There is no need to frown about who performed it. “Lada sedan - eggplant”: the performer of the super hit - about the Russian automobile industry and the girls from Comedy
- Tell us about your band and how you came up with the idea of performing this song?
We have a young group “on old leaps and bounds”. We used to do blues in a project called Blackmailers Blues Band. Having achieved everything that a Russian blues band can achieve in the Russian space, in 2010 we suddenly realized that we were getting a little bored playing this music. And after I had several poems in Russian, we came to original music. It was a kind of mix of South Slavic and Balkan folk, dressed in rock music. This is how the “Record Orchestra” appeared, which at first was an ordinary provincial rock ensemble. In 2011, our first album was released, the second is on its way, and it included the track “Lada Sedan”.
The composition was written in 2013. Situation: this song comes out on April 1, on April 2 we send it to Mayak radio for the People’s Producer competition, and ten days later it ended up on Dmitry Puchkov’s blog (translator Goblin). Then it spread across the Internet at incredible speed. This is how some radio stations noticed her. We didn’t think at all about getting promoted with her help, everything happened by itself. I’ll say more, at concerts at first the thing didn’t work at all...
“Lada sedan - eggplant” is a phrase in itself, it rhymes and sings well. Plus, I live near the central market in Vladimir, where these Ladas are just everywhere, they are an eyesore. It was simply impossible not to sing about them. The group didn’t have a particular style at that time, so we allowed ourselves to just laugh.
- Aren’t you afraid that people will continue to “laugh” even if you want to go into lyrics?
Everything is in our hands, the hands of the Lord and our PR people. The team does not stand still - we constantly release songs. On the other hand, if the Lada Sedan had not gotten on the radio then, it would have remained somewhere on the outskirts of the Internet. Any song becomes a hit only due to a coincidence of circumstances. And systematic work. Take a pumpkin and show it on TV for two months in a row, and then give it a tour - and it will sell out stadiums. I think Makarevich said this. We don’t set any special goals for ourselves: we want to perform songs and enjoy it. The Lada Sedan is pure pleasure.
- How did people react to the release of this composition?- The recognition of the team has increased significantly! At the same time, no one really knows our faces - we are not TV stars. - Well, yes, with your outfits...- Exactly! But there were times when people stopped me on the street and said: “Cool thing, listen!” Without even suspecting that I am its performer.
- Before the Lada Sedan, did you have to deal with the domestic auto industry?- My first car was a V8. Her needle constantly stuck in the carburetor, she had to carry a hammer with her and hit the air filter with it at a crucial moment in order to move on. As a result, I sold the car, and with the proceeds in the late 1990s, when it was fashionable to drive cars from Germany (and I myself am a translator and German philologist by training), I went to buy the car. From a local grandfather I bought myself, as I called it, a 1985 Volkswagen Jetta in perfect condition. Since then, I’ve only driven Volkswagens - I’ve gone through all the Passats. Although since 2013 I have been driving a domestic car. Well, as a domestic one, this is a Nissan X-Trail assembled in St. Petersburg. No complaints. - When you talked about the translator, I thought I heard “carrier.” I even thought: “Wow, a man learned to move cars!” - Of course not. Although it is clear that music did not immediately bring the desired income. My main place of work is still a bus depot, where I once drove Neoplans from Germany, so my life is somehow connected with transport, mechanics and silent blocks. And I spend most of my time driving.
- As a sophisticated motorist, what do you value in a car, by what criteria do you choose it for yourself?- Based on the roads you have to drive on, as well as its maintainability. Moreover, it must be new. Cars are no longer the same as they were in the 1990s, when they were designed with 20-year reliability. Now Volkswagen doesn't care what will happen to its brainchild after two years of warranty. The car must be economical in terms of operation, so I got hooked on diesel engines. And finally, the car should not lose much in value on the secondary market. So, as you can see, I have no time for shocking, although from my stage image one can assume that I at least drive a Cadillac. - What if you dream?- It might be a 1990s brain warp, but I like the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. Or maybe it’s a craving for time-tested things. I simply trust what has been produced since 1972 in Germany and Austria. - What's next? Will there be more car hits?- At the moment there are no such ideas. But since I come up with the bulk of the songs while driving and in the shower after the gym, the automotive theme will not go away. There were proposals to write a sequel about “Lada hatchback - cheburek”, but for now these are more like jokes, and I don’t want to repeat myself.
The frontman of the Record Orchestra group Timofey Kopylov made his way to the project with a song in Macedonian.
The “Voice” mentors are already accustomed not only to a wide variety of performance styles, but also to the fact that the participants sing in all possible languages. However, today, when a man climbed onto the stage and began to sing the folk composition “Shukaria” in Macedonian, no one could have imagined that it was sung by a musician from Russia. All the mentors were sure that there was a foreigner behind them. When Leonid Agutin turned around and saw Timofey Kopylov, he was sincerely surprised.
Photo Channel One/Maxim Li
But the audience recognized the singer immediately. This is the same one, in a crazy hat, tracksuit and with huge rings from the video for the song “Lada Sedan”.
Timofey is the frontman of the Record Orchestra group. A couple of years ago, their “Lada Eggplant” thundered from every stall, and a funny video with the participation of Ekaterina Varnava received millions of views on YouTube.
It would seem that with such popular popularity, why go to the show “The Voice”? The editors of Woman’s Day asked Timofey this question.
“Record Orchestra” has a lot of wonderful songs, but one of them was most lucky - it’s “Lada Sedan” and this is our grief, and great happiness, and problem,” Kopylov told Woman’s Day. - We have a desire to show that we are not only valuable fur, but also five kilograms of dietary meat, that is, to demonstrate our potential.
We are a group from the city of Vladimir, we are not produced by anyone, our material is not promoted by anyone. The success of the Lada Sedan is pure luck. The radio stations that played our song for two years didn’t even mention the name of the group, they announced: “Lada sedan,” and that’s it. It’s not possible to get on the radio just like that, it’s all promotion, some kind of show business scheme. And we have an independent team that uses all available opportunities to present its product. And that’s why I’m on “The Voice”.
To be honest, this is not the first time I have tried to get there. Starting from the third season, I sent applications, but I was only invited to the casting now. Even when “Lada” was heard throughout the country and Timati remixed it, I did not receive any answers from the project. And going into it became a kind of fix idea.
Our music is not super standard, but in some ways, as people say, even freaky. But when I saw Nargiz Zakirova’s performance in the second season, I thought: “Hmm, these people can come here too!” So thank you very much to Nargiz for the inspiration.”
Timofey’s story is not simple, however, like the song “Shukaria” with which Agutin accepted him into the project. As it turned out, we didn’t even hear Macedonian, but a certain gypsy dialect!
The Gypsy language as such does not exist, it has twenty dialects, so it is the Macedonian dialect of Gypsy,” Kopylov explained to Woman’s Day. - “Shukaria”, firstly, is in my repertoire, and secondly, it works. Roman Yagupov from the group “Zdob shi Zdub,” when he saw my fake signet rings that gypsies sell in underground passages, said: “They cost 40 rubles, but they work.” It's the same story with the song.
I brought about five versions of compositions to the casting, all of them were close to me, but the choice of the TV channel itself and Yuri Viktorovich Aksyuta fell on “Shukaria”. It's so exotic, fun and unusual. What's the point of doing something that others have already shown twenty times? Here the material is unknown, no one really knows the song, and therefore there are much fewer quibbles. Did you mess up? You can chalk it up to the fact that it was intended that way!
By the way, when two years ago the country danced to the Lada Sedan and watched the video, it never occurred to anyone that this was the Macedonian folk dance Mariovka Tresenica! This is how it happens.
The team recently won silver in the “Main Stage” project of the Rossiya TV channel. And their hit “Lada Sedan” became the soundtrack to the film “Courier from Paradise”, plus it was covered by the famous singer Timati. Timofey KOPYLOV, the band's frontman, told us about the behind-the-scenes of fame.
Suddenly…
Sasha Linney, website:- Tell us a little about the history of the Record Orchestra group.
Timofey Kopylov: - Besides me, there are 6 people in the team: Alexey BARYSHEV (guitar), Sergey SHVAGIREV (bass), Pavel PATRUGIN (saxophone), Yaroslav MINAKOV (accordion), Dmitry GORSHKOV (drums). I've been playing with the guys since 2001. We used to do blues as part of the Blackmailers Blues Band project. In 2010, our blues group transformed into a group with original music and songs, receiving the name “Record Orchestra”. Our first fame came after the release of our debut album “Guest Worker Boogie”. The real breakthrough was the single “Lada Sedan”...
S.L.: - The hit blew up the Internet, becoming the “anthem” of the domestic automobile industry. How did the world know about the song?
T.K.: - Immediately after the release of the song in 2013, we sent it to Radio Mayak for the People’s Producer competition, where we received 1st place. A few days later, the Lada Sedan appeared on Dmitry Puchkov’s blog (translator Goblin)… and off we go. The single spread across the Internet with incredible speed. After 2 months, “Humor FM” noticed him and took him into rotation. After this, the editors received a flurry of requests to “put in the eggplant fret.” Applications are still being accepted.
S.L.:- Why exactly “Lada”?
T.K.: - rhymes and sings well. Plus, I live near the central market in Vladimir, there are no other cars there, all Azerbaijanis drive them. This is as classic as a cut glass. Inside Russia it is a brand. By the way, AvtoVAZ did not make contact with us; for them this is an offensive song.
Orchestra record Photo: From personal archive
S.L.:- It was unexpected to see Comedy Woman stars in the video about the “daughter of AvtoVAZ.” Who persuaded them to act?
T.K.: - Now releasing a song without a video is a lost cause. For a long time we had neither the ideas nor the means to visualize the Lada Sedan. And then our friend Dima KHMYZNIKOV brought us together with his classmate - producer and one of the “forefathers” of the Comedy Club and “Projector ParisHilton” Vyacheslav BLAGODARSKY, and things got off the ground. We sat in a cafe and thought about the video. At one time I wanted to make a video with special effects - a Lada Sedan transformer driving around Moscow and destroying everything with lasers. But 1 second of such pleasure costs $1000. I was thinking about inviting the ballet “Thumbelina”, where the girls weigh 150 kg. As a result, we focused on the most watchable things on the Internet - cars and girls. Slava immediately called Ekaterina VARNAVA and Natalya EPRIKYAN, they agreed to film.
S.L.:- Whose car is in the frame?
T.K.: - I had to buy a car because... according to the script, the girls were supposed to rub around the car, the happy car owner was supposed to jump on it, and I was supposed to rap on the roof. You can't do this to someone else's car. The car is now in the garage, we drive it periodically.
S.L.:- Timati “didn’t steal” your song?
T.K.: - The clip promoted our group more than the radio stations, gaining 2 million views in 2 weeks. Perhaps Timati saw him. As a result, Black Star managers contacted us about using our song. It took us 2 months to draft a copyright agreement. Many people think that Timati “out of lawlessness” took the song and made a track out of it. This is wrong.
Just for fun
S.L.:- How did you get the idea to participate in the “Main Stage” project on the RUSSIA channel?
T.K.: - We got into the competition by accident, “on a tip” from a friend. Initially we thought that we would only perform our own songs, but we miscalculated, “Main Stage” 2015 became a “festival” of cover versions. Participants had to perform adaptations of songs from the repertoire of famous Russian artists. We didn't understand what it would give us. The balance is either to make your own album or to work on a project. Moreover, we were told that at most we would be allowed to sing one of our own songs. It is clear that PR is guaranteed, but the party is different, the contestants are graduates of vocal studios and conservatories...
S.L.:- How was the casting?
T.K.: - At the casting I had to sing the golden hit of the Soviet stage. When choosing a song, we looked at gigabytes of videos, and then the little-known song “Russian Snow” popped up in my memory, and that’s what we chose. The casting took place in a dark hangar, the spotlights shine right in your face - it is impossible to see who is sitting in front of you. We go on stage and hear - “Oh, the Cossacks have come.” Then they tell us - you stand there, you stand here. And suddenly a voice is heard: “Why are you explaining to them, they are from the Caucasus, they don’t understand anything.” We sang the song “Russian Snow”. The chief music editor and the artistic council listened to it and suddenly said with skepticism: “Do you guys have a hit of your own?” And we answer: “Now we’ll charge for 1.5 hours, choose what’s a hit with us and what’s not a hit.” As a result, they played “Lada Sedan”. I see the phones lit up when we started playing. Timati just released a video. They explain: “Oh, this is Timati. We didn't recognize him." After the performance, the artistic council calls us over and says, guys, everything is great, you are passing, but you need to perform a famous Russian pop hit. There is a month before filming, there is no time for a new song. They tell us, film the performance and send it to us, and sing at the dress rehearsal. We agreed, we were assigned to the producer, who for some reason abandoned us a week later and handed over the “reins of power” to the producer of Grigory LEPSA - Alexander KONOVALOV.
S.L.:- What does the project look like from the inside?
T.K.: - This is a large conveyor belt. We did not live in Moscow, but came to the capital only for filming, which usually lasted from 11:00 to 23:00, sometimes until 2 am. There are a lot of people, everyone is running and running, there is no “fraternization” between the participants. The project was filmed at the factory, in a former workshop. The extras came by bus. The jury applauded the originality rather than the purity of the performance, saying, what's the point of going on stage and singing Noskov's song better than Noskov's? Because Noskov already exists, and even if you sing better than him, what’s the interest? And most of all they stopped people like this: “I sing Leps better than Leps” - right away, goodbye. We went into the project with caution; show business would force us to do something we didn’t like. But the attitude turned out to be completely different - a great team, friendly producers, respectful attitude.
S.L.:- Have there been any incidents during performances?
T.K.: - I drove myself. It was wildly cold on the bus on which we went to the dress rehearsal, I was cold as a dog. I come home and have a fever. After 2 days of shooting, I still can’t get better. Plus we rehearsed every day - not before treatment. As a result, in the quarter finals I sang “Train on Fire” with a temperature of 38. When I left the stage, I realized that I couldn’t speak... and tomorrow was the semi-final, I had to sing about Dushanbe. In Moscow they gave me injections in my ligaments, I couldn’t even speak. And then they told me about a phonation doctor who returns the voice to artists - “You won’t be in top shape, but you’ll sing.” And I sang, and successfully. We can say that the foniator made our victory (laughs).
Image is not the main thing
S.L.:- Do they recognize you on the street? Where did the colorful image of the “Caucasian” come from?
T.K.: - They won’t recognize me, I don’t walk down the street in a hat and with a dagger. I am inclined to believe that an artist on stage should look different than in life. The image of a “Caucasian” is collective - a hat from Makhachkala, pseudo-gold rings were bought in an underground passage for 40 rubles in Belgorod and Chisinau, fake daggers were given to me. When the producer of our video saw me on stage for the first time, he said, “Oh! That’s right - I’ll put on all my best right away!” This is appropriate for the Lada Sedan, but I don’t have any connection to the image of a papakha.
S.L.:- Why did you “declassify” your image?
T.K.: - When we performed “Train on Fire,” Diana ARBENINA correctly noted that my image and the song did not fit together - “This song is so desperate that hiding under glasses is at least strange.” Yes, the song is serious, anti-war, there is no satirical message in it, it is more frank. So I easily took off my glasses and hat out of respect for the author of the song.
S.L.:- Did you stand out among the participants?
T.K.: - Of course, they stood out, walked on a separate track. We have our own vocal and instrumental circus. The very first review we heard for the 1/8 finals came from Valery LEONTIEV, who appreciated our images - “We have never seen anything like this before, this is what we were waiting for!”
S.L.:- Did you ever think about giving the “silver” to Anya NOSACHEVA?
Timofey KOPYLOV was born in 1977 in Vladimir. In 1999 he graduated from Voronezh State Pedagogical University named after. Lebedev-Polyansky, Faculty of Foreign Languages. In 2001-2010 - vocalist of the Blackmailers Blues Band, since 2010 - vocalist of the Record Orchestra.
T.K.: - When Anna and I stood together in a duel, I understood a certain absurdity of this: “Record Orchestra” is a musical tank that will literally take the jury members and spectators by storm, and a fragile girl with her own author’s story. To be honest, I felt uncomfortable in this situation. I say, “Guys, if they choose us now, we will leave and leave her our prize place.” And they answer me - “What, we wasted 2 months in vain, didn’t see either our wives or children, spent so much nerve, neglected to record an album?” On the one hand, there is a girl you feel sorry for, and on the other, your family. Anna has more chamber music, and we have a show. In this regard, our performance looked more advantageous for the rating. We didn't expect any victory.
S.L.:- They say you have a new video coming out. What song?
T.K.: - We have a long-standing song “One against all”, dedicated to Muammar Gaddafi. We wrote it when he was alive. Gaddafi amazed me with his tenacity. It turned out that the Moscow guys, who apparently have access to the archive from combat points in Libya and Syria, made a video clip for our track. We contacted them and said that we wanted to edit ourselves into the “clip.” Filming has already ended.
