DJ Viktor Stroganov: HardTechnoShock Therapy

align=right hspace=5 vspace=5 alt="DJ Fascist"> Full name: Viktor Stroganov Date of birth: a March morning, 1973 Musical style: hard techno

The figure of Viktor Stroganov has, over the past year or so, become the subject of heated discussion and much argument among people connected to Russian electronic music. But, despite the varied attitudes towards him, it can't be denied that Vitya has become the idol of many thousands of hard-clubbers. What is this — an attempt to establish a Fourth Reich in Russian techno clubs, or shock tactics on the edge of the permissible? The first thing to come up was a word unfamiliar to me — schranz. That's where I began.

In Germany, for many people schranz is a dirty word. In reality, it's one of the subtypes of the heavy strain of techno, invented not so long ago. Techno comes in all kinds, and mine is simply the heaviest. The heaviest and the fastest.

Probably what influenced it at first was the absence of this kind of music here. From '93 on, I made trips to Holland and Germany for two or three months at a time, and naturally every weekend was devoted to attending rave events as an observer. And I realized that it was to my liking. Something clicked in my head, and I felt that I wanted to do this. I borrowed turntables from friends, bought techno records. I tried to mix — I mixed, and off it went...

align=left hspace=5 vspace=5 alt="DJ Stroganov and Mark Lovedup"> 44100: And how did people find out about you? How did it all begin?

At first I played at private parties. My first big gig was at the club Gorod, when Sven Väth didn't show up. Kolya Boodoo (art director of the club Gorod) called me and offered me a slot. I came. Before me Mark Lovedup was playing progressive, at a time when the crowd was craving Sven Väth and German techno. I got on after him and let rip. And afterwards they told me the crowd was shrieking, screaming, everyone was thrilled by the German. They had to explain to them that it was Stroganov, one of ours.

Of course. Energan22, who write exactly this kind of music themselves and have many records released in the West. There are also fans — dj GlebLove, dj Zver, dj Segment — people who, like me, are fanatical about this music. They collect it and play it. I can't list everyone, but in every city there are DJs who are passionate about this strain of techno.

If we're talking about techno, it's already going full blast. I don't want to say any grand words, but that's just how it is, because remember, guys, what techno was like three years ago and how it's broken out into the masses now!

Who said that? It's music. I couldn't care less how many people listen to it — ten or ten thousand. It's dance music. Now, three years ago techno, as a club culture, was in the shitter. Because the whole club culture, after the default of August '98 that everyone remembers, simply keeled over and died.

Club culture at that time rested on patrons. And the people who put money into it had no need for it to come back. Then everything changed — no one wanted to invest money just like that or throw it to the wind. Clubs survived on pure business. And pure business means glamorous music that draws a wealthy crowd, the kind who leave money at the bar and pay for tickets. Right? That was the situation back then. Back then not a single promoter gave a thought to whether it was techno or not techno. It's only now that club culture has taken off. It really has taken off — that is, everyone started thinking about what's profitable and what's not. Before, they thought only about the crowd that pays money. Now everything is reaching a normal level — people have got money. People are earning money, the country has risen. Spare money appeared — people started spending it on leisure. And club life is one form of leisure. And naturally, the clubs came to life. All the more so since now the big cigarette and alcohol companies have been banned from broad advertising, and the fact that they put on music events is one form of advertising. That immediately drove a rise of club culture on sponsors' money. Professionalism appeared — big, quality events got going. World-class, top-tier musicians are invited, shows are staged, expensive, quality sound and light are set up. For those who come to have a good time, it's a professional and quality-organized event, and for the promoters, it's a way of making money...

align=right hspace=5 vspace=5 alt="DJ Stroganov and a Russian tank"> Yeah, I got a bit sidetracked — now, what was I saying. Three years ago nobody gave a damn about techno, because people didn't live for clubs, people didn't hang out in clubs. There were nightlife lovers and the glamorous crowd, while the ravers had nowhere to go. I think what my friends and I did back then was shock therapy — that is, there was no such heavy music, and 95% of clubbers didn't even suspect there was music called techno. That pummelling, that extreme squall of musical energy that just tears you to pieces, produced the effect of shock therapy. People were blown away by it, they loved it!

What do prospects have to do with it? I don't even think about that! Maybe tomorrow a nuclear bomb will drop...

Naturally, a person of 40 or 50 can't go clubbing. Right now a new generation of people is emerging who five years ago were 15 and going to school — now they're 20 and they go to clubs, that is, the crowd is getting younger.

Both men and women. So as not to get the clubs in trouble, let's say people from 18 to 40. Though there are people who are 50 and who like the CDs I bring.

Let's put a big question mark over the idea that the Residents play techno. Of the Residents, only Spirit plays techno. And even then, lately I've only heard techno from him at the Pascal F.E.O.S. gig. Well, and Dimka (Berg) occasionally dabbles in deep techno...

Of course, lots. And does a girl playing football look normal? What's the big deal? I don't understand why compare women and men in this context. They don't jump around, they dance.

What do you mean, nowhere to channel their energy? I'm not a doctor, to determine why people come to parties. Let's put the question differently.

align=left hspace=5 vspace=5> Just look at the dancefloor — there are teenagers going wild there and people already in their 30s. I explain it differently. To the music I play, the people who go wild are those with a lot of unrealized energy, who came to the club precisely to let it out, not to listen to the music. That's how they relieve stress. After all, it's better if a person relieves stress on the dancefloor, jumping and going wild, than if he goes off to smash someone's face in or just gets blind drunk in the kitchen. I'll never say that this music is for some people and that music is for others. That's called sticking labels on things. You know why club culture in Germany is in the shitter right now? Because this nation's mentality is such that people live by stereotypes, one of which is that hard techno is for the young ones. Old ravers who got tired of going to raves declared the word rave a dirty word, and they go to small clubs of 100-200 people, where they listen to deep-deep-ultra-deep techno, deep house and disco house. "Rave" to them is the young ones, and schranz is a dirty word. To call yourself a raver is shameful — yet not long ago they themselves were going wild at raves of forty thousand people. How can you reject your own past? And what's more, badmouth it? There's also the word "commerce". That, for them, is beneath contempt. An event with awesome equipment, awesome lighting, and a first-string line-up of DJs like Sven Väth, Chris Liebing and so on — is that really bad?! No way! How so? But they're quality events! Everything there is as it should be. I agree it's about making money, but what's bad about that? For them the word McDonald's is also a dirty word. They have no enemies — they need to create some for themselves. That's the mentality. Over there the punks fight with the ultra-right, the ultra-left. They're bored with life. In the daytime — work, in the evening — television. On weekends — clubs. THAT'S IT!!! Bo-ring-as-hell!

In Russia it's only the beginning of club life right now. Shock therapy. Promoters' attitude to this genre of music has changed, interest appeared, and off it went.

What commerce? Forget about commerce! Is Tsereteli, in your view, commerce too? Or is it art? The word commerce is a dirty word — that's exactly how you pronounce it. If we're talking about money — let's talk about money; if about music — then about music.

Nobody's squeezing anybody out. Each culture occupies its own place; nobody can push anybody aside.

There's no need to struggle; you just need to do everything with quality.

Wrong question. Let's do it differently, a different question. However the organizers organize it, that's how it'll be.

No. People will go wherever it's better organized. If the techno promoters croak, there'll be trance open-airs. However the organizers organize it, that's how it'll be.

Who said that? Have you lost your mind? I remember perfectly well what I said! Well, let's be serious. Trance and techno are among the heaviest genres in club music. The development of trance began a very long time ago and didn't stop just because there was a decline in club culture. People kept hammering away, hammering, hammering at their parties. There's an outfit called GoodFood and I admire them. The main thing is action. And right now techno parties are on the rise.

But I don't relax. (laughs)

At home I don't listen to anything; in the car — guitar hardcore. Biohazard, Pantera and so on.

At the sea you should listen to the sea. In nature — to nature. What do you need music there for?

Pink Floyd forever =)

I don't know. You'd have to ask the people who see me every day. It seems to me I'm always like this. But you wouldn't behave that way while fishing =)

I just do what I want. That's my attitude to life. Everyone does what they want to do. I don't have things like PR in my head. Someone suggested I stage public antics, fights, as PR moves. But I don't understand what for. There was that time I felt like setting off a signal grenade at the club Gorod — so I set it off. True, I didn't know it was a signal grenade. It was just lying around at home, I took it with me and set it off, I didn't plan it a month in advance. Whether people will talk about you or not — that's not the main thing.

align=left hspace=5 vspace=5 alt="Just DJ Stroganov"> 44100: And why a mohawk in particular?

I don't know, an extreme hairstyle... It's just that no one else has one.

Only myself.

I'm not obsessed, but I do go. And how often do you cut your nails?

I didn't change anything, really. I just started growing my hair out, then shaved the temples, then dyed my hair. I had jeans — they tore, then I sewed on some fur. All gradually, as the desire came.

Myself. A DJ is a performer on stage. People want a spectacle. I don't get those idol-DJs or monument-DJs who don't move, who play with their heads down and look only downward, never once glancing at the people. I'm not like that. I love interacting with the crowd, I see their eyes filled with delight when they watch how I carry on at the decks. I make contact with them — an exchange of energy. This is my favourite music, I don't play just to grab my 500 bucks and head back to Moscow.

In other cities. What's the big deal?

align=right hspace=5 vspace=5> Whatever I say, that's what they pay. The thing is, after my gigs, just like the hard-clubbers, I lie low for a couple of days. With chafed feet, with a back that's breaking apart and won't straighten, with aching muscles. But what fires me up is that I'm the one doing all this. By the way, a film is coming out soon called . A film about DJs. After talking with the director, I'm inclined to think that DJs really are shamans. I can predict in advance what my set will do to people. It's an indescribable feeling. A nuclear clot of energy gathers.

Over the course of my whole life my parents have got used to many changes. Since sixth grade I've had extreme antics with hairstyles and clothes. My parents say I'm thrown from one extreme to another.

Let's put it this way — I was an extreme kid. At school I got top marks and did sports.

I'll repeat once again, for those who just won't get it. I don't look at my life through the prism of popularity or unpopularity — I am what I am.

Yes. I'm in demand.

Sports.

Naturally. But I won't say what kind — there are a lot of people in my business, and I don't think it needs to be publicized.

Exactly.

Out of the question. Businessman is a bad word. Not a dirty word — a bad one.

To this question I answer very briefly — yes. I can take a blood test if someone doesn't believe me. Though many people, seeing my behaviour at the decks, will never believe it. And all sorts of rumours go around =)

align=right hspace=5 vspace=5> 44100: And what other rumours go around about you?

That this summer in Germany a certain political party gave me a Mercedes.

Yes. But I bought it in Germany myself.

Of course I do. A person who lives and breathes must dream.

Be yourselves. Do what you want to do. But in such a way that your soul won't ache for it afterwards.