«People Are The Most Important Thing Vivienne Mort Has»
We agreed upon a meeting in the center, near the restaurant of French food. We both came earlier. “Hi, Dana!” – “Hello!” – she says and spreads her arms to hug me. It was a little odd, but incredibly nice. That’s she is, the vocalist of Vivienne Mort band, – a sincere, outgoing, and seeming unearthly. Just like her music.
WeLoveUA: Chamber, club atmosphere suits to your music, but the number of Vivienne Mort fans is growing every year. How do you solve this issue?
Daniela Zaiushkina: You noticed that correctly. We want closeness at concerts, but that’s good that everything happens as you said, not vice versa. People – this is the most important thing to Vivienne Mort. So before going on tour, we conduct a survey in social networks and select an appropriate area. We are looking for means to make a large room cozy. In the end, it is important for people what you are. If you are close, people feel it and there’s no steep between you.
Nowadays, I often see how people film a musician on the phone at concerts instead of simply enjoying the performance. Is there such a problem in your concerts?
This is not a problem. At first, it annoyed me, and then I thought it over. It had to happen so, everything was coming to this.
But I love how Boskh thinks. His little people can be viewed as figures – small letters, signs. This can be read as text. And everything can be read as text, the most important thing is to let it go out with you. So, a part of the Bosch creatures is pictured with various metal pieces in their hands, or they are attached to them. No wonder that now these gadgets are a part of our lives. It’s great that Boskh is so conscious and superhuman.
A friend of mine says that soon iPhone will grow in a hand for convenience. “No! What are you saying?” and I start crying. I worry about this in real earnest. And then I’ve realized that this is natural, it should be so. The main thing is look at the root. People came to our concert, they aren’t playing Lineage at home, and I am grateful for this.
And what concert do you want to visit?
Radiohead concert. The Mars Volta – they aren’t great live, but they dance so great. I love them. I would go to System of a Down show if they still have played. To comfort the child who always wanted to see them and wore the icon.
You recently filmed a mini-movie. Tell us about it.
This video is a live performance with our Gothic program in Kyiv. Some didn’t know it was interesting, so those who didn’t come to the show can download this concert for home viewing. The boys were playing in masks, and took them off after performing. The metaphor is simple. I also watched Gothic DVD, it’s cool to recall the tour, it was hilarious. Videos of live performances have replaced our music videos for a long time.
In 2013, you went on tour for the first time…
Maybe in 2013. You know better, you’ve been preparing for an interview. I’m bad at this: I don’t memorize the dates. I need only to remember when Bach’s birthday is, it’s been impossible for several years. I know the year when serfdom was abolished – the 1861st.
It can be worse: someone has a bad memory for names.
Yes, it is useful to remember the names. People need you to know their names. It is like showing physical education teacher that his subject is important. That’s better this way.
City by city, concert by concert – isn’t it difficult?
When we first started touring and, in fact, no one was involved in organizing concerts, I could easily observe the half of the 72 of Benedictine monks’ commandments: do not eat, do not sleep, stay cold. And the energy never dissolved, because performances and traveling was very interesting, and because we were getting a charge of emotions from our audience.
By the way, these monks had one more really cool Commandment: if monk fell out with someone, he is to make peace till the evening. That’s what I understand well. It’s hard to sleep until you make things work.
You’ve been performing at ZahidFest two years in a row. Is it difficult to play in front of such big audience?
Imagine: you go out on stage, and everyone came to listen to you, they trust, they suspect you in nothing. The only festivals’ weak point is people standing far from the stage. It seems that every year the enclosure departs further from the stage, and there are few people hanging out in the VIP-zone. People are standing far.
Perhaps, for the sake of security.
What do I have to fear? Then it is better to put some armored glass or show us on the screen while we are playing somewhere safe. It happened with me once – someone grabbed my hand and pulled me. I fell down and the stage. Well, that’s life.
And what if you have broken something?
You shouldn’t be afraid that something is going to happen to you all the time. Everyone is afraid of something. Absolutely everyone. You come in an elevator and realize that everyone is scared with their eyes down. And that one (points at a man at the next table) is also afraid. He’s already sitting and eating there for forty minutes. Tries to eat up his fear.
Maybe, he just tastes a dish. Anyway, the food is one of the sources of pleasure for man.
So he fears that he won’t get any other joy it today. And this is despite the fact that people are more fortunate of all. We don’t have any program. A flower has. You plant some seeds and you know: it will sprout, then a button will appear, it will open, a flower will wither or whatever. A hare is programmed for eating grass, and wolf is for eating a hare. And a person has a choice. We are special in this. We can do what we like. We decide what to be. To fade away or eat a hare or to let a hare go and bloom – it’s all for us to decide. The main thing is to find your calling. What is the reason to live long and right? You can live a short but vibrant life. Or you may live long and bright. But an excessive fear is not a friend for us.
And how people should find their calling?
By asking yourself some questions. And being not afraid to honestly answer those. It’s scary, sometimes it is even painful, but it is the only way we can find out. It’s nice to be entertained with illusions that you will spend sixty years in front of TV, and then suddenly some fairy tale will begin after the death.
And do you think there is anything after the death?
I think there is. But nobody knows for sure, what world we lived in before our birth and what will happen afterwards. I’m just saying that we should live, remembering that life will be over someday. This speeds me up and I don’t think for a long time.
Soon, you will play a show in Kyiv, and you are preparing a different program from the one that was played in other cities. What makes it different?
The program Rosa, which we are going to play first in Kyiv and then Lviv, is a pre-show of our new album. There will be new songs, which are interlinked. The Rose of peace stands in the center of the whole idea. Everyone chooses his own petal, chooses what to believe in and which side to be on. We believe in different things, and we counteract with each other, although the petals belong to the button and are fed by the same roots. Well, I guess it’s clear: we stand for friendship!