Meet SHYSHA, the Italo-Russian duo that’s serious about being cute
Words: Peter Quincy Ng
Sweet and charming, SHYSHA’s (ШЫША) sound is defined by their gleeful vocals and the glitchy, rainbow-colored hues from their beat-driven synth production. Comprised of Tania Bogdanova on vocals and Marco Boccamazzo on production, SHYSHA pens songs in Russian but are inspired by wide and far-reaching influences which extend beyond their native Moscow and St. Petersburg. Whether it’s writing about savory Nordic staples like “Herring with Potatoes” (Сельдь с картошкой) or brooding over global disaster and failed romance on “Greta”, SHYSHA’s joie de vivre is not lost in translation. Following with their latest LP “Together” (Воедино) released late last year as their follow-up to introductory EP “Magnet” (магнит), we spoke to the lovely duo about their process in songwriting and their cute and cuddly plans for global conquest.
For those who don't know, tell us a little about yourselves and a little about the music you write. Hello! We are SHYSHA! We're a duet from Russia, from Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. We compose heartfelt electronic music! Marco writes music and plays bass-guitar, Tania sings, writes lyrics and music too.
Your music and aesthetic is inspired by nostalgia and the not-so-distant 2010's, while art often is obsessed redefining notions of modernity, you seemingly resist it, why would that be? Yes, we try to mix different music styles from different epochs, even from not-so-distant times. We try to rework and rethink music of the past through a modern sound, but at the same we really enjoy the original sound of the 80's. Your music is not necessarily very characteristic of other contemporary Russian artists or other indie-pop acts, can I say there's an Italo-pop influence or Perestroika-era aesthetic? What are some of your influences in creating music?
We enjoy the sound of Italo-disco, as we really love the sound of the 80’s. There are not so many artists in Russia, who play in the same musical style as us, but they do exist. For example, SBPCH (СБПЧ), Stereopolina (Стереополина), Glasnost (Гласность). But I have to say we don’t exclusively work in this style.
Just as a funny aside, Marco is mixed-Italian heritage. What are his opinions of the Ciao 2020 spoof which occurred on Evening Urgant?
Here in Russia people still believe that Italian music is only like pop from the 80's. But nowadays in Italy there are a lot of interesting modern artists like Coma_Cose, Francesca Michielin and others, but all of them are unknown in Russia.
It's not often where artists are self-critical, much less in Russia where self-criticism is taken quite literally. Do you ever struggle with being taken seriously as artists, while creating songs that are cute, fun and sometimes silly?
We’d like, if people would take us as artists seriously, and our latest album “Together” (Воедино) is more serious than fun, but it is still cute.
Though sung in the Russian language, a lot of the themes you sing about have a global reach. Did you ever flirt with the idea of making music for non-Russian audiences? Yes, we do. Now we are working on it. We are going to make a feat with a famous Italian musician.
You recently collaborated with Kristina from Fruitmachine 777, on track “Herring with Potatoes”. Tell us how this collaboration came about!
We have known Kristina for ages, so it was an easy decision for us when we needed to record with somebody. When we started to work with Kristina and her project “Fruit Machine 777” we made several demos, and Kristina wrote the song “Herring and Potatoes” for Tania. Later we made video for this song, and everyone liked it! After that, we released the song as a single.
“Herring with Potatoes”
ШЫША · Сельдь с картошкой
Kristina also helped write the lyrics and record vocals for “Electricity” (Электричество) which features on our latest album.
“Electricity”
ШЫША · Электричество
It's often difficult for artists to get their first start, so I suppose it was a big surprise to get over a million views on collaboration with Jägermeister for your first single!
Jägermeister helps many young artists with promotion, events and music videos. We were very happy to collaborate with their team!
“Magnet”
ШЫША · Магнит
"Greta" is an example of a single with great reach, and it even has English subtitles for the curious. Even though it can be seen as satire, caring for the environment is not often discussed despite the bold activism that is seen in music. What inspired the story behind "Greta"? We wanted to make a satiric song about those who don’t care about our planet. We used Greta Thunberg’s image, but we wanted to show her as an ordinary girl with ordinary problems.
“Greta”
ШЫША · Грета
You've recently released some music to follow-up from your 2020 album "Magnet". What's next for SHYSHA that the world needs to know? We’ve released our new album “Together” and the single “1995” from this album and was in different playlists of Spotify. This album is full of hits; every song is a hit in our minds! We worked a lot and more thoroughly; the sound of this album will be more modern, and we hope our listeners will enjoy it!
“1995”
ШЫША · 1995
Save the planet! Please keep the planet safe. Send my regards to your wonderful plants!
Our plants send you regards too!
You can check out SHYSHA on Bandcamp and Spotify.
