Lena Katina was a guest on the “Invoke” podcast where she spoke in length about her start in show business, including her family’s influence, as well as her time in the bands Avenue, Neposedi, and t.A.T.u.. Lena also spoke a bit about her solo project and its future plans. Here are the highlights from the interview:

We saw a couple of times how t.A.T.u. reunited for a specific performance…Can this happen from time to time?
I think so, yes.

Do you need a suitcase full of money for this to happen?
[Lena smiles and nods “Yes”].

And this would be a one-time thing.
Yes, a one-time thing. We, of course, have spoken about being able to do something together, but for now have not come to anything. We worked for so long tougher, and then did not work for so long together. We had a serious conflict and did not communicate for many years, at all. And refused various offers. But time passes, we get older. For us to be upset about something that happened 10 years ago…I am a person which lets things go quickly, I do not like to spend energy on negative things. That is a route to self-destruction and I do not really want to self-destruct, so I will let go and forgive.

What is Lena Katina Music? Do you have a label?
No. This was just a company that was opened at one time. In America, I had a specific type of visa that allowed me to work. To be able to work officially, we created this company called Lena Katina Music Inc. so that we could pay taxes in a specific way, and so on.

I thought maybe you are producing or teaching or promoting people.
No, no, no. I do not feel I have that much experience within myself to be responsible for someone. I am ready to be responsible for myself, for my children…but I am not ready to do this for others. I do not have a feeling that I have accumulated so much that it is now time to give back and share. I will gladly share my experience. But to take someone and make something out of them – first of all, I am not interested in that. Someone asked me if I am ready to teach or to produce. No, I am not a teacher. Ask me and I will answer the question. Artists get invited to seminars, so I could go to something like this and talk about my experience. But god forbid I have to teach someone. What worked for me won’t necessarily work for someone else. Who am I to go somewhere, act high and mighty and teach? This isn’t like teaching math, where everything is linear and clear…I do not feel like I have enough to give to someone else. I can only share, but I do that regularly in interviews.

Tell us a little about your future in creative work. I want you to tell us about the projects or releases you are working on that are not out yet but will be out in the near future…What are you working on?
Well, it hasn’t been that long since I came out of maternity leave. It has been a year since I have been coming back from maternity leave…I began recording music. I thought, “What could I come back from my maternity leave with so that it could be organic?”. Because I am so happy as a mom, a wife. So to sing a dramatic song about love is not logical, silly, and untruthful. I want the material that I create – well, not that I create but the one that authors create, the ones who write these songs – the material which I perform to reflect my internal feelings…right now, as the starting point. I released my single “Mayak” (“Маяк”/”Lighthouse)”. I think if you listen to this song it is very clear what I am singing about. I am singing about how I feel inside currently. Before that I released, what I think was, an absolutely incredible trilogy from my album “Mannequin”…that trilogy contains a psychological series of videos…It is a story of a relationship, the deterioration of that relationship, the pain from the deterioration of that relationship, and finding yourself. Any breakup or ending of a long relationship, whether with work, friends or love, always has trauma attached to it. It is like a small death. And after time passes, you need to once again find yourself. In any relationship people fit themselves to each other. If it is a relationship where something is psychologically wrong, unhealthy relationships, it is hard to get out of it, to make that decision, and to understand where it is that you are. Who are you now without this person. What do you feel and what do you want? So you need to work on it. And this trilogy is exactly about these different stages – the ending and the acceptance of decisions; living through it and forgiving, the stage of grieving and letting go; and third is finding yourself once again. This is a genius video series. Olga Rudenko, my ex-manager, wrote the plot and Konstantin Cherepkov shot it. So you have to watch them in order: “Такси” (“Taxi”), “Белла чао” (“Bella Ciao”), and “Шагать в никуда” (“Shagat’ V Nekuda” / “Stepping Into Nowhere”).

Some say that this is too deep, that they don’t understand it, that people do not want to think, but want to be entertained instead..

You can either meet your audience, lower yourself a little to their level, or you can take the audience and pull them up to the standard of what is interesting to you and have your listeners grow…We start talking about music and still end up switching to psychology.
Because music is also psychology. You know there are music psychologists that talk about specific rhythms evoking positive moods but if you do it differently it will evoke sadness and depression.

Do you use this kind of psychologist?
No. It is not like I write my music from scratch.

But you can explain how you want it to be to them. Can’t you do that?
No. I want a mood. So, for instance, how the song “Mayak” (“Маяк”/”Lighthouse)” was born: I met with the author and I said, “Dima, I want my first song to be a reflection of me at this current moment”. He wrote a cool, happy song which is not too complicated…Now we are moving forward, so there could be a story about the past. The main thing for me was to say, “This is how Lena Katina is right now”. Going forward, I will be looking for repertoire which I like, which I want to sing, which is interesting for me to sing. I try different styles because some people like one thing and other people like another, but to satisfy the audience is impossible. In my opinion, an artist should perform what they like, what is organic or interesting for them…I am not going to say, “Oh, everyone is singing like this so I will too”. No, I won’t do that. This is not for me, it doesn’t suit me and it is not interesting for me. I want to do something that people will pay attention to. I don’t want a response where someone hears it in passing and says, “Hmm, okay cool”, but instead something that creates an internal response.

Do you have some kind of concrete project?
I am looking. I have a single ready, which I will be recording it in the beginning of March.

Is there a working title for it or something?
I don’t even know what the working title would be. We do not have it.

What line will the lyrics start with?
[Off camera] Polina, do you have the lyrics?…”Run or stay”. This is probably a good name for it…We are also waiting for another author to see what he will offer. Sometimes songs are just sent to me. I want something soulful and beautiful. But this will be not such a slow song, not a ballad.