| Bonding for a Smash-ing time
RUSSIAN pop duo Smash!, touted as one of the brightest new prospects on the Russian pop scene, is poised to break into the international music market with the release of its debut album Freeway.
Available here now through Universal Music Malaysia, Freeway has gone on to become Russia’s best-selling album of the year with close to one million copies sold. Smash!, comprising cousins Sergey Lazarev and Vlad Topalov, are now regarded as Russia’s hottest pop act along with controversial female duo t.A.T.u.
In fact, Lazarev and Topalov sang in the band together with Julia Volkova and Lena Katina of t.A.T.u before becoming bonafide superstars in their motherland.
The band’s first single, Belle, a beautiful aria from the famous Notre Dames des Paris musical, which is also included on their debut album, spent two months on top of the Russia radio and TV airplay charts.
Since the release of Freeway, Smash! has gone on to become a household name in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, playing more than 200 sell-out shows in the Ukraine, Belarus, Czech Republic, Moldova, Romania and Estonia.
Determined to spread their music outside of Russia, Smash! arrived in Kuala Lumpur last week for a short promotional tour and showcase performance at the Sunway Pyramid, Bandar Sunway, Selangor.
Speaking at a press conference, Topalov described the band’s sound as pop with a hint of rock.
“Mostly the music is pop with a few rock ballads thrown in, like the track on the album Don’t Look Back. Our influences are mainly our parents, close friends and of course the relationship between Sergey and I,” said Topalov. “We try and listen to a lot of good music. We don’t have any idols but we try and listen to a lot of different stuff and take something from each of them.”
Prior to arriving in South-East Asia, Smash! visited South Korea and the Philippines, as well as other parts of Asia where the public has been very receptive to their music.
According to Topalov, this has given the band a lot of confidence that their brand of pop music can make an impact in the Asian market.
“The scene is quite different from Russia because back home, we have been known for two years now but we are relatively unknown here in Asia. We are very glad that after the showcases, the fans seemed to like the music. We had a lot of interviews and a very tight schedule, which was good. We seemed to have a lot of fans in South Korea so we are very happy about that.”
“The music scene is a little bit out of date in Russia,” explained Lazarev. “It’s kind of hard to develop there but we’ve been around for a long time, over 10 years, and we want to continue to grow as performers. We are in this for a long career.
“Smash! and t.A.T.u are the only bands that have managed to do something outside Russia because we are the only two bands that try to do something new and different. We want the whole world to know our music.” | |
