Pinkshinyultrablast: "We do not want to be the best group in the city where there is a" picnic ""

At the end of January, the St. Petersburg Quintet, which has been in “supplies” and “widely known in narrow circles” for several years, released Club AC30 (Great Britain), Shelflife (USA) and Vinyl Junkie (Japan) The debut album “EVERYTHING ELSE MATTERS” , which was waited for eight years. Prior to this, the site of the British newspaper Guardian called them the best group of the week , highly appreciating Shugais from Russia. The record has collected positive reviews from a foreign press - for example, the Drowned in Sound website gave her 8 points out of 10, writing that it is an example of “sound lepota” ( Sonic Pulchritude ).

- Why did you decide right now to release the debut album when no one was waiting for?

Roman (guitar): Everything happened logical. Songs on the album were invented back in 2009-2010, however, over time, of course, they changed. For a long time we did not have the opportunity to record them. Then we gathered with strength, did everything, for a long time stretched the process of finishing, information and other things, there were various difficulties. After that there was contact with the label, and now the plate finally came out.

- So you are perfectionists?

Roman : Not really. Although this time there was something like that. The first EP we recorded and brought in two days. This time, two days could only take us to reduce one composition.

- You have the status of a group that does not often play - in s just you do not want to give a lot of concerts?

Roman: Probably, we will strive to play more. We love, in principle, to play alive. We do not have such a pose that we do not play concerts. Moreover, we now have a Bucking Agency Coda from the UK with which we was associated with Labble. They are organizing our concerts. Let's start not with Russia. Here, if there are some interesting offers, we will play with pleasure.

- At the same time, you go on three labels. How did it happen?

Roman: We contacted the English Club AC30 , it turned out that there they already knew about us and are ready to work with us. They, accordingly, collaborate with the Japanese Vinyl Junkie and American Shelflife , each of which became responsible for the release of physical medium in his country.

Igor (BAS): We did not really want to release the album on our own, although we were morally ready for this. Looking for any options. First they laid out one song on S OUNDCLOD , the first in many years. And then, in the end, everything grew together, and we presented it again - already with the support of the label.

- What is your circulation size?

Igor: The first circulation was 600 vinyls. 300 in the UK and the USA. They were almost all sold out of pre -order even before the official release. The second circulation is now available. 150 in the UK (where Sold is already on them again out ) and the USA. Plus was the Japanese edition of CD . I can't remember the exact figure. In February, CDs should be released in the UK. The first circulation is 500 copies.

- The Japanese, as usual, publish a disc with bonuses?

Roman: Yes, they asked to send more tracks for the release. We had eight on the album, and we specially recorded three more compositions for them, one of which in Japanese.

- What did you do all these eight years while you have been expected from a full -fledged album?

Roman: We gathered at the end of 2007. In 2008-2009, they actively played, recorded EP , then we could not play often for a number of reasons. Over the past two years, we have performed several times, but were mainly concentrated on the album and the creation of new material.

- Was there a danger of getting into an anabiosis?

Roman: We probably even partially flowed. But not for long, we never stopped rehearsing and composing.

- Do you have teams on signs that are with you on the same wavelength?

Roman: I think not. We are not very sociable.

We want to write pop-cheese.

-But now there is a lot of noise music in St. Petersburg, there is a festival "Ionosphere", which takes place regularly in city clubs, collects musicians from all over Russia playing Shugaiz, Noise Rock, Embimy, Garage Rock and so on. It seems that everyone has now put a bunch of pedals. But it looks, of course, more as amateur performances than something serious. And you are clearly not the flagship of the movement, although you are better than others in this. How do you feel about what is happening?

Igor: We were waiting for this question!

Roman: Not that we want to play noise music. We are so uninteresting. In fact, we want to write pop singing, not thinking that this is a shogiz or something that has a noise based. We just like to play with a reverber more than without him. It seems to me that when we started, there was a certain wave, but then everyone went somewhere. And now the youth has come, and that's good. But, I think, you need to focus not that there was noise, reverb or shogiz, but on writing good songs.

- And your basis is correct - melodies packed in noise.

Roman: I just liked to play through Dili immediately, as soon as I got it, now it is not interesting without a dealer. And this has been going on for ten years.

- Do you have a lot of lotions?

Roman: No, no, there are not many of them. We do not have cyclopic pedalboards. Everyone has the most necessary: ​​reverb, Die, overload, chiffter. The tuners finally bought everything. I did not have it before last summer at all.

- Your music is deprived of terry binding . Do you feel like a St. Petersburg group?

Igor: We feel, we live here. We have an accurate geographical binding in this regard. These people already perceive us a little smeared for various reasons.

We are a Russian group.

- That is, it is important for you where you live? Critics are written about you as a Russian group. I read phrases like "They are trying to recreate the atmosphere of the Russian Cathedral."

Roman: This is probably because we were written at the studio "Melody", in the church premises on the Vasilyevsky Island.

- So how about soilism? Here is a Russian group that you will like if you like SlowDive .

Roman: We are a Russian group. We speak Russian, we live here. But I do not think that all this binding is so important. You will not always understand which team comes from. Yes, Shugaiz appeared in England, in the 90s it also became American. And now all this is mixed up ...

- At the same time, the album is called almost like the song of the Metallica group . Very Russian joke.

Igor: One French blog confused the name. And this is not quite a joke.

Roman: It was just inspired from above.

- Recently, the first big documentary about Shugaiz was released. That is, all this music is officially - flashback, retrospective.

Roman: If you look from the side, our music does not fall into the canons of the British shugaiz. Previously - yes, it was. It seems to me that we are compared with Lush or SlowDive by inertia. And we have already moved away from this. We do not set ourselves the goal of copying someone. We are now more immersed in ourselves than in the absorption of music, as it was before, when the music became affordable when it became a lot.

“Whose Reunion pleased you?”

Roman: cool that My Bloody Valentine reunited. They were the most worthy team from the whole wave. SlowDive or Ride are less close to us.

- Your music is not easy. Is it important for you to perform performing skills?

Roman: We try that the technical aspects do not come to the fore. The main thing is to work out what we want. So that there are sweet melodies and appropriate music.

- Do you have a development strategy?

Roman: Now everything has become clearer. But for us, the main thing is to compose and play. Not that we adhered to a certain development strategy. We can say that a label will be responsible for the strategy, we will be one on one with music.

- Have you been so pleased with their work?

Igor: Now, a little movement is taking place for the better, different from zero, and we perceive it quite objectively. It would be nice to leave work and engage exclusively with music, but for this you need to work very, very much.

Roman: When we decide to quit, we will already live beautifully and write down R ' n ' b -album so that everyone understands this.

- Are you embarrassing the fact that the group was noticed after the contract? Was there any gloating - they say, we already knew that they were cool?

Roman: There was no. Each group has its own path. Some were already in the disintegration phase, such as Japandroids , which PitchFork discovered “And they are now chasing the world.” Someone happened almost instantly. Now some large stars arise from nowhere with a bunch of reviews, huge contracts and world tour.

When we decide to quit, we will already live beautifully and write down the R'N'B album, so that everyone understands this.

- Is it profitable to be published on the label?

Roman: Yes. We love the cache.

Igor: My opinion is that it is more pleasant than to be produced by ourselves. This is another level of approach and organization, the whole process as a whole. They demand something from you, you have obligations. You need to be collected and responsible. A lot of things, they are all useful. If we doubt their usefulness, then we are convinced and argued by the need for a step. There are interviews, we are licensing, we exchange documents with the Bucking Agency. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort, thoughts and time. A letter comes for 5,000 signs in English, and you can’t digest it at a time. But we enjoy all this.

- How pleasing to you that Libel Nisheva?

Roman: This is normal, it's good, we like it. At least people know what to expect from us. In addition, different groups come out there - classic shugaisers like A IR F OrMATION or Ringo Deathstarr , Nois-Rock Scandinavians The Megaphonic Thrift . Or we playing the Thunder Pop.

- Now you will have a new sound, completely different songs?

Roman: We will not try to do the same as on the album. But we will not change sharply, most likely.

Igor: Just published songs - they are ideologically enough old. We are developing, and our music too. Some evolution of sound and music as a whole is a rather logical process in the work of any team.

Roman: You need to be careful with statements. Suddenly everything will be untrue. The released album in the final version turned out to be softer, and when we recorded, I thought that it would be quite tough.

- You are ready to collect the A 2 club so that there are a bunch of people who do not really know who you are?

Igor: Of course, they are ready, but, on the heart, I can say that it doesn’t matter whether you collect a large platform or not: this is not an indicator. Not particularly noticeable groups can assemble a large club, but notable and important - no.

Roman: The main thing is that they like music. Yes, we do not want to be the best team in the city where there is a picnic group.

- Perhaps when Shevchuk will sing with you, everything will change?

Roman: We would like to avoid this.