Once, Vasily Shumov was one of the pioneers of Soviet rock music, and he traveled abroad to introduce the world to the innovative sounds accompanying perestroika. This week, Shumov, who has lived in the United States for the past seven years, returned home to bring his new music to his old Moscow audience.
Shumov, the leader of the now-defunct alternative rock band Center, is attempting a comeback on the Russian music scene with his new album, "The Nettle Flame," which combines techno-influenced music with offbeat, punk lyrics.
"If you talk about our old fans, you can say that they shouldn't be disappointed," said Shumov -- who played hockey in high school and looks more like a burly athlete than a musician -- during an interview Tuesday at the John Bull Pub on Kutozovsky Prospekt.
Shumov sings his new compositions in a serious, low, monotone that is reminiscent of the sound of Soviet military marches.
The album has strange morbid lyrics, with song titles such as "Black Water," and "Greed Will Save the World." In one song, "Party and Army," Shumov instructs: "To have an aim, you need a party, to reach this aim, you need an army." Shumov calls the sound of the album "drive and booze."
Shumov visited Russia for the first time since his emigration last summer with his Los Angeles band. This time, he is performing with his Moscow team, NTO-Retsept.
"I like to come here only if it is linked to my musical activity," said Shumov, who is planning to perform in several Moscow clubs during his short tour promoting his new album.
Shumov, 37, started to play in his own rock band in high school and became known in alternative musical circles during the 1980s as one of the colorful opponents of the official Soviet estrada, or hit parade.
"I have never changed my style," said Shumov, whose lyrics about banal trivialities of everyday life are set to electronic-sounding music.
Shumov first went abroad in 1988, when he was welcomed by audiences in France. There he recorded his first album, "Made in France," which is full of satire of aspects of daily Soviet life, such as bureaucracy and alcoholism. He even attacked the official image of Russian women in his song "Turgenev's Women." "Turgenev's women search for oil and type on typewriters," sang Shumov.
At the time, some criticized Shumov's efforts to show the absurdity of the official Soviet culture as attacks on traditional Russian values. His songs met with a cool response from the writer Eduard Limonov, who was then living in France. Limonov criticized Shumov in the daily Lib?ration, saying his sketches of the everyday trials of the Soviet man "mock our forefathers' beliefs."
Shumov, who contends that satire was never the aim of his music, continues to exploit Soviet themes, naming his new project, an Internet-based radio station, "Radio Sovdep," short for Soviet of Deputies.
Today, Shumov's dedication to musical independence and his residence abroad separate him from current Russian music, which he says has become "too commercialized." He makes a few exceptions, however, mentioning his respect for Russia's most well-known alternative singer and performer, Pyotr Mamonov, with whom Shumov recorded one of his best albums, "Russians Are Singing," featuring his own versions of songs by classic rock-and-roll bands, like Pink Floyd and ZZ Top, in 1996.
Shumov lives in Los Angeles, where he has settled with his American wife, a college professor. He keeps a low profile on the local music stage, studying new media at a local art school.
"I practically never appear in America as a performer," he said.
Shumov still has some loyal fans in Russia who believe that the reason behind his emigration was his inability to conform to the modern music standards here.
"His music was not widely popular; it wasn't a part of the mass culture," said journalist Michael Deneyev, a longtime Shumov admirer, who attended Tuesday night's concert at the John Bull Pub. "It was an intellectual blow to the Soviet realities, and when that became dated, he disappeared from the public eye."
His new album was co-written with his longtime friend, the prominent Russian alternative poet Yevgeny Golovin, who often writes songs for nonmainstream Russian bands.
Shumov said his new album is a healthy alternative to Russian pop. "I don't listen to contemporary Russian music very often," said Shumov, "but what I hear seems like Soviet-style music business."
Vasily Shumov plays at Ne Bei Kopytom, 5 Ulitsa Ramenki, on Saturday at 9 p.m. and at Vermel, 4/5 Raushskaya Naberezhnaya, on March 27 at 10 p.m.