NAU NUA: OLGA ZOUBKOVA

Living songs

Olga Zoubkova is wonderful. She writes music and texts on Russian and English. Makes arrangements for her favorite musicians’ songs (her performance of Sting is sooo beautiful!) as well as plays together with famous bands and participate in different art projects. She left Russia and now lives in Germany where she works with one of the best sound recording companies. Recently Olya has signed contract for her new album release.

Whom do you consider to be the main teacher in your life?

Ooh I have had several great teachers and will have them all my life long. First of all, my Dad. He has taught me so many things ever since I was a little kid and he still does. All the things about music and life. He himself is an incredible example of a person living full, happy life because he does something he loves with his whole heart. That’s how I have learned to live and be happy through the thing I do.

Having been born in musicians’ family you’ve had no chances to walk away from music. But sometimes it happens that even talented and devoted parents give birth to kids whose interests are absolutely opposite to art. When did you understand that music is your way?

I understood it pretty early. My Mother was a wonderful jazz singer. My brother was a Siberian rock star and my Dad is a conductor of a children brass woodwind orchestra. This orchestra is 26 years old now, that’s two years younger than I am. When I was about three years old, my dad took me to the orchestral rehearsal and gave me a triangle. I still remember one of the first concerts; it was a youth center in my little town. I remember myself with that triangle, playing some terrible things. A very funny thing to remember.

It took some time to realize what music really was to me. I started to teach myself how to play guitar as I was 13 years old. My guitar became my best friend and she still is.

Whom did you share the stage with? What experience was the most unforgettable?

I’ve had a lot of great concert experiences. For example, our gigs with Brendan Perry, the wonderful voice of Dead Can Dance. We played in Moscow and St. Petersburg in April 2010. Or the tuvan world music festival Ustuu Huree in July 2010… was just awesome! I had a great load of smaller but none the less greater concerts with i.e. Artem Fadeev, who is now my favorite guitar player. We meet each other on the Internet as I was living in St. Petersburg. He came all the way from Moscow just to play with me. And we still do play together. It was a great pleasure to share one stage with Svetlana Surganova and her wonderful Orchestra. With my dear Vera Polozkova it was just as incredible pleasure. We made an amazing symbiosis of poetry and music, together with Artem Komissarov, a wonderful musician and manager. As a result of this very collaboration we have a DVD, which I am terribly proud of.

Some people have to beat a path to their dream work hardly in order to get success and acknowledgement. What was your way like?

I never struggled for success, and it is not really what I want to achieve. I always wanted just to make music. There are lots of other hobbies I like to spend time with, but nothing really has ever interested me that much as Music does. It remains my biggest love. Everything else comes and goes. If you do something with a big amount of devotion, at some point you get things happening. Sort of miracles that bring you to the right people at the right moment. The greater your devotion is, the more intense miracles happen. It is not like everything was wonderful and easy for me from the very first steps. I was making my way for years, too. I still do stumble and guess my way. Only it got a good bit easier and more pleasant.

How do you make your songs sound sincere both on a disc and during live concerts?

You gotta live the song while you perform it. I can’t really express it in any different way. When you live the song that you sing, it does not really matter where your microphone stands, in a studio or on a stage.

You write songs on Russian and English… How do you create them? And choose a “citizenship”?

I write songs for certain people. All of them are dedications and confessions. See, the person I wrote all the most recent things for is an American. What should I do? Of course I’d like to transfer my feelings to them in the most available to me form, which is music. The other thing is that I gotta do it using the language they would understand. And so it is, love defines my music’s citizenship. I don’t write a lot in Russian nowadays. I might do some songs in Russian, but a bit later.

You work so hard! Do you have time to sleep? What makes you feel full of energy?

Sleep is seriously overrated. I usually sleep less than 5 hours. And my awaking hours are far beyond any normal time. That’s what keeps me productive.

Is it easy to keep heart open?

Oh, absolutely. The easier I take it all, the easier it all is. Wonderful, isn’t it?

Definitely! What color are you now?I mean the color of your soul…

Outside I am always black. Don’t mistake me for a gothic though. Inside there are over sixty five million colors.

OLGA ZOUBKOVA videos here

Photo courtesy of Olga Zoubkova

Olga zoubkova website www.facebook.com/OlgaZeeOfficial