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Behind the Scenes with Charles Maynes, producer of File Under Soviet Bizarre: Vyachaslav Mescherin's Orchestra of Electro-Musical Instruments
Interview conducted by Julie Shapiro
> What was it about Mescherin's Orchestra of Electro-Musical Instruments
that particularly inspired you to make this piece?
I have to admit the oddball factor held a certain appeal. Working on the
Mescherin Orchestra story brought together that rarest of combinations …
serious Sovietology and sheer goofiness. And yet we're not talking about some
obscure phenomenon; Mescherin's music was absolutely part of the vernacular,
and anyone who grew up in the U.S.S.R. has heard this music at one point or
another. I mean, I first came across it at a soccer game in Moscow. I'm in this
big stadium full of soccer fanatics, who, like in a lot of places, can get
pretty rowdy. After the game, as everyone's waiting to file out, these old
Soviet cartoons start playing on the central monitor. Weird proletarian
looney-toon type stuff, where the village fox keeps stealing chickens from the
collective farm, the harvest is off, heads are going to roll … that sort of
thing. Anyway, the cartoons were funny enough, but it was the soundtrack that
got me. It sounded … I don't know … as if an army of synthesizer dwarves had
commandeered the speakers. More to the point, these soccer skinhead types
couldn't get enough. One second they're ready to bash skulls, next they're
dancing in the aisles giggling like schoolgirls. So, to answer your question:
Music to make skinheads giggle. As a general rule, that's always worth a second
look.
> And what did you find?
That the Mescherin Orchestra provided this quirky sentimental soundtrack to
daily life in the Soviet Union from the 1960's on. Flip on the radio, there
they were. Turn on the television, same thing. Head to the factory, and they're
being piped in through the loudspeakers. They were everywhere, and of course,
they were state-sponsored, as anyone would have to be to have that level of
saturation in the Soviet Union.
But for someone like me, who … let's face it, didn't get to know the country
until the 1990's … I think what most attracted me was that, bizarre as his
story may seem, Mescherin's experience after 1991 was utterly typical. He was a
part of this whole mass of people whose lives were completely bound to the
Soviet system. Some—like Mescherin—defended and thrived in that world. But, in
a way, I think the same is true for those whose lives were dedicated to trying
to tear it down. In that struggle, they were valued. And then one day the rules
changed. Was it fair? Was it deserved? I don't know … I don't know the answer
to that. But I do know that a lot of them—writers, intelligentsia, engineers,
Party apparatchiks, normal people—they fell through the cracks. Mescherin
included. What's the Brian Wilson line? "I guess I just wasn't made for these
times?"
> Speaking of which, how is the Mescherin Orchestra perceived in Russia
these days? For instance, will the new CDs be popular in Russia, or do you
think they'll make more of a splash internationally?
Well I think they could be of interest here, but for now the disc is only
available as an import. Mostly, I think it shows just how quickly tastes
change. Mescherin was completely forgotten by the time he died. Western music
was all that mattered at that point. When he collapsed waiting for a train,
there were no obituaries, no articles, nothing. But a few years pass, and now
he's being marketed to Russian urban hipsters as the cool lounge music of their
childhood. So things change very fast, and Soviet kitsch has found its place in
the mix. I don't know, maybe it's that natural process of forgiving … the
"maybe my dead uncle wasn't such a bad guy after all…," you know? The more
distance between the present and the Soviet past, the more people look on it
with a certain fondness. Or at least a sense of humor. For instance, the other
day a Russian friend sent me this 1980's Party memo listing western music acts
of "dubious influence" on Soviet youth. Julio Iglesias ranked way up there. His
offense? Neo-fascism. No wonder Mescherin lost out.
> Is there an American cultural phenomenon that's comparable to the
Mescherin Orchestra?
That was certainly one of the challenges of the piece, finding common reference
points. I think Esquivel's stereophonic recordings certainly come close. Or if
you're looking for more contemporary examples, so does Combustible Edison. But
maybe Muzak is the better comparison. Mescherin was absolutely driven by
socialist ideology. He wanted to bring culture—and by that I mean Soviet
culture—to people, and his Orchestra played the strangest of places towards
that aim: nuclear submarines, the Arctic Circle, troop garrisons in
Afghanistan. Muzak has a bit of that as well, only its mission is to make you
happy in the most ordinary of places: the supermarket, hotel lobbies, public
restrooms.… The difference is not that big.
> About making the piece: We're interested in the experience you had in
putting it together/reporting from a foreign country.
Well, I worked as a reporter out of Moscow for a couple of years, so it wasn't
exactly parachute-in "where are my night vision goggles?" I mean I speak the
language; in this case, I was reporting from Moscow, so I knew the town. I have
friends and contacts. It was just a matter of tracking people down.
> And how did the people in the piece respond initially to your wanting
to talk with them?
Mescherin's widow, Lyuba, was a gracious and willing participant. She's clearly
pleased to see renewed interest in her husband's work. But the other interview
I ended up using was a bit trickier. Arteom Troitsky is a very well known music
critic, and he's in the piece because he authored the liner notes for the
Mescherin CDs. But he's also editor of Playboy magazine, and a general
man-about-town. So it took a while before I finally caught up with him. When we
finally met, it was at this rock club … the walls are shaking from the bass,
people keep coming up to shake his hand, it was a disaster. And that's why he
sounds so thin in the piece. In the end, I had to take out every ounce of bass
from his cuts. Come to think of it, I guess you could say I emasculated the
editor of Playboy … though it wasn't my intention.
> What does Russian radio sound like? Is the documentary/feature format
popular there?
I'd say the vast majority sound not unlike commercial radio here in the U.S. In
other words, it's fast-paced with fast music, faster news, and lots of
compression. On the other hand, there are definitely people doing interesting
and different work. The Fund for Independent Radio, for example, produces radio
dramas and distributes documentary series. They've also done a lot to promote
interest in the radio medium among younger Russians. They hold competitions and
run training workshops, some of which American journalists have become involved
with.
> What has your experience been like, in pitching Russian stories for
American radio? Are shows here consistently interested?
In my experience yes, and not only because it's an important country in a
cultural and geopolitical sense. I think there's something about the Russian
story that Americans will always have an appetite for. Maybe it's part of
craving to "know-thy-former-enemy," or maybe it's because Americans see the
place as vaguely familiar … like Europe, only with more mystery. Then again,
maybe it's the accents. Whatever the reason, the interest is there.
> If given the chance to do so, what other Russian stories would you
like to bring to the radio?
You know it's such a vast country. There are 11 time zones, of which I've seen
very few. So I'd like to do stories on places I haven't been, and try reporting
on them in different ways. Then of course there are moments I wish I could
revisit; you know, have another crack at the ones that got away. For instance,
somewhere in Moscow there's this taxi driver whose English consists solely of
"Dr. Brown" jokes he memorized for the 1980 Olympics. I caught a ride with him
one night and he whipped off 20 in a row before I got out. I think he could
have gone all night.
> Do you remember any?
Husband says to Doctor-Brown: "Doctor Brown, wife is driving me crazy. She
doesn't feed me. We don't make love…"
> You know, maybe this isn't the best idea....
Couldn't agree more. Besides, I forgot the punch-line.
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