Helavisa: "There are not a single elves"

The most popular Russian folk group "Mill" celebrates the 15th anniversary of concerts-not only in Tver (October 23), St. Petersburg (24th) and Moscow (25th), but also, for example, in Kiev. On this occasion, Natalya Kostrova spoke with the vocalist of the group Natalia O'Sha (in girlhood-Nikolaeva), who was traveling from Geneva in Moscow, and found out why there are not a single elf in her songs, but full of heroes of Indo-European mythology.

- For the reason that we never talked, I wanted to ask the easiest question: where did you come from?

-I studied at Moscow State University at the philological faculty, at the Romano-German branch. In line in the library with me and my girlfriend, then even freshmen, the guy met the physical faculty - and invited to the meeting. It all began with this: I, a friend, guys with physical, chem- and biofacu, some kind of audience in a physical building. Perhaps we united us that we all studied very well, were excellent students and loved Moscow State University, our Alma Mater. And Tolkien loved too - but what about? Some even then played role -playing games, some simply knew that you could play it. But I want to say right away that our company was not fixed precisely on the fans of Tolkien. When we gathered at each other, we could talk about anything: photography, about classical Chinese poetry, about the Busido Code, about music. At one time, for example, it was popular to put the Iron Maiden album “Fear of the Dark” and drag on it.

- And what did the teachers say about this?

- No one was against it - this was outside of classes. I just studied one specific audience at the physical faculty. No one bother anyone.

- Songs - when did they start?

- Back at school. I graduated from a music school and began to write songs at the same time. About what? Well, about what ... about love! In fact, I wrote songs to Tolkien’s poems - on his original texts. And when I got into all this Physfak company, it was somehow inconvenient for me to fulfill them. It seemed that everyone was so cool, they sing perfectly, compose cool songs and in general. But once I got up and said: “Hello, I, in general, can also sing a little.” And she sang something like the folk English song “Green Hones”, and for some reason everyone liked it. I was very surprised - however, I also know how to sing.

A simple word was needed that would be easy to chant. And they thought of the word "mill".

- And then the Til Ulenspigel group appeared in your life?

-She arose in the year in 1998. I was engaged in historical reconstruction, which, of course, was a wonderful hobby, to which many, who began as interpretations and roleviks, were bent by largely.

- Real reconstruction - with swords, with chain mail? How is it all called? "Silver Wolf"?

- “Silver Wolf” is one of the famous clubs. But I was in another club - in the "Heritage of the Ancestors." As far as I remember, at one of the tournaments on historical fencing, I took some next prize with the reconstruction of the Western European women's costume. Then it was, as they say, drunkenness in stupid and many songs. And someone took my phone-well, so that it was-and then someone supplied this telephone Ruslan Komlyakov, who at that moment for his project “Til Ulenspigel” was looking for a vocalist. And here - bam! - It turned out that the vocalist was also with her material. Ruslan called, offered to meet. I thought: why not. So everything turned out.

- And immediately on the stage, immediately in the studio?

- Of course, there was no studio - everything was written on the knee. But - on the stage.

- And how? Of course, I understand everything: prizes in reconstruction tournaments, an audience at the physical faculty - but here is another. Clubs, spectators, microphones.

- Since childhood, I am familiar to the stage. Nevertheless, a music school gives some experience of concerts-I never really stewed. Plus, even then I occasionally went out to sing with different Celtic teams - for example, with Puck'n'Piper , when they were also Ivan Voronov and Volodya Laserson. I remember I went out to sing with them “Skibereen Mining Disaster” , which they moved half-octaves down for me-just to make it more convenient for the tessature, but they didn’t say this about this. And Volodya began to play this song as he, of course, always played - in his native tonality. And I had to sing her somewhere there (squeaks) . It was funny.

I have a certain halo of inaccessibility.

- Was it at Vermel? I remember that it was there in the early 2000s that there was a folding party of Celtic musicians.

- No, in "16 tons."

- Sorry. Well, then you got off from Ruslan Komlyakov ...

- ... the whole crowd. At that time, we had more girls in the group than boys, and we thought for a very long time above the name - we needed a simple word that would be easy to chant. And they thought of the word "mill".

- Because Don Quixote?

- No, rather, the Baltic Slavic folklore.

-And literally a couple of years later, from a densely populated Moscow folk scene, where every second sang about gnomes, suddenly shot a “mill”. You almost immediately became a flagship. Does this have some kind of mathematical justification? Or - pure witchcraft?

- A lot of work, a lot of sutures of the walls of the forehead. For a very long time we played this way: “outpost” - “vermel”, “outpost” - “vermel”. And then they sharply decided to record the album "Sleep Road". Of course, there was no money, and therefore we had crowdfunding. Yes, then there was no this word, but the process was, and it was absolutely spontaneous. Nick Perumov called me and said: "I want to help your team - give me a thousand dollars to record." We met him in the subway - he really had a convertible with him. It was very cute, and I will always be very grateful to him. Here are on its own on a variety of studios, negotiating with someone along the way ...

“Have you recorded a record for a thousand dollars?!”

- Well, no, I had to spend a little more. And then it became possible to give an album to Alexei Kozin, who at that moment worked at CD L and Records . For some reason, he liked this whole story, and he decided to publish the album.

“I apologize, but Prumov found out about you?” Or was he a person from a physical faculty?

- No, not from the physical department, but definitely from that time. From the same very general, very large party, which loved fantasy, I read Tolkien ... It doesn’t matter, in short. Kozin published an album - this is the main thing. We had a presentation in the B2 club, where there was a cue ball. The then managers of the Bunker went and asked: "Guys, who are you at all?" From that moment, it somehow went more fun.

- I read about a certain flash mob, which your fans allegedly arranged for pushing your song in the "chart dozen". Probably, they simply cut off the phone number of our radio.

- It was not that flash mob. It’s just that when the song “Night Mare” Kozin suddenly managed to cram in the “Chart Dyuzhin”, fans of the “mills” from all over Russia began to call “our radio” with terrible force and literally in a couple of weeks they raised the song to the first place. Then she also took first place in the chart of the whole year. But it is clear that they voted not for a specific song, but for the group. It was at that moment that it became clear to me what a huge army of fans at the “mill” and how active they are.

If you find this word in at least one of my songs, I will give a pie.

- That is, the cue ball at the premiere in the B2 was not a surprise?

- Certainly. And he proved that the mouth works.

- In general, you have a unique situation in some way: the “mill” came out of the underground due to the quantitative advantage of fans, namely people who not only read Tolkien, but play it.

- I would not want to think that this is exactly so. And I am against the group hung a label "we supported a role -playing party."

- But she supported.

- No. Many people who once listened to me, as they say, on the minstrel, after I began to work in the group, said: “Oh, this is not at all! Here earlier - yes, but now pop. ” And they were just the rolechers. You see, this is the secret of success. If we left the role -playing party and were supported by a role -playing party, we would not have achieved the success that we have now. We catch the audience beyond the line of parties. It’s just harm to us to remain a team playing for a particular layer for a certain subculture. Only by tearing the framework of the listener subcultures, the team comes to real success. And I am much more valuable to the listener, who came from nowhere, listened to the song “The Bride of the Poloz”, confused, asked my grandmother to a collection of Bazhov’s fairy tales, he himself figured out everything. This, by the way, is a real story. “I climbed to find out, found an unknown surname Bazhov, asked my grandmother’s book.” I am serious - this is a quote from a letter.

-That is, it turns out that, among other things, you carry some kind of educational function?

- Yes, we form a little.

“Still, I can’t jump off the role -players so soon.” I read in some kind of interview, as you say that people who lived a parallel life somewhere in a boring garden in an elf’s outfit are stronger than those who have never changed into an elf.

- Yes, I still think so. And I have enough acquaintances who, continuing to play-are not necessarily in elves, even quite the opposite-they occupy some high positions. It seems to me that this is a good hobby. Someone goes to Turkey and lies three weeks upside down at sea, and someone goes to the forest and tries on someone else's larva. And with pleasure he is psychologically resting. And also trains spirit and body.

- I constantly communicate with the role -players - with one of them I see at work every day; They consider you their queen. You constantly juggling with important concepts for them: Scandinavian gods, unicorns, elves ...

- There are not a single elves. If you find this word in at least one of my songs, I will give a pie.

-I meant that they still hide somewhere between the lines. But this is not important. I had a different question for you. The fact is that I am strongly against the non -Slavicism, which has now bloomed incredibly, is the whole story about where the Rusichs and so on came. I am terribly afraid of all this and wish the doors to this underworld to slam as soon as possible. But it is precisely such musicians like you who always leave Skokold unlocked. Do you not feel any responsibility for this?

- Do you mean the occult history of the Third Reich?

“And her too.” Although you have never sang about it, people hear a certain warehouse in your texts.

- Hear, yes. But only because the occult doctrine of the Third Reich and Perversion that arises on her base now is, of course, of course, the Indo -European mythology, which is, was engaged in her head, I have been doing a lot, I really like it, and she is extremely interesting. And - yes! - In my songs, there are a lot of Indo -European mythological archetypes and plot components.

People in historical outline do not come to our concerts.

-How do you react, if suddenly someone says: Slav brothers, here are our queen of fields, only listen to her.

- I will not react in any way. I do not think that I bear some responsibility for someone's weak minds. I believe that people, who are really interested, will expose everything themselves, they themselves will find everything. Many people do this. In general, if the author’s commentary is required to understand the text, this means that the text did not work out. This means that I poured too much in it and the text is bad. And if people do without any allusions and digging in the textbooks on occultism, penetrate, drop a mean tear and wring a hat, which means that everything is fine.

- Still such a gentle moment. You know, I was not at the “Invasion”, but I saw videos. You are some incredible vamp woman, almost Olga Kormukhina.

- Well, the vamp began with the 2012 Angelophynia album. It was all that topic “We are in white and black boots” from him. Plus a tough fatal program. Yes, we have such an option.

- I just thought again: you probably fall in love with you.

- And what?

- They torment calls, write letters. They do not sing in the porches?

- No. I am mostly respected. I think that I have a certain halo of the inaccessibility of some kind of ...

-Well, yes, husband, two children. How do you deal with? In one interview, you somehow complained with fervor on the minuses of the educational system.

- The thing is that my husband and children and children are now living in Geneva. And it was important for me not to fall under the press of juvenile justice, which almost throughout Europe forbids to take a child from school during the school year. And my children are small and so far everywhere they ride with me. According to Irish law - and I have both Irish - children go to school at four years old, and I cannot leave a four -year -old child without myself for two weeks. Therefore, they usually both ride with me. Now the first time that I left the eldest for twelve days, which is already six, with my dad to go to school, and only small to Moscow brought to Moscow.

- In general, this is a unique situation: your listeners are here in Russia, you are in Switzerland. Do you think they are not offended that you were fluttered for twelve days into this Mordor, and then drove back into a beautiful mountainous country, almost in the Middle -earth?

“It seems to me that no one is offended, because everyone knows that I am returning from time to time.”

- Do they follow you - for rare concerts in Europe?

- For what? When a fan travels to the group to different cities and countries, it seems to me that this fan is a little sick.

- Well, how? Here U2 has a whole stall of the Fans, which they carry around the world. And they consider this the greatest happiness in their lives.

- “They take along” - this is a key one.

- No, no! They pay for themselves everywhere. The group only supplies them with a multi -passage for concerts in different parts of the planet.

- "Eternal ticket", I understand. But we have another matter. The Mill cannot afford “eternal tickets”. We cannot put the regional promoters before the fact: guys, excuse me, please, but we have thirty “eternal tickets” here, and you withdraw them from the sale ... Do you think this will all be done?

The capital of our Motherland is Moscow, death is inevitable and inevitable, the favorite group is a “mill”.

“But thousands come to you!”

- Not thousands, but a thousand comes in every city.

- And 970 tickets sold are not enough?

- Nevertheless. It all depends on the financial agreement of the promoter with the site. In some city, we can plant as many guests as much as you like, and in another everything is very strict.

- It just seems to me that it is very beautiful when his support group follows the artist. Moreover, since the “mill”, according to your confession, carries a certain educational function, it would be very correct to introduce people to how all this folklore exists in Europe. For example, historical reconstruction in the same Switzerland is supported at the government level, in each city performances. And we have nothing, and the guys from the “silver wolf” seem to ordinary people idiots.

- Let's not mix everything in one pile. People in historical outline do not come to our concerts. In some cases, local reconstructors agree with a promoter organizing our concert, and come to the money for money. But they come to work, and this is a completely different function. You see, it is unrealistic to eat fat, and sit on a hill. It is unrealistic to enter the party of reconstructors, start fraternizing - guys, I also did it in due time, let's roll the mountains, let's remember the old days - and at the same time work with all this to work out a high -tech two -hour show on stage. Moreover, we work for everyone, and not only for reconstructors. Everything is very simple: a tree is an oak, the capital of our Motherland is Moscow, death is inevitable and inevitable, a favorite group is a “mill”. People come to our concerts because they like the Mill, and not because they are passionate about Baltic Slavic myths. It’s the same as if I said: oh, listen, I like the Suahili language so much and everything Gambian-Griotic, that I just hear the album of Robert Planta to the holes. And I, by the way, I hear it, but not therefore.

The Mill acts on October 23 in the Proletarian recreation center (Tver), on October 24-in Cosmonaut (St. Petersburg), October 25-at Stadium Live (Moscow)