Ляпис Трубецкой

Lyapis Trubetskoy were once at the top of the charts in their country, as well as in the ex-Soviet Republics. Mid-way through their career, not content to merely churn out, they decided to shed their pop-star image and get real about their music and lyrics. And so they became an independent band with a cult-like following of loyal fans.
 
“We crawled out of the underground and became known by parodying the pop culture around us. That wasn‘t hard, it‘s a good deal more difficult to maintain originality and artistic spirit. I was deeply horrified one morning when I understood that our band had become the very thing we endlessly mocked. Now we‘ve gone back to the source. Driving rock and sharp satire are enough to keep us happy and to keep audiences going wild at our concerts,“ says Lyapis Trubetskoy leader, Sergey Mikhalok.
 
In a much politicized environment of their homeland, Belarus is the last country in Europe run by a strong-arm man, LT is also independent politically: “We were never in support of the current regime nor of it’s opposition. We’re not calling on people to hit the streets and riot. My grenade must explode inside people’s heads. To wake up the sleeping masses, that’s our main goal”, declared Mikhalok.
 
And wake you up they shall … They caused a real stir with their ’07 album, Capital, the title song and video, in which they slam the current obsession with wealth and war and portray defiant dictators Fidel, Hugo, Belarus’ own Lukashenko, Kim, Mahmud and Saddam as pseudo-religious icons. The poignant message hits home, whether you’re an anarchist or a republican. The clip was banned from airplay in Belarus and Russia, of course, but won numerous awards everywhere else and is a real hit with the YouTube masses.
 
Now Lyapis Trubetskoy fills venue after venue in Russia and countries around. Lyapis Trubetskoy is conquering audiences both with their new heavier ska flair and older punk pop hits. Front man himself, together with unique band’s style, get energetic ska punk lovers jump, sing and dance, while also boasting an enviable pop following. In 2009 they won the RAMP (Russian Alternative Music Prize) and became the best alternative band of the year 2009.
 
Wild as punks and subtly politically incorrect, the group never misses a chance to make fun of even those things that are closely protected by dogma or censorship.
 
Contagious rock melodies tinged with ska and punk, together with lyrics that are filled with dark humor, have charmed even the spoiled critics of Western music who, up until now, had rarely given Eastern European rock music a second thought.
 
On March 11 Belarussian band Lyapis Trubetskoy will release its new album ‘Vesyolye kartinki’. According to Sergey Mikhalok, leader of ‘Lyapis’, it will be fundamentally different from the triology ‘Kapital/Manifest/Kultprosvet’. ‘The previous three records were like an attack musically and following along one red line lyrically’, Mikhalok explains. ‘For us it was important to express our ideology. That’s why we straightened the musical expressions, so that they didn’t embellish or distort what we wanted to get across to our audience. With ‘Vesyolye kartinki’, on the other hand, not ideas, but emotions came first. That’s why we decided to refuse any dogmas and destroy our own stereotypes about the sound of Lyapis Trubetskoy.’
 
Many guest artists, playing traditional or electronic instruments took part in the recording. But despite all experimentality of the arrangements, the songs, that made it onto the new album, are more like lyrical chamber music - much more than anything Lyapis have written the last four years.
 
According to Sergey Mikhalok, these songs perfectly fit Lyapis’ concert programme. ‘In the last years our programme had turned into a musical ‘hammer’, like a tank. Apart from maybe ‘Ogonki’, we didn’t play any slow compositions any more. But the tracks from ‘Vesyolye kartinki’ will make our concerts more interesting and give the audience as well as us some minutes of emotional rest for meditation.’
 
The album ‘Vesyolye kartinki’ will be presented at big concerts in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk and Warsaw.
 
The tour promoting the new album will start on February 10 with a series of concerts in Belarus and the Ukraine.