Sergio Galoyan, one of the authors of t.A.T.u.’s most popular songs, went on Instagram Live to share his views on the performance. The livestream lasted about two hours, during which Sergio talked about the details of the Minsk show, including Julia’s and Lena’s voices, outfits and stage presence. Sergio also engaged with viewers and answered many of their questions. (Please note that the order of Sergio’s comments/answers have been rearranged for the structure of this article. Questions and comments from viewers are in bold).
t.A.T.u.’s Ovion Show Performance
To walked out onto the stage, in a non-contextual way towards the band, for money…come on. Julia and Lena are not poor people…why ruin the image going out onto this stage?
You’re going to think I am hating, but I am not. If I wanted to be a hater I would act like the girls did when we were doing the tribute. Those who paid attention to that time remember that they were checking in on us, writing letters to the label. We weren’t doing anything…so don’t look at me as a hater. I am trying to be objective.
During t.A.T.u.’s Entrance
You can see that they put together something major, the stage is amazing. They found a truck that was used in the clip, they could have used ours. Although, we did not have the one from the video, but it looked similar. You can see there are a lot of people, you can feel the caliber of it, it’s good…The scope is impressive, it has a feeling of the Olympics. This I like. Right away I want to say that Julia looks incredible. Her image, how her skin looks, there are no words, just amazing.
During All The Things She Said
Right away you can hear that Julia’s voice is raspy. I hear a chorus that is doing backup vocals, around seven people. It is either pre-recorded or there are live backup vocals. Julia pleasantly surprised me. She is radiating some kind of sex [energy]. I would not say this about Lena. Lena has some weird hat, gloves. Meaning, I don’t understand how this relates to t.A.T.u. Look at Julia, her hat is cool. Everything is modern and very stylish. Lena, I don’t know. I am not a fashion expert, but personally, in my opinion, I like Julia more. Her voice is not back at all. It comes through barely. I would not recommend for her to sing live with that kind of a voice. Julia, what are you doing? Come on. It hurts to hear.
The show is major, the fire – I like it, it is very cool. Watching Julia, you can see she genuinely likes it and is having fun with what is going on. And she is drawing you in with her energy. The problems with her voice are not resolved, but I like what I see with Julia – *chef’s kiss*. Julia is trying so hard. God, just give her a voice, bring it back please. She would tear it up. But, unfortunately, I think her singing career is in the past. If we are talking about a single and a comeback, I would not record with her.
Julia – skinny, not a single extra pound, an amazing image, her little hat…just an ideal woman.
After Julia says, “Hi Minsk!”.
I hear now that her voice has become a lot better…it is surprisingly better.
During “Ne Ner Ne Boysia”
You can hear that the chorus is singing the high notes, not Julia. That is very obvious for me. I look at Julia and I know she will soon be 40 years old, and to look like that at her age is simply incredible.
During the second verse of “Ne Ver Ne Boysia”
Lena started to sing and I cannot hear her. Either she is singing lower or the sound engineer is hating on her. In general, this is not a professional sound. I don’t know how it sounded in the stadium, but from what I hear it is not professionally done. Looking at Lena is seems that she is forced to sing this. Julia is on fire, trying her best and giving 120% – you can see she likes it and she has missed this. She needs it like she needs air. Lena keeps doing these hand gestures…as if she is here for the money and can’t wait to leave.
They performed this song better. I think the sound engineer screwed Lena up.
During Nas Ne Dagoniat, when Julia screams, “Everyone, everyone , everyone, everyone!”.
It’s surprising that she can even scream…[her voice] is so much better, so much better…Oh, and it’s not even the original instrumental as it turns out. Do you guys know what this instrumental is? For this type of performance they need to agree with authors to do re-recordings. No one asked us for permission, maybe it is an old version. It sound horrible, I don’t know why they don’t use the original. It sounds cheap. The “All The Things She Said” instrumental was the original one, this one is not.
Lena and Julia don’t look in sync with each other because Julia looks stylish, but Lena does not. She has weird pants on, a belt and a beret. This is t.A.T.u. and they are trying to create a 2022 version…Julia looks like a stylist worked with her, who was able to create an original t.A.T.u. image for her. And Lena’s image was created by Boris Renski.
This format is only for the fans who miss the band. For a show-business point of view this is nothing, just getting together to get paid. Going to the place where they pay you the most.
The sound is not very good, I can hear that it is horrendous through my laptop speakers. The sound director, for some reason, is lowering Lena at certain points.
Both Julia and Lena’s singing is at 3 out of 5 stars.
This is not a comeback. A comeback should be in their mother country, in Moscow, like at VK Fest or a solo t.A.T.u. show. The show itself is great, expensive, and professional, except for the sound engineer. This show is good for t.A.T.u. fans because they miss them, but it terms of global show-business, this is not a comeback. ABBA was a comeback after 40 years. They did a new album and they went on a tour. That’s a comeback. I hope I am not too rude, but this is my point of view.
I did not go to the show, even though I was asked. I do not see anything major in this event. I gave an interview about this topic, which should come out any day now. I said that a comeback should include a single, that it should be more major. If you want to have a comeback, it should be done in your home country, in Russia. The largest show in Russia was VK Fest that happened in the summer. If they talked to me, someone, either Julia or…maybe not Lena’s manager, but her friend or someone…I would make them the headliners of VK Fest. It would be super easy for me to do. But they don’t want to perform in Russia, they want to go to Minsk to some strange MMA fight. The whole comeback show should be about them. Without any fighters or other singers. If we knew they were talking at that time of the tribute, we could have created a comeback then. We offered them money for the performance, we were agreeing to all their terms. But for me it remains a riddle as to why they were against it. Who has the answer to this question? Because I don’t.
They got paid €100,000 to perform at a government-sponsored show, as far as I understand – the main point of the show are the fighters. I think it is a miss. Maybe it is massive and expensive show with a lot of production value, but it was hard for me to watch because Julia’s voice is not done recovering. For me this was a performance for money, and I do not understand why. As far as I know Lena got a car as a gift from her husband, who is not a poor man. Why would you want to participate in something like this for such a small amount of money? If they talked to me, we could have created a comeback at the tribute, I would have written them a new song and even a new album if it was necessary. We could have made them headliners at this past VK Fest along with a new single. Instead they choose confusing path. For the fans of t.A.T.u. I will rate this a 7/10. If t.A.T.u. fans were not pissing their pants, I would rate it 5/10.
t.A.T.u. were great. Fans are really happy.
I agree that this small [amount] that they can do will make the fans happy. But I think the comeback should be a bigger thing. Like a new single, a new album, a new history. Yes, fans are happy to see the girls. I am happy to see them together. But, as a professional, I cannot unsee some of the things like Julia’s voice – not ready for recording or singing. Lena, I don’t know what happened to her – she doesn’t hit the proper notes.
Were the vocals live?
I think they were live. If they were not live and pre-recorded, Lena’s mistakes would have been removed. She truly did not hit the notes or the rhythm. It even seems to me that in the second verse of “All The Things She Said” she forgot the words. But it is 100% live and I even think the chorus backup vocals were live.
Julia is performing at 100%.
I agree. I actually think this show was worth having just for Julia, to give this to her. It feels like she has been wanting this performance, like a drug that she did not have.
I get it – you want a good and new production image for t.A.T.u., but at this point they don’t have to be perfect. They are fine.
Yeah, but don’t call it a “comeback” then if they are fine. Are we talking about a t.A.T.u. comeback or a performance for money? This is not a comeback in my point of view.
I think that once again Lena is putting a crown on her own head.
I have this feeling too.
Did Ivan Shapovalov comment on the performance?
I do not know, I don’t keep track of him.
The are both better than they were on The Voice.
I am trying to remember, but I do not think they are that much better.
Something is off with Lena’s voice.
Listen to how she sings – she misses notes, she does not hit the rhythm, she does not sing smoothly. It is hard to listen to.
Maybe Lena is sick?
It could be that she is sick.
I think Lena was really worried and tried to show herself on stage to the max. Julia, on the other hand, was just enjoying herself.
That’s a good theory, it may very well be so. Although Lena is a more professional artist than Julia, simply because she has more experience. She has performed a lot as a solo artist.
Maybe Lena can sing better, but when she has to sing, she misses notes. What do you think are the problems – is it nerves?
I know her. She can sing very well. It seems as if she is not together, maybe she has personal issues. First of all, she overdoes it, it is very obvious. That could only be tied to some kind of depression. I don’t understand it. I know she can sing well and she is not giving this to us for some reason. For instance, I have a guitar and I know it can play well. And if it starts playing badly that means I am playing it badly. This means that something is wrong with me. Maybe she has something in her head, meaning that something is going on in her personal life. According to her photos everything is fine.
I think it was a good start for the girls. Of course, it needs some improvements, but they need a professional team working with them.
Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, Lena does not have anything near a professional team.
They have so many different songs, “Doschitai Do Sta”, “Novaya Model’”, “Kosmos”, but keep singing the same stuff.
I think they sang the most well known songs for this performance. If they sang “Kosmos” it would be a dream come true…Kosmos is probably my favorite song from the second album. I don’t understand why so little covers are done for it. Maybe people have not understood how cool of a song it is. Create more covers for it, please.
It needs to be done in a clever way, with a new single and normal voices. With a high level. You love t.A.T.u. not because they are two girls – it’s because the production, the songs, the music videos were such high quality. To this day no one in Russia could achieve that. It is because of quality, not just because it’s the girls. If we can achieve this kind of quality and this strong team that we had back in the day, we could definitely do it. I don’t see why not.
Of course everything about t.A.T.u. was high quality. But you needed the girls to make t.A.T.u. and they needed you and Ivan Shapovalov to become t.A.T.u. The girls are amazing and they did a very great job tonight.
I completely agree with this statement. But I just heard one song for tonight and the quality, singing wise, was not good enough. The show was amazing. I see the huge budget – the dancers, the band that played…Julia’s look – oh my God, I am in love. She looks like she is 20 years old, so fresh and nice. But the voice is not good enough.
Julia sounds stronger than before.
I agree, she is stronger than several years ago, but that’s not enough.
Julia and Lena’s Voices
Do you think the girls should change the tone of their songs to make them easy to sing?
I think it will not help because Julia is very damaged vocal-wise. She cannot sing, I cannot hear her sing in a normal voice. She has physical problems. She needs to, if she can, at all, recover from that.
Do you think they can successfully create something together if they really come back?
Let’s think – Julia cannot sing, this is a fact. Lena does not sing well, this is also a fact – it is not the first time I have noticed it. I noticed this a lot when she was performing with Olga Buzova. And at this huge show I also hear her mistakes. At least with Lena I can record something, she has a voice. But what do I do with Julia? To record another girl in place of her is not fair. So I did not want to do it. But it is easy to find a similar voice.
When she sang with Olga Buzova, I don’t think she was sober. Although that should not have hindered her from hitting the right notes.
Agreed, maybe she was not sober for this performance either. We don’t know this, I hope not.
Lena’s vocals changed after she released her English solo album.
I don’t think her vocals changed, but her attitude. She seems to be working at 70%, while Julia is at 120%. It’s like Lena wakes up, decides she will performs, does her hand gestures, and leaves.
If Julia’s voice was edited well, then I think it would be as good as the last album.
Producers have secrets as to how to do this. It is a serious and large amount of work.
I recently read an old interview with you where you said the girls did not have great vocal abilities. That you would record their songs in the studio one phrase at a time. Is this really what you think, or what you thought? Or did your words get manipulated in the interview?
When we started recording they were little. We would record phrase by phrase because before the release of the first album, and even the first clip, they just did not have enough professional experience. Then they grew up a lot. On the second album they sang the full length of the track. But then Julia’s voice began to lose her voice, unfortunately.
Here’s an idea regarding Julia’s voice. Think of “Zachem Ya” – you could do it this way. If she did not sing high notes it could work.
Actually, it’s a good idea. So, she would no longer sing, but rap instead with a low voice. It may work.
Sergio’s Relationship with Julia and Lena
Have you made peace with Julia and Lena?
I’ve never not had peace with them, only with their management.
What is your relationship with the girls?
None.
Have you made up with Lena?
No, we have not made up and we did not have a fight. There was an issue with her manager, but I personally never had an issue with Lena.
Which of the girls did you have a better relationship with?
With Lena. Lena and I were close all the time. When we were recording the second album we would hang out, talked, went to restaurants. When I moved to Los Angeles she was already living there and we would go to the studio all the time. She would come over my place when I lived with a girl. We were so close that we would discuss personal moments in life. I became friends with Sasho, her ex-husband. We are still friends – he was recently in Moscow and said he would stop by and go see his son from here. He was here this summer and called him a taxi because credit cards are not working here. So, Lena was not calling him a taxi, I was. I practically paid for his hotel. So I did not have any conflict with Lena, but something changed and I do not know what it was. I don’t believe this relationship can be ruined by some demo. So, I released the [“Believe In Goodbyes”] demo and did not ask for her permission. She is doing the same – I told her not to sing my songs, but she continues to do it. I am sorrowful that our relationship has dwindled. Julia and I were never close. We talked and I always admired her, but we didn’t have a close relationship like Lena and I.
What happened to the notice about Lena not being able to perform your songs anymore?
In Russian law, to forbid someone to sing something you need to go to court. I didn’t go there because it’s too much. I created the notice and then my lawyers told me to go to court, to go down the rabbit hole. But I am not negative, I am positive. When I was angry and emotional, I went to the lawyers and asked them to write it up, but then I thought that it was not worth my time.
t.A.T.u.’s Comeback
Do you think they will get back together to make a new album and do one last big tour?
I hope, but I don’t see it happening. Julia’s voice is much better, but it is not good enough for recording. Only if she raps, which I think is a good idea.
The t.A.T.u. Team
Do you miss t.A.T.u.?
Of course I miss it. What we had was a gift from destiny.
If you, Polienko, and Shapovalov got together you could create something – what is stopping you?
That is such a complicated question. Really, nothing is stopping us except that I do not believe in Ivan as a creative individual. It may sound very strange to you, but I am bringing you internal information – he truly did not create anything. Even the famous “Fuck War” phrase was thought up by Valeri Polienko. I recently talked to him, I even have it recorded on camera that Valeri was the one who created this. The image was created by a stylist. I was the one who created the music. Within this formula, Ivan Shapovalov was just the one who was directing the young singers. He did it well, he directed them well – they did what was asked of them. Right now, in the current context, I do not see how he could be of use here. We created the second album without him and that album is even more favored by some listeners than the first…His role is exaggerated. He is not a genius. All that you know is what is in the the PR that Ivan Shapovalov created back in the day.
Don’t get involved with Ivan, he is a parasite.
I absolutely agree.
Ivan was a parasite to you and is collecting royalties.
You cannot say this any better.
Tell us the story of the forbidden booklet from the first album.
The story is that Ivan stole the co-authorship for my music. The songs which I wrote for the first album, the music for them, I wrote them alone. But when the album came out he wrote himself in as a co-author. This really upset and angered me. This brought a point of an existential crisis. Not only was I an 18 year old who no one knew, but Ivan also decided to step on me. He would release articles that said I was only responsible for the music arrangement and that he was the author of all the music. In the booklet of the album where I wrote most of the music he wrote that I was some school kid and gave it to music pirates. It was a different time then. There was a government company working against music piracy and if you were found as a someone who participates in piracy then people would cut their relationships with you. At that time I had a contract with an important businessman regarding music. He brought me the album and told me, “That’s it, you’re not getting a penny”. I then filed a lawsuit against Universal and Ivan and we stopped the circulation [of the album]…imagine at 18 years old I am stopping the circulation [of the album] by the most famous band.
We saw Ivan’s creativity in the NATO project. People were saying he was crazy. There was no good music there, in my professional opinion, and the project did not exist. How could you take a Jihad girl and invite people to a terrorist-themed concert during a time when everyone is afraid? That’s the extend of his creativity. His mind was always off. The project itself was created by…I will not say because you will say it is not true…I know that the project was created by Alexander Voitinsky. The message was created by Elena Kiper and the lyrics and formalization was by Valeri Polienko. They are all geniuses who, after t.A.T.u., did a lot of good things. Voitinsky and Polienko created the band Zveri. Elena Kiper has written so many famous songs.
We created the first album and I started a lawsuit because of Ivan and our relationship deteriorated. I did not speak to him or the girls. Then I moved to London and back then there really was no internet, so I would get phone calls saying that the [t.A.T.u.] project is falling apart. Martin Kierszenbaum visited me in London and began trying to convince me to return to the project and to write new songs. I asked him if Ivan was still there and he said he would not be around for much longer. This was in the summer of 2003 or 2004. I came to Moscow from London. We had a meeting in this big restaurant with Boris Renski, Julia, Lena my ex-wife Sasha Tityanko (at the time she was not my current or ex-wife) and me. During that meeting I did not notice anything, everything was normal – Julia’s voice was great as if nothing had been damaged. Then Lena and I met up a few times to record demos, which then ended up on Valeriya’s album. The girls came to my wedding around mid-January of 2004 or 2005. Two days after the wedding, Julia and I flew to Los Angeles. Lena was there already, I think. Right when we got to the studio I started to get ready with all the equipment. Julia was the first to go into the recording booth and I was instructing her. And I can see that she cannot hit the high notes. We started going to a phoniatrist, a cool older guy with a white beard who had talking parrots at his house. We would drive from Santa Monica to West Hollywood to see him, I think. I would drive Julia to do these vocal exercises with him. At that point the phoniarist said that the situation is very serious. I then started driving her to Beverly Hills to see doctors so they would prescribe her either injections or sprays. Right at that point is when everything went downhill for her. But I will tell you a little secret – Julia continued to smoke cigarettes. I begged her to stop, at least for the recording period. But she did not stop. Lena and I would record and go onto the roof to smoke and Julia would join us. You could not do anything, she was a little devil.
t.A.T.u. Tribute Show
Last year, when you were planning your tribute, were Lena and Julia speaking to each other, since they decided to do their own tribute?
I have no clue.
They said that their tribute would be in the Spring.
Yes, they said that. Understand that if they plan on doing a tribute I will be the first to know about it. The first thing they should do is come to me and ask me for permission to sing the songs.
Why was Lena the only one who was forbidden to sing the [t.A.T.u.] songs? Julia was also against the tribute it seems.
Julia was not so vocal about it – she did not record any videos about it. She just stayed to the side and was good about it. Julia’s management was also not interfering. If you remember, I told Lena several times that if her manager does not stop trying to mess with our show, then action will be taken. She did not stop, so it was necessary to do. But, the ban was verbal, there was no official law suit. I was counting on her moral compass. If an author is forbidding you to do something, as a self-sufficient artist..for example, if Kirk Hammett called me and said, “Sergio, don’t play my solo anymore. You play it badly.”, I would stop playing it out of respect, even for myself. Here, it is a different situation.
I do not think there will be a tribute because for that you need rights from the authors to cover the songs. I am fine with them, but there are others who are not. Plus, which artists would it be? When we were doing the tribute last year we practically got every one of the top artists from show business. The show was amazing – it was unforgettable, a huge thing. Some songs that were covered became hits for the first time. Who are they going to use now? They cannot invite the same singers. Who will they invite, Mikhail Shufutinsky? We even had Sofia Rotaru and Alla Pugacheva.
The t.A.T.u. Series
I want to know which series Julia and Lena were talking about in 2021.
I think it is what is being released now. These guys wrote to us that they shot a series where two girls are portraying a story. They asked me if they could include songs. I looked at it and decided that it has nothing to do with t.A.T.u. So I think they were talking about this series.
Unreleased Material
Are there any t.A.T.u. songs which we have never heard. Demos which you never released?
No, everything has been released. At least from my archives. I think something may still be left over, I need to look. But not a song. There is an instrumental which was made for the first album. It is there for sure, I have not released it. But it is not a song.
Can you leak the finished, English version of “All My Love”?
I don’t have that, unfortunately. Actually, I don’t have that by t.A.T.u., I have that song by Martin Kierszenbaum and the chorus was “Love me for who I am. I’m yours.” It’s leaked…remind me if it’s leaked or not.
I know Lena has sung “All My Love” in English.
I have not heard that.
Do you have an English version of “Ne Ver Ne Boysia”?
No, I don’t have it. This is not my song.
Did you record [something] for t.A.T.u. in German?
No, we did not record this.
Why was the second album not released on vinyl?
This is a question for the label. If I had the power, I would release it on vinyl and as an NFT even.
Did you have any other songs for them for the third album apart from “Marsianskie Glaza”?
“Marsianskie Glaza” is the only song which I wrote, or gave, to be more specific, to be used on the third album…I wrote some songs for the third album, but then I gave those songs to Valeriya for her album. The ones that were recorded as demos with Lena were “I Know”…two or three songs were for t.A.T.u.’s third album which ended up in Valeriya’s album…We also had “Where Are You?”.
I have heard old demos of “Nas Ne Dagoniat” with alternative lyrics. How many variations were there?
Everything that is online is what exists. The first demo was created on a FastTracker without vocals, only with a melody. Then I re-did it in a dance style at the R&K office. Then we started re-writing the text, then we re-did the music, then we added a beat, then synths. Even the version for the MTV performance was not completed, the music was pretty much done, however. Then Valeri Polienko finished the lyrics.
The “Show Me Love” video seems interesting. Why didn’t they finish it?
Because the team was ruined. Elena Kiper shot all the videos, like “All The Things She Said”, “Not Gonna Get Us”, “30 Minutes”…as I remember. She created it at least. She left the project so Ivan could not shoot the video by himself.
Tell us about “Wrapped Around Your Finger”.
I don’t know what “Wrapped Around Your Finger” is. I don’t know this song.
t.A.T.u. Paragate
Is t.A.T.u. Paragate a reality?
This is the plan I had – to do a pilot version of it. We worked together with Rikani in the summer of last year. She had the idea to bring this all to life. She asked me to write the music, which I did – it’s the EP “Sargas”. We worked together for half a year, I thought of the plot for this cartoon, this pilot episode. We already had plans for a series. I even talked about all of this with Ivan Shapovalov, who gave his permission to do this. Renski also agreed in the end, even though he was having issues with it. If you remember, the Sargas cartoon was released February 2nd, 2021. Exactly 22 days passed and then those things started (referring to Ukraine). All the companies which had budgets…you can understand that to create this kind of cartoon costs a lot. Some studio animators charge a million and a half Rubles (apx. $25,000) for one minute. We needed a huge budget, for at least 10 episodes. And we were in the process, we were planning it. We were writing and coming up with new episodes. And then that thing happened on February 24th, 2021 – and all the companies said they were no longer working with anyone from Russia. The topic is now on pause. If situations improves we can get back to it since we started it. I have intentions of doing a whole show. I think t.A.T.u. is the first album. In part the second one, but the world knows t.A.T.u. for their schoolgirl uniforms and for those same characters as we created in Sargas. I think the band can only exist in this variant – as animated heroes. These are the most famous heroes in the world from Russia. We can do Paragate, we can do a series on this topic, if not for what has started (referring to Ukraine).
Maybe you could try recording a soundtrack to the series with the girls?
If they come to me then maybe we can try it.
t.A.T.u. Music and Videos
Do you have any ties to the song “Obezyanka Nol’”?
Yes, I created the production and the music for this song.
Could you tell us about the meaning behind “Obezyanka Nol’”?
I honestly don’t know because I am not the author of the lyrics, but the author of the music. The meaning of the music which I added to the track is a very deep helplessness. A state when no one in the world can help you and everything around you is freezing. And you want to scream, and you cannot leave this state, and everything is becoming colder and colder…I love the music from this song so much that I re-listen to it. It starts in this “my heart skipped a beat” [way]. And it is such a discovery, I remember how I was jumping when I created that beat. It is so emotional.
Tell us about “Sacrifice”.
The second album started with “Sacrifice”. I wrote it on the guitar. It’s very much in the t.A.T.u. style. When Martin Kierszenbaum visited me in London, we talked and I agreed to write. When I wrote it, I sent it to Martin and was screaming, “Martin, it’s a hit, it’s a hit!”. But, unfortunately, due to a conflict with Martin…it was actually supposed to be the first single. He even wrote the lyrics for this song. But something did not work out.
I think the song “Dangerous and Moving” is underestimated. It’s a very cool song.
I don’t like that song, to be honest.
What do you think of Ivan Kilar’s music for t.A.T.u.’s third album? I cannot listen to it a lot, there are sounds that irritate me.
I cannot say anything bad about my colleague, but Ivan does not reach the level of the first or even second album’s sounds…although the music, for his level, is good.
Do you like the song “Beliy Plaschik”?
No, I do not think it reaches the t.A.T.u. level.
Can you talk about “Pokazhi Men Lyubov’”?
It took a while for it to be born, specifically the melody. I think Valeri Polienko gave me the “pokazhi, pokazhi, pokazhi mne lyubov’” part without a melody. We would meet in the office, I would take the pieces of lyrics, come back home, turn on the FastTracker and think of the melody…it’s nostalgic, like happiness and sadness at the same time…You had something good and you lost it. And then you have this rage, you want to get it back, you want to shake it out.
Which song that you did not write for t.A.T.u. do you love?
The answer is very obvious – “Zachem Ya” written by Alexander Voitinsky. It’s a genius song. It has a strange story behind it. I am Armenian on my father’s side. When I met Arminians they say, “Thanks for the song ‘Zachem Ya’. The duduk part you wrote is great”, and I tell them it’s not my song.
There was a sped-up version of “All The Things She Said” released on Spotify. Who released it? Is it official? Who has the rights to release remixes on Spotify with their name?
I have no idea, I just heard it for the first time.
I read an article that Elena Kiper sang vocals in place of the girls on the first album.
No, this is not true.
Working with t.A.T.u. again
When will you work with t.A.T.u.?
I don’t know. We did the cartoon, we will see later.
It would be cool to have a new single for t.A.T.u. from you.
It is a good, positive thought. If they come to me and were serious about this, with Julia and Lena participating, I would not refuse to record a single.
Maybe you should try [working together], maybe something good would come out of it.
We could try, but what do we do about Julia’s voice?
I was always for working with them. Collaborating did not happen due to some sort of internal reasons on their side. I never understood why we cannot sit down and collaborate.
Other
Do these lives more, I cannot stop watching. It is so interesting, there is so much to find out.
I only go live when people ask me to. If you start asking me to do more lives about specific topics then I will do it more.