Biography of Igor Rasteryaev. Igor Rasteryaev: a breath of the present in an artificial world Tov n s Rasteryaev biography

In 2010, the Runet exploded with a video of some village guy singing a song about combine operators accompanied by an accordion. Filmed on mobile phone The video became very popular on YouTube and others in social networks. People quickly remembered Igor Rasteryaev: a genius from near Volgograd, who sings songs that are understandable and correct to everyone.

Later Runet found out that Igor - professional actor and a St. Petersburg intellectual, albeit with Cossack roots. He just vacations every year in the homeland of his ancestors in Volgograd region.

Rasteryaev’s work comes from somewhere near Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Ryazan or Tver. It is not from the capital, but from the outback. It is correct: sincere, deep. This makes it stand out against the background of the false mainstream and the vanilla-glamorous flickering of the capital's pop stars. Igor sings for and about real people, which is why his songs are catchy.

The video “Combiners” was shot on a mobile phone and published on YouTube by Rasteryaev’s friend and ally Lekha Lyakhov. He has been making videos with Igor to this day.

Who is Igor Rasteryaev

Rasteryaev was born in Leningrad in 1980 into a family of intellectuals. He graduated from the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts. Igor played at the Buff Theater. He has roles in films.

Rasteryaev's ancestors are Cossacks. Every summer, Igor’s parents sent Igor on vacation to the Volgograd region. Here the young man met rural life, learned the life of ordinary people from the outback, made friends with “tractor drivers, combine operators and watermelon truck loaders.”

No matter how pretentious it may sound, Igor Rasteryaev returned to his roots. Thanks to his vacation near Volgograd, he learned to feel native land, communicate with ordinary people. The main thing is that Igor was able to express his thoughts and emotions without a drop of falsehood.

Igor Rasteryaev mainly performs his own songs. He also sings songs by the poet Vasily Mokhov. One of them is the “Rakovka” presented above. Igor’s repertoire includes covers of compositions by famous rock performers, including “DDT”, “King and the Jester” and others.

Not within any limits

This is exactly how one can characterize the work of Igor Rasteryaev. The closest thing to describe it is the term “art song”. But at the same time, Rasteryaev is a real rocker. The point is not that he performs at “Invasion”. Igor's work is Russian rock, which is distinguished by the depth and philosophical content of its songs, sincerity and detachment.

By the way, about detachment. In Rasteryaev's songs you can often hear obscene language. The artist has not performed some compositions for a long time, as they contain only harsh banter and even kitsch. In others, obscene expressions sound so organic that the song would be incomplete without them.

In Rasteryaev’s compositions one can clearly hear folklore motives. This is another facet and genre reference point of his work.

In 2011, Igor designed the first full-length album “Russian Road”. It included the songs “Combineers”, “Cossack”, “Bogatyrs” that people loved. And the song “Daisies” remains one of the strongest in the performer’s repertoire to this day.

Igor Rasteryaev's vocal abilities are not impressive. The level of mastery of a musical instrument is far from virtuoso. The artist uses simple words. Nevertheless, his songs are more catchy than the compositions of professional authors and musicians.

The Great Patriotic War

This is one of the key themes in the work of Igor Rasteryaev. He returns to her constantly. All songs about the Great Patriotic War by Rasteryaev have one common feature. They help you see scary days great war eyes common man, an ordinary soldier.

Beautiful vocals by Elena Gvritishvili and a strong song about key battle The Great Patriotic War is one example.

Rasteryaev is a Leningrader. He could not ignore the topic of the blockade. In the “Leningrad Song” he thanks the people who transported food to the besieged city along the ice of the “Road of Life”. Those thanks to whom modern St. Petersburg residents live.

Igor talks about personal tragedies and revelations of people who went through the Great Patriotic War. Grandfather Agvan's story makes you shut up and think deeply. Think about how and why people have fought with each other throughout history. Think about winning the “main fight for the title of man.”

“Grandfather Agvan” is a poem by Rasteryaev. It reveals Igor as a reciting poet.

Same shape, very different meanings

The music and style of performance of Igor Rasteryaev really do not differ in variety. But his songs are very different. Moreover, they surprise with the polarity of moods and thoughts. From the cocky “Cossack” and “Ermak” the author easily moves on to anti-war themes. It is revealed in the song “Fight”.

Rasteryaev’s creativity is completely masculine. It is understandable to a female audience, women listen to Igor. But he sings mainly for men and about men. Or rather, about men who know how to plow plowed fields, drive trucks across federal highways, and sometimes they mix beer with vodka.

“Khodiki”, “Koresh”, “Long-Range” are examples of men’s songs. They can be called sketches from the lives of people who are faced with a midlife crisis. And for whom this crisis lasted for many years.

Rasteryaev’s work is by no means depressive. Igor helps the listener to feel and experience personal and common tragedies. Here he gives effective recipes for the blues and contrived difficulties. The song “Uncle Vova Slyshkin” can be called a hymn to cheerfulness and common sense.

A simple village resident Vladimir Slyshkin in rubber boots is the living embodiment of positivity and the right attitude to life. By the way, Uncle Vova appears in other Rasteryaev videos. This a real man, with whom Igor is friends and communicates.

Love for native land

This theme fills all of Rasteryaev’s songs without exception. Igor sings not about some abstract concept, but about the real Motherland. This is more than a geographical definition. In the artist’s songs one can feel his love for the space around him, people, and way of life.

This can be clearly heard in the song “Spring”. By the way, Uncle Vova Slyshkin, already familiar to you, stars in the video.

“But he sings not about Italy, but how good it is at home” - this line is all Rasteryaev. Without pathos and unnecessary words he talks about the Motherland more than many textbook authors.

New Vysotsky? No, just Igor Rasteryaev

Indeed, Rasteryaev is often compared to Vysotsky. Igor has yet to grow to the scale of Vladimir Semenovich. But he has already become somewhat similar to his predecessor. Vysotsky was just as sincere and understandable to everyone: from hard workers and truck drivers to professors and the creative intelligentsia.

And yet Rasteryaev is an original artist, unlike anyone but himself. This is an extraordinary figure: a brilliant poet and a real artist. Igor himself said that under Tsar Gorokh he would have served as a church bell ringer. And nowadays he rings bells and bells human souls, no matter how pretentious it may sound. And thanks to Igor’s creativity, the thinnest strings sound in people.

and the performer - about why he did not become a journalist and how songs are born, about his favorite harmonica and Cossack roots, politics federal TV channels and a sense of national unity.

– Igor, you have already been interviewed several times by church media, for example. But somehow, when reading an interview with you in an Orthodox magazine, I got the feeling that they were trying to artificially attract you to themselves: they say, look: “this is also our person.” Whose do you feel like you are?

– (Laughs.) Yours. In principle, I am not inclined to any camp, I did not stand under anyone’s banner. I would like to stay under my own. Naturally, I have certain sympathies. By the way, many thanks to the Soyuz TV channel for inviting me. They supported me a lot, so I thank them from me.

– Let’s pose the question directly. I would like to talk to you about Orthodoxy, faith, but just don’t put pressure on me. We don't need formal pious answers. What do you believe in? Into yourself? To friends? Luck? Maybe into something else?

- I believe in God.

– Many people say: “I believe in God,” but when you start talking to a person, you understand that... Americans, for example, have the words “We trust in God” written on their dollars. Who is your God?

– I will say this: I believe in His absolute strength and in my absolute human weakness. Because what happened to me, all this sudden song popularity, is nothing more than the intervention of a higher power. Because it is impossible to make such a story on purpose, with one’s own human efforts and desires, in such a short time. I think that someone just took it and dropped it off like that and gave it to me. Moreover, very quickly, in the shortest possible time. Because I haven’t written any songs before. And here it turned out that in such a short period of time so many songs were written and this whole story began.

– So you think that this is God’s Providence?

- That's for sure.

– Does it manifest itself in other ways? Did you feel that he was somehow guiding you through life?

- All life.

– Do you already understand what he is leading you to or where?

– (Laughs.) No. I just hope it's for the good.

– Have you ever dreamed of becoming famous? If yes, then in what field? What did you dream of doing as a child?

– It would be strange if I said that I didn’t dream of becoming famous, because I went to the Theater Institute. Apparently, there was some kind of craving for acting, for fame, maybe for something like that. But what I definitely didn’t expect was that someday all this would come to me and it would come precisely through the accordion, through music. When people call me a musician, it still seems... amazing to me.

– Is it true that before this you almost became a journalist?

– I also went to the Theater Institute in order not to study at the journalism department. At that time I was almost admitted to the Faculty of Journalism, I had already completed the preparatory courses, I already even had a recommendation from admissions committee. Here. But at the journalism department I would have to teach English language and some other items that I didn’t like. You really should study there. It would be impossible, as in the Theater Institute, for three years to pretend to be talented, or somehow highly spiritual, or artistic, and everything would be written off for you. At the journalism department, all things are concrete, English is the same.

– Do you have a musical education?

– No, I have neither a musical education nor anything specialized like that.

– How do you feel music? Through kinesthetics?

- Through what?

– Through kinesthetics: that is, through sensations, through the fingers, as if through the skin.

– (Waves it off.) No. It's just music that comes into your head on its own. And you play the accordion and you get a melody for the song.

– What comes first for you in creativity: poetry or music?

- Music.

– There is an opinion, on the Internet, in the comments to the clips, that your music is of the same type. Although, maybe this is just an author’s decision, and an intentional one, so that people don’t pay attention to the music, but hear the text and think about it?

– Due to some kind of lack of education, I really do come up with music that is somewhat of the same type or one-rhythm. Either it's because I don't know how to play a musical instrument well, or I use one musical instrument- accordion. It may be stylistically monotonous, if you look at the melodies, but I don’t think it’s the same. That is, if the melodies are correctly arranged, then the melodies themselves, I think, are still different.

– Or we simply have no hearing.

– (Laughs.) This is fine.

– For you, is creativity work or service?

Whatever you put into the accordion, whatever melody you like, in the end everything will be about the Russian road. She, the accordion, is a patriotic instrument.

– Everything is divided into two parts. The first is when a new melody is invented. So you typed it on the accordion, and it lives in your accordion version. A theme is formed. But again, as I say all the time, put whatever melody you want into the accordion - in the end everything will be about the Russian road. She, the accordion, is patriotic, the instrument itself is patriotic. The theme, the theme of the songs - it is dictated by the instrument. And when the topic has already been found, work on the text begins. This is real work, it can last a year or even more than a year. There is a blank lying around, a blank. And everything is clear to you, even the musical time signature is clear. You already know how many verses are needed - six verses, no more and no less. Musical time signature so and so. The theme is also clear. And there are two or three lines, and what’s between them, that is, the text, the work has already begun, it’s already hard. At least for me.

– There is an opinion that genius differs from talent in that a person owns talent, and a genius owns a person. So can you not write? Or is it your inner need: “writing is like breathing”?

– Can I not write? Yes. Certainly can. (Laughs.) How can I not? Easily! Although... I can say that I may not write, but melodies will be born in parallel. I may not bring it to my mind for a long time what is born in my head besides me - in the form of music, some themes, ideas. They can lie in bed for a long time, and I may not give them any practical outlet. But they will still increase. Melodies are initially born somehow subconsciously. That is, initially the melody is born on the road, sung to some stupidity. When the head doesn't work at all. What you see is what you eat. And you are fooling around at this moment, that is, you seem to be a little bit like that even... something foolish is present at the moment of the birth of the melody itself. Because these melodies initially had nothing to do with patriotic themes and do not have them. That is, this is initially some kind of stupidity. There is no meaning, there is only a melody and some kind of flight of the brain, a connection that a melody has been born. And then, when this melody hits the accordion, then the accordion begins to load it with all sorts of themes, meanings and the like.

– What is the purpose of your creativity? Is there such a thing at all? Or is it just self-expression? Nabokov—I’m not sure I’ll quote it close to the original—has the following words: “I’m writing new book in order to quickly finish writing and start a new one.” Or let us remember the words of Porthos: “I fight because I fight.” Can creativity even have any purpose?

- It's more of a self-expression. I don’t have that, you know, “I want to change the world for the better.” I somehow don’t really understand this. For me, it’s more likely just some kind of internal need, I see the essence of this.

– Do you just want to sing?

– Do you remember the feeling from your first concert in Moscow?

– I agreed adventurously, for me it was all the same as entertainment, I thought: this is the first and last concert. All my buddies thought the same. They came to Moscow just to hang out and watch. We thought it would be funny and interesting. But a week, two weeks before this first concert, I suddenly realized that I, apart from five songs, actually had nothing. I came up with two more songs for the first concert: “Daisies” and “Cossack”. Well, again, how can I say: I came up with it - the melodies were there a long time ago, they were maybe a year or two old, there were themes, but there were no lyrics. Therefore, specifically for this very date, I had to pull myself together and try to put these texts together. The song “Daisies” turned out to be harder; it was born very, so to speak, painfully. The song “Cossack” was originally planned in the Kalmyk language. I didn’t yet know what exactly to sing, but I understood that it had a good melody.

– Do you know the Kalmyk language? Was it easier to learn than English?

- No, I do not know. But I didn’t know what to write the text about. And then he simply turned to the Kalmyks. (Laughs.) The Kalmyks turned me around, they said... and I asked them on VKontakte for a translation of the poems, which were sketched out something like this, but on my avatar then there was a photo in which I was naked torso and with a saber. The Kalmyks looked at this and said that I was... a troll. They somehow genetically did not accept me in this image. I was offended then and said that from now on everything with the Kalmyks was over. I contacted a translation agency to have it translated into Turkish, they translated it for me, but I read it and realized that I would never learn or sing it in my life, not in a week, not in a year – what was written there. And then I just took and rewrote my poems a little - and the text of the “Cossack Song” turned out. She attacked, as they say, from the bullshit. There was practically no work on the text. The melody is very catchy. It is sung from the perspective of a fifteen-year-old teenager who, in principle, does not construct his speech, but expresses it emotionally in a stern manner. Maybe this is where everything coincided, emotionally.

– You say that your creativity does not have a specific goal. - this is creativity. Does life have a purpose? What do you want in life? What are you dreaming about?

– In life, yes, there is. I would like the material that has accumulated, that exists, to be turned into form as much as possible, that is, either into songs, or into another book, or something else. So that what you saw, what you were given to experience, to understand something, is to give birth to everything somehow in an artistic, holistic, complete form.

– Your text inserts between songs are very succinct, sharp, precise, sometimes bitter, sometimes funny. You have literary talent. Aren't you afraid that you have killed the talented writer or journalist in you?

For me, any activity that would be subject to any danger of cutting always caused some kind of rejection.

- Don't think. If I had gone to study to become a journalist, then perhaps it would have discouraged me from writing at all. Because for me, any activity that would be subject to any danger of cutting and would be cut at some point in my life, always caused some kind of rejection, dissonance in the initial desire for this.

– So you don’t recognize any laws or imposed rules? Maybe you are a revolutionary at heart?

- Don't think.

– But you once said in previous interviews that because of your views you are not allowed on federal television channels, or on television in general...

Federal TV channels have their own policy, I have my own policy with an accordion. Combination is not always possible.

“I don’t think it’s because of some of my views that they don’t let me in.” It's good there without me. It’s just that sometimes there are, let’s say, offers to come and be with another performer, as if in the presence of someone else. So that your idea is tied to some main idea that the channel puts there. Or some other conditions are set: to sing to a soundtrack or something else. Or sing not their own song, but as if in their supposedly some image, as they see it. That is, they offer to do something that is not entirely typical for me, to look not quite who I really am. It's not very interesting to me. Therefore, I closed several such, so to speak, proposals. But the TV channel “Culture”, for example, or the same channel “Soyuz” - I like them, that’s a different matter. I sang on them in my natural way. Sang as it really is. There was no need to add anything, no instruments, no arrangements, no show ballet at the back so as not to stand out in the overall concert. Everything was natural. Just have federal channels We have our own channel-wide policy. This is absolutely normal. I have my own policy on this with an accordion. This is not always possible in some combination, so what can I say...

– Have you ever been invited to the Kremlin to play along at any concert?

– To the Kremlin... I don’t remember.

– How well do you know your ancestors? Who were they?

- I know I know. All Cossacks. My paternal ancestors were all Cossacks. Grandfather, his great-grandfather Vasily Yakovlevich was a Cossack, then Yakov Ivanovich. I don't know anymore. Further, I know from the records of our church, in the Rasteryaev farmstead, that there were a lot of Rasteryaevs. The Rasteryaev farm was like that. Well, how can I say... farms, they were moving away from the villages. Our family village is Razdorskaya-on-Medveditsa. There are two Razdorskys. First: Razdorskaya-on-Don - the former capital of the Don Cossacks was ancient. Second: Razdorskaya-on-Medveditsa – our ancestral village, the upper one. There were a lot of Rasteryaevs there, they printed out the metrics for me, but I couldn’t even tell who they were. It’s already difficult to calculate who was who – this is the 17th–18th centuries.

– What kind of Russia does Igor Rasteryaev want to see? What would you change about it?

- I want spring. (Laughs.) Even better, even happier, even more wonderful and beautiful. I can't do it any other way. I do not know how to answer.

– “A poet in Russia is more than a poet.” You travel a lot around the country, communicate with the simplest people, you also sing about ordinary people, simple things - close to everyone, understandable to everyone. Answer this question. There are now two opposing opinions on what is happening to Russia: some say that Russia is dying, others say that Russia is being revived. What do you think is happening now?

– I can only say this: I have a feeling of an integral nation. But, again, how do I communicate and who do I see? I see people coming to the concert. These are approximately the same people in every city. Whether in Ryazan or Vladivostok, these people are close in some way in their general type.

– At your concert we saw very different people: of different ages And social status. What exactly do you mean when you say they are similar?

– They can be different. But I mean, if you compare, say, cities, people are similar. I don’t always have time to see the cities themselves. But I manage to see people at the concert. There are some cities in which, by the will of fate or the concert schedule, we stay for two, three days or even more and manage to explore everything in them, and then we get a clear picture of this city, the place where you ended up. But there are cities that you don’t have time to see or understand. But the people who come to the concerts are somewhat similar.

– But still, in your circle, what is the greater feeling: rebirth or destruction?

I am not inclined to share any panic sentiments; there is no feeling of an apocalypse.

– It’s a normal feeling in my circle. Among my peers, by the way... those who are even younger, there is no such thing that... how can I tell you... I can say that they drink much less. Now I even look at young people: they drink less. Even less than we drank than I or my peers did at their age. I can definitely say for myself that I do not have utopian views on the present and the future. I am not inclined to share any panic sentiments.

– Is there something that a Russian person, so to speak, lacks to move up?

– It’s always there. I’m just saying that there is no feeling of an apocalypse, that everything is dying. , of course, is bent, they survive there in spite of.

– Was there a city where you were not accepted? Or didn't you understand?

– Where did they misunderstand me? Well, well, well... A city where they didn’t understand me... I can tell. It was a surprise for me... we did a concert in Mikhailovka, in Uryupinsk, directly next to Rakovka, in the Volgograd region, and then I fantasized for myself, I thought that since all the songs are sung about that region, there must be some kind of special welcome, some special “A-a-a-a-a-a-a!” But everything turned out to be exactly the opposite. That is, I have never had a more restrained – friendly, but restrained – reception anywhere. Fellow countrymen reacted more restrainedly, for example, than in Arkhangelsk or somewhere in the North, where they have nothing in common with the steppes and combine harvesters, or with Volgograd, or with the Don.

– Before the first video, even before the Buff Theater, which you have already mentioned in many interviews, what were you doing? I wonder where Igor Rasteryaev started?

We traveled around the cities of the Moscow and Leningrad regions, gave children's performances in frozen cultural centers, in abandoned cinemas...

– I have always been an artist. In the theatre. Always. After school, I went straight to the Theater Institute, where I studied for five years. And I traveled with the White Theater for a year. It was such a school of life. We traveled to all the cities of the Moscow and Leningrad regions, gave children's performances in frozen cultural centers, in abandoned cinemas, village houses culture. This is the worst it has been since the 1990s. They dressed up in some homemade costumes and brought the children to these frozen recreation centers. Children tied their hats, sat playing Tetris in mittens, and tried to hit us in the eye with a laser pointer. In a word, like all normal children, they showed interest in art. And we played. I was a Crocodile. My costume, however, did not have a mouth - so I just came out and said: “I am the Crocodile.” Steam was coming out of my mouth from the cold. And behind him the tiger cub was running and dancing, because he was wearing short tights, thin, and he was very cold, so he was pretending to be active, but in reality he was just warming up. And the teachers behind said: “The tiger cub is playing well.” Then he ended up at the Buff Theater, where this year he served for 10 years. Lost, to be more precise. My life always went smoothly, without sharp turns.

– You are not one of those artists who order expensive videos for themselves; you mainly use amateur filming. Who films and edits your videos?

– Lekha Lyakhov is my friend. He filmed all my videos that are on YouTube. All my songs: the first recording of “Combineers” on the phone, and all the other videos. He now lives in Moscow. Arrives when new song is born. We go with him to film something, then we sit and edit it together. The videos that are shown from projectors at concerts were also edited by Lekha. There is a secret here: there is a mirror in the hall so that I can see what is being shown on the video in the background at one time or another; the articulation needs to match in some places, especially where there are cartoons.

– How many accordions did you wear out during your travels?

– The one I’m playing now is the original harmonica. "Gull". I play all my concerts on it. She in Lately constantly crumbles - breaks, I mean. Metal levers and buttons break...

- Keys?

I try to play exactly that harmonica at every concert: it’s squeaky, the voices on it are so harsh - I like that about it.

- Yes, keys. The voices are flying. But this is already worn-out metal. It was bought at a thrift store at one time. In my opinion, by the way, it had never been played before, because the bellows were still glued together. And now it comes back with regularity after two or three concerts. There is always a spare harmonica. But I try to play it at every concert, because it’s squeaky, the voices on it are so harsh - I like that about it. She is very dear to me.

- Do you smoke?

- Family, wife, children?

– If you suddenly stopped performing, what would you do then?

– I would probably work at Buffa.

– What if for some reason you couldn’t speak in public at all?

- I think I would draw. If I could draw, I would draw. Or I would try to write something.

- Without unnecessary pathos - thank you for being like this, with your thoughts. Thank you for your creativity.

- Thank you. Hi all!

Rasteryaev Igor Vyacheslavovich (b. 1980) – Russian actor cinema and theater; a multifaceted gifted performer and author of songs written on real stories from the life of the people. At concerts he accompanies himself on the accordion. Fame came to Igor after his video for the song “Combine Workers” blew up the Internet in 2010. Fans of his work awarded Rasteryaev the title “Singer of the People.”

Childhood

Igor was born on August 10, 1980 in Leningrad. The family was creative, his parents were artists. Mom is a native resident of the Northern capital, graduated from a technical university. On the maternal side, all relatives survived the blockade. She met Igor’s dad when he came to Leningrad to go to college. My father was from the village of Rakovka, Mikhailovsky district, Volgograd region. All ancestors on my father's side were Cossacks.

Igor's childhood took place in the historical center of Leningrad, among palaces, which undoubtedly left its mark on him. But the boy always spent his summers on the Medveditsa River in his father’s homeland in the village of Rakovka. A favorite pastime was building a toy farm in the backyard. With his cousin, they built houses under reed roofs, placed small sheaves, and made fences from cherry branches. And then they came up with the idea that in every hut someone should live - a milkmaid or a tractor driver.

In Rakovka, Igor met a Moscow boy, Alexei Lyakhov, who also came to his family in the village every summer. This one is masculine and strong friendship stretched for long years.

From the age of six, Igor sang first for his grandmothers, then for friends. I could sing for several hours a day. IN school years began to draw and write stories about people, about life in Rakovka.

Education

Rasteryaev studied at Leningrad schools No. 189 and 558. By the end of the tenth grade, his mother advised her son to further study as a journalist. He would not have been able to attend technical universities, since he was not at all good at chemistry and physics, but he wrote essays well.

Having received a certificate of secondary education, Igor almost became a student at the journalism faculty, completed preparatory courses and even had recommendations from the admissions committee. But there he would have to study English and other subjects that he did not like. And Rasteryaev dreamed of a highly spiritual future, so he took his documents and entered the Theatre Institute. Although I had never been a real theatergoer before, I didn’t actively go to premiere productions, theatrical life I didn’t follow it, and I didn’t know almost any of the actors.

During my studies, I didn’t stand out in anything special. In student productions, he was entrusted with minor roles. Main role He played the major of the veterinary service only in the graduation institute performance.

I studied for five years and for a year attended the school of life in the White Theater troupe. We traveled to small towns and villages in the Leningrad and Moscow regions, staged children's plays in village clubs, abandoned cinemas and almost idle cultural palaces. They dressed up in homemade costumes and played for children sitting in cold halls wearing hats and mittens.

Theater

And then he ended up at the Buff Theater. Here, at first, his roles were also small, he played mostly drunks, soldiers, lackeys.

But over time, more notable characters appeared in his repertoire:

• Vosmibratov in the play “The Same Forest”.
• Gregoire in "The Adventuress".
• Butch in "Divas".
• Clerk in the production of Casanova in Russia.
• Corporal Zakhar Kosykh in the play “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha.”
• Konstantin in "Passion at the Fountain".
• Bochar in The Magnificent Cuckold.
• Tishka in “Krechinsky’s Wedding.”
• A waiter in the production “The circus has left, the clowns remain.”
• Emelyan Chernozemny in “Squaring the Circle”.

Igor worked at the theater for twelve years and left the troupe in November 2015.

And also starred in episodic roles in films:

• "The Princess and the Pauper."
• "Secrets of investigation-6".
• "Version".
• "Special Purpose Agent."
• "22nd of June. Fatal decisions."

Musical creativity

In his youth, Igor learned to play the guitar, then bought it at a thrift store and began to master a used harmonica. I sang songs by different authors for friends and gradually began to compose myself. This is how his first cheerful composition “Combine Operators” appeared.

The main topics that Igor touches on in his work are the breadth of the Russian soul with all its shortcomings and advantages, God, war, native spaces and how difficult, but extremely important it is to remain human in any situation.

Right from the first lines of his songs (both musical and poetic) you can feel that they were written by a gifted person. In one interview, when asked: “What does Igor Rasteryaev believe in?”, the singer answered: “I believe in God, in his absolute strength and in my absolute human weakness.” He attributes the sudden popularity of the song to the intervention of a higher power. Someone took this gift and unleashed it on him, because alone your own desires and you can’t write so many songs in such a short time by trying. After all, before that he had never composed anything and did not even have music education.

He cannot really explain how his songs appear. The music itself is born somewhere in the head, and already on the accordion he selects a melody. Then, fingering the keys, words begin to break through the rhythm, gradually forming into lines. It’s especially difficult for him to work on texts; sometimes nothing comes to mind for a whole month.

The first listeners of new songs are always my parents and sister. All the videos are shot by his childhood friend Lekha Lyakhov. It was he who once posted Rasteryaev’s first song “Combine Workers” online. Lech suggested that someone might like it. But he never expected that he would then have to become a videographer for many years.

The song did not immediately bring fame to its creator; in the first six months it received only 300 views on the YouTube channel. But after a link to the video was posted on one of the websites of the popular blogger and writer Dmitry Puchkov at the end of the summer of 2010, there was a real explosion on the Internet. In four days, the song was listened to by almost 300,000 users. By the end of the year, the clip entered the top ten most popular videos in Russia.

From that time on, Igor began recording and posting new compositions online. This is how the country learned his songs:

• "Daisies".
• "Bear".
• "Cossack".
• "Spring".
• "Blizzard in Rakovka."
• "Russian road".
• "Glinishche"
• "Long range."
• "Walk around the city."
• « George Ribbon».
• "Song of the Guardian Angels."
• “It’s winter and night outside.”
• "Bell ringer".
• "The battle".

Rasteryaev’s first concert took place with the Moscow club “Contact” in September 2010. A couple of months later, the singer already performed in his native St. Petersburg on the stage of the Griboedov club. Here he introduced his co-author, his father’s friend Vasily Mokhov, Igor wrote several songs based on his poems.

In February 2011, the debut album “Russian Road” was released. In July of the same year, Rasteryaev performed at the “Invasion” rock festival, where he was awarded an independent music award « Steppenwolf" in the nomination "Something".

A large part of his work is occupied by rustic theme. The village of Rakovka seriously hooked the singer. Perhaps because these are pleasant childhood memories and summer holidays, when you didn’t have to go to school and work, but only relax, have fun and fish. But, according to Igor, in order to write songs about the village, you need to be a city resident, and periodically come there and observe with an open eye what has changed. After all, if you live in a village, there will be no time for songs. People work very hard there, and natural spaces in the form of rivers, steppes, and hillocks are ordinary for them and do not make any special impressions.

Rasteryaev says to himself that he has dual citizenship - urban and rural. He equally needs both the rural heat of +45 degrees and the St. Petersburg dampness; like a battery, he is charged by both the smell of wormwood and the rain. This is the success of his songs. Igor managed to catch the string of the Russian soul, which in fact does not want glamorous frills, but simple music coming from the heart.

Now the singer is successfully touring, he has already traveled almost all of Russia, and has also performed in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.

Interests, hobbies, life values

Doesn't particularly like watching movies. In principle, he treats him well, and if something interests him, he can look at it. But he doesn’t follow the latest news in the film industry. Igor doesn’t have a TV at home, he watches it sometimes when he comes to visit his parents.

As for the holidays that came to Russia not so long ago from abroad (such as Halloween or Valentine's Day), Rasteryaev does not recognize them. For a singer there are three holidays in life - New Year, Easter and May 9. They evoke trembling sensations in his soul; Igor likes the external attributes of these holidays:

• There is a New Year's tree.
• Easter has Easter cakes with colored eggs and a night procession around the temple.
• On May 9, these are war songs and films behind which there is cultural heritage countries.

He loves people who are cheerful, straightforward, easy-going, capable of courage and unexpected actions. Igor doesn't like people who are touchy.

Among his hobbies, the singer’s favorite is fishing.

He is not married yet and has no children.

In 2003, Igor gave up alcohol, in his youth this bad habit was present in his life. He remembers well how he woke up with a hangover on a chilly November morning. There was no one at home: mom and dad were at work, grandma went to social security, my sister was at school. He then promised the cat Musa that he would never touch a glass again.

Igor Rasteryaev’s life motto: “I live calmly and don’t twitch. Friends don’t lie, my parents are alive, which means everything is fine. The main thing is to live according to your conscience and try to do your job well.”

Born on August 10, 1980 in Leningrad.
In 2003 he graduated from the St. Petersburg State Academy Theater Arts.
Laureate All-Russian competition variety artists-2006
Actor of the St. Petersburg State Musical and Drama Theater "Buff".

The first official concert of Igor Rasteryaev took place on September 23, 2010 in Moscow, at the Contact club. The concert was attended by the performer’s friends, who became the prototypes of the heroes of his songs. Igor performed a number of old songs, recordings of which were in different time posted on the Internet, and new, previously unperformed songs.

And less than a month after the first concert, on October 15, 2010, a concert took place at the Moscow club “Vermel”, which showed that not only his friends and relatives were ready to go to Igor Rasteryaev’s concerts. The first 130 true fans of Igor gathered for the concert, which was organized a week before the actual performance date. The premiere of the song “Russian Road” took place here.

On February 5, 2011, Igor’s debut album “Russian Road” was presented at the “Milk” club (Moscow)

An actor, an artist, an intellectual simply by profession, he, of course, is building a utopia, glorifying the dashing and bitter village, which is almost gone now - it is clear that in reality this is more like the novel “The Eltyshevs” than the song “Combine Operators” " But this is an elevating deception, important, necessary. This is tragic and life-affirming music: “when we retreat, it is we who move forward”; in the words of colleague Pyotr Favorov, “songs of the people in retreat.” There is something to wince in these songs, but overall they are all for good and for life; and you can draw parallels with “Lube” or “Sektor Gaza” as much as you like, but they never managed to pronounce the cherished forbidden words starting with the letter “r” so that they sounded cheerful and proud, from real big ones. Rasteryaev - like Vysotsky, like Shukshin (in advance, yes, but still) - is succeeding so far. It is possible that these are empty hopes, but Rasteryaev, perhaps, is outlining a third way for a new mass stage: while the somehow settled urban culture generates music for those under 30 (social hip-hop), and for those over 45 (“life” post-chanson in the format of the artists Vaenga and Mikhailov), he goes out into the field - and discovers under his feet the same black soil, and in this land - the same daisies, the same native bones, the same ringing word .

Igor Rasteryaev - author and performer of numerous songs with accordion,
main “combiner” of Runet, talented illustrator and artist
St. Petersburg Buff Theater. After a long tour of Russia, dedicated to
for the release of a new album "Horn" , Igor met with a leading columnist cultural life capital Karina Smoktiy and, despite numerous lack of sleep, answered a number of questions with enthusiasm.

- Igor, thank you for taking the time to meet with me in Moscow. I know that your schedule is very busy, and each concert requires 100% commitment and emotional involvement from the artist, and yet you are here, ready to answer the most difficult questions. So, let's begin.

- Igor, more and more representatives of the fair sex are appearing among your fans.
This is definitely a nice trend, what do you think?

- This would be a good trend, but so far I don’t notice such trends. Basically, brutal men, military personnel, church-going Orthodox people and other representatives of heroic professions prevail. Moreover, latest girls Lekha Lyakhov and I scared latest clips. I declare this from his words. If earlier our channel on YouTube was viewed by 87% of men and 13% of women, then after dancing on a steppe hillock with a forest (clip “Horn”) and traveling with truck drivers in the cab, their number dropped to 8%!

- Tell us how your creative success on personal life? Has it become easier to meet girls?

- It had absolutely no impact. My circle of friends hasn’t changed, and my circle of interests hasn’t changed either. Completely unrelated things.

- What qualities do you value in girls?

- I value universal human qualities in girls. Easy to get up to speed and, especially, the ability to not take your brains out.

- What do you categorically not accept in girls?

- Yes, probably the same as in all people - stupidity and arrogance.

- Do you have any preferences in appearance: blondes, brunettes or maybe redheads?

- Hair color doesn't matter to me.

- Slender or plump?

- Everything in moderation.

- Recently, tattoos have become very popular among young people. How do you feel about this trend?

- My dad has a tattoo on his arm; he got it as a child, when he was studying at the Boarding School. This is a small anchor. Dad dreamed of the sea all his childhood, but due to problems with his left ear he ended up in a tank crew. Having been demobilized, he even wanted to go to enroll in art school to Odessa, because there was a sea there, but I changed my mind and went to St. Petersburg, which is not bad.
Because as a result of a meeting with my mother, I was born. But my mother doesn’t have tattoos.

- Should your chosen one be a worker in the agricultural sector? Or do you allow a glamorous beauty into your life?

- In general, the agricultural sector is currently experiencing a serious crisis. The number of young people on farms is very small. Judging by Rakovka, I don’t remember any women there at all. But I never talked to glamorous people.

- Should a girl know how to cook? What is your favourite dish?

- In general, you need to know how to cook. For example, my friend Lekha Lyakhov prepares a wonderful catfish soup. I recently told him: “Lekha, when you die and they are going to judge you in the next world, you tell them this: “Guys, one moment!” and cook them fish soup. They’ll eat it, you’ll automatically lose everything, and you’ll go straight to heaven!” And he thought and said: “No, my friend, we need to cook the fish soup here and treat everyone, it will be too late there!”

- Can you fall in love with a girl who does not share your love for harmonica songs?

- According to the statistics of our YouTube channel, as I already said, a very small number of women like harmonica songs. Those who like them are either the same age or older. Exceptions are extremely rare. Another one the target audience- children from one to 10 years old. They, I think, are primarily attracted by the sound of the accordion itself, and I understand them perfectly, because I also tremble at the sounds of my native Chaika, even though I am no longer 10 years old.

-What is your ideal date?

- So that everything is from the heart. Moreover, it doesn’t matter at all what kind of date it is, where it is and who it is with. Take, for example, the nature of different places. Wherever I am, on whatever paths and roads of our vast land, if I have the opportunity to come to my native Medveditskaya steppe even for a day, I always go there. For it is always from the heart and charges me with the openness of my horizons and the strength of the land of my ancestors.

- Do you like to give gifts?

- Yes, in principle, probably, like all people, I love you.

- What about receiving?

- Not good. The habit of celebrating your birthday all your life outdoors on a river with another birthday boy takes its toll. The guests were always rural boys, who, at best, received their own presence and a bottle of moonshine as a gift. Those. I don't have a habit of giving gifts. Although in reality, I most likely don’t need anything.

- Was there any memorable gift from the girl?

“I remember when I was 23 years old, my sisters put a stuffed figure of me in the garden, made from a bayonet shovel and a strip tied to this shovel with aluminum wire. The scarecrow was dressed in a quilted jacket, the face was drawn from whatman paper in gouache. Instead of legs - waders. In his hands, made of whatman paper, is a mysterious instrument called a “balagigarmoshka” - something between a balalaika, a guitar and an accordion. By the way, this is interesting because, apparently, it was at this age that a gradual shift away from the guitar towards the accordion began to occur, which was recorded in this stuffed gift. Oh, I almost forgot! In the pocket of my quilted jacket, a cassette recorder was playing with my songs, i.e. with the ones I sang at the store back then.

- Could you dedicate the song to your beloved as a gift?

- So far there have been no such precedents, but I admit that even if such a thing happened once, it would bear little resemblance to the average song as it is now. In terms of the fact that there would be much less patriotism and even, perhaps, profanity would be present.

- What is your ideal vacation with a girl? On the Cote d'Azur, in the village, fishing, on the beach under a palm tree or active recreation?

- Ideal - for me to be with Lekha Lyakhov. And no one would mess with our brains, and the girls would be there and resting somewhere nearby, but at a sufficient distance. Vacation is a time to recharge your subconscious, and not to surprise someone by proving your relationships and feelings.

- Would you like to start a family in the future and have offspring?

- Everything is possible in this world.

- Could you sacrifice creativity for the sake of your family?

- I am sure that these things do not require any sacrifice from each other. And if precedents arise, then something is wrong.

- Remember your first love?

- I find it difficult to answer this question, because here it takes a long time to define terms and events.

- Igor, the last question that undoubtedly interests the most beautiful fans of your work: is your heart free now?

- IN currently, just like all the others, my heart, as well as my head, is completely occupied with thoughts about all sorts of rhyming lines... And not only... :)

- And finally, wishes to all the girls!

- Dear girls, come on February 21, 2015 to the “16 tons” club. Preferably with your brutal men. Let's sing our hearts out to the accordion. Be kind!

Thanks to Igor for the interesting answers! And what’s especially nice is that Igor, like a true gentleman, did not come to the meeting empty-handed, but brought me his new CD and his unusual book stories and sketches “Volgograd Faces”, for which a special THANK YOU to him!