«If you don`t understand our words, listen to the president» — Pulse
Ilya Lagutenko If you don`t understand our words, listen to the president.
Ilya Lagutenko last month spent several days in St. Petersburg. First there was a chic gig at Royal Beach. The following day his band Mumiy Troll performed for high school graduates at Crimson Sails. He and his band mates are hotly pursuit by Mr. Lack-of-Time. They just can`t get rid of him. The band`s manager Alex is capable of only holding Mr. Lack-of-Time in check, temporarily shooing him away like an undying gadfly. The brief pause to meet PULSE falls on the very moment this wonderful gadfly, itself accessory of success, momentarily flies away to mind its own business. What about Lagutenko himself? In short, in person he puts forth the very same ingratiating verbal intonation, fey smile and multi-layered irony that are familiar from his songs and videos.
Mumiy Troll`s latest video for «Khischnik` („Predator“) was released on June 22. In addition to news footage of terrorist acts, images of presidents are also featured in the video. Do you think this clip might have problems being shown on Russia`s TV channels?
I never think about such things. We usually do what we feel like doing. Actually, the concept for this video developed, to a certain degree, thanks to a St. Petersburg journalists. Unfortunately, I don`t remember his name. At a press conference last year for the launch of our latest album, somebody alleged that the song „Khischnik“ could actually work in the antiterrorist context. I gave it some thought: Yes, contexts can actually be completely different. Consequent conversations and additionally thinking led to Kirill Popov, our photographer, taking up the film-clip project. He and his team dug up some documentary stuff and only shot a little of me singing somewhere in Chicago. Then they cut it up to their hearts` content. We downloaded the finished versions from the web, and in the end we approved it. We wanted the video to be dynamic and have it directed not somewhere specific, but in several various directions.
But still, the choice of characters, including presidents Putin and Bush, for the video was pretty brave, especially considering the upcoming G8 summit. Was the video totally up to the screenwriter?
On the one hand, yes, it was the screenwriter`s decision. On the other hand, it includes the most comprehensive, most important events that have happened lately. Our video can be presented as a sort of comic strip for the summit. Or stick a disc with the video inside your paper…
The release of the anti-war video has been very visibly timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Great Patriotic War. Have you ever been in any highly militarized zones?
Well, I served in our army, which was still Soviet back then, in the Pacific fleet. I suppose the place I served was as militarized as it gets: a naval aviation test site that was closed to eyes of curious outsiders. Our brave pilots perfected their accuracy in firing on aquatic and other targets.
How`s about the civil musical life? Riot-period France, for example…
We played in France then, but I somehow didn`t manage to see the riots. As far as I understand, some of these events are discussed more than they actually happen. That is, whoever finds it convenient to present them in a certain way will do so. All of these actions. They can be filmed and shown on TV like some sort of nightmarish event. But at the same time, passersby can walk the streets freely. I remember living in London when one of the first such demonstrations took place. At most, demonstrators broke three storefront windows in the city. The whole world presented it via the TV as the city`s downfall. Everyone was talking about mass riots. I got calls from my relatives in Russia who were worried about me even though I didn`t seen any of these things. I just didn`t know, and these events had no effect on the city`s life.
Ilya, there`s a story posted on your website. I quote: „In his address to the Federal Assembly, the president touched on the same thought that excites Mumiy Troll: ▒Now, about the most important thing. What`s the most important thing we have? Yes, correct. In the Ministry of Defense, they know what matters the most. We will actually talk about love, about women, about children.` The president successfully read Mumiy Troll`s thoughts. The state`s direction is toward Love!“ Do you actually follow politicians` speeches? I realize that it`s most likely a joke…
What sort of joke is that! It`s a concrete thing, you can`t, so to speak, toss words out. That actually happened. As we were editing most of the „Khischnik“ video across the ocean, we had to always keep in touch online. We were sitting in the studio, passing information from one to another, and on one of the monitors, Rossiya Channel transmitted the president`s speech, and I remembered these very words. A quote is a quote. All in all, of course, I take it as a joke. It`s just that we use the concepts that our press makes so much fuss about. As a matter of fact, this quote was made for the press. They love to add quotes from our state figures here and there. Well, there you go, if you like it so much. If you don`t understand our words, maybe you`ll get the president`s words.
Absolutely unreliable sources – here and there, in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and in other cities – say that Lagutenko has secret properties where he ostensibly hides from the outside world. Is it true that you love buying secret apartments?
It wouldn`t be accurate to call me a collector of secret properties, but I like the idea. I would`ve made it in grand style, but there are still other realities and priorities. I don`t have a home as such. Over the last few years, I bide my time between Moscow, because that`s where all of our professional questions are handled, St. Petersburg, where I have creative and personal interests, and Riga, for the same reasons. Oh, and also in London and New York. I always move around in these circles. And I have actually spent a lot of time here in St. Petersburg.
Do you remember your first tour in 1997 in support of „Morskaya,“ your debut album? I went to the St. Petersburg concert and was astonished by the number of people per square meter in the arena. The place was jam-packed. I had never encountered such a thing before or after. Did you think it would last long? Sold out gigs, arenas…
[Brewery owner] Oleg Tinkoff told me that he then saw how people were walking through the glass. What were we thinking about? I was making all those plans when I was fourteen or fifteen. They were all fantastic, and I thought they would never ever come true. The two or three gigs within the framework of the local Vladivostok rock club were the most important in my life. We perceived the second stage of our career, when we were far into our twenties, us as something we deserved. We were sure of our powers and neither I nor my friends were particularly euphoric. We understood that it couldn`t be any other way. After all, we were working, doing our thing, not frittering our strength away on anything else.
In the last ten years we have played with symphony orchestras, with Chinese traditional opera singers, and as a three-piece backed only by one grand piano to the people who have never heard of us before. There was another time when no one but me and the keyboard player received a visa, but we couldn`t cancel a gig in Great Britain. We found the third guy there, a percussion player. He was Afro-British and had never heard our songs. We`ve played to the most different audiences. It`s one thing to play in your home country where people know your work. But we`ve played in Greenland and in China where no one has any idea that Mumiy Troll exists at all.
So how did they greet you in China?
They were cautious at first. And in our turn, we were really interested in the people who came to that gig at all. Because we didn`t understand what made them come watch us. It`s one thing in China where there are a billion people – one way or another you`ll get a certain number of idlers. But in Greenland, where there are fifteen hundred people living in their capital, there were also plenty of people. What`s important is that it`s all somehow moving. I`ve never thought. I sort of understood that I can do this my whole life. I quite like it. On the other hand, there are lots of questions and problems for a band that`s been around for several years. There are interpersonal relationships and creative urges. It`s nice that we didn`t leave the running track after our first tour, or after the second or third one either. Ten years in such a lively regime give a feeling of certainty in tomorrow.
Are their any ties that connect a commercially successful band to the underground?
That`s an unclear question for me. What is considered underground? Let`s take the Western mainstream. If you`ve got a ten-year contract with some recording company for ten albums, it`s clear that even if you don`t want to do anything, they will still kick you out of bed and pester you into writing songs. Because they`ve invested in you and now you owe it to them. Even lousy material will be made into something that can reach the public. As far as I understand, most of the well-known artists work in exactly this sort of manner. If we`re talking about the underground, it`s the exact opposite. A person who has no burdensome financial obligations does whatever he feels like. He builds his fan base, listener base, follower base exclusively on his creative work. And so they, the listeners, go to the gigs, follow the record releases. In principle, we belong to the second of these positions. Because it didn`t work out for us with production centers or record companies. Every album we release comes out on the basis of a simple tender. We find a distributor who releases our record and distributes it to the shops. We know how to do everything else ourselves.
That is, „We do what we want, and the fact that they buy us is just a bonus“?
It`s a very large bonus. And I will not make any grimaces on that account. When there are people who want it, why can`t we go on? And regarding music that is simply not as widely known, doesn`t sell and is thus considered underground, there are actually lots of fun things there — both to hear and look at. We are often approached by young bands asking for help in getting something released. I always say that the most important thing is your own personal desire to get something through, to understand what level you are on, to know what you want to do, how long you want to do it, how much you`re willing to make some sort of obligations. Even a record release puts some sort of restrictions on you. How comfortable are you with such relationships? Everyone should choose for themselves. As a result, you will develop a circle of listeners.
Ilyas Vasipov
Sent by Elis