Dmitry Chetvergov , 40 years on stage
— The Moscow City Records label has been in existence since 2019. Please, tell us, what is happening in the company now? How did you manage to raise the company and develop it in such difficult times – in a pandemic?
— We created a record label, and soon the pandemic broke out. On the one hand, it is right to produce products at such times, especially products that we like. And it all started with the project of the president of our company, Michael Men, a 2005 project Made in Moscow, in which the ex-vocalist and bass guitarist of Deep Purple Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner participated. Turner was a frequent guest here after this project. This project was fairly well done and sounded convincing. Soyuz Music released this album, and it turned out to be fantastic. And we tried to publish this album first for a test in the very early period of our label’s existence. And he immediately hit the top of the charts around the world. And it was a good hallmark of the label. Two world stars — this is understandable, but then we tried it on my music, and everything also worked out. And, of course, we initially focused on what we like. And today, we have united under the Moscow City Records flag many of our friends, stars who came to us here, and there were a lot of them.
— Who has already visited your record studio from the stars? What do you remember about it?
— Of course, it would have been complicated to raise the company without our star friends because no one knew our label. Of course, our friends are Valery Syutkin, Alena Apina, Sergey Mazaev, and Sergey Shnurov. It’s not that everyone has already worked here and wrote, but some sounds were made.
And I hope that my collaboration with Larisa Dolina will be crowned with success and will end with the creation of some project. We will record, publish on our label, and present at the Russian Woodstock festival Igor Sandler. He, by the way, is the co-founder of our company, an outstanding producer, and a former musician. He strongly supports any of our initiatives and helps the label by providing new youth projects. Cooperation and friendship resulted in creating some new ideas and projects, joint work with artists of his production center, and, of course, with new artists of our label.
— Your studio looks very stylish! Tell me, who came up with the design, whose ideas were there?
— Mikhail’s natural taste allows me to create such a thing. Initially, the idea was his, and then I already advised something. The Lord did not deprive me of taste either. So a lot appeared in the process. Then it all overgrown with the advice of our colleagues, friends. Everyone came, everyone advised something, gave gifts and gradually it overgrown with paintings, figurines.
By the way, there is a branch of MCR in the Dubrava Cultural & Educational Center. I am an artist in this cultural and educational center directly. And there is also a wide circle of friends, musicians, our colleagues. And two of them, Alexey Tumanov and Anatoly Evseev, also had a hand in arranging it all.
— Dima, you have worked with such famous artists as Nikolai Noskov, Alsou. And now you are developing a solo career. What feelings, what difference do you feel in this, and maybe you’ve always wanted this?
— Thoughts about a solo career arose a very long time ago. We also worked with Nikolai Noskov. In 1992, we recorded an album in Germany at the studio of the great Scorpions producer Dieter Dierks. We went there from the Polygram Russia label. By the way, I received an offer to stay and continue my career there. It turned out that they saw that I was the right hand of the artist Noskov, and he wasn’t skilled in any instrument while I was engaged in arrangements. I’m also a multi-instrumentalist: I played guitar, keyboards, and bass guitar. I was also a co-author and sound producer. Back in the 90s, everything was still being written on a wide film. There were no digital technologies, it was an analog recording, and it was necessary to write meticulously. I already had studio experience, but other musicians did not, and I had to part with them. But after this recording, it turned out that there was a lot of our material that needed to be recorded. And in order to record it, it was necessary to finish working with the artist. It didn’t work out in parallel since Nikolai started one project, followed by another. By the way, we recorded an album in which there was not a single Russian song, and this is the album Mother Russia.
We recorded several songs that brought fame to Noskov. At that time, it was tough to breakthrough in such a genre in Russia, it was necessary to go abroad and build your career there, and then such a breakthrough, and Kolya showed a very good level of English-speaking singing in Russia! But then I broke down, and I said I wanted to leave. And Nikolai let me go. We parted easily, as friends. I was the only musician who left him by myself. After seven years with Noskov, I went into solo activities, but then I got a job again with the singer Alsou since it was difficult to earn money on solo activities. The first album, which I released after working with Kolya Noskov in 1997, was Free Flight, and the second album, From Flower To Flower, in 2005.
— Dima, let’s go back to the question of a solo career once again. I heard you, among other things, sing beautifully. Yet, there was no such thought at all – to create your own rock band and be not just a guitarist but also a vocalist in one person?
— My conscience wouldn’t let me do it. Because I worked with such vocalists to whom the Lord gave this gift, when you close your eyes and sit with a person and accompany, you don’t want to sing but just want to listen. And when you start to sing something, you realize that the Lord didn’t give you such a talent. To be able to sing does not mean to sing. And I was always ashamed, to be honest. But now I’m cursing myself because I would have made a solo career for myself a long time ago. After all, I have a lot of songs. But I made them for others, but I had to do it for myself. I am a perfectionist, and therefore my conscience did not allow me to sing.
In order to become someone, you need to finally break away from the star and try to do something by yourself. So I tried to do it myself as a musician-instrumentalist. The Lord gave me a gift that I can touch someone with my string, inspire. People thanked me that I gave them strength. This is the main thing for me. I felt that the string was singing, and this nerve was escaping from under the tip of my finger. And this gives people strength, distracts them from everyday life, and I felt that it was necessary to do this. And it doesn’t matter if I achieve something if I get a lot of money.
And most importantly, I learned to be my own director. This is also important. If a producer, director, or wife does everything for you, and you fold your pens and relax, then you are worthless as a self-sufficient unit.
— 2022 is another significant date. You will have 40 years on stage
— Yes, on the professional stage. I just came back from the Army and got into the Ekipazh group. It was attached to the Tyumen Regional Philharmonic. It all started much earlier. I picked up the guitar at 12. But we are talking about the professional activity. I had a lot of teams. It’s hard even to believe that I’ve been doing my favorite thing for 40 years.
— How are you going to celebrate?
— Well, to be honest, we should! I think that by joint efforts, it is necessary to declare ourselves somehow. And now, there are not so many instrumentalists who can afford some solo programs. But my task is to show the songs. So we started creating such a duet story with singer Masha Katz. This is my song. The single will be made and released on MCR. The anniversary celebration may be held within the walls of Gradsky Hall. But, first, we will make an evening of memory of Nikolai Arutyunov there, and I was also offered to have some events related to the guitar. Maybe we’ll invite some TV channel to really perpetuate it.
— What would you definitely never do in your life?
— I don’t want to take up arms.
— Is there anything you regret?
— I regret that I did not make a solo career as a singer earlier, or at least as an author–performer of my songs.