Interviews with rappers
Noize MC: "Psychics still exist in our lives"
So, food for thought. Noise MC. He is Ivan Alekseev. He is the winner of the battle on hip-hop.ru and the person who recorded best album of the year according to the readers of the Afisha magazine. Just so you know, the readers of Afisha magazine are the kind of people who usually phallomorph to names you don't know well, like Babyshambles and Aki Kaurismyaki. Not for laconic Noize MC. Quite an achievement too. Oh yes. He is also a rapper who buried the journalist Nikolai Fandeev. He writes joint tracks with "Cockroaches" and "Lyapis Trubetskoy", listening to respect from Maxim Leonidov and Alexei Kortnev. Yeah, and now, right now, the concentration of unfamiliar names per paragraph has reached a critical level a little less than completely. Ergo: not a person, but just some kind of holiday!!111
So the young rake thought when he crossed into your Rostov. I'm talking about myself, you have to think, not about Ivan. He, unlike me, was paid. If they paid me, I would also come up with normal questions, but I came up with what I came up with. Should we be sad? As it became clear very soon, I was the only one who came up with at least some questions from those *1teen people who fluoridated at Urbania for chocolates and press badges. I wouldn't have thought of them. This is us with eLect, at two o'clock in the morning on the central square of the city singing "There is no plan in the area for 3 weeks," the petty bourgeois, the cops and the never-sleeping cattle were shooing. And yes, it’s me, a television worker, that calls from colleagues in the shop are “From the window ...”. No, I definitely had something to ask this guy. Selected moments from our conversation, filled with sparkling humor and intelligence, I present to your close attention. My pleasure.
- Noize MC, do you have a song in your repertoire that you could call your mission statement?
Well, my mission statement is divided into parts, chapters, which are the songs, so I can’t call any specific one of them a global mission statement. These are just parts of the whole. Each listener is free to put them together.
Noize MC, by your own statement, you are an artist who is deeply purple in the genre. But what do you like more?
I like hip hop as an approach. This is music that was invented very cool and very timely. This is a current that truly remains touching only in its original incarnation. That is, when you have something to say and when you have a baggage of records on which you need to put your own recitative. And what kind of records you are going to put on - it's completely on the drum. I like hip-hop as a genre that initially did not have its own music, but synthesized various styles in order to create something of its own - unusual. Over time, rappers found themselves looped in the circle of sampled music, some standards and are afraid to go beyond. This is bad, in my opinion. Because hip-hop is more than just a genre of music - it's an approach to making music.
Open the veil of secrecy over the new album, what will it be like? Will you, when compiling the tracklist of the album, keep in mind that girls want sluggish things?
There will be delays, girls. Parenthetically: Noize MC usually doesn't answer questions about the new album at all, so three words in this light is a grandiose exclusive info.
- What question could you ask Noize MC yourself?
- Noize MC, how do you explain your stupid appearance at the concert? The girls didn't even recognize you at first.
When we performed at the Kuban festival a week ago, we met a dude named German there, who lived there in a tent with his party. And he said that he himself was from Rostov and would definitely meet us. And he didn’t lie, he met us, and brought us some wigs, crazy clothes, all sorts of interesting shit, and we decided to dress up in him and go on stage. So we have such an image sponsor today.
- Noize MC, comment on the story about Jagafest, which is popular in our Internet (You can read about this sensational story with the defiant anthem "Heroin Fest" from Noise, for example - approx. DEM84).
Many simply were not ready to accept the fact that a person can really say what he thinks, and there were many versions about some kind of viral advertising, initially paid moves. Once again, I was convinced of the absolute rottenness of the Internet community, at least. Everyone is interested, first of all, in the question of whether I received the dough for my performance. Not received. And not only did I not fucking get it, but I also have to give my dough in addition to these fag * races. And therefore dont beliv the hype, on the one hand, do not believe the show-offs. On the other hand, believe in psychos - they still come across sometimes in life.
- Noize MC, remember your most unusual freestyle?
It seems to me that the organizer demanded that this mockery of the artist be stopped, I have already read about three hundred freestyles on the recorder, but there was not a single unusual one among them, which is why I am leaving now, and that’s it. And all the best to you, all the best to you, I'm leaving. No, my name is not Vova, my name is not Dima. Although these names are now popular. Today I pulled the guitar strings, today it was fun, today it was carbon monoxide, many people said buee, but he does everything mediocre, I saw these freaks, they showed me fakes, I explained to each of them what they are worth, motherfucker. Everything, the rhymes have become bad, so I'm leaving. After all, Noise MC is not only a name, Noise MC is not only music. Noise MC is a person. He sometimes needs to sleep instead of recording a track. He sometimes needs to sleep instead of giving interviews, that's it, goodbye, damn, fuck you.
Noize MC about the new album, police brutality and parents' irresponsibility.
One of the most discussed and popular domestic alternative musicians, Ivan Alekseev, known as Noize MC, met New Year new album "King of the Hill". Lenta.ru talked to the performer about "fifteen minutes of fame" in the era of likes, police rudeness, and how funny it is to be a rapper.
"Lenta.ru": Already in the opening track of the new album, you repeat: "My music is always with me ..." This phrase itself is one of the stereotypical statements of many performers. But you probably mean something specific?
Noise MC: How much more specific? There is probably no more straightforward song than the track Make Some Noize you quoted on the entire album. Well, except perhaps "Favorite color" yet. So, my music is really always with me: on any trip I take with me a microphone, a laptop, a sound card, a guitar, a midi keyboard, portable speakers and a bunch of all sorts of wires. I write texts in my smartphone, sometimes I make the first sketches of instrumentals in it or record newly composed guitar riffs on a voice recorder. I write songs on the subway, planes, trains and buses. The album "King of the Hill" was recorded in this way - with the exception of a single studio session, we did everything right on the tour, in travels and breaks between concerts. Make Some Noize is the epigraph of the entire record, the story of how it was actually made.
Have you already checked how the audience reacts to the title theme of the album? How far do the public's ideas about the "king of the hill" diverge from your meanings?
Our regular audience basically reads everything correctly. This is a song about the transience of mass success and the consumer attitude of the public towards the artist; about "fifteen minutes of fame" and "caliph for an hour." About how music turned from a means of self-expression into a spectacle and competition. But some people perceive this track as a statement about the thirst for power, about the struggle for it - although this is only a surface layer, a literal reading and only a facade of the whole allegory. But as for the hip-hop community, in this environment, some guys, on the contrary, even go too far with decoding: they look for references to specific persons of Russian rap in the text, they seem to be attacked by them. I didn’t put anything like that there - on the contrary, this song is just about the industry that depersonalizes the artist.
What did Basta find so that he can now “charge” a solo album at Olimpiysky? And what will you never do, even if the producers argue: do this and we will go to the stadiums?
I don't have any producers, and we're gathering rather big venues anyway. Yes, in Moscow it's not "Olympic", but "Stadium". But our band has more radical music. We are hardly played on the radio. I am a rare guest on TV. Sberbank will not invite you to a corporate party. And I'm not looking to change that. I am constantly experimenting, trying to combine the incompatible: as before, I am interested in bizarre genre hybrids and a diverse musical palette - and a huge number of people are still, like ten years ago, trying to figure out whether this is rock or rap? And sometimes with such a claim, as if they were buying a carton of milk, and inside was orange juice. Yes, in terms of show business marketing, Noize MC is a nightmare. Such a product is difficult to sell through a supermarket chain - it is not clear which shelf to put on. And problems with distribution and merchandising, let's say, hit sales volumes. Vasya acted more cunningly: under the pseudonym Basta, he releases softer, sometimes directly pop music; there is Noggano - in many ways his true face, it seems to me - although, of course, dark sides his personalities there are hypertrophied to the point of grotesque; there is N1NT3ND0 - to be honest, my favorite hypostasis, because there I see what I value most myself: a bold experiment, the absence of any orientation towards the audience. I don't have side projects. I mix all my cocktails at the same bar. Not everyone and not everyone likes it - but if you like it, then they are with me seriously and for a long time. I will never be the "number one rapper" just because I'm not a rapper. “What do you want to be when you grow up, Forrest? "Won't I be myself?"
When you touched on the theme of Osip Mandelstam "Save my speech", it seemed curious. But you don't have that kind of experience. Although, it seems to me, to make a hip-hop cycle based on a dramatic, classic literary material can be a very persuasive move.
This is a piece of work. Mandelstam's "Save My Speech" resonated wildly with my own worldview. I wrote this song very quickly, almost instantly - it happens when you don’t even compose, but as if you are recording under someone’s dictation. It cannot be put on stream, turned into an approach, into a method. Maybe I will turn to classical poetry again, and more than once. Or maybe it will never happen again - I don't know. Here, for example, is a hip-hopera (Alekseev's neologism to refer to the concept of "hip-hop opera" - approx. "Tapes.ru") “Orpheus and Eurydice”, which Yuri Kvyatkovsky and I staged last year in Moscow on the stage of Tesla 4000 - this, it seems to me, is to some extent close to what you are talking about. In 2017, I plan to release an audio version of the opera - as a concept hip-hop album, and we will repeat the production in Moscow and St. Petersburg towards the end of the year.
Rap journalism, rap satire are not at all close methods for you now, or do you need some special occasion again?
Do I need the police to be rude again at my own concert, and then put me in a special detention center for responding to this rudeness? Do I want my friends' relatives to die again in an accident caused by an oil company boss? Did I miss the bullying in the media and people with machine guns crawling onto the stage in the middle of a song? Not, no so much. Although someone is probably bored without caustic rap pamphlets on the topic of the day. "Hey, what's a dull tape? More viral content!
You admit, if some regular champion of morality gets to your topic “childfree”, then something from the series may sound again: “Listen to what Ivan Alekseev sings about? This is what he is calling new generations to!?”
Do not “listen”, but “listen to these four lines, spitting on the other forty! Oh no no no!" Not that I admit it, I will be wildly surprised if this suddenly does not happen. It is foolish to deny that this is a provocative song. Yes, provocative. A huge number of parents actually ignore their children, do not try to find with them mutual language, do not delve into their interests and problems, and when an absolutely natural collapse then happens, the musicians with the “wrong repertoire” are to blame. I'm ready for public discussion on this subject, why not? I myself am the father of two children. Yes, I won’t put this particular song in their car and I won’t sing it to the guitar at home. I will put and sing others. Just like I can turn on a cartoon about Carlson or a movie about Pinocchio, but I’ll watch the new “Alien” myself, without them. Many modern parents give their children an iPad from the age of two and go about their business, and then are surprised that teenagers subscribe to "death publics". The song "Childfree" is about what blind following of other people's advice and the opinion of "authorities" from the media can lead to, about personal responsibility for one's own life decisions. And what many people are unable to distinguish lyrical hero from the personality of the author, this is not news to me.
You gave your first concert this year in Moscow on January 2nd. Is it because you now lead a relatively healthy lifestyle and you still have nothing to do on holidays?
Exactly a year ago we gave a concert in the same place. It seems to be becoming good tradition. I like unusual concerts - with a twist, with a concept. What does “there is nothing to do on holidays anyway” mean? Perform on your own New Year's show dressed as a hare is one of the best things to do in life! Rock 'n' roll is much more interesting than the usual binge.
In March, you will be 32. These are not those 22-23 when your popularity began and much around was somewhat different. How do you feel about growing up? And how does a rapper need to “age” in order not to become funny?
I feel like I'm much more aware of what's going on around me. It’s harder to provoke me, piss me off or impose something. Fewer illusions about people. More experience. Nothing special - I'm just really not 22 anymore. A rapper doesn't need to age. But it would not hurt to grow up: to realize that a word has weight and meaning only when you do not devalue it with empty speculations; that it's cool songs that make you a cool artist, not
vice versa; that we are all people first and foremost, and only then - MCs, rock stars, DJs, bank employees, janitors, locksmiths and PhDs. And by the way, sometimes you have to be funny. Without self-irony, a rapper cannot grow up. It's funny being a rapper. Especially for adults. Unbearable pain from an unrequited feeling of hypertrophied self-importance - the main problem hip hop world.
2017 will probably be partly devoted to touring in support of the new album. Recently, 250 thousand people watched the broadcast of your concert online. The number is impressive. But it seems to me that your offline audience, at least in Russia, is still to a certain extent limited, concentrated in several large cities and, perhaps, does not listen to anything from domestic hip-hop except Noise. How right am I?
The degree of your correctness, unfortunately or fortunately, tends to zero. Our online audience is just quite modest compared to the real one. I don't twitter, I don't make video blogs, I don't "periscope", I don't participate in Internet skirmishes - all these raging passions are not very interesting to me, I better song compose. Although the audience, of course, first of all expects from a modern artist not some songs, but a frantic interactive and an immediate reaction to every fart, because the Internet fart is an extremely short-lived phenomenon, and there is no time to yawn: it needs to be urgently analyzed publicly in social networks, tearing down on its irreplaceable peer review well-deserved jackpot of likes, views and comments. And there, maybe someone goes to the concert - take a selfie and shoot a video with the chorus of the main hit. These are the realities of the modern world. And if earlier the underground was someone who is never shown on TV, today the underground is when you have few followers on Instagram.
As for our concert audience, over the past three months we have performed in fifty cities. AT small towns We work in halls with a thousand seats, in million-plus people the situation is different. In the hall, I periodically see people in branded T-shirts of other artists - the audience clearly intersects with leading rap artists and well-known rock bands.
Watching over contemporary music and mixing it in your compositions, didn't you feel that the moment of the birth of some new trend is approaching, what was once rap, hard rock, punk, grunge, Britpop?
I feel the moment has come. Modern musical culture has been chewing on itself for far too long. Now something completely unexpected can suddenly become popular. Perhaps the novelty will not even lie in the music itself, but in the way it is performed and conveyed to the listener, for example. The future is multimedia. A song without a video is already perceived by many as half the battle, like a printed text without sound - that is, okay, I like the words, but this is not enough.
In general, if you look at what has happened in musical culture in the past few decades, you can see how the pendulum of mass interest is constantly swinging between the guitar and electronic music- with a frequency of about seven to ten years. Perhaps everyone is about to get tired of rave and autotune with drum machines, and he will again swing towards the next reincarnation of rock and roll. Or maybe the whole paradigm will finally change. That would be really cool and interesting. But no matter what happens, I personally still plan to strive to write songs that are good in the kitchen with a guitar, and twenty thousand people at the festival are made to jump.
Apple Music now allows its subscribers to listen in the built-in player not to fragments of songs, but to the whole thing - for this you just need to log in
I remember a funny criticism when ten years ago my debut album The Greatest Hits Vol. 1": "I can't listen to this album - it's like twenty different people!" In a sense, this project summarizes all my accumulated skill in this area. And all this is rooted in Hip-Hop.Ru online battles - both in terms of the approach to dramaturgy, and in terms of the discipline that was needed to bring the matter to the end, and Maestro Acid and Repak also turned out to be here for a reason. Plus, this is a musical experiment for me and my team: the sound here is completely atypical for Noize MC, although the main sound producer of the project is Kirill Borisov, who worked with us on the albums "Protivo Gunz", "Hard Reboot 3.0" and "King of the Hill" .
- Listeners will find out: in this song, Noyz actually talks about such and such an incident from his life?
90% of these assumptions will be wrong. This tangle is not so easy to unravel for a person who does not know me personally. But close people will thoroughly understand what it is about. There is a lot of me - there I am mostly.
You see, my wife has always been my muse. But in this album, her role is infinitely important. Many things came from our conversations with her.
When I realized what I was going to do to the hiphoper now, I, like any rapper, started from the beginning - I composed. Emailed this to everyone, including my wife. She, without even listening to how it sounds, just reading the text, told me: “Vanya, what kind of shit is this? It's not funny, there's nothing at all about it, it's neither fish nor meat." I thought about it. And summarizing her claims, he wrote. It was the first trigger from which everything started spinning. So it became clear that there is a drama of Orpheus, who wandered the wrong way, and his muse, which tells him about it. Then other anchor points began to appear.
Are the feelings of the protagonist about the fact that he was chasing money, parting with the ugliness - is this a simplification and a tribute to the genre?
There is a stereotype and there is my experience. And it was interesting for me to play in this gap between them.
- That is, here is postmodern.
What, around everyone refer to the lyrical hero? Was it true? Naturally, any artist had the experience that he did something wrong. This feeling is familiar to absolutely everyone who has released at least one album and given at least a couple of concerts. Someone can say, of course, that this did not happen to him and he is a bright angel of the underground, but this is just a pose.
- Today, do you find the ideals of the underground fifteen years ago ridiculous?
No, why not. It's just that some things seem to be misunderstood. Performers are often driven not so much by principles as by complexes. In the course of a career, it is important to separate one from the other.
- Did you separate?
Let's just say I'm doing better than I did fifteen years ago.
- Is the battle line in the opera an attempt to catch on to the trend?
Why? This is part of my personal history as it is. Andrey, when you were in 2005 for rap.ru - you came to take him after my victory over MC Molodyy at the SGK battle. In general, "Orpheus & Eurydice" is even more of a battle musical than a hiphoper: right there, many conflicts between the characters are resolved in this rhetoric, not only the line you are talking about.
- It sounds cool to the beat. Why don't you go to some beat battle?
I am facing a dilemma. Either I don’t respect the performer, I’m annoyed by what he does, his work is not close to me - and then I don’t want to poke around in it ...
- Stop, what you say is more related to battles like "Versus", but battles to the beat are not much like that.
Not so much, yes. And in the case of "Versus BPM" I rather do not like what I see, and on "Rip on the Beats" there are wonderful glimpses. But anyway - I will return to this dilemma. I do not have the motive "he takes his place not by right, and I will show everyone how bad he is." People I'm interested in fighting in creative plan, cause me respect, not envy, jealousy and hatred. And practice shows that a battle in which there is no real enmity turns out to be wadded. Yes, and I'm too lazy to waste time on such things.
By the way, it was the scene with the battles of ancient heroes that I redid the largest number once again, this is the most long-suffering part of the album: I just tried to generalize and highlight the main types of battle claims, to expose the moment that, regardless of specific personalities, MCs in battles often say the same things to opponents, in fact. This project took a huge amount of time and effort. I threw him to listen to Vladi, he said: “How did you even put it all together?”
- How long did the album take?
Two years. It always seemed to me that another half a year, and I would finish. Most of all I rewrote . I wrote the last lines after we decided that we would definitely not change anything!
- What did you change? Explain with an example.
In the case of battles, I tried to make it sharper. At the same time, this is my longest album - this is my first album without swearing. Making a battle with fictional characters and such initial conditions is a challenge. I hope I succeeded.
© Igor Klepnev
- At the end of the year you will have a fifteenth anniversary tour. Will you perform at Megasport in Moscow?
Yes, but in St. Petersburg in the Yubileiny.
- When you started, how did you imagine yourself in fifteen years?
You know, somehow I imagined it. Adjusted for the fact that fifteen years ago, a rap artist, of course, could imagine a lot, but not a stadium venue.
- From what moment does the countdown begin?
From the first joint rehearsal. The background is like this. I recorded the song "Someday" - who follows knows it; we opened a concert for her for a decade. I needed a bass guitar. I knew that there was Sasha Kisly, nicknamed Punk, in the hostel, who plays the bass guitar, and asked him for an instrument. And when I came to return the bass to him, he asked me what I was recording there, they say, play something from your own. I sang a couple of songs to him - and soon we were rehearsing in his room.
- Did he think it was that great?
He was greatly inspired. By that time he was playing in a punk band - there are such groups where everyone seemed to be going to rehearse, but they got drunk and nothing happened. But our group immediately began to function normally.
And we are counting the existence of the group from this moment. We were drinking at the birthday party of the cult social character Valera, nicknamed Black Heel, and met a dude who claimed that he was a drummer. In order to immediately check this, we went to the vocational school on Nakhimovsky Prospekt, where there was a repair base in the form of two rooms. I remember exactly that he broke all the drumsticks he could find there, so that at the end of the rehearsal he had nothing to play with. We never saw this person again, and the group continued to change its composition, but a start was made. It was the end of April 2003.
- Until now, only you and Kislinsky have remained from the first composition of the group?
After all the perturbations - yes.
Have you ever fought with other band members about money?
It used to. But with Sour - no, never.
- Is there a way to avoid this?
I don't know of any group where there would be no such conflicts. Someone always thinks that they are doing more than they get - always. You see, as long as your overall wealth is zero, these questions don't arise. When the first grandmas appear, everything is also fine, because they are the first, and everyone, as a rule, has another source of income. And then everyone suddenly discovers that they have invested so much - but received not so much.
At what point in those fifteen years were you closest to total collapse and fail?
If we talk specifically about the feeling of fear for the career itself, so to speak, then this is a classic story in the style of “the most dark hour- before dawn". Year in 2005. The band existed for two years, but I had such expectations about all this genius stuff! It seemed to me that everyone should immediately understand him, give us a bag with a billion dollars.
And we performed in the suburbs, in crazy recreation centers, played at completely inappropriate city events. And it seemed to me that it would always be like this: trips on minibuses to Chernogolovka, performances for a case of beer
It wasn't long before I won the SGK battle tournament, won the battle with MC Molody, and for the first time I was invited to tour the country with Snickers Urbania. And everything began to change rapidly. Now it's funny to remember: two years is just nothing in the context of the formation of the group.
- Now during this time the artist manages to hype and slide down.
Well, you see, I was also in my twenties and, apparently, existed at the same pace.
- Noize MC concert now and ten years ago - how has the audience changed?
Expanded. A huge number of people have been with us all these years, they are already bringing their children, but there is still a huge number of young people and teenagers. Concert program has changed, it is no longer “Skinhead Girl”, but “Save My Speech”, “Jordan”, “Rake”.
- The most anticipated songs at concerts are ...
Well, some kind of “Exhale”, “Out of the window”, “Arrange a destroy”.
You stopped playing three-hour concerts a long time ago. And what was the need for such a long performance?
And there were a lot of freestyles. And as a rule, I was very heavily smoky - so there were a lot of them. And then everyone somehow got used to the fact that we played for three hours. But over time, it became clear that a concert for two with something produces greater impression and is more energy intensive.
The question, the answer to which I will not double-check in any way - and nevertheless: compare your concert fees now and five to ten years ago? Have you already passed your peak or are you still going up?
We're going up, yeah
- Fifteen years - and only up?
Yes. There were also downturns. There were crazy 14 and 15 years when our concerts were cancelled. It was different to feel there. But globally, this is an upward movement. And without jumps, smooth.
- Do you understand the reason? Like you're doing everything right and the way it should be?
Well, apparently, yes. Although many do the right thing, it does not help them. Don't know.
- Can you imagine yourself as a person who does not play music?
I can't exactly. Just for the reason that there are so many options to make music that I don't worry about it at all. Writing soundtracks, writing music for other artists, doing some kind of theatrical and cinematic work - something in this regard could be, but now it is not the subject of my main interest.
- Would you miss the stage?
The stage is something you can't live without. When I don’t perform for a long time, I really want to, and the first concert after a long break always turns out to be special. It is addiction.
© Igor Klepnev
- What conclusions did you draw from these cancellations of concerts in 2014? For example, what do you need to be quieter?
No, that's not the conclusion. Do not give a direct lead, say. This is the same kind of experience as in Volgograd (at a performance in Volgograd, Noize ridiculed the police from the stage and received ten days of administrative arrest. - Note. ed.). There are options to speak out in such a way that it is just as strong in terms of the scale of impact, but does not give you reasons to hook. It's like walking on the edge, and you never know what will be considered a sufficient condition to arrange persecution. But the musician needs to keep this line. Just recently, the LSP blocked the song “Numbers” on VKontakte. Enchanting, of course, stupidity. What kind of new law is this, that it is impossible to describe the method of suicide?
It is not new, everyone who works in the media knows it well - in accordance with it, for example, you cannot directly write what happened to the musician Avicii. But this is the first time I've seen it extend to a song.
For me, this is news. It has not been used like this before. I should then ban half of my discography altogether - at one time I developed this topic very closely, one song “Suicide” is worth something, four ways are described there at once! But what about a bunch of works of art, where is it? main point dramaturgy. This suggests itself long list. And everyone shrugged their shoulders: "Bad law, wrong, what to do - it is not clear." I used to think that people would go to the Kremlin with pitchforks only when there was nothing to eat. But now I realized that this will happen when YouTube is closed.
Returning to the previous question - well, were there examples when you spoke not directly, but somehow subtly, but also so that it had an effect?
It used to. I have repeatedly observed organizers at festivals who follow my freestyle and clutch at my heart.
Well, or here I spoke on Red Square - and before the song “Yes Future!”, Built on sarcastic pseudo-positive socio-political forecasts, I say, they say, I wrote this text six years ago, but nothing of what it says, before so far it has not come true - you yourself understand: well, what can be done in six years? Only half of what can be done in twelve!
- Do you understand how the new twenty-year-old rap stars catch their listeners?
Yes. It's still teen punk rock. Purely pubertal things - exactly why we listened to "Bachelor Party", "Gas Sector", "Red Mold" and "Metal Corrosion". Absolutely the same schemes at the core, but at a new level. New way cross the line, rather clumsy, but due to the age of the performer, it works adequately.
- Which of the young people do you personally like?
- « vulgar molly» is a great group. In addition to playing with traditional forbidden topics, they have a real rock and roll drive, there is a genuine swagger. It really touches me.
- Who else?
Coin! I'm a fan of her new album, Adult Coloring Pages is a total zeitgeist. LSP - but you can’t call them young. Is a Husky twenty-five considered young? Here he is cool. Moreover, he now says that he is going to tie up with rap altogether. And he clearly demonstrated what he means: at the last concert in Moscow, he came out with a live band, and they brought down hardcore like Bad Brains.
- Husky lamented that there is no camaraderie, fraternity and common environment in rap.
It's way too competitive. Although I, with a large number of representatives of this scene, support friendly relations. I think the scene is much less divided than ten years ago.
- Do you think the ideals of hip-hop - did they remain or did it all come down to filling large halls with spectators?
There's a big segment of commercial hip hop that's really about what you're talking about. Once it was impossible: rap could only be done for love, because money was not paid for it. But this does not mean that the artists who do it out of love for art have disappeared.
Open rehearsal of "Orpheus & Eurydice" in Ostankino
A dozen years ago, Smokey Mo received for his strongest debut album"Kara-Te" a thousand dollars and, it seems, zero royalties. In 2018, Aiza Dolmatova receives a million rubles advance for her debut EP. What happened to rap?
And just music again became paid. The streaming model won - people don't mind paying a couple of hundred for unlimited access to music. And for the last two years, streaming has been making big bucks. Labels aren't afraid to give big advances because they recoup them quickly.
- A million for an EP - is it a lot or a little?
This is fine. This is a success, a good figure. Well, Aiza Dolmatova is very popular character on social media, so the people who gave her money - I think they knew what they were doing. I will not discuss artistic merit - this is a question about business.
- So you underestimate Harry Topor's lyrics(rapper, rival of Noize MC on Versus, according to popular belief, Aiza's ghostwriter. - Note. ed.)?
Listen, it’s very spectacular, of course, a clip was shot for her - no doubt about it. But it's like Olga Buzova: when there is a character, they write material for him, he somehow represents him. In a commercial way, this is able to function for some time - well, ok. If I were 18-22, I would now explain with a three-story obscenity how wrong this is. But sorry, I got tired of something in fifteen years (laughs).
- Did you have ghostwriting experience besides some old ones, when you wrote texts for Tanya Tereshina?
Extensive experience was, in fact, with the hiphoper. With pop artists? It hasn't been for a while. In those years, this was done so that the pants would not fall. Now I can safely do whatever I want to do. Although it was also interesting in its own way.
- Are you jealous of those who are starting now?
I'm happy for them. The huge entry barrier is gone, when you have to pay 20,000 euros for a clip in which nothing happens. When, in order to record normally, it is necessary to save up for a studio - it's not a fact, by the way, that they will still record normally. On the other hand, people quickly relax. They have it all, and they start trying less. It was funny to discuss this with Chacha: he says that when the Naiv group started, only those who really, really, really, really, really needed got to the studio.
- Do you still have a fuse to make music if 20-30-40 people listen to you?
It's very strange to approach it this way. You see, the music that I write, at the moment when I write it, is for a much smaller number of people.
- For one?
It also happens. And what happens to her then is, of course, magic and mysticism. But, you see, in my case, to compose music that 20-30 people will actually listen to - I don’t even know how to do it at all. What am I supposed to give out. Even if I record a grindcore album, well, a couple of hundred will definitely find something in it. In the world of social networks, this is impossible - before saying that this is feces, several hundred thousand will be forced to listen to it. It is not known if this will still have the opposite effect.
There are plenty of American sound producers to listen to - they know exactly how to write a hit. Have you figured it out in fifteen years?
I understand some working schemes. But I deliberately don't. I don't know, this is a funny question. I have one track that is made according to all pop patterns. I want to burn and release in the summer.
- Will it be under a house beat, as it should be now?
Yes, I will have a house single. Here we will check.
- Well ... House scene, as in 2017-2018.
In fact, at first I was surprised that all this hip-house, which in the 90s jumped like an ugly hybrid over the ears of listeners and disappeared a few years later, suddenly rose up so majestically and filled everything with itself. Although as a child I liked Technotronic, NYCC, Bomfunk MCʼs - I, as the leader of school discos, knew this whole scene well and in detail. It seemed to me that this was a completely worked out scheme that no longer seems attractive to anyone. And then suddenly there was nothing more - only trap and a straight barrel. It's better to combine! But by the way, I'm increasingly starting to hear playlists based on the hits of the late 2000s in various establishments: 50 Cent, Nelly Furtado, Timbaland, Beyoncé's early hits. From last season to "well-forgotten old" - half a step.
- Do you feel how the musical world around you is changing?
It has become extremely versatile. Previously, there were familiar sources of information, now so much falls out on you that you flounder helplessly. People are no longer ready to listen to the same band for 10 years, they constantly need something new. But those who have long become popular are no longer concerned - and they will not go anywhere, they are on a different train.
Have you changed any orientations in connection with this? Relatively speaking, six years ago it was necessary to write a three-minute song with a chorus for the radio, but now it is not necessary, because instead of radio, everyone has the Internet.
Landmarks are the same - as far as it resonates with my small circle. These are real people that I play a song to in the kitchen or put in a little column at the airport while we wait for a flight: “Look, dudes, what I did.”
- What are your expectations for the new album "King of the Hill"?
I think it's a very hit record. It is laconic, there is not a single song on it, which I doubt, it was made in a short time, on the road - it turns out that a midi keyboard can be put on a table in an airplane and compose something. Approximately half of the album is already performed live. This is a good test drive for the material to understand how to bring it to mind and subsequently fix it in the record. In general, I think that this is a very good and solid album.
- Which of your albums does it look like?
On the first two records, only brought to a more compact state. Here we have a lesser degree of kaleidoscope and vinaigrette. Although there is also a wide genre palette here, and an acoustic ballad can coexist with a drum and bass action movie.
When you started, rap listeners were excited about the fact that an artist appeared in the genre who destroys clichés and combines everything from grunge to electronica. And over the years, this combination itself has become a stamp.
Although I still try new paints, there is a set means of expression that have already become mine own style. Many artists perform the same song in different variations all their lives. I don't have one, I have seven. Which in itself is already good. But I always try to play the eighth.
The track "Petersburg Roofs" is included in the tracklist of "Tsar of the Hill"
- How did you sign up with Monetochka?
Contacted via VKontakte. I listened to her album, I liked it, we started talking. It turned out that this is an actual, modern, living person who has no border between himself and his stage image.
- It is surprising that other famous artists have not addressed her until now.
And they applied, I was just lucky more than others.
- Does the album have a key theme?
This album is about playing someone else's game by the rules that someone else came up with, you are participating in the wrong competition. About the value of creating your own own world. And that, let's say, everything external and superficial is very fleeting, so you need to turn your head around less and focus on your own and the present.
The vast majority of your listeners are unlikely to go to ultra-creative creative work. Will such a message affect them?
This is not the only message of the record. But if we talk about this line, that value judgments from the outside should still be filtered, then this is a message that in the world social networks concerns everyone.
- Is there any story about how you came to this?
My career is this story. For many years someone has been thinking and saying something about me. And if you pass all this through yourself, then you can go crazy. I don't do it anymore. I remember the notorious 2010 when everyone had an opinion about who I am, what I do and how good or bad it is. It was hard times I gave it too much importance. All this crazy hype eventually subsided, and the 2010 album remained - and, it seems, remained for a long time.
It must be nice to be the center of attention. And from this, for sure, some kind of super-sharp feeling arises. Despite all the negativity.
This feeling exists in pure form, without impurities. In the "Stadium" I go on stage, in front of which 5 thousand people have gathered. And I understand that I'm here for a reason and now something very cool is going to happen here. And when the 115th journalist from Volgogradskaya Pravda comes to you and asks why you wrote the song “Mercedes S666”, knowing the answers to all your questions in advance, such attention does not help you feel better.
"Make Some Noize" - the first single from "King of the Hill"
I understand, but it's hard to believe that there was absolutely nothing pleasant in this attention. Especially when it was not the 115th journalist from Volgogradskaya Pravda who came, but the intelligent Andrey Loshak.
There was a different feeling. Speaking specifically about the case of the Mercedes S666, there was a feeling that such actions could turn the tide of this sad story. Thought about it. Was it enjoyable? It was nice to realize that the power that I have is able to help people. And the endorphin from the fact that, how cool, they interview me - most of these interviews were attempts to expose me to clean water. Maybe you remember how I went to Oleg Kashin for an interview?
- I must have forgotten about it.
I don't often think about it either. Just since we touched on all these events.
- He tried to press you?
Well, yes, and a few months later I did another interview, just as unpleasant. Without this, everything is much easier. The state of unbridled hype, when everyone around is bowing your name, maybe it brings pleasure to someone, maybe someone deliberately goes to this. I was always interested in writing songs, creating some kind of worlds. Look, there's a band Die Antwoord, I saw them - and I immediately have a feeling of the world they created. They are unique, they are cool, despite the fact that in general I don’t listen to such muzlo. But it really touches me. At the same time, I am not at all interested in poking around in some details, where, what and to whom they said.
Or the idol of my youth, Kurt Cobain. It is clear that there were drugs. And yet he blew his brains out, in my deep conviction, because he took what was said about him too seriously. I have read a lot of biographies and literature related to Nirvana. There was a time when he ran around the mansion from Courtney with a selection of magazines that had derogatory articles about him. She tried to throw them away, because he constantly reread them and experienced some kind of masochistic high. Although can it be called a buzz?
In 2010, just a lot of people had the feeling that words can influence something, that a song can change something. And in 2011, after Bolotnaya, the mood in society changed. In this sense, the story with your rather innocent phrases about Ukraine - “I was there, I didn’t see Bandera” - is indicative, which caused nothing but hatred here.
That was very strong feeling and disappointment. I felt absolutely helpless trying to get through to people, but the fundamental possibility of dialogue was completely absent. Whatever you say, they don’t hear you, everything about you is clear in advance. That's why I freaked out at Kuban: go ahead… you still don't want to listen to anything (at the Kuban festival, Noize MC turned off the microphone when he started talking about Ukraine, in protest he left the stage and returned to it naked; subsequently, several dozens Russian concerts were canceled under various pretexts. - Note. ed.).
- Have you thought about leaving the country?
I perceive emigration only as the last way to avoid prison or physical violence. And I don't want to leave.
This year, Noize MC released such a video for the song about the rebellious Lenin "Lenin Has Risen" - this is part of the English-language album, which was actually planned for the end of 2016, but was shifted to "after" King of the Hill "
It is necessary to go to some more life-affirming topic. Let's remember another story from 2010, how you quarreled and reconciled with Sergei Shnurov.
We got along really well, yes. If we didn't fight, we wouldn't be friends.
- And you continue to keep in touch?
We communicate, yes. We meet periodically when I am in St. Petersburg, but Sergey has such a schedule that this happens infrequently.
- Can you remember the circumstances?
The song "Khimki Forest" was released, saying that all these songs on socio-political topics are not sincere. A separate line about the devilish "Mercedes" referred to the "Mercedes S666". I always had a good attitude towards Leningrad, that's why it hurt me so sharply. Well, I also composed such a parody song, taking as a basis not the most famous hit"Leningrad". And if you do not know the original, then such an answer could seem very dirty.
Many did not take it as a parody. Nevertheless, this was my answer for Sergey himself, and not for the screaming people around. Well, it didn’t get any continuation, he just kept silent, and then on his birthday in 2011, six months after this clip, he suddenly called me and began to sort things out. We talked rather ambiguously, and although we found some points of understanding, our conversation, I remember, ended with “Well, I don’t hear apologies” - “What are you, what ... apologies.” After that, we saw each other a few months later at the Stepnoy Volk award, where Vasya Oblomov introduced us. Sergei Vladimirovich was tipsy, so the conversation began with some kind of bull-calf, and ended with the fact that at 6 in the morning we were drinking on the Fontanka, near his house. The gathering was colorful - some people constantly approached, Shnurov took whiskey from the store with the words "Record on my account."
With the clip "Shave the Star", filmed in 2010 at a concert, Noize MC rather boldly entered into a confrontation with Sergei Shnurov, responding to his song "Khimki Forest"
At the Afisha Picnic-2015, you met Zemfira and tried to cooperate. I take it nothing happened?
It's not like nothing at all. We co-wrote several songs. In the form in which we wrote them, you can not hear them. She was responsible for musical part, and I am for the texts. The lyrics have not gone away, I just wrote different music for them, and they entered the album.
- Why is that?
Well, we did something, but we didn't finish it all the time. And at some point they stopped talking. Under certain circumstances. But it's an interesting experience anyway. I respect Zemfira, she composed a lot cool songs, she is an interesting melodist, a great composer, direct and sharp man. And among other things, also a cool beatmaker. Zemfira makes cool beats.
- You say "interesting experience". What, for example, can such an experience teach?
I was very inspired by this acquaintance, I composed several songs that I really like. Without this very acquaintance, these texts would not exist.
- Are you today to some extent interested in the world of Russian rap?
Russian rap is ok, I remember that earlier it was a genre in which it was very difficult to find something really catchy and not causing any questions. Now this is easier.
- Does this music often give you the feeling of "I'm too old for this shit"?
No, not too much. I have repeatedly said that I like Oksimiron's album - I expected it to be battle rap and humiliation of an imaginary rival, but what I heard pleasantly surprised me. The Scryptonite album is very original, and although its value system is not close to me, I admit that this is a landmark record for Russian rap. ATL is great, I like how his electronics work, and everyone praises his lives very much.
Some things, like the same cloud rap, I'm not interested in as music, but as social phenomenon like something new that we can learn about the world. Our bass player talks about this, that the new generation has realized that in the list of sex, drugs & rock-n-roll, rock-n-roll is an absolute superfluous thing. And went straight to the point, so to speak. Rather, they broadcast a certain lifestyle, where sexual objectification is maximum, where a woman is a whore, and already bored and not very interesting. Neither love nor longing nor pity.
- What happened to you at the Versus battle? You looked like you...
It's like something happened to me. My life was falling apart. I won't talk about it. Just believe it was.... And this battle itself ... - it was a cherry on such a cake! That in comparison, its size is simply ridiculous. I never reviewed it. I only remember that I freestyled there and it was even too frank.
Lost with a bang Battle Versus took place at the end of 2013 - the battle movement in Russia at that moment had not yet gained momentum; Noize MC was almost the only artist who collected five-thousander clubs and ventured to enter Versus
When you were younger, you could indulge in funny and daring attacks on or Andrey Malakhov. And now they're jumping on you.
Some things make you think about karma. I'm not as aggressive as I used to be. Even if you take some completely early period, up to and including 20 years old, I, as a rule, still concentrated on creativity that was unpleasant to me, and not on personality. As for the mentioned examples… My actions at that time were a response to someone's rudeness and so on. That is, when I received some kind of poke from the outside, I immediately rushed to answer, I had such a motive, now I don’t have it. Just not interested. Do what you are inspired to do. If you're not inspired, don't do it.
- You've been your own manager for the past few years, right?
I have a manager, I never wanted to deal with administrative matters, and this is simply impossible with such a volume.
Yes, but now it's your employee, and before your producer was in charge of your management. Could you consider whether the artist needs producers in the future, where we all suddenly find ourselves?
By by and large An artist needs a team. A good SMM manager, a good designer, a good booker who rules concert activity. It is even better if there is a manager who is able to negotiate at a more serious level. However, there are artists who do all the work themselves, and it’s more convenient for them. And for me it's uncomfortable.
I like to give examples of the same Shnurov or Oksimiron, who turned their social networks into popular media that provide contact with the audience without intermediaries. Why are you ignoring social media?
I understand how powerful a tool they can be. But for this they need to be properly addressed. If I have a good idea about how the world works, I'd rather try to turn it into a song. To be honest, in the current state I am much more comfortable than 5 years ago. Because I'm finally doing a lot more time with music, without being distracted by other husks. And it's great. And much less extra people around, who perceive this music much more superficially. When at your concert half the audience just came to visit the donkey exhibition - "Oh, this is cool now" - I went through it. Of course, this flatters self-esteem. But it's much cooler when the people who came to you know where they came from.
I recently saw you leaving the Sokol metro station on the way to a concert Twenty One Pilots - and got scared by the number of people who literally jumped in to take pictures. Did you even go to the concert then?
Yes, everything is fine. On the way, I found out that it was not in vain that I had Twenty One Pilots like - audiences strongly intersect.
New album in all its concepts, it is already almost on the horizon, I would like to know if you have decided on the date of its release and have you completely compiled the tracklist of this compilation?
- Yes, the tracklist is completely compiled, all the songs are now at the stage of mixing and editing. As soon as we finish, we will immediately publish.
- Is there a direct physical medium?
- Well, it will be later. I think it will be before the presentation of the album.
- Which, as we know, has been postponed ...
- Yes, on May 18 at STADIUM there will be a presentation of the new album in Moscow. The rest of the presentations were not postponed, that is, Minsk and St. Petersburg will receive theirs on time. And, accordingly, all Siberian cities.
Can you pull a few tricks up your sleeve and tell us if there are any interesting features on this record?
- Are present. For example, there will be a feature with the group "Vopli Vidoplyasova". The guys approached me with a proposal about their 25th birthday - to process the oldest hit, the song "Dance". We got such a dubstep-breaking mix, very tough and interesting, with my lyrics and with the old lyrics too. We are everything miraculously combined, and will soon be presented to the general public. As part of the Ukrainian tour, which we will have at the end of March, we plan to shoot a video. Perhaps some tracks will still appear before the presentation of the disc itself. In general, we are not now fighting for the preservation of secrets, let's say so. Many songs have already been played. This new one, but for someone no longer new material, will also appear on the plate. But, 22 tracks are planned there, so there will be enough novya for everyone too.
Last year we witnessed a lot of performances in unexpected compositions with various musicians - this is the cello, and the same DJ Mos, who now rides with you almost constantly. I would like to know - with the material of the new album, perhaps with its presentation, will we see the already huge London Philharmonic Orchestra?
- You know, to be honest, I think to leave all such chips a little for later, when everyone is already fed up with how we chop these songs in our classical line-up. But, DJ Mos is with us now all the time, so you, of course, will see him. As for the other musicians who take part in our concerts, we did not plan to use them for the presentation, but they took part in the recording of the album. That is, in the form of various samples that DJ Mos will launch, you can hear them.
Already almost classic timing, which has become a byword, is a three-hour Concert Noize MC. Now the album is coming out, as you said, with 22 tracks. Does this mean that the concerts are moving towards the predicted 24/7?
- Concerts are moving towards what we're in for three hours we will play only armor-piercing hits. This is a very difficult task for us, because it is a pity to throw out certain songs, but we follow the logic of ruthless selection and eventually come to an ideal program. More than three hours are still difficult for people, this must be understood.
It was the first time I said "that's it, pot, don't boil it."
- People on both sides of the stage.
- You, of course, cut yourself on stage, jump with a guitar, get tired, sweat a lot, you can break your voice, but, in any case, they don’t poke you in the face with cigarettes, they don’t trample you in the slam. In general, you have some head start in front of people who are forced to endure this hell for such an amount of time. I remember when we drove with the guys on Limp Bizkit in Kyiv, the guys (LB) played for 2.5 hours, and we realized that in general it is quite cruel. Before, we did not think, but then, I remember, the moment came to realize something like that.
- Do you understand who the sitting rooms are for?
- Well, somehow yes, such moments came to mind. But, this did not affect our decision, and we continued to play as much as usual.
As I understand it, recently you, so to speak, continued your film experience in the series, where Sergey Shnurov plays the main role. I would like to hear a few words about this series in general, how much the idea itself pinned you. Well, since you starred there, it means that you already pinned it. How much you were pinned, rather, by the result, and how much you expected to see Sergey in leading role the series is quite a mainstream one?
- I knew this from the beginning. It’s just that usually Cord does not agree to play in some kind of epidersia, this was an additional reason to make a positive decision. This idea seemed interesting to me, which is why I took part. Well, to be honest, this moment I haven't seen a single episode yet, I can't get my hands on it. Now my wife and I juggle children as much as possible, it is not always possible to watch some news.
- Is there a desire, like a juggler in the process of learning, to move from two tangerines to three?
- Well, for now, I think you need to hone your skills on two.
On the topic of Sergei Shnurov and his non-participation in dubious projects, as you said: do you know that Sergei will soon take part in the comeback concert of the Na-Na group?
- Come on!?
- Yes, I saw it on a billboard in the subway - Bari Alibasov is 75 years old, or whatever ... And chief guest- Sergei Shnurov.
- I believe that this is a consequence of Seryogin's formula "so bad that it's already good"! What if we perform at a shitty concert, then it’s the shitty one, that’s the only way. This approach seems to work here. I don't know if the STS case was the same or not...
The Noize MC team has always been famous for their furious, by Russian standards, tours, simply never-ending. With the birth of your second child, do you see an opportunity for yourself after this short vacation to go on the same eventful trips?
- In the same no. We seem to have eight concerts in March, we have a rather long tour in Siberia, then we rest on the May holidays and in July we plan whole month free.
Only people who really need it can thank you.
- Well, already more freely than last year ...
- Not even in the past, but in 2010, nothing can compare with him in horror. It was the first time I said "that's it, pot, don't boil" because it turned into complete trash.
Finally, I would like to touch on the following topic. Since the interview will appear in the same place where your “New Album” exclusively appears, on the site ThankYou.ru, I would like to hear your opinion about the current stage of development, or vice versa - the stage of decomposition musical culture, release culture. How do you see the future of this industry - indeed, the "pay-what-you-want" system, a post-paid system, when the listener gets acquainted with the music and only then, depending on their capabilities, expresses their monetary gratitude to the musician, is one of the promising ways of development, or are there any other alternatives in sight?
- No, it seems to me that at the moment, in the current situation, this is the most honest approach. Well, in general it looks like street history. The musician plays in the street. If someone likes it, he will throw a fifty-kopeck piece, if he doesn't like it, he won't give up anything. I think it's fair. On the other hand, in Russia there is no point in relying on something else. Only people who really need it can thank you, I mean audio recordings. I think that with the development and simplification of electronic payment systems in the country, this can bring sane money to a musician. Main value were, are and remain good songs. They will have to be written, and a lot of them will have to be written. No one can get away from this.
- Well, thank you, man of the streets, for this nice conversation!
- Dogs! Dogs!
