"Turn off the TV, sit in silence for a couple of days, think with your head"

Kommersant asked Shura Bi-2, Leva Bi-2 and Yan Nikolenko about their relationship with the legacy of Nautilus Pompilius, with modern political realities and the music industry.

"Bird on the Windowsill" is the first single from Ilya Kormiltsev's memory project "Porthole", this album is already available on iTunes. Please tell us how this song appeared.

Shura Bi-2: In the summer, we received a call from Our Radio and were informed that a project was being prepared with rare and unpublished texts by Ilya Kormiltsev. They sent us a lot of Ilya's texts, and we immediately refused, because we had a lot of work to do. But I sent these verses to our permanent co-author Mikhail Karasev, and after a while he sent me a verse and a chorus. There is an illogical form of verse — four lines, then six, then eight. And the key phrase "This city is too small for your love" is like a mantra, you can sing it indefinitely. When we finalized the song, it became clear that we needed to assemble a choir. And at first we thought about gathering all the Yekaterinburg musicians.

First of all Vyacheslav Butusov, probably?

Shura Bi-2: We didn't have a good communication with him. From Yekaterinburg— Vladimir Shakhrin, Nastya Poleva and the saxophonist of "Nautilus Pompilius" Alexey Mogilevsky ended up there. Alexey suggested inserting a saxophone theme from "I want to Be with You" into the song, which he once composed. The clip was shot by the director from Yekaterinburg Igor Shmelev. And Anna Chistova, a costume designer, too. Gleb Samoilov said that he does not see himself in this song, although Evgeny Pisak, Gleb Samoilov's guitar teacher and Slava Butusov's neighbor in Yekaterinburg, became Mikhail Karasev's co-author. In general, the whole song sounds like the "Nautilus" of the 1980s. We have Diana Arbenina as the main female vocals, Nike Borzov also signed up, and quite unexpectedly Musya Totibadze. I happened to see her at a party. I heard some synth-pop that she was recording, and then suddenly I saw her with a guitar singing ethnic songs.

Aren't you one of the last people to see Ilya Kormiltsev?

Shura Bi-2: When we brought Diana Arbenina the album "Bonnie and Clyde" (2007) in London, we visited him in the hospital.

Leva Bi-2: Even earlier we had hints of working together, but there were no points of contact. I still need to work very closely with a person to make something happen. The way it happens with me and Jan Nikolenko.

Are you recording new songs for Bi-2 right now?

Shura Bi-2: Yes, we are bringing together three new songs, in addition to the three that are already ready. At the beginning of the summer we will finish everything else that was invented for the new album, including cover versions. We came up with such a trick: as bonuses, we release songs that once influenced us. This time it will be "Khaligalikrishna" by "Agatha Christie" with Gleb Samoilov, the "Debut" of "Megapolis" based on poems by Joseph Brodsky and the song "Strange Games" "Round Dance", which we made with the young group Mana Island and Viktor Sologub.

What will the album be called? Give another hint to the Depeche Mode group.

Leva Bi-2: Yes, it turned out funny with the album "Spirit". I think it was thanks to this incident that the Depeche Mode band found out about our existence. After all, our album appeared back in 2011, six years before their "Spirit". I think it was like this. Martin Gore says, "Bi-2 has an album called Spirit!", and Dave Gan replies, "Who are they? Russians? Fuck them"…

Shura Bi-2: As with our song "Revolution", by the way, it's funny — their first single from their "Spirit" is called "Where's The Revolution?". The working title of our new album is "Event Horizon". However, there is no song with that name yet.

"Event Horizon" is something from the movie "Interstellar"?

Leva Bi-2: The place around the black hole where time freezes.

Shura Bi-2: I translate it for myself simply as "ass". More precisely, a point on the edge of the ass. This is about the question of citizenship, whether it is in this album... We're not a political band, we don't write protest songs, but time leaks into the album anyway.

You have returned from a tour of the USA, travel a lot, compare. Ass — is it only here? Or everywhere?

Shura Bi-2: Here is an example. I put together an orchestral album in a studio in Los Angeles and simultaneously watched all the events: Trump's inauguration, marches, etc. I have all the information first-hand, since a friend of our partners from this studio put all the sound on the inauguration. So, Trump wanted to attend the inauguration of Bruce Springsteen. Naturally, Bruce Springsteen refused. Trump called a cover band that performs Bruce Springsteen songs. And she refused too! And this friend calls our studio and asks: "Who is writing there now?" They say to him: "One Russian group" He says: "They don't want to perform at Trump's inauguration?"

Yan Nikolenko: We would have been given the order in Russia right away.

Shura Bi-2: No, that's it. (Everyone laughs.)

Jan Nikolenko: Lefty and I have traveled a lot in the American outback — every second there is for Trump, I think.

Leva Bi-2: Everyone is just tired of the Clintons, of cronyism. Society is tired of having the same people in power. They voted more against Clinton than for Trump. It's like, remember, once Zhirinovsky almost won the election.

Yan Nikolenko: Their brains are processed no worse than ours. Imagine: a black security guard at the entrance to the bar at night checks my documents. He sees a Russian passport and says: "So it's because of you that we have this jerk?" I say: "Thank you, I have just experienced pride for the Fatherland! What kind of country do you have if some Russian hacker boys can influence the results of the presidential election? Turn off the TV, sit in silence for a couple of days, think with your head, then we'll talk to you!" And when we left this bar, he says to me: "You know, I've already thought about it. Please forgive me. It just hurts us a lot, and I want to blame everything on someone"

Shura Bi-2: All my Russian friends in America voted for Trump.

Leva Bi-2: In general, all cities with scientific centers are filled with Russian specialists, the age is up to 30. Neurosurgeons, computer scientists... It can be seen simply that the best are leaving Russia. And almost all Ukrainians came to the concert in Los Angeles. Very well received. In general, there are also a lot of Ukrainians who come to concerts. For example, in Warsaw. Now people are fleeing from Ukraine in the same way as from Russia in the 1990s. For example, in Spain, where I spend a lot of time, the entire middle class of immigrants speaks Ukrainian.

Maybe you should still play concerts in Ukraine?

Leva Bi-2: We decided for ourselves that while the war is going on, we will not play either in Ukraine or in the Crimea.

Many people perceive "Bi-2" as a duet and think that you write songs in the same way. Jagger—Richards, Lennon—McCartney, Shura with the Left in the kitchen — such a model. But as far as I know, everything is a little different.

Leva Bi-2: Thanks to such a convenient thing as the Logic program, I can create the basis of the song myself, entirely in the computer. In addition, I have mastered keyboard instruments. That is, the pre-production of the song, its idea, reaches the studio. In addition, Jan Nikolenko and I are completely doing the text.

Shura Bi-2: And I connect in the studio, at the level of arrangements, information, at the level of distribution of parts between the musicians of the group. Let's say we've been putting together albums for a long time with Adrian Bushby, who works with Muse, Foo Fighters, etc. But on the recording of the soundtrack to the movie "Wonderland" we met Robert Carranza, who made the last album of Marilyn Manson. We recorded "Grass at Home" with him.

The one?

Shura Bi-2: Yes, this is also a funny story. "Quartet I" made the movie "Wonderland". And the producers say: "We need to sing "Grass at Home"." And I've hated this song since childhood. I was kicked out of the school ensemble because I didn't want to play it, but wanted to play The Beatles and The Police instead. In short, the producers persuaded me, but I decided that it should be done in the spirit of Marilyn Manson. We even starred in the film, it was its final scene — about 60 actors. But we were cut out along with the whole ending. They planted a target group and, based on its results, they cut out both the song and us. That is, it was decided that with such an ending, the film becomes an art house. When I watched the movie, I thought: and thank God. So I sent Carranza our song "Likes", and when he showed us the result, I realized that he can only do heavy stuff. And we went back to Bushby.

In fact, your role is a producer, in the original sense of the word?

Shura Bi-2: Yes. And it is also important that arrangers Andrey Bely and Oleg Chekhov have been working with us in Moscow for many years.

You consistently assemble large halls, and different ones: "Crocus", "Stadium", now the Kremlin. Your audience is not only rock fans. And at the same time, it seems to me that you are increasingly moving away from the mainstream. You won't be found in New Year's shows. The radio programs you hosted are in the past. That is, there are no old ambitions to "play in the music market".

Leva Bi-2: As for the New Year's programs, we gave up on it, all this has long turned into profanity. And we are constantly called to all sorts of talk shows, and that's where we definitely won't go. And then Zakhar Prilepin stuck to us like a sheet of paper, for three months he bothered us with his show, including insulting us in every possible way. It was some kind of anti-panegyric to our creativity, and all because we didn't want to go to it. Do you understand, yes, what kind of debate would that be?

Shura Bi-2: Six or seven years ago, we threw all our strength into the Internet and basically created our own media. We came up with push notifications for fans, we work closely with VKontakte, where we have a million subscribers. One — and they all have our new video.

Well, there is always a chance that you will write, relatively speaking, your "Louboutins", you will reach a new level, and then television will be very useful.

Leva Bi-2: The strategy is developed based on what songs are obtained.

Jan Nikolenko: I don't think Cord planned anything so clearly either.