said Artemy Troitsky, a leading Russian music critic and a professor at Moscow State University. «In America they play small clubs and do it for very little money simply because they want an adventure.»
Now, it seems, the band wants more. After nearly 30 years in the business, Mumiy Troll is taking a fresh shot at finding a crossover audience with the release this week of its first English-language album, «Vladivostok,» named for its hometown, a far-eastern port city about 6,000 miles from Moscow and 40 miles from the Chinese border.
Performing a style described by singer and guitarist Ilya Lagutenko as «rockapops,» Mumiy Troll`s music features fast electric guitars with electronic flourishes. Some «Vladivostok» tracks are reminiscent of `70s-era David Bowie, others of danceable English new wave à la the Pet Shop Boys.
With that style, Mumiy Troll has developed a solid global audience, performing about 100 shows a year. Outside of Russia, it has fans in parts of Europe (notably the Balkans), Canada, China, Greenland, Israel, Japan and, somewhat surprisingly, Mexico, which was responsible for nearly a third of the online views for the video for Mumiy Troll`s new single, «Fantastica.»
«Rock `n` roll is such an unpredictable thing,» Mr. Lagutenko said recently at the Russian Tea Room, where adoring young employees took turns taking pictures with him. «I have to seriously consider writing something in Spanish.»
Mr. Lagutenko founded Mumiy Troll in 1983 in Soviet Russia, where rock `n` roll was considered a subversive activity and regulated by the government. Three years later, he said, the local communist party chief pronounced Mumiy Troll, along with Black Sabbath, among the world`s most socially dangerous bands.
After briefly disbanding the group when he was conscripted into the Russian navy, the trilingual Mr. Lagutenko worked as a translator among Russian, Chinese and English. The band reunited in the mid-1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and its star began to rise.
Mumiy Troll`s American efforts began in 2008 when it signed with the Agency Group and began a series of U.S. shows. The band—which also includes guitarist-keyboardist Yuri Tsaler, bassist Eugene Zvidionny and drummer Oleg Pungin—released its first album in America the following year, «Comrade Ambassador,» but the Russian lyrics limited its success, Mr. Lagutenko said. Next came «Vladivostok.»
«We understood that unless you sing in English you will just be considered a novelty,» he said. But even as Mumiy Troll begins to lure some American «curiosity seekers,» as he described stateside listeners, the sold-out gig at the 700-seat Highline Ballroom underlined the band`s dilemma: Is catering to the untapped American audience worth possibly losing some core Russian fans?
Some industry veterans said pleasing both constituencies is too difficult.
«Russian rock songwriting at its best has been very specific to Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet culture,» said Peter Varshavsky, who heads the San Francisco-based label Porto Franco Records and has represented Russian rock bands. «It would be very difficult to translate it to an audience not familiar with those times and that world.»
Even if a band can overcome the cultural hurdles, he said, the language barrier is often prohibitive. «In many cases the music just sounds like European or American rock but with unintelligible lyrics, so American audiences have nothing to connect with.»
A handful of Russian bands tried to crack the American rock landscape after the Soviet Union crumbled. Notable were Aquarium, signed by Columbia Records; Gorky Park, signed by Mercury Records; and Zvuki Mu, signed by Warner Records.
«None of them got further than their debut albums,» Mr. Troitsky said. «A lot of money was wasted on promoting them.»
Boris Grebenshikov, the leader of Aquarium, which released the mostly English-language album «Radio Silence» in 1989, blamed the band`s failure on Columbia`s scant promotion and disagreements over a follow-up album.
«By that time I had learned something about the music business in the U.S., and it was much more interesting for me to work back in Russia,» Mr. Grebenshikov said.
Still, Mr. Lagutenko, who is 43 and grew up listening to American, British and Japanese rock, remains determined to crack the American market.
«You know, it would be a lot easier for us to stay in Russia because the economic situation is booming, and financially it gets better and better for us there,» he said. «However, I realized that pursuing your dreams is an unforgettable adventure, even if it does not materialize in something you really wanted. It takes you on a road which is an amazing experience itself.»
The recent Highline Ballroom gig pleased some, but not others.
One young Russian-American fan, standing outside the club`s red velvet rope, was asking passersby for a ticket, nearly in tears at her inability to enter. She said she came from a town near Vladivostok and that her father was also a fan.
But another young fan was less impressed, echoing the rock fan`s eternal complaint.
«Ten years ago they were better,» she said. «They were more pure, it was more from the heart. Now they`re more commercial.
ROBERT P. WALZER