Monsters of rock

A fierce Estonian punk group Winny came to the St. Petersburg festival of SKIF Puhh , famous for his application for Eurovision and a deafening performance at the show of designer Rick Owens. COLTA correspondent . Ru He spent the evening with the musicians, looked at their performance and recorded their "toilet rehearsal."

“Here, look: I bought it on Aprashka” - Winny vocalist Puhh shows leopard leggings of wild colors and offers to try on them. I refuse. And literally an hour later, painted in yellow and green, he will run out in those very leggings on the scene of the St. Petersburg festival Skif and will scream, swear, rush around the stage for almost an hour, jump into the crowd. There his suit will almost be torn to pieces. Then he will still retell in Russian with a light Baltic accent the texts of his songs about grandmothers, pedophiles and rapists. Then he will feed the hall with Estonian cucumbers. And then - under a screeching feedback - will leave the stage. Neither beads nor a bow. All according to plan - and everyone is happy. So is the vocalist of the Winny group Puhh House of Vaheoia, one of the most famous Estonian musicians and - perhaps in the future - is one of the main characters of international heavy rock.

They will all be forty soon, almost everyone has children and families, a bassist - a director on a farm, a guitarist - a sought -after designer. The Vaheoia Indrek leads a very popular morning show on the main Estonian radio. The whole country knows his voice. Voice - but not vocals. From the stage, he usually yells: rhythmically, bold - but yells.

Group Winny Puhh recently turned twenty years old, but they really played only eight years ago. “We were in a state of decay for several years,” says the guitarist Ave Musting. -We played the first round in 1997. Realized in 2001. But they played just once a year. Only in 2005 we earned for real. ” The first album was released in 2006, the second-and at the moment the latter-in 2010.

Both are like a wild mixture of punk, a lace-meter, a confused electrode with a vile and loud much. "Why not? We have new material - we do it. And no, we do not laugh, do not mock. We just work - we are doing what we want, ”says the Indrek. Bloodhound Gang ? From such comparisons, the group frowns. At the same time, their musical roots are as confused as their history. As inspirers, they call “swamp sound”, praise the Estonian Kabatsky rock and confess to the love of “gas sector”, “because it is so aggro -“ collective farm punk ”.”

“We hate groups where all these guys go on stage in what they walk along the street. This is a mockery of the public - not to go out in a suit. You do not come to street clothes to the sauna? To the church - too. And, on the contrary, on the stage we put on all this, and no one will say that you are a pervert, everyone says: “Oh my god, take the money!” ” - explains the indigestion of the reason for the shocking behavior of musicians. In almost every city Winny Puhh is sent to the local market to choose costumes for the next performance. There were already: women's costumes, a medical robe, socks (more precisely, one toe for a causal place), combat coloring and, of course, the famous “Chubakki masks”, in which they performed at the Eurovision-2013 qualifying competition with a song about Korsakov, which was very unlucky with a trip to Latvia.

They did not go to Eurovision then. At the same time, they say that with confidence they could take a prize: “The main thing is not the first. Conducting another “Eurovision” (and it was already in Estonia 12 years ago) would have undermined the economy of our country. ” They did not look at the competition of this year and do not know about the end of the VURST. Or do not want to know.

Then there were articles in the western blogs. Winny Puhh there, as a rule, were represented by the company of metal clowns, who decided to outrage the audience. But such popularity played the group on the hand. They began to appear on the covers of fashion magazines (Italian Vogue - why not?). They began to invite headlines to European festivals. Finally, they were called to the Paris Fashion Week - to speak at the show of American designer Rick Owens: “The fashion designer sent us a letter by e -mail. At the same time, we did not even know who it was. They asked friends-and they are: “Oh-oh!” (depicts a fall in a fainting) . At the same time, the man refused Michael Jackson. Kanye West said: “Go to ****.” And he called us! "

“We will now have what we call“ toilet rehearsal ”,” says the bassist Indrek Nomm. This refers to the complete playing out of the setlist in the acoustics in the dressing room. But in such a castrated form, it sounds as if monsters from Estonian forests came out and dance by the fire under their devilish songs.

While the group plays, their video operator (and they carry it with them constantly - write down the video “For History”) explains the lyrics: for example, the story of the teacher of the kindergarten, who hit the child, but, for example, the story about the pedophile, which fate punished. “In our country, this is a very fashionable topic,” I say. The operator nods knowingly, but indifferently: their policy, it seems, is not very interested.

But they can easily confuse their heads to those who invite them to speak. Usually in their rider there are many, many alcohols. But it happens in a different way: “We are e ** m of the organizers of the concert. We say that we want a hedgehog, one plum and that at least one technician speak all languages, and the operators have a doctoral degree. Ah, and one egg. " They do not need all this. So Winny Puhh jokes.

Or it seems so. Costumes costumes, but Winny Puhh deserve attention not only for wild tricks on stage and behind the scenes. For example, for the texts-readers that yes are funny, but at the same time they sound better than other opuses of another frantic clown, Serge Tankyan. Or for a crazy rhythm-section. Or for skilled juggling with styles: at the St. Petersburg concert, they played a special track in Russian - Lhodens in the spirit of the Hands Up! With a primitive text about chrome wheels and "rayon". But he sounded more truthful than any creation of local trickers with synthesizers. And so in everything. It is paradoxical that any group in St. Petersburg can go to Aprashka and buy leggings - but only Winny went Puhh .

Paradoxical and the fact that with all the initial data of Winny Puhh still did not become heroes outside Estonia, did not go beyond the limits of the meme. In theory, their concerts should take place at least in thousandths, and their songs-to be the subject of a local cult and diverge in translations (as it was once with the texts of Death and Carcass ). They have enough anger and professionalism to get into one row, for example, with the leaders of the Norwegian hardcore Kvelertak And perform at the Primaver. PitchFork should write about them. Until this happened, the devil knows why. But it will come out-it cannot be different. Winny musicians Puhh on the issue of recognition is a little spitting. “Well, what about the fact that we became known only a year ago,” Owe Musting says. “Personally, I don’t feel like a loser.” Inside you feel much stronger than it seems from the outside. ”

Winny musicians Puhh -adults and ongoing people who arrange a freak show not because the mood is good and there is nothing to do. Before entering the stage, I remembered the story from childhood: “When there was Leningrad, not St. Petersburg, my father and I went here to sell cucumbers and cabbage and tried to survive with this money. We worked all youth, and now that we are adults, behaving like children, because we want to live the life that we never had. Now we can enjoy life because we know what shit is. ” Having said this, he coated with black paint, pulled another underpants and went into the hall.