Gleb Samoilov: “I don’t expect anything from my brother: they don’t expect anything from goats!”

Vadim Samoilov is a personality inextricably linked with Russian rock. In the famous Agatha Christie group, where his younger brother Gleb Samoilov was the leader, Vadim was a sound producer. In addition, Vadim Samoilov is an excellent guitarist who has played in many rock projects, vocalist and composer. He has a lot of production work to his credit.

Personal life

The personal life of Vadim Samoilov, as well as his biography, has always been of interest to fans of the musician and the work of the Agatha Christie group. Besides the brutal role of a rock star, Vadim is a man who takes family values ​​very seriously, as well as a public figure.

He provides assistance to young musicians; in 2006, for these purposes, he created the “Heroes of Our Time” charity project.

In 2012, he was even officially registered as a confidant of Vladimir Putin, who at that time was the prime minister and presidential candidate of the Russian Federation.

Vadim Samoilov's first wife is Tatyana. From his marriage to her, Vadim had a daughter, Yana. Life in the early nineties was difficult; the young family was constantly short of money. In those days, Vadim was even forced to sell his first guitar, but the proceeds were not enough for a long time. Vadim got a job and began working in his specialty - as a sound engineer.

In the photo: Vadim, ex-wife Tatyana and daughter Yana Samoilov

The musician’s serious love is Nastya Kruchinina, who was a model, but did not become Vadim Samoilov’s wife. Their relationship developed in the late 90s, but did not last long. Fans reacted negatively to Nastya’s appearance, believing that she took Vadim away from them.

In the photo: Vadim Samoilov and Nastya Kruchiina

The current wife of Vadim Samoilov is Yulia. They met at a musician's concert in a nightclub in 2003. At that time the girl was 25 years old. Vadim notes that he has a spiritual connection with his wife Yulia. The couple has a wonderful, strong family. For some time, rumors leaked in the press about the alleged divorce of Yulia and Vadim, but they were not confirmed.

In the photo: Vadim and Yulia Samoilov

In numerous interviews that take place with Vadim, his personal life is touched upon. Samoilov made it clear that marriage is a serious thing for him. As for the distribution of responsibilities in family relationships, the musician considers it necessary to have mutual assistance between spouses. In general, Vadim Samoilov does not like to talk about his personal life.

Children

The children of Vadim Samoilov are a frequent cause for discussion. Some people mistakenly think that he has a son, Gleb, who is the son of Gleb Samoilov. As already mentioned, of Vadim Samoilov’s children, he only has a daughter, Yana. Little is known about her biography, as well as entirely about the musician’s personal life. She was born on October 15, 1990. Yana is a very beautiful red-haired girl, whose appearance cannot but impress!

Yana and Vadim Samoilov

She lived in London for some time, and then moved to work in Moscow. As Vadim himself said in one of his interviews, Yana is talented and loves to draw. However, she works in the field of financial consulting, having received an education at a higher school of economics.

Childhood

Vadim was born on October 3, 1964 in Sverdlovsk. The Samoilov family was the most ordinary: his father worked as an engineer, and his mother was a doctor. The fact that little Vadim is a gifted person with leadership qualities became clear even in kindergarten.

He sang excellently and had excellent hearing. A well-known fact from Vadim’s biography is that when the future musician was only five years old, he was able to independently select a melody from the movie “Property of the Republic” on the piano.

The Samoilov brothers with their parents

Going to study at a music school was Vadim’s independent decision, made at the age of seven. Already in the third grade he began writing music, and by the sixth grade he became a member of the school ensemble.

"Agatha Christie" is on a gingerbread diet

Gleb and Vadim Samoilov delayed the concert by an hour and a half due to problems with electricity.

THE CURRENT TURNED ON - THE LIGHT GAVE The Samoilov brothers arrived at the site in front of the Tula “White House”, where “Agatha” entered the Baltika festival at about eight o’clock in the evening.
Gleb stayed to watch the performance of the Va-Bank group, and Vadim preferred to take a ride around the city. The musician, together with his concert director, took a ride in a green Mercedes minibus to one of the Tula coffee shops on Lenin Avenue. Here, almost unrecognized by anyone, Samoilov Sr. tasted specialty coffee and went back to the site to prepare for the performance. The legendary "Agatha" was announced for nine o'clock in the evening. By this time, several thousand people had gathered on Lenin Square. But in the midst of the performance of the Va-Bank group, the unexpected happened: the tension on stage disappeared. The problem could not be fixed on its own, and the organizers called electricians. Meanwhile, in the square, frantic fans did not even think about leaving. The Tula residents shouted in unison “a-ga-ta, a-ga-ta!” and sang the group’s hits. The musicians of “Agatha” nervously smoked next to the dressing room, exchanging short remarks about the lack of electricity: “...and then they turned on the current, and Sveta gave it,” they laughed at a hackneyed joke. “In general, it’s a shame that people have gathered, but there is no electricity,” Gleb Samoilov complained. — Usually such things at the level of Uncle Vasya’s electrician stumble. The main thing is to finish “Va-bank”, and then we will do our job! “Now we only wish for one thing: for electricity to triumph!” - Vadim picked up. “AGATA” IS WRITING A NEW ALBUM The Samoilov brothers told Sloboda correspondents that they are now experiencing a period of “tour lull”: “Agatha Christie” is finally starting work on a new album on the eve of the group’s 20th anniversary. “Now we have time to work on new material,” said Vadim Samoilov. “We’re going on vacation in August, and until then we’ll be showing each other material for the new album. Gleb told us how the process of creating new works in the group goes: “We start with everyone bringing something of their own. And then something common may emerge from this. It's impossible to say what will happen next. And this - the process of creation - is the most interesting thing. It’s interesting when we collectively turn everyone’s ideas into music. — By the way, about vacation. Where are you planning to relax? Vadim: - In warm regions. And not together, but separately. We don’t walk hand in hand as a couple at all. Although we are siblings, we are different people. We vacation mainly at foreign resorts. Moreover, we go to places where there are as few of our compatriots as possible. Gleb: — We need a break from attention!

I AM SICK FOR THE HONOR OF THE COUNTRY! The electricity was finally restored, and Gleb went to listen to “Va-Bank”. Only Vadim answered further questions. — What do fans in our city usually give you? — In Tula, fans give mostly gingerbread. If they give too many gifts today, I won’t eat them myself, I’ll bring them to the secretaries’ office. — Are you on any diet? — There is a diet: if they give me a whole gingerbread, I don’t eat it all! In general, I don't have a sweet tooth. I love seafood. — Final question: do you perform at beer festivals, and at sporting events? What if they invited you to the Olympics in Sochi? - If they invite you to the opening of the Olympics, we’ll play - why not? For example, I was happy for Sochi when it was chosen as the capital of the Olympic Games. Sport, like music, unites people of different opinions. In general, I’m not rooting for anything specific, I’m rooting for the honor of the country!

THE FANS WENT CRAZY An hour and a half late, Vadim and Gleb finally went on stage. The guys smoked a lot on the set (Gleb preferred regular cigarettes, and Vadim was aesthetic - he smoked Captain Black). The crowd, fueled by Va-Bank, was delighted. Fans climbed behind the fence, trying to knock it over. And one female spectator even felt sick: the police had to take her to an ambulance, where she was immediately given first aid. For just under an hour, fans jammed to the old and new hits of the legendary rock band. The compositions “In the Interests of the Revolution”, “Helicopter Carpet”, “Heterosexual” and “Fairytale Taiga” aroused a lot of emotions among the Tula residents. - Thank you! - Gleb said after each song. Immediately after the end of the performance, the rockers loaded into their Mercedes minibus and headed back to the capital.

ATTENTION! COMPETITION! WIN A DISC AND PHOTO “AGATHA”! The disk of the Agatha Christie group and photographs from the Tula concert will be won by the one who is the first to call the editorial office on Friday, July 20, at 15.00, by phone 23.55-99 and correctly answer the questions of the competition. 1. What was the first melody that Vadim Samoilov picked up on the guitar? a) a song from the film “Property of the Republic”, b) a song from the film “The Twelve Chairs”, c) a song by Leonid Utesov. 2. In what city did Gleb and Vadim’s cousin live, who introduced them to the work of Pink Floyd? a) in Tula, b) in Barnaul, c) in Moscow. 3. Who is Gleb Samoilov’s favorite author? a) Tolstoy, b) Dostoevsky, c) Goffman.

Sergey Biryuk Photo by Andrey Varenkov

Youth

At the insistence of his parents, after school, Vadim went to study at the Ural Polytechnic University at the Faculty of Radio Engineering. The specialty he acquired in his youth did not become useless for Samoilov, since in the near future his life became closely connected with sound recording.

Samoilov brothers

It was while studying at the institute that the beginning of the existence of the future Agatha Christie group was laid. The group that was then formed under the name VIA “RTF UPI” included Vadim himself, Pyotr May and Alexander Kozlov.

Study at the institute and VIA RTF-UPI

More likely for the sake of peace of mind of conservative parents than by vocation, after graduating from school Vadim became a student at the radio engineering department of the Ural Polytechnic University. By profession, the Russian rock star is a radio equipment design engineer. His profession cannot be called useless, because Vadim Samoilov spends most of his working time in recording studios. While studying at the institute, the Samoilov brothers seriously understand that their passion for music is by no means an idle pastime; they dream of concerts and fame.

In 1985, the university group VIA RTF-UPI was created, which was founded by Vadim Samoilov, Alexander Kozlov and Peter May. The student ensemble was the first step towards the modern Agatha Christie, but then no one thought about the scale of Agatha’s popularity.

Musician career

A serious creative path in the biography of Vadim Samoilov began precisely with Agatha Christie. Officially, it is considered created on February 20, 1988. The group gained fame after the release of the album “Cunning and Love”.

In the photo: Vadim Samoilov and Shura BI-2

Vadim’s active production activities are associated with the groups “Chicherina”, “Semantic Hallucinations”, “Bi-2”. He also made his contribution to the work of such groups as “Picnic”, with which in 2004 he released a joint album “Shadow of the Vampire”, as well as “Nautilus Pompilius”, with which he took part in the large-scale rock festival “Invasion” .

Vadim Samoilov became the composer for A. Balabanov’s film “It Doesn’t Hurt Me.” He also took part in various musical projects and created independent projects, including those associated with the revival of the Agatha Christie group.

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is a Soviet-Russian rock band that became one of the most popular in the first half of the 90s, founded by Vadim Samoilov, Alexander Kozlov and Pyotr May in 1988 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). Gleb Samoilov did not initially take part in the creation of the group; he joined the group during the recording of the album “Second Front”. About his joining the group, he said something like this: “When recording “Second Front,” the guys didn’t have enough songs and they asked me for a few songs, supposedly on loan, and then I had to sing and play the guitar.” Throughout its existence, the group’s work intersects with many areas of rock music, but post-punk noticeably predominates among them all. The composition also changed several times, but the Samoilov brothers always remained the creative backbone of the group. The hallmark of the group is a certain mysticism, doom, depressive atmosphere, expressive manner of performance and lyrics imbued with “magic”. Such compositions as “Like in War”, “Opium for Nobody”, “Eternal Love”, “Fairy Taiga”, “Helicopter Carpet”, “Black Moon” and “Hysteria” became recognized hits. At the moment, the group has ten studio albums, five collections, two remix albums, three maxi-singles, eighteen video clips. In 2009, the musicians announced the demise of the band and went on a final tour of Russia and neighboring countries. By the summer of 2010, the group’s last album, “Epilogue,” was recorded, and the tour of the same name was completed—the group played a farewell concert at the Nashestvo festival.

VIA RTF UPI

Vadim Samoilov and Peter May were classmates (School No. 1, Asbest), listening to Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and performing together in the school ensemble since 1978. Having learned about the vacancy for a bassist, a boy from a parallel class, Alexander Kozlov, met Vadim. They wrote songs with him. Vadim played the ionica, but Sasha was better at coming up with music by playing the keys, so they switched. After graduating from school, they did not give up rock music: having entered different faculties of UPI in 1985, a musical group called VIA “RTF UPI” was founded on the basis of the radio engineering faculty of the Ural Polytechnic Institute. A little later, they were joined by Vadim’s younger brother from Asbest, Gleb. And it all started with the KVN team UPI “Ural Janitors”, which participated in four television seasons and became a finalist in the KVN major league. The team participated as live musical accompaniment between the team's performances. Later, the aspiring musicians released several albums: If (1985), Voice (1986) and Light (1987) and in the same year changed the name of the group to “Agatha Christie”. The name was invented by Alexander Kozlov, based on the fact that this phrase has the same initials as his name. Among other options was, in particular, “Jacques Cousteau”. The chosen name supposedly best reflected the band's style - mysterious, eccentric, and at times eccentric amalgamation of glam rock, post-punk and symphonic rock.

Second Front, Cunning and Love (1988-1990)

The official birthday of the group is considered to be the day of their first concert - February 20, 1988, and the first album - “Second Front”, recorded from December 20 to 24, 1987 and from January 4 to 8, 1988 in auditorium No. 237 (Ural Polytechnic Institute), but it was officially remastered by Alexander Kuznetsov (who took part in the recording of the album and played bass guitar) and was released only in 1997. After recording the second album, “Cunning and Love,” the group was noticed, followed by a series of successful performances at rock festivals, in particular, at the III Festival of the Sverdlovsk Rock Club - there they met Andrei Makarevich and Vyacheslav Butusov. Here May leaves the group and is replaced by Albert Potapkin and Lev Shutylev as a second keyboard player. The group re-recorded “Cunning and Love” on a CD, changing the list of tracks, and performed with it in Moscow at the festivals “Syrok”, “Interchance”, “Step to Parnassus”. The group was seen on central television, and for the song “Viva, Kalman!” a video was shot, directed by Andrey Razbash.

Decadence and Infamous Star (1990-1995)

The next album, “Decadence,” was recorded in 1990 and released in 1991. By the time of his recording, Potapkin was replaced by Andrei Kotov. In this album there is a transition from stormy extravaganza to calm and reflection. After its release, the group went into a long creative stagnation, since in the country the people's interest fell on phonogram music - the so-called. “pop”, and at that time the group was not yet so famous. Kozlov was faced with a choice: either a career as a cardiologist, or participation in a group. Despite the conservative nature of his parents, he chose the latter. December 1, 1991 and 1994 - participated in the charity concerts “VID - AntiAIDS” at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex, together with such groups as “Time Machine”, “Chaif”, “Crematorium”. In 1991, the group received the grand prize at the Open du Rock festival of young European groups in Burgundy, France - ten thousand francs and a large bottle of American whiskey.

In 1993, having replaced tailcoats and eye shadow with regular jeans, the group released the unexpectedly successful and energetic album “Shameful Star” - one of the first in the history of Russian rock music released on CD, the song from which is “Like in War” - became their calling card, as well as one of the most popular songs of Russian rock of the 90s of the 20th century. Videos for the songs “New Year” and “Like in War” immediately went into rotation on television and radio, and the group successfully toured throughout the country. Their collaboration began with the production company owned by Vladimir Meskhi, and the sponsorship of their concerts was taken over, thanks to which a video for the song “Descent” and a concert-presentation of the next album “Opium” were shot at the Rossiya State Central Concert Hall in Moscow and at the Yubileiny Sports Palace. in St. Petersburg. Vadim studied together with the deputy general director of the company. By the end of 1994, the group completely moved to Moscow.

Opium (1995-1996)

The next album, Opium, released in 1995, brought the group deafening fame that the musicians themselves could not even imagine. The group became the idol of youth and the object of hostility of their parents. Songs such as “Fairytale Taiga”, “Opium for Nobody”, “Black Moon”, “Eternal Love” and “HaliGaliKrishna” became hits and were performed at the vast majority of concerts. The public especially liked “Fairytale Taiga,” written by Kozlov. This composition is based on a paraphrase of the musical theme of Alexander Zatsepin’s chase from the film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession.” Although the text by Gleb Samoilov did not fit in with the film, the clip was still assembled from fragments of the film and a plot in which the actors meet 20 years later in an old cinema to look at their heroes again. The musicians dedicated the video clip to the memory of director Leonid Gaidai - this is mentioned in the very first frames. The song itself became one of the leaders of radio airplay in 1995. Because of the new image, the group began to be accused of commercialization and working only for youth; despite the fact that the participants themselves believed that their main audience was teenagers, and “they needed music that could fill their sensitive hearts.”

Hurricane (1996-1998)

Having recorded an album of remixes of already well-known hits in 1996, called Heroin 0 Remixed (1996), the group released a gloomy and depressive album “Hurricane”, which was not so successful commercially, but received recognition among the fans of the group and, what is especially valuable , among fellow musicians. In general, the group is not a fan of formulaic, monotonous music, so it changes its performance style from album to album. In the winter of 1996, a video for the song “Two Ships” was shot in the Moscow Dolphinarium: the pool was furnished with decorations, and in the middle of it there was a platform where the musicians were located. Later, a video was shot for the song “Sailor” according to the script of Renata Litvinova, which was banned from showing on ORT as a video that “negatively affects the psyche and does not correspond to the image of the public channel.” The song itself, despite the prohibitions, became one of the main Russian hits of 1996 [source not specified for 348 days], taking one of the leading positions in the final hit parade. Also, Alexander Kozlov, four years after writing, released a solo instrumental album, Intermezzo: Digital Generation, which includes cover versions of classic foreign hits - “Made in Heaven” by Queen and “Visitors” by ABBA.

In February 1998, the group played an anniversary concert at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex, recorded by the Program “A” team and Sergei Antipov. At the concert they had to sing as an encore several times. The concert disc “10 Years of Life” is being released. In the same year, in Monte Carlo, the group became the winner of the World Music Awards in the category “Successfully Selling Foreign Group”. It also becomes and remains the only rock band to be awarded the Ovation national music award four times.

Miracles (1998-2000)

In the summer of 1998, the group began work on a new album, “Miracles,” no less gloomy than the previous one, and with a large share of electronics. The album's release was postponed from September to December due to the August 1998 default. After its release, the group completely disappeared from the public eye. Director Viktor Konisevich, who had already collaborated with the group, shot a video for the song “Helicopter Carpet,” which was already very popular by the time the record was released. In the MTV Russian Top Ten, this clip holds the first position for a month. Another video, “Road of the Spider,” was not allowed to be aired by ORT “due to the depressive nature of the song.” In the spring of 1999, a large tour of Siberia took place with the groups “Alice” and “BekKhan”. In the same year, Gleb received Orthodox baptism, which affected his further work. In the fall of 1999, Agatha Christie went on a large concert tour in support of the youth action “Yes!” together with Bravo and Lyapis Trubetskoy.

Mine high? (2000-2004)

On New Year's Eve at ORT the group performs the song “Like in War.” In July 2000, an album with the provocative title “Mein Kaif?” was released. is the band's most conceptual album, in which each composition is part of the overall plot of the album. According to the Samoilovs, the lyrical hero of the album goes from a naive young man to a ruthless killer. In April, a video was shot for the song “Secret”, which premiered on the MTV channel. This song was also part of the soundtrack to Alexey Balabanov’s film “Brother-2”. January 1 of the new millennium marked the end of cooperation with Rise Music. The producer of the group is Vadim Samoilov. Based on his idea, three maxi-singles were created, expanding on the main material of the album. They included the unreleased songs “Never” and “Bullet”. For the second maxi-single, the Samoilov brothers are filming a low-budget video for the song “Drink the Sea.” In 2001, the group took part in writing the original soundtrack for the film “Sisters” by Sergei Bodrov Jr.; a video for the song “Bullet” was shot based on the film. On March 1, 2001, the author of the music, keyboard player and one of the founders of the group, Alexander Kozlov, died from atherosclerosis. He played his last concert in February at the Yubileiny Sports Palace in St. Petersburg.

Gleb Samoilov recalls:

— After the concert, we were coming down from the stage, it was dark, and Sashka fell down the stairs from an incredible height. I was terribly scared that he had broken everything in the world, I picked him up and asked: “How are you?!” He doesn't really answer. Then I began to conduct tests for a concussion, spinal fracture, etc. Sasha came to his senses and said: “Everything is fine! Why are you so scared? - “Yes, you fell from such a height - I thought you died!” Sasha did not die then... He always resolved our conflicts with Vadim.

After this tragedy, the brothers still found the strength to return to writing new songs, but promised never to take a new member in Kozlov’s place (however, in October 2008, keyboardist Konstantin Bekrev joined the group - but only to play with “Agatha Christie” farewell concerts, as part of a tour called “Epilogue”). And at the Maxidrom 2001 festival, his synthesizer was shown on television cameras more often than the musicians themselves.

On the eve of the 15th anniversary, the group toured little and no new songs were written. The Samoilov brothers took part in other people's projects. Vadim began producing the groups “Semantic Hallucinations” and Chicherin and starred in the former’s video for the song “Hunters”. He also took part in the recording of the Picnic group’s album “Shadow of the Vampire” and in the video for their song “Torture Never Ends.” Members of the Picnic group often invite Vadim to their concerts. In 2003, the group released two collections, “Favorites” and “Fairy Tales”: the latter included several songs from the new album. In February 2003, the three of them left, the musicians played an anniversary concert at Luzhniki, filmed by Sergei Antipov.

Thriller. Part 1 (2004-2008)

In the fall of 2004, on their own, without the help of third-party labels, the group released an album with the very cinematic title “Thriller. Part 1". At first, the Samoilov brothers explained the division of the album into parts by the fact that 22 songs had been written for the album’s release, and the listener’s impression of a double disc would have been blurred. But in one of the last interviews it turned out that there would be no second part. The Samoilov brothers recorded the album together, without Kozlov, so they had to change everything, find a new way of creating music and be modern, trying not to repeat what was done before. The songs “Thriller” and “In the Interests of the Revolution” took first place in many charts. A video was shot for the song "Thriller". In September, the musicians took part in the charity music marathon “SOSuffering” to raise funds to help families affected by the terrorist attack in Beslan. The group participated in the program “First Night with Oleg Menshikov” on NTV in a duet with actress Irina Apeksimova with the song “Bessa me...” from the album Insidiousness and Love, as well as in “Blue Light” on REN TV with their own version of the song Igor Nikolaev from the repertoire of singer Natasha Koroleva “Little Country”. The Samoilov brothers liked the song so much that they decided to include it in their concert repertoire.

After the release of the album “Thriller. Part 1”, the musicians are moving away from active collaboration - Vadim launches his project “Rockhero”, designed to help aspiring musicians, and Gleb is holding solo creative evenings more and more often.

In 2006, Vadim Samoilov wrote the song “Call Me, Sky” for Alexey Balabanov’s film “It Doesn’t Hurt Me,” which was included in the solo project “Peninsulas 2.” In 2007, a video clip for the song “Everything is as he said” was released jointly with the group “Bi-2”. And from December 24 on “Our Radio” the radio single “Feat” from the future album will start. In 2008, in honor of its 20th anniversary, Agatha Christie released a complete collector's reissue of its albums, designed by Artemy Lebedev Studio, the goal of which was to refresh the design while maintaining stylistic elements. On February 20 and 21, 2008, the group plays 2 anniversary concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. On July 4th he performs at the rock festival “Invasion”, where Vadim introduces to the public the participants of his project “Rockhero”. On July 18, the video for the song “Feat” premiered on the A-One TV channel.

In October, the group says goodbye to drummer Andrei Kotov and goes on a tour of Russian cities. Drummer Dmitry “SNAKE” Khakimov (“NAIV”) and keyboardist-bassist Konstantin Bekrev (“World of Fire”) join the band. But these musicians are not going to leave their bands. As the Samoilov brothers told their fans, this replacement will not affect their lyrics in any way, because only they themselves will write them. On November 8, at the Moscow club “B1 Maximum”, the group with a new lineup presented a new program of 12 new songs.

Epilogue and breakup of the group (2008-2010)

On February 2, 2009, news appeared on the band’s official website that their work was entering the completion stage. The group will go on a tour called “Epilogue”, and will also record and release an album of the same name. The tour will culminate in big concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

According to the Samoilov brothers, “Agatha Christie’s epilogue is not a pretentious farewell. This is simply a statement of the fact that we are ending a long and important period of our musical and human life together. “Agatha Christie” as everyone knows it has exhausted itself, and we want to say goodbye to it with a feeling of mutual satisfaction.” Until February 10, the brothers refused to comment in any way on the above statement. When asked how long the tour would last, they replied: “There is a certain lifespan for the album. As long as we are called to perform, we will do so. We already have performances planned in 48 cities. And there will be even more of them. Because the album has not yet reached a wide range of people. Of course, some point will be made. Obviously, big concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.” On February 21, a festive concert took place at the B1 MAXIMUM club, and on March 7, 2009, the group won the “Legend” category at the annual Chart’s Dozen award ceremony. At the end of 2009, the “Epilogue” tour ended, the final point was set with a concert on July 10, 2010 at Nashestvo, where the group’s farewell album “Epilogue” and a DVD with a film about the group went on sale for the first time, the album was officially released on July 19. The last concert was performed by Roman Baranyuk (World of Fire) on drums.

Today Gleb Samoilov is the leader of the group “Gleb Samoiloff & The Matrixx”. Vadim is engaged in producing activities, fighting piracy, and also promises to soon create his own group.

Style and execution

The formation of the band's current style and creativity was largely influenced by the album Disintegration, by the British group The Cure. The first acquaintance with their music happened in 1989, when the guys brought this record back from Glasgow, from a performance at the Soviet rock festival. Later, their then manager suggested starting to develop in this direction.

Gleb Samoilov characterizes his work as follows: “Agatha Christie is either childhood with signs of the wisdom of life on her face, or senile insanity with a relapse into childhood.” All group activities are usually divided into the following stages:

(1985-1992): the beginning of creativity in the art-rock style before the first stagnation after the release of “Decadence”.

(1993-2001): change of style to post-punk, beginning of popularity, commercial success, experiments with electronic music. Among the informals there is an expression “the first Russian gothic group”. Death of Kozlov.

(2004-2008): Thriller release. Part 1 after three years of stagnation, Kotov’s departure.

(2008-2010): a new line-up assembles for the final album and final tour. Previously, it was planned to continue activities in this composition.

Scandals

In 2020, a conflict occurred between the Samoilov brothers, which was widely discussed in the press. Gleb appealed to the Investigative Committee to initiate a criminal case against Vadim for performing songs by the Agatha Christie group. A civil lawsuit was also filed for the protection of intellectual property; Gleb demanded that Vadim be prohibited from performing the group’s songs, the authorship of which does not belong to him.

The conflict reached the point that an official appeal from the mother of the musician brothers appeared on the Internet, commenting on the situation. The Savyolovsky District Court of Moscow considered Gleb's claim and rejected it, recognizing the brothers as equal members of the group.

Another court case involving Vadim was related to the consideration of his claims against Artemy Troitsky for compensation for moral damage in the amount of 1 million rubles. The reason for the appeal was Troitsky’s public speech on the REN TV channel, in which he called Samoilov “a trained poodle under Surkov.” The situation stemmed from the political events of the time. The claims were not satisfied by the court.

There were also scandals in Samoilov’s biography related to drug use by members of the Agatha Christie group. The rumors were greatly exaggerated and were “exaggerated” in the press. In one of his interviews, Vadim said that no one from Agata was ever a “classic” drug addict, although it happened that they dabbled in illegal substances.

It should be noted that such an image fit into the general concept of the group’s creativity and was more imposed by journalists than it actually existed. Currently, Vadim Samoilov promotes a healthy lifestyle and considers existing habits a mistake of youth.

It goes without saying that the personal life of every public figure, to one degree or another, becomes public knowledge. Vadim managed to preserve the intimate details of his family’s life, providing a minimal amount of information about his wife and daughter for everyone to see, but at the same time making it clear how important family values ​​are to him.

How during the war Vadim and Gleb Samoilov quarreled over money, Donbass and Agatha Christie songs

Photo: Maxim Shemetov / TASS / Scanpix / LETA

On August 18, Gleb Samoilov asked the Investigative Committee to open a criminal case against his older brother Vadim for performing songs by Agatha Christie, a rock band in which they both played for more than 20 years. At the same time, the Savyolovsky Court of Moscow is considering Gleb Samoilov’s claim for the protection of intellectual property, in which he demands to prohibit his brother from performing Agatha Christie songs, the author of which Vadim Samoilov is not. The reason for the escalation of the conflict between the brothers was political differences, money and different views on copyright. At the request of Meduza, Pavel Merzlikin, a journalist for the St. Petersburg publication Bumaga, studied the history of the musicians’ relationship.

On February 27, 2020, opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was killed in the center of Moscow. A few hours earlier, on the other side of the city, one of the main rock bands of the 1990s, Agatha Christie, was honored. Agatha Christie officially announced its breakup and said goodbye to the public five years earlier, but in the winter of 2015, the founders of the group, 50-year-old Vadim Samoilov and his 44-year-old brother Gleb, performed two “nostalgic” concerts. About 20 thousand people came to Moscow's Olimpiysky Stadium - from adult men in office suits to gothic teenagers in gothic makeup. “Opium for Nobody” brought the whole hall to its feet, the famous “Like in War” was sung by the audience, as always, and during one of the songs the fan section bristled with red and white pieces of paper that formed the phrase “We love AK.”

Vadim Samoilov filled the breaks between songs with statements like “The truth will still find its way,” and dedicated the song “The Last Wish” to “deputies, moms, assistants and all sorts of crap,” followed by shouting: “Hello Volodin!” (Vyacheslav Volodin is the deputy head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation.) Later, the musician explained that he did not have a good relationship with Volodin’s structures, which rejected his projects: according to Vadim Samoilov, in the office of the official who replaced Vladislav Surkov in the presidential administration, they valued their own ideas above all and did not listen to the opinions of “civil society”.

The brothers left the Olimpiysky stage together, but after 45 minutes Gleb said that at the concert “all the negativity surfaced, because of which [the Samoilovs] broke up.” “We have become non-overlapping people,” explained the leader of the group The Matrixx, which Samoilov Jr. founded after the collapse of Agatha Christie. In a conversation with Meduza, Gleb confirmed that the nostalgic concerts did not cause any special feelings in him: “As I expected, I did not experience any feelings at all. No nostalgia, nothing."

The Samoilov brothers have repeatedly admitted that they were never particularly close due to their different views on life, but several of their mutual acquaintances told Meduza that what made them “disjoint people” was not least Vadim’s meeting with his predecessor and once boss Volodin - Vladislav Surkov.

Surkov's impulses

In 2003, Vadim Samoilov, who was then successfully struggling with drug addiction, was approached by one of Vladislav Surkov’s assistants. He conveyed the boss’s poems to the musician and asked the musician, who was also involved in producing (worked, for example, with “Bi-2”, “Semantic Hallucinations” and “Chicherina”), to evaluate the politician’s work.

Samoilov later recalled that he “had no idea who Surkov was,” but he liked the material “literally” - especially the song “Don’t Say”: “Has Your Light Shined? Is your darkness gloomy? Don’t tell me the answer, it’s just me.” The musician and the official met, became friends, and eventually recorded together and released two limited edition albums: “Peninsulas” and “Peninsulas-2.” Samoilov played all the instruments, wrote music based on Surkov’s poems and sang all the songs (in some cases, however, an employee of the presidential administration also acted as a composer). The Agatha Christie musician called the first disc “heavy art rock with philosophical poetry,” the second was lighter in sound, but the philosophy remained in place: “Our master is Dennitsa, we recognize his style: / For Christmas, instead of snow, he sends us dust . / We are trailing in the train of his endless horde, / I will be like you, / You will be like him, / We will be like everyone else,” Samoilov sang in the final composition of the album.

“Strange Tree”, a bonus track for the first “Peninsulas”, in which Vladislav Surkov himself sings (the song was written by the album’s producer Konstantin Vetrov and Sergei Levin)

Vyacheslav Nemkov

It didn't end with the albums. Soon, Samoilov Sr. began to be actively involved in social activities: he fought against piracy, becoming a member of the Public Chamber, and, with the help of people connected with Surkov, began producing young rockers. The platform for this was the charity project “Hero of Our Time” (then renamed “Rock Hero”, and even later “Rocklab”). The project declared itself as a platform for promoting talent: with the help of the fund, aspiring groups could receive an assessment from industry heavyweights, record an album, get on “Our Radio” and even perform at “Invasion”.

One of the platforms where Samoilov worked with young groups was the pro-government educational forum “Seliger”. It was there that Andrei Gruk’s group “Bad Manners” was selected in 2011. As Gruk told Meduza, at Seliger they listened to master classes by professional musicians, rehearsed and gave concerts every day, and after the forum they recorded three songs in Samoilov’s studio. “This forum gave me, first of all, these recordings. I realized that I had left at least one small thing behind me and that I had not lived in vain. And I want to say a big thank you to the downpour, which washed away from the main stage the posters of the leaders, whom none of us imagined or wanted to represent with our music,” said Gruk, who eventually gave up rock music and left Moscow.

Other participants in Samoilov’s projects tell similar stories. Almost all of them went to Seliger (Samoilov himself also gave lectures to his wards - he said, in particular, that only Vladimir Putin can “hold the country”); Almost everyone spoke enthusiastically about working together with the founder of Agatha Christie. “Imagine that you are a novice journalist - and then a correspondent from First or Rossiya 24 comes to you. Teaches you, broadcasts with you. There are simply no [other] people like Vadim!” - said the Individ group, which still collaborates with Samoilov.

The Rocklab project has been working under different names for ten years, but during all this time no big rock stars have emerged from it. Samoilov himself blamed this on piracy and the narrow-mindedness of radio stations.

Friendship with Surkov not only allowed Samoilov to become a mentor for young people, but also made him enemies among the older generation of Russian rock music. In 2011, the REN-TV channel showed a story about the relationship between an official and a musician; one of the experts was journalist Artemy Troitsky, who back in the late 1980s took Agatha Christie to concerts in England and Scotland. The critic's opinion of Vadim Samoilov has changed somewhat since then - Troitsky called the musician “a trained poodle under Surkov.”

In response, Samoilov filed a lawsuit, demanding to recover a million rubles from the critic and to open a criminal case against him. During the trial, Troitsky explained that he did not mean anything bad: the poodle is a smart dog, and many could only be proud of their friendship with Surkov. The journalist told the court that he only wanted to say that Samoilov “is carrying into our rock elite the impulses coming from Surkov, that something needs to be done.”

Samoilov lost both claims. In a conversation with Meduza, Artemy Troitsky explained this outcome of his case to the “vegetarian” rules of 2011 and added that his attitude towards Samoilov has not changed much since then: “He is a conformist, an opportunist and an extreme cynic.”

One of the “impulses of Surkov” mentioned by Troitsky was the organization in 2010 of a meeting of rock musicians with then-President Dmitry Medvedev. The president, who has repeatedly confessed his love for bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, came in an unbuttoned shirt, jacket and jeans to the cafe, where Andrei Makarevich, Boris Grebenshchikov, Sergei Galanin, Shura Bi-2, Alexey Kortnev and Vladimir Shakhrin were waiting for him. Gleb Samoilov, who has been friends with oppositionists of various stripes since the 1990s, was not at the meeting, and Yuri Shevchuk, who recently distinguished himself at a meeting with Putin, was not invited to Medvedev. Vadim Samoilov, who gathered the musicians for a meeting with Makarevich, later explained that the leader of DDT takes “a teenage, nonconformist position, and at such meetings one should strive for dialogue.”

The musicians discussed creativity, piracy and the fight against drugs with the president. Time Machine leader Andrei Makarevich, in particular, thanked Medvedev for listening to the defenders of the Khimki Forest. “An attempt to pretend that everything is normal, that nothing is happening, can lead the situation to a dead end, putting us all in a very difficult situation,” Medvedev responded.

Six years later, the brother of the meeting organizer, Gleb Samoilov, also noted the wise position of the authorities, because of which, in his opinion, the protests of 2011–2012 ended in nothing. “They just pretended it didn’t exist. They just didn't notice. No reaction. That’s why people became quiet on their own,” he explained.

With a check in your teeth

On September 9, 2012, six months after Vadim Samoilov became Vladimir Putin’s confidant in the presidential elections, his younger brother Gleb sat in the dressing room of the St. Petersburg Glavklub and with a malicious look wrote on the board in blue marker: “And I love Putin. I was lured here." That day, together with Yuri Shevchuk, Mikhail Borzykin and other musicians, he participated in a festival in support of political prisoners - members of the group Pussy Riot (a month before, the court sentenced them to two years in prison), activist of “The Other Russia” Taisiya Osipova, convicted of “ Bolotnaya case." Having autographed his joke, Samoilov Jr. recorded a video message to Pussy Riot, singing a criminal sketch about girls who “cry behind bars.”

Gleb entered the stage after his friendly group “The Last Tanks in Paris”, whose lead singer, Alexei Nikonov, forced the entire audience to loudly chant the chant “They are ****** [obese]!” The former leader of Agatha Christie spoke more modestly. He took an acoustic guitar and performed several songs from his band The Matrixx, created after the breakup of Agatha Christie. There were requests from the audience to sing an action movie with the refrain “Make bombs, not sex,” but the musician refused: “We decided not to go to jail today. It’s a shame to lose train tickets.”

In his new group, Gleb Samoilov practiced a heavy, angry, almost industrial sound and a corresponding mood in the lyrics: “Planet of the Policemen”, “Shit”, “There’s a Knock on the Door”, “With a Check in the Teeth” - the general intonation of The Matrixx can be heard even in the names their songs. In every interview, the musician claimed that one of the main reasons for the collapse of Agatha Christie was that he could no longer realize himself within the group. “We argued until we bled over every line in the song. A conflict, primarily creative, that was insoluble. There was a feeling that time was passing, but I hadn’t said something important in my life,” said Gleb.

The Matrixx presented their first song while Agatha Christie was on her farewell tour, at the beginning of 2010. A little later, Samoilov’s girlfriend at the time, director Valeria Gai Germanika, shot a video for the group - and soon the musicians went on concerts around the country. As the leader of The Matrixx admits, they brought him much more pleasure than performing with his brother. “I’m proud of the very first concert of The Matrixx, when no one knew what we would sing, when I didn’t know how I would behave on stage alone,” Samoilov told Meduza. “And suddenly everything worked out in terms of mood and movement on stage as I wanted, as I dreamed. And this still happens, thank God, unless we are forced to sing Agatha Christie songs at some festivals.”

Debut video of Gleb Samoilov and The Matrixx for the song “Nobody Survived,” filmed by Valeria Gai Germanika

Soon The Matrixx released their first album, “The Beautiful is Cruel.” To his presentation, the group invited Alexander Prokhanov, in whose newspaper “Zavtra” Gleb was published back in the mid-1990s, oppositionist Eduard Limonov and writer Yuri Mamleev. The editor-in-chief of “Zavtra” found himself on a business trip, Mamleev fell ill, Limonov simply did not come - but politics remained an important part of Samoilov Jr.’s work throughout the following years. He dedicated songs and videos to Maidan, equated Stalin and Hitler in his lyrics, wore a cap with Soviet and Nazi symbols and sang on Sakharov Square in front of a crowd of one hundred thousand protesters: “We will always live on the FSB website.”

Samoilov opposed the system not only in the lyrics - he supported politicians Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov, picketed the reception of President Putin and refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia. “I don’t think it’s possible to come to an agreement with the authorities, but Vadim thinks it’s possible. People in power are mutated. These are no longer people. Or maybe, in many ways, not people. Everyone who is in power now are infernal characters,” Samoilov Jr. said in an interview, sadly admitting that the protest movement had failed.

At the same time, Gleb Samoilov’s political views changed repeatedly. Thus, in the late 1990s, Gleb spoke of himself as an “Orthodox conservative,” and in the mid-2010s he claimed that he opposed any government and jokingly called himself an “anarcho-fascist.” “Rock is in any case a protest against the system. But this is not necessarily a statement of some other system instead of the existing one,” the musician reasoned. - Even if you cannot offer any better alternative, then agreeing with what is, in my opinion, is wrong. I would just like to contribute to the unity of people who have fire in their souls, a sense of the injustice of power and the world in general. People who have passion, who are ready to go to prison, to be bludgeoned, and so on.”

Four million in debt

Despite the contradictions in their views, the Samoilov brothers separated quite calmly. Keyboardist Konstantin Bekrev, who played in Agata from 2008 to 2010 and performed at “nostalgic” concerts in 2015, confirmed to Meduza that the last tour of the Epilogue group passed peacefully: “There was a mood to work, make new music and play good concerts. The brothers discussed any creative issues quite calmly and peacefully throughout the entire tour and always found solutions that would suit both of them.” The first years after the group's breakup also passed quietly. As a matter of fact, the Samoilovs hardly communicated. Gleb explained that the brothers saw each other 24 hours a day for 22 years in a row and now they can easily rest.

In 2014, the Samoilovs began to discuss returning to the stage together. “The interest was purely financial. Surkov then lost part of his position and, apparently, stopped financing Vadim. Things weren’t going well for Gleb either - The Matrixx didn’t play Agatha’s hits, and he often went on stage drunk, or even completely disrupted concerts, so the promoters didn’t want to deal with him,” the source told Meduza. well acquainted with the situation. Samoilov Jr. himself emphasized that he agreed to the reunion at the request of his brother, but admitted that the advance payment for two performances of Agatha Christie alone amounted to about five million rubles.

At the same time, the Samoilovs revised the agreement concluded in 2010, which prohibited both of them from performing Agatha Christie songs. Some of the group’s songs were now part of The Matrixx’s repertoire, and Vadim Samoilov, who almost did not engage in music after the group’s collapse, went on tour with the “Agatha Christie” program. All hits."

The brothers' quarrel began with a dispute over fees for "nostalgic" concerts. Having received the advance payment, Vadim allegedly called his brother and asked: “Do you really need four million right now? Can I take them? Gleb agreed to lend money. Three months later, he began texting his older brother on his phone with questions about the loan; he ignored them. Gleb spoke about the debt publicly, adding to this the accusation that Vadim performs Agatha Christie songs at concerts, which he did not sing on stage before the breakup of the group. After this, the brothers met, discussed the timing of repayment of the debt and came to an agreement, including regarding the performance of “Agatha” songs.

A little later, however, both brothers stated that the other party was not fulfilling the terms of the agreement. Vadim accused Gleb of fanning the conflict through the media, to which he said that the terms for repaying the debt and the conditions for using the songs specified in the document were not respected: “Compare, either receive 500 thousand every month, or receive 250 thousand, then after two months another 100 thousand and so on.” The older brother, in response to the younger brother’s claims, said that Gleb often drinks, and his words “do not correspond to reality.” He did not want to clarify his position to Meduza - according to the musician’s press secretary, Vadim Samoilov is not giving interviews at the moment.

Meduza’s interlocutors, however, claim that the cause of the conflict between the brothers was not only money and rights, but also the same politics. “The situation with Ukraine was the catalyst,” says journalist Alexei Ostudin, who has known the Samoilovs for a long time and made a documentary about the last tour of Agatha Christie.

Gleb Samoilov performs on the stage of the “March of Millions” on Moscow’s Sakharov Avenue, June 12, 2012

Photo: Gennady Gulyaev / Kommersant

Novorossiya Rocks

In May 2013, Vladimir Putin fired Vladislav Surkov from the post of deputy prime minister. Four months later, he became assistant to the president and switched from domestic to foreign policy, including Ukraine. Then Euromaidan happened, Crimea became part of Russia and the conflict in south-eastern Ukraine. After this, Surkov’s old friend Vadim Samoilov also became interested in the region. In the spring of 2015, the musician went to Donbass in the footsteps of his friend, singer Yulia Chicherina, who celebrated the New Year in Lugansk. This and subsequent trips will bring him a medal from the self-proclaimed LPR for services to the republic, a criminal case for illegal border crossing in Ukraine and a conflict with his younger brother.

“I dreamed of visiting Donbass from those first moments when I saw what kind of horror was happening there,” the musician said in an interview with the Ministry of Culture of the self-proclaimed DPR. — The Ukrainian army and battalions of the National Guard are Nazism. I went to support people in this wild, wild situation. When their peaceful cities began to be bombed and shot, when thugs came and did what they wanted just because a person spoke Russian.” Samoilov also believed that a “repetition of the Maidan” in Russia is impossible, and the crisis in Ukraine is “the most typical example of the hole you can fall into when the country is led by the Kasyanovs and Nemtsovs.”

During his trips to the territory of the unrecognized republics, Samoilov visited Donetsk and Lugansk, listened to poems by old women from Debaltseve, took photographs with the separatists and held several rock festivals at once. Meduza contacted the management of the Novorossiya Rocks radio station, which organized one of the concerts. A radio representative, who asked not to mention his name, said that Samoilov Sr. himself proposed organizing the Novorossiya Rocks festival in Donetsk in April 2015. The radio station became an information partner, and local businessmen provided the site and equipment. The festival was free and brought together four hundred people in one of the city's clubs. In addition to Samoilov, Yulia Chicherina and the group “7B” came there to perform - when the power went out in the club for an hour, the first performed “My Rock and Roll” with a ukulele, and the leader of the second, Ivan Demyan, sang “Young Winds”. Samoilov condemned the rockers who refused to go to Donbass: “This is not patriotism. If you support it, then you get off your ass and go.”

The next day, Samoilov’s tour of Donbass continued as the DPR celebrated International Youth Solidarity Day. Several thousand residents came to Donetsk Lenin Square. Stalls sold souvenirs, children ate cotton candy, and adults listened to Russian rock stars. The audience sang “My rock and roll” and “Like in war” in chorus; a fighter in camouflage stood at the side of the stage, waving the DPR flag in time with the beat of the drums. “This is probably the best performance in my life,” Samoilov himself said after the concerts, adding that he intended to dedicate a song to Donbass.

The founder of Agatha Christie was also involved in social activities in the unrecognized republics. He promised to develop the local rock movement, did charity work, celebrated Victory Day in Lugansk, and even tried to bring musicians from Donbass to the “Invasion.” However, the management of Nashe Radio, which organizes the festival, refused the former frontman. Our Radio did not answer Meduza’s questions about the reasons for the refusal.

“In the current conditions, art cannot be outside of politics. In a sense, Donbass is now the epicenter of the development of a new human civilization. Here fate is now being decided, global issues are being resolved - what the world should be like and how people should live. West, East, geopolitics, business, ideology - everything in the world came together here, in this space,” Samoilov Sr. explained his position, noting that both totalitarianism and capitalism have already become obsolete.

Some time later, at the beginning of 2020, the musician, who once served in the anti-aircraft missile forces, went to another war - this time to Syria. He said that he literally “asked for” this trip at the Ministry of Defense because his “heart asked him to come”: “We are patriotic people and believe that the Russian army here truly defends peace. Perhaps the only army in the world that truly fights for peace.”

In Syria, he sang “Agatha” hits right in soldiers’ tents, performed for pilots on the runway of a military airfield, and gave a concert in the canteen for the entire staff of the Khmeimim airbase. For this trip, Samoilov was even awarded a medal for his participation in a military operation - according to the musician, at the suggestion of the pilots. “After the concert, one of the officers said: that’s it, you can safely stay for another three months. And just that very evening, when we were there, they had a relegation and they won a big victory. And I can proudly say: they believe that our participation is in this victory,” Samoilov told reporters.

With all this, Vadim Samoilov has repeatedly said that he does not consider himself a statist. “Gleb is a nonconformist radical, I’m more of a constructivist and some kind of optimist. “I believe that life is the art of compromise,” he said in an interview with the Mir TV channel. — This is one of the most common myths that I am a fan of Putin, the Kremlin and Surkov and look at them with the loving eyes of that same trained poodle. In fact, everything I do happens because I think about how we all and our country can live better.”

One way or another, the opinion of the younger musician of “Agatha” did not coincide with the position of the Russian officers. Gleb Samoilov, who dedicated songs to Euromaidan and was included in online lists of “enemies of the people,” was unhappy that some media outlets wrote that “Agatha Christie” performed in Syria and Donbass. “I don’t want to have anything to do with this politics. And in the cities there is advertising “Vadim and Gleb Samoilov, “Agatha Christie,” Samoilov Jr. was indignant. “I believe that both on our side and on Kyiv’s side there is a dirty geopolitics involved in blood. I’m disgusted by both sides.”

Right to Opium

Aggravation of differences in views, coupled with a monetary conflict and mutual claims in the media, brought the brothers to court. Gleb filed a lawsuit against his brother in June 2020. In it, he asked to prohibit Vadim from singing 172 Agatha Christie songs at once. The musician explained to Meduza that he believes that his older brother does not have the “moral right” to sing songs that he “has nothing to do with” and in which he is not a co-author. “I would forbid him to perform even just my poems, but I act within the law,” Samoilov said.

Indeed, judging by the catalog of the First Music Publishing House, whose clients are the brothers, the copyrights to most of Agata’s songs belong to Gleb. Among other things, he is the author of both the music and the lyrics to the main hits of Agatha Christie - “Opium for Nobody” and “Like in War.” The head of the legal intellectual property practice group, Yuri Yakhin, confirmed to Meduza that according to the law, Gleb can, through the court, prohibit Vadim from performing songs of his own composition.

The position of Samoilov Sr. is that all the songs of “Agatha” are the result of joint work. “In order for Gleb Samoilov to write all these wonderful compositions, we needed those who would do everything else, be the full-fledged owner of the group, be responsible for relations with investors, sponsors, labels and carry everything on themselves. This is what I did, to the detriment of myself and my own songs,” he said.

“Agatha Christie” performs the song “Like in War” at a “nostalgic” concert at the Olimpiysky. Moscow, February 27, 2015

Dmitry Belov

The matter did not end with a lawsuit. All summer, the brothers exchanged complaints, stated that the opposite side was threatening them, and recorded video messages to fans. Disagreements have arisen over Donbass again. In one of his interviews, Gleb once again expressed his protest against the performance of Agatha Christie songs in Donetsk. “I am very unhappy with the situation when songs that I wrote are played at pro-Kremlin events. This hurts and offends me. I didn't write these songs for slaves. Not for slaves of power,” he said. After these words, Vadim said that if his brother once again calls the residents of Donbass “slaves,” then he “will do everything so that his team is recognized as extremist, so that he no longer sings the song “Make Bombs.”

Gleb considered this a real threat. On August 19, a video message from the mother of the Samoilov brothers appeared in the official community of The Matrixx group. “Vadik called me, sent me an SMS and said that he would be raising a legal case against Gleb, in which Gleb could be sentenced to several years in prison. He also called Gleb. In a conversation with Gleb, I said: son, we definitely need to stop him before something irreparable happens,” said Irina Vladimirovna Samoilova. Vadim, in a response video message, stated that Gleb deceived his mother and cut out a part from the video where she says that Samoilov Sr. called her and said that he would not submit any applications. Vadim called his brother “a man.”

On the same days, Gleb Samoilov turned to the Investigative Committee with a request to open a criminal case against his brother for copyright infringement under Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which carries punishment up to imprisonment for up to two years. The musician’s lawyer, Alisa Obraztsova, explained that the reason for the appeal was precisely the threats of Samoilov Sr.: “Vadim Samoilov promised that if Gleb did not stop, he would ruin his career. In particular, he is initiating criminal prosecution for allegedly calling for extremism in his songs.”

The next hearing on Samoilov's lawsuit against Samoilov will be held on September 21 in the Savelovsky Court. At the previous meeting, Vadim’s representative admitted that the musician performs 21 songs at concerts out of the 172 listed in the lawsuit, but added that Samoilov Sr. has the right to this, since he took part in the creation of the compositions, for example, as a sound engineer. As a result, judge Boris Udov (who also considered Vadim Samoilov’s lawsuit against Artemy Troitsky) decided to study the audio and video recordings of Agatha Christie.

“I don’t think that fairness and justice will prevail in our country,” Gleb Samoilov said in a conversation with Meduza. - This would be an exceptional case. I just want to show the true face of this person - even at the cost of many turning their backs on me. This is a man who, with honest eyes, tells absolute lies. I believe that this is a man who can step over his brother and considers himself absolutely unpunished and innocent. He deserves an answer."

Samoilov Jr. characterizes his current relationship with his brother in one word: “trash.” The second album of his band The Matrixx was called the same.

Pavel Merzlikin

Saint Petersburg