"We are Georgia, not Singapore"

The Tbilisi group Mgzavrebi , which shifts the Georgian melos into the musical language of the iTunes generation , releases the fifth album - “ in Vino Veritas ". The group is known primarily to the Russian audience by joint project with Evgeny Grishkovts. The time has come to relax their own, warm and bright, songs in which they are sung primarily about love for beautiful Georgia. Before the Moscow presentation " in Vino Veritas "(November 2 at the Ray Club Just Arena ) Leader of Gigi Gii Dedalamazishvili Answered COLTA questions . Ru And he sent the freshest living video of the team, shot, of course, on the hills of Georgia:

- The name of your group “MGZavrebi” is translated both as “passengers”, and as “wanderers”, and as “travelers”. In Russian, these words have different shades of meaning. What does this mean in Georgian?

- And on Georgian it is all together - both “wanderers” and “passengers”. The bus also says "MGZavrebi". And at the airport, the ads begin with the “Dear Mgzavrebi” - there was even such a joke that hygi loves to be at the airport very much, because “Dear Mgzavrebi” hears all the time. But the closest, probably, “passengers”.

- Why did you call that?

- Oh, this is a long story. In 2006, I really wanted to become an actor and did not think to be a musician. My sister and mom forced me to make a concert with one poet. This was our first concert. He read poetry, and I played my two friends - the rest of Mgzavrebi , our friends, sat in the hall. Before the concert, our friend, also a poet, also came to us, and asked what we are called. We said that nothing. He said: it is impossible that for a group without a name. We had this option: Mgzavrebi . I went out and jokingly said: we are Mgzavrebi .

Really Mgzavrebi We became about four years ago, when the hobby grew into the case. Now we are already adults, we have families, and we are engaged only in music.

-How could you be called differently?

- Our friend is a very poetic person - offered the name “leaf fall”. On Georgian. Russians will never say this word. And "MGZavrebi" is hard to say. Although we did not think that the name should be international. Thank God that everything happened in our life. We are not in a hurry, do not take loans, we do not want to become superuspace, so everything is so simple and difficult for us.

-Your mother-a chormaster-still has an influence on your work?

- Yes, we first sang Georgian folk songs. From childhood. She still teaches in the Georgian choir. She always helped us-she gave some advice when the case concerned the folklore part in our songs. I put her songs - she comments and still helps them. We all love her very much - not because she is my mother, but because she is just a good person.

We are not in a hurry, do not take loans, we do not want to become superuspace, so everything is so simple and difficult for us.

- At first, 17 people played in the group - how did it happen?

- We are a group of not musicians, but professional friends. We have been friends since childhood - when I wrote the first songs, my friends and I began to play. We learned to play instruments because of the group. They bought them together. When we were students, there were even more of us in the group-we had a pipe, cello, another keyboard player, Georgian percussion, backing vocalists and even DJ. We played large concerts with a composition of 15-17 people. Then there were 7 people in the group who wanted to engage in music. The rest chose a normal life and their families - the cello and the pipe went to the orchestra. But we all remained friends. It is impossible to live in a group of 17 people. Seven are also a lot of people, large costs.

- That is, for the Mgzavrebi group the situation is impossible when a friend leaves it, and for example, a high -class guitarist comes to his place?

- No. We play because we want to be sincere and ourselves. I do not think that I am cool or writing some incredible songs. We are pleased to be together and play. We do what we like. I can’t imagine the situation that guitarist Bezho leaves our group, and some superplant musician comes ... this will not happen.

- Your fame in Russia began with joint songs with Evgeny Grishkovts. You offered him cooperation first - why exactly to him?

- I have one friend who is friends with Grishkovtsy - MC Fish from Kyiv. He was in Tbilisi, we drank, walked in the evening, and he said that he had an idea - that Grishkovtsy and I would succeed. And I said that it could be, but I am ashamed to write to him. “I will write to him,” the fish said, “I know him.” Two days later, he wrote to me: here is Zhenya's number for you, he is waiting for your call. We called his wife, then sent him our songs, two weeks later he flew to Tbilisi, and we recorded the first song, and then made an album. Everything happened by chance.

- By that time, you were a demanded group in Tbilisi?

“I don’t know a good question, it’s not for me to judge.” How can I judge myself?

- By the number of concerts.

- In Georgia, this is the most difficult. Georgia is a small country. Once a year we have a large solo concert, and we also perform the other day of the city. We do not play in clubs, since there are no large concert clubs in Tbilisi, but we are not going to small clubs, because we are not interested. In Georgia, there is only one city where you can make a big concert - Tbilisi, well, in the summer at sea, in Batumi. All Georgian artists have such a schedule - we, Nino Katamadze, have for everyone. There is no show business.

- You have changed the sound on the new album - has become more straightforward and powerful. Is this due to the fact that the group is growing and collecting large sites?

- This is our fifth album, and we like to play like that now. About ten years ago, we played only acoustics-we did not even have an electric guitar and bass guitars, and over time, everything appeared. But this is not due to the fact that we are growing. It seems to me that we are growing, but to someone-on the contrary. Just now we like to play like this and such songs are written. We wanted to make a concert album - to play it at concerts and feel normally.

If you want, I can give you phones of Georgian politicians - ask them.

- What is the song “Madatov” about the new album - is it unlikely about the general?

- Yes, there was such a general of Armenian origin. In the old Tbilisi, the island of Madatov was named after him. At the beginning of the 20th century, when the chickens changed the channel, this island was flooded - now it is no longer there. In this song, about the old Tbilisi-about the 1990s, about our memories of that time.

-I read an interview in which you say that childhood in Tbilisi of the 1990s was very difficult. And what is happening with the city now, do you like it?

- Now good. A lot has changed. Now lives differently: there are no such household problems that were in the 1990s-for example, with water. Of course, there are other problems. There are people who need bread and water ... We are Georgia, not Singapore, let's say so. But Georgia can now be called a country that is developing.

- And the political situation in the country suits you?

- I don't want to talk about politics. If you want, I can give you phones of Georgian politicians - ask them. I know them ... Well, everyone knows each other - this is Georgia: 3.5 million people, of which one and a half live in Tbilisi. Finding a person and his phone is not a problem at all (laughs) .

- Then we will return to the new album: what is the song “Emigrants” about?

- This is the verse of our friend. It tells how emigrants return home by train - what they think and what they feel at that time. Therefore, the song begins with the sound of a walking train, and the chop is “my homeland, my beautiful homeland” is from the old Georgian song that we remade.

- on " in Vino Veritas ” is there the song“ We will break through ” - this is not your first song in Russian?

- On our second album, the song “A Man lived in the world” was released. There is also a “dawn”, “because I believe in miracles”, “if I”. It turns out that “we will break through” - this is our fifth song in Russian. She is to the verses of the Georgian poet, who wrote in Georgian and in Russian. The poem was written back in 1997 and I liked it for a long time.

- You will now have a big Russian tour - will you perform your anti -war song “War I do not need words” that you sang at Ukrainian concerts?

- No, let's not. It is very difficult to fulfill it. I really do not like to play this song. I very rarely performed it - only seven or eight in many years. We did not even write her down. I do not want to sing her because it hurts. Yes, and people are not easier from her. It sings about the fact that you are powerless, when there is a war, that you, like nothing, are sitting at home, and other people decide for you - big people. It is that war is the most terrible that it might be, you can’t express it with words. Therefore, the war does not need words.

Buy Mgzavrebi - "In Vino Veritas" on iTunes