Following the parties of Anton Kubikov and Sergey Sapunov, Maxim Zorkin will present his version of the Nu:Gravity Fridays at Solyanka. Since the name "Modern Smoking" implies certain allusions to a forgotten world where palefaces and redskins wage their endless feuds, Andriesh – known in certain circles under the alias Chief – is perhaps the most fitting guest of the new Friday series.
Andriesh:
There are several projects: Andriesh, Myspacerocket, Dsh! Dsh!, Andriesh & Anrilov, 101 laptop band (this one is international, it includes seven producers from various European countries). The most energy goes into Dsh! Dsh! and Andriesh, because those projects have the most gigs. Besides, right now we're preparing a second album for Dsh! Dsh!, and the arrangements take more time than anything else: there are four of us, and everyone has to be recorded. This way of making music is completely new to us; it's more like pop music, after all, and you can't get off that easily. Although I'm glad that we don't pander to the audience and do what we like.
44100Hz: How do you manage to keep to such a tight schedule?
Andriesh:
Well, the schedule isn't especially tight. That is, we're all lazy by and large, we work slowly on all the projects. True, there's one convenience: the bands Dsh! Dsh! and Myspacerocket have overlapping line-ups – it's me and Stas Kross, who's on bass everywhere. We've even developed a kind of team and a knack for making music together, even though we can't stand each other. If cops in America are "partners," then we're "frazzle-mates." On top of that, we throw parties together at different clubs. The schedule, actually, is such that we'd still have time to hold down a day job, we just don't want to. And the music makes itself, it takes up little time. Then again, all my time goes to it and it alone.
44100Hz: Is there a musical benchmark for you: a person whose level you want to reach?
Andriesh:
It's hard to answer this question from the standpoint of making music. Because a work essentially has no level – that is, there's "quality," of course, but we know that a work of genius doesn't become any less brilliant in bad sound. So there's no benchmark; there are simply techniques I'd like to master and talent that I envy. I envy, for example, the band D-Pulse, the depth of whose talent many people find hard even to grasp. There are plenty like that in our country and abroad; I'd like to have more knowledge of how to make music of higher quality, or just better, but learning or finding out is, by and large, also too much of a bother. Laziness will probably be the death of me.
44100Hz: Which foreign musicians do you keep in touch with?
Andriesh:
With many. We bring someone over now and then; with some a friendship begins, with others a collaboration. Oddly enough, it's friendship that strikes up specifically with musicians not quite from my area of music. For example, David Brown from the band Brazzaville. It's strange, but our friendship is genuine. He's an interesting person, tells funny jokes, and pretends he likes my music. I pretend I like his.
After the last time we brought him over, I started corresponding with Pier Bucci. He really liked Moscow; he'll probably come back here soon. Pier has this concept: travel the world, record music with people from different countries, and release records. Not a bad way of life.
There's also the project "101 laptop band," which came together back in Melbourne, at the time of the Red Bull Music Academy. It includes two Germans, a Frenchman, an Englishman, an Italian, a Dutchman and a Kazakh – sounds like the start of a joke, by the way. We all correspond, send each other loops, and get together for sessions in the project members' countries. I think at the end of summer they'll all come to my dacha to lock themselves in there for a week and make music. It's a great way to spend time.
44100Hz: Do you often go abroad for new music, or do you rely more on online stores and websites?
Andriesh:
As a DJ I don't play often, and my records get refreshed rarely too – I simply don't have time to get tired of them. If I don't have some new track on vinyl, I can buy it online, burn it to a disc, and play it. DJing isn't as much of a cult thing for me as it is for my DJ friends. And I find it very hard to remember titles, the names of artists and labels. In my opinion, even Kross knows my records better than I do, especially since I bought most of them from him. His record rotation is enormous, so much so that he passes part of that traffic on even to me.
44100Hz: How do you rate the potential of the Moscow techno scene?
Andriesh:
Techno music is a powerful thing. And it's not as stupid as it seems to many philistines. I think that as the culture and ambitions of the audience grow, the number of sincere techno fans will grow too. Even now I like the Moscow crowd; there isn't much of it, but it's active and level-headed. In that respect everything seems fine to me. There are even more musicians, and they're cool, but most of them live in the regions. In general, there are countless strong producers outside the capital. Maybe soon, or rather someday, we'll witness the influence of Russian music all over the world.
44100Hz: How do you feel about your own popularity?
Andriesh:
Popularity is putting it strongly. What there is of it, I regard with optimism. I don't send my music around to labels, I try not to be a busybody with a finger in every pie, I turn down dubious offers, and I rely on fate for everything.
I could probably hustle, put out releases, record an album. But I don't consider myself a genius composer, and music, in my opinion, should achieve everything on its own, naturally – you just have to not get in its way.
On the VKontakte site there's a community dedicated to me. Someone created it and wrote something there – that's nice. That's probably all I can say about my "popularity."
44100Hz: What professional and creative goals do you have for the near future?
Andriesh:
The goals had been set, but then they suddenly changed drastically. For now I'll just make music with friends, we'll finish the album with Dsh! Dsh!, with Anrilov there's a whole lot left to finish, and with Myspacerocket – a concert that gives you goosebumps. All the music, after all, is because of them. So I'll be moving in the direction of goosebumps.
March 20, Friday, 23:00
Solyanka club, 11 Solyanka St.
Lineup: Andriesh (live), Zorkin, Chizh
