Yuri Kaplan, lead singer of the group “Valentin Strykalo”: Serious people have nothing to do at our concerts. Local: Kyiv from Yuri Kaplan

Musician Yuri Kaplan from the group “Valentin Strykalo” shares with 34travel his observations about what is the symbol of Kyiv, why you should not leave the city center and which Kiev cemetery is best to go to for a romantic date.

1. Where is the best place in Kyiv to spend the evening and night from Friday to Saturday?

At this time, everyone pours out into the streets, crowds the establishments, makes noise and does all sorts of things. I usually stay at home, and I advise you to. If you are not a fan of clubs and “proper music”, stay at home and go out on weekdays.

2. Where to go on a romantic date?

In Tatarka (historical area in Kyiv - 34travel) there is an excellent cemetery: there are old graves, hills and gullies, and if you come at night on the weekend, you can hear music from the club Closer- sometimes some kind of hypnotic techno plays there, and it seems that some sounds are coming from the graves.

3. In which places in Kyiv is it easiest to feel the spirit of the city?

The spirit of the city is not in places, it is rather a general impression. Try to visit everywhere in the center. A few days are enough.

4. What places are better not to go into? And why?

Don’t leave the center, it’s not dangerous, but why do you need it?

5. In which area of ​​the city would you recommend living?

Stay in the center. I moved out of the center at one time, but now I’m returning again.

6. Where to go for cultural experiences?

If culture shock is also a cultural impression, then just pay attention to the architectural monument houses on which people hang huge clapboard balconies, signs for beauty salons and shops, and also how these same houses are painted a disgusting beige color.

7. What can you bring from Kyiv as a souvenir?

There are cool nesting dolls - all the presidents of Ukraine are there in one.

8. In what places in Kyiv can you meet yourself?

In my house. I'll most likely end up there. If I'm not there, I'm on the horizontal bars.

9. What is the symbol of Kyiv for you?

Most Kiev residents will probably disagree with this, but I like the Motherland most of all. Come and look quickly before they put a balcony on it.

Main photo - kievjournal.com

Valentin Strykalo who is this?

Real name— Yuri Kaplan

Hometown— Zaporozhye, Ukraine

Nickname— Valentin Strykalo

instagram.com/yuriykaplan/

twitter.com/yurakaplan

Yuri Kaplan is the front man of the popular group Valentin Strykalo.

Yuri Kaplan in childhood

Yuri Kaplan, whom the YouTube community knows under his creative pseudonym Valentin Strykalo, was born on October 2, 1988, in a family of builders from Ukraine. The boy strove for science from an early age, and his parents sent their beloved child to a physics and mathematics school. Having successfully passed the exams, the young man entered the Institute of Economics and International Relations in Kiev. In 2010, he successfully graduated from higher education.

The young man first thought about a career as a musician in 2008, when he sang for the first time in front of an audience at an amateur performance competition at the institute. A little later, he recorded several humorous videos in which he addressed such Russian musicians as Timati, Potap and, as well as the “Tea for Two” group, MakSim and Sergei Zverev.

The most popular among all the videos was a clip with an appeal to Malezhik, which gained more than 100 thousand views in a short period of time. Somewhat later, no less popular YouTube messages addressed to Bilan and Timati were removed. These videos received 2 and 1 million views in the first year, respectively.

Valentin Strykalo and his musical career

Since 2010, the young man has been actively participating in the filming of the TV show “Comedy Club”. Leaders of Kyiv nightclubs often invite the musician to perform at various parties. At the same time, the idea of ​​​​creating his own musical group, called “Valentin Strykalo,” is born in Yuri’s head. As part of the newly emerged creative project, Yuri finishes work on his first music collection, “Humble and Relax,” in 2012.

Together with the main repertoire of the creative association " Valentin Strykalo"Yuri performs covers of songs of famous musicians at concert venues, as well as songs of a fictitious group" Water-Bubbles". Works such as " Gori" And " Yacht, sail"received high praise from fans of Yuri's work.

In 2013, the singer’s second studio collection, entitled “ Part of something bigger". In the same year, the musical group “Valentin Strykalo” performed several times at concert venues with famous groups from the CIS. The most memorable joint performance of that year can be called the concert project of Noize MC and Yuri Kaplan.

It is worth saying that a busy concert schedule does not prevent the musician from creating his own video blog. On the YouTube channel, he shares his creative plans with subscribers and performs new tracks.

The guys from the creative association “Valentin Strykalo” are often invited to perform on such radio and television channels as “Mayak”, “Silver Rain”, “MTV”, “Jam FM”, “NTV”, “Ren-TV”. Yuri Kaplan also took part in the filming of the TV show “Big Difference” on Channel One.

In 2016, the third studio album, entitled “Entertainment,” appeared on the Internet. In 2017, the singer went on a concert tour through the populated areas of Russia.

Yuri Kaplan (Valentin Strykalo) and his girlfriend

Almost nothing is known about the musician’s personal life. Only occasionally on social networks Yuri Kaplan publishes photos with beautiful girls. It is known for sure that he is not married and has no children. According to fans of the young performer’s work, he is too busy with work, and for this reason he has no time to search for his soulmate.

Himself Yuri said that for a long time met with a classmate from the institute. But the relationship never developed into something more. At the moment, the young man lives in the capital of Ukraine, in a rented apartment, together with his younger brother.

Valentin Strykalo now

Yuri Kaplan is currently working on recording his fourth studio album, the working title of which is kept strictly secret. In the first half of 2018, the creative association “Valentin Strykalo” intends to travel around the central part of Russia on a concert tour. In particular, the group will perform in Moscow and St. Petersburg during the March holidays.

Ukraine

inShe, Cubique Music Band, Strykalo-band, gr. Water-Bubbles

Valentin's appeal to Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan on YouTube was viewed by about 90,000 users within a month from the date of posting, and links to the video spread throughout the RuNet. Subsequently, the number of views of the video with an appeal to Dima Bilan exceeded 1,500,000, and with an appeal to Timati - 810,000.

The musician recently created his own group and is now actively giving concerts. On September 17, 2010, Russia saw it on Channel One. On December 8, 2010, he took part in the “Zvezdochat” program on the A-ONE channel.

First video by Valentin Strykalo

Valentin Strykalo's first video appeared on the Internet in March 2008. In that video message, Valentin dedicated a song to Vyacheslav Malezhik (“Filthy cop, or I love you, Angela”). Along with this video, an appeal to Timati appeared, which became the first and, at the moment, the only song sung without a guitar. Today, the total number of views of his addresses to pop stars on YouTube has exceeded 15 million.

“The village of Buriltsevo, in the Zhytomyr region”

In his videos on the YouTube video portal, Yuri says that he comes from the village of Buriltsevo, Zhitomir region. In fact, there is no such village. This is a fictional place, and Yuri is from Zaporozhye, graduated from the 105th Lyceum, although he now lives in Kyiv. And the singer himself said that he took the name from his head, although many of his fans are still confident that such a village really exists not far from Zhitomir.

Songs by Valentin Strykalo

From video messages:

• “Filthy cop, or I love you, Angela” (address to Vyacheslav Malezhik);
• “Hey, 4ika” (address to Timati);
• “Everything is decided” (address to Dima Bilan);
• “Cayenne” (address to Potap and Nastya Kamensky);
• “May Day” (address to the group Tea for two);
• “Rustem” (address to MakSim);
• “Seryozha” (address to Sergei Zverev);

Performed at concerts (in addition to those listed above):

• "Cheap Dramas" (sometimes referred to as "For Real");
• "Cooperator";
• "Song for Girls";
• "Funk";
• "He is constantly";
• "Only once";
• "45 years";
• "Russian rock music";
• “I beat women and children”;
• "Inside of me";
• "Pharmacy";
• “So grie”;
• "Burn";
• "Our summer";
• "Albina";
• "Office dude";
• "Dancing";
• "Space is waiting for us"
• "Premature ejaculation";
• "All my friends";
• “You’re not like that”;
• "Best friend"

Not executed at all, or rarely:

• "Svetlana"
• "Bear Mountain"
• "Mom's pension"
• "Lullaby"
• "Without me"
• "Wild animals"
• "Through the Pipes"
• "40 years behind the wheel"
• "I cry at night"

In addition to the above, Valentin also performs at his concerts songs written by him on behalf of Yuri Kaplan, performed in the group inShe (later the group was called Cubique Music Band, and Yuri was not a permanent soloist there, but recorded several songs with the musicians, after which the group finally ceased to exist), and, in addition, makes covers of songs by some famous Russian and foreign performers. The songs “Our Summer”, “Svetlana”, “Burn”, “Without Me” and “Lullaby” are performed by the musician’s fictional group “Vodichka-Bubbles”. However, Strykalo does not perform some of the songs at his concerts. These include “40 Years of Driving” and “I Cry at Night,” as well as some of the songs that Valentin wrote for his group. Many also attribute the songs “I want you back” and “Killer” to the authorship of Yuri, although he has nothing to do with the works.

Videos have been shot for the songs “Cayenne”, “Russian Rock”, “Our Summer”, “Cheap Dramas”, “Space is Waiting for Us” and “Burn”, which are shown on popular music channels.

On February 24, 2012, the debut album of the group “Valentin Strykalo” was released, called “Humble and Relax! "

Biography Yuri Kaplan, performing under the name Valentina Strykalo, previously worked in the Ukrainian rock band inShe, which later became known as the Cubique Music Band, and after some time disbanded. As part of it, Yuri wrote and performed songs such as:

• "So grie"
• "Pharmacy"
• "The area is closed to the edge"
• "Buwai"

In 2010, Yura graduated from the Faculty of International Economics and Management of KNEU. V. Getman in Kyiv. As a child, he had a dream to enroll in film directing at the Kiev National University of Theater, Film and Television. I.K. Karpenko-Kary, but later Yuri decided to postpone this and go to study as an economist, although he soon realized that he did not imagine himself as one.

Yura has a brother, Mark. He writes songs in English:

"I will be fine" "Cute"

Yuri Kaplan's blog

Recently, Yuri Kaplan began running his humorous video blog on YouTube hosting, where he touches on various problems of our time, ridicules them, and gives various tips on how to avoid these problems. Yuri also shares facts from his personal life, plans for the future, and also talks about upcoming concerts, naming the cities and dates where he will perform in the near future. So far, four episodes of the vlog have been released.

• 1. "Laziness"- June 2012
• 2. "Be a good person"- July 2012
• 3. "Lie"- September 2012
• 4. "Cruelty"- November 2012

At the end of each video blog segment, Yuri traditionally performs one new song, which is a big surprise for fans. List of these songs:

• “We will lick each other...” - from the blog “Laziness”.
• “If your cat...” - from the blog “Be Good.”
• “My dear baby...” - from the blog “Lies”.
• “Friday evening, to the party...” - from the blog “Cruelty”.

Concert activities

The young singer is regularly offered to perform in popular clubs in Ukraine and Russia. Thus, Valentin Strykalo has already given more than a dozen concerts, which took place in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kharkov, Kyiv, Donetsk and other cities. In addition, for the first time in his career, Valentin gave a performance as a guest at the Comedy Club Dnepr Style back in 2008. The first solo concert was given in the fall of 2008 in Kyiv at the Tsar club.

Now hundreds of listeners come to Strykalo’s concerts, and he himself increasingly gives large solo concerts in large clubs, where he performs all his songs, as well as cover versions of other popular artists. Previously, at Strykalo’s concerts you could buy T-shirts with the email address that he shows at the end of each video message - [email protected]. Yuri also sometimes organizes competitions before some of his concerts, in which everyone has the opportunity to win a free ticket.

Since 2010 he has been performing with the group. Current composition:

• Yuri Kaplan- vocals, guitar;
• Evgeniy Ilyin- bass guitar, keyboards;
• Andrey Tropeshko- guitar;
• Anton Shchelkonogov- drums.

On September 17, 2010, Valentin’s performance was shown on Channel One in the show “Big Difference in Odessa.” Strykalo performed two songs on air: “Everything is decided” and “On the Cayenne.”

Discography

Media about Valentine

In April 2010, Sergey Stillavin, having noticed Valentin on the Youtube portal, invited him to participate in his own show on Mayak radio. Soon, stories and programs with Strykalo’s participation appeared on “Silver Rain”, “NTV”, “Ren-TV”, “MTV”, “M1”, “A-One”. The magazine “” called him “the new Ryan Adams”, “Russian Pioneer” made him the hero of the August issue as “the main singer of the Web 2.0 generation”, and in July 2010 Forbes magazine included Valentin in the top three artists who became famous on the Internet. On August 3, 2010, on the air of the Ukrainian radio station “Jam FM” (95.6), a studio version of Valentin Strykalo’s song “On Cayene” was heard for the first time, which he recorded as part of the promised new group. On August 6, the Internet hit was also heard on the Russian radio Mayak in the show Stillavin and His Friends.

• Yuri Kaplan starred in the video “Brunette” by the Ukrainian group KAMON!!! , and Alisa Kosmos from this group shot a video for the group “Valentin Strykalo” for the song “On the Cayenne”.
• On October 15, 2010, in St. Petersburg at the Griboedov club, Valentin Strykalo performed for the first time in front of the public with his group.
• On November 30, 2010, in Ukraine, on the M1 TV channel, the Strykalo-band’s video for the song “Cayenne” was shown for the first time.
• On February 24, 2012, the group’s debut album, entitled “Humble and Relax,” was released.
• To date, the group “Valentin Strykalo” has released 5 official videos for their songs: “Cayenne”, “Russian Rock”, “Our Summer”, “Space is Waiting for Us” and “Burn”. It is noteworthy that the first three videos were released long before the release of the group’s first album, “Humble and Relax! "
• The first album of the group “Humble and Relax! " was released with a small number of typographical errors.
• There are three versions of the song "Cayenne" (in addition to the acoustic ones).

see also

Notes

Links

• Video channel Valentin Strykalo on the video hosting service YouTube
• Valentin Strykalo - the guy who blew up the Runet - Torchu. Ru, September 18, 2010
• Valentin Strykalo: “On boring autumn evenings I sit on the Internet” - "Afisha Kyiv", October 28, 2008
• On the area and “On Cayenne” article in “Russian Reporter” 05/18/2011

Osip Mandelstam once said: “Gumilev is our conscience.” And our irony is Mr. Kaplan. The handsome man who beats women and children returned to St. Petersburg after a six-month break from creative activity. Before the concert, in an interview with our portal, Yuri talked about selfies, Agatha Christie and beauty.

- You returned after a six-month break. Now I may be asking for an unpleasant answer, but did you miss us?

- Great! Tell us, how can you not appear for six months and at the same time not get lost in the information space, not lose fans, and maintain interest in your group?

There is a suspicion that everything rests on mine and Zhekin’s (Evgeny Ilyin, bass guitarist of the group Valentin Strykalo - editor’s note) Instagram. We took a lot of photographs of ourselves during these six months, and people followed it. Our photos received a lot of likes and, accordingly, the audience was not confused. We popped up in the feed all the time, and now they all came (to a concert at the Cosmonaut club - approx.). And I forgot about Andrey’s Instagram! (Andrey Tropeshko, guitarist of the group Valentin Strykalo, - editor's note). When he sits on the toilet, he takes pictures of his legs with his pants down.

- And this gets a lot of likes?

Yes, it's super popular.

- You were recently a lecturer, talking about how to promote yourself on social networks. Give at least three of these... commandments to people who dream of promotion.

Take photos of yourself, but no more than twice a week.

- Why?

It’s just that if you do it more often, the public gets fed up, and your face doesn’t make your subscribers so happy anymore. Then what else...

- This was one.

This is the one... Yes, this is the only one.

- That's all?

Well, if you're ugly or don't look good in photos, then I've got bad news for you, buddy. You won't succeed on social media. networks. The main thing is beauty.

- It's clear. But still you said that your success is an accident. How to teach a person to get to the right place at the right time?

Spend most of your time in different places. And, God forbid, it will shoot...

- You also said that it took a long time to get ready. How long did it take you to get here today?

Fifteen minutes.

- How long does it take, in your opinion?

No, no, it's fast. There just weren't any clothing options. If there were options, I would still think about it. At home I have a lot of clothes, but here on tour I only have one option.

- Do you like shopping? This is such torture!

I don’t like it, but for some reason a lot of clothes appear at home. I do not know why.

- Do fans give gifts, does mom bring them?

No, I just don't know where most of my stuff in my house came from. Honestly, it's a puzzling situation, but that's the way it is.

- Your work is imbued with irony, self-irony, but recently I found on your page a photograph of Agatha Christie without a signature. What was this tied to?

One of the brothers just looks like me.

- Which Samoilov?

The one on the right.

- I think, junior. Because of the eyes.

Well, yes, he was similar. But it is in this photograph, not in others. Well, more precisely, he’s not at me, but I’m at him.

- Do you agree with the statement that all comedians are, in principle, depressed people? They experience such a dissonance: in life they are sad, but on stage they give all their positivity.

Humor is a defensive reaction. Some people have a very developed defensive reaction. But this is optional. Well, it varies, I guess.

Childhood and adolescence

Yura also learned to play the guitar early, sang well, and actively participated in school amateur performances. As a teenager I liked to listen to “Spleen”, “Bi-2”, Radiohead, White Stripes. I printed out chords and tests of my favorite songs from the Internet and sang them at parties, arousing constant interest among girls. In addition, as a child, the future musician was involved in martial arts, was a fan of Jackie Chan and showed promise in sports.

After graduating from school, the young man first wanted to enter the directing department of the Kyiv Institute of Culture, but, after analyzing the deplorable situation in Ukrainian cinema, he applied to the economics department of KNEU. While studying, he played in a student band and worked part-time as an advertising manager.

Music career

To his great surprise, the video received several hundred views and sparked heated discussion. Friends insisted that Yura not stop and develop this topic. This is how a scandalous appeal to Dima Bilan appeared, in which an aspiring composer from the village of Buriltsevo offers the artist his song “Mom, I’m gay.”

Valentin Strykalo - “Mom, I'm gay”

The video received more than two million views on YouTube and glorified its creator throughout the RuNet. This was followed by similar appeals to Potap and Nastya Kamensky, Sergei Zverev, Timati and other popular performers, which were invariably accompanied by a record number of views.

After the first signs of popularity, Yuri came up with a completely new biography to support the image of a rural boy. He invented his small homeland - the village of Buriltsevo, Zhitomir region (such a village does not exist), a tyrant father who insisted that his son become an agrarian, a cruel guitar teacher who did not believe in Valentin’s talent.

Valentin Strykalo - “Cayenne”

The next step was radio: in 2010, Sergei Stillavin heard the musician and invited him to his show at the Mayak station. Then Yuri became a guest on programs on NTV and Ren-TV, and then on music channels A1 and MTV. Note that this was 2010, and a performer who made a career using the Internet could truly be considered a phenomenon and aroused interest.

Having achieved popularity on the Internet, Yuri decided to enter the real stage. Having recruited musicians into the group “Valentin Strykalo”, he performed for the first time in front of a live audience at the Kiev club “Tsar Project”, and a year later he began to actively tour Ukraine with songs from his debut album “Humble and Relax”.

In 2013, the band’s next album, “Part of Something Bigger,” was released, with which the musicians went on tour throughout the post-Soviet space. Over time, their repertoire was replenished with cover versions of popular hits by other artists, as well as songs from the early work of Yuri and his team. As part of the album, two videos were released: for the songs “You know, Tanya” and “Space is waiting for us.”

Valentin Strykalo - “You know, Tanya”

In addition to touring, the band actively recorded on the radio and appears on television quite often. The guys became participants in such popular entertainment programs as “Big Difference” and “Let Them Talk.”

In 2015, Yuri’s group took a creative break, during which the frontman completely changed the composition. Soon the new members presented the first single after a long silence, “It will be decided by itself”

In the fall of 2016, the group’s next album, “Entertainment,” was released, in support of which the musicians traveled not only to the countries of the former CIS, but also to Europe. Fans noted that the atmosphere of the album became more lyrical and sad in comparison with Strykalo’s previous records.