«Russian rockers Mumiy Troll take on Toronto» — TheStar.com (Toronto)

Russian rockers Mumiy Troll take on Toronto

When you`re one of the most popular bands in Russia, what`s the logical way to celebrate your 25th anniversary? By taking on the rest of the planet, of course.

Although the lads in Mumiy Troll have been to North America (and, Toronto) before, playing for mostly Russian-speaking crowds, the March 24 release of the compilation Comrade Ambassador, which gathers together songs from the Vladivostok-born band`s last two records, signals the erudite outfit`s first serious attempt to win over audiences outside Russia to their groovy, glammy sound.

Mumiy Troll arrives at the Mod Club on Wednesday, so we leapt at the chance to chat with garrulous, slightly Bowie-esque frontman Ilya Lagutenko.

What made you guys decide to conquer these shores now?

I remember when I was a kid when we tried our first attempt to form a band without knowing how to be a band, our first track that we recorded on my grandfather`s tape recorder started with «Hello, Tokyo» for some reason. So we`ve always wanted to get out of our hometown and our little circle of friends and we`d like to share our music with some totally unknown people. And when you play to an audience that doesn`t know you at all, it`s most challenging, but also most exciting and most rewarding … It`s not about the words and the lyrics on first meeting. It`s more about emotions and energy.

Were there any Western artists who particularly influenced you growing up?

Not really because, back in Soviet times, officially you couldn`t really hear rock music because it was banned … we had a supply of music from totally unexpected sources. Like, sailors would bring tapes from Hong Kong or Singapore. I don`t know how they chose it, whether they read the charts or just opened some magazines and said «This Genesis cover is very artful. Let`s buy it for 100 yen.» We had a 10-hour flight to Moscow and our town was closed for military reasons even from Soviet citizens, so it was a feeling of seclusion on one hand, but at the same time we had all those Russian cargo ships coming in with lots of information and, like, jeans. All the sailors would come from abroad wearing jeans and platform shoes and it was, like, `Wow, they look like aliens.` They were the coolest people in the world.

Where did your dreams of being in a rock band spring from, then?

Every kid in my hometown dreamed about being a sailor, just to travel the world and to see the world. But it was probably from reading all those magazines about rock and Western culture and imagining all those musicians` bands` names in the West – like Grateful Dead or Creedence Clearwater Revival. You`d get a dictionary and say «Well, what the hell does that mean?» So, as I always say, we simply swapped our toy railroads for the idea of becoming a band because you would get to look nice and act cool and travel the world and make records. Although back in Soviet times you couldn`t make a record officially so you`d just do it on a tape recorder.

Is there much of a rock scene in Russia these days?

Not a lot, actually. Basically, the old rock scene worked on word-of-mouth. People would record music back at home, tape-to-tape, and give it away to the people. Probably not so many people influenced our country a lot, actually. Probably 50 percent of those bands which happened to be around in those various places in Russia are still going on now. We were quite lucky to realize that music can`t only be a secret hobby, it can be a lifestyle. The moment you discover that, you say: «Yeah! I`m the luckiest person on the planet.»

Ben Rayner

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