Mumiy Troll survived the fall of the Soviet Union with one simple goal — rocking you
Mumiy Troll embraces its Canadian comrades
Cutting through the cruel chill of winter with a fiery furnace blast of red heat the Russian rock-a-pops ensemble known as Mumiy Troll (pronounced Moo-me Troll) returns to Calgary in force this week. Armed with a newly minted album Comrade Ambassador and an infectious vodka-fuelled zest for life band-leader Ilya Lagutenko plans to put the thaw on Calgary’s nigh-Siberian deep freeze with some of the hottest material in the band’s 26-year career.
“We’ve met with a wonderful reception on this tour so far and it’s quite a pleasant surprise” Lagutenko says over the phone as he guides his convertible along the Pacific Coast Highway just outside of Los Angeles. “You always hope to make each release better than the songs you came up with last time. We’re really proud of the new album but at the same time we’ve become more skeptical. At some point even your fans start arguing over which CD is better than another. After all this time we’re just grateful to be making a living doing an exciting job like playing rock and roll.”
The band has witnessed a great many changes since the fall of the Soviet regime and Lagutenko is quick to acknowledge that an unprecedented world of possibilities has opened up for his countrymen in recent years. Once condemned by the local Communist Party chief and labelled “one of the most socially dangerous bands in the world” Mumiy Troll (named for the Moomen characters created by Finnish children’s author Tove Jansson) has risen steadily through the ranks to be voted Russia’s “Best Band of the Millennium” — the band has even earned mentions in some official scholastic textbooks. The continual evolution of both the band and its country intrigues Lagutenko who sees himself much as he did when he first started his career as a garage-rock philosopher in his old stomping grounds around Vladivostok.
“It comes naturally to me — I’ve been in a band since I was 11” he says. “I’ve been travelling a lot but it seems like the old hometown doesn’t change. Perhaps I’m just nostalgic but it’s magical as if time has stopped. Some places like Shanghai have changed enormously in the past eight or 10 years but Vladivostok is unique in that it never changes. I didn’t think my early exposure to music would lead me to be an expert in the industry. If you had asked me to predict my future I would have guessed I’d be an officer in the Russian navy or an engineer by now. Being in a teenage band I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but 15 years later my fantasies have flourished.”
Ten years of spreading his signature brand of militarized folk punk rock and pop on the world stage alongside his loyal comrades (guitarist Yuri Tsaler percussion prodigy Oleg Pungin and bassist/technophile Sdwig) have given Lagutenko a unique perspective on his role as an artist and national ambassador. Aside from his musical works he is also a devoted conservationist who lends his effort to the defense of wildlife and indigenous peoples in Far-East taiga as a patron of the British-Russian Amur fund for the protection of Amur tigers and leopards. Indeed the title of Mumiy Troll’s new album Comrade Ambassador alludes to Lagutenko’s emerging status as a champion of both remarkable music and noble causes.
“I try to be diplomatic in my songwriting” he says. “I have to find the compromise between shouting my message out loud and presenting a great joke. Performing in smaller clubs is like starting over for us. It brings you face to face with reality. I enjoy sharing that moment of creation with the people around me; that’s the most amazing thing in the world.”
