Interview for NAVINY.BY

The Belarusian band DALI has recently returned from Scotland, where the guys took part in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Meanwhile the boys gave several concerts, made some useful acquaintance, enjoyed the local scenery and shot two clips.

Viktar Rudenka, the soloist of DALI, and Ivan Zaprutski, the managing director of the band, talked about their trip in detail in the interview for Naviny.by.

- What was the festival like? Is it unique?

- Ivan: the Festival took place in different Edinburgh cafes and pubs. Summerhall was the main stage, the others were in various city establishments (about 500). Every day several bands appeared on the stages of those pubs and cafes; performances and films were shown. Our Belarus Free theatre also took part in the Festival.

In the majority of cases the shows were free. Participation in the Festival, travel and housing expenses for a lot of musicians and theatrical troupes were also free. Both professional musicians and amateur bands took part in Edinburgh Festival Fringe. When we arrived, most of the band names were unknown to us, although they are extremely popular there nowadays.

What is more, they have another attitude to music. If the representatives of a band want to play in a pub, they can just come and play without any arrangements, the stage is free for them.

Виктор Руденко

Viktar: The city looks different during the festival time, everything is transformed before the concerts. Our live shows took place in Summerhall (a well-transformed laboratory of the University of Edinburgh).

Edinburgh is full of anarchic establishments directed by enthusiasts. For example, we saw the last day of Forest café, which had existed more than 20 years, but it was closed because of its sponsor‘s bankruptcy.

What useful acquaintance have you made in Scotland?

Viktar: Richard Demarco, the founder of !! Edinburgh Festival Fringe, liked our music and invited us for a closed party held only for the festival organizers. We enjoyed their company greatly. Moreover Richard Demarco is a very famous person in Great Britain who supports and develops art.

We also got acquainted with a stage director – Miland Somand, who makes clips for Massive Attack. He is interested in animation video and suggested us shooting a clip for our new song.

- His work is expensive. How will you pay?

- Viktar: He is going to work with us for free. It was Miland’s own decision, as he liked our music. Now we are recording a new song. But we will not reveal the truth about the contents and the clip.

- Did you manage to enjoy Scottish landscapes?

- Viktar: Thanks to them very soon we’ll have two new clips: “Silver Sky” and “Keep on Crying”. As for us, it would be a great mistake to be in Scotland and not to imprint its beauty in our memory. I’ve memorized its extremely beautiful mountains, nature and architecture.

London is a good variant of the USA: people from all around the world live here. We’ve made friends with the band Good Books and found out that our music is very competitive. It’s nice, so we’re going to make progress in this sphere. The only stumbling block is a language, but a lot of our songs are in English, for the other compositions we’re planning to make an English version.

Frankly speaking, we liked Britain. It’s a real musical country.

What did you do in London?

Viktar: We performed for our Belarusian diaspora. We were also suggested to give a solo concert in Kingston University. All the guys and me are looking forward to this event, as many groups in Great Britain and the USA have become popular due to their concerts in universities.

How did you entertained yourselves in Britain?

Viktar: Sleeping was our main entertainment, as we had had too much fun beforehand. We had a very busy schedule giving concerts all the time.

Ivan: We saw the performance of Belarus Free Theatre. Our close friend Alan Flowers showed us the city and different institutions with a 200-yaer history. I slept for two days after our trip, as we were extremely tired.

When we wanted to make an appointment with you it turned out that you lead a night lifestyle… What does it mean?

Viktar: It’s rather easy to work at night: nothing distracts you; you feel as if you were in “space” – unnecessary sounds don’t exist; there are only you and your thoughts.

In Edinburgh we worked very fruitfully during the night time, so as to adapt our program for a duet (only Viktar and Ivan came to the festival – remark by Naviny.by). That’s why we had to practice too much. The neighbors were ready for music and didn’t knock at our door – this fact shows again that they belong to a very music nation (laughs). We also played sport very actively. In our friends’ house there was a good gym. When we felt sleepy, we stimulated ourselves with physical exercises.

- You give your concerts on European stages quite often. Can you compare the level of concert organization and the liberation of audience in Europe and Belarus?

- Viktar: I can’t say that everything is awful here and ideal in Europe, of course, equipment is better there. I suppose the Soviet period uprooted the culture of live music in Belarus. The Soviet music was imposed from above and it made the songs, played in different institutions, be lip-synched. If you spend time in a club you’ll usually here audio record instead of live music. What is more the period of our independence was quite fruitful. There are too many Soviet rules which exist nowadays: national artists are supported, but nobody cares about young bands. They should be given the opportunity to develop their careers.

Nowadays we can find some places which afford an opportunity of performing live music. In addition we have people who want to listen to such kind of music, but on the whole the process goes slowly.

In Europe not only cafes and pubs but also the audience is more open. If people become interested in the music you are playing they won’t be shy and stay reserved, they will show their favour. In Edinburgh we were surprised by the smart set of girls in a jazz-cafe who had fun and derived enjoyment from live music. In our country smart girls party in nightclubs instead of jazz concerts. We felt as if we had visited another planet.

– A lot of talented people search for a better fortune abroad nowadays… Are you planning to move somewhere?

– Viktar: I think that live music has never been in priority here. The government has never been interested in the underground music and has never supported it. We’ve been invited to the International Festival of Arts “Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk”, but such events occur very seldom. What is more we haven’t been met with warm support from our government, I mean money as well. Everything is catered for people's artists, who are often called court musicians. To my mind, the organizational energy concentration on these people hasn’t done good. Let me admit that we have so many talented musicians playing pop-music or underground, for example. Some of these bands break up or go abroad. If the government pursues the same policy, this situation will remain.

We’re not planning anything now, we’re just writing the music and playing it for those, who like it. More often we give concerts in Poland in comparison to Belarus. If we have good references in England, our concerts will be also held here.

- How has the economic crisis affected you?

– Ivan: The crises has affected us slightly, because we work for exports (laughing). It’s natural that we get currency. Practically all musicians in Belarus receive currency for their shows, we are not an exception. Although the concerts, organized by the government, are paid in Belarusian roubles.

– Is it possible to become famous in Belarus?

– Ivan: The band Bi-2 wasn’t popular in Belarus until it had become well-known in Russia. “Lyapis Trubetskoy” made progress abroad at first. I see the same prospects for our band. We have gained the public confidence for five years in Belarus. As a result our band has become quite popular, but we’re striving for a better level. That is the reason why we want to get some popularity abroad: everyone will speak about us here. For all that there are bands in Belarus which have become popular at home – “beZ bileta”, “J:Mors”.

– Are you planning to move off?

– Ivan: No.

– What do you intend to do?

– Ivan: Our new song “Friday is the time for love”, written with Moscow DJs, is ready. Joint concerts are to be held in Minsk and Moscow very soon. We’ll also shoot a clip with charming models in Poland.

In London we distributed our records to different record labels. It’s very likely they will promote our band.

– When can we see your new album?

– Ivan: We don’t know exactly, but it will appear very soon. We’ve been preparing for its release, but there is no time frame. Therefore we’re planning to shoot four clips. Somebody is making albums, but we’re making clips.