"And we are old rock and rolmers"

A project of a fairly unique property has appeared in Moscow. Under the sign of Yakovlev and Shumilov, the Basist of the “polite refusal” Dmitry Shumilov and the poet Sergey Yakovlev (in the past - the editor -in -chief of Kommersant) are performed. In the fall of 2018, having read the recently released collection of poems of his old friend, Shumilov invited him to add Rock and Roll to them. It turned out: already at the end of January, Shumilov and Yakovlev first went on stage with famous Moscow musicians-bass player Vasily Motylz, drummer Danila Lenzi and keyboardist Nikolai Dobkin to fulfill, as Schumilov says, “hip-hop for adults”. Before their next performance, we talked with the poet and musician about how and why this unusual story exists and why the fight against entropy is so important.

- You are old acquaintances?

Dmitry Shumilov: About 30 years old. And in 1993, I made the album "Hello, sadness" with a girl Zelma. He somehow did not go ... But Seryozha wrote to me several texts on the already finished music.

Sergey Yakovlev: Yes, everything turned out, although I somehow do not feel very comfortably in this process. But many years later I had a book that I gave to Dima-and after some time he says to me: so I read poetry and would like to do something with them and with music. I say: I have not very comfortable experience about "writing texts to music." And he: do not write texts! On the contrary: I'll take your finished texts! And somehow I will change musically. And you read it! Well, if so, I say, let's try. We tried it - and from that moment we work.

"Yakovlev and Shumilov" - "Shop"

-In my memory, there were two such experiments: the Rock Poetry “Confession” (1983) composer and keyboat Gleb May, where Yevtushenko read his poems, and the Araks group played, and the album “Moscow Time” (1984) of the SV group, where Alexander Fagot Butuzov read poems by Tarkovsky, Levita, Zhozhanko (here Interestingly, guitarist Vadim Golutvin took part in both albums, but this is by the way). So your project is not the first, but non -way, what is called. What were your impressions after the first sample?

Yakovlev: The most important thing is that it does not cause my rejection. Now we have 13 tracks in one degree or another of readiness. Dima likes something more, some-but one way or another 13 has already been done.

Shumilov: And something else at work.

- Okay, Dima - how did you come to this idea?

Shumilov: I have two vocal formations. I went to different places - to act. Jazz - I see, there are standards in English ... And I also went to the Gnesin pop - look and got to the final exams. It was some kind of horror ... I went to the academic vocals to study, Prince Igor sang in a diploma ... It turned out to be a much more live story than the stage. Opera vocals have its own aesthetics, the sincerity of a personal statement is not required there - this is an element of the performance of the performance. And in the song there is a direct statement of a person, and in most cases it looks insincere. A person does not believe in what he sings. There are very few examples when poems of the song, if they were written separately and have their own rhythm and time, coincide with the rhythm and time of music. Take Sofia Rotaru with a song to Tarkovsky’s poems: she killed everything there in general. District.

And I am Seryozha and I are old rock and rolmers; On the album, which is now being prepared, the sound, the rhythm, and the form appeal to the oldsk room. But poems, being melodias, are inscribed in music, lose their rhythmic tension, lose their rhythm. And to combine these elements so that they do not kill each other, but get married and lived together - this was my task. In my opinion, reading made it possible to combine the Russian language and a foreign music by origin without killing either one or the other.

But I'm not a coin. I am more than years, I have captured other styles and directions.

-There you really have such a classic rock and roll sound-with Hammond-Organ. This is unexpected for me - with your addiction to youth music, to a coin and other things.

Shumilov: What young artists do - in particular, a coin - I like: this is a new story, it’s fresh, relevant, interesting ... But I'm not a coin. I am more than years, I have captured other styles and directions. It is important for me to play in my field. Then, I have long wanted to play real rock and roll so that pele and pumping. I, as you know, have been playing all my life in a “polite refusal”; He shakes it, but differently-if we play here at the Vladimir Martynov festival in acoustics, and in March-with some academic musicians in the Pushkin Museum. Sergey has an elastic text in itself, and I thought: if you can connect it with music ... I like the result.

- Sergey, and in the process of work you did not want to make adjustments to the musical part - or do you completely trust Dima and his team?

Yakovlev: I trust. If something arose from the category: "Dim, but does it not seem to you that it is necessary to have otherwise?" - The answer was instant: "You know, I myself think so."

- Did Dima select the texts?

Shumilov: I, let's say, took part in this.

Yakovlev: I suggested: this can be read. Then we were looking for approaches ... During the break of rehearsal, for example, we drink coffee - and I say to Dima: but what else was written, look. And the musical drawing appeared right away. And there the reading is completely free, I would read this thing in the same way without any musical lining. After all, poems are breathing. You breathe the text in a certain way, and it doesn’t matter what size it is-a chorea or there is so much-stop iambic ... You give him your breath. And in this project, Dima made it so that I can remain in my breath.

- Dima, you collected a great gang for this project, and it seemed to me that thereby you pulled out Danila Lenzi, and Kolya Dobkin, and Vasya Motylz from the usual near -strub history, led them beyond some limits. So this is?

Shumilov: Anna Khvostenko introduced me to Danila. We played with Anya and Alice Ten. Danila just introduced me to Vasya ... And the most interesting thing I met with Dobkin. A few years ago, we played with a “refusal” in the forest, at the Platform festival, in the trio format. And there I saw a small man with a black beard, dressed in Galabe and with a huge box behind his back, from the forest. The box turned out to be the Hammond organ, on which he later played with the Mir Station group. I was amazed - he was with him as a whole! And when we already started this project, I called Danila and told this story. "So this is Dobkin!" - said Danila and gave me his phone. Kolya remarkably owns all these organ specific lotions, which can only be done on Hammond ... I just enjoy how he plays.

- For them, this story should also be unusual?

Shumilov: You know, they are all quite literary guys - the Motylets is generally a philologist by education. And when I sent them a demo, they really liked it. And yet - as a result, I had several wonderful friends! And at my age this is already very rare. And finally, they now began to play the three more where. In short, the assembly point occurred on this project ... All three have a very important quality: they do not play garbage. The degree of trust is like Seryozha to me: maximum!

And there I saw a small man with a black beard, dressed in Galabe and with a huge box behind his back, from the forest.

-Sergey, do your poems require some prepared listener? They are not easy, they are saturated with alliterations, inner intercourse inner ligaments ...

Yakovlev: When I write, I do it exclusively for myself. And if suddenly it is alone, three, ten people will like it-wonderful, then they coincided with something. But initially there was no such calculation.

- Since then you are engaged in all this, did work with music influence new texts?

Yakovlev: No. In the texts I remained myself. Yes, and Dima, and all of us - no one steps on his throat or anything else.

- By old Soviet standards, you would be considered a young poet: after all, “August is over” - the first book?

Yakovlev: Yes, not counting a few journal publications.

- When did you declare yourself as a poet in a public field?

Yakovlev: In the Volga they printed somewhere in the mid-1990s. I am writing to the table for myself. But sometimes I read to friends. And one friend of mine behind me took and sent poetry to the magazine. The answer came: we publish, send more. I already sent a second selection myself ... About six years ago, a similar story happened. I then worked as an editor in the Kommersant Publishing House, and my colleague was Yuri Buida. We talked a lot about words, about verses, I showed him my texts, and he once said: they came to me a selection! After some time, he reports: he showed her friend in the magazine "Banner", she wants to print. And then Yuri Vasilievich sent poems to his friend, who has his publishing house - and he replied: I want to publish a book.

They often told me: I need a book. And what am I: well, I have to. But I don’t want a “book at the expense of the author”! If the publishing house some likes it, they will be published. But, they objected to me, they should somehow find out about your verses! Well, they somehow find out, but no-it doesn’t matter, it will remain in my piggy bank.

- What is the book for you - milestone, line?

Yakovlev: Fixation of the moment. There is such a combination of circumstances, the result of which is, for example, a book. Well, we live on, we write further. The release of the book did not affect me in any way, this is true.

- Have you used to make a public reading of poems? Is there a difference in the inner sensation?

Yakovlev: There is a difference. Some of the tracks are forced to keep the rhythm stricter. The rhythmic pattern does not allow to leave at some pace. And so - you worry scary that with music, that without. You seem to put up your favorite children for public display. And something is connected with each text: thoughts, experiences ... The scripture process is very rational and at the same time wildly emotional. And my main task is to not go about emotions and make skillfully. It is necessary that you worry, do not shout, but restrained to choose exactly those words that would convey the mood, and you yourself! This is a design. And as far as it succeeded, failed - this is the meter of your satisfaction with the result. Emotional, affective component - everything is clear with it. And cognitive? Writing - this is the search for balance.

Shumilov: In general, art is always in a sense the struggle against entropy, it is always the creation of something meaningful. I at one time read a lot of Brodsky, and he often pulled me out of some situations. And at some point I realized: he pulled me a form! The structure organizes everything and adds life.

Yakovlev: Lines, stanzas - you are not only with rhythm, in most cases also with a rhyme, and rhyming is a huge work on ordering! You streamline some kind of piece, some thought ... and thereby-albeit in a very small territory-you put things in order.

Shumilov: Why I wanted to supplement this project without destroying. Seryozha’s poems remain what they were, but now they exist in this form.

The Yakovlev and Shumilov project performs on February 13 in the Moscow Cafe Mart.