Russia (bbabo.net), - In St. Petersburg, a meeting of journalists with musician Maxim Leonidov took place, dedicated to his 60th birthday and anniversary concerts in St. Petersburg (February 13 at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall) and Moscow (February 15 at the Youth Palace). We communicated online due to the epidemiological situation.
About age
Everyone notes that the hero of the day cannot be given his true age, and they ask him to reveal the secrets of how he manages to keep a good shape.- Whether we like it or not, the numbers in the passport still excite us. Confuse. Even if you feel good and full of energy. But what to do? Time cannot be changed, so we must continue to live recklessly, do what we love. I hope that no special changes will occur in my life with this date, I will not grow old instantly. There are many plans, so there is no time to think about age.
How do you manage to look younger? First, you still need to take care of yourself. Secondly, all my life I pay some attention to sports and proper nutrition. There are no secrets here. Eat less rolls and fatty pork. And all will be well. I try to walk 8-10 kilometers every day.
About solo concerts
- When I'm preparing a big solo concert, I always put myself in the place of the spectator who bought the ticket, and I think: if I went to a concert of, say, Paul McCartney, what would I want him to sing ? And if I don't hear Yesterday or Let It Be, I'll be disappointed. Without drawing any parallels with this artist, I inserted many popular songs into the repertoire of a large concert, which the viewer (listener) associates with his youth, good times, good events in life, and for this, in fact, he comes to the hall. Therefore, it is reasonable to observe the percentage of new songs that have been written recently, and old, well-known hits. This is artistic wisdom. It seems to me that the program should be designed in such a way that it is both educational - songs from the new repertoire, and nostalgic.It is not easy to select hits, a lot of songs have been written, and the concert is not rubber, it makes no sense to play it for more than two hours. He took it with blood. I take this seriously, I understand that a concert should have a beginning, development, climax, final, you can’t put songs in random order.
Unfortunately, the pandemic is changing our plans. Several artists of the Leningrad Center fell ill, with whom we had to do the first part (there has been my show "I looked back to look" for several seasons, it is based on my autobiographical book) ...
Will the Moscow and St. Petersburg concerts be different? Essentially, no. Is that the composition of the guests. Valery Syutkin and Ivan Urgant will take part in the Moscow concert. And in St. Petersburg - the Neobardy group, Andrei Makarevich, Nikolai Fomenko.
The name of the program "I'm a Pretty Young God" is ironic. So begins the song "Don't let him get away." It was written not in my name, but in the name of some abstract deity, invented by me. I hope our listeners will have enough sense of humor and irony to understand that this does not mean that Maxim Leonidov considers himself a god, and even quite young. This is a joke, of course.
As for the 40th anniversary of the Secret group, the concert is scheduled for April 9 in Moscow, at the Crocus City Hall. In St. Petersburg, the issue of the concert is still being discussed. We respond to the offers of promoters to come to some individual cities. It is impossible to build a big tour today - due to the epidemiological situation.
About the premiere of the musical
- The premiere of my new musical "I Hate Hamlet" based on the play of the same name by the American playwright Paul Rudnick is scheduled for April 13 in the St. Petersburg Musical Comedy. The play was staged on Broadway in the 1990s. I heard about it, first saw excerpts on YouTube, read the play and lived with it for quite some time, until I realized that I needed to make a musical. He turned to his friend - the St. Petersburg children's poet Igor Shevchuk (the author of Smeshariki and Fixiki), he made an adaptation of the play for the musical theater. We bought the copyright for the work, moved the scene from New York to St. Petersburg. The stage director was Olga Prikhudaylova from Moscow.About St. Petersburg
- My memories and feelings of this city are, of course, familiar to Petersburgers. I got to know Petersburg gradually. For me, it began with Obukhovskaya Oborona Avenue, my parents got an apartment there, not far from Professor Kachalov Street. Then it was quite the outskirts. The Neva in that place is not dressed in granite, these are ordinary banks. As a teenager, I moved to the center and began to get to know it. I was lucky - I studied right on Palace Square, at the Glinka Choir School, which was located in the Capella building. Then I lived at number 14 on Moika Embankment, next to Pushkin's last apartment (house 12). Of course, this could not but leave a mark on my soul, in my idea of beauty. When you are in such a magnificent environment, then willy-nilly your artistic taste is formed. You begin to understand what beauty, harmony is. Petersburg for me is a place of power that always inspires and admires me. For me, it's like a living thing.About meetings, friends
- Many people who met on my way, who changed my life, from parents to friends - older comrades, young ones, influence me. From someone I learned one thing, from someone else. I am grateful to my teachers at the music school, theater institute, from whom I learned a lot. I was very lucky: I got on the course of excellent teachers - Arkady Katsman and Lev Dodin. Then I met my comrades in the beat quartet "Secret". I learned a lot from the musicians Andrei Makarevich and Boris Grebenshchikov, with whom I have had the honor of being friends for many years. And so on... And books, of course, teach us a lot, and movies, works of art. If you look at life correctly, you are ready to continue learning, to absorb the life around you. Nature can also be your teacher - over the years I understand this.About the family
- Children are born ready-made people, and if they have a craving for something, we can only help them. If they are not interested, then no matter how your knowledge and skills into them, they will not accept them ... The youngest son, Lenya, shows himself as a future musician. I'm not sure that music will become his profession. He plays the guitar, sings, is engaged in acting. Masha still does not understand what she is really interested in, and this is normal, I think. At 17, few people understand what they want. She is finishing the 11th grade, she is not up to playing the guitar. Ahead of the exam. He is going to enter the university for design. Also creativity, but a different hypostasis.With my wife Alexandra Kamchatova-Leonidova, an actress, we are together on stage, we had several joint projects. She will play one of the roles in the musical "I hate Hamlet", and I will be busy in one of there. This is not "nepotism", we are still "from the same garden." We even have one acting school: Sasha, acting teacher Andrey Dmitrievich Andreev, was an intern at Katsman when I was studying. She is a good actress, we speak the same language, and it is always a pleasure to work with Sasha.
About working with children
- The creative "Maxim Leonidov's Workshop" has existed in St. Petersburg for three years. Children play musicals, excerpts from musical plays. My wife is one of the acting teachers, leads a teenage group. We have some changes coming up. Rock band TheSecretNews was a children's group, became youthful. On my birthday February 13, she will take part in a concert.About isolation
- How did your time during the lockdowns? I did not experience any lack of movement. A large online concert "Secret" took place, which was watched by several million people. I finally read the books that I put off for an indefinite time, watched the movie. He gave many concerts on the Internet. Wrote several songs. Filmed a video for the song Mon Amour. I had fun as best I could. When you have an indulgence - to do nothing, but to read a book in nature - it's wonderful. If it doesn't last long. You might want to work, but you can't.Of course, I prefer the non-remote format of creative meetings. With a sincere conversation, including songs. Sometimes I perform in small halls - such as, for example, "Capercaillie's Nest", in clubs, restaurants. Last year in May there were several such concerts in Israel. I think I will continue solo guitar evenings, one with the audience.
About guitars
- I have a few guitars as gifts. They decorate the walls of my studio, I don't play them. These are instruments signed by my friends. For example, Andrei Makarevich, Alexei Kortnev. I have a lot of guitars, but I mostly use two or three. The most favorite instrument, which I play all concerts, is, oddly enough, neither Fender nor Gibson (although there are favorites among them), but the instrument of our St. Petersburg master Vladimir Pavlov. It sounds better than all the others.
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