NIK BORZOV: "And I can bitbox"

Nike Borzov released the double album “Molecule”, on which he presented new versions of his hits - “Horse”, “High on the Star” and others. Denis Boyarinov met with an atypical Russian rocker to ask him why he needed it, and at the same time talked about the tape reverb, internal musicality, psychedelic music and the problems of our society.

- Are you friends with synthesizers?

- I really like to synthesize. At all.

- What are you synthesizing?

- On anything. I can even do with my own body. Without any lotions. It is important not just to twist the handles of the synthesizer. You need to understand what you are doing. And if there is internal musicality, then it’s generally nishtyak. Therefore, I believe that synthesizers are a great topic for children. Give the child a synthesizer of the year in two or three-and let him sit with him up to 18 (laughs) .

- And what did you develop internal musicality on childhood? What musical instrument did your parents give you?

- I even had a strip reverb. Such Soviet development: a large box consisting of three compartments, and in it a recording head and several readers. The magnetic tape spun along the ring. The recorded sound was read several times and reproduced from this, creating the effect of reverb.

Psychedelic music develops a figurative and repeated perception of the world.

Then my friends and I twisted all the heads, except for one, and made such a film drama-machine, the forerunner of Sampler from it. We went to our orchestra room, where the Baltic production of Baltic production stood in the orchestra room. Bits played on it, recorded them on a tape recorder, then they chose the best, cut the film, glued into the rings and inserted into this reverb. He chased a bit in a circle like a drama machine. Bit could wind up primitive sound effects - change the speed, add a flanger. And then on top of this bit we played something on the guitars. I have never met a more analog sampler than the one that we invented in childhood.

- So you experimented in the group "Infection"?

- “Infection” appeared a little later, when my friend bought a drum installation. And I had a huge combination with hefty speakers. We recorded a guitar at the 5th floor at home in a nine-story building at home, and the second part-drums and voices-on the 4th floor of a five-story building. That is, the recording of the album "Infection" was distributed to the whole quarter. And we recorded three albums per year. All the neighbors knew our material (laughs) . But almost everything was allowed to us, people walked and smiled stupidly.

Only my mother said: you have very good music, and you play well, and you sing nicely, but maybe you will make a smaller mat (laughs) in the texts? And the mat was in the songs through the word, and we selected the words the most vile words. Not to shock, but for people it is unpleasant to listen. At the same time, the music was attractive. I did not understand then, but now I understand that it was a kind of psychedelia. For very subtle people.

"Infection" - "black hole" (director of the clip - Nike Borzov)

- To be a musician in the Soviet and early post -Soviet time is an endless struggle for foreign instruments, for a good studio and high -quality recording. Was it important to you? Have you dreamed of any incredible guitar?

- There were no such ideas. I remember I bought a Star 9 guitar for 100 rubles - it was completely faded. Shape as a screwdriver. We restored it and painted it ourselves. My friend Sebastian Gray made a guitar to his own: he completely cut out the body, he wound the coils of the sound cobbler. She did not really build, but she had an interesting effect - he made a toggle switch, which turned on a terrible overload on it. You turn it on-the guitar begins to buzz Adovo, howling and whistling: "T-u-u-p-h-sh-sh." It was cool. We used it as a Noisy guitar a couple of times, but more it was perceived as a relic.

I still love guitars that are not perceived by most musicians seriously.

- For example?

- All sorts of “Mustangs”, “jaguars” or danelectro made of plastic. They are not the first echelon, not the “fenders” and not “Gibsons”. I also love Gibsons, but I fell in love with them a few years ago when I recorded the album from the inside. And before that I did not use them.

I like to use things that the majority does not perceive musical. I can portray with my mouth some kind of sound that no tool will portray. And I can beat. Even when I explain something to the musicians, I use the body-bit, guitar party or pipe. It is easy when you have a good hearing.

- You have a natural perception of music, not according to the textbook.

- According to the textbook, it is boring. True, I tried to learn - I graduated from a pedagogical music university. True, he defended the diploma in a secondary music school - "Psychedelic music as a new jazz." I explained in it that psychedelic music is developing a figurative and repeated perception of the world.

- We recently published an interview with composer Vladimir Martynov , where he noticed that Russian rock never had his own sound. We only copied English and American samples and paid more attention to the word. You are one of the few of our rock musicians who are interested in the sound; What do you think about it? Do you associate yourself with Russian rock?

- Well, I am Russian. I play rock. Probably there is something in this. But the direction that is called “Russian rock” does not really impress me. I do not listen to this music. In 90% of cases, this is very poorly done, like everything with us. Therefore, probably Martynov is right - we have not developed our own sound. There is nothing of your own, as in many other areas. We generally do not have a culture of perception of creativity and art - we have not raised this in people for many decades. Therefore, the problems of our society - that people do not see values, do not understand beauty and do not feel it. Only vulgar, funny and cynical pieces are perceived-La-la-yumor, the Leningrad group. But there is no beauty in this.

Everything was an absolute chaos, because chaos is my harmony.

-Have you ever performed with Leningrad?

- Repeatedly. And we are familiar with the cord. We spoke even on the same stage. Leningrad had some kind of farewell concert in Moscow-I entered the “infection” there to play on the warm-up. It was interesting to perform on a large platform. But they have a specific audience that did not appreciate our humor. As I said, we have a very complex psychedelia, and they need a union-unit and in order to simple human words. So that everything is clear.

- By the way, what happens to the "infection"?

- Work on our anniversary Ipishka, consisting of five songs, is in full swing. The songs are not short, so the Ipishka will be long. This will probably be the only active period of the group dedicated to its 30th anniversary. Perhaps in July we will release this EP in iTunes and achieve the full discography of the group, posting everything that was recorded. We will give the only concert, and on this the “infection” will cease to exist.

- It was unexpected to find out that your new double album “molecule” consists of rewritten hits. You could write new songs on a double. Why did you decide to return to the old ones?

- I did not position him as a new one. Indeed, there are only two songs there-“Molecule” and “Eve”, which was also written in the 1980s. I wanted to record the album in order to fix the new sound of the group. A couple of years ago, we began to give acoustic concerts with a Kahon tool-this is actually an analog dram machine, according to which you hit with the full hand, like on drums. His dynamics stuck me so much that I modernized the bats in my old songs - made them more fashionable, more straight -to -crest. The reaction of people to the change was so bright that I decided to fix this sound. He rented an old Soviet recreation center, whose acoustics were imprisoned for performances by folk groups and singers under the piano. And there - stucco molding: boys with birds, girls with fruits, athletes, babies in bushes, etc. Here in the atmosphere of our root Olympia, we recorded 20 old songs and two new ones.

"Eve" I have long been asked to record fans. She is about the first girl in the life of an adult man: no matter how many women he had before, how many children he lived - so he met the first woman for whom he was ready to change. She is Eve.

But children like this song too. My daughter Vika says: “I know in“ Eve ”by heart. I can sing: “Eve, Ye-I-I-I-Ye” ” (laughs) .

-I heard that in your youth I had a notebook with a plan for your development as a rock star and the alleged discography.

- There was only discography, without a development plan. I did not write: I will reflect my long hair, insert the earrings and buy such and such a guitar. Everything was an absolute chaos, because chaos is my harmony.

- What kind of albums were in discography?

- Each album was registered by songs. From 9 to 20 songs in each. There were doubles and triple. It's funny all this!

- Are there any intersections of that invented discography with your real?

- No. I once again looked into that notebook, and I didn’t like anything. Although I, there is one name, which I use sooner or later. I will not tell him yet. It is very long. I then loved to call albums very extensive. In two or three lines. I imagined that I would only have the name of the album on the cover, even Nike Borzes would not be written. So, I'm going to release an album with songs that are not included in my previous albums. Perhaps it will be an album on four records. I have already got about 40 songs that I would like to record. They have been lying for 20 or 30 years. I understand that nobody needs them to hell, but I would like to do it.

Album "Molecule" in Itunes and Google Play