The lyrics of Un Rêve are a lot more straightforward, and you have a few tracks where you reflect on the situation in your home country. How does it feel knowing that your primary audience may not know the full context of your songs?

It doesn’t bother me. It’s weird when you sing in a foreign language, and your audience still likes it. It’s hard to explain.

Recently, you left your old label to join Young & Cold Records and even reissued your old albums as part of a label. Could you tell me more about that?

We felt that we got everything that we could out of our old label: there was stagnation in trying to find a new audience, different booking and networking opportunities, and just as a whole. So we decided to try it with another label. There are some exciting artists on Young & Cold, so we felt there might be a new opportunity for us. They didn’t reissue our old albums; they became a part of our worldwide distribution. The label has connections in Germany and the States, and that’s where we recently found our new audience. We’ll release our next album on Young & Cold Records.

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A while ago, you mentioned how a label’s geography might impact the listenership. With Young & Cold, do you have more fans from central Europe now?

I think it was the other way around: we found that people from Germany and the US were listening to us more, and Young & Cold noticed it and reached out to us. Judging from the Spotify and Apple Music stats, we’re getting more interest worldwide, even though we don’t really release that much stuff.

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Have you thought of writing songs in English?

Definitely not. Writing lyrics in Russian was a conscious decision, and we are not planning on writing songs in any other language. I think we could dedicate our side projects to other languages ― be that Belarusian, German or English. Our Russian sounds quite harsh compared to German and English, plus we are not native German speakers, so writing any kind of poetry in that language wouldn’t be as simple.

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Since you moved on from analog synths to Logic Pro plugins, was it hard to work entirely in digital?

I have become very minimalistic when it comes to creating music. The entire project was drafted using Logic Pro X on my laptop ― no mouse, no charger, no synths. I was writing music until the battery would die, then I would refresh my thoughts while charging. After completing those drafts, we used analog tracks with proper preamps, microphone placement, etc. Overall, there is no difference between plugins and real synths ― right now, they’re indistinguishable.

Compared to Europe, you didn’t have that many concerts in Belarus and Russia. Since you’re now living in Berlin, are you planning on traveling to the CIS countries at all?

We sure are. We enjoy performing in Kyiv, Minsk, Moscow. We might be doing some gigs in Saint Petersburg [a Northwestern city in Russia]; it’s been a while since we played there. It would be cool to visit Kazakhstan, too.

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Your prior albums were recorded during jam sessions. However, the entirety of your last project was recorded remotely. Are there any changes in your sound that resulted from those circumstances rather than from your artistic vision?

I moved to Berlin three years ago, and it significantly affected how we create our music. On the one hand, we had enough jams to record two albums, and so our next one was supposed to reflect a different sound and different approach. On the other hand, there’s still a lot of work to do ― it has its pros and cons. Overall, I’ll say that this decision coincided with larger circumstances.

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Speaking of your new sound — for your older albums, you often mentioned [a Russian band] Zvuki Mu and The Drums as your inspirations. There are some similarities, lyrical, as with the former, and musical with the latter. I imagine that you have different influences now. What did you listen to during the recording of the last project?

When we were a trio, The Drums sound was brought by Pasha Mikhalyuk; he’s not playing with us now. Since then, we were into different genres; now we’re into electronic music, which clearly influenced the new album. I can’t name anybody in particular, there’s been tons of music. It’s not even albums or artists; mostly, it goes down to specific songs.

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You had [your bassist] Sasha’s image projected onto you during one of your recent live streams from Berlin. How did you come up with that?

We got an invite to this festival last year, and by spring, we figured that it wasn’t happening. Then, the orgs contacted us, and so we got this idea ― to play out the «Ozhog» video, where Sasha, too, was shown as a projection. So we pre-recorded his image, projected it onto me, and recorded my part.

Did you have any Berlin influence?

Believe it or not, none. Journalists said that ‘since Maxim moved to Berlin, it brought out the electronic influence,’ but it wasn’t like that. I wasn’t really going out for that to happen; I spent much more time at the studio or with my family.

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But then last year you started a solo project, Erdnüsse.

I’d say those were rough drafts of Super Besse. As I was working on them, I realized that they don’t really fit into the band’s or album’s concept. So I dug deeper into that electronic sound and came out with a new project. I’m not really serious about it, don’t think there’ll be any new Erdnüsse releases anytime soon. We’ll see.

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Are you going to do more of that, or was it a one-time thing?

All these online performances, or TV and radio ones for that matter, have this strange refined feeling to them. Obviously, those online concerts from 2020 are not good for musicians. I am hoping we won’t go back to that and instead return to normal soon.

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What can we expect from Super Besse once we’re past the end of the world?

First, we’ll tour with Un Rêve; the tracks sound great live, really energetic and hypnotic. The way they sound from the stage is so unusual. When concerts are back, we are planning on a few remixes of the album. Once we’re done with touring, we’ll start working on the new release; I’m expecting some really harsh sounds from it. We’ll see!

Were there any problems with your album rollout and isolation, such as closing borders?

It all came down to one problem ― we couldn’t travel. Our concerts for the new album got canceled, we couldn’t record new videos; at first, we even had issues with sending out merch. Plus, many personal and societal struggles affected the group, and every one of us greatly. That said, we can’t wait when the borders are open again and we are back to touring.

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Some bands are saying that they sound much better live. Are you one of them?

For a while, our concerts had incredible energy. However, it wasn’t something that I felt recently ― maybe that’s why we came to a calmer, electronic sound of the new album. That said, we had a chance to play our new songs live; they still sound quite energetic, not as quiet as the studio versions. I’ll say that it’s hard to tell if we sound better one way or the other ― I love both ways.

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