Corr.: Tell us about yourself.
Lyokha: I am a thin lad, was born June 7, 1976 in the city of Novgorod. All my family consists of me and my Mom who brought me up the right way, leaving space for creativity in my life. As a child, when I started playing in the yard, I decided that life on the streets would make me business-like and forget about my dependence on my parents. Later when I realized my helplessness I understood that such a policy couldn't make my dreams real. Years passed by, and once when I was buying a bicycle I asked myself, why do I choose one particular bicycle when there are many absolutely identical ones in the shop?
Before God came into my life, many questions tortured me. The more I got to know about God the more answers to my questions I found, and the more new questions I had. My creativity was boiling up. I started writing poetry, then I wrote my first songs. At that time I was playing doom death metal, and I had no opportunity to embody my songs into life, since our lyrics were written by our percussionist in English.
Corr.: How did you find God?
Lyokha: In time everything changed in my life, and I got involved with some serious projects. At that time I studied at a spiritual seminary in Moscow. At morning prayers (which started very early in the morning) God started unfolding to me a vision that is now fully coming into fruition in my life. At that time it was not realistic, but I believed that if he said something, one day it would become reality. I needed years of experience to grow mature enough for it. Since I bore first fruits, my conscience changed in many ways, and it happened because I had many bumps and lashes that made me obedient to him. I am romantic by my nature, so in order to live and help people like me I had to set aside all religious murk and traditional ideas, and dedicate myself to creativity.
In general, I love travelling very much, especially in forests. I also love to grow fish, I have three aquariums. I love skating, I have even been training for a couple of years, and I dream to make use of it one day.
When I first came to church I wore a dumb black jacket with a picture of a skull burning in fire and a line from the group "Sodom" that I liked at that time. Now I am ashamed of how stupid I was. I remember how I and other crazy philosophers were talking about Daniel Andreev's "The Rose of Winds," "Bhagavad Gita," etc. But the more we got to know the more we understood that in order to believe in something you have to have a concrete foundation for it. So we decided to read the Bible, and we keep on reading it even now. I repented together with Volodya Mikita (ex-guitar player of group "Brothers In"), with all members of my group, and with other musicians who are still serving God.
Corr.: How did you choose a name for your group?
Lyokha: We named our group "The Blackbirds" because of our drummer, who played his drums almost round-the-clock and nearly drove us crazy. Our group "Lyokha and the Blacbirds" used to be called "Vsyo Naoborot" ("Everything the Wrong Way"). The idea of our group came from Alyoshenka "the Sunny." When he was 14, he loved sitting on a bench near his doorway and wrote poetry all night long. His first songs were a result of new impressions of God's intervention into his life. Day after day, his inner life acquired more harmony which resulted in songs. In the beginning it was like a flow of feelings, but then it acquired clear and bright sides which eventually led to the knowledge that you can hear now. Our music is based on deep friendship formed by many difficulties, quarrels, differences in music styles, etc. And in this process God in a special way has glued us together into an interesting picture.
Corr.: How your latest album come about?
Lyokha: I completed this project with much help from my friends. If I tried to enumerate all of their names here, the list would take the rest of this page. Music for this album was prepared for about half a year in my head, and then for several months at the studio. I have been writing lyrics for this album for two years, in different cities where I lived. I had to do everything on my own, with my friend V. Kosyuk providing me with a lot of technical help. Arrangements were made at his studio, guitars and vocals were recorded and mixed at studio "Hoosh Sound" in the city of Nickolayev; one song was recorded in Kiev, at studio "Rema." Nine of my favourite songs were recorded on the album "Things That Are Not, As Though They Were."
Corr.: How do your songs come to you?
Lyokha: Many of them costed me a lot because they were a consequence of God's guidance and situations in my life that I've been waiting for for years. None of these songs is just a formula or somebody's verses, all of them are part of me. In my songs I tried to express daily life, life "as is," with no high-falutin' words.
Corr.: Who do you write and perform your music for?
Lyokha: I think this album addresses two categories of people: those who don't perceive objective Christianity, that is, those looking for something more than professionalism or fashionable music, and unbelievers who have a more romantic and mysterious look at life, see small things in it and study them. We create because we see that contemporary songs are poor. At the maximum, we want to tell people about the reality of life with God and bring a new stream of music into Christianity. Our music is mostly aimed at people who are mature personalities and need a deeper understanding of inner spiritual life. But we are not limited with this, there are some new projects aimed at informal people. By the way, we are going to publish a funny collection of verses, including jocks and, certainly, about love.
Corr.: What are the musicians doing today?
Lyokha: We moved to Kiev, having left our homes and our friends in order to dedicate ourselves more to music. Our experience has shown us that whatever you do without God is senseless. We want to say that a song can be called a song when it becomes a way of living. We want to sing and play the sings that we live, and that is why God has given us such circumstances that we can hope only for his mercy. We have no producer, and therefore our life is quite rough, we have to do everything on our own. And you know guys our advice to you is that if you want to write great music, find a great Source. |