Correspondent: Now, guys, can you recollect which bands or singers influenced our music?
Alexander Tankovich: In the middle 80th I've been listening mostly to heavy-metal, such bands as Metallica, Accept, Running Wild, Grave Digger, Motorhead, AC/DC and some more. But after I'd finished the obligatory service in the army force all this stopped at once. I started to improve my music taste and began listening to such bands as Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, The Exploited, The Meteors, Pixies, Batmobile, The Cramps, Einstürzende Neubauten, N.I.N., Ministry, The Pogues, Nick Cave and a lot of others. It's just became possible in Russia to find their records freely.
The very first rehearsal turned into a mini-concert and was finished with the big alcohol party. They played some home-made things which are still played on the concerts: That World, Give me a candle!, An Old Castle, I'm a pirate and some more. It was a big luck that the work manager didn't notice anything in the morning- guys managed to clean up everything before the boss came. Things were hard with the instruments at the beginning, some of them were found at the club's basement so at first they managed to play on what they had. But sure enough all this hardships didn't let guys down and in no way did it influenced the great spirit of holiday and music chaos. Once guys got an offer to play on a party in their native town Metallostroy. That was their first serious concert. It turned out to be very successful and later on they gave a row of concerts in the local House of Culture. But unfortunately, the administration didn't like the funny mess created by the public during the concert and the concerts were cut. The same year they recorded their first album on the attic of Merzik's house, it's called The celebration in the asylum and was later re-recorded in Antrop-studios and issued in 1998 . The same happened with the next album Arachnophobia.
Correspondent: Please, tell us about the style Prohabilly?
Alexander Tankovich: The style is called by the name of our old pal Vladimir "Prosha" Prohorov. He influenced me a lot in the early 90th , he was pretty much in charge of creating the style of the music we play. All the time he was bringing me the records of some foreign bands that I didn't know but which were very interesting to me. He was the one who introduced to me such music style as Psycho, such bands as Einsturzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and else. Sometimes Prosha consumed alcohol and that was something crazy. At this moments everything would fly out of the window - tapes, recorders, sofas. He could easily get naked on the street and start to yell out loud and not only this kind of stuff. Respecting the peculiarities of his behavior we in turn immediately decided to call our music style Prohabilly!!! To our great sorrow Prosha has left this world already, but the style called by his name lives.
Approximately a year later a friend told to the guys that there is a place in Saint-Petersburg where they could play and would even be given a box of beer (and it's 20 bottles). That was a SHOCK! It was just too good to be true. But anyway, there was such a place and it was called the TaMtAm-club. It took them about half a year to persuade the club-manager Seva Gakkel to let them play there. And finely on September the first out-of-home concert of THE PAUKI was held. They were in one concert with such TaMtAm monsters as Messer fur Frau Muller (that time still in a brutal project ) and unknown then Barabasi (later known as Hooligans, Skazi Lesa (Tales of the Forest) and Nord Folks) and Markscheider Kunst. The concert was very successful and Seva Gakkel gave to THE PAUKI an additional box of beer and offered them to play in this club at any time they would like to. That's how the concert activity of the band started.
Correspondent: What are your songs about and what message do you bring to your audience?
Alexander Tankovich: I feel myself as a teacher of history in a way. My lyrics are based on fantasy-literature, pirate stories, Viking's quests and by all means true life tales. And all this is pretty much soaked with the alcoholic drink BEER! People on our concerts drink beer and get rid of all the negative energy and we are glad to help them with it. Our music is a mix of very different styles: Punk, Folk, Grange and of course Rock N Roll. The mix is somewhat explosive.
Not everything was so easy and after some time Merzik left the band. His place was taken by Max Mokhov, who played before in the band Panica. Malish soon followed Merzik, Alexander "Valinich" Valaev took his place. Then Max was taken to the army, THE PAUKI needed a new drummer and they found Slava Ivanov, who previously played in Vtoroe Dikhanie (The Second Breath) and in a bunch of other projects. With this crew THE PAUKI recorded their first official album Flag na Rei (Flag on the Yard) (1996). After recording sessions were finished Valinich has left the band and Max came back from the army and started playing bass guitar. Four following albums were recorded with this finally settled crew. After recording of the album Dikie Plyaski Doklih Sobak (The Wild Dances of the Dead Dogs) the band gained one more guitar-player Sergey "Sniper" Ivanovsky, for the more advanced guitar sound.
Before the year 2001 the following people played in THE PAUKI :
TANKOVICH SASHA - VOCAL
MASLOV ANDREY - GUITAR
MOKHOV MAX - BASS
IVANOV SLAVA - DRUMS
IVANOVSKY SERGEY - GUITAR
...And then the year 2002 came. The morale of the members of the band got worse; divergences about the style of THE PAUKI emerged. But the time went on and it was impossible to stop.ovsky, for the more advanced guitar sound.
The songs for the new album were written, they needed only to be rehearsed and recorded. For the recording session musicians from the bands MARRADERS & LAGUNA VANDAL were invited.
After several rehearsals musicians went on to DOBROLET studio, where with the help of experienced sound-producer Andrew Alakrinsky & members of the band TEQUILAJAZZZ . In the very short time new album THROUGH was recorded. The album was released on CDs and MCs & fans of THE PAUKI liked it a lot.
The album was recorded by:
SASHA TANKOVICH - vocals, flute
SERGEY SNIPER (LAGUNA VANDAL) - guitar
KOSTJAN (MARRADERS) - bass
SILVER DE LA GONDA (MARRADERS) - drums
SASHA "DUSER" (TEQUILAJAZZZ) - back vocal
The shit happening all over the world couldn't but influence the lyrics of last album. There appeared ant politic, anti war and social topics, thou old-school pirate & beer theme was impossible to be avoided.
The album was noticed not only in Russia but also abroad. It was commended by several punk-zines, including the most famous American fanzine MAXIMUM ROCK'N'ROLL. Several songs were included in compilations in England, America, Peru, Greece, Italy - and this list will probably grow.
Discography of The Pauki:
Split "A.R.E. Freundschaft" (2006)
THE PAUKI (Russia)
1. I'm Not A Hooligan
2. I'm Going Home
3. Sea Of The News
4. Teenager
5. Ship's Boy
THE VENDETTA (Italy)
1. Venomous
2. Streetburner
3. Strangulation
4. Nuclear Dawn
5. Powerload
SICK OF SOCIETY (USA)
1. Backstabba
2. Up The System
3. Boot & Braces
4. Forgotten Times
5. Hooligan
"1994-2002" (2005) (MP3)
1. Metallostroy Destroy (Live) (1994)
2. TamTam's Biological Strenghtening (Live) (1995)
3. The Flag On The Flagpole (1996)
4. The Dragon Tooth (1997)
5. The Holiday At The Lunatic Asylum (1998)
6. The Arakhnofoby (1999)
7. Wild Dances of Dead Dogs (2000)
8. Through (2002)
"The Splinters of the Mind" (2005)
1. Load It!
2. Again on the Edge
3. Thank You, Nobel!
4. Crystal Stone
5. To the Football
6. X Time
7. Give a Chance to People
8. I'm the President
9. Get Up!
10. The Mug of Beer
11. The 13 District
12. Take This Fort
+ video clip "Load It!"
"Through" (2002)
1. Tortuga Waits
2. Harley-Davidson
3. Get Your Bones Away
4. Hey, You, Dummy!
5. Bira Bärs
6. Catastrophes
7. Pastinor
8. Listen, Take a Note!
9. Who Has Started It All?
10. The Time Will Come
11. Dichlophose
12. New Year's Song
"The Spiders: Is it what you wanted?" (The Best Of) (2001)
1. We Go to TaMtAm
2. The Flag on the Flagpole
3. Where is My Sward?
4. Believe Me!
5. The Waterside Brotherhood
6. Wild Dances of Dead Dogs
7. Drink Beer!
8. Today
9. The Filibuster
10. The Mug of Beer
11. The Next World
12. Here is Surprise
13. The Dragon Tooth Faye
14. The Mean Tomcat
15. The Joker
16. The Fairy Tale
17. Give me a Candle!
18. The Ancient Castle
"Wild Dances of Dead Dogs" (2000)
1. Intro
2. Wild Dances of Dead Dogs
3. Bat Attack
4. Today
5. Believe Me!
6. Through Sky in a Wood
7. Bon Appetite!
8. Hurricane
9. Tattoo
10. 3X6
11. Where is My Sward?
12. Gogia
"Arachnophobia" (1999)
1. Reach the Stars
2. Arachnophobia
3. The Basement
4. The Sky has disappeared from the Eyes
5. As a Snow
6. In Flames
7. "The Joker"
8. The Damned Dream
9. ...Coming to Life
10. You Have Fallen
11. Christmas
12. Duble-Puble
+ 6 bonus tracks
"The Holiday At The Lunatic Asylum" (1998)
1. The Holiday at the Lunatic Asylum
2. Give me a Candle!
3. The Next World
4. The Birth
5. Donald Dak Forewa
6. I Want to Leave
7. Thoughts
8. High in the Sky
9. The Mean Tomcat
10. Cleanliness, it is Cleanliness
11. 7 Ambush
12. I'm a Pirate
13. Dockers
+ 6 bonus tracks
"The Dragon Tooth" (1997)
1. The Dragon Tooth Faye
2. Warriors
3. Always with Me
4. Chained Dogs
5. The Elves
6. The Fairy Tale
7. The Second Live (In Red's Honor)
8. The Mug of Beer
9. Heaven Will Shelter Us
10. Here is Surprise
11. The Ancient Castle
12. Last a Confederat
"The Flag On The Flagpole" (1996)
1. The Waterside Brotherhood
2. The Flag on the Flagpole
3. Drink Beer
4. March-March!
5. The Rings
6. The Filibuster
7. Outside Law
8. On a Background of a Window
9. A Valley of Snakes
This is a live video to the song "Crystal Stone" from the album "The Splinters Of The Mind" (2005):
MORE VIDEOS HERE!
Distros of THE PAUKI's LPs:
NEUROEMPIRE RECORDS (Russia, Moscow) [email protected]
BUTCH AND SUZY RECORDS (Russia, Moscow) [email protected]
NÃœSCHT (Germany, Leipzig) [email protected]
BANDWORM RECORDS (Germany, Magdeburg) [email protected]
HELL'S TONE RECORDS (Finland, Lappeenranta) [email protected]
THE PAUKI RECORDS (Russia, St.Petersburg) [email protected]
TIM (Finland, Tampere) [email protected]
ARKAN (Germany, Dresden) [email protected]