The art rock band Gourishankar from Syktyvkar is probably well known for many amateurs of this very style. After 15 years of its existence, this band became extremely popular among the admirers of the art and progressive rock. For this band, the quality is in the highest position than the quantity. The fact that Gourishankar released three full featured albums makes obvious this idea. «Music should strike fire from the heart of human soul» — it is a very famous Beethoven’s saying. With the fact of its existence, Gourishankar confirms that music is able to create the entire worlds. Among the stylistic accessory of this band, we can mention «Eclectic prog». And it is really so: the band from the Syktyvkar is equally eclectic, progressive and experimental. We talked today with the founder and bandleader Alexander who told us about the latest epoch-making album "The World Unreal" and about the content of the art rock, showing us a magic and secret world of the real rock art.
— "Gourishankar", what does it mean? Why did you choose such a strange and intricate word?
Translated from Sanskrit "Gourishankar" means "the mountain similar to Everest". We stumbled across this very name. But, as we know, there is nothing in the world that can happen by chance.
— How did it happen that you have decided to work in the art-rock? It was the decision from the musical point of view or the art-rock in your opinion is a new philosophy?
From my childhood, I used to listen almost only the art-rock and nothing else. Other genres seemed to be too simple and superficial to my mind. With the course of time, I expanded the boundaries, but the art-rock is still the most unrestricted area for different musical experiments for me. You were right in saying that the art-rock is like a new philosophy. It can have all kinds of forms. No matter what kind of music I did, they say, that my music has some additional reality that is characterized by a sort of a sick fantasy and detachment from the ordinary world.
— Why do you think that the art rock is a smart music for the smart people? "Smart" is the same as "intelligent" or this word has deeper meaning in your opinion?
Not every art-rock release I can call the smart one. It happens very often when the smart music is too far from the art-rock area. "Intelligent"—this is definitely much better. "Smart" sounds too pretentious and has a chance to become a word with negative connotation. I can add that the art rock needs some artistry and aesthetic qualities, but these are aesthetic qualities.
— What is the difference between the art rock and the progressive one in your opinion? What is more suitable for Gourishankar?
Popular opinion centers on the fact that the progressive rock is a more complex and creatively enriched form of rock music. But, I want to separate the progressive rock from the rock itself, because as a rule, they have different creative aims. To my mind, the progressive rock was like a continuation of the traditions of the classical music. In some different forms of course, I’m talking about the tools. Therefore, the art rock is a subgenre of the progressive one. It has its own strongly marked methods and standards. It is very difficult to say that the Gourishankar’s music has something in common with the art rock, but it is definitely fit well into the progressive rock. On the west, we are referred to "Eclectic prog", but for me this classification seems to be like a special place for those groups, that is difficult to classify.
— And if we talk about the lyrical side of your work, how important is it?
If you mean the content of the songs, I can say that for me it is not important if compare with music. This very content gets the necessary sense and colors only in the context of the completely musical concept. It is so great when the convergence of the music with verse strengthens the effect. But, as you know, we have texts in English, and for me it is difficult to understand how well this convergence work, because I’m not an English language speaker. As for Russian language music, I can say that a text is important for me, but the singer’s ability to show his or her dramatic side and necessary emotions, to improvise, to look for some unusual sound, the multidimensionality of his or her playing are of the utmost importance. I want to see the personality first, and not only a musician who can sing a note or two. It goes without saying, that the sensibility in the feelings and state of mind, and on the whole the emotional side play a big role for me.
— What are your lyrics about in your latest album?
If I start to explain the content of the songs in few words, the sense will be quite trivial. I can only say that Jason is the author of the whole lyrics and wields the pen in professional way. The content of his verse is highly dramatic and full of the world concept. It is an integral part of the work.
— Why did you decide to call your new album "The World Unreal»? What unreal world it deals with?
Here raises the question of reality and illusiveness of the existence. What is the social realm? Is it genuine? Is there the number of the realities? Can we see and perceive them? And etc.
— What do you think about the following saying: the musician and his music can create the new and special reality?
I totally agree with it, I use to create it regularly.
— What kind of world would you like to create with the help of your music?
I don’t want to create; everybody has his or her own world deep inside. I just want to explain, to describe, to understand, to develop and to analyze the world that I already have in my soul. So, my world is a part of something magnificent. I don’t want to create the artificial "ghosts". They are not viable and as a result, they are devoted to destruction.
— Do you use the contiguous styles growing out of the traditional art rock on purpose or it happens in a natural way?
The musical critics and classifiers try to put us inside the boundaries of the art rock. We have never been inside them. If we talk about the progressive rock as a fertile ground for the experiments, the use of the different stylistic forms can exist. At some time of his developing, the progressive rock changed his category from the complex and innovative to something usual, simple. As a result, there is the lack of ideas. Nowadays, to resemble somebody is enough for being classified as a prog-rock band, no matter if you have something new and creative to say through your music. As a common thing, the amateurs of the prog-rock make a stand for the purity of the style. They are not very glad to hear the experiments that go beyond the prog-rock boundaries. To my mind, these experiments in our music are well balanced.
— What do you think of the opinion that the music of Gourishankar reminds soundtracks?
I used to hear that. My good friend is a film director, he considers the music of our band as a soundtrack to his life, and he has a dream to do a movie about us. Isn’t it great?
— What film will be suitable for your music?
They say that "Order and Chaos" from our latest album is suitable as a soundtrack to " Mad Max". The main difference between our music and the soundtracks is that it is self-sufficing. In the case of soundtrack, this fact happens not so often.
— Will you please tell us about the most exceptional composition from this latest album "Truth stays Silent"?
This track was creating for such a long period. We began to work at it 10 years ago. Many things were changed. We have a high standard, so the responsibility was also huge. I’m not satisfied with the result to the full. Nevertheless, it is cool; I don’t think that everyone can create something like this.
— What is the meaning of the ethnic tune, which we can hear in “The World Unreal” in your opinion?
I just wanted to show something vivid, something that we can see only far away, something that can pass the connection of the different centuries and generations. It is just the colors of the musical palette and nothing else.
— What is the most successful and remarkable track from your new album in your opinion? Will you please tell me why do you think so?
Personally, it is difficult for me, like for founder, to emphasize only one track. I like all of them and at the same time can criticize all the tracks. But if I try to forget my fatherly love, as an amateur of the music I would pay attention to the first one ( 2nd in the album after intro) and the last one. They seemed to be the most fundamental ones.
— Will you please tell us about the musicians which worked at “The World Unreal”.
So, Jason Offen, English singer and poet. He used to visit Russia several times to work at the album and just to have fun here. His cold and marble voice fitted in with the atmosphere of the album. As to his poetry, it inspired the music with unusual content and images (shapes).
Svetoslav Bogdanov- the uncommon drummer from Saint Petersburg. He has an amazing and original fingerprint. We used to work with a very technical English drummer, but he, somehow, judging by his playing, did it like a drummer of a prog-metal band. But I was looking for more elegant and delicate sound. As a result, Svetoslav did the needful.
Moreover, there were some backing singers and instrument makers. In the second track “Order And Chaos” you can hear the ethnic Komi-vocal. For the foreigners, it usual remind the Middle East singing. It is funny, by the way.
— What is the main difference between the new release and the first two albums Gourishankar?
The main difference is that it is more adult and mature work.
— Do you want to work with the famous musicians? With whom than?
We had a chance to work with some notable musicians. I have already told about it earlier. Moreover, we even used to start work with them. But whether their past merits fall on our shoulders like ball and chain or other different reasons did their part. Nothing worked out. The result was unacceptable. I wanted to find something specific for my music, something unique, and something that you cannot hear earlier in the works of the other bands. That is why if I had a chance to work with Rick Wakeman or Peter Gabriel I will refuse this opportunity.
I don’t really like the bands that has the line-up like a public thoroughfare. I like when several people cooperate during the long period of time. I like to see how they grow and develop together, how they become a unique system.
There are some musicians, strange to say but in Russia, with whom I will be glad to work. I will not tell the names. But these are the musicians of the new formation, very original, madly gifted. Will I have a chance to work with them or not, I don’t know. There are many affecting factors. The main is- the ability to have a positive communication with me.
— Will you please describe the process of working on the video of the main track from the new album? What the conception of this very musical video?
I gave the free reign to the director and didn’t participate at all. He examined the lyrics, created a camera report, chose the actors and with the help of camera operator took a picture. My daughter Sophie participated in this video. I like to watch it and I hope that you like it!) Thanks God the director likes the intelligent music as I do and the art-rock too. I didn’t ask him about his thoughts that he used while creating this video.
—Which art-rock bands do you like? Which music do you listen just for enjoying yourself?
I’m the musician, but first of all I am a judge of interesting, smart music. The music of high quality. So, the content is of the utmost importance for me. I have also the collection that consists of 3000 Compact discs, I like to collect the music in the same old way; these are my favorite bands, singers and musicians. So some of them are too rear and I tried to find them all over the world. There are some that are too difficult to find in the world web. The art-rock in my collection occupies nearly 1/3. This is the classic art-rock of 70s-80s., of course. I don’t listen the modern art-rock, actually. The problem is that the modern one differs from that magic music of the “Golden Age”. But the art-rock is just the part of my collection. I bring your pardon, but I do not want to tell you what I like to listen. This is so private for me. I don’t know how did it happen, but only small amount of people knows my preferences. I am so meticulous about music that I love to listen to. I have even the pictures of the founders in my family photobook among my relatives.
— Your band has an anniversary this year- 15 years. Is the new album an anniversary one? Should your listeners wait for some surprises?
Last year with the help of the Alexey Koslov fund and the Art-Beat music the anniversary box set was published. It consists of the first two remastering albums and previews that titled “1st Decade”. The album “2nd hands” was published as a vinyl record. In the future, we want to release the last albums as a vinyl record and digipak “The World Unreal”. I cannot say whether it will come true or not, but I would like to. In years to come we don’t have any plans for the new album. Yeah, we can name “The World unreal” as an anniversary one. My goodness! We are 15!)) This is too much.
— Did you celebrate the anniversary? What does this date mean for you? Which of your achievements you find as the most important ones?
I invited my friends to one cozy coffeehouse and here I get up an event just for two hours. First I delivered a lecture about the evolution of the progressive rock all over the world, and the last part of the evening was about the new release. We watched the video, talked to each other, on the whole the event was warm-hearted. Nowadays the presentations and the anniversaries of the prog-bands are celebrated in this very way.
Yes, we have lots of achievements! You can read about them, for example, in Wikipedia. And this fact is very meaningful. So the most important achievements certify the fact that our music took its simple position in the world musical art, because regularly, I receive messages from people all around the world, they are happy that they had a chance to listen to our music.
— What about Gourishankar’s plans for the next 5 years? Do you have some goals?
I afraid to plan ahead, but I would like to continue. You know it is too difficult. I hope that in 5 years we will have some new themes for our art work, I just can add that I don’t have anything else to say in my music.
I have a great desire to take part in the tribute to Alexey Koslov’s “Arsenal”. We already had a conversation with the producers about it. Will it happen or not, I don’t know.
Moreover, I want to make a remastering of the last album, because we have a failed result. Steven Wilson will help us with pleasure.))
So, it is better not to wait something interesting. In this way, the news will be a pleasant surprise.
— What about the gigs?
Gourishankar is a studio project. For me, the gigs are rather different way of the musical performance. There lots of bands which gigs I would like to visit but their studio versions I don’t like at all. Gourishankar don’t have gigs and we don’t even plan them. To tell the truth, we don’t know there to find good musicians and for whom we will play, at least in Russia.
— What would you like to say to your admires?
I would like to say that they should learnt how to understand the music. The understanding of the art is a very hard job, just like the creating, and sometimes it is even more difficult. We can see the lines from the Andrey Dementyev’s poem “Regret Nothing” – “Let someone plays the flute so that it’s something but these tunes are derived yet from your own soul.”
Don’t have a consumer attitude towards the music. Please, respect the musicians. First I underestimated all the music that I love today. Only after five time of listening or even more, only after that I brought an insight experience. I can say that the music that I loved from the first time, later became not so interesting and it even disappointed me. Learn to listen attentively and catch some magic things, learn to find the diamonds and only in this way you will be reworded.
— Thank you for this interesting interview!
Thank you!)
Aleksey "Astarte Eel" Eerineev
The interview below cannot be overestimated.
Why? Because “ArtBeat” was founded just for it. It’s the pure truth.
…In 2008, when “ArtBeat” was only a draft, Sergey Khalin, the “ArtBeat” founding father, a fan of The Gourishankar music, made me pass the sacrament for it.
Moreover, Sergey’s wish to create “ArtBeat” was born out of sore feeling that only a few people in Russia had heard The Gourishnkar and the musicians were unknown to wide audience.
Khalin forced me to love The Gourishankar, he did it “passionately and remorselessly, the way potatoes were inculcated in Yekaterina’s times .” He said that if the future “ArtBeat” would be able to reissue The Gourishankar’s albums! And, probably, to release their new album!.. What a great delight that would be!!! Dreams would come true!!What a success!! I didn’t mind as the music was, to put it mildly, splendid.
Later, “ArtBeat” art director Araik Akopyan and our executive producer Nikolay Bogaychuk passed through the same procedure. They passed, appreciated it but… the crystal dream still remained a dream and the attempts to contact musicians from Syktyvkar still remained attempts.
And in the summer of 2014 Bogaychuk, using his secret ways, brought to Moscow Alexander Agranovich who is one of The Gourishankar’s pillars. It’s hard to describe Khalin’s delight! But before Khalin and Agranovich met, wise Kolya presented Agranovich to me for torture… or for interview… it will be published before the release!”
The conversation with Alexander I started with what you have read above,”The Gourishankar’s albums releases are crystal dream of “ArtBeat” and probably the reason founding it. I swear, Sasha!”
Agranovich didn’t believe. And before the conversation was continued I had to swear two more times.
“YOU THOUGHT THE GOURISHANKAR HAD DIED?”
And now to the business. Have you talked to Kolya Bogaychuk yet, what are the plans?
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To reissue two our albums. (“2nd Hands”, 2007 and “Close Grip” in the version of 2003, both were released under the Canadian label “Unicorn Digital” – Ed.) And Kolya insisted to include into the edition our early demo album (EP “Integral Symphony”, 2002, the reworked version was released as a LP “Close Grip” – Ed.). And right now we think about the release of a new album which has been recorded, we have only to mix it. Kolya didn’t know about it, well, actually nobody knew about it! We were working in Syktyvkar on it and you here in Moscow thought that The Gourishankar had died? (Laughs.)
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No! We presumed different things but not this! By the way, the last info from you in the Web dated 2012, what you could have thought in this case?
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That’s right… There were some problems with the info about us. And the album should have been recorded earlier if there were no complications inside the group, no tragic, so to say, life circumstances…
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What do you mean?
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I have stopped working with Pasha (Pavel Yertzev, the keyboardist and the second founding father – Ed.)… or maybe he has stopped working with me. (Laughs but sadly.) But let put in the interview only good stuff about Pasha. His contribution into The Gourishankar cannot be overestimated.
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Let’s continue talking about the new album. Does it have a name?
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Not yet. We are waiting for Jason (Jason Offen, the current vocalist of The Gourishankar, an Englishman from Halifax – Ed.) to come up with it. The album’s conception has been already created… by the way, it is our first experience in creating a conceptual album. And we usually give a name to an album when it is fully ready. All the tracks are bond with the conception which will be reflected in texts rather than in music.
As for me, I understand the conception only roughly! (Laughs.)
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Why?
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Because Jason has created it! And his English is so high and literary that I don’t fully understand this conceptual story – despite vocabularies and Jason’s explanations! Moreover, I many times confessed to him, “I can comprehend only half of what you sing!” He said calmly, «It is OK. As you have Russian and not English mentality”. Or another example: Jason decided to translate his quatrain to me explaining all the nuances, game of meanings put into four lines. When we lacked words we turned to gestures, but! It took half an hour! (Laughs.)
And everything is going on properly: we have written music, put all the tracks in the right order, then Jason covered the album with the concept. What we have to do is to mix and to name it.
HOW PASTERNAK AND TYUTCHEV WERE ADDED TO PROG
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Let’s go through the group history.
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OK.
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When was it founded?
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Wait. I have to say that The Gourishankar is the heir of Integral Symphony I led during the school years and first university years. We played art rock and even performed on the stage. Pasha Ghen played bass in the group, he acquainted me with Pasha Yertzev his classmate from Physical and Math Faculty of the Syktyvkar University. This was the start of The Gourishankar project which was called at that time Integral Symphony. In 2002 I recorded the same-name album with the following line-up: Pasha Yertzev, me, and Pasha Ghen. (A pause.) Is it clear?
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Yes.
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We invited a businessman from Syktyvkar to be our vocalist in the demo album of Integral Symphony. He was a nice person, about forty years; we were told that he was a good singer. We met him, heard him and found that not so good. But we had no other variants at that time. There were problems with searching and communicating as Web had arrived only a few time ago. And we longed to record didn’t matter not ideally!
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And it had the impact on the choice of texts for the demo album?
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(Nods and laughs.) We took texts from the Web… not the first ones but close to it…
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Do you understand that it was a barefaced impudence to take poems by Tyutchev and Pasternak, their translations into English? The best authors for prog rock - Fyodor Ivanovich and Boris Leonidovich! Do you at least remember names of the translators?
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(After laughing for a while.) No.
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And why did you take these particular texts?
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They suited our tunes perfectly! For example Russian word “Kartoshka” is hard to sing but in English it sounded “pota-ato-o”!Very good!
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Wow! You rock!
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But we were about twenty…still children!
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And hooligans already!
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Agree.
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Mmm.. the interview seems to be humorous.
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But truthful.
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And what is your education?
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A lawyer. Graduated from the Syktyvkar University.
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Well, then no doubts it is truthful.
“WE RECORDED AT GREAT KOSTAREV!”
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Tell me how the demo album “Integral Symphony” became the album “Close Grip”.
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This a six-year story.. I am afraid I may be confused!
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So, to the demo album. As soon as we understood that its material is something whole and it can be displayed we, firstly, changed the group name for The Gourishankar and, secondly, made 50 copies and sent the CDs all over the world, to Western and Russian rock editions – to Volodya “Impaler” Milovidov from “Inrock”, to “Progressor”, to Vitaly Menshikov from Uzbekistan whose opinion I’d highly appreciated since my childhood… We sent them and waited for the response. And meanwhile we tried to present ourselves to music fans from Syktyvkar but were not very active and I don’t remember the result.
Impaler listened to the demo album “Integral Symphony” and wrote that he liked the material but the vocalist should have been replaced and the drums should have been recorded again. At the same time we got a positive response from Menshikov, he advised we should apply to the famous label “Musea Records” directly and ask for auditioning on his reference. We did so: we were auditioned in “Musea…”, they gave positive comments but also said to re-record. And we started the long process of reworking and improving, in the result of it the demo album “Integral Symphony” transferred into the album “Close Grip” in 2003.
During the work we went through ordeal with our vocalist but vainly. And it happened that the bassist Pasha Ghen decided to move to Siberia. Only two of us remained… but we recorded drums in Moscow at Alexander Kostarev… I remember how stunned I was when I heard his “KosMoBob” for the first time! I could not imagine I would record anything at great Kostarev!
But! Simultaneously we were working on “2nd Hands”. And we postponed the ready “Close Grip”, our first album: if it is released sometime - it’s good, if not – nothing terrible. We postponed it and until 2006 we had been working on “2nd Hands”.
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Wait a minute. Let’s finish about your ordeal with the vocalist.
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It ended up with the decision to take my 15-year-old cousin Vlad from the group Lee Riders – the same name as jeans.
Two teenagers from Izhevsk, like me, Vlad Iyutin and Misha Mukhachev were the group. When one of them was 12 and another 13 they decided to write music. And their demo album made Impaler’s eyes bug! Misha was not less gifted than Vlad and we thought he could have been included into the concert variant of the group. And later he and Vlad founded the group Be Quiet and Dive.. .just for info.
OFFICER OF JUSTICE CALLED NOMY BECAME AGRANSON
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And now let’s talk about “2nd Hands”. We’d been preparing music material for it since 2003 and in 2006 I mixed everything in my home computer into the final version. We decided not to copy it to the discs but made a list of 5-6 prestigious labels worth sending “2nd Hands” in mp3. Pasha mailed it out – my English is not perfect – and everyone received the material, here we ‘d become more experienced. But not more smart as it turned out.
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Were you carted?
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Like this.
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But you are a lawyer?!
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I am a bad lawyer! (Laughs.) And at the moment I was not a lawyer but worked in an internal security force.
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Wow! And what’s the name of the force, if it’s not a secret? And in what position?
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An officer of justice. But simultaneously I was occupied with sound recording… later I quit the security force and now I have my own studio in Syktyvkar. I work there as a sound engineer, both an employer and an employee. Some local groups work only with me; I make arrangements for them and sound as well… even played in a local indy team! But left soon. I like projects where I am the boss, don’t stay long in others.
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Let’s go back to 2006.
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OK. In 2006 we had the following set up: an amplifier Yerasov, Marshall GV-2 and Chinese bass bought by me and Pasha by sharing the cost at 3700 Roubles after we decided that I would play bass as well. I wore black uniform with blue shoulder straps at that time, had a pistol and had a high rank – captain. And captain Agranovich didn’t want his clients, respectful debtors to know from the Web that the captain was also a prog-rocker.
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So, I came up with a nickname Nomy Agranson for music world.
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How did you get it?
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It’s very simple – from my own second name. “Nomy” is from “agronomy” which is concordant with “Agranovich”. And “Agranson” is almost like Agranovich, only -son was taken from my idol Alex Lifeson from Rush…After it the group members demanded nicknames for everybody! Pavel Yertzev became Doran Usher. Vlad was asked about his name and the answer was, ”Vlad MJ Whiner”. –“And what is it – MJ?” – “I don’t know!” (Laughs.)
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And who is the forth, called Cat Heady, playing the drums?
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Maxim Sivkov. He didn’t play a big role, only recorded samples for me to put them in the proper order. We can say that the forth musician was just a fantasy to complete the membership. A quartet is more solid than a trio.
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Are people indicated on “2nd Hands” as special guests real persons?
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Absolutely! Volodya Rastorguev , a violinist, is the Head of Jazz Department in Syktyvkar Music College, where everyone knows me and Pasha although we’ve never learnt music. Syktyvkar is a small town, all people from creative community know each other. Dima Ulyashev who played flute and sax is from Petrozavodsk Conservatory, born in Syktyvkar. Alla Izverskaya, back vocals, is in Moscow now, a vocal teacher in Igor Sandler Producer Center.
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Let’s go back to mailing “2nd Hands” to “5-6 prestigious labels”.
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It’s hard to believe but we got responses from all of them! And all of them wrote that “we like it, intent to release”! All of them! Except one, American “ProgRockRecords” who said that was not interested. I’ll tell a joke about them later, OK?
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No, tell it now.
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When “2nd Hands” was released and caused quite a stir, ProgRockRecords was asked at the forum if they had heard “a sensational new group from Russia”. They said, ”Yes. We’ve heard. The group’s sent us the demo tape but we refused to cooperate as it was from Russia.”(Laughs.)But there is another joke: at the Western prog forum a Polish teaches a Russian,”You are not able to be proud of your guys! As a Russian you should be proud of The Gourishankar! By the way, when we uploaded “2nd Hands” which hadn’t been released yet on the main prog site in Russia its experts “threw tomatoes at us” !
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Why?
In their opinion, our music is not progressive at all and it is harmful! I was very much surprised, didn’t think that we could attract much attention but caused such a fuss and were broken into pieces! (Laughs.) Another joke. I devoted the whole 2008 year to betterment of “Close Grip”, tha album was released under “Unicorn” right after “2nd Hands”, added fame to The Gourishankar and then we got a letter from abroad,”I’ve acquired a rarity disc for 15 USD at a fest, like it’s yours with the music of 2002. Is it really yours? Or I was cheated?” it turned out that the disc is one of the 50 “Integral Symphony” sent by us in 2002 to prog publishing houses, a cool rarity put on sale by a prog label. And Pasha just for fun wrote a letter to the label complaining that they had sold our demo album without our permission. And they apologized!
“…WE DIDN’T CARE A DAMN: WE WANTED THE RELEASE!”
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So, what happened next?
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Pasha asked those who were ready to release the album to send draft contracts to us for study. We got them, compared and decided that “Unicorn Digital” had suggested the most attractive amount we should receive from the sales. Every label offered 3.5 USD and “Unicorn” offered 4 USD! And we liked the company we’d get into if we released under “Unicorn” – American and Canadian prominent groups, true elite. And, frankly, we liked how they praised us, their dithyrambs: it was for the first time for us! We understood that they had strong interest and intended to serious partnership.
And we started to work with “Unicorn” and they wrote that everything was fine and no changes in the album were needed, only two things should have been done – the cover and mastering. The cover was made by Jones Ekman from Sweden who listened to our music and made design for the album. We were not strongly impressed by the cover but there was no time for improving it…
By the way, we usually were not lucky with design of our covers and therefore we often did it ourselves, but! The cover of the third album has been ready. It was made by my designer friend Alexander Permyakov. The cover is super! A righteous one!
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Excuse me, but the royalty to the Swede was paid…
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…by “Unicorn”. It informed us that the deduction would be made from our future fees. But we didn’t care a damn about it- we wanted the release! So, we did everything needed and waited for the official release. (A pause.) More than half a year passed. (A pause.)
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Don’t keep us in suspense! What happened next? “One fine evening you got a letter informing you…yes?
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Right.
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…that your album has been released and you may”
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…purchase it! (Bursts with laughter.)
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(Having finished laughing.) They will hang us for this interview. Or will laugh to scorn.
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(Having finished laughing). So, Pasha got a letter from Canada informing that the album has been released and a box with 50 author copies from the first circulation of “2nd Hands”, later we ordered 50 more.
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Were the copies numbered?
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No. We didn’t know about such thing!.. By the way, we should talk about it with Kolya (Nikolay Bogaychuk – Ed.).
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Kolya knows this idea and implements it. When you got the discs did you feel you became cool?
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Not at that time. It happened later. Only a bit. And at that time we felt joy but not to such extent that we wanted to celebrate the event with the whole town or with our hangout! We even didn’t have a group of fans. And we lived as authors of the music no one was interested in, even local proggers, not mentioning pop music fans! Pasha and I didn’t celebrate the release and what for? Firstly, we do not drink. Secondly, there is no reason as we were best friends and talked on the phone every day and he was the best man at my wedding. (A long pause.)
It is true: if you don’t want to lose your friend don’t set up business with him.
IN THE TOP IN RUSSIAN STYLE: WITHOUT MONEY, FESTIVALS AND CONCERTS
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When first money arrived first problems in the group arrived, right?
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No. (After a pause.) Instead of the fees we got from “Unicorn” financial slips like salary slips: “Your earnings are the following but our expenses are the following, for today your amount is the following.” We were in the red until the label returned its expenses for the disc release and the ads, one was even placed in the American “Rolling Stones”, a whole double page. And in the beginning we were “Unicorn’s” debtors. But in a year, approximately in 2008, we stepped into the green judging by the slips. And we asked our money…
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“Give me my money!”
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(Laughs.) Like this. And in 2007 “2nd Hands” got a lot of positive reviews; Dutch Progressive Rock Page put us in the nomination “The best prog debut of the year” where we took the second place in the world! “Prog-Awards” suggested “2nd Hands” for the “Best foreign prog release of the year”, we got in one list with Porcupine Tree and Nemo, Holy crap! Russian reviews were also published! And even more: in 2007 “2nd Hands” for a long time stayed in the top of the best albums of the world on the main international prof resource ProgArchives.com and in the same 2007 we became the best sold group of “Unicorn Digital”, we passed around even Mystery, the group of the “Unicorn’s” Head Michel St. Pere!
With all this, no one in the security force where I worked knew about The Gourishankar, except my friend, a cool jazz bayan player who became an officer of justice for the same reason as I did: usually musicians in this country have nothing to eat and they try to find something more or less stabile. There were only two musicians at work and we didn’t betray each other: I never said he was a jazzman and he never said I was a progger.
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I can imagine a situation when two officers are whispering,”I’ve taken “Grammy”. But don’t say a word about it!”
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“And I’ve got two! But you keep silence too!” (Laughs.)It’s very funny, but by the beginning of 2008 we got a lot of invitations for prog fests, of course, to “InProg”due to Volodya Impaler and from abroad, from our friends and fans. We were invited to Europe, to Canada and to the biggest prog fest in the USA where they agreed to pay for the tickets and for accommodation. Can you imagine? More than this. When we Michel St.Pere was at a super prof fest in the States he heard everyone was talking about a Russian group that had unexpectedly popped out and that should have been invited to give a concert in the USA.
We were young, daffy, and inspired by the invitations for fests, so our decision was to go somewhere, doesn’t matter the place! The intention was real despite The Gourishankar has never been a concert group! Unlike “Integral Symphony”, we performed on the scene several compositions from the demo tape and from the future “Close Grip”. We changed a lot of vocalists at that time; I can’t even recall all of them! But starting “2nd Hands” our music became more complicated and we turned to the studio work. “2nd hands” was not performed live.
-Despite it…
We started preparing for a new concert set. Vlad and Mishka, still schoolboys at that time, came to Syktyvkar, Max Sivkov was invited as a drummer. The rehearsals lasted for two weeks, we prepared three quite decent things.
And here we faced problems with Vlad. He didn’t want to be a group vocalist any more but he wanted to lead his own project. He accused me that, being an older brother, I was too rough, I pressed him and didn’t give an opportunity to show his talents. Frankly, it was indeed so. I am very demanding in work and may be I criticized Vlad too often for unreadiness that made him retire into his shell. With time I’ve become gentler but at that time discipline in work was very important for me. Finally Vlad took offense and left. We had nobody to replace him! We could forget about festivals and the game was up for us.
“VOCALIST NEEDED! SUPERSTARS, PLEASE DO NOT WORRY!”
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But you didn’t give up, did you?
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We did. But not at once. We tried a lot of vocalists to replace Vlad. It is a separate story and it should be told a bit below.
Syktyvkar’s coat of arms.
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When you were in Syktyvkar did you get a question, ”Why doesn’t so famous prog group go abroad but stays in a “bear’s corner”?”
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What do you mean by “in a bear’s”?
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That’s because there is a golden bear in the den on the coat of arm and on the flag of Syktyvkar!
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You want to say that the monster on our coat of arms is golden bear?!
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Of course.
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I didn’t know. Shame on me! (Laughs.) We got a lot of interviews in the Web. With Europe, its prog editions, with the States, two with Japan! Pasha got questions in English, he translated them into Russian, sent me, I wrote my answers in Russian, Pasha translated them and sent back. Almost all sets of questions were similar. And Pasha began to use our previous answers.
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By the way, Pasha, AKA Pavel Yertzev, is a mathematician by education…
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A very good one! He has graduated from Bauman State technical University, he’ defended a thesis there!
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And what is his occupation?
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He was a head of information department and currently he is working as a wedding photographer, highly ranked! (A long pause.)
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Pasha was responsible for administrative work and PR, I wasn’t involved into it. And it happened that music part in his work became less than his administrative part. And I pulled him to the music side, forced him until one day he said, ”Music is not a main life activity for me. If the problem is so acute I am ready to leave the project.” I got scared, “OK, you may do whatever you want, don’t leave!”
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Excuse me. But I think he didn’t say anything wrong buy explained himself.
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And I didn’t argue with him! And we started our new album, the third, though in the best condition.
We were looking for a vocalist. Talked to Max Samosvat from “Epidemia” who is well-versed in prog, to a vocalist girl from SLOT. We brought the girl from Southwake for audition to Syktyvkar and even wrote to Nikolay Noskov’s manager! (Laughs.) The most renowned among those who we called was Michael Sadler from Saga, we contacted him via our fan from the States and he was of very high rank for us! Michael listened to our material and agreed to sing for symbolic money but it was beyond our capacities… damn you, “Unicorn”! (Laughs.) We also contacted Arno Menses, the vocalist of Sieges Even, who I like madly. Arno agreed for not big money but so what? We got acquainted with a nephew of Kiri Livgren from Kansas and ProtoKaw – with the guy who sang in the last Kiri’s solo disc in so Kansas-stylegnashing vocals with a typical American Walshaw manner, I adore it!... So. He even recorded one our composition but he was not very responsible and disappeared.
In general, we tried a lot of persons, nobody matched. I won’t say a bad word about anyone. But all these more or less famous vocalists were too bright, they bent music for themselves. Afraid we should have rewritten music already composed for the new disc. We didn’t want a vocalist that come from the other projects where he/she made became a celebrity but we wanted a person from nowhere with his own performing manner, who has what to say in our music.
“OUR MAN” FROM WEST YORKSHIRE
-And was it that time that Jason Offen from England turned up?
- Exactly. We put an announcement on our site and he responded, “May be I can help? Here is my page in Myspace, you can listen to me singing with guitar accompaniment”. We listened: nothing special but acceptable though his manner was very English!.. By the way, it may seem odd but my constant critical remark was,”You are singing too English!” (Laughs.) We had to disaccustom him and show the right manner! He said, ‘Don’t you think that it is too American?” – “I don’t care! I want it this way!”
But no matter how Jason sang it was much more in English than in “2nd Hands” where Vlad sang with a terrible accent with no understanding: we wrote words in Russian letters for him.. his English was even worse than mine. His vocal for the both first albums we wrote in my storage room to the karaoke micro with mom’s nylon stocking pulled on it as a pop filter!
So, we got acquainted with Jason via our site. As he was a prog fan he studied all the decent prog sites, learned about us, showed to his hangout… as a result, from Russian rock they know only Grebenschikov who regularly sings in the Albert-Hall and The Gourishankar! (Laughs.) We communicated in the Web, Jason tried our things, he didn’t succeed but we got used to such things. But we liked how insistent he was in using his only chance in life to become a musician…we understood it like nobody else! Secondly, we understood that we should try him live in Syktyvkar.
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And?
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Pasha and Jason shared costs for his ticket (at that time I quit the security force and my income was zero, but I had already opened my studio close to home!). And so Jason gently folding to his breast texts for the third disc written by him in England arrives in Russia: November 2010, cold weather, blizzard is sweeping, forty-year-old man in “oushanka” comes out of the plane. He is met by two aborigines, one of them doesn’t know two words in English and to his house the man is delivered and settled there!
During next two weeks we stare at each other and seek common language and we become friends in the end. Jason starts to sing properly and records all the vocals for the third album!
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Did he fit ideally?
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Yes, he did it. As we found out, he feels metres, rhythms, high class! We recorded some more material during his next visit to Russia, he came because he liked the life here very much! He liked it so that quit his job in England and moved here! We found a job for him in a language school and he works for four months in half a year and doesn’t work in England. Moreover, he plays gigs in our bars where he sings his songs. The whole town knows him, he is a point of interest in Syktyvkar!
He is in еру place where he belongs: in life and in the new album.
“IS THE THIRD READY?” – “IT IS READY!”
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But? Could Michael Sadler have taken Jason’s place in the new album?
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Yes. But we didn’t want anything copying Saga and we didn’t have money for Sadler . We hadn’t received money from “Unicorn” although judging from the slips we were in green. But Michel St.Pere told us there was no money. “When will we get it?” – “Later”. At the same time Michel’s group Mystery released its album under “Unicorn” with the vocalist Benua David who sings in “Fly from Here”, in the penultimate album of Yes. A lot of ads is placed in all the prestigious prog mass media… so we came to a conclusion that Michel had invested in the project all the money – his and ours.
We got a proposal from Moscow resource Thankyou.ru to place in the Web two our albums. We agreed on the term that their lawyer would help us to handle the situation with “Unicorn”. The lawyer contacted Michel and they had tough talks… and there I left the scene.
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Why?
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A crack appeared in our relationship with Pasha. And here let’s close the subject of “Unicorn’s” money, OK? I can only say that during all these years I haven’t earned a single cent on progressive music. And how much the others have earned I do not count.
Let’s better go back to 2010 and 2011, to Jason. After his two visits to Syktyvkar the new album was generally ready but there this drag with Pasha began, I’d like to omit the details, both were not angels…
And the project stopped and didn’t move a iota. It drove me mad as the material had been thousand times mixed, revised, refined but could be finer.
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And to do it?
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- I had to lean on Pasha. So, I was left with Jason only, he wanted to help but he didn’t know how as was far from the business. Besides, as Pasha had left, I had to redo some material recorded by him. And the drums! But, thanks God; I called Svyatoslav Bogdanov to be the drummer in the third album. Svyatoslav is from Syktyvkar, at that time he lived in Petrozavodsk, studied at the conservatory and arrived in Syktyvkar for vacation. Long time ago we played metalcore together although he is a jazz drummer. During his vacations we recorded all the drums in the best way!
“AN ALBUM IS GOOD IF AT LEAST ONCE MUSIC GOES OUT OF CONTROL”
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All right, in the end let’s talk about you as a composer.
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What do you mean?
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Each composer has its own method, own approach. What about you?
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Let me think. (After a pause.) I base on emotions. I do not imagine any plots, or stories, or characters, or words. But I know exactly where to turn, where to pause, where to close the theme if the emotion is over.
I think for this reason words are not important for me and even not necessary. I don’t like to delve into the meaning of the words and to match it with music… that is why our texts are in English – for me not to delve into them. (Laughs.) If they were in German or Chinese I’d like it as the voice for me is a musical instrument. I asked other musicians about their methods and it turned out that everyone had its own ways. Pasha, for instance, is a good mathematician and strong feature is computation: there is a three-minute fragment in the last long track of “2nd Hands”, Pasha calculated notes for it according to the special formula found by him. He got very cool, mesmeric music taking the audience somewhere from here!
And I write on emotions, on intuition.
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Even when you start to put the album together?
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Yes. I know by intuition where each track should be placed. It doesn’t mean that everything goes easily; sometimes I need to develop a theme for the better harmony in the album. (A pause.) And I think that at least once in a good album music should go out of control! (laughs.) If not then the album is average, without a zest.
I’ve got another idea fix. This is to remind in music that I am Russian, my roots are here…
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… to put a mark “Made in Russia”?
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Not with musical quotes but with the music’s character, shadow, three notes. You won’t find a lot of it in “2nd Hands” though. But the further the more I am inclined to do it.
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How many tracks are you planning for the new album?
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Let me count! (Laughs and thinks a bit.) Together with the introduction there are eight of them, long ones are only two. The total time is no more than an hour.
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How have your learnt about “ArtBeat”?
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From Pasha. As for me, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to our record labels, with due respect for them: no jazz neither prog rock. I am not interested a lot in Russian prog rock with some exceptions. Pasha wrote to me that “ArtBeat Music” contacted him and they wanted to reissue our albums. “That’s fine”, was my answer, “Let them do it!” And nothing happened, Pasha disappeared. Well, all right, I was finishing working on the third album. Then I received a letter from Volodya Impaler, “How are things? I know that the “ArtBeat’s” bosses are real fans of The Gourishankar and they are going to reissue you”. “Wow!” I think. After it I go to the site of “ArtBeat” for the first time in my life to see what you release and I see exactly the same that I like most of all in Russian contemporary music!
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Don’t flatter!
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(Laughs.) I am serious. I am indifferent to Russian prog except Kostarev and a few more names. I find Russian jazz more attractive for me. And you have Kostarev and Anton Gorbunov, and great Arsenal… I should say! What a fabulous company I’ll be released in Russia by Russian main label!
In my opinion, you are the first in Russia who’ve started to collect the best our music – the current, and the recent, and music of the Soviet period. The music I was brought up on when in my childhood I listened to a vinyl disc, absorbed “Nostalgy” when I didn’t know it was Arsenal! My parents bought many discs, but without any principle, just what they liked. They were not music experts.
By the way, it is a common thing that children of such people become music experts and vice versa. That’s why I am afraid my daughter will not be a music expert. (Laughs.)
The interviewer is Dmitry Filatov.