Cheese People: Glam Remixes and the Challenge of Daily Life

Cheese People, from the city of Samara, have been one of the success stories of Russian independent pop music, crossing over from obscurity into the mainstream in a very modern way. Their songs have appeared in advertisements and television dramas. That may sound like a path to fame and fiscal stability, but day-to-day life is still a major challenge. The band told us how.

The tracks on offer here are amateur remixes of some Cheese People standards. In past decades, clever phrases would be taken from songs and quoted out of context by listeners as a running commentary on mundane, daily experience. With the prevalence of music-making technology nowadays, fans employ sound bites in compositions of their own. Popularity, therefore, is mirrored by the adoring sampling and reemployment of material by its audience. TV, advertisements, and unapproved remixes: such, it seems, are the barometers of success.

We began by asking the musicians about life since their now-famous debut CD.

- How has your work been developing since the album came out?

We've got loads of new ideas! The problem is somehow getting into a work-related rhythm. We've got a ton of songs lying around as demo versions - and even more sketches of future works. On top of that we're overwhelmed with suggestions regarding various duets, remixes, and other collaborations. We've just haven't managed to sit down and figure it all out. We're constantly en route to gigs somewhere - or maybe not in the mood to do anything. Sometimes circumstances simply work against us.

For example it was 40 degrees Celsius in Samara this summer; our computers refused to work - and nobody felt like making music, anyway! Then our lead singer - Ol'ga (above) - moved to Nizhnii Novgorod and that also changed the way we operate. All of these hassles have an ultimate benefit, though: when we finally do get together, it turns out that we've all really missed one another!

We don't waste our time on arguments - and get more pleasure from recording together than we ever did before. 

- Have you been happy with the reviews of the CD? What are the main reactions you've noted in the press?

We don't read the opinions of professional journalists as much as we do the remarks left by fans on blogs, on LastFM, and the other social networks. There have been loads of reactions, most of them positive. Thankfully, our fanbase seems to have a pretty broad taste - and they were happy to hear our experiments with an acoustic sound.

As with most debut albums, almost everybody can find a track they like. It wouldn't be wise to try and read anything grander into things, we reckon. After all, it wasn't a conceptual CD in any sense; we just committed some of our session work to tape!

- The group's popularity continues to grow. Have you noticed any inclination towards fixed or cliched interpretations of your catalog? 

It's hard to stick a label on what we do. We try to compose songs in various genres - and even our concerts can vary greatly depending upon the general mood. At one time we moved away from disco-punk in the direction of rock music; then we 'took a breather' and made an acoustic album, after which we've now come back to electronic material.

The one stereotype we come across most often is the pigeonhole of 'a Russian band, singing in English' - but you could squeeze hundreds of outfits into that definition, both good and bad ones. When we play outside of the big cities, concert organizers love to stress the fact that our songs have popped up in various domestic TV series. That's understandable, though, since millions of people have seen those shows - and they've no idea that we're the people who wrote the songs!

- Sometimes your music turns up in advertisements, too. Since the collapse of the music industry, do you think that the combination of music with ads or computer games will continue to develop?

To be honest, we're always glad of those requests from ad agencies, since a small honorarium should come to us each time the advertisement airs. And we really need the cash.

When we formed Cheese People, we never thought about the marketplace. It was simply that we reached a point where all the 'non-musical' things we were doing - in order to make a living - were getting in the way of concerts. So we dumped the work. It's not that music brings in any more money; we just think that people should do what they'd like to. Ads and soundtracks help us, but in any civilized nation those avenues would bring in more profit - several times more.

Over the last three years, we've got nothing from any of the films and TV series that have used our songs...

- Is it tough touring nowadays, since things are so difficult with the sale of CDs - and therefore with your profit margin, too?

It's tough in any environment getting around Russia, using trains all the time. Planes are expensive - and we're constantly obliged to eat, drink, and sleep in unfamiliar places. The people who run clubs tend to be pretty crude individuals... Nonetheless, we like nothing more than playing live - and all the related complications simply go hand in hand with any concert work in this country. 

Selling CDs in order to make a profit isn't really anything we've given much thought to; we don't even sell them at gigs all that often. We plan to make some t-shirts, however, and we'll see how people like our merchandise.

- As a result of all these hassles, maybe the next generation of musicians will find it hard to see their creative work in a romantic light?

Romance and money aren't connected in any way. Things probably work the other way around: the less money there is, the greater the romance! We're a living example of that: all the guys in the band have given up their old jobs.. and got married! Some of them have even managed to raise kids.

Romance and money aren't connected in any way. Things probably work the other way around: the less money there is, the greater the romance!

- Considering that you sing in English, has there been much interest in your work overseas?

Yes, and it grows each year, too. Our debut CD came out last year in Japan and we played a series of gigs in Finland, Poland, and the Baltic. There's even been a video made to accompany a Japanese remix of our song "Ua-a-a!." It was done by the Japanese outfit Gari - and we stuck it on our own Asian release as a bonus track. 

We should do some concerts in Sweden and Austria before the end of the year. Then there's the German DJ Eriq Johnson, who'll also be using a remix of "Ua-a-a!" We get a lot of requests from various countries, with people asking us to send them the CD. We don't seem to be suffering from a lack of attention! 

The problem, though, is that even if we can remove the "info-blockade" that surrounds Russia by the means of the internet, this country will still be a third world location in terms of its economy and politics. We've been invited to play by a lot of European festivals, but when you factor in the cost of flights and visas, people have been forced to reconsider things.  Bands from closer, cheaper countries get booked instead of us.

- What would you like to see in order to help the development of Russian web-based music? What's lacking in the Russian web or, more specifically, in the realm of distribution?

Nothing's lacking on line in Russia :)) We're surrounded by an ocean of information but there's a lack of effective filters. Musical journalism seems, basically, to have died; nowadays, every blogger who has gathered a reasonable amount of friends considers himself an expert or trendsetter. That means that a lot of young bands appear from nowhere and are surrounded by instant hype, but - as is often the case - they're just not ready to perform live. And there's probably nowhere for them to perform, anyway, because club owners aren't interested in shrieks of hysterical joy online. They want fixed numbers of real people to attend shows. 

Something else that's missing is a decent ticket-booking service. All around the world, people can buy tickets online with their credit card; in two minutes they can purchase a ticket and be guaranteed entrance to a show. In Russia, though, credit cards are not that widely used and, if you want to get a ticket before the date of the event, it'll probably be sold in some bizarre location - like a clothes store, since record shops have long since gone out of business. The upshot of all that is we have no idea how many people will be at a show - even on the day itself.

...if you want to get a ticket before the date of an event, it'll probably be sold in some bizarre location - like a clothes store, since record shops have long since gone out of business..,

We don't really have much hope for an effective online distribution system. ITunes doesn't officially operate in Russia - and nobody here is ever going to pay 99 cents for each and every track!

- How has your success effected the development of music in your hometown? Maybe you've inspired some friends or neighbors to become musicians? 

There's an element of immodesty here... We did notice that after we became popular, a number of English-speaking groups appeared in Samara and Togliatti. Some of them also had a female vocalist. But it's not as if we christened or blessed any of them in their creative development! To be honest, those ensembles would probably namecheck pop groups from the UK rather than us! :)) In a word, though, the local scene has livened up a little - in the past all you'd ever see was heavy metal and some miserable, classic rock in the Russian tradition.

– How do you see the evolution of Russian pop music and songwriting today? Is it developing - or regressing?

Russian pop music nowadays is moving neither up nor down - it's just trying to find itself some other place in the planet. For the last decade or so, most of the music here has been unrelentingly grim and tedious. And then, all of a sudden, when some interesting bands started to appear, they were all singing in English. That can make it really hard to do well in Russia; we'd love to work in a country under decent conditions, where there was a reasonable selection of venues - and manageable distances between towns, too!

It would be great to live in a place where you could leave the house for a cup of coffee and not be overcome with negative emotions. We don't suffer from any illusions when it comes the possible appeal of our music in the West; we'd simply like to see some a decent working environment - even if the financial benefit were less.

Russian music seems to have two options. It can, perhaps, go in search of its roots and focus on folk traditions - which would take it in the direction of world music, but that brings with it a real risk of cliche and kitsch. Or... it might break away from those roots and develop some kind of unique 'musical Esperanto.'

[Russian songwriting] might break away from its traditional roots and develop some kind of unique 'musical Esperanto'

Take a look at indie music, for example, it contains very little national or ethnic specificity. It's a style that includes proud contributions from Iceland, Ireland... in fact, from everywhere! And you don't see Belgian or Dutch groups waving their flag, do you?

That, we think, should be the path that lies ahead for new Russian music: it shouldn't be Russian so much as European - whatever path the nation as a whole takes.