The Iowa group covered Allegrova’s hit without suffering

Musically, the nineties sometimes feel like a treasure chest. And if they try to present this time as the focus of evil, then the music evokes only good nostalgia. The Iowa group, as part of a large nostalgic project, released the single “Photography 9×12”, a remake of Irina Allegrova’s 1993 hit. “ZD” listens, catches himself thinking that in the new version the pop artifact sounds quite good, and asks Iowa vocalist Ekaterina Ivanchikova to comment on this attack of retromania.

Thirty years later, the old regime hymn to female cunning has a playful beat, and in the general context it has settled down quite well. Hits from the nineties may not always have a lot of style, but there is no shortage of melodies and sentiment, which still has a chance of success.

True, trying to alter an old dress to fit a new figure does not always guarantee a successful fashion show. There are a lot of cases (the tribute to Valeria’s hits is very indicative) when old outfits literally devoured those who wanted to wear them, exposing all the show-offs of new stars to ridicule. Apparently, Katya and her gang were well aware of this, and besides, Iowa has experience working with a cultural product that requires delicacy.

“We took part in two tributes dedicated to the great poets of the Silver Age (meaning collections of songs based on poems by Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam. – “ZD”). And in the course of that work, I realized that there are great poems, there is a primary perception of people, and it is very difficult to change the established understanding of a given work. You need to act here with love and carefully,” says Ekaterina in an interview with ZD.

With some degree of probability, we can assume that the work of Igor Nikolaev and Larisa Rubalskaya is a little away from the classics, but “love and accuracy” were not superfluous in this case. Moreover, Katya Ivanchikova clearly understood how she differed from Irina Allegrova.

“I will never surpass her in my life,” the singer laughs. “She has an awesome timbre and the wild energy of a warrior.” So I needed to do something completely different. Don’t compete, just update. And everything worked out without any pain. The guys from the group made a very cool sound, inspired by Muse, Lady Gaga, and One Republic. But in the end there is a lot of us in this sound. I quickly recorded the vocals in the studio, and the final arrangement was done in just one day. When working on our songs, we can fiddle around for months, constantly changing something. Here we didn’t change anything that was immediately invented.”

It may seem that Iowa’s nostalgic swim in the sea of ​​the nineties is quite unexpected. The group first hit the charts in 2012 with the track “Mama,” and all their subsequent successes were associated less with nostalgia and more with a desire to become pop modernizers. However, the team also remembers the nineties and generally does not criticize them.

“I grew up listening to the first album “Guests from the Future,” admits Ekaterina. “But if we talk about Allegrova, then her songs, of course, sounded everywhere. It was hard for me to imagine doing such a cover. By the way, there are two Easter eggs that refer to our songs: “The Same Thing” and “Beats the Beat”. It was very nice when Igor Nikolaev, who wrote “9×12 Photography,” said: “Cool version, let them sing.” And, to be honest, I want to sing it and even feel like it’s part of our concert set.”

While building their musical policy, the members of Iowa tried a lot. At the time of their emergence on the music scene of the Belarusian Mogilev, they were noisy alternative rockers. But then they got a good handle on acoustics, languid ballads, catchy dance hits, and meme songs like “Marshrutka,” which became indecently popular. Probably, experiments with a variety of sounds allowed the musicians to discover an obvious, but not yet accessible to everyone, truth.

“Catching fashion by the tail is a very risky business,” the Iowa leader is sure. “Shortly after our first tracks came out, explicit interpretations of what we were already doing appeared in mailings from composers showing their songs to potential clients. There have been an incredible number of parodies of “Marshrutka”, and this suggests that music authors, inspired by a popular song, immediately try to sell something similar to those who want to catch fashion by the tail. But by buying this, they all become second best. This path is not for us.”

The cover of “Photograph 9×12” isn’t the only music news coming out of Iowa this year. In the summer, the group released the EP “Cassiopeia” with six tracks created as if on the sidelines of the modern music process, which did not prevent the public from welcoming some of the songs with open arms.

Ekaterina states, not without pleasure: “A Million Ways” has become viral and every day a huge number of reels videos appear on it. Someone films how they are losing weight or overcoming themselves, crying from the problems that have piled up, and then rejoicing at the bright streak in life, fighting illnesses. And all this to our song. But when I worked on this album, I was sure that it would not fall into any trends and would not get anything on the radio. In the end, everything turned out the other way around. Of course, it’s nice if you become a trend and guess the public’s pain point. It’s very cool to get to the top, but I don’t want to speculate.”

Iowa’s cheerful youth image does not cancel the band’s upcoming fifteenth anniversary. By today’s standards, this is, to put it mildly, a lot, because over the past decade and a half, fashion and technology have made several impressive somersaults. The members of Iowa don’t pretend not to notice, but they seem to have developed a philosophical attitude towards the passions boiling around them.

“Very often, an artist who has been at his peak is faced with the fact that he can no longer do anything that will surpass these hits. It’s much less common to catch the second, and maybe even the third wave, because new names are constantly appearing, offering a different perspective on music,” notes Ekaterina. — We were lucky with the audience. It is quite diverse, of different ages, which is clearly visible at the concerts. In general, the main enemy of an artist is stress over the fact that he does the wrong thing and looks wrong. And at some point I stopped worrying and taking myself too seriously.”