Hello to Rostov! My name is Oleg, from the web portal www.themetallist.com. Congratulations on the new album! Please describe the process of working on the material. How did the recording go compared to previous albums — harder or easier? If harder, where did the difficulties lie, and how did you overcome them?
Stanislav Ivanov: Hello. Thank you for the congratulations. The album is indeed in production at the moment, and its release is fully confirmed. Since the release of "Destiny" was pushed to early 2008, it turns out to be the first album — not counting reissues and remixes — in the past five years: "Remembrance" came out in 2003. That's quite a stretch of time, but strangely we don't feel the passing of it. Despite the long gap, the recording process was considerably smoother than the debut — where every song was a revelation, and the work involved in realising each one technically meant sleepless nights and bouts of depression. Back then we had only enthusiasm and an irrepressible creative drive. Now we have the accumulated experience of past releases and our own studio setup, which we continue to expand. So this time the whole recording process went through surprisingly calmly, deliberately and unhurriedly. The result feels the same — considered and even.
Whose idea was the album artwork — Kostya "Bonez," or one of you? Is the cover concept linked in any way to the lyrical content of "Destiny"? And is the album's lyrics conceptual at all?
Stanislav Ivanov: The design was realised entirely by Konstantin "Bonez" Viktorov. At the very start we gave him rough versions of a few of the album tracks, and from there he developed an idea for the cover, then a concept for the booklet. We broke the artwork process into several stages. Our job was to do a photo shoot in the style he proposed and supply him with sheet music and song texts. The album's lyrics aren't a sequentially told story and aren't directly linked to the visual content of the booklet. The songs are connected only by mood and the themes that run through all our work.
Judging by the cover and the promo photos, you seem to have drawn on the aesthetic and atmosphere of 19th-century England. Why that particular period — if I've read it correctly?
Stanislav Ivanov: That's right, but only partially. The booklet transports us to the nineteenth century, but the setting is unspecified. It's a composite image, an abstract space, surrealism. Do you remember that "strange place" in the song "Flowers in the Puddle"? More than eighteen images were used as the base collage for the cover alone, with a drawing laid over them. Our characters travel through time and space throughout the booklet: there's the clock of the Gare d'Orsay in Paris ("Broken Time Machines"), streets of St. Petersburg ("Never Crossing Lines"), the Hermitage ("Eternity Awaits") and a simply russian landscape ("Destiny").
Still on the promo photos — what role do the nuns at the piano play? Are they just an image, or were these women involved in the album's recording? And why are there six people in the photo if the band is generally considered to consist of only two musicians — Stan_I. (Stanislav Ivanov) and MS (Mikhail Sokolov)?
Stanislav Ivanov: Because "Destiny" is the result of six people's collaborative work, with a large number of guest musicians on top. The people photographed in the booklet and promo photos took part in the album's recording. As characters, however, they play a purely decorative role and are unconnected to the content. All the costumes were chosen at random from the stock of the Rostov Youth Theatre, where the album's photo shoot took place. We weren't trying to construct a unified narrative. We simply tried to bring together some characteristic figures of that era whose costumes we borrowed — for example a Barbados nun from the production of "Captain Blood's Ocean" and Gogol's civil servant Yaichnitsa from "The Marriage," Sandyrev from Ostrovsky/Solovyov's "A Happy Day" and Natasha from Chekhov's "Three Sisters."
Does the material's style differ from your previous albums? In what way? What can we expect that's new?
Stanislav Ivanov: As I mentioned, the new record will be more considered compared to the earlier ones. On the album we aimed for a unified, ensemble sound, and I think we've achieved it. We simplified the rhythm section and strengthened the bass line — live bass guitar is used in virtually all the songs. A large number of live instruments are involved: viola, trumpet, guitar, acoustic guitar, a string quartet. But despite all the changes, in terms of sound and — most importantly — mood, this is still unmistakably Stillife. Though I may be wrong — the last word always belongs to the listener.
As is known, during the recording of "Remembrance" (2003) you collaborated with German darkwave stars ENDRAUM — you remixed their track "Traumstaub" and they reworked your "Only Silence." In 2005 the album "Memories" appeared, featuring remixes of your songs by Endraum, In My Rosary, Mark Thornton and Butterfly Messiah. Are you happy with that collaboration, and who else would you like to work with?
Stanislav Ivanov: Despite the fact that our communication with Endraum is mostly virtual, we've accumulated many collaborations over the years. Many have been released, but there are also some waiting for their moment and still unpublished — for example the joint track "Stadt kalt krank (Seven Days)," made along the same lines as "Lose No More" for "Memories," only this time the composition and the initial invitation came from Endraum. We enjoy working with them and I very much hope the feeling is mutual, with more successful joint projects ahead of us. We're currently continuing to collaborate with other musicians from the European alternative and dark scene. Ralf Jesek (In My Rosary, Derrière le Miroir, Mary's Comic, etc.) took an active part in the new album — he served as sound engineer and recorded additional guitar, keyboard and backing-vocal parts on several tracks.
When are your first "Destiny" support shows planned, and where? Is a promo tour on the cards? Where would you like to play?
Stanislav Ivanov: Unfortunately, there will be no live shows in support of the new album. At the moment Stillife is exclusively a studio project.
A brief aside: are you interested in the political life of the country?
Stanislav Ivanov: No. Politics, religion and other institutions of mass management don't interest me at all. Not in the least.
Do you read much? If so, what genres do you favour, what have you read recently, and what would you recommend to our readers?
Stanislav Ivanov: I've been noticing lately that I've almost completely abandoned music and films and am reading a great deal. Mostly audiobooks across a very wide range of genres — it saves time enormously (I'm currently finishing the "Modeli dlya Sborki" series). Less often I read on a PDA. When time allows, though, there's nothing like proper paper books. Mainly russian and international classics, though contemporary authors also occasionally produce genuine masterpieces. For instance, I recently devoured Pavel Sanaev's "Bury Me Behind the Baseboard" in one breath, with absolute delight. Previously I only knew him as a film dubbing translator, but this book revealed a whole other dimension of his talent.
Where did the idea for the LESNIKOV-16 project come from?
Mikhail Sokolov: In the year Lesnikov-16 appeared (late 2004), synth-pop in our country was at the height of its popularity — more and more synth-pop projects were emerging on the russian scene and more and more people were getting into synth culture (including metalheads, goths and others). We spontaneously reacted to the situation and decided to make our own contribution — but in a different direction. The idea was born completely by chance. I showed Stanislav a synth-pop sketch I'd written between tracks for Stillife. He dashed off lyrics on the spot — almost literally on his knee — and we recorded the vocals. That's how "Penetrator" and Lesnikov-16 were born.
The albums are called "Angels of the Cosmos" and "Demons of the Cosmos." Do you actually believe that angels and demons live in outer space? What about heaven and the underworld?
Mikhail Sokolov: "Angels of the Cosmos" is nothing other than a carefully thought-out pastiche, inspired by our childhood memories. In the early-to-mid 1980s we watched old Soviet fairy tales and sci-fi films, and also foreign sci-fi masterpieces on video. In those years nobody was filling children's heads with "heaven" and "the underworld." Where else should angels live? Far up in the sky, in space. And since good forever battles evil, the demons live up there too. :)
Does LESNIKOV-16 have a future? If so, what are the plans?
Mikhail Sokolov: "Angels of the Cosmos" opened up a new horizon for us — artificially, perhaps, but it created a strange world from fragments of childhood and the present day, so there's no desire to abandon the project. Right now Lesnikov-16 is in suspended animation, of course — but there are ideas for continuing it. Time will tell whether they can be realised, but it's too soon to give up hope.
Thank you for your answers. I wish you continued success, strong sales for the new album, and the advancement of the russian gothic culture into the "wild" West!
Stanislav Ivanov: Thank you. In the new year I wish you even more great music and interesting releases for your collections. The new Stillife album comes out on 4 February 2008 on Irond. If you enjoy it, don't miss the limited digibook edition of "Destiny" — with the full artwork and bonuses — which will follow a little later, possibly this spring.