BM: First let’s talk about the name of the band. Why "Khaki”? Ilya:
Well everyone was thinking of a name and we had a big brain storm going
on. We thought that that word has many meanings, among them aggressive
and defensive.
Val: Actually, each person thought of .75 of letters…and that’s how the name came together.
BM: You counted that fast? Val: Yeah, but I’m still worried that I did it wrong.
Vlad: It’s just that he is a post graduate and does all the calculations for the band.
BM: Who are you studying as?
Val: As a sociologist.
BM: So who attends where? A university, maybe some school? Max: Everyone definitely completed school.
Ilya: Somehow, but we did it.
BM: Good! So what now? Who goes where? Ilya: The University of Rock "n” Roll. Alexander: I finished sociology at the university.
BM: At the St. Petersburg State University?
Alexander: No back home
ВМ: ? Max:
We are all from Chelyabinsk and moved to St. Peter. Only one member,
Valea, is from Ukraine. He came over for the interview.
BM: And how did you end up here?
Ilya: Well we arrived here, and decided to fill the capital with music.
BM: Did you all arrive together? Max: No I lived here 5 days already. Alexander: Everyone got here at different times, but ended up coming together. Ilya: Some of us knew each other already, but we assembled in St. Peter specifically to make music.
BM:
Okay. We found out that in September of last year you held the first
band practice. In April of this year a first video clip. How were you
able to do all that so fast? Ilya: We just did. Most
importantly, you need to be forward driven towards your goals and
everything will fall in place. Stars came together, clumps of energy in
the same spot.
BM: What are your plans for the future? Ilya: The important things- become famous, record an album and release it… Vlad: Introduce something new in music and in the Russian show business.
BM: Only in Russia? Vlad: For now yes, but I think later in the future…become an intercontinental band.
BM: So how are there six of you? In the beginning there used to be only 5 people… Max: We decided to add another. Ilya: Val once made a mistake with a door and ended up with us. Val: Yeah…there was no strength to go back out….before that I just played concerts with them online. Vlad: Yeah, we just put a computer on stage instead of a sixth and performed.
BM: Were there a lot of concerts already? Ilya: There
were not big concerts, but there were just performances. In festivals
during the summer, toured in several cities; Ryazan, Yaroslavl, Perm…
BM: Did anything funny happen during performances? Ilya: All the time… Max: Got hit by electricity from the microphone Vlad: An elderly lade was dancing to one of our songs. You should have seen the way she was going! Ilya: She burned it up for sure.
BM: We saw you in the game "Mafia”. Did you like it? Ilya: I liked it very much! The setting, what was happening there…
BM: It seemed to us that you were very quiet… Ilya: They edited everything out-we talked constantly. Max: All sorts of censored words. Ilya:
Yeah we argued with everyone because they didn’t understand anything,
but we knew, who is Mafia! But it was very interesting. It was our
first time and maybe because of that it seemed like we weren’t talking.
But what actually happened is we singled out the Mafia and did this
successfully. Vlad: It’s getting a little hot from your tea…
BM: That’s just the warm company of Bizzare-Music.net. Ilya: A hot company!
BM:
That’s for sure. Speaking of which, we saw you at the Cinema Bizarre
concert...How did you end up there? Were you acquainted with the group
before the concert? Ilya: Well, we heard them on the radio. It
was just interesting for us to see how they worked. We like it. It
seems to me they have very good energy. Something is always happening
on the stage…good looking guys playing and everyone has a defined
style; music… Vlad: What about the raisin? Where is the raisin? Ilya:
Well judging by the fact of how many girls there were, they have
something! Everything was cool! I liked the concert itself: energy, the
people that were present-all that created a euphoria…especially when
they played their biggest hit and followed it up with a remix of it.
After that the whole evening was spent positively remembering the
concert. BM: So which one of you writes the songs? Max: We all do with our producer Leonid Lehner. BM: Where does your inspiration come from? Overall, what are your songs about? Ilya: We sing about subjects that trouble us. Personal concerns can be found in everything…about some problems, about love of course. BM: Okay, let’s be more specific: Who was held down by love? Where did "Let Me Go” come from? Max: That’s an old song written by Leonid Lehner 7 years ago. Ilya:
It caught our attention immediately when he came and showed it to us.
We made the arrangements and made it first because we really liked it.
BM: When can we expect an album? Ilya:
At this point it’s hard to predict further out than a month. Right now
we are planning a release in the first quarter of the next year.
BM: Is the material ready or is it still being worked on? Vlad: The material has been finished for a long time and refined in concerts. The market decides deadlines; our job is to play music.
BM: All right we will wait then! You released a new song "Déjà Vu” and a video to go along. What is it about? Vlad: About things that didn’t come true, about dreams, about losses Ilya: About love of course. Vlad: The video will be interesting and different… Ilya:
The song is contradictory in my view but the video…we ourselves are
waiting for it we didn’t see it yet. So it’s hard to talk about it just
yet.
BM: Wow! We can hardly wait! Here’s a question: do stars ride the subway? Alexander: They probably do but we never met them. Max: Even in taxis and trains. Vlad: I went in to work towards obtaining a license. Ilya: I can’t imagine myself behind the wheel. BM: So can fans ride the subway and hope to run into you? Vlad: Of course! Ilya: They wouldn’t recognize us… Val: It’s a bad idea…we ask for change. Ilya: I’m selling pens. With gel.
BM: So how are the fans? Are they bothersome yet? Vlad: We’re only happy to have contact with them.
BM: Do you always respond? Ilya: Depends on the situation… Max: If they ask for autographs to be left on stage I do it. Vlad: For some reason they don’t ask me. How are you better than me? Max: You sit in the back and they don’t see you. BM: Okay last question: What do you want to say to the fans? Vlad: To stay awesome. Ilya: I would tell them to feel both sadness and happiness and be real human beings and everything will be perfect. Max: And to love us.
Interview by Victoria Sholupova & Alina Shumaeva Translated by
Tim Kotchetov (с) bizarre-music.net