Peculiar Music By William Sigunov
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ehearsing for a concert is a rather interesting process, even if you wouldn’t think it is. Just learning a song is one thing, but that’s nearly not enough for a real performance, that’s barely scratching the surface, really. It takes understanding of the song’s message, the song’s story, and what needs to be done and brought up with music and voice to truly perform it. The story needs to unfold as if by itself, there is no use rushing it or forcing certain parts. Much like a traveler needs not to hurry home, for his story is the road there, in the same way the song should be sung. What is important is really what should be the most alive in a song. That is, at least, my mother’s view of it.
Ekaterina Smirnova, also known by her stage name, Miranda, is a very different kind of musician. Not only is her music genre drastically different from what we are accustomed to hearing in the Bay Area, but the way her lyrics work, the kind of stories she tells, and her definition of music are completely unique. The importance of knowing the stories of people like my mother, people who already went through a journey that is only in front of us right now, is hard to overstate. A story of this kind of person could offer insight into what is for now a mystery for us. But the more
Above: Ekaterina’s two guitars
peculiar thing about my mother is, that the challenges she faced in her lifetime were very indicative of what a position of an artist is in a society. The struggle of government and art, the conformity and the weird, this is a repeating theme in human history. The artist’s very purpose in society is being interfered with by the government because current rulers of Russia want to limit the criticism of their actions so they can keep people’s heads empty. This was, historically speaking, always a pattern in Russian history. This is also what every single artist has to deal with in the country Miranda comes from, every single one, the second they step of the path of pursuing art in any of its forms is expected to deal with. She was born in Moscow to a rather average family that was dealing with, what most families were dealing with in the 1980s - the Perestroika.This, like for many other families, left her parents fearful for their child growing up to not have ”a real stable job.” With her wanting to pursue art, you can imagine, her and her parents did not agree with her plans for the future. Nonetheless, Miranda did persist in her pursuit of her artistic tendencies, doing illustrations, writing poetry
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The Lord of the Rings having a huge influence and being a notable inspiration to many, soon inspiring new creators to make their own stories and contributing to the general, what people would call “nerd culture” in Russia. On top of that, the years upon years of both classical and folk music from Russia couldn’t just not leave an influence on the newly emerging generation of artists. The resulting music style - a rather peculiar kind of music, is generally referred to as Russian Folk Rock. It takes a heavy preference to a story-like approach to writing songs, the presentation of the musician often similar to that of a bard. My mother is very much one of the bards, but the more famous examples would include, out of the more mainstream, the band Melnitsa and out of the more underground, the bands Caperucita Roja, Drakon’ and a performer using the pseudonym 2
Kantsler Gi. The time span of 1999 to 2005 could be described as the genre’s absolute golden age with places established for the fans of the genre to perform and enjoy the performance and festivals organized, to share their art without the government looking on. But the government was getting increasingly more manipulative and agitated towards all sorts of artists as is unfortunately just a historical trend for Russia. Eventually, the laws passed to limit personal and artistic expression caught up to the artist community limiting, and limiting, and limiting until it was very hard to keep many of the things running. That and many other things making it almost unsafe to live eventually built up to a point when our family could not take it anymore and left for America. What a great way to influence people and deliver ideas - music. A choir student I interviewed - Max Crum says this about the importance of music to his life “It’s probably, like, half of my entire existence, to be honest because I was raised with music. I was ,you know, built upon music. Like, I listen to that stuff every day. It’s a driving force for me.”(Crum) Music is indeed a driving force for many people. Music is far from the only way art has been impacting society. Theatre, is one for sure, it for years had been an island of free thought in the turbulent ocean of Russian society. But as everything, it too is experiencing trouble. According to Kirill Serebrennikov a prominent theater and film director who is facing charges for putting on a play that was “too controversial,” “It seems to me that the theatre climate has become worse and worse. In previous years, the government didn’t pay much attention to theatre. It remained the only place for freedom and democracy. Now we see the attempts to mark what is right and what is wrong. For instance, in a recent political television show I was used as an example of how some new theatre directors
and music. At the age of seventeen Miranda got her poem published in a literary collection. This could be pointed to as her first serious artistic achievement of any sort. It was especially remarkable since other people whose work ended up getting included were all at least ten years older than she was. My mother told me that when she was entering the underground music stage of Moscow the landscape of music was changing in a very interesting direction. With the Soviet Union no longer existing and the Iron Curtain crumbling to pieces the cultural influence from places previously unavailable had flooded Russia. The genres of music previously prohibited were no longer unknown and off limits. Rock music has become the shiny new thing everyone couldn’t get enough of. Both commercial and underground performers alike were chasing after the sudden interest in the new western music. Commercial, “official”
performers were fast to create a sterilized, patriotic and unassuming version of it that became popular with the monetary support of interested politicians that wanted to distract people from the freedom of expression this music genre really offered and those that really utilized it to its full potential. And those people were the underground music sphere. Influenced greatly by all means of different artists, from Beatles and Elvis Presley to David Bowie and Frank Zappa and many, many others. People were inspired by the energy and life and the rebellious spirit of the new genre. But that was far from the only part of western culture people were inspired by. Surprisingly enough, people were as, if not more in some parts captivated by some of the folk music Europe had to offer. The energetic dancing music from all around Europe, especially from places like Ireland were a great influence as well. This could very well be partially attributed to the growing popularity of fantasy as a genre,
This and the opposite page: Ekaterina’s cat observing the instruments
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She has been good at everything, and i want to be like that
Above: Ekaterina performing in a cafe in San Francisco
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‘spoil the Russian classical tradition and make nasty, terrible theatre which makes people feel like animals’. It looked like a case of ‘degenerate art’ in Nazi times... ...It hasn’t been like this since the Soviet period. For this reason, I think that they will definitely begin censoring contemporary theatre soon.” (Serebrennikov) Miranda’s typical concert is really characterized by one thing - the voice. Even if you are unable to understand the words, you can feel the song’s powerful emotion. The loud, overwhelming, opera-like, but at the same time, reminiscent of Russian traditional music singing is what really bring her concerts to life. She is greatly admired by her younger child - Veronika, in her perspective “she has been good at everything, and i want to be like that” (Sigunova). Which, well, partially is true. After all, to be an independent musician, you really do need to be “good at everything.” Organizing concerts as an independent artist is no easy feat. This is what Nina Mashurova writes about the process. “Even without the internet, launching a music career means wearing many We really are typical, as far as being an immigrant is concerned. Miranda has, very much typical immigrant problems, the accent, finding a place in this new world, etc… she is, however, making sense of it all, even pursuing a degree in a marine biology, as she always had that interest, but before it has been left unfulfilled. Although she finds some parts of living here difficult, California seems to have a very special meaning to
hats and wrangling a ton of logistics. Booking a tour requires figuring out what kind of room you can fill in a city you’ve never been to, talking to venues and talent buyers, finding local support” (Mashurova). Miranda needs to handle her concerts herself, internet and all, not to mention, she needs to ensure people even show up in the first place. This doesn’t seem to be particularly easy for her: “In America I need to start if not from the very beginning, then from somewhere around the middle of the way”(Smirnova). Plus, she has all sorts of adjusting to do; after all, she is now living in a new country with a new culture – the culture she really only experienced through music before, but not firsthand. While our family does keep some contact with people back in Russia, we don’t hold any intention of going back, there is not place for us there. Apparently, according to migrationpolicy.org, this is a very typical situation: “immigrants’ desire to stay connected with people and events “back home” does not contradict a desire to stay in their new home. In fact, 74 percent say they plan to stay in the U.S.” (migrationpolicy.org).
her. She feels like this is her place to be. “California is very similar to this place I saw in a dream as a child and for my entire life made stories about. I think it really exists in a way. It’s got ocean, mountains, earthquakes and kind and understanding people. California reminds me of this place. Because of this I think my music can find place here” (Smirnova).
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Farkas, Steve. “What Immigrants Say About Life in the United States.” Migrationpolicy.org, Migration Policy Institute, 2 Mar. 2017, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/what-immigrants-say-about-life-united-states. Mashurova, Nina. “The Ups and Downs of Working as an Independent Artist.” Complex, Complex, 6 Sept. 2017, www.complex.com/music/2017/09/the-ups-and-downs-of-working-as-an-independent-artist. Pearson, Joseph. “Speaking Up for Artistic Freedom in Russia: The Serebrennikov Arrest.”The Needle, The Needle, 28 Aug. 2017, needleberlin.com Veronika Sigunova Personal Interview 3/4/2018 Maxwell Crum Personal Interview 4/20/2018 Ekaterina Smirnova Personal Interview 02/24/2018 … follow up interview 04/26/2018
Works Cited
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William Sigunov
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illiam Sigunov is a rather strange person. They are originally from Russia but have been living in Mountain View for a few years now. Will is obsessed with animation to an unhealthy degree and probably will end up becoming an embodiment of the workaholic animator stereotype. They are bilingual and probably will always make too many puns on their name. Or really, perhaps too many puns in general but what will they do?
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