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We recently spoke with Boris Nazarov, co-founder of legendary electronic/techno outfit, Moscow Grooves Institute. The conversation ranged from his current plans for MGI to the way in which experiences both outside of Russia and online have helped to foster certain creative liberties. We began with his new work, involving colleagues Pascale Caristo, Pavel Mikhailuk, and Viktor Netesov – aka Air Goatika.
How did Air Goatika come to be?
“Air Goatika is a collaboration between four people, led by a Frenchwoman [Caristo] on vocals, whom we first met last year when we played a concert on Ibiza. She was just sitting there in a café and we got to know one another. By chance, she mentioned that she sings… so we asked her to try out with us! She attended one of our gigs, where we became proper friends… and, eventually, we all gathered on Goa. She’s a French citizen, born in Marseilles, but a real ‘civilian of the world.’ She has lived all over the place: in India, Israel, and in Africa, too. That’s a real gypsy existence – and for the last eleven months she has even been in Moscow.”
What's the current state of affairs with MGI?
“As for my habitual work with Moscow Grooves Institute, we’ve been going through a period of rethinking things. We’ve played loads of concerts… For example, pretty soon we’ll be going back to India to perform in a club we really like, by the name of the Blue Frog. As far as we can tell from the reviews, it now has the reputation of one of the best venues in Mumbai. We’ll be performing three days in a row, each time with a different set-list. The first day will be kinda nu-jazz stuff, with lounge works on the second day, and a techno set to wrap things up. It’ll be a good way for us to summarize all the recent achievements of MGI.”
“If you look at the MGI tracks on Soundcloud, there’s a mixture of new things, a few examples from our back- catalog, and some remixes, too. Recently I’ve been working on the soundtrack to a film; in fact, I’m busy with the editing process as we speak. The resulting music will be audible on screen, of course, but it’ll also come out simultaneously on CD. The movie doesn’t have a name yet, but it will do! We’ve done soundtracks for various video productions in the past, but not to the extent that the project resulted in an entire CD. It’ll be a kind of techno/jazz fusion.”
What kind of opportunities does India offer?
“When you look at things from an economic point of view, India could certainly be a new, potential market for Russian musicians. But as pure inspiration, India’s already amazing; it’s a place where the music just flows - non-stop! If we’re going to talk about the population as an ‘audience,’ it’s worth pointing out that we’re not playing so much for the locals; about 80% of the folks we play for are actually international visitors. At least that’s true of Goa; whenever we perform in Mumbai, we’d expect the audience to have a lot less tourists.”
...as pure inspiration, India’s amazing; it’s a place where the music just flows non-stop
How do things stand with live performances in Moscow today? Has the economic climate caused any kind of slowdown on stage?
“Back home in Moscow, there haven’t been that many concerts recently. It’s hard to explain why we’ve been playing more in St Petersburg and in Ukraine. It’s difficult to know whether that’s a consequence of the ‘crisis,’ since – to be honest – I haven’t really seen a big difference between life before, during, and after the collapse! True, we had a few gigs cancelled in Europe and around Asia because of those economic problems; even in China we lost a whole series of events - due precisely to local financial issues. For a lot of people, I’d say, they still manage to play at some of the so-called ‘corporate’ functions, so life goes on...”
Looking beyond Asian shows, how do you feel about the development of online performance?
“Everybody has been thinking a lot about online gigs, and personally it’s an idea that I find very appealing. It would be a way of keeping all listeners up to date – in a live format. Previously there was the entire, drawn-out process of playing a show, filming it, and then you’d face the editing work, too…. If you were lucky, the result would be made public six months later. Now, though, it’s possible to do something either in real time or with minimal delay; currently we can go from showtime to online video (that we’ve edited) in about a week. The big question, though, is always going to be that of quality. I can imagine these issues will soon give rise to a new profession, even, within a band’s lineup – a kind of VJ who’ll be responsible for what people see online.”
Everybody has been thinking a lot about online gigs, and personally it’s an idea that I find very appealing
How do you find business operations through the web?
“The fact that the music business has now moved totally into the web means things have changed at my label, Citadel Records, too. We’ve been developing an interface with iTunes, Beatport, Juno, and so forth. As for CDs, we still print them for those outfits that play live on a regular basis, because discs continue to sell well at concerts. Much better than in any store, in fact… It’s the more expensive, deluxe or digipak editions that sell at live shows. The ones that look really good!”
“Because we’re working more and more through iTunes, that means it no longer matters whether we’re in Russia, Europe, or America - well, at least from the viewpoint of a small label. iTunes doesn’t work directly with any small label on a one-to-one basis, but instead plays the role of a middle man. Every so often we get an update on our account, and I’d imagine that kind of set-up would suit a lot of people in our situation.”
Are there any services or developments here that you feel are lacking?
“Things online appear to be going well, but if’s anything lacking, maybe it’s some kind of centralized site; something to bring together all the existing platforms. In other words, it takes loads of time for us to keep up with all the music services, to update all of our own websites, and so forth. There have been some attempts to build a centralized base like that, but in my experience, the results have either been really complicated – or run by companies who wanted a very high royalty for their services. At the moment everything seems too scattered.”
“People in the past would complain that radio stations never played their music, or that TV stations wouldn’t show their videos, but nowadays everything – for example – is on YouTube. Nonetheless, updating all that is very time-consuming. We’ve got one guy person here at Citadel who does nothing but updates – each and every day.”
Has the development of international, if not universal, practices brought about a loss of local specificity?
“By working online, playing abroad, and getting our music out to an international audience – I try to avoid anything that might be defined as a ‘Russian sound.’ Any membership within a movement or style… that’s something I’ve always tried to bypass, so to speak. Or maybe it’s more that the styles have passed me by! In either case, I’m much more inclined toward what you see with Air Goatika: people from entirely different countries, playing faraway in Goa, with an Australian sound-engineer, not to mention other colleagues from India, Germany, America, and so forth! We’re Russian, French, Dutch, and Israeli performers, all working together.."
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