Ambassador21

Greetings! I figured I’d do a double whammy with this interview since you’re involved in both AMBASSADOR 21 (A21) and Invasion Wreck Chords, hope you don’t mind! It sounds like AMBASSADOR 21 and Invasion Wreck Chords have been busy over the past few years, what are you currently working on or towards?

Alexey Protasov: Hello Wednesday! Sure, let’s talk about all things… finally, all things are connected. Over the past few years, yeah, we have been busy and we are busy now and we hope we’ll busy in the future too! Since 2001 (AMBASSADOR 21 and after that Invasion Wreck Chords was formed) we have done many deals, have released many albums as AMBASSADOR 21 albums and some local and international bands/projects as well. Presently our main priorities are AMBASSADOR 21 (let’s just say the owners of Invasion Wreck Chords) and our label compilations. These politics are involved with the fact that we are not a really big label and we have no sponsors or anything like this. That is why we can’t release too many albums, because we can’t do a really good job as well as the promotion for each artist.

Tell me a little about the history behind AMBASSADOR 21 and Invasion Wreck Chords. Who’s involved in each? Where did the names of each originate from?

Alexey: AMBASSADOR 21 was formed in the summer of 2001, and we recorded our debut album “Invitation To Execution” December 2001. [Laughs]. We had one question – how will we release it? So we formed Invasion Wreck Chords. AMBASSADOR 21 consists of two persons: me, Alexey, and Natasha. Same with Invasion Wreck Chords. So yeah, some people cooperate with us and add their vision into our creativity, sometimes they don’t add anything at all! [Laughs]. But only me and Natasha can make the decision, that is the way it has been and always will be. Well, I don’t want to say any negative things about anyone, who was ever near A21 since 2001. I’ll say only positive stories, OK? [Laughs]. If I could. A lot of people are involve with A21, and it’s fuckin’ good. Sure, we’re active people, we can make many things, but we never said: “We don’t need any help.” No. If some people really understand our ideas, our creativity, and they want to support it – we welcome it, it’s good. Finally, we give our energy to other guys – we also must take it somewhere, right? And any collaborative creativity gives us good energy for music and for our lives, and it’s almost the same. So, A21’s history is not very big, but has enough light – we released some good albums, as full-length albums as well as some splits (with British breakcore artist HYPERDRIVER, for example). We took part in some compilations which were released by Invasion Wreck Chords, D-Trash Records, Beergut Recordings, Sudden Death Records, Wasp Factory and some others. We are really working a lot, and you can understand it – our job is A21 and Invasion Wreck, nothing else. We only make music, we don’t have any other jobs “for money.” So, our last album “Akcija” – it’s really fuckin’ great, believe me. When you hear it, you’ll agree with me, I’m sure. We have been working on this album for more than a year, and we did a lot of sessions and a lot of work went into it. And we’re fuckin’ glad with it’s final result! It’s really a bomb! And really great people were near us and together with us in this work. First of all, we invited J. AKA CTRLer as a studio guitar player in AMBASSADOR 21, and his guitars are very influential to the overall sound of “Akcija.” This guy is brilliant! We were very glad when he said that it will be cool for him to play with A21. He did play as live-guitarist for the Spanish rock band PLACID. This guy gave “Akcija” its own sounds and its own emotions. It’s very important. And sure, I must say that some other artists took part in this album – track “Satisfaction” was recorded with FANNY, and it’s a genius track, but FANNY is genius on the breakcore-scene, I think. We also made a collaboration track called “Right To Die” with French band PUNISH YOURSELF. Cool guys, they will be very big, I believe. Our great friend SCHIZOID made “Zombie” with us – I hope we’ll continue collaborating with him in the future, we love this guy and are very grateful to him for all his support and friendship. Also a legendary man did sing with AMBASSADOR 21 in “Akcija,” rock-man – Joey “Shithead” Keithley from the great D.O.A.! It’s really made us very proud! Yeah, many friends are near us all the time, we like it – always have stimulus’s for movement. I am really glad to know that “Akcija” is our best album. It’s a weapon. Bomb. It’s not a game, trust me.

I’m not overly familiar with Belarus, tell me a little bit about the music scene/culture in your area of the world. How does it compare to other scenes you’ve been to through your former tours?

Alexey: [Laughs]. I know little about the Belorussian scene, too! Really!!! Believe it or not, but we almost don’t make contacts with anyone in the scene here. I don’t know… We’re not “closed” (minded) people… Something others, I think are… But, yeah, some bands exist… some parties are going on… sometimes… But ideas???!!! Damn, I don’t speak about “left-wing” or “right-wing,” or any other concrete ideas… ANY IDEA OF YOUR FUCKIN’ “CREATIVITY!” WHAT? WHY? I think, some artists make anything, but they just don’t feel it and don’t understand why they are doing it? But it’s the MOST IMPORTANT THING! Otherwise all this doesn’t make any sense, right? It’s called a “hobby,” it’s not serious, because you can split your life between some creativity (when you have the time or want) and a practical attitude to reality. And all this is just a lie – you lie to yourself, first of all. Damn, strange things going on here with a “movement” – the electro-“scene” is very seriously discussed about elite music. When our parties will be closed – it will be really good, because we listen to elitist music? Hehe, sorry, AMBASSADOR 21 doesn’t play for any fuckin’ “elite,” we play for anyone, who understands it and who needs it. But “elitist” music – what is it? I don’t know… But if you can understand – this scene is talking about their “elected” or “elite” – fuck this “community.” And this is the reason that I just can’t tell you about any electronic music movement here – I don’t know. If I compared the situation with it here to other scenes – hahaha! Yeah, we are really glad to play in other countries. We feel really good emotions there. We have no invitations here, in Belarus, and you know – why? Because when some guy, who wants to organize our gig, calls us, do you know what he thinks about it? He thinks: “Hmmm… How much money could I take from this?” It’s his single idea. And after that when he talks with us, he hears: “OK, but we’ll have full control of the organization of OUR GIG.” Oh, he speaks, you’re VERY HARD [difficult] people, I don’t want to invite you any more. Hahaha! OK, good. We are hard. OK, we’ll play in other places. In Holland or Belgium. We are not hard there. Shitty situation, but we don’t sell ourselves – we will never play if organizers do shit. It’s our music, it’s our gigs, and we will have full control in it anyway. That’s right.

What was the outcome of the last Akcija (did I spell that right?) tour? Have you released any songs, albums or videos from it?

Alexey: First of all, Akcija!-tour is not finish yet. We did play the first part of it in October 2003, it was 11 gigs in Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria, it was really-really great for us. After the tour we finished the recording of our album “Akcija” and in April 2004 we’ll start touring again, it will be the 2nd part of the AMBASSADOR 21 European Akcija!-tour. No, we didn’t released any live stuff yet, but we will. I hope, that we can release an A21 “Akcija” live album, we will call it “Too Live To Shut Up.” And we will release a movie about the Akcija tour, a really big good movie. We have a ton of videos from the October part and we hope, we’ll make more videos in April. Apropos, in April we’ll play with VERY interesting bands such as C-DRIK (Ad Noiseam, Ant-Zen, Hush Hush) – his other projects AXIOME, CRNO KLANK, TETRA PLOK, KIRDEC and more; also CANDIDEMIRE, MESSER CHUPS (hahaha! It’s funny – it is a really popular and well known RUSSIAN band – we’ll play with them in Belgium), and others. I think, we’ll get really cool stuff for the movie.

When does the next Akcija tour kick off? What areas of the world are you hoping to conquer this time around and what other artists or bands will be joining you on the excursion?

Alexey: He he… I answered this already… But OK, we’ll leave Minsk on April 2nd and right after our arrival, April 3rd, we’ll play in Eindhoven, Netherlands. In April we’ll play in Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Germany and, finally, in France – cool to see this country!

Do you get to meet a lot of other bands/artists while touring that you may not have met otherwise? What are some of the highlights from your 2003 tour? Did you get to meet anyone “special?”

Alexey: SUUUUUURE!!!! All were”special,” hahaha! Really! Yeah, we did meet too many fuckin’ great people! It was great – I think, we’re lucky! Special… OK, I think, Natasha and me can answer the same about something really “special”…When we were on the road from Amsterdam to Groningen, we saw something unique. It’s north of Netherlands and imagine if you will a long highway, around 40 kilometers with lots of cards and busses, but around this road was no land! There were two different seas on either side of the road. One sea was called the North Sea, but the second I don’t know – we didn’t find the equivalent in Russian. But it’s really fuckin’ great!!!! Oh, too many impressions, too much, believe me. And sure, people – I can’t speak about ALL the good guys who we’ve meet there – but very much! All these impressions gave us COLOSSAL ENERGY for finishing work on “Akcija” after we did get back. And I hope, we can give this energy to our fans.

What can one expect from a live A21 show? Are you ever planning on coming over to Canada to play some shows? We’d LOVE to have you!! Well, maybe I should speak for myself [Laughs] Though I know J.Schizoid and a few others would be honored to catch one of your shows as well!

Alexey: What can one expect from a live A21 show? Hmmm… OK: it’s a battlefield. War. Apocalypse. Klinik. Life. Riot. Many things. It’s energy. It’s ideas. It’s not a set of sounds. It’s something more. Hey, we would FUCKIN’ like to play in Canada! Sure! But we understand that its a very long and expensive travel – but, we’ll wait for an invitation. We’re sure that we could – why not? We have a lot of friends in Canada and I think, if we play there, it will be a DEATH-SHOW!!!

What can people expect to hear on the “Noizzze” compilation that’s coming out soon? It looks as though a ton of great bands are featured on it. What are some of your favorite artists/songs on the album? It’s a double disc is it not? Tell me a bit more about the compilation. Where did the idea for it originate and how did you go about getting so many artists to be on it? What are the highlights of the album?

Alexey: Yeah, “noizzze. just do it. invasion & friends” was released in February, and it’s a really great release. Ha ha! Yeah, sure we have favorites, but… OK, I won’t just speak about really well known artists such as David Thrussell, KLANGSTABIL, NOIZE CREATOR or somebody else: I was really surprised by tracks of some of the new artists (new for me, may be) – L.E.T.O. from Poland (you must wait for his album on DTA!!!), American GACKY, ADAM STRANG from Vienna, MIND DISRUPTION (from Germany) – hmmm… Only great stuff on this double compilation, very different, yeah, but really energetic and great! Ideas of this release were very easy – we thought that it would be cool if we released comps like this on Invasion Wreck every year. Label compilations. It’s good. Hahaha! No specific ideas – really good music of our friends. But it was hard work, believe it or not – 36 artists on this compilation, from all over the world. Hahaha, hot connections around half a year! International projects like this are very interesting for us – new contacts, new music, new ideas always – it’s the main and important reason, isn’t it? We have done it for some years already – our first international project was a double CD called “Revolution – Now!!!!,” it was a digital hardcore comp, and really great names were on it – COBRA KILLER feat. Carl Crack, SCHIZOID, UNITUS, CONTRA, a lot of Canadian, British and Belorussian bands. So we’ll continue the Invasion Wreck international projects, because we are interested in it. Damn! Some people say: “You’re sellouts! You work with only capitalists! You MUST support Belorussian bands!” Hmmm… Why MUST we? I can’t understand that, sorry. If I don’t like your music – why MUST I? Fuck you. I WANT – yeah, I understand that . But I MUST…Sorry, but in this life we do only what we want. And we don’t “MUST” anything for anybody.

How can people get a hold of a copy of the “Noizzze” compilation or any other A21/Invasion CDs?

Alexey: Any one from any place can visit our website, choose any release and write us: “Hey, guys, I want it!” Yeah, we have some problems with money – it’s just because we can’t accept Paypal or any credit cards, because we don’t have a bank account, it’s involved because we live in Belarus. But we have a real working variant of this problem. So people just need to write to us and all will be well. Hahaha, we’re honest guys and don’t steal money.

What is the connection between you and DHC Meinhof? Just curious, I see you wearing quite a few DHC Meinhof t-shirts in photos.

Alexey: Good connection. They are our big friends, we like their music and them. They are cool guys! Yeah, I did play wearing a DHC MEINHOF T-shirt… But I also play wearing SCHIZOID, PUNISH YOURSELF, and NOIZE PUNISHMENT T-shirts… Hahaha! I have a lot of different T-shirts with cool bands. I like these bands. I don’t have a BON JOVI T-shirt, for example….

Are you apart of any other bands or projects? How do they compare/differ from what you do in A21?

Alexey: No, me and Natasha don’t have any other projects. In AMBASSADOR 21 we play what we want. I don’t need any other projects. Yeah, I have a DJ project, but the fact is DJ J.CHRIST is the “official DJ of A21,” hahaha! Yeah, I write some tracks as DJ J.CHRIST, but not too many – there’s just no time for it. All of our time and energy goes into A21 and Invasion Wreck. Really. In one stupid, but funny Hollywood movie one guy asked another: “Who are you?” “I want to be an animator” “Wow, really? But what do you do?” “I work in a cheese factory” “Really? Fuck, man! If you want be animator – stop work in a cheese factory.” He is right. If you’re a musician – stop working in any office 5 days a week and play your music instead. Or shut up.

Tell me about some of your past or upcoming Invasion Wreck Chords releases and artists/bands. What are some of your favorite releases so far and why?

Alexey: Oh, this is difficult… I don’t like to speak about the past… My favorite releases of Invasion Wreck are all AMBASSADOR 21 albums. Honestly. About upcoming releases: as I said, our priorities for this moment in time are focussed on A21 and compilation projects. A21 “Akcija” was released. V/A “noizzze. just do it.” 2CD was released. Now – Akcija! tour, with some summer festivals – as I said already Invasion Wreck and A21 are the same 2 persons, me and Natasha, so there will be some other jobs in nearest future for us. Ahem, we have an invitation to play at Bratislava Electronic Music Festival in August 2004 – it will be fuckin’ great! We’ll play with PANACEA, SYNAPSCAPE, PROYECTO MIRAGE, CTRLer, ROGER ROTOR, BONG-RA, NOIZE CREATOR, APHASIC, IMMINENT STARVATION – a lot of other great bands will be there! Also now we are planning on an A21 remix project, but it may not be released on Invasion Wreck: so, it will be fuckin’ proud for us – A21 will be remixed by CONVERTER, P.A.L., SYNAPSCAPE, NOIZE CREATOR, APHASIC, SCHIZOID, END, PROYECTO MIRAGE, FANNY, CTRLer, HANSEL, NOT HALF, ROGER ROTOR, FRAGMENT KING, AXIOME, C-DRIK, CDATAKILL – can you imagine this?

How did you become involved with our buddies DTrash Records? Will you be releasing anymore DTrash Records albums in the future?

Alexey: Working with D-Trash was a fuckin’ pleasure! Jason our really big friend and he does a great job for the artists. Gratefully for him a lot of people know us in North America, and it’s good! Yeah, we would like to release some new records through DTRASH, sure. We take part in some DTRASH comps or remix projects also, we made remixes for THE SHIZIT, HANSEL. And we discussed with Jay already about releasing on DTRASH a split DJ J.CHRIST/NOT HALF. I hope, we could do it this year…

What are some of your inspirations for composing and playing music?

Alexey: Wow, this is a really simple question. If we’re talking about non music influences, they’d be: P. Kropotkin, F. Nietszche, A. Camus, E. Fromm, some existentialists (but not Sartre, off course!!!), and many more… And, sure, artists: DOORS, CAN, Frank Zappa, many punks: STOOGES, MC5, RAMONES (!!!), DEAD BOYS, MINOR THREAT, BLACK FLAG, D.O.A., DEAD KENNEDYS, NOMEANSNO, a lot of others; MINISTRY (it’s for all time), SWANS, FOETUS, REVOLTING COCKS, LARD, NAPALM DEATH, UNSANE, NEUROSIS, NINE INCH NAILS, YOUNG GODS, FRONT 242, SNOG, NAPALM DEATH, ATARI TEENAGE RIOT, BOREDOMS, EC8OR, SHIZUO, FEVER, KID 606, PANACEA, FANTOMAS, SYNAPSCAPE, GODFLESH, CONVERTER, TECHNO ANIMAL, SCHIZOID, PUNISH YOURSELF, CDATAKILL – too much. We listen to A LOT OF MUSIC, always very different.

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me, and best wishes for the next installment of the Akcija tour and the new A21 album!!

Alexey: Thank YOU very much! Thanks for spreading the word!

By Wednesday Elektra, March 2004