CHAZ WINTERS, Antisanction

The American who sings the Russian rock - about "civil defense", street musicians and hatred

At the Brooklyn intersection there is a tall dark -skinned guy with a guitar and carefully pronounces into the microphone: "Our grandfather Lenin was a good leader, and all the other other shit." Cars are driving, New York is buzzing, and he already reached the chorus: "And everything is going according to plan, everything is going according to plan ..."

This is Chase Winters, a fan of Yegor Letov, a man who undertook to instill in the Americans a love of Russian rock and roll. It turns out not yet very. Somehow two approached him. They listened and listened and said: "Look how beautiful Chinese language is."

Another thing is on Brighton, there the local lads sings on. Especially if you perform not Letov, but Kirkorov and Agutin. As expressed by Chase, Russian pop. Suitable and say: "Cool, thanks, brother."

-When I was twenty, I worked in a factory with Russian-speaking from Ukraine, from Uzbekistan, someone gave me to listen to Zemfira, and I seriously shook. And the first song that he sang was “when your girlfriend is sick” Tsoi. Only sang, has not yet played. A friend said: "Let's make a karaoke out of her." And it started, I began to sing one after another. And it ended that he himself began to compose in Russian.

One of his album is called "Road. Love, etc. ”, the other is“ it tastes like a disease ”. Most of all, this is similar to Lennon's solo songs. And the Lennonovsky method: to pack social meaning in a pleasant form. It seems, pop, but in fact seriously. Under the guise of pop music, you are not sold at all that is completely populated content. “There is an important thing for me, very personal. About how my father left when I was still a child. There was a feeling that I had lost everything. And the song “The Beast” is about people for whom money and power mean more than the life of others. Everyone knows this and everyone is silent. "

The first time he arrived in Moscow when the sanctions were imposed. But he did not introduce them, he is just the opposite - an antisancation, a way to break a template and destroy stereotypes. The tongue then knew still badly and was a little feared, as if the Russians did not tear anger at America on it. On the first day, a man approached him in the store and said something. Chase did not understand, asked to repeat. The man repeated: "How are things in America?"

- Americans do not really like to travel the world. Some are too lazy, some are afraid. My uncle is like this: everyone hate us, enemies are everywhere.

“But they really hate it.” Like us.

- Who? Are you hate? And I don't. All these things do not care. If you come to New York tomorrow and say that Russian, do you know that you will be asked first? No, not about Putin. They will ask you: "Is it true that you are wildly cold?" By the way, it’s not true: I was in Krasnodar, there is a mad heat. But yes, of course, many are alarmed, people are worried about whether there will be war. Not with Russia, but in principle. If with North Korea, it’s also nothing good.

Moscow is a cosmopolitan city, like New York, so the skin of the skin reacted calmly to its color. But in Altai, of course, they stared. One boy said: "Mom, look what uncle!" They have never seen such people there.

- I understand them. Imagine, you and I are sitting, drinking tea, a door opens, an alien enters. And begins to sing in your language. You will also be surprised.

In St. Petersburg, local gopniks rushed something bad to him, but Chase missed it by his ears. Well, they leaned and leaned.

“I saw unpleasant things, but I saw them in New York.” Maybe that's why Russia did not seem so terrible to me. Brooklyn is a very fashionable, steep area, but there are several unpleasant places. Everything is mixed, richer and poor nearby. Even in the center, even in Times Square there are many homeless and crazy. Sometimes it is dangerous.

He sings everywhere - in bars, in the subway, on the streets. When we began persecution of street musicians, many nodded to America: after all, you also can’t sing wherever you want, we must have a license. It turns out, not quite so.

- Yes, there are specially designated places, and people with a license play there, but this does not mean that you can play only there. The musicians stand right on the platform in the subway, and the police do not touch them. They play everywhere. Priority for those who have a license, yes. But it is possible without it, especially if not in the center.

This summer he is here again. He gave a concert in a club on China-Gorod with Moscow musicians. As the old fan of Kino played at the Tsevskaya wall on Arbat.

- One dude came up and wanted to give me money. I wanted to take, but I could not - I played. And then he left somewhere.

Chase smiles all the time, and Russian rock is heavy gloomy music, far from entertaining. With many cultural references and social codes. The current twenty -year -olds do not cut into this. And there are still untranslatable things: can an American understand what Letov had in mind when he sang: “Kill the state in yourself”? And the "Major boys" Shevchuk? A completely different reality.

- I didn't work out with Shevchuk. I understand all the words, but the meaning eludes. Even in autumn. “I buried the spine yesterday” is a beautiful song, but I can’t understand about what. For some reason, it’s easier for me with Letov, although everyone says that he has complex texts. But I understand them at the sensual level, I understand these emotions. Very strong, just knocking down. Oddly enough, and “everything is going according to plan,” and even the “state” is pleasant songs. No wonder Massive Attack sang “Everything goes according to plan”, and in Russian, and this is generally fantastic, since the English-language world is fixed on itself. Sender-American speaks in Spanish, but I assure you that Spanish songs have little chance of popularity.

Cheze has a funny accent. For example, I could not understand what Birras was for a long time. It turned out, the Beatles. But this is not important. In the end, in Russia, every second speaks with errors. Or without errors, but stupidity.

I have never seen him cause negative emotions. Chase, as they say, blew up the Internet. His videos are everywhere, everyone loves him. Play Play, he smiles radiantly, says "For happiness!" And he begins to sing "If you do not have aunts, then you can’t lose it." Well, how not to love him.

True, there are people who grumble: why does he go to this terrible Russia, real life in the States. Or vice versa: America is completely rotten, they feel that the future is behind us. Stupidity, all this has nothing to do with Chase. He is a rare example of what you can live in a different coordinate system. And in America, and in Russia, and anywhere.