Since their incredible four week stay on top of the charts in January with All The Things She Said most of the media has hilariously scandalised t.A.T.u. In a time and age where even 8-year-old children have seen it all, pint sized Julia Volkova and her girlfriend, fiery red headed Lena Katina, have created headlines not even Gary Glitter can get away with it. Underneath their school uniforms though, lies an icy attitude and hot electro-pop sound which makes them credible. Whilst Julia and Lena may have been handpicked to front this act, they do a pretty fuck’n cool job of it.
Do you have any unfinished business?
Julia Volkova: No, not really.
Lena Katina: I certainly have. For example, I am learning how to drive. And still have not learned yet. Just when I think: “Tomorrow I’ll call my instructor and we’ll go for a drive”, the director calls: “Girls, tomorrow you have to do this and this” and so my driving is postponed.
Do you have the car of your dream?
L: No I consider that the car is just a piece of metal. It’s not what you call a supernatural miracle.
In many articles near to the word ‘t.A.T.u’ frequently there is the word ‘protest’. Against what do you protest?
L: We protest against someone forbidding something to someone.
J: We protest against war, and against misunderstanding of youth.
Who does not understand youth?
J: Everyone does not understand. There are people with non-traditional orientation and as a rule parents do not understand such daughters.
L: Conflict with the senior generation.
J: There is a conflict with friends as well. One dresses in a particular way and thinks that you shouldn’t communicate with someone different. This is silly. We try to get it out to the people and tell people that they have nothing to be ashamed of.
What do you mean when you say the word ‘love’?
J: For me it is something inexplicable, not explained by words.
L: Someone once said: “Love is all: it is all that we know about it “. Anyone who tries to give the complete characteristic and to reduce ‘love’ to something so far has failed.
Have you ever had a perfect period in your life, maybe two days, maybe the whole year?
J: I always feel good. Though life is stripy.
Is there a moment when your life has changed?
L: When we began touring with mad speed. Everything has changed: all life we lived with parents, met each day with friends. And then, oops, there is no-one around you, neither parents, nor friends, or Moscow. Only buses, trains, cars.
Do you still have friends from your previous life before t.A.T.u?
L: Yes, certainly.
J: Those who were real friends, they, I think, remained with us, and those who were not, left.
And those who have remained, has the relationship changed?
L: There is less dialogue, fewer things in common.
Can you describe your worst condition?
L: It’s when I lay in a bed and understand that I don’t want to do anything anymore at all.
Under what circumstances does such a mood arise?
L: It is a so-called depression, when simply you can’t be bothered anymore. It is this monotony; although, one might think that it’s impossible to call our life monotonous but it all depends on the point of view.
So from which point of view would you call your life monotonous?
L: Monotonous because we are always travelling. And not monotonous because we do not go to the same place. Sometimes I think that it’s so boring and I can’t do it anymore and then the following morning I wake up and think “I will die without it all”.
Julia, what has been your worst moment?
J: The most awful time in my life was a car accident.
You had a car accident?
J: Yes. Within a split second, I could have died. It was a very bad moment in my life, it was not real. And then I understood that it is necessary to live life absolutely in another way.
So what is life and how do you have to live it?
J: It is a lot of, which things to you are desirable? But it does not always mean that you can do them. Before the accident it was like if I want to drink or do this or that, who cares? But now I have to think before I do anything.
Do you know if any of your friends take drugs?
J: Of course.
Did it change your attitude towards them?
J: No.
How did you react to it?
J: Calmly. When I was about fourteen or fifteen, I communicated with such people before I could understand what was happening with them. It was all very serious: cocaine, heroin. I feel sorry for them. The time has passed and I have changed and achieved things and these people still sit in the same courtyard, in the same entrance, nothing is present for them in life. They look thinner, they are ill. They will not be here in two or three years. It is their life.
Now you are stars. Is it for the rest of your lives? How do you imagine yourselves in 10 years?
J: When the project t.A.T.u. dies, I will no longer sing. It is good in t.A.T.u. but in the future I do not see myself being the singer. I shall engage in something else. For example, be the director, be a producer: two in one. Many people say that it is necessary to study for a producer, otherwise it is not serious. I think that it is not necessary. Similarly, to be a
producer, you have to have the general essence of what you are doing.
There is a stereotype, that the producers are investing money in this, what is a producer to you?
J: The sponsor invests. The producer is the one who puts ideas into the project. Like our producer Ivan. He spotted us and put his heart and soul into this project and this idea is a step forward.
Were you born to sing?
L: I do not know, I follow my heart, whatever it tells me to do, I do. Your whole life is a maze.
J: If the project t.A.T.u. finishes, I won’t be a singer any more because my heart lies in t.A.T.u. It will be very hard to start again and I will miss the old memories. Let it finish as it should. This group will always be in my memory, because it was the first and the best. It will be hard to put all 100% into the formation of another band.
As far as it seems, has t.A.T.u completed its mission?
J: I think that it is just the beginning, some people say, “They’ve taken the world by storm, now they’re going to burn out.” Rubbish! We have a long way to go.
Have you ever performed with live instruments?
J: Yes, in America.
Is the difference appreciable?
L: Yes, a huge difference, certainly. A completely different experience.
J: Singing live is much better, you can always improvise when you get something wrong. Ivan used to say, “You’ll sing live later” but when we started to, we decided that it was much better.
Has it ever happened that a fan turned into a friend?
L: It happened to Julia and I once, when people got too close to us, but we have regretted it. I think that if someone is my fan, there will always be something there that will never go. The relationship wouldn’t be normal as with friends. I can relate to a fan as a normal person, but they cannot do the same back to me.
Do you ever feel that you are not giving some people around you enough attention?
L: No, that’s never happened.
J: Everyone has enough of me! I don’t sleep in the day or the night, I can sleep for three hours per day. The minute I wake up, I get a string of phone calls and meetings. There are a lot of emotions in me, the most terrible thing for me is loneliness. As soon as I’m at home alone, in the closed walls, that’s it. It’s terrifying and I can’t stand being on my own, because the most important thing for me is being around my friends.
L: I have thought up an aphorism concerning loneliness. Loneliness is a terrible thing slowly killing the man from within.
Are you ever lonely when you’re together?
L: In any case, we miss our friends, we have different circles of friends, and there’s our parents of course, but I confide in Julia.
J: Me too.
L: The most important thing is that a person who you’re close with is by your side. And we have known each other for a very long time: we work together and almost live together.
J: We argue, but it’s never serious.
L: We have in fact become so close that it’s difficult to call what we have together ‘friendship’.
And how it is possible to name it?
L: It is much more, it’s something very special... like a family. |
