Media 2007

BRAVO Magazine [17th May 2007] 


Paparazzi [26th November 2007]





Molotok [May 2007]

t.A.T.u. at the Airport

During year 2006 the t.A.T.u. girls had 64 flights of various distances, starting Saint Petersburg, and finishing Los Angeles. During the year the girls spent about 160 hours flying. The prices of tickets of business-class are: starting 16,035 rubles (Moscow-Saint Petersburg-Moscow) and finishing 150,523 rubles (Los Angeles and back). The middle cost is 83,278 rubles. Multiplying it with the number of flights during last year and we get 5,329,856 rubles. Multiply in 2 (since there's two girls in the group) and we get the result, which is that the t.A.T.u. girls spent on flights approximately 10,659,712 rubles. The band exists for 6 years. So it's 63,958,272 rubles, or 2,558,331 dollars.
How much money the t.A.T.u. girls spend on flights, and where do they have lavatory pans with heating awaiting for them? The Special agent of Molotok Jendos was there, and he's gonna tell everything.


The most cruel being late story
Julia: We were 15 and we were on our way to tour USA. We had to change plane in London, and Lenka had lost my passport: She put it on the sit in the waiting room and forgot it. Vania Shapovalov accompanied us to the plane and went back to Moscow. But we were late for the flight, we sat alone in the airport and cried...

What's not necessary to take along
Julia:We can perform even in our underwear, not a problem.

What's always in your bag?

Julia: Bathing soap, a wisp, underwear.

Time to pack
Julia: If we go for three days, it takes 10 minutes. If for two weeks - than three days.

While flying
Julia: I love to sleep. I take some sleeping pills and snoring all the way.

Abroad
Julia: They always take my pincers and eyebrow tweezers,(supposed to be cold weapon). And Lena's lighters, because you can't take more than one, and she always have at least ten!

The most terrible airport
Julia: There are the three most awful airports: Surgut, Norilsk and Karganda. In one of these we slept on benches, that was something!


OK! Magazine [2007]


Izvestia.ru [24th August 2007] 

"They fell in love with us and did something stupid"
Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova played in a movie about craziness of their fans.
In Moscow shooting of Finding t.A.T.u. finished   a movie about two girls - an American (Mischa Barton) and a girl from Yaroslavl (Shantel Van Santen) - who dream about becoming like their idols t.A.T.u. Will their dreams about fame come true? Even film s creators haven t decided yet, but the heroines  attempt to get acquainted with Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova will be successful.
t.A.T.u. girls play themselves in the film and, of course, are going to record soundtrack for it. Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova (who is five month pregnant now) talked about their experience of getting close to their fans to the columnist of  Nedelya  Anna Fedina."The story in the movie is truthful"


What are your impressions from the shooting?
Julia: In a movie everything is a bit more realistic than in videos. Especially in this movie  I mean, it's about us. Just like the book, on which the film is based. Lesha Mitrofanov wrote it; we often party together. Maybe because of this it turned out so close-to-life.

Is it difficult to play yourself?
J: Well no! What could be difficult? We are the same in life, on stage and in movies.

What news about your life will fans find out from the movie?
J: No, there will be new things anyway. Fans will learn something not simply about us, but about what's going on around us. How does it go in the film? We live our usual life: We have rehearsals, play concerts, sometime we visit sites of our fans and at one of them we find this song, which two of our fans wrote for us. We like the song, we want to meet these girls   and this is where their story starts. They got acquainted through the internet, came to Moscow, fell in love with us and   for us - did something stupid. You have to admit, something like this happens not often. Usually our fans come, get autographs - and "Good bye". But here people came from devil-knows-where to live in Moscow and to see us often. People will realize that such, let s say, crazy fans do exist.

Were there any special fans in your lives?
J: We meet many of them so often that they have become our friends. Of course, we don't visit each other, but we hang out somewhere outside. Autographs aren't even important to them, we are just friends. But those, who arrive from far, would like to take a picture with us, get autographs or give us something as a present.

And what are the gifts?
J: Anything - from toys to jewelry. They often write poems. They would bring huge scrap-books with love messages to us.

Are foreign fans like that too?
J: It s different. In Japan there were times we could not even go outside - at once a crowd gathered around us. It s not even a hundred people. They would fill up a whole street, and you have to call the police just so that you could get out of the crowd. Once in the centre of Tokyo they had to put cordons of busses around the square so we could go to our car.

Is it possible to meet you on the street in Moscow?
J: I, for example, like to move around alone. I absolutely don't need a bodyguard or a driver. I drive myself and I don't care how late I return home - I m not afraid of anything. You have to live your life and have fun, and if anybody wants to protect us, they may do it on stage. When you go to good places with adequate people, who will bother you there? Who needs you? And if there are young people in some cafe, they may give you a twitch at sleeve, but it's not because they are crazy, but because people for some reason want to touch you.

Do they often touch you like this?
J: We try to keep the distance. Star sickness has nothing to do with it. Would you like it when strangers poke you in the side, pull at the hair - is it a wig? - or check whether you re wearing earrings or clips?

Do fans wait for you at the entrance of the house?
J: Of course. If some girls come for two days from St. Petersburg or Tallinn, where should they go? They sit and wait until we show up. If we don't appear they spend a night near the entrance. And those, who live in Moscow, call our cell-phone, "Are you at home today? We'll stop by." Why should they get offended? We are not rude to them, not rough.

What would you say to fans who may come to you saying, "We want to be like you"?
J: If it's your wish, why not? It's always nice when somebody takes you as an example, considers you an ideal and tries to look like you.
Well, I think there's nothing wrong in it. A person copies only your appearance, but inside he or she remains the same no matter what. There never be second  you , but if fans want to look like you - I'm for it.

And would you advise your fans to get into show business?
J: They should decide for themselves. I feel great in show business. I can't imagine the situation when I wake up in the morning - and we don't shoot the next video, don't do interviews, don t have photo shoots, don't fly to some show.
I'm so used to it, there was not a day when I just sat at home. Even if there is nothing special going on, I try to go out to meet people anyway. Parties, presentations, hanging with fans - it would be difficult for me to live without it.

Julia, you re now expecting your second child. Would you like to see your children in show business?J: I won't push them. I can only help, let them try sports, music, drawing. Then they should decide themselves, and I will support their any choice. When I wanted study music, my mother enrolled me into music school, let me sing at "Neposedy" studio. She didn't say, "It's not for you". How would she know? I am an artist now. Who would imagine that things will go like this?



BRAVO #47  [21st November 2007]

t.A.T.u.   It's For Love

t.A.T.u.'s new LP "Waste Management" comes out on Christmas. It was recorded mostly in America, then partially in Moscow, and then dubbed in London. But these are not the most important things now. The most important is the fact that Yulia will have a boy in two months Smile


BRAVO: All pregnant women are usually nervous. Julia, are you in a flap?
Julia: No, I'm the one who's not nervous at all. And not in a flap way. But I cry often. I am constantly pitiful to everybody now. Like I can start crying while watching some movie, for example. I've become very sentimental. But not annoyed or cranky.

Does this second pregnancy differ from the first one somehow?
Julia: It does. First, because I've got my loved one with me. And second, my first pregnancy was absolutely unplanned, but I had a baby. I love Vika very much. Very much. I remember I came to Lena back then, and we were sitting together and talking for a long time. I was thinking about my career, my work, and I really didn't know what I should do. And Lena told me firmly: "Yulia, go have this child!" This time I have everything preplanned, and somehow for real. My dear is with me, he supports me a lot.

Does your daughter Vika understand she'll have a brother soon?
Sure! She is a little bit over 3 now. She looks at my belly and says, "I will have a brother soon". Actually, my Vika understands everything. Just have seen her yesterday - she lives with my parents at the moment.

Why?
It's just the way it is now. Me and Parviz are refitting our apartment - there will be huge room for kids, it's going to be very beautiful! We have planned lots of things there. When everything is done, we will certainly bring Vika, and we'll all live together there.

Tell us, are you a strict mother?
Julia: No, not sever. But I don't like cranky children and children who like to command. I stop all this at once. Of course, your kid should be a person and show his or her own "I". But your kid should also understand what pain is, for example. Your kid should not offend the family, should not shout. Say, we have a little dog York living at our place, and Vika sometimes kicks it like a football from one room to another. Then I explain to her that this is wrong, that this is an animal and it feels pain. So we don't have a sort of permissiveness at all. But actually I'm not going to break her, let her grow up as she is. She's got to have guts.

Jul, have you baptized Vika already?
Julia: Yes, I have. Godparents are my father and Vika's nanny. She is my mother's best friend, she even was her wedding testifier. We made baptism service private, no guests, no press, no publicity, just our family.

Julia, what's the buzz about your intention to give birth and to broadcast it live on the Internet?
Julia: I joked somewhere about it. And the hell broke loose. I am not going to deliver this way really. One thing is when you are doing it for yourself and cameraman is your loved or your photographer. Quite a different thing is when they carry you all-out and sweaty to the maternity room and this all is being broadcasted live. No. Finally, why should random people see me, pale and wet, in such a condition?
Lena: Yulia already does too much things others in a delicate condition wouldn't risk to do at all. Flown to the States in her serious months, we shot our video. It is hard work even without being pregnant, and Yulia was almost 7-th month!

Julia, did it hurt the first time you had a baby, do you remember?
Julia: See, I don't. And I am probably given the second chance for total recall! (Laughing).

Do you now pay attention to guys at all?
Julia: For me this story is certainly in the past. I've lived, actually, for myself all my life. I've always liked better to be loved. But when I'm loved too much I start to loose interest. I am a rather freedom-loving person. Nobody, no boyfreind, could stop me in case I wished to go somewhere - to a party, for example. You don't like it - then go away. My interests were on the first place. But now everything has changed dramatically. Now I want my family. Long gone are aggression and all the parties.


Jul, we suppose you have become housewifely now?
Julia: Yes! This is strange and completely not typical for me. For me it was just unreal to put clothes into washing-machine. I even didn't know about modes and temperature degrees. But now I know everything! I can easily go do dishes, vacuum cleaning. Love makes miracles. Parviz also helps me.

Have you noticeably changed after being with him?
Julia: In some special way - no. We do surely have fights and make it up, showing our "I" to each other all the time. We both are very dominative and egoistic. On top of this he is Lion and I am Pisces. So conflicts are inevitable. But, nevertheless, I have probably become more facile. Yes, probably so. More flexible. For example, he could rail at me and I sit beside him, kiss and tell him I love him. (Smiling).

Question from guys: Yul, how many sizes have your breast gained?
Julia: (Smiling): One! I had size 2, now I have size 3!



Elle Girl [28th November 2007]

New t.A.T.u. album, which should be out not long before the New Year, is called  Waste Management   The movie  Finding t.A.T.u.  based on the events from Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina  lives, has Anton Yelchin and Mischa Barton in the cast  Fresh music video  Beliy Plashik  ( White Robe ) was filmed in Los Angeles  Yulia Volkova and her boyfriend Parvis are waiting for a baby  All this information fell on Elle Girl Katya Marulina in the first five minutes of their talk with Yulia and Lena. Elle Girl wants to share news with you.

Elle Girl: Girls, we haven t heard about you for a long time, and now so many things all at once! The movie, the album, the video  Tell us about it!
Julia: Since we parted with Ivan Shapovalov, we have to do everything ourselves. Well, that s what we wanted, but it turned out to be not that easy to choose songs, arrangements for an album, the image in general

Elle Girl: The filming of Finding t.A.T.u. was a reason for an actress Mischa Barton to come to Moscow. Did you have a chance to hang out? How did you like the foreign star?
Julia: Mischa Barton   and so what? She s just a girl, there are no  wow! , maybe because we got used to it already, seen many stars. But we re not main characters in the movie   it s about two girls, who are looking for each other and meet at our show  By the way, Mischa Barton has two dogs at home and keeps telling everybody about it. And I have three and I keep silence. A complete glamorous set: York, Chihuahua and red setter. Two live with my mom, and one   with us, with me and Parvis. And we plan to have one more.

Elle Girl: When I ask a question, it s Yulia who immediately answers. Why not Lena?
Julia: It s just because  Oops, again me  Lena, you answer!

Elle Girl: What else is so different in you two?
Julia: What do I need these books for? I like to talk with people, I love life, I don t like made-up stories. I can even watch  Dom-2 , ha-ha! ( Dom-2    a popular reality show in Russia considered  um  silly  tatu.ru ) Just because they show real people there! And also Lenka has no tattoos, and I have five: two in Arabic ( passionate love  on the back), Japanese one on the arm ( dragon ), hieroglyph  my family  on the neck, and  Victoria  on the leg, in honor of my daughter). Lena, she s for natural things, she believes that  we must keep what nature created . She always has a hands cream in her bag. I bet she has it now.
Lena: I do. Want some?
Yulia: See! No, thanks!

Elle Girl: Yulia, you re experiencing your second pregnancy. Is it different compared to the first one?
Julia: Sure! The major thing   it s planned. But I deny myself nothing   no special diets, nothing like that. I think my baby is alright with me.

Elle Girl: There s a rumor in the Internet that you want to give birth and broadcast this process on the internet. Is that true?
Julia: You re kidding me. Do I look like the person who can let it happen? I said it as a joke long ago, and journalists exaggerated as usually  What a terrible thing. Like I don t have anything else to do.

Elle Girl: And how do you plan to celebrate a New Year party?
Julia and Lena (in one voice): At home!
Julia: New Year party is a family day. We ve never had to play shows on this time, from 31st to 1st. It s ok to play gigs the day before, but on the New Year night we leave it to Dima Bilan perform.

Elle Girl: By the way, are you friends with any of our pop-stars?
Julia: Well, it s Serezhka Lazarev, I think, who we can call our friend. And with others it s just  hi-bye  relationships. Generally in show business everybody is on its own.

Elle Girl: And would you like to take part in some TV show like  Ice Age  or  Circus With Stars ?
Julia: Well, they ve invited us, but I personally don t understand it. If I want to skate I take skates and go to Serebryaniy Bor Ice Rink. And I don t need to be compared with others. What for?

Elle Girl: Your  Beliy Plaschik  video was filmed in Los Angeles. Why there?
Julia: Because the people we need to work on our video live there. In our time in the US we managed to meet many talented people. By the way, I was  repairing  my voice there, which I hurt while recording our first album. I was taught not how to sing, but how to sing safely  so that I could sing a whole concert without damage to my vocal ligaments.
Lena: It s different here in Russia: Let s say, there s a teacher Masha Tryapkina in Moscow, and the students she teaches sing exactly like Masha Tryapkina. And for us it s important to keep individuality.



Viva! Magazine [26th December 2007]

Love Against Violence
They have recorded the new disc and filmed the video for a song from it - and all this during the time Yulia was expecting her second baby. The main changes in life of t.A.T.u. are covered in this exclusive VIVA! Interview.
Two years have passed since t.A.T.u. s last album release. 
Julia Volkova and Lena Katina have got much more mature since then, they filmed another shocking video and started their career in cinema. This interview was quite a surprise for VIVA!: The girls turned out to be much more serious than we ve always thought.


How did the work over your new album go?
Julia: Album is kept in our style indeed, but some more elements of electronic music are added. There re also some slow tracks. I think each our album is a product of its time. It reflects feelings and moods of that period when it was recorded.

Did the pregnancy affect your work?
Julia: Sure it did. Actually during my whole pregnancy we regularly flew to the US and back. Just final changes of the album were made in Moscow, because doctors are now afraid to let me fly on such a duration (7-8 months).
But maybe we ll manage to release our album on the 25th of December, and if we won t   then we will release a single, and the album will be out after my baby s birth. We ll see. I can just say that I ve been busy during my whole pregnancy!

What surprises are prepared for fans in the new album?
Julia: Surprises? We ve shot a very unexpected video which hopefully will touch people and evoke emotions. Album s title is  Waste Management , which speaks volumes already. We touched the most serious topics in our preceding album  Ludi-Invalidy  as well as in this one, we talk about the emotional negative which is inside a human being. Despite the titles these albums affect only moral aspects of life, there s no connection with physical defects or  some ecology. We don t want to offend anybody for sure, and the title  Waste Management  concentrate the whole negativity that happens in society, the negativity that people cause, all negative qualities, which we don t like in ourselves first of all   that s what we are working on, we try to become better ourselves. Of course, it is some kind of policy, because it s threadbare and banal to call an album  I Love You  or  You Are My World . You can t surprise audience with a beautiful video with wet hair anymore.
Well, there ll be enough of shock. Though actually a scandal for the sake of scandal is not important for us now, we re deepening into creative work. Surely there was the epatage when we were 14-15, and it fitted our age. But we ve grown up, I have a family, I ll have a second baby soon. We re not in the age to simulate or to barnstorm any more, our whole energy is being spent for creative work now. What we want to surprise with is our music, it s not something specially invented now, it s what we have inside. We concentrate on working on live sound and on improving of our sounding.

But your videos are still provocative. What shall we see in  Beliy Plaschik  video?
Julia: Subject of the video is quite tough and provocative: Finally my heroine, who is pregnant as I am, is being shot.
After releasing the video we hear very different opinions and comments, opposite at times. When we were creating the plot, the main thing for us was not a violence, but vice versa. We were trying to tell the quite contrary things with this video: We re against violence. We re against monsters and cruelty, that s what  waste management  is. By the way, it s the first video where we don t play ourselves. Usually our video images fitted real us, but not this time.

Who s the song author?
Julia: A girl, who wrote  Beliy Plaschik  poetry is only 16. Her name is Masha Maksakova, she s a schoolgirl, she lives in Saint-Petersburg. This poetry wasn t ordered, it was her feelings and emotions. The music and arrangement were composed by our constant author. For us this was an example that every person can succeed if one s talented. The work she composed is really very close to what we do by its meaning, and I think the fact that we work with poets who are not well-known is also quite provocative

So provocative as playing in the movie  Finding t.A.T.u. ?
Julia: It s our first experience in a serious cinema, and it was very interesting for us.
Sure, we had  Eralash Journal  in our childhood, but the big cinema is a totally different thing. It s not a children s movie. World s high-profile stars are involved. The movie s quite contradictory, it s hard to tell good guys from bad guys. Storyline in movie will differ a bit from the one in book, it s closer to real life. It s about the things people don t notice while living their lives. About freedom, about independence, about love

What is the future of t.A.T.u.? Do you plan to go solo or you ll continue to work together?
Julia: That s what tabloids always writes about! Just think of it: Why should we part? We ve got lots of fans, people love us and our art. There re many ideas in our heads saved for future, but meanwhile it would be stupid to kill the project with our own hands. Journalists write a lot about us: We dated almost with everybody, we were married with many, lots of scandals were ascribed  I want to tell everybody, who has questions like  Is it true that t.A.T.u .?  True info is only on the official website, I guess.
By the way, we and our team invented a virtual character Insider, who has a blog on our web-site. He s the one very reliable source of information, he recently started to write a real t.A.T.u. story, with no legends and fiction.

It s hard to meet you in Russia lately. Does it mean you plan to continue your career on the West?
Julia: I can honestly say: It s better to work in the US   there re studios there of professional level which would cost crazy money here. But we are not going to live in the US or somewhere abroad. We are not leaving anybody and we are not going anywhere. If we work there (we record or shoot videos), it doesn t mean we plan to immigrate, not at all!

Are you in love now?
Julia: Parvis   is the first man in my life I have serious relationship with. There were rumors and gossip, I never commented something in press, because I had nothing serious before Parvis. We live together, we re having a baby soon, we plan a wedding for this summer. Sure, everybody has one s past, but I couldn t say such kind of things about anybody before Parvis.

Does being in love affect creative work?
Julia: I recorded this album being pregnant. Usually in the relationship between two people one is loving and the other one is allowing to love   it s like a game. It s difficult to find a harmony, it happens very seldom. We ve found it with Parvis. We both have past pickback, we both already have children, but we ve found each other. With age you begin to cherish different qualities in people, you start keeping, saving, you try not just to affirm your  ego  but also to create a family. When I love somebody and I feel I m loved, what can be better? Sure it positively affects our work. Girls, never run after somebody and don t sob if a male doesn t value you.
It s just not your person! When the time comes you will surely meet a person whom you ll love, and who ll love you, and then the whole harmony arrives. Everything is good in its season.

Yulia, is your elder daughter Vika waiting for a brother?
Julia: Vika is 3 years and 2 months old now and sometimes she forgets she ll have a brother. She looks at my tummy and says:  Mummy s overate, she s got a big belly . I have much work, but I spend my whole free time with her. She adores Parvis. I must say a big thank you to my parents who help me with Vika. In every way my daughter is a copy of me. I put my baby s photo next to hers, and mom told me: It feels like we re looking after you again.



Rossiyskaya Gazeta 

Don't forget to manage waste in the new year

The duo with a mysterious name t.A.T.u. appeared in Russia and in Belorussia suddenly. The story about two girls crazy about each other made them known all around the world. In the course of the years t.A.T.u. vocalists Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina became more professional. They show the most vital problems of our society in their songs and videos. On the eve of New Year this famous band told SOUZ' correspondent about love, about protest against violence and about management  of waste.


You will be releasing the album again with an ambiguous name - "Waste Management", you again made a provocative video, you again touch edgy topics
Julia: Our video "Beliy Plaschik" is against violence, against unborn children. We've decided to express a protest with such a metaphor. We think it turned out strong

Would you like your children to follow your steps?
Julia: I agree. Kid's can be and should be directed, but it's impossible to suppress their personalities. I raise Vika remembering this.

Who are your friends in show-business?
Julia: I don't think I have friends in show-business. Like most of artists, we have these "hi-bye" talks, and that's it. We're close just with Sergei Lazarev since "Neposedi" times.

How do you spend your free-time?
Julia: And I've stopped partying lately   don't feel like doing it. I also devote much time to my family.

What's the most difficult thing in a tour?
Julia: Yes, there is weariness after the concert, but it's nice, and I quickly recover strength. We didn't perform for months because of pregnancy, and honestly I miss it already.

How do you recharge?
Both: We sleep!

Is it complicated to draw a line between your image and your life?
Julia: Yes. I don't think we have some special image. We are the same on stage and in life. We even wear the same jeans and shirts on the show that we wear in real life. We are the way we are and feel comfortable.

Is there any conflict between generations?
Julia: I think there is. But me and Lenka have great relationship with parents. My mom is my best friend. I respect her, she is a wise person. Maybe when I was a teenager there were some conflicts. We started touring at that time. But I came back home and hugged my mom.

What would you wish people in Russia and in Belorussia?
Julia: Oh, no, Len, happiness will be anyway! My wish for the new year   don't forget to manage waste - both physical and emotional!


Unknown

Many times in interviews we've heard that Tatu haven't got time to eat well or to visit a good restaurant. But we couldn't even imagine that girls can eat fast food. So imagine how surprised were workers one of the Moscow fast food shop when they saw Yulia Volkova there.  She was dressed in very dirty and cut clothes and there also was smth rdity on her arms.Many of people around were shocked. But Yulia didn't mind and bought the food she need. After she came back to her car and there was Lena Katina. It was also strange to see them in very cool Mercedes and security near. It seems it was some video clipping or photo session near and that's why there were looking so strange.




Russian Focus [2007]