Russian favorites Brazzaville kick off first China folk-rock tour
0 
 |
|
Lead singer David Brown. |
Russia, Japan fans
By similar happenstance, Brown, 44, said Brazzaville is most popular among Russian music lovers.
"It's absolutely true," said Brown. "Brazzaville had a small number of fans in the US and Japan and a few in Europe from 1998 to 2001 or so."
Although they released a few albums that got good US reviews, their big break came when Artemi Troitsky, an influential Moscow music critic, purchased one of their CDs, later played it on Russian radio in the mid-2000s and wrote about them. The band is now a big name in Russia, the Ukraine and most of the former Soviet states.
"Russia is definitely the country where we are the most popular," he said. "But we are also very popular in Turkey and we tour at least once a year in the US, where we aren't famous but we have a nice group of fans. There is talk of some shows in Mexico andBrazil later this year as well."
If such popularity seems unusual, irreverent even, it seems to reflect the band's habit of resisting explanations. Their name, example, comes from the capital of the Republic of Congo. A political statement, perhaps, or a nod to some African musical influence?
Far from it.
"I chose [it] after seeing it in the dateline of a newspaper story in the Los Angeles Times in 1997. I had been searching for a band name and when I read the word Brazzaville, I knew I had found it."
But not everything the band does resists a logical explanation – Jetlag Poetry is, indeed, about writing lyrics while tired and on the road.
"Being awake at night and sleepy in the day gives us another perspective on the world and I find that it can be conducive to writing songs," he said. But the album includes covers such as 1971 classic "Moonage Daydream" by David Bowie. There must surely be some bizarre reason why?
"He was one of my favorites when I was a teenager, so I thought it would be fun to do a version."
Go to Forum >>0 Comments