Photos: Gleb Osipov
This artist needs "fine tuning". I don’t know about you, but I can’t listen to Nikolai Noskov’s music at dinner with the clatter of forks and the clink of glasses. He is different. I want to communicate with him “one on one”, he is on the stage, you are in the hall. I like to listen to every word of the text, to catch the intonations of its interesting with a light hoarse voice, to plunge into the state that his songs carry with them. Unusual, infinitely talented artist, singer, composer. About such people usually say "kissed by God." Most likely, the way it is. A self-taught musician who has mastered the piano, guitar, drums, playing the trumpet ... singing so that goosebumps. At the same time, he is surprisingly modest, with all his emotionality, pleasant and easy to talk to, but harsh in his remarks regarding obvious injustice. Not like everyone else. Other. All the more valuable is every word, every note ...
NIKOLAI SOCKS
Singer, composer, rock musician. One of the best vocalists in Russia. He participated in numerous joint projects with the most famous domestic and foreign composers and musicians in the world, including such grandees as Alexander Zatsepin and Eduard Artemyev.
Since 1981, Nikolai Noskov performed with the ensemble "Moscow". With this ensemble in 1982, as a leader-vocalist and guitarist, under the direction of David Tukhmanov, Nikolai recorded in the album "UFO" at the company "Melody".
Later he was the main soloist of the ensemble "Singing Hearts". As a vocalist and composer, since 1987, he worked in the legendary group "Gorky Park".
Together with such masters of rock as John Bon Jovi and Klaus Meine (Scorpions), in 1989 and 1990, respectively, recorded songs performed by duets.
Nikolai Noskov’s song “Bang!” Occupied the first lines in hit parades at US radio stations, and in Scandinavia it was recognized as “Song of the Year”. The video clip of this song rose to the 3rd line in the MTV charts. In 1989, “Gorky Park” took 81st place on the list of the two hundred most popular albums of “Billboard” magazine, and in Denmark it was recognized as the “Golden Album” for sales. In 1993, Nikolai Noskov began a solo career, creating the group "Nikolai". With her, in 1994, he recorded the album “Mother Russia” in English. Three concert programs, where Nikolai performed and as a stage director, were presented at the State Kremlin Palace (“Breathing silence”, “Ra-Duga”, “Waist-high in the sky”).
Good evening, Nikolai. I am pleased to welcome you to Dubai. By the way, how do you feel one on one with this city?
I have already rested here three times. Compared to the last time I was here in 2003, the city has simply turned into a “stone jungle”. This is a little upset. The rest is left in place - horses, buggies, desert ....
After living in New York, you wrote the song "It's great." Dubai has not inspired you to create a new song yet?
Dubai is not there yet (laughs). Not yet.
When did you receive an invitation to give a concert here, how did you react?
Actually, I don’t really like working in small rooms. Because, in principle, you need to learn in these halls to play in such a way that energy goes and expression is, and at the same time, so as not to stun the auditorium. This is a rather difficult task. But we will try to deal with it today.
Nikolay, you took so long from rock to lyrics, overcoming a rather thorny career. Now you are a charismatic lyric author and performer, all the women of the planet who have heard you at least once are in love with you. Where do you find topics for your new stories? What can push you to write a new song?
Life itself. In general, I like to travel, and I mostly “pull out” all sorts of moods from traveling. This is Tibet, and the Himalayas, and Peru ... At one time I was very interested in this. God knows where only I did not carry. All fresh and unexpected thoughts come to mind just when traveling. When you see another culture, other people, you come into contact with them. Because, as here in the Emirates, I do not go to other countries. There I put on a backpack, sneakers and everything, I try to merge with the crowd, making sure that my clothes do not differ from the outfits of local residents. For example, in India I can’t even recognize me, you can safely take for an Indian. So, in order to penetrate every nation, and to make ordinary people perceive you easier, I do this. And here, in the Emirates, the opposite is true. Even in a room a person cannot just get through to me.
Well, compared! This is Burj Al Arab, and you are not just a VIP guest!
And, nevertheless, here you really don’t communicate with anyone. And from travels and all these moods new impressions and songs are born.
What impressed you most on your trips around the world?
Probably Tibet and Altai. Two unique places, two peaks of the world.
You are not often seen in various concerts and television shows. Why?
I just very selectively approach everything that I do. Therefore, I don’t want to participate in anything I got, it’s only a minus to myself, and it doesn’t give anything. And such that "plus" was, very little. That is, from what our First Channel does, I go only to rare concerts. If I respect the composer, for example, the same Alexandra Pakhmutova, which can not be respected, since she is an amazing person, then I go to work for her concert. Moreover, you can sing live there. And the rest is simply impossible to participate.
And how then did you end up on the Star Factory project at one time?
Well, it’s just the youth who participated in the project, insisted. The leaders of the Factory did not invite me there (laughs). The contestants themselves at some point simply could not stand it and told the producers of the project, they say, it’s enough to drive unknown people to us, the so-called “musicians”, for many of whom the prison is crying, and they give us lecture courses here and moralizing about music and read songs. It was, of course, a question of all these "chanson" comrades, with their "expansion", not a single normal person. In general, the guys got up and said: "We want Nikolai Noskov." I came.
Do you manage to intersect with any of the "manufacturers" in your work today?
I don’t see many of them really staying on stage. Perhaps, whom I periodically observe is Stas Pieha. At least in concerts he sometimes sings. True, there are still no solos, all of them are some “zakaznichki”, but still. That is, in fact, not one of the Factory's competitors has become a real star. Sorry for the time and effort thrown into the wind. Although, everything is clear here too - money is made on such projects, you know, money.
And if we ignore the money, today there are really talented and interesting artists, with whom would you like to work, sing a duet, record an album?
Soon, I will again have a jubilee concert (laughs) at Crocus Hall, and Channel One decided to film my concert. At the preparatory stage, the guys from the channel tell me: "Kolya, since this concert will be dedicated to your creative activity, you are 55 years old, you need to record duets." And here my musicians and I immediately sat down in a puddle. That is, as soon as the phrase about the duets was heard, I realized that I could not find anyone with whom to sing these duets. Well, there’s simply no one to sing my songs. Of all the "Star Factories" we dismissed all young people, as we understood that they would not be pulled.
And then to whom to go, to Joseph Davydovich?
It turns out yes, only Kobzon stayed with us from the singers (laughs). In fact, all this is very sad. Yes, of course, we have talented young people, they send me a lot of records. That would somehow support them. When I proposed this to Channel One, they told me: "No, it’s not interesting, we need tabloids." That is, we need those people who have become familiar with everything and everywhere, but provide ratings. Young people, even super-talented ones, are not needed.
But the public does not want to listen to the same, even rating performers. For example, I like your songs, Pavel Kashin, other singers who are not shown by "central" television ...
So, because they do not understand this. Such is the trouble with music in our country.
Have you ever wanted to get together with the guys from Gorky Park again, record a new album with them?
Now, it’s just that they were on the set for my anniversary concert, however, only one guitarist Alexei Belov entered the final program. We worked together not only in Gorky Park, but also in the Moscow group with David Tukhmanov in the 1980s. But I’ll definitely get the “old people” to my concert, I have already invited the “Code of Ethics” group and other guys.
Once upon a time, Gorky Park performed at the opening act of the famous Scorpions. There is no desire now to invite Klaus Meine and his team to his concert?
They say that Klaus Meine, when they came to Moscow with the Scorpions for the second or third time, was very much looking for me. But I know that at that time they drank great, so I decided for myself that I won’t drink so much (laughs). Then I quietly “dumped” them.
They also had a concert here in Dubai several years ago, and during our interview to the question of which of the Russian performers they know, they almost cried out in unison: "Gorky Park!" Yes, we at one time had a fairly long and close relationship with them. They love to come to Russia. Nikolay, I can’t even believe that you are 55 years old, however - this is a definite milestone in life and work. Where do you go next?
Yes, I think, I think. Now I’m doing a new program, but it’s not yet completely ready. I exclude all electric tools from it. There will be a guitar, double bass, string quartet, piano and organ.
Invite someone from classical musicians to it? For example, pianist Denis Matsuev?
Well, you can play with Denis together if you do something for fun. Moreover, he himself is led to this: "What? Rock and roll? Come on!" And away we go ... Basically, yes, an interesting idea. And so, if seriously, it doesn’t work with the "classics", the genres are different too.
And from foreign performers?
Foreign, just, heaps. As much as you want. I wanted to make an album with those I know. The same Klaus Meine, Julian Turner, who sang in “Deep Purple”, is still the guys. And record such a "rock and roll" album so that they all sing there in Russian.
Wow! But you sing in English, and how are they in Russian?
I somehow approached Julian Turner with this idea. He had a concert, I went to his dressing room and said: "Hello, Julian! Do you know that you should already sing in Russian?" He answers me: “Why?”, I tell him, because, they say, it’s enough to already sing in English in Russia. At first he was so taken aback, and then he says: “What a cool idea!” These guys are no problem. Again, I voiced the idea of Channel One, and they answered me that this was a “headache”: firstly, copyrights, secondly, artists may not come and so on. In short, our TV people do not want to do anything interesting. Here, they give the audience this endless chewing gum, take it ...
According to your feelings, in a creative environment, such a concept as friendship has still been preserved?
To be friends in our profession is very difficult. I would probably say that we support each other creatively. For example, if someone has a concert, and you need to come and perform, go and perform. Here, the "Code of Ethics" is 20 years old, their name is: "Kolya, come!" I resort, I sing something there, yelling from the stage ...
We are all "jubilee" now, peers practically. So we run from one to another, supporting each other. We don’t ask for money, of course (laughs). As for constant friendships, somehow it doesn’t work out. We are all on tour all the time.
Therefore, there is a telephone, in general, all communication comes down to "hello, hello, how are you" ...
What makes artists tour so much? Do our singers still not earn on selling discs?
No, of course, we never made money on record sales. That’s all nonsense.
Is there a millionaire musician in our country? What do you! If only some pop or those who are in the "chanson", then maybe. Because the culture of the people in Russia rolls lower and lower and lower. Do you know what else has happened lately? A very strange state has come to our country. We ourselves, from the point of view of the cultural level, only yesterday removed the bast shoes, relatively speaking, and we already received such a mass of working people from Asian countries, which even in the theaters had never been in our lives. Her main goal is to earn money and send home to feed her family.
Therefore, in Russia, the level of culture is constantly falling. And when I found out that in our budget for the development of culture, only one (!) Percent of the total amount has been allocated, I generally took up my head. Everything is clear here, therefore the young people are talented, advanced, as they say now, that in science, in art, they simply gallop away from Russia.
At home, she has no prospects.
What can make you absolutely happy today?
I don’t even know, probably, some inexplicable miracle, if I see ... Believe in miracles?
It seems to be needed. Nothing happens in our life at all. A case is when a person has done something in life, and then it returned to him with a different twist. And he says: "My God, everything happened by chance!" But in fact, every chance is natural. But there are miracles.
When can we hope to see you again in Dubai?
Invite, come.
Nikolay, I am infinitely grateful to you for this meeting and the time devoted to our magazine. We will believe in a miracle, wait for your new songs and concerts.
It remains to say that, probably, it was about people like Nikolai Noskov, another famous musician and performer Pavel Kashin who wrote the song "In Favorite Against the Sky". There is something unearthly in Nikolai’s work, as if someone actually leads his hand there, upstairs. It is no coincidence that the album "Waist in the Sky" appeared in his own discography. There is something inexplicable about this. From the category of ordinary miracles ...
SUPPORTED BY
The concert of Nikolai Noskov took place on March 24, 2011. The singer and composer flew to Dubai at the invitation of M Premier to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Evgeny Morozov quartet.
A festive evening as part of the traditional "Russian Seasons" was held in the banquet hall of Al Falak, the most luxurious hotel in the world, Burj Al Arab. Nikolai Noskov with his group, and with the participation of the quartet Yevgeny Morozov, performed the best hits that became truly popular: “Give me a chance”, “Snow”, “It's great”, “I love you”, as well as songs from the new album "Waist to the sky".
The sponsors of the concert were sponsored by Dubai Lifestyle City, a premium developer of the ETA STAR Group. Another sponsor of the Russian Seasons is traditionally the Levant company, in the Dubai boutiques of which are presented jewelry of the highest quality, as well as the best examples of fine watchmaking.
The editors thank Evgeny Morozov for help in organizing the interview.
