‘Dialectics’ is the debut full-length album of Temnee, the band from Tver, Russia. Hypnotic jams and supersonic travel to singularity on an acid fuzz.

“It’s like something from the depths of a dark star or galaxy.”

Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

Alexey Frantsuzov: My first gigs was a back in a school days in Tver. I was interested in everything with distortion guitar and screaming vocal. The harder it was, the better it goes. And then I realized that I wanted to do the same music. So I ended up behind the drums, trying to pass the musical energy to the audience.

Alexander Bogomolov: I started playing musical instruments in early childhood. I have always been fascinated by the sound of an acoustic guitar, but I start to play only when I was about 15. The next year, I found my father’s old electric guitar in the attic of my house. I repaired it and so it started. Nowadays I could no longer imagine myself without playing the guitar. I like that I can express my emotions with guitar. When you feel good or bad, you feel some kind of a state inside yourself, a kind of emotional nuclear explosion that generates a certain melody in your head. After several thrash metal and cover bands, I ended up in the same band with Evgenii. When that band went down, we started Temnee.

Evgenii Mikhalchenko: Yeah, that was around 2013. Since then we worked on the first EP, which was called ‘Astrodiving’. It was released in 2014. Then we played for a long time with another drummer, Stanislav [Chestnodumov]. Around the beginning of 2016, we invited Alexey to record drums for the ‘Dialectics’ album. So long story short, that’s the whole history of Temnee. We are mixing a new album now. We hope to release it next year. As for my path to music, it all started with AC/DC in early school, and then grew to some incredible proportions. I bought my first guitar when I was about 14 years old. Me and my friend Ilya tried to play something back in those days, but we were so lame! I still have a recording of us playing ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’, but all we could play is the opening riff. And then we just sing the bass riff of Cliff Burton with a dissonant choir. Sounds like a drunken school karaoke. I laugh every time when I hear this.

How do you usually approach music making?

Alexander: Mostly, one of us brings a riff or a melody and we work on it together. We recorded our first EP at home using only a laptop, sound card, bass and electric guitar. ‘Dialectics’ was partly recorded in the studio. The new album is completely studio work.

Can you share some further details how your latest album ‘Dialectics’ was recorded?

Alexander: Guitars and bass for ‘Dialectics’ were recorded at home. Drums and mastering were done at the Pantera studio in Tver. During the recording, we invited Alexey to play on a few tracks, then he replaced Stanislav on the live shows.

Evgenii: ‘Dialectics’ was originally released in 2016, but then the Greek label Sound Effect Records wanted to release it on vinyl. So we completely redesigned the visual part, made a remastering and slightly changed the track list. So it was a gorgeous edition.

<a href="https://temnee.bandcamp.com/album/dialectics-remastered-lp-version">Dialectics (Remastered LP Version) by Temnee</a>

Recently ‘Dialectics’ has also been released on a very limited edition cassettes. Couple of them are still available on our Bandcamp.

How would you describe your sound? What does “Temnee” mean?

Evgenii: Temnee in Russian means “Darker”.

Alexander: To be honest, coming up with a name was not easy. I wanted to avoid all these “Stone”, “Black”, “Sonic” and other overused words. Several months of searching for the right name led to the fact that Evgenii somehow suggested Temnee. I wrote to him: “Cool name!” And he was like, “Yeah? You are kidding?”. And I – “Seriously, why not”. For me, Temnee is the word, that describes the nature of our music. It’s like something from the depths of a dark star or galaxy.

How important is improvisation for you?

Alexey: For me, improvisation is preferable than just playing something from notes. But for now, our approach is what it is. But, it happens that we are jamming just for fun also.

Evgenii: Yes, I think it might be a cool idea to record a jam EP or even full length album after releasing our new record in 2021.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Evgenii: Speaking of improvisation. Me and my friends played few jam sessions back in 2017. It was something in between motorik kraut, psychedelic rock and ambient. 50% Zen and 50% Groove. Then we abandoned those records for three years. All according to ‘Theory of Obscurity’ of The Residents band, you know. And now in 2020 we released those tunes as St. Kraut adding covers with paintings by Nicholas Roerich. Two albums ‘Boris & Gleb’ and ‘Ann Without Hand’ were released this year, the third ‘Fire Madness From Outer Space’ will be released in early 2021.

<a href="https://stkraut.bandcamp.com/album/boris-gleb">Boris & Gleb by St. Kraut</a>

Alexey: I play incredibly loud in a sludge band Dead City Radio, and also I’ve got two post-rock bands. Tom’s Diner and Cosmic Tapes.

<a href="https://tomsdiner.bandcamp.com/album/--2">поток сторона Б by tom’s diner</a>

How are you coping with the current world situation?

Alexey: I try to avoid excess contacts with people, not to use public transport, etc. In terms of music, it’s very sad that the borders are closed and foreign bands can’t play.

Alexander: Trying my best to stay sober.

Evgenii: I am staying at home. It’s not a problem for me. There is a hell of a lot of interesting things to do at home.

What are some future plans?

Alexey: To release an album and to play gigs!

Alexander: I’d like to go on a tour in Europe, to record riffs and melodies that “pop up” in my head. I would like to get together more often as a band and arrange jams and gigs.

Evgenii: My favorite joke on New Year’s Eve is: “This year I behaved well, obeyed, ate right, therefore, Santa Claus, I just want to live a little bit more. Everything is okay. Thanks”. But seriously, the main musical goals: to release an album and to go on tour to Europe.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers? (it would be great to include some local artists from Russia)

Alexander: My choice is Deftones – ‘Ohms’. Perfect album. The good one from Russia is Камни – ‘Мандала’.

Evgenii: Yeah, new album of Камни is really cool! They are the patriarchs of the Russian stoner psychedelic. From Russian scene I really like the band Apodemus. They are also mixing a new album now. Yuri Gagarin and Slift are highlights of the genre in 2020. As for not very heavy music, The Sorcerers, Rustin Man, Burzum and (as always amazing) Elysian Fields have released wonderful albums this year. And last year’s musical love is the young Finnish soulman Bobby Oroza.

Aleksey: The first demo of the band Töll blew my mind. Tver band Led by Fear recorded a powerful album ‘Russian Discomfort’ a year ago. Another cool crossover thrash is Antreib‘s album ‘Назад дороги нет’. This is the last one. Also there is a band Вирь, quite a long time ago they released the colossal album ‘Нижний лес’. This is a real gem. Plus Анкылым band from St. Petersburg. It’s art-core on folk instruments. Sounds especially good live.

Thank you. Last word is yours.

Alexander: Thanks to everyone who listens to Temnee!

Evgeniy: Go to our Bandcamp page, play and download a couple of our albums. ‘Astrodiving’ and the first edition of ‘Dialectics’ are both free to download.

Aleksey: Stay strong! Wish you a returning of big gigs!

Klemen Breznikar

Temnee Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
Sound Effect Records Official Website / Facebook