Note:
1) It starts out with Yulia laughing, telling Lena--whom she calls "Lenok" now and then--and an off-camera person, that she used to wear stuffed bras and her mom would call those "tit houses".
2) Yulia is very tired during the interview and doesn't understand any of the questions, which causes that neurotic laugh in her. Throughout, she makes little comments to Lena, addressing her still as "Lenok".
3) Another question, which Yulia somehow grasps, is "Are you tired?" While Lena tries to answer it, Yulia goes, "Ha! Tired? Oh, not at all! Imagine three weeks of daily interviews, and I'll see how you'd do!" She can't stop laughing and at one point goes, "Jesus Christ" (as in "what's wrong with me?").
4) Other than the comments, the rest is just laughing, incoherent phrases and more laughing! She was so tired she couldn't stop laughing. It happens to everyone sometimes...
(Thanks to valkyria from the tatugirls.com forum.)
Yulia can be heard shivering.
Rep: (To Yulia.) Are you cold? Do you want my jacket?
Yulia doesn't understand much, and shakes her head. Someone says, "No." (It sounds and sort of looks like Yulia who says that. -Echo)
The reporter laughs a little...
Rep: Are you tired?
Lena: Yes.
Rep: Why?
(Go to Note 3.)
The girls laugh, the reporter as well.
Rep: Did you go out last night?
Lena: No, we were really tired and we went to sleep.
Rep: Actually... This is the first time that I meet someone Russian who is in the music industry. It must be quite funny, you speak Russian and we don't understand anything. Do you have fun with that?
Lena: (Laughs.) Of course, we have!
Rep: And you tell people off?
Lena: (Laughs even more.) We can tell people in Russian, "Fuck off," and they will laugh. (Girls are laughing.) They think that we say, "Oh, you're so good! And in the real we say, "Oh my God, fuck off!" And they will, "Ha, ha, ha!"
Rep: Hah... Excellent. Yeah... You've done a whole day of Norwegian interviews. What kind of questions do you get?
Lena: We did, I think, all the questions... which only could be.
Rep: Is it hard, actually, to travel, and answer the same questions all the time?
Lena: Yeah, it's really dull sometimes...
Yulia sees something behind the camera and starts laughing. Nobody understands anything...
Rep: Do you pinch yourself that you're actually traveling the world and being released on a major label.
Lena: Yes.
Rep: (Trying to speak over Yulia's giggling) Is it fun to get so much attention?
Lena: Yes, of course, it's fun.
Julia laughs even more. Almost hysterical. Still, nobody understands anything. Lena tries to get her attention. Almost succeeding... The reporter is asking the girls what's so funny, without any success.
Rep: So let's... So, how did you all begin?
Lena: You mean, our group?
Rep: Yes.
Lena: Hehe, same question!
Rep: I know, but we have to have the story!
Lena: We met eight years ago, in a children band, which called "Neposedi". We were singing there for about three or four years. Then it was a big casting, about 500 girls. Now we are singing together. That was three years ago. And we started writing and stuff maybe, two and a half years ago. To work, to make videos... So now, we are Tatu... And we are in Norway!
Rep: Did you ever imagine that? That you would come to Norway?
Lena: No, no, never...
Rep: Are you surprised by the success of your music?
Lena: Of course, we are!
Rep: You didn't expect that when you started this?
Lena: No, we didn't expect, but we are very happy it is so.
Rep: How did you get in touch with Trevor Horn?
Lena: Our producer... um... uff... How to say? We met him in London and we started working with him for English versions of our songs. And that's it.
Rep: What's the difference between singing in Russian and English?
Lena: The language!
Rep: Yes, I know, but--
Lena: Yes, I know too.
Lena and the reporter laugh a little.
Rep: But, what is the main difference, other than the language?
Lena: The language.
Rep: That's it?
Lena: Yeah!
Rep: What about the emotions? When I'm listening to the Russian versions, I find them more powerful...
Lena: Maybe because... it's another language, not our language. (Meaning the English version doesn't sound as powerful, because it isn't their language. -Echo)
Rep: Do you prefer Russian?
Lena: Of course, we prefer Russian. But to be well-known all over the world, you need to sing in English, so... I like English.
Rep: What did Trevor Horn do to your music?
Lena: He translated the words.
Rep: But musically?
Lena: The music is the same as in Russian.
Rep: Was it fun to work with someone as known as Trevor Horn? Did you know him before you met him?
(There's some discussion about who Trevor worked with before. Lena simply says that they liked his work, but did not know it was him who did all those other songs. -Echo)
Lena: Yeah, it was fun, but, no, we didn't know him. We just worked with a sound producer and... that's it. He has very good personality. So it was fun.
Rep: How do you write your music?
Lena: What about music... Our producer in Russia... He finds the music. Which we like, of course. And that's it...
Rep: Do you write the lyrics yourself?
Lena: No, we have a person who write for us lyrics, but all lyrics is about us. (Lena goes on to describe on how their producer--assumably Ivan--can understand them, and can communicate their lives into their songs and videos. -Echo) It is a story about our lives.
Rep: Your first single, "All The Things She Said", what is that about?
Lena: Have you seen the video?
Rep: Yes?
Lena: How do you think what it is about? (Her English rocks. Ahem. Back on topic now. -Echo)
Rep: I think it is about love and relationship.
Lena: So, this is the answer for this question!
Rep: The video is quite provoking... Did you do that... deliberate?
Lena: We wanted to show our lives...
Rep: Are you surprised that people find it a little controversial?
Lena: Yeah.
(And this is the fun part with Lena's comment concerning whether or not he was "under the drugs", because he seems to constantly break out into the giggles. The camera goes a little wonky, and there's conversation about how it is too bad that he isn't under the drugs. -Echo)
Rep: Your song is featured in Lilja 4-ever. How did that come about? Have you seen it?
Lena: No, we haven't seen the movie. When we were in... it is Sweden, right?
Rep: Yes.
Lena: We were in Sweden maybe a week and a half ago and our producer told us. It's a problem with our record company. But I think it's great that our single is in this movie. Especially about a Russian girl, so we are excited.
Rep: Do you know about the content? Do you know what the movie is about?
Lena: No.
Rep: It is about a Russian girl who moves to Sweden and becomes a prostitute.
Lena: We wanted to see this movie really. We wanted to see...
Rep: You know we have a very glib view of Russia. Are we right? Is Russia a rough place to live?
Lena: It's great place to live.
Rep: Why do you think that we have this wrong picture then?
Lena: I think it is about TV. They have a tendency to only show the bad things about other countries. Even if there is a good thing, they never show it, because it's not interesting for TV. So, I think that this is the main reason, oh my God.
Rep: And what is the music industry in Russia?
Lena: The same like everywhere. (Etc., etc. -Echo.)
Rep: Why is it so hard to get Russian bands into the West?
Lena: I don't know. I think it is a political question. I'm not politician, I'm singer!
Rep: Do you feel like you are ambassadors?
Lena: Yes, it is great. We are first Russian group in West Europe and America. It is great, and maybe later, there may be other Russian groups. Maybe not, we don't know.
(Here, they talk about the Smiths' song. Why they covered it and how they came about it. Their record company, Interscope, suggested it to them and the girls liked it. So they made a cover. Period. -Echo)
Rep: What are your plans? Will you come back to play live for us?
Lena: It is a question for our record company, but I think we will come back to play live.
Rep: What is Tatu like live?
Lena: We don't know what it will be. (Emphasis on "be", meaning she doesn't know what the show will be like in the future. -Echo) We have an hour and a half show with four dancers. We dance and we sing... (Here, there seems to be a bug flying around her. Great fun. Hee. -Echo) With different jokes and so on...
(Now there's a discussion about what their fanbase is. They have none in America as of yet, but in Russia, they have crazy fans. -Echo "Boys and girls, gay boys and not gay boys, lesbians and not lesbians and so on." -Lena)
(Another short bit concerning the amount of albums, one million, they've sold in Russia--which they say to ask their fans about--and about how they got there by doing TV shows, interviews and "so on", as Lena seems so fond of saying. Whee. -Echo)
Rep: Are you really cold?
Lena: Yeah.
Rep: Oh, okay. Can you introduce your new single in Russian? The show is called Top 20.
Lena and Julia doing as told, giggling, laughing and fighting for the microphone...
Yulia starts singing "Nas Ne Dogoniat".
Rep: Sorry that I kept you cold!
Thanks to ta-tu.net and Jung. (Edited by E.) |
