Vera Brezhneva and Konstantin Meladze now. Konstantin Meladze: “The evolution of the artists of VIA Gra shows that I am in constant search

About why success is never predictable, why does a musician need two mobile phones and how his attitude towards the group changed, famous composer told OK!

Konstantin, musicians and producers often say that sometimes they have to ask for a song to be played on the radio or for a video to be put into rotation. Have you ever asked for something like this?

It happened. I would never and have never asked for myself in my life. But for my artists, of whom there were more and more, I asked. Until I started working with Velvet Music, where my sister and her friend Alena Mikhailova are now in charge of all the management. They don't write songs, and now I don't have songs on the radio station. Before that, I went and negotiated things myself.

Has it ever happened that you were refused?

It happened. Not often, really. There were cases when it was necessary to convince, because any producer is ready to do a lot for his artist. To this day I don’t consider it anything humiliating. It's normal to negotiate for the promotion of your artists.

Do you ever feel like, “It’s a pity that I didn’t write this song”?

Moreover, sometimes it even seems that I almost wrote it, and someone stole it from under my nose. (Laughs.)

I listened to some of Sting’s songs about, say, ten to fifteen years ago, and it seemed to me that I could, somewhere around here I was walking in circles, but I didn’t make it into the top ten. And he got it. But this, thank God, is white envy.

Three of your artists competed for the MUZ-TV Award this year. Who will you worry about more?

For everyone. “MUZ-TV Award” is probably the most famous, the most mature: this year the award is fifteen years old, and that’s a lot. Every year it becomes more relevant, it seems to me. And it is very important for musicians. She has survived both crises and upswings, and today, in my opinion, she is in brilliant shape.

Is it important for you that the song wins an award?

It certainly makes a difference. And it’s not even so important that the song gets something, but that people pay attention to it. And when she gets nominated, it’s a joy.

But now there are many ways to monitor the success of a song - this is rotation on the radio, the number of views of clips on YouTube, the number of downloads, and so on. Therefore, today the essence of the awards is to stimulate, even in advance, young musicians to bring out new styles. That is, not just be some kind of confirmation of the vote count. It seems to me that anyone music award much broader powers, a much deeper cultural mission. And this mission, first of all, is to somehow shape every year musical palette. This is a very important thing.

In the entire history of the group, VIA Gra has received ten MUZ-TV Awards. And after the reboot, the girls, already in the current lineup, received a “plate” for a duet with Mot. Do you think it is important for them to receive this award?

It seems to me that this worries them much more to a greater extent than me. At least at their age, things like awards worried me more than they do now. If you collect all the regalia that were associated with me, you will get such a small truck. For artists, prizes are generally very important, especially at the beginning of their journey, during the formation period. Then, of course, when an artist receives an award for the fifteenth or twenty-fifth time, like Philip Kirkorov, I don’t think he experiences any kind of wild jubilation. And young artists - they are very sensitive to this... sometimes even dramatically: they worry if they don’t get the “plate”, some even cry, especially girls.

It's probably not easy to work with girls in general.

Not easy. In general, it’s not easy with people, you know. And making ordinary people public is both difficult and unpredictable. That’s why I have such, let’s say, “rapid rotation” of personnel. When you take on a guy or a girl, it is impossible to predict in advance how he or she will react to popularity, how a busy touring schedule, lack of sleep, flights and all that other stuff will affect them. No one, not even the most brilliant producer, is able to predict the future of an artist with one hundred percent accuracy. Although I used it on different television shows services of psychologists, teachers, working with young people, but they were also mistaken in their forecasts.

This is probably why the participants of “VIA Gra” often changed. But what’s interesting is that they were always different, were they different from their predecessors?

This is precisely the whole point of interest, that they are all different. The evolution of the VIA Gra artists suggests that I am in a constant, permanent search. And the search process itself is extremely interesting to me. Sometimes the outcome is much more interesting. This cast of VIA Gra sings songs, some of which are so “ancient” - they were written when the girls were five to seven years old. And of course, they bring their own notes, their own temperament, their own flavor to this repertoire. Maybe that's why this group has such longevity. Because this is the kind of theater, a real theater, in which the troupe changes, but the seagull hanging on the curtain does not change - it has remained the same since the first days. And strictly speaking, this principle is “ Beautiful music, executable beautiful women“- it seems so simple, but still relevant to this day. The same simple principle is when girls are divided according to color parameters: brown-haired, brunette and blonde. Oddly enough, this principle will work for a long time. And the girls’ tour schedule suggests that they are still in great demand. And by the way, in many respects this composition surpassed both gold and diamond.

I was going to celebrate this.

Yes, this composition does not change, it’s actually a miracle that for three and a half years I have been working in a stable team, pah-pah-pah. And the number of views, the number of rotations of some songs is now several times higher than what it was before. That’s why I continue to work with these artists, because it’s interesting to me, to them, and to the public.

It seems to me that such a long period of existence current composition is also explained by the fact that now the VIA Gra group is a single organism. Before that, you often had artists who turned out to be too self-sufficient... For example, Vera Brezhneva. As soon as she appeared, she immediately attracted all the attention.

Now, from the height of these years, it seems that this was obvious. I remember when I started producing Vera solo, in 2008, no one believed that such a powerful artist would end up.

Seriously?

Nobody believed it, everyone looked at it as some kind of whim. Even I believed about 50/50, because it is difficult to predict what will happen there and how it will turn out. In fact, I spent almost three years searching for the sound that later brought her success. The song “Love will save the world” was written in 2010, and we recorded the first song in 2008. As a matter of fact, I searched for two and a half years musical style, image, in order for the artist to become successful. How many years did it take Sveta Loboda to break through? Twelve at least. How many years did it take Anya Sedokova? Now it seems that it just happened. Therefore, it may well be that Erica, Nastya and Misha will become solo artists. Although I, of course, would like them to work with me longer. But you know my principle: I don’t force anyone.

When you write a song, how do you then decide who to give it to? And doesn't one artist then tell you that this song suits him better than another?

It happens sometimes. And this, of course, is one of the most difficult moments in producing. It turns out that some song of one artist becomes more popular than the song of another artist. And when you have four projects, and sometimes there were five or six, of course, you want them all to be equally successful, so that the songs and videos that I create for them are equally and equally successful. But in any case, this is impossible, because there are slightly less successful moves and solutions, and there are more successful ones. Thank God, all my artists understand this and treat each other with warmth. Fortunately, I don’t observe any jealousy among them.

When we did an interview with Vera before her first solo concert in Moscow, she said that she would never contradict you, that you have always been and remain an absolute authority for her. And that’s great, that’s the way it should be, but is that really the case? Still, it’s not easy to come to an agreement with women, and they’re all so temperamental!

Of course they will argue. Situations regularly arise when, for example, an artist tells me that the song is not that bad, he just... doesn’t feel it, it doesn’t coincide with his current attitude and mood. This happened with Valera at the beginning of my production activities, this also happened with the VIA Gra group, this happens with Vera, and with Valera to this day.

So what do you do about it?

Either I remake the song radically, or just the chorus. By the way, many of my songs that became famous initially had a completely different chorus. Both in music and in text. So I often do three or four versions of a chorus at once until the song fits and resonates with the artist. And until it resonates with the artist, the song cannot be successful. That's the whole point. So I reluctantly redo it, understandably, I swear to myself, but I redo it. Until the artist becomes a full-fledged bearer of this text and this music and tries on the song as clothing. The song should fit, you know, it should be convenient and comfortable, just like clothes... For example, with the VIA Gra song “Diamonds,” which became very popular and received a nomination for the MUZ-TV Award in 2006, too not everything was smooth sailing. It is very unique in sound and frivolity, so to speak (its text is so ... unusual for me). When I showed it to the group for the first time, Nadya Meikher flatly refused to sing it, because it seemed somehow frivolous to her. She is a dramatic artist, she loved songs to break, touching deep strings. And here about the diamonds... Then I somehow convinced her.

Wow! Did you also convince?

What's wrong with that?

You are the producer, you are the main one. “Let’s take it and eat.” What other options?

No, I don’t work with artists like that. But this was precisely the case when I was confident of success, so I had to convince. But even in the final version there is no Nadya’s solo piece; she sings only in the choir.

You are quite a democratic leader!

Yes, I’m surprised myself.

Is it even possible for three artists to say at once that a song “hit the soul”? During the shooting, we spent an hour lining up one frame so that everyone was happy.

I still try to select the composition in such a way that everyone fits together and the puzzle comes together. When people are opposed, the team quickly falls apart. Since this composition works for a long time, it means they have found mutual language, some common ground, learned to make compromises. Therefore, there have been no disagreements so far with the songs that we have made with them over the past three and a half years.

Or maybe you have become stricter?

No, no, definitely not, on the contrary, I have become softer with age. ( Smiles.)

Do girls often turn to you for some life advice?

You know, when I started working with the VIA Gra group in 2000, girls very often asked me for advice on any issues. In principle, I did everything: their education, their spiritual development, compiled lists of books, conducted conversations... I shaped not artists, but people. It seemed to me that this was exactly what my mission should be - Pygmalion in its purest form. But due to the fact that Lately I have a lot more projects, I can’t devote so much attention and so much time to artists. Therefore, relations with current group are constructed exclusively in a musical manner. Of course, when they have problems, they write to me, and if I can, I rush to help. This is completely natural. But nevertheless, now the group has quite independent and mature artists who are beyond my participation creative process less is required.

Have you yourself learned to exist outside the creative process? You recently had a birthday. How did you spend it?

Very fun, in a narrow family circle. The fact is that literally on the night from the 10th to the 11th (and I was born on May 11th) we filmed a video, and filmed it in another city. And only in the morning, in fact, Vera and I returned home to Kyiv, tired but happy. And in the evening we were supposed to go to a small restaurant to celebrate. And the most amazing thing was that when we arrived there, Valera and Albina and our sister Liana were waiting for us there. This, of course, was surprise number one.

Shouldn't they have come?

Should not. But Liana flew in from London, and Valera and Albina flew in from Moscow, on two connecting flights. It was very touching: children, relatives, friends, acquaintances, brother, sister gathered - what could be better? We rarely gather in such a composition, unfortunately, especially not in Moscow. So the birthday was great.

Previously, you admitted that you don’t know how to rest, that you’re always busy with business. Are there other dates besides your birthday when you can take time out?

This is, first of all, New Year, New Year's Eve, and the two weeks after New Year's. Well, we always have a vacation in June. Most often in Italy. In recent years I have learned to take vacations. ( Smiles.) And this year we will vacation not only in June, but also at least half of July. This is a luxury that I could only afford now.

Who forbade you to rest before? There is no boss over you!

It seemed to me that if I went on vacation for such for a long time...

Will everything collapse?

Everything will collapse. All projects will stop, tours will be disrupted, songs will not be written... But no! Gradually I increased my vacation. At first it was a week, then two, then three, then a month. This year, in fact, we will try to increase it to one and a half months, because we did not rest in the winter. Let's see what comes of this and how it affects my creativity and performance. ( One of Konstantin’s two phones rings, he hangs up the call.)

How long have you had two phones?

Yes, a long time ago. One is not enough, three is too many, so I have two. I have everything on my phones: all my notes, scraps, musical sketches are there too. Sometimes something comes into my head, I have a voice recorder in my phone, and I hum it all into it. And mail on the phone...

Life on your phone!

This is my kind of office. I don’t have an office as such, I only have a studio in which I do everything. Therefore, these two phones are always with me, I don’t turn them off at night, during the day, or on holidays.

You once said that not long ago you realized that happy man children do, not successful career and recognition. Of course, you weren’t lying, but if the opportunity to make music were taken away from you, would you feel happy?

Of course, the point is simply that a fairly large segment of its life path I studied music completely maniacally. Since about 1986 - it turns out that for twenty-five years I lived only by this. And by and large I did everything else... in a fog. Music and career came first. And in second, and third, and tenth place too. And only starting from the second decade did some of my other needs begin to emerge. This would continue until at one point I realized that this was actually a direct path to loneliness. My scuba diving took a little longer, and I had to go to the surface and see what kind of world you live in, because the world that I formed for myself in my studios, in my fantasies, was increasingly at odds with what was happening around me in reality. It was very uncomfortable and increasingly proved to me that it was time to think about more than just music. Because, having achieved almost everything I wanted in music and even more, I realized that I could no longer find happiness only in this. And even there I scraped it to the very bottom. And of course, I realized how much I had missed in principle: the birth of children, their childhood, and my own personal life, and family. I missed a lot of things. Now I'm catching up.

You know, no one has yet proven that parents should be included in the lives of their children 24/7. Your father probably worked a lot too?

Our parents influenced us very specifically, of course. They worked from morning until night, trying to feed a horde of children.

You haven't disappeared.

By some miracle we didn’t disappear, although many of our classmates, we studied in a workers’ village, served time, and so on. This is probably due to genes, and not due to how much attention we were given. In general, in those days it was not allowed to dominate children like this, as is happening now. Now children have nannies up to twelve years old, drivers, English teachers, and all kinds of sections. When we were growing up, we met with our parents in the evenings, dad came home tired, and I remember that only on Sunday we came into contact with each other for a little longer than an hour or two. But this was enough to raise normal, adequate children.

Do your children make you happy?

My children make me happy in any case, even if they misbehave and study poorly. But they study well, and if they misbehave, it does not happen so often as to cause concern. Of course, I am often called to school, especially in last years...

Are you going?

I'm walking. I go, listen, then have conversations with them, and so on. But all this is absolutely clear to me, because I remember what Valera and I were like as kids; you wouldn’t envy my parents. My children are much more disciplined than my brother and I were, so I’m not scared.

Yours eldest daughter Alice is already quite an adult.

Seventeen years.

Are you ready for her to have boyfriends soon?

Well, what should I do now? I’m getting ready.

Remember yourself at seventeen?

At the age of seventeen, I remember myself, I was not interested in any brides, because I was just starting to immerse myself in music. And in general, guys mature later, and in those years they matured even later. Moreover, here in Batumi you can’t run after girls especially - it’s not supposed to. The girls are all unavailable. If you're going to run, you should get married. But I didn’t want to get married at seventeen. As, in fact, at twenty, and at twenty-five, and at thirty. Only when I was thirty-one did I want to.

David Beckham he once admitted that he went on his eldest son’s first date with him - he sat five tables away from the meeting place.

This is very close to me, and it is possible that the same will happen to me. Let's see!

Photo: Andrey Baida. Photographer's assistant: Denis Goryshev Style: Irina Belous. Makeup: Katya Bobkova. Hair: Natalia Kalaus/Equilibrium

Recently, Konstantin Meladze, in a frank conversation, for the first time lifted the veil of secrecy about his relationship with Vera Brezhneva.

During the interview, the producer spoke about the beginning of his romance with the famous blonde, about their relationship during VIA Gra and about changes in life after marriage. Konstantin and Vera hid their love affair During a long time.

Even regular press reports about the romance between the composer and singer did not receive comment from them. However, everything secret becomes clear, and in October 2015 the public learned about the secret wedding of famous people..

The wedding took place in Italy. Among the guests were only the closest people. It is noteworthy that even after such publicity, the couple kept silent about all the details of their

family life

“I attended these classes once a week and watched how she progressed. The effect was simply amazing. This can be compared to some cartoon where a tomato grows in just five seconds. The same thing happened with Vera. After a year of working in the group, he was an absolute star,” - the producer shares in an interview.

However, at that time there was no talk of any kind of relationship. Even Verino’s marriage in 2006 to Mikhail Kiperman and the subsequent birth of her daughter did not make any impression on Meladze: “Then I still treated her as an artist; if I had any experiences, it was only those that now I would have to interrupt my career, and that’s all. The feelings that arose later were later.”

But Konstantin still admitted that the appearance of a sensual blonde in his life led to dramatic changes: “With the advent of this man, my life changed. I raised my head from the keyboard, I didn’t even lift it myself, but she raised it. She apparently grabbed me by the hair and said: “There are still a lot of different things!” I didn't care what I looked like. I didn’t care where I rested or what I ate. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of things because I was obsessively passionate about my work. And I probably would have missed it completely if Vera had not given me such a kick and awakened my interest in a different life than just the studio, music.”

“I don’t want to offend anyone, but objectively, Vera Brezhneva achieved the greatest success among the ex-Viagras. She really is an absolutely amazing person, the most beautiful and sexy. Did she marry grandly? Rather, I got married grandly" , - summed up the famous producer.