What first got you into play-
ing guitar, and who were your
heroes?
Ilya Lagutenko: I guess I got
into it because of pictures of
guys with guitars—Japanese
magazines with hair-metal
bands. Probably Van Halen and
guys with flying Vs [laughs].
I said, “Yes! This is cool.” I
didn’t know what the music
was like, because I only saw the
pictures, but I liked the band
logos and the guitars. My first
hero was probably Paul Stanley,
because he had that star eye!
[Laughs.] And definitely Ritchie
Blackmore, because Deep
Purple and Rainbow were a
big thing when I was a kid—I
followed all their albums. Pink
Floyd, too. I think the first
thing I ever learned to play on
guitar was the introduction to
“Wish You Were Here.”
Yuri Tsaler: My father played
saxophone professionally and
played in jazz bands. I went to
music school in the little indus-
trial town of Pervouralsk. It
was a very conservative school.
However, one day a new young
teacher came to school, and
he wore long hair and played
electric guitar. I enrolled in
his class, and my life changed
forever then. I learned my first
three chords, and that was
enough to proceed on my own.
A relatively recent convert to Teles, Mumiy Troll lead guitarist Yuri Tsaler channels his enthusiasm through a Tele
Deluxe and a Vox, while bandleader Ilya Lagutenko sheds his guitar so he can flail away unimpeded.
Then I heard many guitarists—from Paco de Lucia to
Wes Montgomery—but Jimi
Hendrix was my real hero.
What was your first guitar?
Tsaler: My first guitar was an
Orfeus made in Bulgaria. It was
such a heavy instrument—you
could easily kill an animal with
it—and it was very hard to
play. However, I was the lucky
owner of a Vermona amplifier
made in East Germany, which
had a really powerful sound
“I actually built my first electric
guitar myself … I took a neck
from an acoustic guitar and
… this white plastic thing from
an old sailboat and sawed a
V shape out of it. Then I put
the neck on it and bought an
acoustic pickup.” —Ilya Lagutenko
that helped almost any guitar. I
also had a flanger—Electronika
was the brand—made in one of
the Soviet Baltic republics. It’s
actually still a cool piece—I’d
recommend it for experimental
guitarists even today.
Lagutenko: I actually built my
own first electric guitar myself.
When I was 11 or 12, I took a
neck from an acoustic guitar and
went to this kids’ sailing club
that I was enrolled in, and took
this white plastic thing from an
old sailboat and sawed a V shape
out of it. Then I put the neck
on it and bought an acoustic
pickup to put on it. That was
my first electric-guitar experience. My first real amp was
probably a Roland JC-120s. I’m
originally from Vladivostok, and
it was a port where you would
have sailors on small cruise ships
coming from all over the world.
They would bring in mostly
Japanese tourists, and every ship
had a band. Those bands were
a unique source of equipment,
because the players would usually buy stuff in Japan and eventually sell it on shore. Now I like
Gibson amps.
Ilya, do you still have that
guitar?
Lagutenko: No, unfortunately
not. My family moved too
much, and they would hate me
if we had to carry that around.
But it didn’t really sound at
all like an electric anyway—it
didn’t sound fuzzy. Somebody
told me I had to buy a special
box [stompbox] for doing this,
so I went to a music shop in
the Soviet Union—and, believe
me, it was far from [being
anything like] Guitar Center
[laughs]. They had maybe a
couple of Russian-made guitars
that were heavy as hell and
cost a fortune—a few hundred
rubles. Anyway, I bought this
fuzz box that also had a built-in
wah pedal. It was Soviet made
and really noisy, and because it
made a lot of noise you couldn’t
actually hear what you were
playing. I was, like, “Yeah! This
is what I really like!” [Laughs.]
What are you mostly playing
now?
Lagutenko: Live, I’m kind of
doing a rhythmic thing to help
Yuri create this wall of sound.
