Are The Basics The First Western Band To Have Written & Recorded A Song In The Russian Language?
The Basics' brooding new song, 'Законопослушный гражданин (Don’t Be Deceived),' is about freedom—freedom from coercion, freedom for personal thought and growth.
The Basics (Source: Supplied)
Philip Mortlock is the owner of Origin Music.
Established well over twenty years ago, Melbourne-based band The Basics started recording and releasing their brand of rockin’ pop, long before drummer Wally de Backer found success with his solo project as Gotye.
The band have consistently found ways to come together and collaborate despite their separate lives and activities.
Cut to 2025, and Wally is working away on his new Gotye repertoire while having also relocated from NY to the south of France with his family. Guitarist Tim Heath is located in Castlemaine, Victoria, with partner Felicity Cripps, running the very fine Theatre Royal venue.
Bass player Kris Schroeder, who has become a doctor, lives in Townsville, QLD, with his young family and works at the local hospital.
The faraway locations and activities didn’t stop the three Basics getting together in NY recently to record a bunch of new songs together.
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While there, an unusual thing happened.
The engineer they’re working with says, “Last night, this guy from Belarus knocked on the door looking for work, and he's coming back today to have a chat.”
"What do you mean he's from Belarus?" You ask.
Apparently, he's actually jumped on a plane to escape his country, which has been under an authoritarian regime since the early ‘90s.
It's been about a year since Putin sent his troops to try to take Ukraine at this point.
Elsewhere, China was talking about reclaiming Taiwan.
More recently, Israel has ostensibly seized Gaza, and the USA has made overtures toward doing the same to Canada, Panama and Greenland.
The world you've grown up in is in flux, and people are getting trampled along with their hopes.
Anyway, he turns up with this quiet energy. He has family back in Belarus, and once his asylum claim has been approved, he intends to bring them over with him.
"Why a music studio?"
He's actually a music producer back home and has had some modest success in Europe.
He's keen to work on something together, anything really, to get him started on the path to rescuing his family.
Belarus pretends to be a separate country, but it's firmly a client state of Russia.
They live in shadow with little opportunity for growth or personal expression.
Much like North Korea, the face they show to the outside world is very different from the reality.
Needless to say, any deviation from the regime is met with a brutal reply.
Kris from the band tells him he has been working on a song for a couple of months.
He started writing it in Russian as an exercise while he was learning the language.
It's about freedom. Not the fake freedom that automobile or telecommunications companies want you to pay for.
But freedom from coercion. Freedom for personal thought and growth.
The words resonate with him.
They tooled the song. He fixes up some bits where the syntax doesn't sound natural.
Says Kris, “My ears have improved since I first attempted the language in 2018, but my tongue is still clumsy.”
But Wally and Tim have provided a solid bedrock to sing over.
Elsewhere in the world, a Russian-speaking Israeli singer adds her vocals to complement the melody.
But just like our Belarusian friend, she is too nervous about being identified.
As such, both these brave people remain uncredited until such time as they feel safe.
And here is the result. A powerful, brooding new song from The Basics – Законопослушный гражданин (Don’t Be Deceived).
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