MEDIA: Interview

Metallic shine. MOLODEZH ESTONII

Life in Estonia is difficult for rock musicians, oh, difficult. It is not for nothing that there are so many outspoken pessimists among them. Ask him: “Is there any chance for a rock band from Estonia?” He will look at you tiredly - this is the look they usually look at stupid children who have frozen out obvious stupidity - he will grimace and say: “What, boy, have you fallen from the moon? What are the chances, I’ve been trying to get somewhere for so many years, and what ? As I sat in a deep um... hole, I’m still sitting. After such wise words, a particularly impressionable musician may have an irresistible desire to go home, snatch a glass, then soap the rope, and...

And that’s why I personally prefer optimists, fans of their work. These usually do not whine, but act on the principle “sink-or-swim” that is, rolling up their sleeves, they stubbornly build a bright future for their own band. And, you know, some people do it well. I would include the group Post Mortem among them - they have been playing death-metal for six years now, they have two albums to their credit... Of course, compared, say, with the stars of Russian rock, these achievements are very modest, but on the general lack of fish of local Russian-language music that's already something. Who knows, maybe after a few years I will be swollen with pride: I had the opportunity, supposedly, to interview Sergei Shelepov himself, the vocalist of Post Mortem.

- Sergei, what came first: your group or its name? - First there was a name, and long before the first rehearsal. We didn't know what it meant back then, but it sounded great. We like this translation: the border between life and death. In March 1991, the first rehearsal of Post Mortem took place with the following lineup: Mark Hecht - vocals, Alexey Sannikov - bass guitar, Denis Shelepov - drums and Sergey Shelepov - guitar. This rehearsal took place in Mark’s apartment, after which we were immediately kicked out of there. We thought we were playing thrash metal, but everyone said it was punk. This was probably the case - then we simply did not have the ability to do something smarter and more “new.” The instruments also matched the music of that time, that is, quite “punk”: the drum kit consisted half of homemade drums, cymbal stands replaced ski poles. Only the bass guitar was worthwhile - it was bought together.

- Your parents didn’t like it? - The neighbors where who didn't like it the most. We had to move to the basement of my house, but we didn’t stay there for long either - the police kicked us out of there. We played in the PROMPRIBOR warehouses - they kicked us out of there too. Of course, the band fell apart. The first stage ended ingloriously.

- And what gave the impetus to the revival of the group? - We broke up in the summer of 1991, and somewhere in October 1992 I met guitarist Yuri Zhuchkov, and it was decided to revive Post Mortem. They called Mark and Denis, but I had to play the bass guitar - there were no more hunters. We put together a group, and our first concert took place at the rehearsal base in Koza on New Year's Eve - we played there with a circle of friends and acquaintances. And then we collected some money, went to the studio and recorded one song there - this was our first “demo” material. Thanks to her, in 1993 we got to the Rock in festival. This is how the “baptism of fire” took place - after all, for the first time they came out to a large audience, on a real stage.

Then there was the Pärnu Death Action Festival. We already played a kind of “thrashy” death-metal and sang in English. The concert was stormy, Mark poured beer on the audience and fought off quick young people who climbed onto the stage and pulled out the cords from the guitars. This was in '93. A year later, Mark got excited about the idea of creating his own project and left the group. That's how I became a vocalist. The three of us played, but then the situation changed: a new guitarist, Dmitry Samorukov, joined the group. That same year we recorded a “demo” single - a seven-minute composition Prince of Darkness, and then the debut album. Useful contacts appeared in the Baltics and Russia, where the album, by the way, sold out. Then the composition of the group changed again - Alexander Kobzar became the new lead guitarist, and I finally said goodbye to the bass guitar, because Dmitry Potekhin became the bassist. We recorded our second album.

- Besides playing in a group, have you tried your hand at anything else? - I wanted to create a company engaged in recording and distributing CDs and cassettes of local rock bands, as well as distributing records of rock bands from other countries of the former USSR, but I have not yet found like-minded people, and, of course, such a thing cannot be done in solo.

- And the last question: of all the varieties of modern music, you have chosen, probably, the heaviest and most “killer” style. What causes this? - Well, what can I do - I like extreme music, and that’s it. It's damn cool to stand on stage and feel the adrenaline boiling in your blood.