The road to Russia’s musical Olympus

 

I was attracted to music right from childhood. My first song was written when I was just about four years old. It was a little funny, but, nevertheless, it was a huge achievement at the time. From that moment, I realized that I was seriously drawn to music. At first, I studied in a regular primary school, then at a special music school, and later in a music college. On graduation, I went to the Moscow Pedagogical University. I continued to write songs in the university.

I was attracted to music right from childhood. My first song was written when I was just about four years old. It was a little funny, but, nevertheless, it was a huge achievement at the time. From that moment, I realized that I was seriously drawn to music. At first, I studied in a regular primary school, then at a special music school, and later in a music college. On graduation, I went to the Moscow Pedagogical University. I continued to write songs in the university. Initially, I thought I would only compose music for symphony orchestra. But later, I began to write songs for vocals and live performances. By this time, it was clear to me what I would do in life because everyone should try to bring benefits to people.

No one knows in advance what lies ahead. Young artists don’t usually know what to do when they have a new song, the next step to take and how to promote it to make it popular. In my case, I was a bit timid the first that I wanted to call a radio station. You pick the handset, call the first time, the second time and you realize that you don’t actually really know what to say, how best to introduce yourself when connection is made, how to explain what you're doing and what you want. In one word, it's was very difficult, especially as I was handling my own promotion by myself. Show business is an industry, where one has to repeatedly knock on “closed doors.” This is a reality that one faces everyday, moving from one radio or TV station to another. Success only comes to those who knock so persistently that the closed doors one day are finally open. Today, when I look back to those periods, those problems seem small. It reminds me of the Russian proverb, “Small children have small problems, while big children have big problems.” 

That is exactly the case here. The further I go, the more problems I see and they become bigger every day, they don’t decrease. So, the main difficulty faced by young artists is “closed doors” that one needs to constantly knock on. It is a pity that some artists, unable to go through this distance, often shelve their musical career ambitions and go into completely different industries. It is unclear whether such people can bring as much benefit to such industries as their talents could have brought to music. This is a question that is often left unanswered.

The only thing that comes to mind is: “Work, work, and once again, work.” This is because show business is no different from the other businesses. Consequently, if a person wants to achieve something, then one needs to know exactly what one wants, and understand the direction to move so as to achieve the set goal. 

You’ve just said that you run the promotion of your tours/concerts by yourself. So, can you briefly explain how this is done, how these tours are organized and how venues are chosen? 

 

I must admit that this is the most painful topic for me because the issue of personnel, people that I work with everyday, is very important for me. I’ve come to understand that money should not be the main motive for people that work for me. There was a time I made some almost fatal mistakes when I employed people for reasons other than professionalism, for instance, because they were my friends or friends of my friends. I think the secret of success depends on having the right people in the right place, where they are ready to commit their love, personal power and health to their tasks. The opposite is the case when people are driven only by the necessity to make money. With regard to concerts and tours, I’ve lots of them. I've concerts not only in Russia, but also in Israel and Germany, etc. We don’t have to make lot of calls to organize concerts. Indeed, it is the other way round, we are invited to come and perform at events or cities or countries. On one hand, this is not very good because it is difficult to predict which months will feature more or less concerts, but on the other hand, it is a huge compliment for me, as an artist, that I’m in demand, that I am being invited to perform in and outside Russia.

I know that as a business publication, financial issues are of paramount importance to your audience. Therefore, starting from the last part of this question, I would like to say that it is difficult for me to rank these professionals in terms of incomes. I know our incomes are often of interest to business publications, some of which do some annual ratings. When I see such numbers, I always think, “Are these really true?” I’m not an expert on these issues. With regard to dance music, the industry in which I work, lots depends on the popularity of performers and DJs. And here, as elsewhere, incomes of very famous performers are higher than those of newcomers, those that have just appeared on stage, whom no one knows anything about. The more the fame, popularity and media recognition a performer has; the higher fees. However, I’m afraid to mention any figures so as not to mislead anyone, but all I can say is such figures are often very impressive.

 

I believe in God. And, I think that every man on earth should strive to bring as much benefit as he can in lifetime. When I started my project, fate brought me to people who told me that I would be more useful. I am very grateful that this happened because, in fact, it has put a powerful resource in my hands. I’m privileged to be on stage to perform and sing for the young generation who may hear the message in my music. And, perhaps, after the concert, these people might want to find more about me, go online to read about what I do. In this way, I’m able to convey to them the truths that are beyond the scope of pure entertainment in nightclubs. That's why I realized that I could also use this resource to address the issue of AIDS/HIV in our society. It is important that every artist finds an area, where he/she could be more useful, in addition, to performances on stages.

I would like to use our trip to Kiev to highlight this mission. In Kiev, we met the other Red Ribbon envoys and activists and had the opportunity to interact with each other. Frankly, when I started to talk to my colleagues, I realized I’ve been involved in Red Ribbon’s activities much longer than all artists at the meeting and I really had some message to pass across. For example, how we made a special video message, the trip to the UN in New York, how one can freely talk about the AIDS/HIV-related issues. I spoke on all these issues in Kiev in a very friendly atmosphere. It was here I fully understood my mission as a Red Ribbon envoy. As for the campaign as a whole, the Red Ribbon, as a social information campaign, is a very good platform and I’m very pleased that the number of people connected with is increasing day by day. This shows that people are not indifferent to social problems. Moreover, I know that even more Russian artists are paying more attention to these issues. This is very cool and promising, and besides, it brings more people together.