MONDAY MORNING MUSICAL MAYHEM - featuring Russian Tim
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Welcome to Monday Morning Musical Mayhem: an online series that focuses on musicians, bands, artists, and whoever else in the musical industry that reaches out to us! The goal is help spread the word about people doing rad stuff in the music world! Are you doing rad stuff? Email us at brutalrealitydigest@gmail.com to be featured! xoxoxo
We are back at it! This time we're heading all the way to Northern Russia! No, wait! He's hanging in Canada now. Yes, we're talking about Russian Tim of Pavel Bures fame! He takes a minute of his day to chat about their upcoming EP, Rasputin, and his very own musical festival! Enjoy!
BRUTAL REALITY DIGEST: Introduce yourself, your band, and your weapon of choice.
RUSSIAN TIM: Hello Hello Hello! My name is Tim and I'm the singer in the band Russian Tim and Pavel Bures. We're a fun Russian punk rock band from Vancouver, BC.
BRD: Where are you from in Russia and what brought you to Canada?
RT: I was born in Siberia, in a city called Novosibirsk. I moved to Canada in 2006, as a part of legal immigration. After Soviet Union broke up, it was quite shady time in Russia and it was hard to plan for the future, so my family decided to immigrate. And like 15 years later we moved to Canada.
BRD: It's no secret you are a huge Pavel Bure fan but who are your favourite current day Russian hockey players? (Personally, I think Artem Zub is the best Russian going right now because you can't beat that name.)
RT: That's a pretty great name. His last name translates into English as Teeth, which is a good fit given that hockey players quite often have their teeth broken.
I won't be unique by saying that I like Ovechkin. He has been a one-club man in NHL, he won the Stanley Cup as well as bunch of individual trophies and he has been consistent in terms of playing lots of games and delivering points for over 15 years. I really respect when a player delivers consistent results for a long period of time and proves it with trophies and points.
And I also love every Russian who currently plays for Canucks since it's my local team now. I met Shirokov and Tryamkin. We had Goldobin, and now we may have Podkolzin.
BRD: Your band did a cover of Rasputin and it slaps! I was just wondering what actual Russian people think of him and is it strange to see drunk North Americans dancing at weddings to a ballad about that weird ass dude?
RT: Oh he was a controversial dude. We learned about him in school and in history TV programs. It sounds like the guy was a total psycho, but had a unique ability to heal the Tzar family son. Apparently, he was very sexually gifted and participated in orgies. Even look at his photos. He looks like he has been on a week-long drinking bender, but his eyes are so mad that it's even scary to look at his photo. I would never want to sit down and have a beer with that guy.
BRD: Do you have any plans to do another Rocket From Russia Fest?
RT: Yes, the fest is booked for late 2021. I really hope we can do it this time, but we need to wait a little bit for the restrictions to be lifted and then I can safely announce.
BRD: What are your favourite venues to play at in Vancouver?
RT: We're lucky to have quite a few great venues in Vancouver. Don't believe people who say that we're a No Fun City. My favourite places to play are Fox Cabaret, Fortune Sound Club, Imperial, Rickshaw, Wise Hall, Biltmore Cabaret. We also had a rad punk venue called SBC, but unfortunately it's not around anymore. And of course, Commodore Ballroom which is a historical venue for the city, but we haven't played there yet, hopefully soon ;)
BRD: Isotopes have their punk rock baseball league but are there any punk rock soccer leagues for guys like you?
RT: It seems like baseball is more popular among punk rock people. We don't have a punk rock soccer league, but we are planning to have a punk rock soccer tournament associated with the next year's Rocket From Russia FEST in 2022.
BRD: What is the best movie from the 80s?
RT: I'm gonna massively cheat because this movie came out in 1979. It's called Mesto Vstrechi Izmenit Nelzya (The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed). This is my favourite movie of all time. I also have a shit taste in movies, so don't look up that film.
BRD: If you bring any current member of the Canucks on tour with you, who would it be?
RT: Well of course a dream would be to bring Russian Rocket himself. But let's go with Dmitry Zlodeev. He is a new Russian player drafted for Canucks. I can't speak too much about his playing skills, but he has a rad last name. It translates to English as "Villian-ev", pretty scary business. You don't want to fuck with a guy with this last name.
BRD: Tell us about your plans for the rest of 2021 and beyond.
RT: The most exciting thing for us in 2021 is the release of our new album which is called "Something More In Russian". The album will be out this fall on vinyl and streaming services. You can already pre-order a copy of the vinyl at russiantimandpavelbures.bandcamp.com and listen to a new song called Tightest Slide. The vinyl comes in 4 beautiful colours: yellow, mint, blue and pink. 61 copies of each colour.
And if BC's covid restart plan goes well then we will start playing shows starting from September. Should be fun!