History
In
1998-
1999 their songs could be heard on any major
radio station, their videos were shown on every top
TV channel both in
Russia and
CIS countries. Until now their legendary hits like “Au”, “Ti kinula” (“You Dumped Me”), “Zelenolazoye taksi” (“Green-eyed Taxi”), “V plat’ye belom” (“In A White Dress”) and “Yabloni” (“Apple-trees”) are still popular among all Russian
karaoke singers. Isn’t it the obvious sign of public acknowledgement? So, for “Lyapis Trubetskoy” the way towards
stadium concerts seemed to be open, but…
“We came from the
underground and became popular with our
pop-culture parodies. One day to my horror I realized that our group has become similar to the objects of our parodies and mockery. We were starting to merge with all those pop-star crowd, but I’m not one of them and never wanted to be,” - Sergey Mikhalok, the band’s leader says. He admits that it wasn’t so easy to give up the
show business game and become independent once again.
According to him, “it was very difficult to get our true essence back on top. And the thing wasn’t about any contracts. We had to overcome public opinion and, most importantly, set our own minds free. At first, my internal discomfort from the gap between the authentic “Lyapis Trubetskoy” and its public image was relieved by hard drinking and other stuff, but when my weight peaked at 110 kilograms and my mind was about to collapse, I gave up everything, lost 25 kilograms and started to play the music I like.”
“Capital” is the second independent album by “Lyapis Trubetskoy” after the “Zoloty’ye yaytsy” (“Golden Balls”) created in
2004 under heavy
reggae and
ska influence. “While working on “Zoloty’ye yaytsy” we didn’t understand what to do with our
independence. As a result there were some reflex attempts to score a radio
hit with “Rain’ka” or “Pochtal’iony” (“
Ten O'Clock Postman”), - Sergey Mikhalok says. – But this wasn’t the biggest problem. The whole album was overproduced, we tried to mix too many styles, musical instruments and sounds in it. So, we paid too much attention to the form instead of the essence. We were in need of a real professional who could tell us what was good and what was too much.”
That is why searching for a sound producer was one of the main tasks while working on “Capital”. At some point the band wanted to record their album in
London, in the hometown the legendary British
ska-band
“Madness” (one of Mikhalok’s favourites). When almost everything was ready for that, a chance interfered. At a concert in Kiev “Lyapis Trubetskoy” met a famous Ukrainian sound producer Vitaliy Telezin. He worked with
“Okean El’zi”, “Brat’ia Grim” and other top Ukrainian/Russian artists. But it wasn’t the thing that attracted Mikhalok and his friends.
“We are from the same generation with him, we had common world outlook, we liked the same music. And it was the music we wanted to record on our new album. I don’t want to offend anyone, but, roughly speaking, for our band he is the first studio guy who didn’t need explanations about what is
California wave or how
“Green Day” and
“The Offspring” make their sound,” - Mikhalok says.
And this combination has worked perfectly well. Now it’s already clear that the new album will mean to the band and its fans no less than the legendary “Ty kinula” (“You Gave Me Up”) in 1998 and will give a rise to the new popularity wave for “Lyapis Trubetskoy”. Still, according to Sergey Mikhalok, the
ideology of both the new album and the present group is different from what used to be in the years between these two landmarks. He says: “When I started my career I used to write songs that changed me and the world around me, but later I began to create stuff, that didn’t have influence either on me or the world around. At best those songs could be a soundtrack for some wedding or birthday. And what is horrible at some point I even used to be proud of that. But now I have come back to what everything started from – to a mix of
biting satire and powerful chords.”
Video clips have played an important role in the album presentation. The first clip for the song “Hare” (“Enough”), a cheerful wedding
trash-video, was filmed by a famous actor and new wave director
Vladimir Epifantsev. The second clip, animation video “Capital” (starring
Fidel Castro,
Hugo Chavez and other legendary politicians), which has become a real
Internet sensation, was made by
Aleksey Terekhov, co-author of the legendary “Au” (1998) and “Rozochka” (1999) videos.
The next "Lyapis Trubetskoy" album - "Manifest" - was released in September
2008. The band put their brand new album "Manifest" on direct digital download. "Lyapis Trubetskoy" were the first famous post-soviet musicians, which decided to put their new record online and for free. Two music videos came along with the album - the first one was "Zhlob" -
trash-
punk video, while the second one - "Manifest" - became the first "live-in-concert" band's music video.
The
Cd "Manifest" was released on
30 September 2008.
In
November 2008 "Ogon'ki (The Lights)" music video was released. Not long before its release, the
video won "The Best Animation" award at
ViMUS,
Portugal.
In
January 2009 "Manifest" became "the best
album of the year
2008" according to the "
West Records" top-list and "
The Lenta" music review.
Awards
Rock-Koronatsiya, Belarus
- 1996: Best Lyrics, Best Album – Ranetoe Serdce (Broken Heart), Best Band
- 2003: Best Music Video - Unost' (Youth)
- 2008: Best Song – Capital, Best Music Video – Capital
- 2009: Best Song - Zorachki, Best Album - Manifest, Best Band
Belorussian Hit-Parade:
- 1999: Best Video Montage – “Rozochka (Rose)”, Best Video Operator – “Yabloni (Apple Trees)”, Best Music Video – “Rozochka (Rose)”
Multimatograph, Russia:
- 2007: Best Music Video – “Capital”
MTV RMA, Belorussia:
- 2007: Best Album – “Capital”
ViMus, Portugal:
- 2007: Special Jury Prize – “Capital”
- 2008: Best Animation – “Ogon'ki (Lights)"
RAMP, Russia:
- 2007: Best Music Video – “Capital”
MTV Portugal:
- 2008: Best International Video – “Capital”
Chartova Dyuzhina, Russia:
- 2008: Best Music Video – “Capital”
- 2009: Best Music Video - “Ogon'ki (Lights)"
Stepnoy Volk, Russia:
- 2008: Best Music Video – “Capital”
- 2009: Best Music Video – “Ogon'ki (Lights)”
ZD Awards, Russia:
- 2009: Band of the Year, Rock Project of the Year
Albums
| Year of release
| Original title
| Title
| Label
|
| 2009
| ????????????
| Kultprosvet
| Deti Solntsa
|
| 2008
| Manifest
| Manifesto
| Deti Solntsa
|
| 2007
| ???????
| Capital
| Nikitin
|
| 2006
| ??????? ?? ??????
| Men Don't Cry. Soundtracks
| Birds Fabric
|
| 2004
| ?????????
| Argentina
| Deti Solntsa
|
| 2004
| ??????? ????
| Golden Balls
| Soyuz
|
| 2003
| ??????? ???????? (?????-?????)
| Red Pants
| Birds Fabric
|
| 2001
| ????????? - 2
| Lyapis-dance - 2
| Soyuz
|
| 2001
| ??????
| Youth
| GRAND
|
| 2000
| ??????
| Heavy
| REAL
|
| 2000
| ???? ????????? ????????
| Liked by All the Girls
| Soyuz
|
| 1999
| ?????????
| Lyapis-dance
| Soyuz
|
| 1999
| ???????
| Beauty
| Soyuz
|
| 1998
| ?????? ?????: ???????? ?????? 1992-1995
| Love is gone: archive records 1992-1995
| Soyuz
|
| 1998
| ?? ??????
| You Gave Me Up
| Soyuz
|
| 1997
| ????????? ???????
| Mortal Carnival
| No Label
|
| 1996
| ??????? ??????
| Broken Heart
| Satis
|
| 1995
| ?????? ?????! — Live '95
| Love is gone! — Live '95
| Satis
|
Videography
- 2009 — ???????????
- 2009 — Belarus Freedom
- 2009 — ??????? (The Lights)
- 2008 — ???????? (Manifesto)
- 2008 — ???? (Zhlob)
- 2008 — ?????-2 (Kerch-2)
- 2008 — ??????? ???????? (Golden Antilope)
- 2007 — ??????? (animated version) (Capital)
- 2007 — ??????? (garage version) (Capital)
- 2006 — ????? (by TIK) (Reindeers)
- 2006 — ???? (That's All)
- 2006 — ????? (Sayani)
- 2006 — ??????? (Andrjusha)
- 2004 — ?????????? (Ten O'Clock Postman)
- 2004 — ??????? ???? (Golden Balls)
- 2003 — ??????? (Rain'ka)
- 2003 — ???????? (Swallows)
- 2002 — ???-???-??? (??? ????) (feat. SASHA i SIROZHA) (Gop-Hip-Hop)
- 2002 — ?????? (Youth)
- 2001 — ??????????? (Nobeauty)
- 2001 — ???? (Sochi)
- 2001 — ?????? ??????????? ?? ??? ????? (feat. KARAPUZIKEE) (The love has turned to me back)
- 2001 — ?????? (Doves)
- 2000 — ?? ?????? (feat. MASKY-SHOW)(In The Alleys)
- 2000 — ??? (UFO)
- 2000 — ????? ?????? (Sports have passed)
- 2000 — ??????? (Version 2 - master)(Friend)
- 2000 — ??????? (Version 1 - backwards) (Friend)
- 1999 — ?????? (Appletrees)
- 1999 — ??????? (Roze)
- 1999 — ?????? (feat. Diskoteka Avariya) (You gave me up)
- 1998 — ?????? (You Gave me Up)
- 1998 — ? ?????? ????? (In a white dress)
- 1997 — ?? (Au)