Before the release of the album "Na beregu reki Agdam" the drummer and vocalist of Autodafe, Dmitry Leontiev, gave a long interview to the newspaper "Arkhangelsk" (issue of 21 January 1998, conducted by S. Drinker; headlined "Nado prosto verit v svoe delo", "You just have to believe in your work"). It is one of the few accounts by a participant of how the recording was made at Andrey Tropillo's studio and what Sergey Bogaev did there. Below is a retelling with short quotations; the album itself, its line-up and songs are in a separate article.
How it began
The idea of recording an album, says Leontiev, came from a wish "to do something on my own, to realise my musical ideas somehow". Chance helped: Sergey Bogaev invited him to work on new Oblachny Kray material at Tropillo's studio in Petersburg — "I went without thinking twice". When there was free time Leontiev tried recording something for himself and his friends — "song after song, brick by brick, an album of 10 compositions took shape" (the released disc has thirteen, not counting the bonus tracks).
Words and music
According to Leontiev, four lyrics were written by Alexey Bulygin, and the rest were "given by kind people" — Sergey Bogaev and Slava Zaderiy, the founder of Alisa: Leontiev knew him from the festival in Berdyansk, and at that time Zaderiy was finishing the music for his new project "Magna Mater". Zaderiy produced two lyrics "straight from his head" and picked a third from his drafts. Leontiev himself first tried to write words but, as he says, "experimented with the great and mighty, but alas…".
All played by himself
Leontiev played everything except Bogaev's solo in "Day mne krylya" — he was "simply curious to play it all myself, to see whether I could". In "Day mne krylya" Bogaev, as he recalls, "just wouldn't let me spoil the song: ‘Let me play it’". He adds that if Bogaev had played the solos everywhere, "the sound would have turned out just like Oblachny Kray".
On the recording: "first the guitar to a metronome, then the drums, then the bass, keyboards and vocals"; the studio had 16 channels, and the work, in Leontiev's comparison, resembles a painter's — "first a drawing, a sketch, and then you pick the right colours". There was not enough time to get to grips with the guitar processor and find his own sound. He lived, in his words, right in the studio, met many Petersburg musicians there and even took part in Rekshan's project "Sankt-Peterburg" alongside Nikita Zaitsev (DDT) and Zhak (Piknik), but did not dare to ask them to play on his album.
Why it sounds like Oblachny Kray
The interviewer remarked that "Razmenyay" and "General Pobeda" are too close to the Oblachny Kray sound: was it lack of time or Bogaev's production? "Probably both," Leontiev answered. "Sergey and I grew up on the same music, we have known each other for a long time, so it is natural. I am happy with his understanding and vision of sound. You should see what he squeezes a decent sound out of." And he added: "I like Oblachny Kray better than Agata Kristi or Aquarium. Different music, different tasks."
The order of the songs on the album, he explained, was also Bogaev's idea: "The golden rule — the main thing is to start with a punch, then in the middle you can do whatever you like, and finish powerfully. The beginning of an album is very important."
The old songs of Autodafe
The album contains songs of Autodafe — "Vesna", "Gipsovaya baba" and others. "If I could play the guitar better I would certainly have recorded all the Autodafe songs. It has to be recorded, it is like a many-years pregnancy." Is it a pity they were not recorded earlier? "A pity, of course. The band has existed some 14 years and has not a single decent recording." He recalls his friend Andrey Zubrikov's words that songs are like children and children must be looked after, and adds that there is no problem publishing even the oldest material: in Moscow and Petersburg some firms gladly buy the rights to the most forgotten bands, "and we are still remembered".
His parting words to the "old fans": "I think we will still put up a fight, our years are young! We will make rock'n'roll! You just have to believe in your work and everything will work out." He thanks the management of the Arkhangelsk wine factory and O. G. Smirnov personally for financial support, and his family for their patience (the disc's thanks list also names Oleg Smirnov).
The band's chronicle is in the article "Autodafe": line-up and concert chronicle, 1984–1999.
Source: the newspaper "Arkhangelsk", 21 January 1998, S. Drinker's conversation with D. Leontiev (republished in the Autodafe archive); a retelling with short quotations.
