Neuromonakh feofan interview. Actual comment

— How do people in such small towns as Lipetsk perceive your music?

Feofan: That's the best! Just due to the fact that the city is provincial, companies usually come to performances in which everyone knows each other, so they behave more openly and liberatedly. So often in small towns it takes place more and more vigorously. There seems to be some great commonality.

Lipetsk is already the fifth city where you present your new album. Did you remember anything from concerts in other cities?

Feofan: Each city has something different. In Voronezh, for example, there were double round dances. It was very crowded in Tula. There were a lot of people, and the site is not very big. Here there was a slam very frantic. Everyone jumped there, and it looked very epic.

Nicodemus: In Bryansk, for example, it was very family. It's a very low stage and the audience was actually right in front of us.

Feofan: We went to the hall there.

- Aren't you afraid that you will be discovered?

Feofan: Yes, well, people are still adequate. Nobody needs it.

I read that the concert in Bryansk was on the verge of failure due to calls from anonymous people who strongly recommended that it be cancelled.

Feofan: I'll explain now. In fact, there was just a little problem with the organizers, and the concert was simply rescheduled for another day. And there were no such things. We do not have any offensive texts that provoke. Everything is very good.

In your interview with Yuri Dudyu, you said that you respect the work of such an artist as Big Russian Boss. When he performed with us in Lipetsk, mainly schoolchildren came to the concert. Can you roughly describe the image of your fan?

Feofan: As for Big Russian Boss, we are for any creativity. We are for the maximum diversity and lack of limits in creativity. The main thing is that Nicodemus should only sing less (laughs).

Nicodemus: I'm trying to sing, everything is torn from my soul.

Feofan: He will sing, he can not be stopped. Well, I'm kidding, of course. And as for the fans, there is a very wide range. We had a woman, she is 62 years old, she danced in front of the stage the whole concert. I don't know where she gets so much power from. They came for three generations - grandson, mother and grandmother. Even small children like it, but they, however, are unlikely to come to our performances. Shouldn't they be carried in wheelchairs?

- YourDudyu's interview will soon gain three million views . Do you somehow look at the comments on social networks, follow what the fans write?

Feofan: I sometimes answer on Vkontakte when someone asks me something. Nikodim now has his own official Vkontakte page.

Nicodemus: People write, I try to answer everyone. Basically, they write on musical issues, a lot of reviews, everyone likes it. So join and write.

- And the Bear will not start a page?

Feofan: Yes, he is a clubfoot.

Nicodemus: He ate a computer.

Surely, you have heard such bands as Nevid, Arkona, Butterfly Temple. Was there any desire to do something similar, to "weight" your music?

Feofan A: Well, it's already there, what's the point of doing what has already been. We go our own way, our own way and develop in this. We have, for example, added the Bear.

Feofan: And now turn the Bear down.

Nicodemus: Add protein. You can also make a fish song. Let's add animals.

- In your opinion, folklore and traditional culture can live in the postmodern era? And in what form?

Feofan: In the postmodern era everything can live in any form. This is not an invention of something new, but a combination of the old, so anything can be born. And if you move into post-postmodern, then there is even more variability and some things created at different poles.

There is a video showing how foreigners can watch your clips. They are all delighted, everyone loves it. Don't you think that your work will take root in the minds of foreigners as a stereotype about Russian culture?

Feofan: They have such a variety there that it is unlikely. There are, of course, groups that "beat" according to stereotypes. For example, Little Big. They are great guys, we know them well. They just have everything with pure banter. The same "Arkona" is very popular abroad, for example. Due to the fact that there is such a variety, therefore, they are unlikely to get hung up on one thing and build their opinion on the basis of the work of one group.

- Fans write that your new album is more serious.

Nicodemus: It's all because the Bear sang.

Feofan: The album is called “Dance. Sing". That is, there is a more dancing part, and there is one where you can sing along a lot, there are a lot of words, they are very melodic. If you remove the second part, you get a perky dance album, if the first part, then there will be a calm album. They could easily be divided into two.

Nicodemus: The main thing is not to mix up the parts and not to sing dances and not to dance songs (laughs).

Feofan: In the future, we may release a heavier, tougher version of "Dance", because within the framework of one album it would be strange for the parts to be very different. They go in a common thread. So, perhaps, it is the dance songs that we will release separately, but with a heavier sound. We are currently working on it.

You have probably heard about such a performer as Hieromonk Photius (winner of the Voice show). By the way, he will come to us with a concert in a month. Have you often experienced being confused?

Feofan: Not so often, but more than we would like. We, of course, do not intersect with him at all, absolutely. There are people who confuse, but this is all because of the similarity in names only.

Nicodemus: Probably, it's just some kind of inattention.

Feofan: Well, that's good. This speaks of diversity and that there are so many of everyone, all sorts of groups and performers, that there are even small coincidences.

- A post recently appeared on Peekaboo about how the guy decided to please his believing parents and buy a ticket for Photius. But I made a mistake and bought a ticket to your concert. My father was delighted, but my mother did not really understand.

Feofan: So the father is a very modern person, he is ready for everything new, open, and my mother is also well done. She probably cooks delicious soup.

Do you want to record a song in Old Church Slavonic? In the comments on YouTube they write that you were offered this, but you seem to have refused.

Feofan: Who writes? We have not received such proposals. If you go out into the street and say: “Offer”, then people, of course, will begin to do it very actively. But we physically cannot do everything that is offered. What we like is what we do. If we were constantly just sitting in the studio, then we would have so many options ... But we don’t always sit in the studio, now here is a concert, a tour. Forces are not enough for anything then.

- You have a very tight schedule, a lot of concerts during the tour. How do you deal with it, how do you relax?

Feofan: It's not easy at all, there are constant failures of modes, physically it's hard. If we just stood on the stage, like statues, then this is one thing, and we are moving actively. Physically, it is not easy, you need to be prepared. We are constantly rebuilding. Everything must be done in parallel.

Nicodemus: Everything happens during the tour.

Feofan: It is necessary, for example, to go for a massage, to the sauna.

Nicodemus: Place the vertebrae in place after transport.

The next city on the tour is Kyiv. How are you feeling before this concert? Do you think that they will be able to calmly and adequately perceive a group with such a traditional Russian orientation?

Feofan: I think it will be cool. All our friends who were there say that the audience there is very good, everyone is very cheerful. Of course, if someone wants to do something, report for money, then we can't do anything about it. But I don't think it will be. All people are adequate. We will be in Kyiv for the first time. We were in Minsk, in Belarus, it was, in general, very cool. We were also not far from Minsk at the festival. By the way, there were Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians there. We performed there absolutely normally, despite the fact that there were also Ukrainian nationalists. That is, there are, of course, some incidents. The people who come to our performances are all very adequate and sensible, there are, of course, those who behave strangely, but they are few.

Your group is connected with Slavic, Old Russian culture. How much are you interested in all this in life? Or is it also just an image to a greater extent? Some groups playing in the Slavic theme, they are in life, for example, directly connected with Rodnoverie, Slavic paganism.

Feofan: I am interested in this topic. If I didn't know anything about it, where would it come from?! I wonder what it looked like. We have visited all the fortresses that are in the Leningrad region. It's curious, but to delve into some beliefs. I do not even know. Maybe Nicodemus on the sly?!

Nicodemus: And I love all sorts of old instruments and music. Songs, tunes. There are some really cool things about the art of music, if you dig around.

Feofan: I'm crazy about choral singing. Especially “The Steppe is Wide”, but not performed by the Cossack choirs ... It gives me goosebumps, at these moments I really want to sit there (shows the pose of a sage). Yes, and all the tunes, they are very smart and fast, they also sound very cool.

In 2015, a video clip for the song "Pritoptat" was distributed on the Internet. Its executor was a certain Neuromonakh Feofan. "Who is it really?" netizens asked each other. However, there was no accompanying information. Two years have passed, and the musical project is still continuing its work. Who is Neuromonakh Feofan really and what is he famous for?

Compound

It is known that behind the pseudonym is not one, but at least two people. This is the soloist and DJ Nikodim. The first is a tall guy with a false beard. In public, he always appears in a hoodie resembling a schema, with patterns on the edge and in bast shoes. His face is hidden by a hood, and in his hands he usually holds a staff in which a laser pointer is hidden. Neuromonk Feofan sings songs in a singsong voice with a characteristic melody and the use of Slavicisms, obsolete words. The musical project comes from St. Petersburg.

Story

Who is it really - Neuromonakh Feofan? The group still maintains anonymity from the intrusive media. But, despite this, the Afisha magazine managed to slightly lift the veil and interview DJ Nikodim, the second member of the group. He spoke about himself and about the history of the group. Nicodemus has a higher education. For a long time he was engaged in music professionally. And when he met Feofan (who is a self-taught musician), he suggested a lot of interesting things to him. On the basis of common interests, the guys became friends.

Feofan, even before the formation of the group, was actively recording songs (since about 2008). The idea to join forces in an original musical project arose during a walk in the woods.

Style

The uniqueness of the style of the new group was not only in the stylization of Russian folk festivals, but also in the combination of balalaika with drum-bass basses (electronic music). The lyrics of the songs of the Neuromonakh Feofan group depict the life of Ancient Russia, Russian nature and peasant labor, while they are not without irony. This makes the perception of creativity easy and interesting.

Criticism

Who is it really - Neuromonakh Feofan? The critics of the group's creativity racked their brains for a long time and painfully. But they were not interested in the true names of the participants, but in what they want to say with their songs. So, he called the guys "Orthodox atheists" and "believing Komsomol members." But it was a positive assessment. The leader of the Leningrad group approved the style and creativity of the newly minted artists in general, as well as their active work in social networks.

Other music critics also noted the freshness and originality of the combination of Russian folk motives and electronic dance music. They compared the St. Petersburg musical project with the already well-known "MS Vpyshkin" and "Ivan Kupala". According to experts, the team focuses on the visual component, while the musical part is defined as unpretentious, too simple.

The journalist of the Zvuki.ru portal Victoria Bazoeva devoted a short article to the group, where she positively assessed the level of the group's stylization. However, she expressed doubts about the mixing of modern words and historicisms and the good perception of this by connoisseurs of historical reconstruction.

On the question of who it really is - "Neuromonk Feofan", many agreed that the group represents the direction of conceptual postmodernism. Although her work in many respects opposes the activities of apologists for contemporary art, for example, Vladimir Sorokin.

Albums

The group has three albums in total. The first “Drama in the Soul, Bright Russia in the Heart” was presented in 2015. According to the musicians themselves, it was the first attempt to combine a Russian song, a balalaika, the breadth of the Russian soul and the direction of drum and bass. The experiment was a success. The album consisted of 17 tracks, which were positively evaluated by the music reviewer Alexei Mazhaev (InterMedia). The lyrics often used the word "drum". However, this did not stop critics from defining the band's style as electropop with folk elements. The album clearly feels the promotion of cultural revival and the accompanying irony about it. The original themes of compositions about the Old Russian Olympic Games and open-airs do not let you get bored.

The second collection "Great are the forces of good" was released in 2016. No less success awaited him. For two weeks, the album entered the iTunes chart as one of the most listened to. Neuromonk Feofan did not change his sound. However, some critics did not appreciate such devotion to style. So, for example, Stanislav Sorochinsky - blogger REF News - called the sound of the new record predictable, monotonous. And Alexei Mazhaev, in a review of the album, expressed the opinion that the performer becomes a hostage of one image that has no development. In addition, some tracks (for example, "I'm dancing everywhere") in their sound are closer not to drum and bass, but to Soviet music. Critics also noted the lack of a clear style of the collection. In it, the influence of Russian rock and folk is felt every now and then.

The second album included 9 songs. The last of them - "Stepson of Rules" - in style resembles the work of the "Technology" group.

At the beginning of 2017, Neuromonakh Feofan released his third album “Dance. Sing", which was immediately covered by Stanislav Sorochinsky. According to him, the collection "sounds like one big song." Although the task of the team now is not to surprise the listeners (“they have already invented the bicycle”), but to entertain the people who are hard at work in stuffy offices.

The band's singles were six compositions. From the last album, the tracks “And Now the Bear Sings” and “Old Russian Soul” were included in this list.

Video clips

The group has filmed only two videos so far. The first one for the song "To trample" scored almost seven million views on the YouTube channel. The second video clip "The hut is shaking" is less popular. Today it has collected only about two million views.

In the commercials, the musician traditionally, as well as on the stage, appears in his stage schema. Who it really is, Neuromonakh Feofan, and what his name is in ordinary life, cannot be understood. And the comments of fans and just curious users "hang" without an answer.

The musician himself, when asked why he does not reveal himself, answers simply. Neuromonakh Feofan is the image with which the style and creativity of the group is associated. Acceptance and approval of it should not be associated with the identity of the true performer.

Concerts

The beginning of 2015 was a landmark for the group. After all, then her debut album was released. This event was dedicated to the concert tour. Tours were held in the cities of Russia and Belarus. The program was originally called "Yadren Zador", and the collection entered the "golden ten" iTunes.

Also, the Neuromonakh Feofan group took part in the festivals Kubana, Invasion, VK Fest, Wild Mint and Epic Coast.

Today, musicians often perform in joint concerts with other stars: Basta, Marseille, Noize MC, etc.

• In the costume of a bear in the video “The hut walks shaking”, the wife of Neuromonk Feofan danced. Her name is unknown.
• In 2016, a musical project from St. Petersburg received the status of a popular Internet meme.
• A year after the release of the debut album, the Yandex.Music service recognized Neuromonakh Feofan as an independent performer of the year.
• At a concert in Moscow, one of the fans, apparently, decided to reveal to everyone who he really is - Neuromonakh Feofan. During the mass dance and fun, he reached out to the musician and wanted to pull off his hood. However, he was stopped in time.
• On September 19, 2017, the mysterious performer of the group gave an interview to Yuri Dud. The conversation turned out to be very frank for the artist. He spoke about how his work began. How did the idea to combine balalaika and drum and bass come about? But, most importantly, the artist answered the question tormenting all fans: “Who is this really - Neuromonakh Feofan, what is his name”? The musician, without any hesitation, called the name "Oleg". He also said that he is 30 years old, he grew up in Kupchino (St. Petersburg) and graduated from the State University of Aerospace Instrumentation with honors.

In the spring, the first concerts of the PNEUMOSLON group took place in St. Petersburg and Moscow - this is a new project of the anonymous St. Petersburg musician Neuromonakh Feofan, where he sings with obscenities about theft and domestic violence and shoots clips with rapper Pasha Technik.

Why does PNEUMOSLON share an audience with Sergei Shnurov, why should modern musicians make memes rather than songs, how do the members of the new group earn and what do they say about life in Kupchyna? « » talked to the group's vocalists Lord Pnevmoslon (aka Neuromonakh Feofan) and Boris Butkeev (a pseudonym taken from Vysotsky's song).

Boris Butkeev (left) and Lord Pneumoslon (right)

How did Pneumoslon appear in the life of Neuromonk Theophan?

Lord Pneumoslon: You need to separate two different Air Elephants. The PNEUMOSLON group appeared quite recently, but under the pseudonym Lord Pnevmoslon I have been writing songs for a long time - it appeared even before Neuromonk Feofan.

For a year in 2008–2009, I tried to record something and sent sketches to the Kremov and Khrustalev show on Radio Record under the heading “Farshmak” - in it the presenters put on a variety of music. Each time I signed with a new name, but then they began to recognize me by my voice and call only Lord Pneumoslon.

I did not invent this name, but simply borrowed from the stories of [journalist and writer] Dani Shepovalov - there was such a popular character in his time.

It so happened that at one fine moment I, like many young people, decided to delete my real page from VKontakte. Those were the times when you could change your name there as many times as you like without any documents and confirmations. I erased all the data and just put "Lord Pneumoslon". I sat under it on VKontakte, listened to music and so on. So everything remained, because when I wanted to change my name back, I already had to fiddle with the documents. And I scored.

What genre does what your band does fit into?

Boris Butkeev: It's a mixture of ska-punk and electronica. It so happened that Lord and I both like this kind of music.

LP: I wouldn't call it anything. If I say that this is a ska punk band, then what, will I have to play only ska punk all my life? What for?

In general, the original idea is different. I went to the concerts of Russian bands quite a lot and every time I just got furious about what a shitty live sound they have. They play like they did 20 years ago and don't take into account that the acoustics have come a long way. Now you can put such speakers in the car that you will rock, and they play as if everyone still listens to music only through ancient ear-drops. Accordingly, I decided that it would be cool to do something with such a fat-fat sound.

BB: Our idea is for a person to get into the car, turn on our music, and from the first chord ********* [play] so that the hood shakes.

What about texts? You simultaneously sing about domestic violence and theft, and about “princess in AliExpress shorts”, “waving ***** [penises] in the alcohol pit” and “hell on the back and on the front”.

LP: I didn't have a general concept. It cannot be said that we sing about any one topic. Each song has its own history of creation. Everything happens very simply - I notice something in myself or other people that I can laugh at, and I sing about it.

For example, the song "If I could, then ****** [stole]". I wrote it when I noticed that many people who seem to be very good and against all kinds of theft themselves begin to steal and cut money as soon as they have such an opportunity.

When I worked in a construction company (Lord Pnevmoslon worked at a construction site every summer from the age of 13 to 18, then he was the commercial director of a construction company - approx. “ papers”), there were many such people around me. I think that in other areas there is also a lot of this - people want, if not to steal, then to get it for free. Many will understand me.

Similar stories with all the other songs. In general, the texts of the group and, in principle, "PNEUMOSLON" are very different from Feofan. If there is a myth about the old Russian drum’n’bass and immersion in some kind of artificially created reality, then everything is different here. You listened, recognized yourself or other people in the song, laughed and moved on.

BB: We do not have any mission and higher goal, we do not want to impose our position on someone or load them with something. Lord just calls me and says: "Let's make a song about shit?". And I’m like, “Hmm, interesting idea. Why not really make a song about shit.”

They are just little life stories to laugh at. For example, we have a new song “Workers of Culture”, which is about artists who are all such professionals on stage and love each other, but behind the scenes they drink, take drugs and ***** [hardly beat] each other.

And there is an even more intelligent song, called "Shriveled". It's just about a person who is a ******* [bad person] and ***** [complete] ****** [stupid].

Why are there so many obscenities in the songs?

LP: Is there a lot of it? I do not think so. It seems to me that he is everywhere in his place. Well, how, for example, can one replace the word ***** [complete failure] without losing meaning and capacity? Or ***** [stole]. If you replace it with just “stole” it will be completely different.

BB: *** [male genital organ] and ****** [female genital organ] are not the main thing in the song. The main thing is the message and meaning. And it can be delivered in any language. Someone sings in Chinese, someone in English, and we sing in Russian with obscenities.

Feofan spoke in an interview with Dudya, that his wife helped a lot with this project and even danced on stage in a bear costume for the first time. Does she help with PNEUMOSLON? Doesn't the song bother her?

LP: Of course. She is my first listener. Moreover, she does not just say that everything is fine, but she can criticize and suggest. In general, she likes what I do and she helps a lot. And with songs, and with some kind of financial accounting, and with the development of concepts for shows and concerts. We are fine.

From the side it seems that there is a kind and sweet Feofan, and there is an evil and swearing Lord Pneumoslon. Which of them is similar to you in real life?

LP: It is difficult to talk about it and even compare. Feofan is a completely fictional story, and "PNEUMOSLON" does not need any myth around at all. We just sing songs.

Of course, there is a certain percentage of me in the projects. We are somewhat similar, but not one hundred percent.

When the Lord Pneumoslon first appeared and Feofan was not there yet, did you try to attach your songs somewhere? Start performing?

LP: Of course not. Moreover, I never tried to attach my music anywhere. I did not want and did not dream of large venues. I don't want to be a fucking rock star. If I had my way, I would perform twice a year and that's it.

Why then did you put together a group and started giving concerts, provided that you already have Feofan?

LP: We just at some point talked with Boris, who liked this project of mine for a long time, and decided to try to do something with it.

BB: Outside of PNEUMOSLON, I organize concerts. From gigs in small clubs to stadium tours. We met the Lord through the Neuromonakh Feofan project. Gradually they began to work together, and then they just decided that a good project could grow out of his Pneumoelephant Lord. It's great when a hobby becomes something more, some kind of serious, professional business.

We immediately agreed that we would do it together: I used to play in several small punk bands. As a result, in 2017, two songs were recorded and released for testing. See how people will react to them. It seems that everyone liked it, and we decided to record a full-fledged album - it was released in 2018. Now we are writing new songs for the second part of the album. We make all records with our own money.

For me, the main motivation to engage in a group is the opportunity to earn money. This is a commercial project. This is not a hobby. While of course I love the music and the performances, the stage is a huge adrenaline rush. Roughly speaking, this is a job that brings pleasure.

LP: Partly, of course, this is done for the sake of making money. We are not 23 years old (both musicians are over 30 years old - approx. “ papers”) and we can't just play for ourselves. Of course we want to make money, but that doesn't mean we don't like the band.

I don’t understand at all why in Russia there is such an idea that musicians do not need to be paid and only poor artists are true. It seems to me that this is some kind of relic of the Soviet Union.

Music is hard work that must be paid. If this is not the case, everything will come to the state of a sluggish hobby.

- Why do you sing in a mask again in a group?

LP: For the same reasons as Feofan. I don't sing about myself in this project.

BB: All other members (six people play in the group at concerts - approx. “ papers”), also with hypocrites. Either in masks or make-up. So it is more logical than if only the Lord was in the mask.

Why did you disclose that this is Feofan's project?

Your album “Counter-revolution. Part 1” are the old songs of Lord Pneumoelephant? Or is everything written specifically for a new project?

LP: These are the songs that I have been slowly writing since 2014 in parallel with Feofan.

BB: The new songs will be on the second album, which we want to release by the end of the summer. The entire first one consists of reworked old Lord songs. Once it was just a sketch, but now they are full-fledged songs with a good sound. We worked on the sound for a very long time, eight months. As a result, they came to the conclusion that the sound should contain wind instruments - five pipes, drums and electronics.

At the beginning of May you had your first concerts. How did they get through?

What kind of people came to the concerts?

BB: Partially those who listen to Feofan, but the majority are new listeners. It's actually hard to say. Ordinary concert, ordinary people. Our audience is young people 25+ who drink at concerts. Great audience.

Who are you competing with for it? What groups does it overlap with?

BB: With Leningrad, of course. It's stupid to deny it.

LP: Perhaps with the audience of that old Leningrad, before the Louboutins. Maybe "PNEUMOSLON" appeared because something was missing when that "Leningrad" disappeared.

But I would not say that we are competing with someone. It doesn't happen that people listen to "Leningrad" and that's it. They can listen to both Leningrad and us.

BB: I don't think there should be such comparisons. Yes, we have dummies too. Yes, we also have a mat. But according to this principle, we can say that all the groups that use wind instruments copied it from Leningrad.

We want to experiment. On the new album, the sound will be very different from what it was - there will be pump, and dubstep, and whatever.

Now there is a popular opinion that young musicians, on the contrary, shoot without any resource and analysis. Only on social networks and YouTube. This is true?

BB: It is a myth. Nothing happens by accident. Most often, everything happens according to one scenario: some Western celebrity is taken in a genre popular in the West, for example, in cloud rap, and simply copied.

Then you need a huge resource, including money, to promote this artist. To be written about by the public and the media. Otherwise, no one will need the artist. Without money and connections, unfortunately, it is unlikely that anything will work out.

Don't you think that musicians now make not songs, but memes for the sake of popularity? Even Kirkorov with his "Mood color - blue."

LP: I have been watching football since childhood. And, of course, I root for Zenit, because in St. Petersburg there is no one else to root for. I went to the Petrovsky, I was on the Bend.

I have always liked the way the fans sing, how they support the team, how they cheat, what kind of performances they put on. And I had a dream to make a performance at Virage.

BB: It so happened that I have been in football circles for a long time. I went to Virage, I know many of them from there. A couple of months ago, the Pivot driver listened to our song "Domestic Violence" and suggested that we remake it together into "Peter, Shizi on the Bend." Under the same beat, just with words about Zenit and fans. We, of course, agreed.

LP: Posted a song. The fans liked it and we were offered to make a performance at the match against SKA-Khabarovsk on May 13th. We came to the "Virage" and together with the fans sang the song twice, stretched out on the podium

In 2009. The group's performances are stylized as Russian folk dances and songs with balalaika, but mixed with electronic rhythmic drum-n-bass (dram) music. Initially, the project was perceived as a joke, quickly scattered across the Web with hits about “Vigor is a way of life”, where Neuromonakh, purposely okaya, sings about the breadth of the Russian soul to a frantic party rhythm.

7 years have passed, and now Feofan is touring the cities of Russia, where he gathers halls of fans. DJ Nikodim and Medved are with him. The team does not reveal their faces, believing that their images distract from the main thing - music and emotions.

Three come to my office noisily, which is not surprising - where have you seen such characters not draw attention to themselves? Ahead of all is the Bear, with a protruding belly, you want to touch him right away. The bear is warm - in a suit it is very hot inside. The clubfoot practically does not communicate with us, and what should a forest animal say? He sits next to him on his mind, occasionally joking and perks up only when the conversation turned to Chicoy pine nuts, which I promised to treat him to.

Nicodemus strums on the balalaika whatever comes into his head. He is the most fashionable in the team - he wears a blouse, a disheveled beard and trendy Ray Ban glasses. Feofan - will be taller than a friend, stately with a bass voice. His face is not visible behind a dense hood, only a lush beard peeks out from under the matter. In the hands of the monk is a staff, which he made himself at the beginning of his musical career. He said that he was luring suitors to the girls, and gave me a hold.

- How did you meet the Bear and Nikodim, how did you decide to create a team?

- There is a legend about it, we all met in our native forest. But the story of getting into the forest is a mystery. This is where creativity came from, where we draw inspiration from the depths. Nature itself gives ideas that you want to convey. Nicodemus, here, in the forest he learned to play the balalaika.

- Why did you use a word similar to the dignity of an Orthodox priest in the name of the team? What does it mean?

- The prefix "neuro" indicates a connection with the nervous system, that is, with the sense organs. A monk, first of all, is a hermit. I think you can understand when you listen to our songs, there is no need to specifically explain this.

What do you want to convey to the listener?

- The main thing that we are trying to convey to our listeners is rhythmic music and bright emotions in it. Nothing more. Therefore, we do not show faces - attention should not be scattered.

- For listeners, your image is more like a joke. Does laughter and the bright message that you carry combine?

- Fits great! At first, we didn’t take it seriously ourselves, we just did what we wanted. And we didn’t think that everything would go on like this, people would start responding, we would start touring. Last year we took a bus to Irkutsk. Until Chita has not yet happened. We got there for the first time.

While we like it, there are great positive people here. People are generally happy everywhere. Before we get to a new city, we carefully study its history, its features, and dialect. For example, we already know about your museum of local lore, the Church of the Decembrists, buuzy, datsan. We even know at what height Chita is above the sea.

— On what?

- Somewhere around 670 meters.

- For this is the Dram of Old Russian, reborn from the depths of centuries. Balalaika and drama in general are very similar in terms of energy, why not combine them.

- You did not immediately begin to perform - first you gained fame on the Internet. How did you decide to give concerts? Was it scary?

- It was easy to decide, it was not scary! Each time it becomes more and more interesting to perform, our concerts are not just a performance on stage, but something similar to a show. We bring a lot of costumes, equipment, various items with us, a video is projected on the stage behind us. We want the more the better. I have a staff with laser beams - I made it from a tree that dried up near the house, back in 2009.

- Do you know about the beatmaker Oligarkh (reads prayers to a rhythmic melody - I.Kh.)? Have you thought about working with him or with someone else who promotes the idea of ​​the breadth of the Russian soul?

“We rarely think about it at all. Our focus is different, so it is unlikely to succeed. Although time will tell.

- What does the word vigorousness, which was found in the title of one of your first hits, mean?

- It's a way of life! A state of enthusiasm when energy is overflowing. It can manifest itself in everything, in dances, for example.

- And it is securely fixed. (gives you to touch with your hand how the hood rests on something like a hat)

Photograph © Evgeny Petrushansky

No one knows either the name or the face of this person, although he gives concerts and has already written two albums: “In the soul of dramas, in the heart of bright Russia” and “Great are the forces of good.” The first impression of listening to the ancient Russian drama neuromonk Feofan may be a sense of irony. And the very name of the project - "Neuromonk Feofan", and the name of the first album (" Drama in the soul, bright Russia in the heart”), and the texts themselves can partly have such an impression. However, we will be greatly mistaken if we see in the Neuromonk Feofan project only irony over Russian religiosity, leavened patriotism and Russian life in general. Irony something here, perhaps, least of all.

We will be greatly mistaken if we see in the Neuromonk Feofan project only irony over Russian religiosity, leavened patriotism and Russian life in general

And what is there then, if not irony? - you ask me, astute reader. I believe that here we are dealing with very good work with the soil, with the material, which is why the project of the neuromonk Theophan turns out to be so original. Indeed, this, if I'm not mistaken, has not yet appeared in our music. It is the work with the soil, with the native material - that has long been demanded by our musical field. What do I mean by soil work? For example, if I do, say, rap, and at the same time I want my rap to be original, not like Western, authentic, then I must put original meanings into it, I must saturate it with the philosophy of the native land, the juices of my native land. Naturally, I also have to work on the form. However, if we look at our today's national music, which is Russian rap, we will see that rap made, say, in the city of Chita is no fundamentally different from rap made, for example, in the city of Voronezh. Why is that? Yes, because there are the same topics, the same meanings, plots, problems, and even the beat was made by the same beatmaker ... As a result, we have what we have, namely the overproduction of the same type of gray rap, imitative and extremely unoriginal, but at the same time confident in its incredibly originality.

It’s not at all the same with the neuromonk Feofan, who composed a beautiful legend, and picked up the most excellent company for himself (Bear and beatmaker Nikodim), and sings songs fervently. And he invented his own dictionary, or rather he didn’t invent it, but he adopted some old Russian words, filling them with his own connotations. Updated, in a word. For example, “Vigor” is, according to Feofan, a way of life that manifests itself in the fact that a person literally exudes positive energy, starts dancing with or without reason, and is generally inclined to fun. Well, and so on. Also, neuromonk Theophan encourages people to come to his concerts in shirts and bast shoes, which is why the masters of bast weaving have increased orders before the concerts of the neuromonk. This is where the lifestyle comes in...

I repeat that it is by no means possible to perceive the work of neuromonk Theophan as irony or as banter over the Russian Orthodox way of life. This is exactly a project (yes, let it be commercial, but where would it be without it now?), which works with authentic material and, moreover, works brilliantly with it! Whoever saw here the irony of Russian Orthodoxy and patriotism simply did not understand anything.

Each word of the album "Great are the forces of good" is very kind, warm, light, friendly, and the whole album comes out like this

Someone may be offended by the phrase "Old Russian dram." Well, here's where the irony comes in. Moreover, the irony, rather, over the drama as a genre. Since the word "drum" neuromonk Feofan also endows with some of his additional meanings. This most ancient Russian drama is also ironic because, as those who are meticulous to the definition of a label have already noticed, oh - cross it out! - i.e. genre, music critics, this is not a drama at all, but simply electropop with folk elements. Let it be so, this does not change the matter.

Let's also say a few words about the latest album of neuromonk Feofan " Great are the forces of good". I can't resist and say from myself that the album is the most wonderful! And I will add: very wonderful!

“A lot of dirty, useless words,” Feofan sings. We can say with confidence that there is not a single such useless word in the neuromonk's album. Each word of the album is very kind, warm, light, friendly, and the whole album comes out like that. The album, in fact, according to the plot, tells how Feofan, together with his friends Medved and Nikodim, leave the noisy city behind them (the song “Come with me”) and go to the village to play the old Russian drama and have fun there. Actually, they don’t need anything else, except that they would like us to have fun with them, so they invite us with them.

Neuromonk sees only goodness around and invites to fun on such a wonderful occasion. Indeed, “everything is pure to the pure”!

An album about friendship, fun, kindness, love for nature. About the fact that the forces of good are great! And although the neuromonk never seems to utter the word God or the word Church in the album, and in interviews, as they say, he fundamentally refuses to talk about religion, nevertheless, the very mood of the album -  bright, kind  - cannot be perceived only in a secular way. And the very appeal to the topic of Russian monasticism and Russian life in general speaks for itself. Even if this appeal is only at the level of paraphernalia, all the same, the paraphernalia itself has value for the listener. However, neuromonasticism can also be perceived as modern foolishness, who knows!… The holy fool does not explain to us the dogmas and nuances of this or that theologian, but he speaks to us in other ways! (compare the neuromonk Feofan with the St. Petersburg rap-fool MC Repent, whom you can quite by chance meet on the streets of the northern capital and listen to his Orthodox freestyle).

In any case, it is obvious that the album is strong in its light and good mood, first of all, and not in thought. Neuromonk sees only goodness around and invites to fun on such a wonderful occasion. Indeed, “everything is pure to the pure”! And when there is only negativity, anger and lies around us, how important it is to remember the light of genuine simple human goodness!

That is why we thank neuromonk Feofan for this message!

Lubomud Andrey