The artist's path is ups and downs: after black line there's white, after wonderful concert comes emptiness, inspi-ration comes hand by hand with fear of losing it. Where to take the inner resources, what goals come first and what is secondary — on it in her column the leader of 'Shu' band Sasha Balashova.
There were no musicians in our family but my par-ents listened carefully to my choice and supported me in all possible ways. My native Eupatoria's school added overconfidence to me: now it looks like we spent more time on the stage there, not in class. Then there was a Pioneers' Palace, Loktev Chorus, Sorochinskaya Fair: folk dance, harp, chorus — from dusk till dawn. I had no doubt which way to choose despite the emotional roller-coaster — can I, will it work out?
Creating is impossible without inspiration therefore every musician is scared to not feel it ever again. Aguza-rova once said in interview: 'I lost my voice once and my eyes closed, I fell'. I do understand her very well, I'd feel the same tragedy if I'd loose my inspiration. This explains my permanent anxiety I live with, it gives me emotions for composing music. I yet might not be grown up enough to understand creating on a wave of happiness — 'little sunny in my hands' I call it.
When you are small, parents give you a big stock of faith in yourself. At the beginning of your way faith is necessary for the inner plan for the future. As we grow up we face many bad opinions about ourselves and it is important here to choose the important and pay no attention to less important things. A person must have those who believe in him. For me these people are my parents: my father helped me with my project from the very beginning. My council of elders — my team we speak the same language and solve all difficult questions. I sometimes get a very cold response to my sincere inter-est and warmth from the music world people. It doesn't discourage me — I know that artists keep the distance in order to protect themselves. The degree of trust is not so high in the world. I just believe that good acts will come back to you with something good and bad — with bad.
They always ask me what style do we play, if it is multidirectional or it is one song in different languages. And at this moment you should keep your faith in what you do. At first I got confused and had doubts — is it right to make experiments all of the time. But then I let myself do what I want. Song is talking to yourself. You wanted to write this kind of song, you did it. The next one should be different, you shouldn't repeat yourself, you have to go ahead, to change. Michael Jackson is an example, he always changed and I explain this way his permanent popularity. I don't have one single style — I took a bit from here a bit from there — from everywhere. I think that otherwise nothing new and interesting would come out, there would be no openings. Sometimes they say we are an 'Absolute soul'. We were given this name and it stayed with us meaning 'comprehensive'. There was a term 'World music ' — folk, ethnic music, modernized. In this understanding it is about us, but then the term's meaning narrowed, they reduced it to folk. Then one musical critic gave our style the name 'Exotic fusion'. I thought — that's it: fusion is about the combination of jazz, soul, blues and art rock. Exotic is about ethnics; I like all ethnics, I want to experiment with them. You can call our style eco music too, but whatever it is — jazz is the base of the base same as philosophy is the base of all sciences.
Sometimes I think about my way and wishes. I am not a person of small spaces, so I want big stages. I don't think about millions however: money are for creation because then you can be free to think about music not about survival. My dream is to continue singing in Russian, grow with my team, be necessary for my audience. That's how I see my mission: going ahead, feeling the responsibility for those whom we are interesting to and important for.
