Vyacheslav Butusov: "Ilya was an experimenter"

Last week, Ilya Kormiltsev “Illuminator”, in which “Chayf”, “Bi-2”, Nastya Poleva and Vyacheslav Butusov took part in the light of the memory of Ilya Kormilter. Following the compilation of songs to Kormiltsev’s poems, the collection of his works is expected to be expected to enter, journalism, essays and letters. Denis Boyarinov asked Vyacheslav Butusov about how they were friends and worked with Ilya Kormiltsev, recorded the Titanic and Yablokitai.

- Do you remember how and when first you met Ilya Kormiltsev?

- I can answer this question only approximately. When a rock club appeared in Sverdlovsk, we began to meet in different places and under different circumstances. Ilya wrote the texts to the Urfin Jus group, which became a detonator for me. When I heard Urfin Juss, I realized that I would also record albums.

Ilya at that time was already a cult character, and we were still students of the Architectural Institute. Then it was considered mandatory to have a textual in the rock band, otherwise the group was considered inferior. Such were funny criteria. We were searched for a textual. Worked with many Sverdlovsk writers. A little later it turned out that Ilya Kormiltsev was so productive that was ready to work with different teams. After that, we made friends.

- What is the first text of Ilya Kormiltsev, who became the song of “Nautilus Pompilius”?

- The first song on Ilya's text entered the album "Invisible". It is called "Who I am?" The text was incomprehensible to Urfin Jus, so square, so we made it a recitative. It was an experiment for Ilya - he wanted to try whether it would be possible to work with us.

"Nautilus Pompilius" - "Who am I?"

- The younger brother of Ilya Kormiltseva noticed that when I first saw you next to Ilya, I thought that you would not work. I quote almost literally: "What with such a cook as Butusov is not on the way."

- At that time, it was difficult to stand out with a dignity. There was the beginning of the 1980s in the yard-all the clothes were from the Sverdlovsk Tsum. Of course, students of the Architectural Institute had their own capabilities: we had half a common jeans for a flea market, so we dressed ourselves. But about the dignity - it is said loudly. Until some point, Ilya looked respectable next to us. As a fashionable researcher.

Ilya at that time was already a cult character, and we were still students of the Architectural Institute.

- How did you and Ilya Kormiltsev organize work on songs?

- Ilya brought a folder with texts. He worked very promptly and always ahead of us: there was always more material material than musical. Ilya wrote very quickly. There was a large verbal gift in it - both to writing and to oral speech. He was a wonderful speaker.

Since Ilya was very fruitful, I first put off his folder with texts, because I was not able to digest everything at once. For some time I let through the texts through myself, tried to adapt to a musical workpiece. Then the stage came when Ilya came to me and I showed him song options for the guitar. He had the right to say: I like it, I don’t like it, but you can forget about this text at all. Because Ilya worked on several fronts and sometimes so that the texts did not disappear, he took them.

- You could not force Ilya to rewrite the text?

- I didn’t even have such thoughts. How can you make a person more intelligent redo what was done by him in a state of insight? However, sometimes this happened on a hunch. So, for example, it turned out with the song "I want to be with you." I glued this ballad from two texts of Ilya and showed him already a combined version. He did not have to persuade him.

Nautilus Pompilius - a concert in Podolsk (1987)

- Alexander Kushnir, who is now preparing a book about Ilya Kormiltsev, says that he was very upset that his name was not indicated on the vinyl edition of the album “Separation” . How did it happen?

- This is the news for me. I don’t even know who was indicated there and who is not - I never looked at this record. However, we were completely on the drum whether they will indicate us or not. It seemed to us that we are so far from this system that nothing connects us with it.

Nautilus Pompilius - “Diamond Roads” (1990)

-In the 1990s, starting with the Titanic album, Ilya Kormiltsev seemed not only the author of the texts of Nautilus, but also the producer of the group. What was his production role?

- Ilya took over the functions of the organizer. At different points in the existence of the Nautilus Pompilius, different members of the team tried to take these functions. I fully admit that the inquisitive mind and fertility of Ilya could develop in this direction. But in the administrative case, some intrigues have always surfaced.

For example, the recording of the Titanic album had two stages. The first is St. Petersburg when we recorded this album with Aquarium. When Ilya took over the functions of producing, we began to record it in Yekaterinburg, and here a Boille series of circumstances arose. The studio in which we worked was in the Sverdlovsk film studio. At that moment, criminal groups were shared at that moment, and we fell into this meat grinder. You come on one day to record - one team is sitting there, you come to another - the studio is closed, and another team is sitting near it. Of course, Ilya, as an intelligent person, this whole situation was difficult.

First of all, Ilya wanted to control how the Nautilus would sound. He listened to a lot of music. He could come and say: let's do something like Talking Heads here-or express dissatisfaction with the song “Wheel of Love”. We suffered this, gritting our teeth, because it seemed to us that we were doing everything wonderful. But Ilya sometimes had breakdowns about the fact that all this is archaic and yesterday.

As a producer, Ilya found publishers and signed the contracts that we then poorly imagined. Ilya studied this issue. He looked convincing - glasses, a steep Socratic forehead. On some representatives of the then show business, which was cooked in the same cauldron with the criminal world, it made an impression. In general, Ilya would have turned out a good producer, but he should not at all engage in black administrative work. Ilya was a lot of nervous because there are only bandits around. For him it was a heavy industry, and he did not last long.

How can you make a person more intelligent redo what was done by him in a state of insight?

- The last studio album of Nautilus, Yablokitai, was recorded in Britain with producer Bill Nelson. Whose idea was it?

- It was the idea of ​​Ilya. At that time, we collaborated with the Irish publishing company. They proposed to record an album in England and finance all expenses. At first I was confused, because for me it was a completely new phenomenon-to go somewhere abroad and record an album with strangers. But Ilya was an experimenter and a very mobile person. Neither England nor the stable near Yorkshire in which this studio was scared. Oddly enough, as a result, this work was most imbued with.

A separate story, as we were looking for a producer for this entry. The company offered the choice of three people. One of them was a respectable age as a composer from Ireland, who produced one of the albums of Shineid O'Connor. We made the main bet on him, but he refused-he did not suit him that we had already written music too much, made demos and thereby guided him somewhere. Another producer regularly worked with the Status Quo group. He turned out to be a man simply inaccurate. By our standards - a muddy. We could not work with him. So we did not choose Bill Nelson - we got it automatically. At the same time, he has the most delved into our history and realized what we want. Then it turned out that he was a multi -instrumentalist, and as a result, Bill Nelson recorded everything himself. The musicians simply did not need.

Vyacheslav Butusov and Ilya Kormiltsev on BBC (1996)

- As a result, you got the best option of possible. Bill Nelson's track record is impressive.

- The Lord directs. When a person really wants something, his desire determines further events. For us, studio work has always been a great luxury, so we treated it with great trepidation and diligently. In the end, our prayers were heard. In general, I think “apple” is one of the most interesting albums of Nautilus.

"Nautilus Pompilius" - "Tender Vampire"

-“Poor Bird”, the new version of which will enter the tribe of Ilya Kormiltsev “Illuminator”, is a song, once recorded with Bill Nelson for “Apple”.

- By the way, Ilya rejected her, and she did not enter the final version of the album. Just as several songs did not enter the “Wings” and “Titanic”. Since we always wrote with a margin, we always had a song that could be postponed for the next moment.

Now we have recorded it in the vocal version plus piano. We cooperate with the wonderful pianist Ekaterina Mechetina, with whom we made a whole program, including the “poor bird”. When they turned to us with a proposal to give a song in the tribe, the first thing I thought I thought that I had to write a new song on one of the unused texts of Ilya. I had such options. But they gave me too little time.

By the way, while I was talking to you, I remembered that the first song of “Nautilus” on Ilya’s text, perhaps there was a song that was recorded for Sverdlovsk television. There was a funny moment when we were invited to the New Year's program of Sverdlovsk TV. We performed a song called "Snow Dust." Such, in the spirit of the Smokie group. In this program, I look like Toto Kutuno, because I was dressed in a jacket.

"Nautilus Pompilius" - "Snezhnaya Dust"

- How many unused texts of Ilya Kormiltsev remained in your archive?

- I will not lie - I did not think, but there are exactly one hundred. Before leaving for London, he handed me CD-ROM , to which his archive was dropped.

- What are you going to do with it?

- I have already given it. Together with the tribut, a album book with the texts of Ilya Kormiltsev will be released. So far they have not yet been issued, but soon they will see the light.

- How did you communicate with Ilya Kormiltsev in his last days in London?

- On the phone - this was the only possible option. We were on a trip to Europe, and I rackled my head how to get to London. Because for this I had to return to Russia and receive a visa to England for a month. In surprisingly, Peter Gabriel, who wrote letters to British consulates in Paris and Cologne, helped me in surprisingly, so that they would give me a special visa as an exception. We did not reach Cologne - the news came on the way that Ilya died.

I talked to him literally the day before. He was in a state of man who is not up to jokes. He was generally a balagur. It was interesting to just talk with him, to be worn out. And in this conversation, I felt that he knew something that he was not up to idle talk.

“Did he tell you that he accepted Islam?”

- No. I don't know anything about this. I have not heard this from him.

- Knowing Ilya well, do you allow such an opportunity?

- Don't know. I didn't think about it. And I would not want to allow such an opportunity. Therefore, it makes no sense to talk about it now.

Then I consulted with the priests - they advised me to make a certain ritual. We made an in absentia funeral of Ilya. I read the 17th kafism, I asked him the kingdom of heaven. This is all that I could do for Ilya at that time.

- Do you have Ilya Kormiltsev's favorite text?

- There are many of them. All the texts that became songs - they were favorites. I can say that there are several from unwritten songs on Ilya's texts that I really love. But they did not become the songs of the Nautilus, because these were the early texts that Ilya wrote under the impression of Bob Dylan and David Bowie. There were 17 verses in them - these were such bard ballads. They did not fit into the format of the new wave, and the hippie period was already over. But I always loved them, and they still remain their favorite poems. One of them is called "I and my friend." Since I have recently been moving away from the format of rock music lately, maybe I will still make a song on it. It has already occurred to me several ideas on how to put such a long text to music.

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