I know pirating music is something that hurt the Russian music industry…
I’m happy to donate my tracks for free to anyone who can take it further than I can myself. So in this particular case, for emerging artists, new artists, domestic artists who want to make it internationally—social media is the only way to promote. Until you get a certain amount of people who can come to your shows, then you really are not in business. [laughs]
I think that’s true. As far as rock ’n’ roll in Russia. How much rock is on mainstream TV or radio?
Not a lot. The Clear Channel people would probably be really envious of the people in Russia who own so-called Federal Radio stations. I guess its a heritage from Soviet Union times. Some stations can really broadcast everywhere in Russia. So in other words, we’ve got so-called Russian Radio— Ruskkoe Radio is what we call it. You really tune in anywhere in Russia. It’s like [a] really massive kind of machine. I guess what happened the last few years [is that] radio people, the same like they do here, realized to keep people concentrated on their particular station, they had to provide what the potential listener really doesn’t mind to hear. Let’s put it this way. So its not about discovery anymore, it’s about familiarity.
Popular, Top 40…
Popular, yes. And I heard these discussions here in America too. Basically, the playlists are narrowing down and everyone wants to hear the song which you heard before. But how the hell would hear it before if…(shrugs shoulders)? People are more and more mixing genres so it’s not like heavy metal radio or pop radio anymore— it’s all blended together. In Russia, its either only Russian music or only foreign music. For some reason they don’t like to mix it a lot. And the most efficient money-wise radio stations, they just kind of follow the unwritten rule. The other problem for emerging artists [is that] the established Russian rock bands kind of formed out of those niche things for the audience, so people also kind of stick to the standards of bands [who are] fifteen or twenty years old and aren’t really looking for new names.
Your band included in those established bands….
Yeah. I mean, we have this unique situation because we’ve never been a part of any major deals. I own 100% of all our masters and copyrights and everything. Fifteen years ago [artists] didn’t really think about that. They think, “I’ve got some money, and I got paid well,” but they don’t own any copyrights. And I know lots of people who I adored when I was a kid, legendary Russian rockers who started when it was Soviet Union times, and I was like, “Can I use your songs or videos for some new startups.” “Oh ya know, someone owns the copyrights. We don’t really know how it works, really.” I thought hmm, interesting. Young people now really know how it works.
The situation is that we were part of that time in the ‘90s when the Russian music market started to shape itself, and because we gained this huge, whatever, popularity—somehow we just clicked [with] the audience. I guess we’ve been lucky to do that. So yes, we are kind of a part of it but I was always trying to say to the people, it’s not about why I did all of it, why I really launched my band. It wasn’t about my ego or [that] I like to be a rockstar who ruled the world and blah blah. Initially I was a music fan. I didn’t want to form a band for myself, I just wanted to hear different types of music, which I couldn’t find. Sometimes I wouldn’t find the right combination for myself as a listener. I would say, I like how this band looks but the music they’re playing (gestures disapprovingly). I always say that we should probably have a hundred times more bands like ours to keep the machine running because in the music business, well, business is business. This is what moves things forward and the music business is not about staying on stage and getting royalties from the radio. It’s about the worker who does the stage, it’s about the guy who’s piloting the private jet, it’s about the guy whose working in the kitchen in your live venue. It’s an economy for god-sake. One band can actually feed a hundred people around here. This is what it’s all about and that’s why, for me, it was so important to find, even to promote myself in a a kind of not regular, not ordinary way. You can do this live. You can live this life. You just have to be a bit more eccentric—maybe not crazy.
How do you like being in Los Angeles, the kind of hometown for American rock ’n’ roll?
L.A. is great. For cultural heritage and the weather, obviously. We came here seven years ago to record our album. It was Winter time and the sound engineer were asking where should we go? We usually go Moscow or London. We didn’t want to go to Moscow in Winter, and London, ehh, we didn’t want to go there. Why don’t we go to the United States? Los Angeles? Yes!. Let’s go to Los Angeles.
It wasn’t about, “Let’s break America.” We did a couple of tours in the U.S.. You know, a mini-van, on tour, driving around [laughs]. I’ve been everywhere. Its interesting. You learn the country and I’m not saying that I somehow am trying to change my music so American audiences would love me. It’s been a lot of, “Why don’t you do this TV show” or maybe, “You should meet this person.” I’m pretty happy to do what I’m actually doing. At some point I heard all of that back in Russia being a band from a remote part of Vladivostok, and people saying that music couldn’t you anywhere.
It’s interesting. You know, what’s happening in the world today is also amazing. For instance I’m comparing the Chinese rock scene – what’s happening now – with the Russian rock scene fifteen years ago. They used to have these so-called underground rock bands ten years ago. It has been really niche sort of underground [thing] but the last few years, rock music, electronic music, is kind of booming in China. They’re having those big festivals, which you couldn’t really think about five years ago in China, and its mainly what they call New-Asian bills. You see what’s going on.
Then there’s the festival that you started.
That’s basically why we set up the festival Vladivostok Rocks, V-ROX. My vision was always for this place, because it’s kind of far from European, we call it Pacific Russia, between us. It’s not official, but it’s what it is. It’s ten hours flight from Moscow but it’s only one hour flight from Tokyo. It’s like from here to San Francisco. It’s two hour flights to Beijing, three hours flight to Hong Kong.
Vladivostok now has a new university with 30,000 capacity. 30,000 young kids and every time I would go speak to the mayor or governor of Vladivostok I would ask, “Ok, what are your plans for Vladivostok? You built this new university with 30,000 kids sitting there—what are they going to do here? Just tell me—what are your plans? To build some gambling zone? Like new Macau? How do you combine gambling and education? It just doesn’t work together.” Music is the most convenient medium for this. And it goes together with movies and fashion—all those creative aspects. Basically I had in mind, things like SxSw tat kind of showcases music and shows [bands] to the industry people. The next question was, how the hell do you get those industry people to Vladivostok?. Maybe it wasn’t possible ten years ago, but now, now that everybody knows that’s happening in Korea and China. And I’m talking about every single agent here in Los Angeles, who would like to put their band on tour in Asia. I did a China tour ten years ago and I know how it works. I just did it out of my own curiosity, not really for business. But now I know that I can use those experiences and connections and network for common goals. So I said ok, you are planning an Asian tour? Add Vladivostok.
And people there would be happy for the time being, they’re not spoiled like in Moscow where they have national acts playing every night, a dozen of them. People are hungry for new music, new acts. They’re still open because this situation we talked about before. Social media is good for promoting but it takes time to become a global name through social media. In other words, a general audience in Vladivostok wouldn’t know any chart topping artists in America today because they simply don’t care. They don’t know who Bruno Mars is. This is the reality. There may be more fans of some Silver Lake band in Vladivostok because of social media than ya know, some big artists. They don’t care about television, they don’t care about the radio. Vladivostok would be your Eastern gate to Russia. And people want to get to Russia to tour because the market is there. Believe it or not, the approximate ticket price in Russia is twice as much as here. The cheapest show, like our show, would be twenty-five bucks minimum. Even I would ask them to get some cheap tickets for the kids.
It seems like this festival and the importance of music in Vladivostok is pretty groundbreaking?
Yes. I guess so. What happens in Russian cities, usually, is that they know how to spend money on their own [checklists]. Like we did this, we did this, and then we’ll report to whoever. But some of the stuff doesn’t make any sense. It’s not about wasting your money. It’s about how to efficiently explore the possibility to your own advantage. I guess like being a musician who’s always on a tight budget [laughs]. Okay, you get your hundred dollars for your event— so now where you would spend that hundred dollars? On the booze? On the girls? Or on the recording studio? On the most expensive producer in Hollywood? Or the guy who is really enthusiastic about what you’re doing and maybe will do it for a share of your profits. You have to be reasonable about what you do.
And I always said that places like Moscow, there’s too many things going on there. They have expos and stuff but it’s all about money, commercials. Take Woodstock or Luxembourg. It wasn’t about selling tickets in the first term.
Is that what you want V-Rox to be like?
It’s like a big party. Which kind of excites everyone. It is, who is the guy from Manchester? “Some people make money, some people make history” [laughs]. Money always follows the history.
How much are tickets for V-ROX?
It’s free.
That’s great.
It’s free for the time being. I mean, we just realized, if we would like to get a proper headliner, which lots of people have been requesting. It would cost $100K, blah blah blah, and we understand that. Business is business, but I’m pretty sure if we keep it exciting for several years than we will be in a situation like what is happening in Austin where record companies would pay so their international act could present their new album there. To be honest with you, I didn’t really expect that much media attention for our debut year but I guess because of its unique geographical position, and we made a really exciting event. Every single journalist or musician or agent who was there said [they] had this feeling of discovery again. It was kind of lost the past five years. All the bills are the same and then you come to Russia and you meet all these Asian bands. And some Asian and Russian bands have really proved that they are more exciting live than established Western bands, which kind of makes sense. It’s also a good time of year in Vladivostok, there’s a beach downtown, sailing, seafood—its a really picturesque place with just really ugly Soviet architecture. You’ve got both worlds. I guess we have to use this momentum and last but not least, I’m really in love with my hometown.
Whatever is happening in Russia is happening in Russia. We can’t flip a switch and make it totally different. Every place on Earth has their issues and their problems—we just deal with it. Yeah, there was corruption, okay there was crime. I remember a time in the late ‘80s in Vladivostok when people would shoot someone over a parking spot—I know, because I saw it. And I don’t really want to get back to those times and I think the only way to do it is to give young people something to do what they’re interested in.
I know people love to talk about politics in Russia these days, but come on, when I was 16, whatever, 14 when I formed a band—I didn’t give a damn about, “What’s that Communist Party?” I just took it for granted. Okay, it was there. And we did our little music bans and and stuff, and those KGB blah blah blah “watching you”—I mean, we just heard it. Yes, we heard it, but nobody was really persecuted.
