Dasha Rush: "I am against testosterone stereotype"

Dasha Rush was born and grew up in Russia, but in the Siberian part of the CTM festival organized by the Goethe-Institute, CTM acted as an honorary foreign guest. What is not surprising-Dasha’s musical career began more than ten years ago, after she moved to Europe in Europe in the mid-1990s. But as a result, Dasha Rush became a demanded DJ, in contrast to the angelic appearance, playing fast and hard electronic music, and then organized the Fullpanda label for the release of her own music. This year, Dasha published the Sleepstep somnambulic album on the respected German label Raster-Noton, uncharacteristic in sound either for her or Raster-Noton himself. In Novosibirsk, Dasha played an exemplary DJ network in the Ragu cafe and a concert at the Globus Academic Youth Theater, after which she spoke in detail about how she moved to Europe and about girls in electronics.

-I read big interviews with you only in English, so let's from the very beginning. You once said that you met electronic music thanks to the Zodiac group.

- It was the most magical record for me from my parental collection, one of my loved ones in childhood. Firstly, due to the cover-robots, women, fish, some kind of science fiction . Secondly, the music corresponded-then there was generally a dominance of Italo-Disko.

- How did your parents feel about your hobby for music?

- Without much enthusiasm. In childhood, I was engaged in rhythmic gymnastics and dancing - it seemed to my parents that this was the best choice. In a music school, I was identified by Domra; When I saw this tool, I experienced a big shock and did not go there anymore.

- The banal question: how did the pseudonym Dasha Rush appear?

-Rush-well, because Dasha Frrom Rush (laughs) , but not only, of course, then it would be written differently, moreover, the word has certain connotations. One friend of mine heard me playing fast, hard music, and said: “Look at yourself! How you get into rage when you play! "

- What do you consider your home now?

- The city where my studio is Berlin. I have a son, and when he was small - now he is 16 - then the house was where we were with him. Then everything has changed, now I feel freer, so a strong connection with the studio. In general, the planet Earth.

- At what age did you start going to the raves?

- Quite early. The first time I got to the disco in the area in the recreation center of the railway workers when I was fourteen. After that, there was a Manhattan E Xpress club, in some places nasty, but on Mondays, Zhmakin spent creative evenings with electronic music there. Then followed the clubs "Ptyuch", "Titanic" and others. Then the other guys began to make raves in different places, but then I already left Russia.

-In 1995? For the sake of a modeling career?

-In early 1996. The model business for me has become a kind of ticket. It is probably good that I was offered a contract then. I did not seek to become a model, but it was curious to try, and so it coincided that by the 1995, the freedom of the beginning of the 90s ended and something completely strange began. It was interesting to see what abroad, besides, it gave a certain pillow of safety. The model gimp, walking in castings - all this seemed very boring to me, but it was one way or another guaranteed salaries. In parallel, I was engaged in what I liked - actually, music.

I do not need no one, I will do everything myself, I know how to open a label and how to do it at all.

- And who opened you as a model at all?

-Some scouts came up to my club, gave a business card, they said-come, we have such and such an agency. When dad saw this business card, he said: let's go. I say: "No, I want to sleep!" We went, everything turned out to be twisted. Of course, all overlined three times, looked at the contract. There were different options, and in one way or another permission was required from my parents - I could not fly away, being a minor.

- Where did you go?

- To Paris.

- What was the most difficult for you there?

- I had to navigate, understand how people generally live. They say: "Give me a bun, please." - "With oil, without?" And they simply are not accepted for them - you must first say: “Hello, how are you? What a wonderful day. Please give me a roll. " And it was necessary to get used to it - it was not easy for the human level to be purely. My employer from the agency said: "You can’t communicate with customers like that!" - "How not?" - "You cannot express your opinion!" “How can one not express your opinion?” Of course, then I got lost, but still did not change some inner rods and remained a fairly straightforward person, although she learned to express her thoughts softer. Well, the same life; When there are no loved ones around and parents and you Yun, you will grow up faster. The main thing is that very soon for my salary I was able to afford to buy equipment and records.

- Did you DJ when you lived in Russia?

- The first rave on which I played was near St. Petersburg, in Sestroretsk. The event was made by Misha Vorontsov. They entrusted me to perform in Chillout. I played an embosses. It was not easy, since there were few records; Put most of the recording of friends. At that time, there were practically no vinyl shops. If someone came from abroad and brought a pinch of records, they were immediately disassembled. Yes, and I didn’t especially have finances at that time, but there was a great interest in electronic music.

-I read, you played Gabba for a while ...

“Yes, Hardcore and Gabba, when I was already by eighteen.” At this moment it seems to you that you understood everything and the world is so-and-so; Hard, fast, fingering, Disturbant Music reflected these internal states. Nevertheless, I listened to a rather diverse music, including an emphasy and classics. Of the electronic musicians, Biosphere , Cosmic Baby , Aphex Twin touched. It seems to me that the emboss is a very subtle style, although I love hardcore and industrial. And I can put a couple of tracks of Gabba. It’s not a matter of BPM - rather, there is always a certain musical character. Music, which interests me, is not fun - not in the sense of sad, but it goes from the side of melancholy, thought. There is no magnificent feast when everyone dancing is not clear for what. One way or another there is a deep thought when you dig in yourself or all over the world, which is about the same.

Yeah, since Mouse on Mars, I will be a cat.

- So, you worked as a model and collected records. When did you write music?

-In the late 90s, my friend Zhenya Ignashev, who told me the initial things and showed how the sequences works, wrote something inspired by the nineties. I tried, studied, found out what LFO is, read something about sound physics ... I released the first record only in 2004.

- You said that you invested a lot of money into the music.

- I decided that I will be Autoproduction - I do not need no one, I will do everything myself, I know how to open a label and how to do it at all. Some said: let's release this track, only here we need to change a little, and here, too, a little to do so. I realized that this is simply not mine: what does it mean to do so ”? My picture is my picture: if I like, I am very pleased, I don’t like it - thanks, goodbye. Since I am already used to being alone, I wanted to complete Independency . Therefore, I invested money in the release of records.

-Looking ahead: your last album “Sleepstep” was released on the Raster-Noton label. Is it on your initiative?

- This is rather an accident. Well: over time, you get acquainted with colleagues, the circle of communication becomes wider, you are exchanging music - and what you are doing now, but you came to listen. I sent Karsten ( Nikolai - an artist and electronic musician , founder of the Raster label - noton . - Ed. ) One track when Sleepstep was already written. Karsten says: That's it, I need a whole album. Of course, it interested me, Raster-Noton is a good label. On the other hand, this is not at all my aesthetics - it is very cold, very male. The rulers-quadrators, as I call them, in fact, are beautiful, but the album still turned out to be more poetic, feminine. We talked for a long time and realized that this is an interesting option for both of us: I am a maniac-all Sam-sama-sama, they have a very clear aesthetics of the label. We were very long discussing Artwork for a long time. I was offered geometric shapes with some kind of silhouette, but I did not see their correspondence with music. I had a clear offer, but at the same time too theatrical. I released my maniary a bit, and still a collaboration came out, although at some point I said that I did not need anything and I canceled everything.

I dreamed of Edgar Allan PO and in a dream said that I should write an answer to him. So I wrote.

-Do you feel a special attitude from other electronic musicians because you are a woman?

-Now the girls in electronics are still more, it used to be once or twice and was given. Although I still go to the festivals, I look at the linap - and here I am alone. Previously, when I put a hardcore, a young man came up to me in front of Set and said: “Ah, DJ? What are you playing there, house? " Yeah, House. He stood and could not pronounce the words. And there is no special attitude.

- You also said that women are not against the fact that women use attractiveness for artistic purposes.

-If a woman feels that she cannot do otherwise, then I do not mind at all. If this is done not only for the sake of working for the mass audience and the music is not on surface at the same time ... although again everything is very subjective. Someone and on Surface like it-why not? Here we also mean the role of sexism. In our civilization there is the following moment: the image of a woman was composed of a man based on his not always aesthetic, but animal taste. There is a cliche: a woman must behave like this. Some are trying to correspond to this testosterone stereotype - I am against.

- Why did you decide to play Boiler Room in a mask?

- Because the light, the camera and everything is directly into the eyes - it is annoying. But no one understood the joke. Mouse on Mars performed before me. I thought that I would look inappropriate to look in glasses, and the lamp really shines in the face constantly - it’s just inconvenient with my photophobia. Thanks to the mask, moreover, an additional intimate moment is created. I decided: "Yeah, since Mouse on Mars , I will be a cat." In a joke, although no one understood this.

- The second rather famous electronic musician from Russia is Nina Kravitz. Do you communicate with her?

- Sometimes. She now also lives in Berlin, we sometimes see each other, but we have completely different worlds with her. We sometimes play in clubs, but our artistic approach is slightly different.

- You said that you love Bjork very much.

- She is my muse.

- You would be interesting ...

- Work with her? I already thought about it. You know, I had the opportunity to get to know her better, but for some reason I was scared and refused. We have a common acquaintance who invited me for a couple of days for the New Year to her home. I realized that it was too close to me. I can’t, I am afraid that the muse suddenly somehow ... I decided that if it turned out so, then maybe I would be interested. But so far I am not ready.

-That is, it should happen differently.

- Apparently, yes. But I respect her very much and love her, she is inspired ... (Pause) ... Lyala and now, probably, also inspires. I began to follow her work less, but by energy, imagination, approach - she is one of the non -fed.

- Have you finished with the modeling business?

- Already yes, since 2009. In 2008, I decided to cut everything off, because I wanted to make music full music, although this brings much less money. It seems to me that the story with the modeling business approached the natural end - it was just intellectually uninteresting. There are really talented photographers, but basically this is a monetary job - in order to sell clothes.

- When did you decide to move to Berlin?

-In 2008, everything changed on the personal front, and then I decided to change the city-I chose between Barcelona and Berlin.

What is the point of doing if you don’t take risks and not fantasize at all?

- Why do you call Sleepstep a feminine album?

- The full name of the album is “Sleepstep: Sonar Poems for My Sleepless Friends” , “Audio Poems for my fuel friends”. These are not those who do not sleep at night, but those who have Awake Mind , that is, an open consciousness in the sense of freedom of thought, fantasy. The songs are dedicated to Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Edgar Allan in, who I had dreamed and in a dream said that I should write an answer to him. So I wrote. He is feminine in terms of touching moments that men do not allow themselves in electronic music. They are often more mechanical, not that less emotional, but still a completely different approach.

- Does the Fullpanda Leibe take you a lot of time? Is it important for you where the music is sent to you from? How much is they sending a lot?

- They send a lot of demo, I have no way to listen to everything. You do not need to send funny music - this is not what I'm looking for Fullpanda . And so they can at least write from Jupiter - the further, the better. I do not go to the musicians from Russia, although I work, for example, with DJ Yuka . There was a Ukrainian artist with whom I began very interesting cooperation - Stanislav Tolkachev. Unfortunately, he was in a hurry, we had violated communication, the plans did not work, everything broke down. The last record I had an Argentine musician - a young, 23 years old, very good. A label for me is obviously not a business machine: I do what I like for pleasure.

- Today, the Globe Theater, was unusual for you?

-Still, I already had a couple of such concerts-for example, the old little theater in Portugal was very impressed. Everything went well. I played barefoot there - to better feel the atmosphere. Yes, and other short -term projects were related to the theater - I made music for modern production, for example. The theater is a completely different state, moreover, very pleasant. Clubs are impressed with me, but, no matter how I love techno, periodically I get bored. Then I begin to whine - who are these people around, they do not even pay attention to music. I also listen to the notes of some colleagues and I understand that everything is very calculated, very rational. What is the point of doing if you don’t take risks and not fantasize at all? Let it be a mistake, but you need a step, you need to try something new. It becomes bored when everyone plays the same thing. At the same time, of course, there are completely wonderful artists who cannot be said about this.

- Are you often in Moscow? How did it change, according to your sensations?

- From time to time I come to my parents. In Moscow there are clubs, islands where good people do something interesting, but in general the city is evil and unpleasant-hysterical. Maybe he was like that? But it seemed to me that before Moscow was kinder. It was more located to people - now, on the contrary, it is necessary to break out of strength there. After three days in Moscow, my phobia begins. At such moments, I want to play hardcore.