Arthur Osipov Biography

In E, Arthur makes a living with session work. For a long time he played in the team of Grigory Leps and singer Barbara, in the group "Russians", organized his own project Journey to Nowher. A permanent member of the jury of international competitions of young drummers, participated in the drum show Zildjian Day with Simon Phillips. Honored Master of Russian Dramming, the official endorus of Tama and Zildjian.

Arthur and I have developed good relations and therefore in an interview with DrumSpech. Arthur, tell us why drums? To be honest, I don't know. Probably, it all started with the fact that my cousin, who at that time played on drums, gave me a couple of sticks. I was then years old. Well, somehow pulled. How did your training go? You know, we can say that I am a "self -taught" in the full sense of the word.

At that time, after all, there were no video schools, or even more specialized schools or the Internet. This is now, any information can be found on the Web, buy a DVD or training literature, find a teacher, and then, the only thing I could do is to do for hours on end. In the morning, he allegedly went to school, and himself, he went to the House of Culture next to the house where he practiced before lunch.

All this went on until 7 pm, then the musicians came and already with them, played ... every "incomprehensible", which was then in use, hours until 11 pm. I can say that in such a regime, when you spend the instrument a day a day, plus, a great desire, everything develops very rapidly. Well, as in my case, only now ... there were problems with the school ... Do you have some kind of lesson method?

If you mean rudiments, paradids, deuce, triples and so on, then no. I regard the game of any musician, regardless of a musical instrument, like a conversation. If I feel that my vocabulary is not enough to express all the thoughts that I have in my head at the moment, then I sit down and teach new “words” and “letters”. And as long as my vocabulary is enough for me, I work to speak as clearly, more correctly and without hesitation.

I’m trying to “speak”, and I don’t like, and I won’t, spend time studying new “words” and “letters”, only in order to show them somewhere someday. This is not about me. What can you advise young musicians who have chosen a difficult path of the drummer for themselves? Firstly, amateurs teachers should be avoided. And in order to avoid them, you need to look for a teacher who already has experience, not only successful performances, but also successful teaching.

I can’t say that I know a lot about teaching methods, but I saw how my friend, a wonderful musician Arkady Baklagin, achieved from students simply colossal results in the shortest possible time. And, of course, it is very important not to be lazy. And what is important in your opinion in the music team? In the team, human relationships are very important, it should be one, so that everyone understands each other without words.

The musical group should maximize their energy to the hall, and for this, they must be personalities, they must love their job and, endlessly trust each other, first of all, as musicians, when you know that your colleagues would not play, it will be extremely great. And when on the stage, you hear this very “great” when emotions overwhelm everyone, it is then that music is born, and it is then that rather strange things happen, when it seems to be an absolutely “passing” thing, it blows up the hall, and everything else simply ceases to be important and significant, even if, just yesterday, these very musicians, they were just as emotionally beaten in the role of a judge-expert.

various musical competitions for drummers. Tell me, what should the drummer play to earn your voice? Each judge has, although I really do not like this word, my understanding of talent, technicality and any other factors. Someone judges how quickly the musician plays his feet, someone looks at the technique of hands. Speaking specifically about me, then I try to observe and evaluate not so much technique as sound, musicality and rhythm.

And yet, I’m trying to understand how accurately the drummer imagines what he plays, why, and why exactly ... Tell us about the drums that you play. For many years now I have been the endorsaer of Tama and Zildjian, and, with great pleasure, I play Tama StarClassic. This, let's say, is my enduring love. But, I am not limited only to these brands. I believe that each drummer should have more than one or two drums, of course, if financial capabilities allow him.

Throughout their careers, people change groups, or musicians, guitarists, bassists are changing in teams ... Everyone has their own sound, and, far from always, even the most favorite instrument, in the mix it sounds exactly as you want. I always try to use the drums so that they sound cool not on their own, but so that they harmoniously fit into that mix, in the concept of music that is at the moment.

Tell us about the custom drums that you did with Evgeny Alien. With Zhenya, we have developed a whole line of my personalized small drums. So far, my thoughts and understanding how they should sound and how to achieve this was enough for three drums. The first, Morning Star, is already ready, the second, Fallen, almost finished, we will soon proceed to the third, Scarlet Beast.

In general, the process of manufacturing drums is very laborious. As for my drums, at first, Zhenya casts a tub and rim, then I do all my experiments, then, I test in the studios and at concerts, I ask Zhenya to make certain changes, trying to achieve the sound that I want as much as possible. After we achieve the desired result, we proceed to the manufacture of the final version, if I may say so, the drum, given all the early errors perfect.

Until my first drum, Morning Star, we walked for more than two years. At first, a year we picked with wooden tubs. Everything was fine, they sounded great, but I wanted more. Eugene makes very good wooden drums, but I didn’t want a good wooden drum, I wanted a drum that would sound “deadly”, with the minimum use of all kinds of equalizers, geates and compressors on the remote control, or even without them.

Not because I do not trust sound engineers, because by testing the tool at the studio, I consult with them, just, as a drummer, I can’t always explain to the sound engineer in the language that I want to get in an understandable language. Once, during his next research, Zhenya cast a small drum of plastic, called me and said: "Come, listen." I arrived, listened and said: "Zhenya, forget about the tree, we will pour small of plastic." A year later, the small Morning Star was born.

What are you trying to convey to the listeners?

I try to convey one simple thing to the guys: the drummer is not the person who masterfully plays on its own, this is the basis, this is the foundation of a group of people who play music. He is obliged to think and do everything so that they are comfortable. And for this, he must know exactly what and why he does. You know, there is such a joke: “What is the name of a dude who hangs out with musicians all the time?

I want to say that while people will be thoughtlessly approaching what they are doing, they will be drummers, and the musician owes a musician, you understand? The drummer is not a stupid car, this is a musician. You need to listen and play the music, and not just, thoughtlessly scatter“ bezes ”. Taken or overheard, understanding the rhythm, the melody of the song is much more responsible than to say on the guitarist or bassist, because they do the music that you do not think of teaching.

For people from scratch, no, I don’t take it, I have no school. And secondly, once I took a student for myself, but then I regretted it. A student came to me, played, I looked at him and said what was his problem. He said that she must be decided. He comes after some time. I look at him, and I understand that he was not engaged. I ask: “Did you do it? He begins to lie to me that he was doing, although I see that he was not engaged, I am not blind.

Then he confessed, said that there was no time for it. We sat, work out. At the end of classes, he gave him a task, said: "Sit down, do this, because without this we will not be able to move on." He came to the next lesson not prepared again. On this our training ended with him. I will better hold open seminars. The dogs of war and Arthur Osipov, by the way about seminars.

What will be discussed at the seminar? At the seminar, I will tell you about my game, why so, and not otherwise, about working on sound, over understanding how your sound in Mix changes, about principles and understanding, my understanding of how and what to do, so as not to interfere with musicians to create music, not only help them in this, but also to be at the level with them in this very “creation”.

I’ll also tell you about the features of the sound of various instruments, about the right choice, which is important ... Let's see how it goes. I don't really think. It happens to me that an hour and that’s all, everything is clear to everyone, or vice versa ... But it happens, as in Yekaterinburg, three and a half hours and finished only because it was necessary to at the airport.

How can young musicians become successful, famous? You know, I'm a fatal person. I believe in fate. And I believe that if a person is destined to become famous, or, say, successful, he will become, if he really wants to. Fate will certainly give him a chance, the question is different, will he be ready for this?And the second, you can not wait.