«From Russia, With Guitars» — See Magazine (Canada, Edmonton)

From Russia, With Guitars

“Rock star■ never used to be a viable career option in the Soviet Union until Mumiy Troll came along

As a young Russian putting together his first rock band, Ilya Igorevich Lagutenk never once thought he was looking at a serious career option.

“No, not at all,■ chuckles the Moscow-born, Vladivostok-raised vocalist for Mumiy Troll. “It was the early `80s in the Soviet Union; in those years rock music was almost banned. You wouldn`t dream that it would be part of your life forever — instead it was a hobby, a game, but not a career, not a lifestyle.■

The career Lagutenk was looking at during the height of Cold War relations was in the armed forces as a member of the Russian Air Navy, and later in various jobs in China and Great Britain. The original Mumiy Troll broke up in `83, and it was only with the dismantling of the Soviet Union that the reformed band, with new members joining Lagutenk, began to get a foothold in what passed for a music industry in the formerly communist country.

“Overnight it was a totally different country,■ he explains. “Different times, different values, so why not try music again?■

He did just that; a few earlier releases had gone unheralded, but 1997`s Morskaya changed everything — and not just for Mumiy Troll, but also the Russian music scene.

“Nobody believed it could be commercially successful,■ Lagutenk says. “They said it was like indie rock, not more than a niche market. But they were wrong — suddenly it wasn`t 100 or 100,000 people listening; it was millions who all found themselves relating to what we were doing.■

It was simply a case of being at the right place at the right time, according to Lagutenk, and they`ve certainly taken advantage of it. The albums that followed cemented their position as the country`s favorite band, and the singer parlayed his fame into a side acting career, taking on the role of a vampire in 2004`s The Night Watch. Mumiy Troll has traveled incessantly across Russia, made some forays into China, and was the first rock group ever to play Greenland. Now, just because it seems like the right thing to do, they`re taking on North America with their new English-language EP, Paradise Ahead.

“We`ve been here before,■ Lagutenk says, “but just to places with large Russian communities, like New York or Toronto. Obviously there are more places for us to play. But really, North America is not as hard as China or Greenland, where there is no history of rock; now that was a challenge. And it`s about having fun, seeing all of these new places.

“Growing up the way I did, I find it hard to take all of this serious as a business,■ he continues. “Whatever venue I play in, be it to millions in the central square at St Petersburg or to a couple of close friends in a small club in Vladivostok, I enjoy it.■

He`d better be having fun — what with the intensive pirating of music in his country, industry success doesn`t translate to financial windfall. According to the singer, Mumiy Troll`s album sales aren`t making them millionaires, so they stay on the road and eke out a living the old-fashioned way. The lifestyle seems to suit Lagutenk, who not only seems genuinely pleased to meet new audiences, but also the latter-day attempt at mending fences with Americans still dwelling on their adversarial relationship with his country.

“Those stereotypes, they`re understandable,■ Lagutenk allows. “In Russia there are people who say, ▒Americans hate our country and want to invade us.` It`s purely ideological, purely political, and it`s nice to see people change in attitude when you actually talk to them.

“When we were here earlier in the year, we were on this radio show in San Francisco. Random people from the street would walk in and some would almost have tears in their eyes. ▒Until this moment we still thought of Russians as being a certain way, but now we see you live, and you sing these great songs and you`re great musicians, thank you very much!` So we are changing attitudes to our country in a small way. It`s a really nice complement to what we`re doing — because in the end, it`s not about pop charts and awards; it`s things like this which really matter.■

by Tom Murray