War, family and "labor"

For two and a half years that have passed since the Rock Group of Trud, a premiere concert in Moscow had happened, much has changed and nothing has changed. On the one hand, the group drove with concerts in Russia and the world - they performed in Kaliningrad and Izhevsk, in Tallinn and Paris, at the St. Petersburg Festival of Stereol ETO and at Barcelona Primavera . In Moscow, the team, whose new mini-album, “Afisha-Well” considered the most important record of the season , plays regularly and successfully-on weekdays it collects 200-300 people. On the other hand, the “labor”-the group, became embanking, with a good reputation-many perceive mistakenly, as if they had just appeared on the horizon, or template, drawing only on the covers of their mini-albums and the visual retro-aesthetics of their blog . They don’t listen to the songs - although they are cheerful, short, understandable and inform the position of “labor” in direct text, without metaphors.

In the “Trud” group, it is easy to see the conceptuality, deliberation, inventedness, humility, this team has a very clearly articulated style, which consists of tightly fitted details. To the simple and spectacular name of the group - simple and spectacular songs served in a hard sound. To the “albums of the“ albums ”covers of mini-albums are album texts: clear and pure, written as if for children or on the face of a child abandoned into the crazy world of adults. To associations with times, when the Russian rock was a delightful underground, and not stadiums for the anniversary dates and a hackneyed plate of “our radio”, the explosive concerts of “labor”, where vocalist George Kushnarenko pulls the chin up, like Viktor Tsoi, and the drummer Ildar Ixanov plays violently on installing - standing like a gustav. Guryanov. But this is not a concept or a pose. “Everything turned out naturally,” says the laconic Kushnarenko, and you believe him.

It smells of blood from the TV, my fellow citizens need an enemy.

“Trud” did not even sang, but spoke in Russian three years ago, when for the Moscow Indie Rock Group, it was a kind of calling the environment of twenty-and-year-olds, eager for fashion, music and dancing. Then it was customary to sing in non -native English, as the Manicure group did, in which Zhora Kushnarenko and Ildar Iksanov met, for example. Kushnarenko played Manicure on Bass since 2008. “It was a good opportunity to tighten your skills. We had frequent rehearsals and performances. When their ideas arose, which became difficult to implement in Manicure , it became clear that we must leave, ”says Kushnarenko about how“ labor ”appeared. Ildar Iksanov left with him.

The main idea of ​​“labor” is to do something of their own, to find and express their “I”, they report this at every mini-album. Naturally, Kushnarenko began to write his songs: "At first they did not work out, and then they turned out." Naturally, in Russian, but in what else? Naturalness has determined many components of the style of “labor”, which now look well -designed steps and specially taken measures. For example, an introvert position in communicating with the media - group members are trying to avoid interviews and photo shoots: “I was most annoyed in the Manicure group to constantly take pictures and give interviews, so I decided that I would not do this in my group. This is wrong. And without that there is a lot of information noise, ”the frontman of“ labor ”explains. The same mysterious restraint, which Georgy Kushnarenko projects from the stage during concerts: “I decided not to grimace before the public, there is no sense in this. And so the situation in which a lot of people look at you, stupid and awkward. ” Of course, and all the coincidences with Kino are random: “After Manicure , we wanted to try some other approach to start playing differently. We tried different options, one of which was the game on the drums standing. Ildar is a sample drummer. In Manicure, he played sitting. "

To raise children in Russia with good people is the right solution.

Most of all, Kushnarenko is embarrassed by the parallels between the “labor” and the classics of Russian rock: “It is impossible to compare us. I still listen to the “Sounds of Mu” or “Cinema”, opening my mouth. We are far from them. ” And of course I want to compare. Firstly, because musical journalists want continuity-it is a shame that musicians in the USA and Britain honor their roots, and we have every generation to start with a clean sheet. Secondly, because in the songs of “Labor” the influence of Russian rock is read and the taste to its best examples is noticeable-from the recognized “cinema” and “zoo” to the completely non-canonical “sounds of mu”, “dk” and “straw raccoons”. Thirdly, because the records of “labor” are the same honest energy and sound meaningfulness as from the Soviet rock team of the time of the “Red Wave” . Fourth, because although the group of Kushnarenko and Ixanov belong to the tradition of Russian rock, they make other music, the difference from the old school is known in comparison with the last imperisales of DDT and SPLINA, its large-scale current representatives. Russian rock grew and developed in the dogma of words, music and stylistics only helped to convey to the listener the fateful text. For “labor”, which chooses the words simpler, and the sentences are shorter, the most important thing is the rhythm and the GRUV, that is, dancing. “We will do what we want. And now we want to dance ”-how Viktor Tsoi sang, who knew the price of a sir and minimalism in rock songs.

At the same time, “labor” does not sink nonsense, slurry or nonsense, which is especially annoying in the performance of young teams (Veterans are excusable). The other day, the group had a fifth mini-album-by tradition, consisting of five songs and named by the serial number, that is, just “5” . It begins with an adrenaline straight barrel, and continues suddenly, like a shot, a cry of Kushnarenko: "The most nasty thing in the world is, of course, a war." Further, the maneuver is repeated, behind the dancing rhythm-section and slaughter guitar riffs, inappropriate lines are extended to the dance floor in spilled by lights: “They are ready to answer all my questions. For everyone there is a ban, a ban, a ban ”and“ it smells of blood from the TV, my fellow citizens need an enemy. ” Around the war is a war against the system, a war against all, a war against oneself. “Trud” had not yet closed in himself and sang that “my country is in trouble-I know that for sure”, now George Kushnarenko can be suspected of enthusiasm for journalism on the anger of the day, which became the misfortune of Russian rock music in the late 1980s. In fact, nothing has changed - they did not turn into a “TV” and do not call for a political struggle, like the leftist group “Arkady Kot”. Like two and a half years ago, “labor” discusses on an eternal theme - on how to save his own voice. “I often think about how a person manages or cannot remain a person in inhuman conditions,” Kushnarenko explains without a shadow of pathos. - The agenda was only a reason for thinking. It's hard to stay outside the world. ” Both the songs of “labor”, and in a conversation with Kushnarenko, it is clear that he is looking for the root of evil not in external circumstances, not in politics and geopolitics-he is different in an other way, he looks into himself, in a person, in a person. Most of all he is worried that in our country the violence of adults against children is widespread: “It seems to me that this is a dead end. Children will grow up the same as their parents - clogged, embittered, blind, solving problems through violence. ” What can be opposed to this? “Take a family and children,” Kushnarenko says quietly. - To educate them in Russia with good people is the right decision. This is the only way to change something. ”

"Labor" does not write songs for the sake of songs. This is his way to look for the answer to the question “How to save yourself in all this absurdity?”, Which worries George Kushnarenko, like many of his peers, understanding that “we will always be the main victims of the wars of the wars.” And at the same time - their mantra against war and madness. “Trud” speaks the voice of a generation of yesterday’s twenty-and-one-year-olds-they are already adults and serious, they are ready to bear responsibility for their families and act further-they want to not only dance.

October 4 "Labor" performs in Moscow Youngs Club . Special guests: Elektromonteur and Lucidvox . Free admission. Start at 21:00