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Samara's Cheese People opened their 2010 MySpace blog in a jolly mood - and in English, too: "Hi everybody! How are you? Sorry for the delay with our acoustic mini-album - we've been lazy dudes this winter. But it will be released quite soon! Trust us :) Our next album will be released as a free-download just as quickly - and then we're planing to publish extended versions of the songs, too, with remixes. If you are a DJ and want to play a part in this project - drop us a line, please :) More shows will be announced - it looks like we'll get to some areas that we've not visited before. We really hope so. Some merchandise will appear soon. Really fancy t-shirts!! :)"
There's good reason for this cheerful tone. If we turn to the band's page at Vkontakte, the origins of their merriment are well contextualized, albeit in another language. Translated, that text reads as follows: "Over the last three years, Cheese People have become one of the most recognizable outfits on the Russian music scene. Their debut record, released on a DIY basis, was republished twice, both by the Snegiri label and Japan's Wow/Now Records. The band's boldest hit numbers were dragged into all kinds of movie soundtracks, compilation CDs, and TV advertisements."
"The popularity of Cheese People has risen rapidly - and all over the place, too! Their fame has moved from blog to blog, iPod to iPod. Having justified the generous praise of both music critics and simple listeners, Cheese People have played more than 100 bright, brassy gigs in cities all around Russia, Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, Estonia, and Ukraine. Studio work on the band's tracks has continued slowly - but surely! - in Samara, whilst using samples from friends and colleagues worldwide. And so, while this newest delivery of electro-pop songs awaits its release date, Cheese People have prepared a surprise for their fans."
That surprise appeared online a few days ago: an acoustic mini-album with the title of "Well, Well, Well." It can, thankfully, be downloaded for free. Most of the music appeared, in least in early, rough-sounding versions, following a 12-hour (relatively) impromptu session conducted in Moscow with friends and colleagues.
The reason for switching from the band's trademark synth-pop to these acoustic tools was as follows: "We wanted to take a break from our usual heady disco-rock. This was an experiment for us all, an attempt to play some calmer, more lyrical music. We decided not to use samples, Vocoders, or any kind of complicated electronic effects. Even the number of overdubs was reduced to a minimum."
We wanted to take a break from our usual heady disco-rock. This was an experiment for us all, an attempt to play some calmer, more lyrical music. We decided not to use samples, Vocoders, or any kind of complicated electronic effects. Even the number of overdubs was reduced to a minimum.
Taking the place of all these techno-tricks were clarinets, violins, Indian tablas - and lots of percussion.
Production was overseen - thanks to a web link - by American Tchad Blake, who has previous credits with Tom Waits, Paul McCartney, and Suzanne Vega. Six months were needed for these audio files to be buffed and polished in two countries. The results, as noted, can now be grabbed for absolutely nothing at Cheese-People.ru.
Part of the buzz surrounding this release is captured in TV- and other press-related work. Most surprising of these recent activities has been an interview given to the webzine Raw Investigations. The publication defines itself as "a noncommercial online music magazine run by six girls from Germany, France, Finland and Brazil... plus one lovely boy from Luxembourg." The interview appeared in English, yet has the distinct air of a translation. There is no indication of the language in which the conversation was actually conducted, but we've taken the liberty of changing a few phrases, especially since the journalist was located in Tampere, Finland.
The likelihood of Finnish being the lingua franca seems close to zero, no matter how loudly anybody spoke.
And yet... had Finnish indeed been the means of interaction, levels of common sense would not have suffered. When asked, for example, about the appeal of Cheese People to a Japanese audience, the band responded that neither they nor their Asian listeners have ever been to the North Pole.
This inclination towards twaddle did not lessen.
Having touched upon that icy region of the globe, talk turned immediately to a maximally distant location: Australia. The cover art to the new recording was done by an Antipodean artist, a fact that led to Finnish inquiries about his identity. The response? "Oh, he's an awesome guy! As soon as he saw this CD cover, he took his easel and paints and made a drawing!!" Not only is the response extraordinarily brief; it also makes no sense. According to the logic here, the artist first noticed the artwork... and then produced some artwork(!). Quite what was on the cover he first examined is a complete mystery.
The more we're told, the weaker any connections grow between cause and effect. The longer the conversation, the closer we find ourselves to nonsense.
Leaving the oddities of geography to one side, the rationale of recent recordings then moves to the foreground. Has there been, for example, any reason why Cheese People tend to combine "disco, indie-rock, funk, and punk?" This response is that "no connection" exists between them. "How is possible to connect chicken and fish?" they ask. "Maybe we're freaks... or some kind of psycho-genetic doctors, but we did manage to connect them! So don't even dare coming to our shows!"
Maybe we're freaks... or some kind of psycho-genetic doctors, but we did manage to connect them! So don't even dare coming to our shows!
Things soon become so illogical that an improved translation does little to clarify matters. Take the following comment, by way of illustration. It comes in response to the query, "When is your next show?" If we understood either the logic or grammar here, we'd be able to fix them: "The closer you live to Astana [Kazakhstan], the farther you are from Tver region. And the possibility to get to our show is in inverse ratio to the above-mentioned."
Major television networks clamber to record these pearls of wisdom.
The journalist implores the band to stay on topic and discuss their music, all to no avail: "Oh, no! Anything but music, please!" To do so would mean sticking to one issue - and thus the end of any conversational "movement."
What about success - and financial gain from these projects? "Poverty," say the musicians, "is the master of all arts!" At this very silly point in the conversation, logic pays an unexpected visit - and here's why. Poverty, in most cases, is unable to enjoy the luxury of immobility; the impoverished must move. Constantly. Financial failure, supposedly, is thus directly connected to artistic triumph. It guarantees metamorphosis... to the point of claptrap, which is the best and most "artistic" form of thematic movement possible!
The band say they have no money whatsoever. They are the very embodiment of poverty - and therefore of positive change, too.
What can they afford to eat, asks the journalist? "Wind pudding," she is told. With no funds for solid, "stable" food, the members of Cheese People claim to live on mobile air. The sillier that sounds, the better: "The main thing is to develop. Don't stop! Motion is life. We want to invade the world! The Universe is our goal. Move forward... only forward! Everybody puts their music on the Internet because they want to be heard, right? Otherwise what's the point? D'you agree?"
It's hard not to concur with these arguments. Cheese People have produced a totally unexpected and often charming acoustic album in the spirit, perhaps, of what we might call busker chic, a la Krolls, Silver Wedding, or Cabernet Deneuve, perhaps. It's the sound of a penniless, impassioned journey - from street corner to corner, "going forward... only forward." Hence the release of the new mini-album online, perhaps; free downloading means that the band's pockets remain blissfully empty, with plenty of room for wind pudding.
And pills.
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