Stas Namin: "The uprise of rock music in the Soviet Union was alternative by itself"

Stas Namin is a Soviet and Russian singer, a founder of the rock movement, the leader of such bands as Tsvety ("Flowers"), Stas Namin's Group, Gorky Park. A graduate of the MSU, the High School of Directors, Professor of the GITIS Musical Theater Department. In 1987, created the USSR's first production center to support young musicians, artists and poets – the Stas Namin's Center. In 1999, founded the Russia's first theatrical company called "The Stas Namin’s Music and Drama Theatre" specializing in musicals.

Stas Namin told the TV BRICS reporter Alexander Kononov about the first Soviet "alternative", the music which was not accepted in the Soviet Union, and about his plans.

50 years ago, in 1969, you formed the Tsvety band. One magazine even called it "the first Soviet alternative". What did this first "alternative" begin with?

I guess, a lot of things can be called alternative. Actually, the uprise of rock music in the Soviet Union was alternative by itself – and it was not only about the Tsvety, but also a huge number of student bands, backyard bands existing somewhere underground, and nobody paid attention to them.

The official Soviet music, the variety music, songs, they all were censored and existed absolutely separately. It was a kind of one big song hardly divided into men's and women's, and we, being students and normal rock'n'roll hooligans, just did not pay attention to it. It was a different culture, and we were not connected with it in any way.

We were raised on classical rock music, on The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. When took interest in it, we did not mean a profession or making something serious out of it, it was just a hobby.

It turned out that our student band won some festival, and several bands were awarded with a chance to release a little flexi disk under the "Melody" label — that’s how it all began.

How in your opinion you became so popular? Why people began to listen to it greedily?

Because we were not a formally censored Soviet group, we sang from our hearts, sincerely, about what we found important, and with the drive which was not common or allowed in the country. I mean, the way the guitar played, drums and voices sounded, and the whole acoustics was arranged in general.

It united professional musical competence (violin parts, overall orchestration and separate instruments), and at the same time, the rock'n'roll drive.

As a result, we got a symbiosis of some new music, which did not exist in the Soviet Union at that time. That’s how it all began, and later, other bands emerged one by one, but at the beginning of the seventies, there were only us. There was even no Pugacheva and Tukhmanov yet. It was so very long ago.

You told that was a kind music not common for the Soviet Union… Was it difficult to resist it?

Before the flexi disk was released, there were no particular problems, we were underground, and nobody paid attention to us, we did not resist anything.

But we suddenly became popular when in 1974 we tried ourselves at the professional stage: we were persuaded into it, we helped them earn huge sums of money.

Here, of course, we faced difficulties, because we came across bans, problems. At one moment, they took our name from us, and that’s why, actually, we turned from the Tsvety ("the flowers") into the so-called "Stas Namin's Band". It was because the name was forbidden, and we just were left nameless.
Well, a lot of stuff happened, no need to talk about those times. But still, we can divide the whole history of the band into two periods: the Soviet period and its ending, when everything was really forbidden, we were like imprisoned; about 20 years, from 1969 to about 1989.

And only when Gorbachev came into power, we were let out abroad for the first time, and when we also faced some freedom, we made a huge USA tour, while there were no Russian emigrants there yet.

We played only for Americans in the largest and prestigious venues. We went all over the world, including Australia, Africa, including all countries, including all continents – this is still the first period.

After that, I formed the Gorky Park band with the key musicians from the Tsvety, therefore I gave up the Tsvety, and the band did not exist for 10 years, unfortunately. And the Gorky Park band broke up as soon as I sent them to America tour. Therefore, I reunited the Tsvety, together with the theater, when I created a new theater, and decided to reunite the band, it was in 1999.

20 years ago…

Yes. And from that point, we exist in another life cycle, and strangely enough, in that new cycle, when we were 40 years old, we began to record new songs very actively, and restored all the old ones.

Let's return to the time when the first disks went out into the world, and when you were heard by masses, who brought those disks home. What did your families think about this hobby, did they consider it serious? Taking into consideration who your grandfather was, and what kind of person he appeared to be.

My father was an air force officer, and my mother was a musicologist, and parents never tried to influence my hobbies in any negative way, they took all my hobbies seriously. If I really like it, then why not.

Did you show your disk to your granddad?

Yes, when it was released, I showed it to him, he heard it for the first time and said: "Why did you change your surname?" I say: "Just imagine it, the Mikoyan's band, almost a gang." Of course, he laughed, and, in general, he liked the music, actually, he was not interested in it anymore. Because he, of course, was busy doing other things, even at the close of his days.

Unfortunately, few people know about his true life, and, except rumors, gossips and several provocative videos viral around the Internet – generally, little is well-known. I want to make a serious documentary, maybe even in several parts, based only on facts and documents.

I have talked to your wonderful mother, I know that she brought many great musicians to your family: Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Schnittke, Sviridov. Did they influence your creative career, your music perception in any way?

I guess, this or that way... At that time, I was into rock-n-roll, and I was not particularly interested in what they were doing. Still, Arno Babajanian really was my first teacher. And he also said that he was fond of jazz back then, I took interest in symphonic music later, in the late eighties. I made a symphonic orchestra, without meaning that it would play my music, but just because I always treated it with respect and interest.

I wrote a symphony and, also quite unexpectedly for myself, sent it to some big orchestras. And suddenly, the London Symphony Orchestra and, by the way, the Berlin Philharmonic, and one more orchestra, I do not remember the name, they agreed to play it. I decided that it was somebody’s joke, so I was easy about it, but all of a sudden, the London Symphony Orchestra sent me a contract, moreover it was accompanied by a recommendation to make record at the Abbey Road Studio where we actually already recorded several albums with the Tsvety.

But in general, the Abbey Road Studio started with symphonic music, not with The Beatles, The Beatles came there later. But anyway, really, the same year, in 2016, I made records at the Abbey Road, and the record of the London Symphony Orchestra was released all over the world, there were very interesting reviews. And here in Moscow, the premiere was played by The Russian National Orchestra.

Do I get it right that your pseudonym is…?

Yes, this is a name, her name is Nami. That is, I am like mom’s – Namin.

Very lovely. Talking about your creative work. They say every cloud has a silver lining. Maybe, if you were not forbidden once, you would not turn to other art forms, but back then, you started travelling all over the world and shooting films… What places did you visit?

Practically, I have been everywhere, it is hard to say where I have not been. I also shot a lot of different films. But it was much later, in the early 2000s, I travelled a lot across Africa and shot a lot of such tiny little films, about different countries, I have visited almost all countries, more than a half of African countries.

Those are generally ethnic movies: animals and tribes. I made cinema my profession, shot several films. They are all documentary, one about Armenia, about the ancient temple of Armenia, about the culture of Armenia. One more movie was about Ernst Neizvestny, it is a kind of a dialogue, a conversation with Neizvestny, it was the last film about his life.

And recently, I made a film with my American partners, with the director Jim Brown – a three-time winner of the World award – about the way the rock music influenced the fall of the regime, not only in the Soviet Union, but also in the Eastern Block. It is difficult to translate its name "Free to rock" into Russian, but still.

Did you want to leave the country at some point?

Never.

Why?

Because this is my house, I feel like home here. Here is my mother, my relatives, my nearest and dearest, a lot of friends. And there is a lot of good people here.

But they have clipped your wings so many times…

This country has bad luck. But still, I think it’s a great nation comprising many nationalities, just like Americans, by the way. And the talent of this nation is unique in all directions, including, art… yes. This land gave birth to poets, painters, writers, musicians, and great discoveries, and great philosophers. All in all, amazing people live here.

Let’s talk about India... Did your impressions change the first time you got there?

No, they grew even stronger. I went there recently, about 5-6 years ago, and when I was on tour, I went to an expedition across Northern India. Climbed the Himalayas, meditated there, well, there are a lot of interesting things there. In fact, it is the route of The Beatles, Rishikesh… all these cities. And, respectively, I gave a concert there.

You shot a kind of a film there, didn’t you?

Yes, I shot the film. Actually, I try to shoot some films everywhere, showing everything through a musical prism, displaying the identity of the place I visit.

Speaking about your anniversaries. What are you going to do? How will you celebrate them?

Concerning the theater, we, of course, work much. You can read about it on the theatre’s website and on my website. I cannot describe it in a nutshell, really, the theater has worked with a big repertoire throughout 20 years.

This is a unique troupe, amazing actors, it’s true, they are real, informal, very talented. I have travelled the whole world, and when people come here, be they actors, professionals or just fans, they open mouth and ask where we found them.

And then it turns out that they sing perfectly, and dance perfectly. We manage to make and find such genre, which includes dancing, modern choreography, and real professional vocal.

The theater is developing, and we will make a festival of our best performances. Well, and, among other things, we renew the hall, here, in Gorky Park. It, probably, will open at a new stage. It is a perfectly equipped hall, today the Moscow administration works with us very seriously, and we kind of expect a very interesting result and reconstruction of everything.

For the first time in 50 years, we will make performances in the Kremlin, in the Kremlin Palace. As a rule, we make them in "Crocus", somewhere else. All the more, I used to live on this territory with my grandfather’s family. Roughly speaking, I was born there. That house was destroyed, and they built a palace in its place, this is a ridiculous coincidence in my life. This subject does not bother us, this is a magnificent hall where great Sting sang, I adore him, and a lot of other great musicians. I think, we will manage to make this concert very homish, despite the pathos of the place, like country-house, absolutely cosy, warm concert where we are practically going to sing throughout all concert with the audience because we have more than 20 hits. There are hardly enough bands in the world having so many hits, which the whole country knows by heart.

It’s also easy to sing and remember our new songs, even if no one in the world has heard them yet. We are planning funny things, for example, Sergey Shnurov learned the song "We wish you happiness…" and sang it at a concert, where he invited us, we got a little naughty at the concert together. We are going to do something with Vasya Basta, too, but we still have doubts about the guests. But one thing is true, there will be amazing guests, there will be an amazing atmosphere and music. And I guess, we will give joy to everyone who comes.