Backflip: “Leap of life in the name of love and goodness. "New People": Backflip What kind of rap do you like?

These guys don't fish in troubled waters. You could or will be able to verify this once again by listening to their album “Tree”. They don’t play “Russian rap” or “underground hip-hop”, from which the only grimace in the form of a twisted mouth has long appeared. This team will stretch your mouth into a full smile with their truly fun and positive music..

– Who does the Backflip?

Vanya: Backflip is a group that formed in 2011. All members of the group had previously played in various musical groups, but we were united by our love for reggae and hip-hop! At the moment the group consists of six members: Vanya (songwriter, founder of the group, part-time rapper), Syr (music author, co-founder of the group), Sasha (vocalist and face of the group), Slava (guitarist), Sasha (guitarist) and Roma (saxophonist).

– Almost two years were spent preparing the album. Why so long?

Sasha: The first album was like that, an “embryo”, then the group was just being born, the style, tastes, and composition of the group were being formed. This took a long time. Subsequent albums, I hope, will be written faster. This is a creative process, it cannot be calculated in time. In general, I would like to someday make songs like Jamaican musicians - several albums a year - live in a large studio hut with a beautiful view of the sea and give birth to new compositions every day, this is wonderful!

Cheese: It took a long time to make the album because we were working on several other projects at the same time. Plus, at first it wasn’t entirely clear what kind of music we wanted to play. For a long time Sasha was taught to sing (laughs).

– Reggae can be seen with the naked eye. How is it possible that it is Ukrainians who basically preach this style?

Sasha: I don’t think anyone is preaching the reggae style in Ukraine. This is more likely to be done in Africa, the country where this music was born. In the CIS, many people try to copy reggae, imitate, making reggae fashion, forgetting that reggae music is, first of all, a religion, a special attitude to life, a view of the world. Personally, I am incredibly interested in this music, Africa in general, its culture, its people. Therefore, I do not call myself a Rastafarian, but simply study the history of reggae, the culture and religion of Africans. Maybe someday I will braid dreadlocks and go live on the Caribbean coast in a cozy bungalow (laughs). For now we are just learning, studying this style, trying to do from the heart, as we feel.

Cheese: Why are there many singing groups in Ukraine? We had Micah - it’s hard not to inherit him (smiles).

– I listened to all your songs – from the first to the last. And it seems to me that the basis of the lyrics, and the music too, is a certain philosophy that you developed. Is it so? And if so, could you formulate it for us?

Cheese: The philosophy is simple - we do what we first like. Many performers, although they say that they do it from the heart, often still focus on a specific audience, trying to please it, or a certain style of music that is now fashionable, etc. But people will always hear falsehood in songs, even subconsciously.

Sasha: Our mission is to spread goodness, to talk about what we have experienced, to talk about mistakes that are so important not to repeat, to sing about love that can change the world.

Vanya: All the songs written in the first album are the embodiment of our thoughts, which especially excite us at certain periods of time. For example, even now, not all texts are as close to me as the author of most texts as at the time of writing. But I’m glad that I managed to capture my experiences and emotions on our first disc.

– The Beatles, in their yellow submarine, constructed their own, different reality: good, evil, blue, yellow. And if you had to create your own world, what would it be like, and who exactly wouldn’t be there?

Cheese: Definitely, it would be a world without cruelty, wars and bloodshed. A world in which all people are equal.

Sasha: The world of intangible values.

Vanya: World of love.

– In the song “Who’s Here” you talk about the duplicity of every person. If you imagine the Back Flip as a single soul, then which of you represents which side? And is it possible to say that one side of the soul is worse and the other is better?

Sasha: Of course, Vanya is the conscience and the main position in our team. Like a cricket from a movie about Pinocchio. There are too many dark spots in my past, but now I am a completely different person. In general, Vanya is probably the conscience of the group, and I am a kind, trusting soul who doesn’t know which side to take. He is my friend and guides my spirit. This is the rhyme.

Cheese: All band members are very different. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. And I think everyone has both a good and a bad side of their soul, there’s no getting around it. Everything is in balance, and our task is not to allow the dark side to prevail over the light side and not to succumb to temptations.

Vanya: We are all trying to overcome the bad side in ourselves. It is different for everyone, but everyone has it to some extent.

– The name of your group seems to me to be part of a certain general concept of your philosophy. What does a backflip mean to you and why is it worth doing?

Sasha: The name of the group came about when I decided to do a backflip with Vanya at an event and landed head first on the concrete floor, losing consciousness. I could have died then, but now, remembering this story, I like to bring a little philosophy into it - for me it was a leap “in spite of.” Contrary to all rules and regulations. We wanted to amuse and surprise everyone. A Backflip for me is a leap of life in the name of love and goodness. This is a Leap of joy and an outburst of emotions, a leap for the better, a kind of cry from the soul.

- “The Sky in the Eyes”: “I put on my Freedom, I leave the house, I order the weather from the sky”... And what is your Freedom like?

Sasha: Now, being in Crimea by the sea, answering this question, I’ll probably answer that freedom for me is right here: on the mountain, where you can see the beautiful sea, next to friends and family.

Cheese: This is an opportunity for me to do what I love.

– “Song about Love” turned out to be truly heartfelt, and most importantly, sincere. Is it because she sounds in a great duet with Lera Funk-U? Tell us more about this work!

Sasha: We wanted to do this duet for a long time. In this song, everyone sang about their love, Vanya, in turn, put his own love into the words of the song, and Cheese put his love into the music. Maybe that’s why it turned out so easy and gentle. Because everyone loves someone...

Cheese: My favorite composition from the album, first of all, because it turned out exactly as I wanted, even better.

– I’ve seen a couple of your performances and I must say that the band looks just great live. Does this mean that the stage is preferable to the studio?

Cheese: On the one hand, the joy of the people who came to the concert, their energy, which is transferred to you, on the other hand, an indescribable feeling of happiness during the creation of a new song, when after leaving the studio you want to fly.

Sasha: When some time passes without concerts, I begin to experience shadows of depression. For me, concerts are my life, my love and joy.

– The track “Weekend” has become especially popular and many on social networks quote the chorus. How was the hit created? Maybe there is some story connected with it?

Vanya: This is the only song in the creation of the lyrics of which I did not participate. The song was written by our friend Ball. We heard it at the demo stage and offered to sing with him, he agreed. This is how this wonderful fun track was born (smiles).

– What do Backflip participants like to do? Do you have a hobby?

Cheese: Video games. I collect game consoles. Other hobbies are related to music.

Sasha: I love riding a bike. I also collect Rastafarian bracelets and African percussion.

Vanya: I was already thinking... Perhaps all my hobbies are related only to music... I don’t know whether to be sad because of the lack of other hobbies or, on the contrary, to be happy (smiles).

– Thank you guys and good luck in your musical activities!

The Kiev group does not hesitate to write songs about how good it is to be kind.

“I also wanted to say that it is important for us in our creativity to pay great attention to such human values ​​as kindness, love, mutual assistance and unity,” this is how Vanek, MC of the group “Salto Back”, ended the interview.

We have written more than once about the fact that she plays good hip-hop, which is atypical for us. But this is not her only advantage. “Salto” sounds very fresh and manages to avoid any unpleasant clichés (and in their chosen genre this is oh so difficult). A lot of songs about peace and love are written under the weak beat, but not all of them want to be listened to again. And these things can stay in your player for a long time: sometimes touching, and sometimes noisy, hinting that their authors listened not only to Bob Marley, but also, I don’t know, Major Lazer.

It was worth telling in more detail about the unusual Kyiv group a long time ago. Moreover, she herself willingly does it.

Kathe name appeared

We should probably start with the fact that we are three main members - me, Sasha Tab (who sings) and Cheese (beatmaker). Cheese and I have been making music together for a long time and have been members of several bands. Sometimes they acted as sound producers for some artists. One day we heard our friend Sasha Tab singing reggae - despite the fact that he did it purely for himself and did not intend to do it seriously. We offered him our help: Cheese wrote the beat, I wrote the lyrics, and that’s how the first song turned out. We were pleased with the result and decided that we needed to continue in the same spirit. When three songs appeared, we started thinking about what to name the group.

Since it was built around Sasha Tab, they decided to tie the name to him. And a few weeks before, at one of the parties, Sasha Tab decided to remember his youth and breakdance among the b-boys. To surprise everyone, he did a backflip jump off my back. Having jumped, he didn’t complete the spin and fell headlong onto the concrete floor. After which he lost consciousness for a couple of minutes. We were all in shock, pumped him out, poured water on him - after a while he came to his senses and the first thing he did was... he started laughing loudly.

We took this name into account; of all the ones we came up with, we liked it the most. Because a “flip” is a bold leap, a strong action.

What are they playing?

We just like reggae, hip-hop, and funk (although there is almost no funk on the first album, but it will definitely be on the next one). When we write a song, we try not to plan its format in advance - they say, as it turns out, so it will turn out. This is such a symbiosis of styles, but we are invited to both reggae and hip-hop events, which makes us happy. And we usually play with a half-dead lineup: a beatmaker, two guitars with a bunch of gadgets and a saxophone.

What kind of rap do you like

I try to follow hip-hop, I’ve been following it for over 12 years. Personally, I really like Casta among the Russians. I consider Vladi’s album “Clear” to be the strongest album in Russian hip-hop that I have heard. Precisely because of its message and the themes that it reveals in the songs. All of this is very close to me, I recognized myself in 70 percent of the songs. I would like to meet him someday and just chat. The boys also like Rem Digga. To me - Krec moments, Bast moments, Smokey moments, TGC moments.

Is Kyiv rap still alive?

In Ukrainian rap, it seems to me, nothing much is changing, the number of listeners is simply growing, and this gives rise to at least some demand. But we don’t have such a hype for hip-hop as you have. You can see all the interesting teams for yourself; they usually don't pass you by. Of the current performers, we like Fame, Brat's Style - there are other guys, but there are quite a few of them.

Rap Music, videos, second album

As children, we really followed Rap Music and listened to all the collections, so we still had an unfulfilled goal from our youth - to attend this fest. So we decided to apply. It was nice to also take first place there.

Both videos were shot by our friends Leo.K and Bogdan Yakimenko, for which we thank them very much. We just decided one day that it was time to make a video. And then my friends offered their ideas on this matter - somehow everything happened according to the rules. I believe that if you are on the right path and are pursuing the right creative goals, then everything around you will help you! He asked me to convey only one thing: “I want it to become fashionable to be kind, and kindness will become fashionable, and not songs about drugs and entrances.”

In the near future we will have another video for the song from “Tree”. In general, we are now very fired up, we have strengthened our gang with good musicians, we have riveted together our studio and are ready to make a second album with a vengeance. Starting next week we start working on the first song - although we haven’t set a deadline yet.