KOMA

Scorpio: Let me start by congratulating you on the new album!

Alexander: Thanks.

Scorpio: I won't bore you with "tell us your band history" — it's covered in enough detail on your website — but there are a few things I'd like to clarify. How do you manage to stay together for so long?

Alexander: It surprises us sometimes too :). Perhaps the key is having a clear sense of why you spend time together — for us that's obvious: doing what we love, regardless of what anyone else thinks. And of course, you have to respect each other.

Scorpio: What does it feel like after being in a coma? And what does it feel like being in KOMA? Is there anything in common?

Alexander: After a clinical coma, you're left with a sense of calm — you know that death on Earth isn't the end of the road. Being in KOMA gives you a feeling of perpetual creative restlessness, which is actually a joy, and that's the main difference between the two states. What they share is uncertainty. In a clinical coma you don't know which side you'll end up on. Once you're back on this one, you ask yourself: "why am I still here?" And you start to understand that you probably haven't finished what you were put here to do. Maybe write another couple of albums? KOMA's uncertainty lies in the fact that right up until the last moment we never know what the next record will sound like — they're all very different. The only thing they have in common is monstrous eclecticism.

Scorpio: By the way — is Gudwin your real surname, or a nickname borrowed from Volkov?

Alexander: It's a nickname that stuck with me back in deep adolescence and eventually became a creative alias, which these days gets used far more often than my actual surname.

Scorpio: Your website biography mentions material losses suffered by the band members. What was the most costly loss? The most recent one?

Alexander: Fortunately, we don't get too hung up on material possessions, so it's hard to say which loss was the most significant. To run through the list: repeatedly wrecked cars, lost phones, cameras, stolen guitars, pedals, drum hardware, cymbals — and so on.

Scorpio: Your gear has been stolen too?

Alexander: Yes, we've been cleaned out on the equipment front a few times as well.

Scorpio: Alright, let's move on to recent events. How did the recording of "Oskolok Zvezdy" go? Any major disasters?

Alexander: More than enough disasters. Amps and effects not delivered to the studio on time, lost optical cables and microphone windshields, chainsaws cutting down trees outside the studio windows, recorded parts mysteriously vanishing — and much more that slowed the whole process down. The details were covered regularly on our website. In the end, one fully recorded song was deleted — it had been recorded but didn't fit the album's concept, so we were saving it for later, and the sound engineer accidentally deleted it along with the rough mixes. All those setbacks pushed the album back by at least six months.

Scorpio: Why was the decision made to release the album in two formats?

Alexander: People in our country — especially in the regions — aren't yet well-off enough for everyone to have a CD player. Many still listen to cassettes, so we didn't want to deprive them of the chance to hear our new material.

Scorpio: Is that the face of the KOMANchero chief on the cover?

Alexander: Ha! Another theory. We've heard everything about that cover — from a death mask of Pushkin to artwork from one of Castaneda's books.

Scorpio: So who or what is it, actually?

Alexander: The story remains murky to this day. Five or six years ago I came across an image that caught my eye. I thought it would work nicely somewhere in an album sleeve, but the right moment never came and it sat gathering dust in my desk drawer. I only remembered it when the question of a cover for the new album came up. The designer and I worked it up further, and it turned out to be perfectly in tune with the album title. Maybe it really is a "star fragment."

Scorpio: How long did it take you to write the songs on the album?

Alexander: "Oskolok Zvezdy" includes both brand-new tracks — like "Shakh, Mat" — and some older ones. "Rasplata," for instance, was written back in the days of the "Tsepy" album, about ten years ago. Some pieces are two or three years old.

Scorpio: Was the instrumental track "Mysli" written during the sessions, a kind of improvisation?

Alexander: No, it was written a very long time ago, and only ended up off our debut album by some absurd accident.

Scorpio: Interesting idea, too — using it as a wrapper around the fast, aggressive track "Rasplata."

Alexander: Originally they were one composition, and it was only during the mixing stage that I realised it deserved to exist on its own. It turned out well, I think.

Scorpio: Whose idea was the video for "Kakaya Raznitsa?!" ("What's the Difference?!")?

Alexander: The endless chain of military operations in the East and retaliatory terrorist attacks around the world gave rise to this song — which isn't typical of us. As I was writing the lyrics, images from news broadcasts kept flashing through my mind, so the idea for the video came to me at the same time as the idea for the song itself.

Scorpio: And who directed it?

Alexander: As it happens, there are two videos for this song. Responsibility for the version on the disc lies with me and our sound engineer Alexei Korolev. The second version — made by the "Autopilot Production" studio — hasn't been released anywhere yet; it may appear on some future video release. What makes it interesting is that it features Gorshok and Knyaz from the band "Korol i Shut," who participated in recording the track. We'll definitely put both versions on our website: www.koma.

Scorpio: As I understand it, the bulk of the material is cut from news broadcast footage?

Alexander: Yes — an acquaintance of ours who works at one of the central TV channels did a great job digging through the archives :), and he also had exclusive footage of his own from conflict zones, which he kindly provided. For the sake of dynamics, we mixed that with studio footage and ended up with quite a coherent product.

Scorpio: The multimedia section of the disc doesn't stop at the video. There are also photos and lyrics. Whose idea was the multimedia component?

Alexander: I tend to be the main generator — and executor — of ideas in the band. The multimedia idea was no exception.

Scorpio: Perhaps you should have included the band history on the disc too?

Alexander: I thought about it, but that would partly undermine the role of the website — there's a button in the multimedia section that takes you straight there, and it has practically everything. Although, given that not all computer users have internet access, maybe we should have included the history. We'll do it on the next disc.

Scorpio: Discs like this are excellent for media — all the material you need for a published interview is right there!

Alexander: Absolutely fair point! :)

Scorpio: As they say, those who need to, notice. :) By the way, the disc includes shots from the album photo session — not just the ones in the booklet, but some others too. Why were the "serious" photos chosen for the booklet rather than, say, the fun one where you're in a frame?

Alexander: The musical and lyrical weight of the album doesn't lend itself to cheerfulness, so we went with those shots. The other photos will find their use in time, I'm sure.

Scorpio: Are there any plans to re-release your earlier material? I'm sure many fans are keen to get your whole discography on CD.

Alexander: We'd love to release on CD the material that was never in that format, and also re-release our previous album. The contract with "Misteriya Zvuka," which put it out, expired recently. But we haven't settled on a label yet.

Scorpio: How did you come to know Kirill Nemolyaev?

Alexander: Kirill, as the author and host of the TV show "Nerzhaveika," wanted to film a music video for "Skorbnoe beschuvstvie" from our debut album. The show got cancelled, the video was made by other people, but the friendship with Nemolyaev has continued to this day. Moreover, together with him we've recorded several albums for the BONEY NEM project.

Scorpio: How do you see BONEY NEM? A release valve — a chance to step away from the serious creative work of your main band?

Alexander: That's a big part of it. Also, in KOMA we rarely do covers, so BONEY NEM is arrangement practice for us. And of course it keeps us in consistent live form.

Scorpio: And you're good friends with KOROL I SHUT.

Alexander: KiSh have been friends of ours for a long time. We met at a festival on Lake Baikal. They're great guys — they always invite us to their shows, and sometimes come to ours. When I suggested to Knyaz and Gorshok that they take part in recording our track, they didn't make a fuss — they agreed straight away.

Scorpio: What do the KOMA members do in their everyday lives?

Alexander: Unfortunately — or perhaps fortunately — we play music that is so uncommercial that, alongside making music, we have to earn a living in other ways. Drummer Anatoly Natarovsky works at a construction firm; guitarist Nikolai Golubev is a set decorator at a theatre. Second guitarist Arkady Lebedev is quite successfully making electric guitars. As for me, I've held so many jobs over the years — night watchman to furniture factory director, including art director at one of the first music clubs in Petersburg and editor-in-chief of a music publication — that it would take a whole separate interview to cover it all. :)

Scorpio: KOMA questionnaire: your attitude to… KOMAriquoes and other blood-sucking insects.

Alexander: A cautious attitude toward insects — and a brotherly one toward other bloodsuckers. We're the same kind ourselves. :)

Scorpio: KOMANcheros, westerns, and the work of Fenimore Cooper.

Alexander: I've been a fan of Native Americans and everything connected to them since childhood. I have a negative attitude toward the Yankees who drove them into reservations. If I'd lived in America, I'd have been a fighter for the rights of the continent's indigenous peoples. :) Incidentally, that's partly what the song "Gde-to" on the last album is about.

Scorpio: Team sports.

Alexander: Since sport and music have something in common, my attitude is positive — especially since we are also a team. :)

Scorpio: KOMANdos and other computer games.

Alexander: A very cool attitude — toward the computer, that is. I don't play them myself — it feels like a waste of time, and there's never enough of it as it is. I feel sorry for people who are hooked on games (it's an addiction, after all). I think it stems from having no goal in life. :(

Scorpio: And a couple of inventions: KOMArons — Food periodically consumed by us on tour. KOMAplast — An unreleased KOMA vinyl record. KOMAlot — A device for picking up the band's vibrations from a distance. Used, for example, by fans to locate the club where KOMA is playing. KOMAphone — A device for listening to recordings of KOMA. KOMAZ — Transport provided by concert tour organisers for transporting our musicians. Variants range from Neoplan coaches and minivans to commuter trains and route trams. :)

Scorpio: And the traditional finale: a few words for the fans and readers.

Alexander: I want to wish everyone inner and outer balance. Spend more time doing what you love, and listen to more good, varied music. And a huge thank you to you for the interesting questions.