In changing his field of activity from architecture to music, Pyotr Nalich has stayed true to his main principle: something worth doing is worth doing well. But we didn’t only talk about his creative plans, but rather about a little bit of everything.

Pyotr, what concerns you most at the moment?

As a graduate of the Moscow architectural institute, what truly concerns me at the moment are architectural issues. Issues of modern building, how houses are restored: this is often done very poorly. An old facade is painted over in some ghastly pink color – I don’t know why. The result is mediocrity, because the people who answer for it have no initiative and are afraid of their superiors. This needs to be dealt with, because people’s moods depend on the architecture around them. Very bold and creative people should be responsible for these issues, otherwise everything around will turn into some sort of grey porridge, which will make us all feel terribly depressed. This applies more to Moscow than to Petersburg, you at least take some care of the architectural historical heritage.

By the way, how do you feel about the Okhta center?

Any new projects should above all not annoy city residents. In principle, I have nothing against high-rise buildings on the city outskirts. For example, Moscow city was built in Moscow – there’s nothing bad about that. But I don’t know why they want to build a skyscraper in the center, if they could easily move it 10 km to the north or south.

Are there any architectural projects at the moment which you would like to be involved in? Or don’t you have enough time?

I wouldn’t say that the problem is a lack of spare time. I’m not being offered much at the moment, I left the business quite some time ago. Although in general, architectural issues interest me greatly, so if I am offered some interesting project, I would be delighted to take part in it.

What is it that attracts you in architecture?

It’s important that the cultural level in the country rises, you understand. Where there is culture, all the other problems – everyday, social – will also catch up to it.

What do you call culture? What does it mean, in your understanding?

Culture is the aspiration of people, each individual person, towards improvement in some field. If a person is a master at something, he brings good to the world (now I’m going to spout banalities, watch out). A person is happy, and they create a good mood around themselves with what they does, whether they are a sportsman or artist, it’s not important. This is what one should aspire to. But this is a task both for the state and for each individual person, and naturally I don’t have any specific recipes for success.

In other words, everyone should make their own contribution in what they do?

I don’t know, I can’t say that we are all working towards some common goal, perhaps that’s so, but perhaps not. If a person does something, then they should it well, that’s all.

When you write music, are you guided by these principles?

When I come up with a song that people like, I feel satisfaction. Although even before people here it, if you like the song yourself, it’s a great pleasure. When you come up with something excellent, it’s a miracle, it’s happiness. Creating something new and beautiful.

Describe the song-writing process. First the music comes along, and then the lyrics, is that right?

You know, usually the music appears together with the words. But sometimes the music comes first, and the lyrics come later. But it doesn’t happen the other way around. That’s strange, isn’t it?

In your lyrics, you have a lot of humor, which is quite a rare thing. You are sometimes compared with Kharms, how do you feel about that?

I find it very pleasing, as Kharms was a great artist, but unlike him, my work is song lyrics. Without music, simply as poetry, they are not possible. But I feel very flattered by the comparison to Kharms. You understand, the language of irony is the only language that I can write poetically. There are people who can write wonderful serious poetry, but I can’t. When I was young, of course, I tried, I wrote romantic verses when I was 14 or so, I sometimes find them and… on the whole, it’s a good thing that no one else sees them. But now, somehow or other, almost all my lyrics, both in Russian and in English, are quite ironic. That’s how I would put it.

Did you study English specially?

I only studied it at school, and would like to know it better, because I can sing in English, but I don’t speak it very well because of a lack of practice. On the one hand, I want to improve it, but on the other there’s no special need for this at the moment. If we start playing concerts abroad regularly, then I will happily study English, but so far it’s not a priority.

You have the song “Santa Lucia” in Italian. Do you understand what you are singing about?

No. It’s a classic text, in the Neapolitan dialect. I studied Italian at the academy, and probably know about 100 words. So perhaps I understand a few individual words, but only about 10% altogether, not any more.

Do you have any concerts planned abroad?

We recently took part in the “Sphinx” festival in Antwerp, where we were the headline act, to our surprise. But we coped, strangely enough, we played for two hours, and although half of our songs are in Russia, people listened attentively and enjoyed it greatly.

So it wasn’t a concert for the Russian diaspora, as is usually the case, but a local festival?

Yes, that’s right, there weren’t any Russians there at all, only Europeans. Our music was accepted, and we were delighted. As for concerts for emigrants, we’ve received a number of offers, but we have to go and play a lot of concerts in a row. And this is not our practice at all, I can’t do this. After a concert I need to rest for a week, or at least five days. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing, but that’s the way it is.

By the way, on the topic of publicity, do you intend to perform on television, or have your clips played?

If our clips are shown, that would be great, we have nothing against it. But this isn’t so easy to do, and we aren’t prepared to make any sacrifices to achieve this. We have a cartoon clip for the song “Sea”, and we will continue to make clips on our own, and we’ll see what happens to them. We want to make a clip for the sake of it. Naturally, we’ll post it on the Internet, like the rest of our materials. Whether we’ll get air time or not, who knows. If we get a wider audience, that would be great!