Alex Kelman. "Siberian Pop"

Former participant in Punk TV and TonySoprano groups, Alex Kelman organized a nominal project and recorded the album "Siberian Pop", which Oliver Ackerman from A Place to Bury Strangers described as a damn good dark modern electric dance punk:

Alex Kelman is not only an old-timer of the Russian indie movement, but also an experienced promoter that organizes concerts and tours of our and foreign musicians, so we talked with him what prospects he sees for his new project and for other Russian groups in Russia and Europe.

- Why did you make a solo project and what is happening now with your previous TonySoprano group?

-The TonySoprano group broke up back in 2014, vocalist Anna left us and carried away some kind of invisible component with him, but we released the “posthumous” album “Rave in Ravenna” just a couple of months ago. We remained in excellent relations with the members of the group, they often perform with us at concerts in Russia as invited musicians. The new Alex Kelman project is not a solo project, this is a group, on stage from three to five people, depending on the format of the performance. From the very beginning of our history, only one participant - Marina, is invariably with me in the group. I write music and texts myself, I come up with everything myself, concepts and stylistics, make a bumping and release a mercha. I probably got tired of betting on someone else at one point, since the public attention is always concentrated on vocalists, we have a chance to get a direct dependence on a person with a microphone. In general, it happened with TonySoprano . As a result, on the new “Siberian Pop” I sing in three tracks myself.

- Where did you look for other vocalists?

- The first girl is Anna (the tracks “Afterparty” , “Rain” , “Time” ). She walked with us from the very beginning. At some point, I just threw the cry on Facebook that perhaps someone would try to sing to my music, and my old friend, who lives at that time in New York, answered me. She sent a demo "afterparty" with a vocal recorded in Garage Band . An hour later she was in the group.

In the “Drummer Boy” track, Roman from Quintenza also helps me, well, in “PLTS” and in the same “Drummer Boy” , our current invited vocalist Ksenia, who will go to the tour “Siberian Pop” with us.

- Where are you going and how does your Live work?

- Already on June 11, we are playing at the Chee Chaak Fest festival in Ostrava, then we go to Slovenia and play there, on June 18 we perform at Indirekt Festival (Croatia), and so all summer, about 10 festivals, concerts throughout Europe are planned. Let's go the three of us - I played the bass all last season, now I returned to the guitar; A couple of sampler, several synthesizers on which Marina plays, and a bunch of all kinds of pedals - this is how our lives are arranged. On the Russian part of the tour, which we plan in winter, I think, take the guys from TonySoprano as a rhythm section.

The Russian language is now interesting for the world market. It's fresh and cool!

- Why songs in English? Which is worse - the English -language text for the Russian market or is Russian -speaking for European?

- I have no talent to write cool verses in Russian, and I think that if you sing in your native language, then your poetry should be impeccable. In this regard, in my entire musical history I was lucky enough to play in only one normal Russian -speaking group - DSH! DSH! . The Russian language, like Bulgarian or Romanian, is now interesting for the world market. It is fresh and cool. But the English language for Russians, unfortunately, is apparently in connection with all the latest movements in terms of the fight against the culture of the Western - not so relevant. Writing acute-social texts in the style of "Bolshene" has become the basis of modern domestic punk music. Many groups suddenly sang in Russian. I would call it conformism. The desire to find simpler decisions to promote your content.

On the other hand, I plan to record the next single myself with one famous Russian -speaking singer (I can’t announce the name yet).

- Is it possible to become a recognizable artist by just releasing a good album?

- To release a good release and become recognizable, unfortunately, is poorly in our time: every day 100 good releases are released, and ceteris paribus you will lose. Well, if you, of course, are not a genius or a sorcerer.

- How did you, without even releasing the album, organized performances at European festivals? What will they give you and the group?

- Festivals are the only way to penetrate the European stage. Well, labels, but only good (and there are 1%) that are really engaged in artists.

We do not have 10-20 thousand euros for good PR, so we can only play, play and play, thereby developing the base of our fans. I did not invent new ways, just two of our first single “Rain” and “Afterparty” , apparently, people were really inserted, and last year we were called to play Fusion in Germany, Waves Bratislava in Slovakia and Bedem Fest in Montenegro, where we were very fond of the organizers and this year we perform there again. We do not have an influential agent or a talented manager, we do everything ourselves, and I consider this the main rule of the game. A good agent is either expensive or hidden reliably.

Unfortunately, the majority of Russian groups are not just appreciated, considering them a kind of speculators, and they themselves do nothing. In Russia, a huge number of superTalans who play and record records for their friends. I am now making the monthly ICECREMEMDISO RADIO S HOW radio program, which is broadcast into several European Internet radios: this is a clockwork of new products of the Russian independent scene. And I will tell you: there would be enough good new material for five such programs. But, alas, the maximum all publishes this in some kind of VK public: this helps a little to advance, and the listener does not always manage to get to this music.

- What European festivals would you advise Russian groups?

- Several times I was on small scenes of large festivals like Serbian Exit , where I observed a sad picture when a decent Russian group for five of its compatriots and a pair of bukhikh in the morning of Serbian gopniks appeared on the stage. Speech at such festivals is rather a good point for the portfolio. Roughly speaking, at 12 in the morning, Alan Maggie is unlikely to look at the small stage. Rather, he will fly to Tallin on TMW , or on M Ent , or on The G Reat E Scape , in Vladivostok on V-Rokh or any other no less wonderful show-class festival and will watch the young groups with which he may sign a contract. It is at the showcase festivals that all agents, producers, organizers of festivals, etc. are concentrated. etc. Therefore, young promising groups are the road there. Stock yourself with business cards, disks and other pleasant attributes that will help you advance your music a little further. Everyone has Facebook and Google -just make yourself sit down and start looking for festivals, there are about three to four thousand in Europe, mainly in the summer; Keep in mind that the buging is usually already closed in six months, look and write in advance. By the way, no one will wait for you.

- What is the difference in organizing between European and Russian festivals and concerts?

-Firstly, in Europe, everything is usually very clear: if you play at 19:00, it means that you play at 19:00, and not when the sound engineer comes up, because he is stuck in a traffic jam. Secondly, much less show-off in terms of household rider. In our country, they somehow are taken to a five -star hotel and fed with red caviar, or they are seated where it came and not fed at all. On the same Fusion , we received a stuff-eat in a festival kitchen, standing in the same line with Asian Dub Foundation . They ate risotto and themselves washed the dishes. Unlike Russian festivals and concerts, it is much more democratic in terms of the household rider, but the technical is always at the highest level. Because everyone understands: the main thing is music, not food. It is also a big difference, as for club concerts, this is the lack of Baccaine on the venues of European clubs. All groups bring their own - they carry combes and drums. In this regard, in Russia, of course, is easier. There is no particular difference in terms of approach to business, and there and there they can do well or badly, cancel the concert in the tour two days before the concert or throw it with money, even despite the signed agreement. So, for example, last year at the Waves Bratislava festival, none of the artists did not pay the promised fees. The organizers declared themselves bankrupt, nothing terrible, but the sediment remains.

- What are other Punk TV musicians now? Is the group Reunion possible (there and ABBA has already reunited)?

-The vocalist of Punk TV Vladimir Komarov lives in New York and releases a single for a single with his new project The Dayoffs , where, by the way, another famous emigrant musician Sergey Ledovsky also left his company trace, recording the Party of Drums. A good post- hotzex (this is a group in which Punk TV participants played before Punk TV ). He is also busy with a sound producing young and not very young artists. The drummer Kostya no longer plays on drums and lives in St. Petersburg. Not only ABBA reunited, but, so to speak, another fifty groups, L7 , let's say. We have the idea of ​​Reyunion constantly hanging in the air, but not because the money ended, unlike large groups, whose renion is often the condition of this; We just love each other in terms of creativity. Punk TV was the same magic triangle in which the words could not be said: and so everything was clear. But the distances do not yet give us Reunion to accelerate.

Although, probably, you just need time. Everything is your own.