Vocalist of “Aria” Mikhail Zhitnyakov about the new tour: “restoring justice”

The Aria members themselves called Crocus one of their favorite venues, where many exciting meetings took place with the group’s fan army. Immediately after the tragedy, the musicians expressed condolences and support to everyone affected by the terrorist attack on their social networks. Of course, the new Aria concerts will have a special meaning, as will the performances of other artists for whom the stage is not just a job.

Perhaps the intimate setting of the tour will come in very handy in this situation. After a long stadium journey with the show “Guest from the Kingdom of Shadows”, the group moves into spaces where you can look into the eyes even of those who are not in front of the stage. And for the team this is certainly a fresh experience.

“After sports palaces and an audience of thousands, concerts in a club (the Moscow part of the tour took place in “16 tons” and stretched over four shows) bring slightly different sensations, but in terms of energy they were not inferior to what they had at large venues,” he says in a conversation with “ZD” Mikhail Zhitnyakov. “We started a tour, the program of which includes quite rare songs, and this is not a story for everyone. Rather, a nod to loyal fans, perhaps tired of listening to “Rose Street”, “Colosseum”, “Calm” from concert to concert, in general, the most famous hits of “Aria”. But the band has a lot of good songs that simply don’t have enough space in the set list, so sometimes they don’t get their turn. And in this tour we can say that we are restoring justice.

— When there are a lot of albums, it can be difficult to put together a set list, especially if we are talking about rarities. Was there a general brainstorming session?

– So it was. We sat down and began to discuss and offer options. But everything, of course, is more complicated than just selecting songs that we haven’t played for a long time. Still, you need to take into account the tempo of the concert, you can’t play only slow ones, everyone would fall asleep. So we put together a compilation of slow songs, mid-tempo songs and action songs.

— This is probably a rather unusual experience for you: to see people very close, one might say, to look into their eyes…

“It wasn’t possible with just the eyes.” The front row is sometimes so close that people can reach the stage. So you had to feel their hands on your legs. But we have a very adequate audience. And in general, contact with the audience provides that very right atmosphere. When there is a response from the audience, people’s eyes light up, then a fire involuntarily ignites inside you.

— Stadium concerts are much more difficult than club concerts in technical terms; during the last tour “Guest From the Kingdom of Shadows”, in addition to music, you had quite powerful multimedia and props in your arsenal, which gave the music a completely different volume. On small stages you are on your own, which is probably not easy in its own way?

— When you have a huge screen and luxurious scenery behind you, then to some extent the group’s task comes down to simply performing everything well. When you perform almost in an apartment format, of course, you need to make the concert soulful. This is a different and difficult task – to create a lamp mood. From the outside, it probably seems that a small stage by itself can solve such issues, but this is not so. Sometimes you have to put in a lot of extra effort. In addition, our set list is unusual, to which a reaction in the spirit of “oh, they have such a song” is quite possible. And it’s not easy to predict, so there were concerns.

— Have any of these fears already come true?

– Fortunately, no. But for me personally, the first concerts were exciting. We are received very warmly, although we understand that the audience is quite demanding. The small platform acts as a kind of filter, and there is a high probability that in proportional terms, excuse the mathematical terms, the vast majority are our loyal fans. That is, people who are very into the material.

— How suitable are clubs for concerts of a band with an ambitious sound?

— We bring our own apparatus and some elements of scenery. We probably can’t afford to just come, change into concert clothes and perform against the backdrop of the surroundings that the club originally had. Still, we are trying to bring something of our own, branded, “Aryan”.

— Recently, there has been talk again about another wave of interest in hard ‘n’ heavy metal. As an artist who is inside the process, do you notice something similar?

— It is absolutely clear that there is no talk of a forgotten direction. The attendance at our final concerts of the “Guest From the Kingdom of Shadows” show apparently indicates that people are going to this music – the concerts were sold out or close to full houses. Maybe someone goes more to shows that attract people even far from heavy culture, being a good alternative in a situation where Western artists have stopped performing here. As for hard rock, it has long been a stadium hit for the masses. And even in the club people are in their element. So heavy music is still in demand, and let it continue.

— At your big concerts there are quite a lot of young people of legal age. They grew up with completely different technologies and ways of consuming music. The music itself, which is called youth, now sounds completely different. But these guys came to Aria. Why do you think they are still attracted to hard rock?

“For us, these questions remain unanswered. It is completely incomprehensible how, with all the variety of music and the opportunity to receive absolutely any content, and making their choice unbiased, very young people discover us. But three or even four generations nevertheless gather at concerts, and for us this is a mystery. However, music itself does not lend itself to precise analysis. There is magic and a coincidence of factors that make people follow this style and these artists. So the question of the secrets of success still baffles us.

— Now for “Aria” new albums are hardly a strategic task. It’s not easy for bands with a long history to evoke fresh emotions with new material, so it’s common practice to measure seven times before cutting. Is the “This is Rock” tour “inter-album” for “Aria”? Is there a chance that the next show will be based on new songs?

— The process of writing new songs does not end for us. When we send an album to press, we usually immediately start thinking about what’s next. But the implementation of these plans is always in the fog. Creativity, at least in our case, is a process that is difficult to stimulate. But we are working on new material. There are thoughts, there are developments, but there are no specific deadlines.