Little Big Cancels You

Leather jacket WORSTOK, tights ACNE STUDIOS, boots MAISON MARGIELA, sunglasses ACNE STUDIOS

After a year-long break, the band throws a wicked curveball, cutting their brief absence short and reminding their fans that once again, they are here for the long hall. This recent release accentuates their focus and melds together catchy melodies with absurdist humor, showcasing the versatility and range of their power as a group. A euphoric kind of trickster energy saturates this single from the first note up until the last.

office sat down with the band members to discuss their conceptualized visions, musical process, upcoming projects, and more.

First and foremost, how are all of you doing and what are you the most excited about right now?

Ilia 一 Right now we’re in the state of prostration. We don’t fully understand what to do and how to keep living.

You’re a band of five members, as a group, how do you collectively conceptualize your visions when making your music? Is it ever difficult to come to an agreement or does every member have equal say?

Sonya 一 It’s not difficult. Our band is a democracy, but until a certain point simply because every band needs a leader that can put a final point on a discussion. We listen to each other but the final saying belongs to Ilia. The success is always mutual but if there’s a fuck up it’s Ilia’s responsibility. 

Your band's music is emblematic of rave culture and it spews out notes of hyper-pop and a great fucking time. How do you capture the essence of these elements? How did you formulate your sound?

Ilia 一 We never attempted to create a song within a certain genre. Our music is hybrid in its essence, for example, last summer we released a metal track inspired by rave culture. Also, we have the track ‘UNO’ which is a Eurodance and Latino hybrid. ’Skibidi’ it’s a completely fucked up song and I’m not even able to tell what’s the genre. If anyone out there can define the ‘Skibidi’ genre please DM us, we’ll be extremely grateful. *laughs* We do what we want basically, since we were little we got used to listening to different genres from jazz to death metal. That’s why it is really hard for us to limit ourselves to one genre. When we arrive at the studio we never force anything, we never know what will come out. It can be metal, hyper-pop, house, rave, or Brazilian funk, it’s always a surprise. Honestly, maybe I’d like to be able to come to the studio and make music within one single genre, but as of now, I’ve been unsuccessful. It’s been like that for the last ten years and it’s been a thrill so far.

Sonya: full look RICK OWENS, Ilya: full look SECOND LAYER

The release of each album draws references from pop culture, who are some of your earliest influences when growing up? How did these influences shape your visions?

Ilia 一 Everything we do is connected to pop culture. Since we were kids we used to breathe pop culture and let’s be honest in Russia all the contemporary pop culture is American. Neither I, Sonya nor Alina ever liked Soviet pop culture because it was too conservative and always supported the government’s interests. Apart from some exceptions like Gaidai or Balabanov, everything was about either love or love for the government. So stuff like MTV, 90s movies, and music is a huge inspiration for us. European culture is also a big part of our art, I love ‘New Kids Turbo’, the Dutch gabber and hardcore scene, and the Italian hardcore scene. We also love Italian cinema, Celentano movies are among our favorites. We love Wes Anderson, Taika Waititi, and of course ABBA - they are geniuses. Ah, and a huge shoutout to James Gunn for making Peacemaker’ that show is fucking sick! Some of my friends never understood how I could listen to Cannibal Corpse and Aqua at the same time *laughs*

Each music video oozes out this peculiar combination of chaos and extraordinary energy. What’s the behind the scenes process look like? In other words, how do you all put together your videos?

Alina 一 We want our music videos to have a variety of scenes and a diversity of characters. That's why we spend a lot of time reflecting meticulously on each scene and building each character. Before actually filming a music video we create either pre-shoots or CGI animations of all the scenes so we can preview them and understand if they work or not.

Ilia 一 It’s very important that the viewer gets the message of each scene or at least its vibe. We want the viewer to have a good time with us because each time we shoot a music video we have a great fucking time. We have a big team behind each video, so it’s really important that everyone has fun filming it because the viewer will feel the good vibes as well.

Long coat WORSTOK 

Aside from being masterful musicians, the performance aspect that you all show off accentuates each track and takes them to new heights. Could you talk about what inspires the dances and performances?

Ilia 一 When I was a kid I used to write music, breakdance, and skate. Somehow back then I felt that music couldn’t exist without a visual component. So if you’re performing a song live or in a music video the moves you make enhance the vibe of the song. It’s not only about your singing skills, but it’s also about your looks, your moves, and how the whole ensemble is being filmed.

You haven’t released any new music since 2021, can we expect to see anything in the upcoming months? Perhaps an EP or a single is in the works?

Ilia 一 We have a lot of new music and music video ideas. We’ve got some features in mind as well. We haven’t released anything on purpose, because we were going through an introspection phase. We had a lot of hype since 2020 and everyone was expecting something from us, there was a lot of pressure to keep releasing tracks. Our fans were asking for different kinds of music, some wanted rave, others wanted more stuff like ‘UNO’ or ‘Skibidi’. In the end, we decided to take a pause and start to write the kind of music we want and at our own pace. We wanted to regain pleasure in writing music, it might sound cliché but if we enjoy writing our music our audience will enjoy listening to it. Frequently it’s either the artist who serves the audience or vice-versa, we don’t like that. We think the best formula is when you and your audience are at the same level when you’re like one.

Sonya: tank top SECOND LAYER, shoes JACQUEMUS, Ilya: shorts BALENCIAGA, helmet CRUSADE

What themes do you all hope to explore in future projects? How do you want to elevate your sound and project your music to new lengths?

Ilia 一 We don’t know how the project will evolve. For example, our new song and music video ’Generation Cancellation’ is a statement against the war. It’s our position not only in regards to the war in Ukraine but also the wars all around the world. We think the concept of war should cease to exist once and for all. The people responsible for this make our lives like hell on Earth, we never understood that in full until it came close to us. This is to say that we wanted to create this hyper-pop, grungy song so we made it. We also have this 80s track coming mixed with a metal riff, so it’s really hard to plan for us, life is so unpredictable so we think it’s just silly to plan something. Whatever happens, happens. Our motto is to keep doing what you’re doing no matter the risks.

What kind of feeling dominates when you listen to your music or what do you want your listeners to feel when they listen to your music?

Ilia 一 Little Big it’s a statement, our message is that everything makes no sense except your life. A person’s life shouldn’t be sad, it should be enjoyable. If everyone could live like this there would be no wars, why would you go to death or kill someone if you enjoy your own life? The simple possibility of someone’s death is a tragedy, one person’s death is a tragedy, and war, well war is something unthinkable.

Lastly, what can we expect to see from all of you in the next few months? Anything you can share with the writers at the office?

Ilia 一 ‘Generation Cancellation’ is dropping in June and the upcoming tracks will be more Little Big. We had to share ‘Generation Cancellation’ now because we can’t stay silent because we are in pain and we need to let it out. We want everyone to understand what we feel right now.