КОРОЛЬ И ШУТ  The King and the Joker: It's Not About the Money!

In the punk festival that took place on May 18 at Gorbushka, one of the most professional performances was done by the St. Petersburg group The King and the Joker, recently gaining wide popularity and even taking the places in the charts of groups such as Chaif and DDT. Shortly before their performance we had a chance to exchange a few words with the leaders of the group Mikhail Gorshenev (Gorshok) and Andrei Knyazev (Prince).

Z.R. Is it worth it to play punk rock right now?

A.K. For us it's worth it, but I can't say anything about anyone else. In St. Petersburg, we can gather a stadium easily.

Z.R.Well, that's in St. Petersburg┘. In Moscow there'll be a performance on June 4- do you expect that kind of crowd?

A.K. We'll see. Gorky Park isn't that much bigger. We're performing at the Petrovsky Stadium in St. Petersburg, its even bigger.
M.G. The only thing is that it'll be in June, and that's when everyone has final exams and things like that. It's always difficult during the summer, but then again, it's hard to spoil it for us.

Z.R.It seems to me that the rock scene is developing more in St. Petersburg than it is in Moscow.

A.K. They just understand that in order to make it big you already have to have money, or some kind of commercial direction. But in St. Petersburg they're another principle- there's more enthusiasm, even in the provincial areas. In Chelyabinsk this new group came up to us, and said: ⌠Okay, you'll see us in Moscow in two years. Right now they're playing punk rock only on their own energy. I look at them and really believe that they're going to make it. They have that drive. Here, meanwhile, everyone thinks that nothing is going to work because they don't have any money.
M.G.No one believes that you can make it without money.
A.K.They say about us that we're possibly the last group that came out this way. Everyone else will have to pay in one way or another. But that's not true- I mean it's possible to get by for free, but very difficult.

Z.R. Someone told me recently that everything will get back on track, and that rock-n-roll will go back into the underground taverns.

A.K.That's not true! We're going to keep on playing.

Z.R. What do you think, can you put the so-called ⌠stars of rock-n-roll■ like Zemphira and Mumyi Troll in the category of ⌠real rock?■

M.G.That's show-business! That's real money! I don't have anything against groups like that, I just don't listen to them.

Z.R.But this year Zemphira won that Best Rock Group of the Year Award from ⌠FUZZ.■

A.K. Well, yeah, and in the past they had Mumyi Troll.
M.G. We've gotten the ⌠Best New Group■ Award every year for the past five years!
A.K.Even when we're not in a group, we get invited to play at FUZZ's festivals, and we go and perform.

Z.R.This year you decided to participate in the tourist rock-festival in Altai. What attracts you more, the concerts or the sport?

M.G.Ha, sport!
A.K. The concerts that they're going to have are great. The horse-riding, swimming contests, parachute jumps, that's fun too, but we're more interested in the festival itself. It's so big, everyone tries to get in it. And that's the most important.

M.G.This winter we already went through Siberia and the Urals- Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Perm┘

Z.R. DDT was complaining recently that there's practically no equipment in Siberia, that no one's really performed live there in a long time┘

A.K.They'd tell us the same thing, saying that if we bring a mini-disk everything would be much simpler┘

Z.R.Did you ever have to sing to a recording?

A.K. Are you kidding? Only if we're filming a music video.

Z.R.Were you not invited to Maxidrom, or you just didn't want to go?

A.K.Both. When they don't invite us, we don't want to go.
M.G.For some reason Maxidrom isn't very interested in us. We'll be performing at a festival in Tushino pretty soon, and I don't think it'll be any worse over there. In St. Petersburg we're participating in ⌠Rock Against Drugs.■

Z.R.Do you have a lot of problems with audiences for those reasons? I mean, drugs and alcohol?

M.G.In Sverdlovsk we were performing in a circus, and the first couple of rows were filled up. Then up from the top these things started rolling down, and we thought they were balls. It turned out they were people- that was their reaction to the people on the front rows.

Z.R.Do you have any plans to film any music videos?

A.K.Yeah, we plan to do two videos from our last album. The director will probably be Alfred Kopasov from St. Petersburg.

Z.R. Is someone sponsoring you in this?

M.G.The director is sponsoring.
A.K.In some episodes he'll actually be in the video. Well, you'll see.

По материалам: www.zvuki.ru