With the speed of sound

About how Kim Breitburg manage to create the hits for the half of Russian pop-music in the swirl of show-business.

The composer Kim Breitburg is often called as modern Mozart. His songs adorn the repertoire of Philip Kirkorov and Larisa Dolina, “Prime Ministr” band, Valeriy Leontiev and Jasmin for many years. Also the finalists of “People’s Artist” made his songs famous.

On 10th of February Kim Alexandrovich celebrated his 50th anniversary. I called the maestro to congratulate with his birthday and ask some questions. And of course I asked about the celebration of the anniversary.
-I carried out my birthday at working,- Kim Breitburg said.- Though, my anniversary evening in the Kremlin Palace was planned on 13th of February, and I was born three days earlier, there was some preparatory work to be done: rehearsals with the orchestra, put some records to perfection. As you see, there was no opportunity to rest…

-Does such dynamic life attracts you, when you have no time to sit and think? Is it difficult to create hit after hit, isn’t it?
-Of course, does! Every composer dreams of that! I like the dynamic schedule of work, I prefer not to rest. I’m fond of compressed time, when it needs to take fast decisions, to do everything instantly. But still not to forget about the quality of the songs.

-You looks calm and balanced man on the screen…
-That impression is fault. If I had been calm as the boa, I would have never achieved anything in life. Show-business is the very energetic field of activity, and there is no place for sleepy person here.

-There is an interesting fact in your biography – you played rock in the beginning. And now you create nice pop songs. Could you really say farewell to rock-and-roll for ever?
-I don’t write rock-and-roll nowadays. The reason is that I changed my views on life. Environment plays an important role in the formation of the musician. Listen to the radio-stations. The needs of the contemporaries make authors to write different music. It depends on musician, does he accept those conditions or not. I did it.

-Is it true, that you worked in Kazakhstan for some time?
-In 1974 I worked in Ural philharmonic society, frankly, it didn’t last long. But we traveled over the whole Kazakhstan with the tours, the band’s title was “Afterburning”, it was even before the “Dialog”. We visited such exotic points of our country as the town Uyk near the Aral sea. I remembered it for long time. We came when there was about 50 degrees of heat. Normal person wouldn’t survive such conditions. But we were young and accept it as romance. It was fun, shortly.

-Other would just turn and go away, if were in your place. It seems that you are the man with some adventure spirit. Do you easily get used to such environment?
-When I was young I did it fast, but I need comfort now. I can’t allow myself to call me a madman predisposed to such travels. But formerly I had to bear many things during the tour.

-Do you have any preference in the artists, you write songs for – women, men or bands?
-It is funny question. It is indifferent to me whom to write for – for women, bands, men or kids. The main thing is the talent of the artist. The ability of that person to put a part of own personality in the song.
It is bad, when the artists has nothing to say at all, and you writ the song knowing beforehand that the person wouldn’t do anything with the song. And it would die calmly, and nobody would hear it, because it wouldn’t be interesting in performance of such faceless person. So, I try to write less for such persons.

-Are you a sharp person? Can you say right in the face of the artist: you are ungifted, and wont’ get my song?
-Of course, no. There are lots of diplomatic tricks. For example, you can refuse the cooperation.

-Do you control the recording of your songs?
-Yes. I try to correct the artist, if I dislike something in the sound. It is better to make the mark during the records, than feel upset later. Not always I accept the improvisation, I demand – politely - to sing the notes, that were written by me.
It needs to remark, that all stars even big ones patiently react on such marks. They pay attention to my opinion because they know me for long and they know that I have great experience in it. I worked on the stage for long time myself.

-How do you manage to create just endless flow of the hits?
-I wouldn’t say that this flow is endless. You flatter me. Last year, for example, I wrote only 30 songs. In general, it isn’t many at all. Everything is balanced and gently – one hit sounds at one artist, other at other. Thus they smoothly flow one into another.

-How do you prefer to relax from music?
-I relax from it by composing other music. It is the best rest from pop-music – to compose the music of other kind, for example, the music for the movies, it is closer to the symphonies. That direction is more interesting for me than hit-making.
But unfortunately, there isn’t much of such work. And songs are always in work. I have a list of artists who permanently ask attention. Those are “Prime Ministr”, Borja Moiseev, guys from the “People’s Artist”. They constantly needs the renewal of the repertoire.

-Do you put your songs on auctions?
-No, but there were some cases, when I proposed the song to one artist, and on some reasons he refused it. Then it became the hit in performance of other artist.
Such thing happened to “Kilimangaro”. In the beginning it was written for Veleriy Leontiev, but he refused to sing it, he dislike it somehow. So I proposed it to Philip Kirkorov. The song became the hit and sounded in the final of “Song of the Year”.
There was the song, Philip Kirkorov refused in his turn, because he already had slow ballads in the repertoire. Then I offered it to Boris Moiseev and Nildo Fernandes. It became the hit.

-The song “Northern Girl” was presented on “Eurovision”. What interesting did you prepare for the competition of this year?
-It is the song “Balalayka”, it sounded several times on TV. The song is written specially for the competition. We decided to make it with Russian national theme. The lyrics were written by Karen Kavaleryan.
The key-word is the word understandable in every country of the world. We looked through all Russian idioms, and in the end we stop our choice on the word “balalaika”. First, it is connected to the music, second, it is well known. This word has no translations and sound the same every where.
The song is performed by two young singers Lesha Chumakov and Sasha Panajotov – the most talented on my opinion. We prepared bright scenery turn, which wouldn’t keep the viewers indifferent.

If the selection round will be fare, than we have all chances to represent Russia in Ukraine. Everybody, who listened to the song, spoke well of it.

“Karavan” #8, Nuray Mukades