Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease)
February 08, 2009 - Michael Shainsky, the well - known Los Angeles, California - based music composer gives an interview to Naomi Caffee, PhD
NC: You lived in Tashkent?
MS: Yes, I did. Tashkent, the capitol of Uzbekistan.
NC: And were you born there?
MS: Yes, I was born in Tashkent, in a big house, almost across the street from the old Presidential Palace.
NC: And could you talk a little more about your music? What kind of music did you play, and how did you get interested in music to begin with?
MS: Like many soviet children, I studied music at a specialized musical school, 8 years of piano lessons and other musical disciplines, that was a serious process, no joke. And then at the age of 14 I started to write songs. At about the same time I was introduced to “Western” music; the first Western song I heard was “Girl” by The Beatles.
NC: And what year was that, approximately?
MS: It was, I'd say, sometime around 1972. That was the first time I heard The Beatles, and for that matter, ANY non-Soviet band.
NC: Really?
MS: Yes, really! Because there [in Tashkent] it was very difficult to find those kinds of so-called “Western” albums—LPs.
NC: They were forbidden, weren't they?
MS: It wasn't so much that they were forbidden, but they were just difficult to find. They weren't sold in official record stores, and to buy them from the black market you would pay a half of your monthly salary.
NC: So only the upper classes of society could afford records.
MS: Basically. Mostly people with a large disposable income could afford it. So, Western music opened up to me, and I fell in love with it. The European rock. It became my “native language” when it came to music.
NC: And what were your favorite groups?
MS: Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, UFO, Nazareth, Jethro Tull, Supertramp, Queen, Alan Parsons, and many, many more. Then, my musical interests gradually shifted towards pop, disco, love ballads, and then I started having my songs recorded by the stars.
NC: In a group? In a band? Or just by yourself?
MS: All of my projects were “studio acts”. I recorded a song in an official studio, called Melodia, it was the only recording studio in Uzbekistan. It was very difficult to get there. Gradually, my songs started to get on the air.
NC: On the radio?
MS: Yes, on the radio, and I had singles on vinyl.
NC: So, even though you were playing a more Western style of music, it was OK to play on the radio?
MS: Yes, it was. Well, at that time most of the songs I was doing for “commercial use” were in Soviet pop – style. At that time it was undesirable, if not forbidden to record classic rock. For instance, I had this song on the radio – dun dun dun duuuuuuuun---- you want me to play it?
NC: Sure, great.
MS: ***Musical Performance****
NC: Well, great. That's all of my questions. Do you want to add anything else?
MS: Well, if I could offer some kind of conclusion, it would be this: most Westerners, have a very vague image of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, and that part of the world in general. I have very warm feelings for Uzbekistan, especially Tashkent. I even remember the smell of the asphalt on the street where I was born, according to the seasons. Rain or shine, snow fall or fall foliage. . .
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