FHM: Why is your film clip “All The Things She Said” thought of as scandalous?
Lena: This song is about two girls, who love each other, and want to show this to everyone around them. And it’s as though they’re living on the other side of the fence – like in the clip. On one side there’s a crowd of people, and on the other we’re both together: they don’t understand us, and we try to explain to them that what we are doing is normal. And then we start to get angry, because we love each other, and it’s such a huge love, and how can you not understand it, and so on.
FHM: Why did you decide to sing rock, and not pop, like Britney?
Lena: It’s our lifestyle, our style of music. Everything together.
Yulia: We’re actually like Marilyn Manson (laughs).
FHM: Who else do you like?
Yulia: (Not saying a word, points her finger towards Lena).
Lena: Me! She loves me!
FHM: People say that you girls are very close friends. What does “very close” mean?
Lena: Very close means very close (laughs).
FHM: How close?
Lena: You wouldn’t even believe how close. Should I tell you how close we are? That is, do you want to hear that we sleep together, that we have sex every night?
FHM: Is that how it is?
Lena: (Laughs). Of course, yes!
FHM: Are you lesbians?
Lena: What do you think?
FHM: I don’t know.
Lena: And if this is love, if we really love each other? We even live together, it’s just that we’re never home (laughs).
FHM: Do you honestly like kissing in front of the public?
Lena: We kiss when we want to.
FHM: And what if it shocks the people around you?
Lena: We don’t care! Romeo and Juliet were 14 when they fell in love. We’re not lesbians, we just love each other, and a person can fall in love at any age. Don’t forget that we’ve known each other from our childhood, and in childhood you don’t yet understand what you’re feeling towards a person. It’s only when you grow up that you understand what love is.
FHM: Do you have boyfriends?
Lena: No. We actually don’t want people to know about out private lives. Everything that we want to say is in our songs.
FHM: Do you write songs yourselves?
Lena: No, we write poems together, but they’re not for Tatu. We know how to sing, and someone knows how to write songs. You can’t do everything yourself.
FHM: How did you fall in love? Was it love at first sight?
Lena: (Laughs). It was love, and it’s love for a long time. We’ve been together for about four or five years.
FHM: How do you go about working together, living together, and don’t get sick of each other?
Lena: We never get sick of each other, and that’s how we work together, sleep together, and so on, etc. Yes! Yes!
FHM: Do you have a break from each other once in a while?
Lena: We have breaks, of course! For example, when we return to Moscow, we try to live with our parents. That’s our break time.
FHM: And your parents are very proud of you?
Lena: Of course, they’re lucky.
FHM: Have they always supported you in everything you’ve done?
Lena: Hmmm, well in the beginning they didn’t understand, how this girl loves that one. “Oh God, my daughter loves a girl, it’s not right”, and so on. And then my Mum and Yulia’s Mum talked and decided: “It’s your life, and if that’s how you’ve decided to live it, then why not? It’s your choice”. So now we do what we want.
FHM: It seems that you both have awesome Mums.
Lena: Our Mum’s aren’t old yet. So they understand exactly what’s on our minds (laughs).
FHM: And why is it that Yulia is so quiet?
Lena: She doesn’t speak English very well. She’s slowly learning. She’s not a stupid girl, but it just doesn’t seem to work for her. But for me it was easy to learn English.
FHM: How do you walk around the street of Moscow? Do people recognize you?
Lena: Yes, sometimes they recognize us. Usually we go shopping or to eat at a restaurant, and it’s not a problem. People don’t bother us, they just notice us and sometimes ask for autographs or sometimes just say out loud “Oh, Yulia and Lena form Tatu! We love you, we love you!” or “Tatu – shit!”, or something along those lines.
FHM: Where is it better to perform – in clubs or in stadiums?
Lena: This depends on what kind of concert it is. Sometimes it’s a huge stadium with about 5000 people in the audience, sometimes an area with 50 000 people. And we’re often invited to clubs with about 500 people. But in the end, definitely stadiums.
FHM: You became stars when you were both 17. How did you cope mentally with such popularity?
Lena: It was very easy. We’ve dreamt about this since we were kids, and now we just need to work, and all our dreams will come true. There’s nothing complicated. Sometimes, of course, you feel extremely tired, but that happens with any kind of work. Our work isn’t very complicated.
FHM: When did you start to sing?
Lena: A very long time ago. We started out in a children’s ensemble, well-known and very professional. This helped us. We each sang there for about 4 years, and then started performing together.
FHM: Do you have idols?
Lena: No, we never had idols or favourite singers. We listen to everything that’s on the radio. And I don’t like going to concerts, gives me a headache afterwards. However, I myself, love performing. It’s totally different.
FHM: What’s the difference between you and other people of the same age as you?
Lena: We’re very much like other teenagers. We have the same problems when it comes to love. But the main difference is that they sit around for days on end smoking, and drinking beer – well, some go to school, but we think about our future. We’ve been working since we were 14, and both know what we want out of life.
FHM: Do you ever get the feeling that you missed out on a normal childhood because of your career?
Lena: On the contrary, our childhood was very interesting compared to other children. We sang and performed, and others didn’t have anything like this in their lives.
FHM: Who are your parents?
Yulia: Dad’s a businessman, and mum works with cosmetics.
Lena: And my dad’s a musician, and mum doesn’t work – sits at home and plays the piano. I like listening to her playing.
FHM: Lena, you’re studying psychology. A person who’s interested in such a profession, usually wants to sort themselves out first.
Lena: Yes, you have to study there for 5 years, and I’ve already finished the second course, besides the work. I’m actually all for the highest qualifications. I’ve been interested in psychology for a very long time, and whilst studying have learnt a lot about myself and about how others behave. For example, now I can tell what someone’s like just through their gestures and the way they speak.
FHM: Your album’s called “200km/hr in the wrong lane”. Do you yourselves drive along the correct side or the wrong side?
Lena: On the wrong one, of course, the wrong one. And it’s dangerous, they’re pursuing us – no wonder we sang about how they’re not gonna get us. We have a clip to the song where Yulia’s behind the wheel of a huge truck, and we’re running away from the whole world. Even form our parents, our friends, from everyone, from public opinion. We just want to be together, remain as one, and Yulia is speeding in the wrong lane, and it’s extremely dangerous because she’s driving at 200km/hr. I don’t know how else to explain it. That’s the precise theme of our album.
FHM: Do you actually like driving?
Lena: Yulia likes it a lot. But I can’t. I can’t right now, but will learn later (laughs).
FHM: Do you have a lot in common, or are you totally different?
Lena: We’re very different, but at the same time we’re similar. Of course we’re different, because we’re different people. Character-wise we’re different. But usually we have to compromise.
FHM: You both have classical piano training. Have you forgotten what they taught you at school?
Yulia: Of course not – I learnt for seven years. My favourite is “Moon sonnet” by Beethoven.
Lena: I recently also started playing the guitar. But for now I prefer it when somebody else sings and I listen.
FHM: What are you afraid of?
Yulia: I’m afraid of being alone: I become depressed and start thinking about death.
FHM: What do you want to be when you’re older?
Yulia: I want to be a producer, establish my own group, and write songs. And also want to design clothes. I’m even thinking about studying at design school.
FHM: How did you feel when Tatu appeared on top of the world music charts?
Lena: Of course we dreamt about something along those lines, but couldn’t imagine that it would happen in real life. We really wanted to do this because nobody had ever done it before us. There weren’t any popular Russian groups in Europe and the US, and we’ll be lucky if we remain famous for a while.
FHM: Why didn’t the other Russian groups have this opportunity?
Lena: I don’t know, maybe we’re better. No, we’re the best! We’ve got lots of good groups. I hope that we’ve opened up the doors for them.
FHM: What are your impressions of the countries that you’ve visited?
Lena: I have no idea what to say. We traveled a lot around Europe, around America, have been to many Russian cities. Sometimes it’s very hard because we miss home and want to see our mums, sisters, and even our dogs (laughs). But that’s what this work is like – we wanted to live like this, and that’s how we live.
FHM: What are your dogs’ names?
Lena: Yulia has a Setter, and I have a Chow Chow as big as a bear (laughs). And they’re the same colour. Mine is called Blanka, and Yulia’s – Rada.
FHM: Soon you’ll be rich. Do you have dreams that can be achieved through having money?
Lena: To be honest, we don’t care how much money we have. It’s not a problem. We still live with our parents, and we have enough, more than enough. And we help our parents with random small presents. We just want everyone around us to be lucky and to not be afraid of their wishes, so that everyone loves one another, and mainly – to love someone next to them.
Translation by yul. |
