Hello! A new character has appeared in the entertainment media space, who quickly gained popularity among younger generation. Exists music project, creating original music in the direction of folk with a mixture of electronic music, the so-called Drum and Bass. Everything would be fine, original and interesting idea, but the lead singer of the group is dressed in a blasphemous semblance of a monastic robe and calls himself “Neuromonk Feofan.” " Current comment"right now, the guest of the program is Archpriest Igor Fomin.

Father, hello!

Hello!

- How is this possible?

In pursuit of popularity, a person very often forgets the boundaries of what is permitted, the boundaries of his safety, both physical and spiritual. The person you are talking about now has forgotten the boundaries of his spiritual safety. Very often, when you are chasing something, pursuing something, you neglect the rules and step beyond the forbidden lines. This musician stepped beyond the forbidden line of spiritual safety.

- And he leads the youth.

Youth leads. Does this confuse young people? Is this an opportunity to laugh and mock?

You know, I will say that he does not confuse young people. The audience that is at his concerts is (I am not afraid of this word) a raging crowd.

It’s embarrassing not in the sense that young people suddenly began to look away in shame... If that were the case, it would be wonderful. He gives them imaginary freedom from the restrictions of some rules of decency. You cannot ridicule what is dear to another, and you cannot mock it.

- Here the person did not take on the image of a Muslim, a Buddhist, this is an attack specifically on Orthodoxy.

Naturally, you and I understand perfectly well that no matter who it is... One TV presenter put on priestly robes and held a photo shoot, someone danced in Orthodox church. Although they are blasphemers, they are not completely brainless people, they understand perfectly well that life is the only thing they have, earthly life- this is the only thing they can go through, and then they have no future after death. Therefore, they want to live this life in such a way that “eh!”, so that everything around them rings. Unfortunately, even this will not work, because when repentance overtakes us, when remorse overtakes us...

- When the hour of death will overtake us, no one knows.

Well, it's far away. When the Father comes to us, He will not tell us anything, He will simply look into our eyes, and we will see His eyes. And then what will be going on in the soul of this person, this “neuromonk,” as he calls himself? The Lord will not punish him directly; he has already punished himself. If the Lord wants to punish, the mind takes away.

Here we see that this musician destroys what, on the contrary, should have been built on. He is destroying his platform of security, his platform of sustainability in this world. Does he think he can stand everywhere? No, he cannot, Russia will not be able to survive without Orthodoxy, Russia will not exist without Orthodoxy. And those who destroy this foundation should first of all think about it. We were formed as Orthodox Christians, we were formed as a society that without God it is not even conceivable to be Russian, as Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky said. Therefore - only regrets.

Let's pray that the Lord will painlessly enlighten and give a person the opportunity to repent. By the way, it very often happens that people who behave like this, after some time come to confession, are reborn and then serve the cause of preaching Christ. Let's not go far and take Saul, who was suddenly reborn into Paul overnight.

Presenter Alexander Kruse

Recorded by Anna Solodnikova

The first interview in the history of the group takes place in St. Petersburg. Feofan is tall, thoughtful, with broad shoulders and a loud voice. Its DJ Nikodim is shorter, more cheerful and talks about it with great pleasure. practical aspects affairs. Both have lush false beards on their faces, both order tea with thyme and separately honey (which after an hour and a half of conversation will remain almost untouched). With them is a bear, which was forbidden to be described in the material.

Feofan's Dictionary

Anonymity

A fundamental decision. The musicians do not show their faces or name names, so as not to distract listeners from their own music.

Asmodeus

An evil demon, patron of fornication, debauchery and revenge. First found in the Talmud, subsequently in the medieval and modern literature. Theophanes confronts the Asmodeus. “You see, this is a collective image. We don't point fingers at any specific things. Asmodeus are both people and phenomena. That is, everything is negative. If you listen to this song (“Asmodeev on a stake,” one of the main hits of “Neuromonk.” - Note ed.), then you will not find specific instructions there about who it is and what it is. In essence, this is what opposes light (see Light).”

Zelo

Very. “Let’s put this word in the dictionary. We use it in texts - people ask.”

Lapti

Shoes that are worth dancing to the old Russian dram. (Listen to the song “Break the bast shoes on the floor.” - Note ed.) Some concertgoers knew this and initially went to concerts in bast shoes - they ended up in the “Trample on the Field” video after the group contacted them on VKontakte.

False beards

One of the three things that Theophanes and Nicodemus do not discuss on principle. The other two are religion and politics.

Light

What Feofan brings with his creativity. “There are people who are positive. This is different. Positivity is specifically “ha-ha”. And light is filling with energy. Not to make you laugh, but to inspire and delight. This is both happiness and positivity, but light is a more capacious concept. And it absolutely does not mean “peace.” Light is movement."

Sergei Shnurov

The man whose post about Feofan on Instagram this summer received 20,000 likes and added to the group’s popularity. Here is the caption that accompanied it: “Finally, something worthy of attention has appeared. As relevant as laminate imitating wood, the musical project is “Neuromonk Feofan”. I see, I feel the potential of something unimaginably big. Like a nuclear mushroom grown on a garden plot in a risky farming zone by an amateur gardener, “Neuromonk”, I hope, will break through the greenhouse polyethylene of the present. Amen".

Vigor

Lifestyle. “It’s easier for us to show this at concerts, it’s more difficult to explain - the word is so capacious that you could write a scientific dissertation. Vigor is a state in which a person is overflowing with positive energy. Synonyms: enthusiasm, cheerfulness, agility. It can manifest itself in absolutely any matter.

Photo: Evgeny Petrushansky

• Do you have a legend?

Nicodemus: Eat. I can tell you about myself. Or rather, about Nicodemus. A city dweller who is tired of what is happening. He studied music for quite a long time and skillfully. But I got a little tired and decided to turn to nature. He went into the forest. I’m walking, and suddenly I hear wonderful music coming from me. The rhythm is such that the energy begins to ooze. It just pulls me there. I approached - and just met Feofan. And there the bear pulled up a little later. We sat and drank honey and tea. I listened to Feofanova’s songs, which he had already written by that time, suggested some of my ideas, contributed musical knowledge, and this is what happened, which is what we see at our first concerts.

• What is Feofan’s story? When did he get into the forest and how did he write songs there?

Feofan: The story of getting into the forest is a shrouded mystery. I don't tell anyone. But you can guess - separation from people in society, as it usually happens in life. I’m generally an unsociable person; there were periods when I didn’t see people for a long time. This does not mean that there was no communication at all - I adore the forest precisely because there is no one there, but communication still occurs. Each tree has its own relationship. It can give you something, it can make you feel bad. And there, in this silence, when there is no rush, when no one is rushing anywhere, one feels unity with the entire planet. Actually, this is how my idea was born. She would not have been born running. Because the fast urban rhythm requires something from you. And when they demand it from you, there is usually not much creativity. In a calm state, then, of course, it’s completely different.

Nicodemus: Nature inspires. You sit on a stump, looking at the sky. Suddenly, an idea came. And that's all, and how to explain it. There's probably no way to explain this. So there was no specific reason: just doing what has already been done is not interesting. We found a way out - to combine the balalaika and the drum. They are similar in energy. According to the message.

• Where exactly is the point of contact?

Feofan: A combination of beauty and energy. If I were in ancient times the opportunity to make such ragged loud beats, what we do, would have appeared then. Then, of course, they didn’t count the rhythm, but there was little difference. Look at the drumstep dance. On YouTube they really like to put Russian folk dances on this music. An ignorant person may not immediately distinguish whether it is true or not. Everything originates from there. Here is a balalaika - stringed instrument, dynamic music is often played on it. Same thing with drum and bass. He carries simply colossal energy. If you try to stand next to the stage at our concert, you will feel...

Nicodemus: If you try to stand there, you won’t be able to stand there, that’s what I’ll say. Folk music has a lot of energy, it is very energetic in itself. And when this energy is enhanced by drum and bass, there are seven of me. At the first concert I tried to stand behind the DJ set, I couldn’t stand it, I broke into a dance, ran to the edge of the stage, and I’ve been doing that ever since. We can say that music initially controls everything - including us.

Folk Russian dram in the only one on this moment Neuromonk Feofan’s video “Trample”

• In a sense, drum and bass too folk music. Brings people in the room to a common denominator.

Feofan: There are people who hardly look at the stage at a concert, they just dance. And there are people for whom it is important to see what is happening there. Therefore, we try to saturate the musical and visual components in proportion. Many people perform against the backdrop of a banner, but we are trying to make it somehow more interesting. This is how we show our respect to our listeners. We understand that standing on stage with a microphone, motionless, against a dark background and just playing music is not enough in our case. Not taking the effort to convey the full power of an imagined image is disrespectful. That's why we try to capture all the senses at the concert.

Nicodemus: We have stained glass windows, dancing, visualizations, a staff with laser beams, and fellows with axes. Bear. Well done, by the way, they themselves came to us one day for a concert, and we took them. We are constantly improving our program and listening to the public very carefully. We sometimes walk around in the crowd before a concert without costumes - listening to who is saying what.

• You talk a lot about concerts, but you didn’t start with them. When did you first see the audience dancing to you?

Feofan: This year. Before that, I recorded songs myself, since 2009. About a year and a half ago, Nikodim wandered into the forest - we re-recorded all the old songs (the album consists almost entirely of them), and wrote several new ones. But then they started performing.

• How did you feel?

Theophanes and Nicodemus (simultaneously): We realized that we did everything right!

• Do people write to you? A lot of?

Nicodemus: People are asking for new songs.

Bear: There are a lot of unread messages, unfortunately, there is no way to answer them all. There are several tens of thousands hanging there. We decided to do the first concert only because people asked.

• It was important for you from the very beginning to remain incognito. Why is that?

Feofan: Because the main thing we convey is emotions and music. There is no point in personalizing these things. It's like in the poem, you know? “You shouldn’t get behind the scenery.” We really love what we do. And we see that people like it too. Sometimes, of course, they ask... but most don't need it. The point is not to let your attention wander. It is clear that if someone really wants it, they will find out more about us. But even if he finds out and writes on his page in social network, again, most won't care. There is an image, people like it. It's like a complex poem written. Everyone reads and finds their own meaning. Why take away this meaning from the one who found it. We deliberately avoid specifics, because specifics are true for some and not for others. It confuses the true meaning. General concept and is the most correct.

At concerts, spectators dressed in folk shirts and wreaths dance to drum and bass, set to balalaika motifs.

• It's hard to remain anonymous when you become famous.

Feofan: Well, life, in principle, flows and changes all the time. We don't know how it will be there. We can only focus on the present. Today - anonymity. And in a year, you see, we’ll be running everywhere, giving interviews, taking pictures with everyone and kissing sugar on the lips.

• I can’t help but ask: how many concerts is one pair of bast shoes enough for?

Nicodemus: There are bast shoes from different manufactures!

Feofan: There are bast ones, there are birch bark ones. There were enough birch barks for eight concerts. And the bast ones are still alive today. We don’t buy props, we order from craftsmen.

• They haven’t sent them yet - as a souvenir?

Bear: Not. But they send Ivan tea. But buying bast shoes is a very big hassle. In Moscow and St. Petersburg we have already bought everything we found. There are very few masters. Now I'm getting bast shoes from Tomsk, a batch has been ordered. You know what's great? People started wearing bast shoes to concerts. In groups, the masters before the concert received a flurry of messages: “I’ll buy bast shoes.” Very high demand. I think this is a big problem for our listeners - it’s hard to get bast shoes.

• We need to arrange a rental of bast shoes.

Bear: Good idea.

- Like in such small towns How do Lipetsk perceive your music?

Feofan: That's the best! Just due to the fact that the city is provincial, usually companies come to performances in which everyone knows each other, so they behave more openly and relaxed. So often in small towns everything happens more energetically. There is a feeling of some kind of great community or something.

Lipetsk is already the fifth city in which you will present your new album. Did you remember anything from concerts in other cities?

Feofan: Every city has something different. In Voronezh, for example, there were double round dances. It was very crowded in Tula. There were a lot of people, but the site was not very big. There was a very frantic slam there. Everyone was jumping there, and it looked very epic.

Nicodemus: In Bryansk, for example, it was very family-like. It's a very low stage and the audience was actually right in front of us.

Feofan: We went to the gym there.

- Weren’t you afraid that you would be discovered?

Feofan: Oh well, people are still adequate. Nobody needs this.

I read that in Bryansk the concert was on the verge of failure due to calls from anonymous people who strongly recommended canceling it.

Feofan: I'll explain now. In fact, there was just a small problem with the organizers, and the concert was simply postponed to another day. But there were no such things there. We don’t have any offensive or provoking texts. Everything is very good.

In your interview with Yuri Dudu, you said that you respect the work of such a performer as Big Russian Boss. When he performed with us in Lipetsk, mostly schoolchildren came to the concert. Can you roughly outline the image of your fan?

Feofan: As for Big Russian Boss, we are for any creativity. We are for maximum diversity and lack of boundaries in creativity. The main thing is that Nikodim just sings less (laughs).

Nicodemus: I’m trying to sing, everything is torn from my soul.

Feofan: Once he starts singing, you can’t stop him. Well, I'm just kidding, of course. As for fans, there is a very wide spectrum. We had a woman, she was 62 years old, she danced in front of the stage the entire concert. I don't know where she gets so much strength. They came in three generations - grandson, mother and grandmother. Even small children like it, but they are unlikely to come to our performances. Shouldn’t they be transported in wheelchairs?!

- YoursDudu's interview will soon gain three million views . Do you somehow monitor comments on social networks, follow what fans write?

Feofan: I sometimes answer on VKontakte when people ask me something. Nicodemus has his own Official page"In contact with".

Nicodemus: People write, I try to answer everyone. Basically, they write by musical issues, a lot of reviews, everyone likes it. So add yourself and write.

- Won’t the Bear start a page?

Feofan: Yes, he’s a clubfoot.

Nicodemus: He ate the computer.

Surely, you have heard such groups as “Nevid”, “Arkona”, “Butterfly Temple”. Was there a desire to do something similar, to “heavier” your music?

Feofan: Well, it already exists, what's the point of doing something that already happened. We go our own way, our own way and develop in this. For example, we added the Bear.

Feofan: Now turn down the Bear.

Nicodemus: Add protein. You can also make a fish song. We will add animals.

- In your opinion, folklore and traditional culture can live in the postmodern era? And in what form?

Feofan: In the postmodern era, everything can live in any form. This is not the invention of something new, but a combination of the old, so anything can be born. And if you move into post-postmodernity, then there is even more variability and some things created at different poles.

There is a video of your clips being shown to foreigners. They are all delighted, everyone really likes it. Do you think that your work will take root in the minds of foreigners as a stereotype about Russian culture?

Feofan: They have such diversity there that it’s unlikely. There are, of course, groups that “beat” according to stereotypes. For example, Little Big. They are wonderful guys, we know them. They just have pure banter. The same "Arkona" is very popular abroad, for example. Due to the fact that there is such diversity, it is therefore unlikely that they will focus on one thing and build their opinion on the basis of the creativity of one group.

- Fans write that your new album is more serious.

Nicodemus: It's all because the Bear started singing.

Feofan: The album is called “Dance. Sing". That is, there is a more dancing part, and there is one where you can sing along a lot, there are a lot of words, they are very melodic. If you remove the second part, you will get a playful, dancing album; if you remove the first part, you will get a calm album. They could easily be divided into two.

Nicodemus: The main thing is not to mix up the parts and not sing dances or dance songs (laughs).

Feofan: In the future, we will probably release a heavier, tougher version of “Dance,” because within the framework of one album it would be strange for the parts to be very different. They follow a common pattern. So, perhaps, we will release dance songs separately, but with a heavier sound. We are working on this now.

You have probably heard about such a performer as Hieromonk Photius (winner of the show “The Voice”). By the way, he will come to us in a month with a concert. Have you often found yourself confused?

Feofan: Not so often, but more than I would like. Of course, we don’t intersect with him at all, absolutely. There are people who confuse them, but this is all because of the similarity in names only.

Nicodemus: It's probably just some kind of inattention.

Feofan: Well, that's good. This speaks of diversity and the fact that there are so many different groups and performers that there are even small overlaps.

- A post recently appeared on Pikabu about how a guy decided to please his believing parents and buy a ticket to Photius. But I made a mistake and bought a ticket to your concert. My father was delighted, but my mother didn’t really understand.

Feofan: So the father is very modern man, he is ready for everything new, he is open, and his mother is also great. She probably cooks delicious soup.

Would you like to record a song in Old Church Slavonic? In the comments on YouTube they write that you were offered this, but you seemed to refuse.

Feofan: Who writes? We have not received such offers. If you go out into the street and say: “Offer,” then people, of course, will begin to do it very actively. But we physically cannot do everything that is proposed. What we like is what we do. If we just sat in the studio all the time, we would have so many options... But we don’t always sit in the studio, now there’s a concert, a tour. Then I don’t have enough strength for anything.

- You have a very busy schedule, many concerts as part of the tour. How do you cope with this, how do you rest?

Feofan: It’s not easy at all, there are constant regime failures, physically it’s hard. If we just stood on stage like statues, then that would be one thing, but we are moving actively. Physically it is not easy, you need to be prepared. We are constantly recuperating. We need to do everything in parallel.

Nicodemus: During the tour, everything happens.

Feofan: You should, for example, go for a massage or go to the sauna.

Nicodemus: Put the vertebrae in place after transport.

The next city on the tour is Kyiv. How are you feeling before this concert? Do you think that they will be able to calmly and adequately accept a group with such a traditional Russian orientation?

Feofan: I think it will be cool. All our friends who were there say that the audience there is very good, everyone is very cheerful. Of course, if someone wants to do something, to account for money, then there is nothing we can do about it. But I think that this is unlikely to happen. All people are adequate. This will be our first time in Kyiv. We were in Minsk, in Belarus, and it was generally very cool there. We were also near Minsk at a festival. By the way, there were Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians there. We performed there absolutely normally, despite the fact that there were Ukrainian nationalists there. That is, of course, there are some incidents. The people who come to our performances are all very reasonable and sensible; there are, of course, those who behave strangely, but there are only a few of them.

Your group is associated with Slavic, Old Russian culture. How interested are you in all of this in life? Or is this also just an image to a greater extent? Some groups playing in Slavic themes are, for example, directly connected with Rodnoverie and Slavic paganism in real life.

Feofan: This topic is interesting to me. If I didn't know anything about it, where would it come from?! I wonder what it looked like. We visited all the fortresses that exist in the Leningrad region. It’s interesting to delve into some beliefs. Don't even know. Maybe Nicodemus on the sly?!

Nicodemus: And I love all sorts of old instruments and music. Tunes, tunes. By musical art there are some really cool things if you dig around.

Feofan: I'm crazy about choral singing. Especially “The Wide Steppe”, but not performed by Cossack choirs... This gives me goosebumps, at these moments I really want to sit there (shows the pose of a sage). And all the tunes, they are very nimble and fast, they also sound very cool.

Photo © Evgeniy Petrushansky

Nobody knows the name or face of this man, although he gives concerts and has already written two albums: “There is drama in the soul, bright Rus' in the heart” and “Great are the forces of good.” The first impression from listening to the ancient Russian drama of the neuromonk Feofan may be a feeling of irony. And the very name of the project is “Neuromonk Feofan”, and the name of the first album (“ There is drama in the soul, bright Rus' in the heart"), and the texts themselves may partly lead to such an impression. However, we will be greatly mistaken if we see in the project “Neuromonk Feofan” only irony over Russian religiosity, leavened patriotism and Russian life in general. There is, perhaps, the least irony here.

We will be greatly mistaken if we see in the project “Neuromonk Feofan” only irony over Russian religiosity, leavened patriotism and Russian life in general

What is here then, if not irony? - you ask me, insightful reader. I believe that here we are dealing with very good work with the soil, with the material, which is why the project of the neuromonk Feofan turns out to be so original. Indeed, if I’m not mistaken, something like this has never appeared in our music before. Working with the soil, with native material is what our musical field has long needed. What do I mean by working with the soil? For example, if I do, say, rap, and at the same time I want my rap to be original, not like the Western, authentic, then I must put original meanings into it, I must imbue it with the philosophy of my fatherland, the juices native land. Naturally, I also have to work on the form. However, if we look at our national music today, which is Russian rap, we will see that rap made, say, in the city of Chita is not fundamentally different from rap made, for example, in the city of Voronezh. Why is that? Yes, because there are the same themes, the same meanings, plots, problems, and even the beat was made by the same beatmaker... As a result, we have what we have, namely the overproduction of the same type of gray rap, imitative and extremely unoriginal, but at the same time confident in its incredibly originality.

It’s not at all the same with the neuromonk Feofan, who composed a wonderful legend, and chose the best company for himself (Bear and beatmaker Nikodim), and sings songs with enthusiasm. And he came up with his own dictionary, or rather he didn’t come up with it, but he adopted some Old Russian words, filling them with his own connotations. Updated, in a word. For example, “Verociousness” is, according to Feofan, a way of life that manifests itself in the fact that a person literally exudes positive energy, starts dancing for or without reason, and is generally inclined to have fun. And so on. Neuromonk Feofan also encourages people to come to his concerts in shirts and bast shoes, which is why bast weaving masters have received more orders before the neuromonk’s concerts. Now a way of life is taking shape...

I repeat that in no case should the work of the neuromonk Feofan be perceived as irony or as mockery of the Russian Orthodox way of life. This is precisely a project (yes, albeit a commercial one, but where would we be without it nowadays?) that works with authentic material and, moreover, works with it brilliantly! Anyone who saw here the irony of Russian Orthodoxy and patriotism simply did not understand anything.

Every word of the album “Great are the forces of good” is very kind, warm, bright, friendly, and the whole album comes out like this

Some may be offended by the phrase “Old Russian dram”. Well, this is where the irony comes in. Moreover, the irony is rather about drama as a genre. Because the neuromonk Feofan also gives the word “dram” some additional meanings. This very ancient Russian drama is also ironic because, as those meticulous about defining the label have already noticed, oh - cross it out! - That is, the genre, music critics, this is not drama at all, but simply electropop with folk elements. So be it, it doesn't change the matter.

Let’s also say a few words about the latest album by the neuromonk Feofan “ Great are the forces of good" I can’t resist and say on my own that the album is wonderful! And I’ll add: very wonderful!

“A lot of dirty, useless words,” Feofan sings. We can say with confidence that there is not a single such useless word in the neuromonk’s album. Every word of the album is very kind, warm, bright, friendly, and the whole album comes out like that. The album, in essence, tells the story of how Feofan, together with his friends Medved and Nikodim, leave the noisy city behind (the song “Come with Me”) and go to the village to play ancient Russian drama and have fun. Actually, they don’t need anything else, except that they would like us to have fun with them, so they invite us with them.

Neuromonk sees only goodness around and invites everyone to have fun on such a wonderful occasion. It really is true that “all is pure to the pure”!

An album about friendship, about fun, about kindness, about love for nature. About the fact that the forces of good are great! And although the neuromonk never seems to utter the word God or the word Church in the album, and in interviews, as they say, he fundamentally refuses to talk about religion, nevertheless, the very mood of the album — bright, kind — cannot be perceived only in a secular way. And the very appeal to the topic of Russian monasticism and Russian life in general speaks for itself. Even if this appeal is only at the level of attributes, the attributes themselves still have value for the listener. However, neuromonasticism can also be perceived as modern holy foolishness, who knows!... The holy fool does not explain to us the dogmas and nuances of this or that theology, but he speaks to us in other ways! (compare the neuromonk Feofan with the St. Petersburg rap fool MC Repent, whom you can quite by chance meet on the streets northern capital and listen to his Orthodox freestyle).

In any case, it is obvious that the album is strong in its light and good mood, first of all, and not by thought. Neuromonk sees only goodness around and invites everyone to have fun on such a wonderful occasion. It really is true that “all is pure to the pure”! And when there is only negativity, anger and lies around us, how important it is to remember the light of genuine, simple human goodness!

That’s why we thank neuromonk Theophan for this message!

Lubomud Andrey

In 2009. The group's performances are stylized as Russian folk dances and songs with balalaika, but mixed with electronic rhythmic music in the style of drum-n-bass (dram). Initially, the project was perceived as a joke, and quickly spread across the Internet with hits about “Nuclearity is a way of life,” where Neuromonk, deliberately cursing, sings about the breadth of the Russian soul to a frantic party rhythm.

7 years have passed, and now Feofan is touring the cities of Russia, where he gathers fans. With him are DJ Nikodim and Bear. The team does not reveal their faces, believing that their images distract from the main thing - music and emotions.

Three people come to my office noisily, which is not surprising - where have you seen such characters not attract attention? Ahead of everyone is a Bear, with his belly sticking out, you want to touch him right away. The bear is warm - it’s very hot inside the suit. Clubfoot practically does not communicate with us, and what should we say to a forest animal? He sits next to him in his own mind, occasionally jokes and perks up only when it comes to talking about Chicoy pine nuts, which I promised to treat him to.

Nikodim strums the balalaika whatever comes into his head. He is the most fashionable in the team - he wears a blouse, a scraggly beard and trendy Ray Ban glasses. Feofan - will be taller than his friend, stately with a bass voice. His face is not visible behind the thick hood, only a lush beard peeks out from under the material. In the hands of the monk is a staff that he made himself at the beginning musical career. He said that he was luring suitors to the girls, and gave it to me to hold.

— How did you meet Medved and Nikodim, how did you decide to create a team?

- There is a legend about this, we all met in our native forest. But the story of getting into the forest is a mystery. This is where creativity comes from, where we draw inspiration from the depths. Nature itself gives ideas that you want to convey. Nikodim, in the forest, learned to play the balalaika.

— Why did you use a word similar to san in the name of the team? Orthodox priest? What does it mean?

— The prefix “neuro” indicates a connection with nervous system, that is, with the senses. And a monk, first of all, is a hermit. I think you can understand when you listen to our songs, there is no need to explain it specifically.

— What do you want to convey to the listener?

— The main thing we are trying to convey to our listeners is rhythmic music and bright emotions in it. Nothing more. That’s why we don’t show our faces—attention should not be distracted.

— For listeners, your image is rather a joke. Is laughter combined with the bright message you carry?

- It goes together great! At first we didn’t take it seriously ourselves, we just did what we wanted. And we didn’t think that everything would go on like this, people would start responding, we’d start touring. Last year we took a bus to Irkutsk. It hasn't worked out yet before Chita. We got there for the first time.

So far we like it, there are great positive people here. People are generally welcoming everywhere. Before arriving in a new city, we carefully study its history, its features, and dialect. For example, we already know about your local history museum, Church of the Decembrists, buuzy, datsan. We even know how high Chita is above the sea.

- Which one?

— Somewhere around 670 meters.

- For this is the Old Russian Dram, revived from the depths of centuries. The balalaika and the drum are generally very similar in energy, so why not combine them.

— You didn’t immediately start performing; you first gained fame on the Internet. How did you decide to give concerts? Wasn't it scary?

— We decided easily, it wasn’t scary! Each time it becomes more and more interesting to perform, our concerts are not just a performance on stage, but something similar to a show. We take with us a lot of costumes, equipment, various objects, and a video is projected behind us on the stage. We want the more the better. I have a staff with laser beams - I made it from a tree that dried up near my house back in 2009.

— Do you know about beatmaker Oligarkh (reads prayers to a rhythmic melody - I.Kh.)? Have you thought about working with him or with someone else who promotes the idea of ​​the breadth of the Russian soul?

- We rarely think about this at all. Our focus is different, so it’s unlikely to work. Although time will tell.

— What does the word vigor, found in the title of one of your first hits, mean?

- This is a way of life! A state of enthusiasm when energy bursts over the edge. It can manifest itself in everything, in dancing, for example.

- And it is secured securely. (lets you touch with your hand how the hood is held on to something like a hat)