Interview with Dmitry Zakon Russian and German musician, producer and owner of "Zakon music & media".
— Tell me please, is Zakon (translated to ‘the law’ in English) your real surname? Sounds cool. What nationality are your parents, and do you know the history of your last name?
— Zakon is a real surname. Derived from the German word Sack — a bag. I have a mixture of several bloods, a bouquet of Czech, Swedish, Jewish and Russian. I met people with such a surname in my life quite rarely, and they were all some kind of outstanding personalities; one was a co-founder of the Internet; the other was an advisor on innovation in the administration of President Barack Obama; in California they produce Joseph Zakon wine, which is produced by my namesake; and there is even a famous TV producer called Robert Zakon. My parents were professional musicians. My dad is a violinist, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and taught in Saratov where he met my future mother, who studied there in the fifth year of the piano department, where I appeared. So I had very little chance of becoming anyone else. When I studied in the city of Gorky, where we moved right after my birth, I was very actively involved in fencing, and even entered the youth national team of the USSR. But if my wife, who has a law degree in Russia, would become a prosecutor perhaps life would have played with different colours… imagine, Prosecutor Zakon (Law) — it would be cool. But fortunately this did not happen.
— You are a very successful, talented and strong person, and a lot has happened thanks, probably, to your upbringing in an already musical family. But I’m sure you understand that there are enough talented people, and only a few who reach such heights. What do you think it is? Born under the right star, luck or just good strategy, intelligence and hard work?
— Undoubtedly, parenting and the musical aura around me played a role in the initial steps of my formation. I was lucky with teachers, both in classical music during my studies and in jazz music. In the USSR I’ve worked with Vysotsky, Pugacheva, Dean Reed, Antonov, in the groups Six Young, Lace, Song and Dialogue, in Germany with Boney M, Scorpions, Bee-Gees, EW&F, Tom Jones, BS&T , Engelbert Humperdinck and many more of the world’s outstanding artists, whom I can name for a long time. If anyone is interested, you can look at my website www.zakonmusic.com where several decades of projects are listed. Why did you stay in Germany, I myself love it, but it seems little boring to me there. Do you see yourself as an active person? I ended up in Germany by chance. In a car accident my German friend and partner died, with whom we had previously carried out several large projects for three years. The German promotion company where he worked, with whom I had been in contact all those years, invited me to work for them.
— Do you have nostalgia for the Motherland?
— No, it didn’t break, in Russia then came the so-called «dashing nineties», when everyone was thrown, businesses taken away, shot and killed, and pop music in the homeland degraded below the plinth. Of course, it also played a big role that we spent the last three years on foreign tours, having travelled to about 30 countries around the world and the audience began to forget us. Therefore, it was interesting for me to try myself in European show business, especially since I already had some kind of representation about it. Gradually I settled down, moved my family, and founded my own company. In the early 90s, several million Russian-Germans repatriated to Germany, who after three centuries of difficult living on Russian soil, returned to their historical homeland. During this period, I transported on tour to Germany all the most famous and popular Soviet artists from those years. I never got bored, especially since I often took western artists and the Boney M group to Russia. And by plane to Moscow, the journey took less than three hours.
— Do you have children? And if so, I wonder what they do?
— I have two sons. One is a practicing psychologist, and the other is a manager of a large company that deals with digital advertising in European airports. At one time he was a successful DJ who has toured all over the world and even supported the Black Eyed Peas on tour.
— Tell us about your music channel in Germany. How did you manage to implement it, how did you defeat competitors, what are its strengths? Have you ever thought of doing something like this remotely in Russia?
— I’ll start with the last question. Initially, the desire to create a television channel in Germany came to me in the early 90s, and this was due to the large Russian-speaking population which I mentioned earlier. I almost reached an agreement with the owners of ORT that on the basis of their channel, we in Germany will insert our music and news programs. But the project was not destined to happen, since an attempt was made on the main ORT shareholders, they miraculously survived and emigrated from Russia. On this the project was buried. The second time I remembered about television was when I took part in the presentation of the Music Box TV channel in Israel. I was interested in interactive technology, which was then a novelty for Germany. I invited leading German professionals in this business, found sponsors, and in early 2006 we went on the air on federal and satellite channels in Germany and Europe. In those years, in the music television market, the situation was favourable for us. There were only two watchable music channels MTV and VIVA, which broadcast in English and positioned purely American music. Due to new technology, Russian creativity and German content, we overtook VIVA in terms of rating and became a popular German music TV channel. The channel, for which I came up with the name, iMusic TV, became widely known due to one more amusing incident when a candidate for the Bundes-Chancellor, during his programmatic pre-election speech, entered into a controversy with a homeless person, and could not fulfil his promises.
This scandal was in full swing in the press and at that moment we invited a homeless person to work in our company. The signing of the contract, covered by all the German media and many world news channels, even saw the arrival of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Due to this, advertising costs were saved, and our homeless person became the most famous ex-unemployed in Germany, and later even sat in the Bundestag and was the protagonist of a reality show on some wild desert island in the ocean. I ran the TV channel for several years. It was a difficult and hard business that took all the time from morning until late at night. Apart from Germans, we also employed specialists of different nationalities including: Portuguese, Americans, Chinese, Greeks, etc. The company had representative offices in Moscow and Kiev. In 2012, we sold the channel to the British, who renamed it and rebuilt it to their liking. Personally, I got the impression over the years that in Moscow our stars (especially the big ones from the pop stage) are very arrogant and pretentious for the most part, sometimes bordering ridiculous.
Well, I say it as it is. Not only is it impossible to talk to them, but you’re lucky if they don’t try to offend you for anything. Celebrities abroad however are completely different. These people are open, polite, and nice. Why is this happening? Is this a Russian disease? And sometimes, some little-known Russian radio host communicates with such ambition, as if she is the English Queen (and I don’t even know her name)? Yes unfortunately, star fever is a strong point of Russian artists. Fortunately, I personally have little experience with this, apparently due to the fact that I have been in this business for a long time and many of this industry know me personally. Once however, I had a working conflict with Zhanna Aguzarova, who did not go on stage until she received a double fee. Then I had to pay, the stadium was full, but then she was not happy about it, she had to work for half a year for symbolic money. I had a case with the director Charles Aznavour, who sent in a full page a list of wines that needed to be prepared in his separate room. The cost of one bottle started from two thousand euros. Interestingly, for the artist himself, the list was much more modest. When Aznavour found out about this, the director was instantly fired. Or before Paul McCartney’s performance in Moscow, in order to have hot water in his make-up room, we had to dig out a small area on Red Square. And since Paul does not tolerate natural leather they were forced to rip off the seats in the limousine and change them to rags. And he didn’t bother with this one, he rode a bicycle from Balchug to the playground. Liz Mitchell, who is known all over the world as the soloist of Boney M, is a very simple and modest woman in life, like her whole family. I have been actively working with the group for ten years, we have travelled half the world, and I have never seen Liz refuse someone to take a picture or write an autograph. On my birthday and my son’s wedding, they specially moved the concert to another day in order to fly in and congratulate me personally.
— What was it like to tour so actively? Did you feel depressed from endless employment and the inability to spend the money you earned?
— In the Soviet Union, I spent the money I earned on keyboard instruments that could only be obtained from the underground; only the Yunost organ with a disgusting pig sound and the same Ionika Organola were officially sold. I was one of the first to use a synthesizer in concerts. It looked like a telephone exchange switchboard. Then I got the first in the USSR Rhodes piano Mark ll, with a magical sound, musicians from all over the country came to listen to and touch the keys. At that time it cost like a Volga car and I was afraid to check it in my luggage. Our workers were tormented and dragged it along the planes and trains after us, where it could barely fit. Touring of course, was not easy. In the 80s we had trips for 6-7 months, and every day there were at least 2 performances. The record for the number was at BAM, when in one day we worked 11 concerts. Sometimes, waking up in the morning, I could not remember in which city I was in. I had a strong depression only once, this was when I was living in Germany, when I tried to do some extra side-business; selling timber, titanium, Euro pallets, children’s New Year gifts and “red mercury» which did not exist in nature. All the money earned by hard work over several years, I was persuaded to invest in shoes — women’s boots, which were then in great deficit in Russia. I brought several trucks with goods and unloaded everything in an underground warehouse in the centre of Moscow. But at night a sewer burst in this area, and all my boots were drowned in Moscow faeces. There was no insurance then, of course. After that, apart from the music business, I didn’t do anything else.
— What crises did you have — alcohol, drugs… star fever? Perhaps the desire to quit everything and leave?
— No, God had mercy! I drank like everyone else, without fanaticism, to relax after work. We had strict discipline about this which I controlled. I did not suffer from star fever, I was vaccinated. Although, this test is not an easy one. Once in the 70s, I sang a song that was shown on the then popular TV program, Morning Mail on ORT, and for a week people recognized me on the street.
— Tell us in more detail what you are doing now in Germany, are you still dealing with celebrities?
— Now during a pandemic, like everyone else I am sitting at home and planning some projects for the end of this year, with the hope that all this will resolve. Till Lindemann has a new program with new musicians, several concerts from last year’s tour were cancelled due to the pandemic, Canadian singer Garou, French model and singer Carla Bruni, etc.
— Modern pop music in Russia is bloodshed, with the exception of some really cool projects — how do you like Little Big, by the way? It’s awful that many cannot sing or speak (we will not call them by name), will this always be the case? In fact, I listen to everything that was written before my birth or a little later, but almost nothing more modern.
— This is correct, and in my opinion it is obvious. And not because I come from that time. It’s just that before this was done by professional musicians, composers, and poets. It was impossible to go on stage without a musical education. Although of course, at the same time there were idiotic art councils, whose members did not understand, who controlled and hindered the development of this genre. The music was to be performed only by members of the Union of Soviet Composers. I had to go around. For example, we inserted whole pieces of music ripped from Chicago, BS&T, Deep Purple and others into some songs, which were then half-gods for us. In the music that you like to listen to, there is a beautiful melody and professionally written lyrics, it is not for nothing that almost all modern Russian artists have risen due to the rehash of some old songs that are still relevant. And Little Big are cool guys who correctly and cleverly promoted themselves through YouTube and Surzhik, which is understandable to viewers all over the world. I like what they are doing, great fellows, and tactically they did the right thing and refused to perform at this year’s Eurovision.
— Your favourite bands, Russian and foreign performers (not as friends, but as musicians)?
— Since I was brought up on jazz music, my priorities from Russian are Leonid & Friends, this is a rare case when musicians play covers, better than the originals… Koha and the group, Pushking, with which I started working when they lived in Germany, are not deservedly bypassed by love and attention. Valera Meladze, who together with his brother Kostya, worked with us at Dialogue before my departure to Germany. The Primadonnas, as it happens, were also mistaken. Talented multi-musician, Valera Stepanov, who will soon become a world star. There are many foreign ones too, I will name a few: the Swedish trio Dirty Loops; Sting; Oscar Peterson; and EW&F.
— What is your favourite movie and TV series?
— From Russia, Shirley-Myrli, and foreign, Breaking Bad.
— What inspires you in life?
— My wife, children, little granddaughter, my dog, communication with interesting people, good music and success after a project.
— You have one day to change something globally in the world — what would you do?
— Forbidden the Chinese to eat bats…
— Describe yourself with just one word
— Law!
— Give advice to all novice artists — what qualities are important to have in order to achieve success?
— Ability to listen to others, learn and not give up after failures that will be on your creative path. Believe in yourself, have patience, come up with creative solutions and with all this trying to enjoy everything that you do. If you dream of big money and fame as the only thing to gain from this profession, give up, you will not succeed.