My pal, exiled anti-war Russian musician and “enemy of the state” Dmitry Spirin formerly of the band Tarakany (Cockroaches) and our 2013 release “Russian Democrazy”, is out with a new video that bravely calls out followers of Putinism hypocrisy in ruzzia. While ruzzia is no democracy, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that ruzzia would not be able to murder and kidnap Ukrainian children so easily, without the support of everyday ruzzians. Not all, of course, but enough to give Putin confidence that his use of his country’s resources for a murderous land grab will not endanger his rule or his or the elite’s gluttonous wealth.
Thank you for supporting Ukraine, Dima, and me, as well as all those who stand on the right side of morality and history. Here is a note from Dima about the making of this video and how it came to be:
FROM DIMA: “The satirical component of the song is based on the word Lapti. Lapti is an old Russian village shoe; the word itself has become an analogue of stubborn Russian chauvinist patriots who hold on to the same “ancient values” as Putin. Maybe you’ve heard that Putin’s supporters are also called “vata”? It’s about the same thing.
In the lyrics, elderly parents are trying to dissuade their child from leaving Russia because of the war.
All the propaganda cliches that the state itself uses are ridiculed. That “If you’re Russian, you should take care of your lapti.”
The lyrics are difficult to translate into English; they consist entirely of ridicule of patriotic dogmas, old proverbs, and sayings, and the chorus is simply a repetition of the “folk wisdom” that is now being used to justify military action.
This song is a cover of a group from Moscow, who wished to remain anonymous, as they are afraid of problems with the law because I made a cover and filmed such a video. Its lyrics are the last conversation of elderly and long-lived parents, whose adult child has finally decided to leave Russia.
But it can be interpreted more broadly – as a model of parent-child relations, which our caring homeland has always built in relation to us, its “wayward” children.
And in the realities of the most massive wave of emigration from the Russian Federation in the last 100 years, in the realities of an aggressor country, the ideological split along the line of “fathers and children” has become clear at all levels – from “family” to “national”
The original of this song was recorded by its authors in a more traditional style for me, pop-punk. For the cover, I chose such a seemingly “frivolous” genre as synth-pop. I really wanted to create a strange, uncomfortable dissonance between the light melody, the joyful vibe, the carefree dance mood, and the bitterness of the lyrics.
My entire future album (which will include “Lapti”) will be 100% cover versions of songs written, recorded, and released by various Russian-speaking performers after the war began. Some of them are in the Russian Federation, others have left the country, but they have one thing in common: in these songs, they display the whole range of feelings and thoughts associated with the war, the suffering of the Ukrainian people, emigration, and the suppression of freedoms in the Russian Federation.
There is disappointment, accusations, bitter irony, sarcasm, the joy of gaining freedom, and the expectation of a just world.
Stylistically, this album will also be very diverse. The originals are already composed and recorded in very different genres, and cover versions will bring an even greater range from synth-pop to reggae, from pop-punk to raggamuffin, from piano ballad to hip-hop.
Some of the authors of the originals (from among those who are in the Russian Federation) considered it too risky to reveal their names and the names of their groups. In this case, when publishing their tracks, no indications or references to them will be given. Others do not see a problem with this, and their names/titles are/will be given in full.
The video was shot in Lithuania, where it is still easy to find locations in villages that resemble small depressive towns in Russia. It is also easy to find good Russian-speaking actors there. My shooting (TV announcer) was done in Buenos Aires on a green background. The director and the main people in the team are Ukrainians.”