Vsevolod Baronin

Vsevolod Baronin

Vsevolod Baronin Speaks is a featured column by Vsevolod Baronin, a music journalist, radio-host, columnist, and author from Moscow, Russia.
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Remarkable events in the field of CD publishing in Russia (especially Events with a capital E and not only in Russia) have been rarities for a long time. It seems like just the mere fact of a CD release would be considered as a major event there… Especially if this is a CD under the name of Anton Garcia, the guitarist and vocalist of the former leader of Moscow technothrash band Shah, which is a serious collection of classic progressive rock numbers and far more than just an ordinary CD release. Still Hopeless Time is not a cult album at all in the common sense of the term.

Interview by Vsevolod Baronin
Taken on 06/27/2019. Originally published in Russian by Soyuz Records Publication. 

Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani is not one of those characters of the world rock scene who make bold statements and put on the eccentric shows — he just works hard, endowing humanity with not only excellent instrumental albums, but also entertaining fun concerts as part of the guitar super project G3, and sometimes G4... But the musician's next marketing ploy cannot be called trivial — demo recordings of the truly legendary 80s pop-rock trio Squares has finally become available to a wide audience in the form of the album Squares — Best Of The Early 80's Demos, where the future star played in 1979–1981... Hearing something yet unheard of, there was no way to shirk the opportunity to talk to Joe.

Exclusive interview by Vsevolod Baronin with Royal Hunt leader, André Andersen
Taken on 12/10/2020, Moscow, Russia. Originally published in Russian.

There is a serious suspicion that Dystopia — Part I, the fifteenth studio album by Royal Hunt, an international act from Copenhagen, released in December 2020, went relatively unnoticed, not only because of the newfangled contempt of listeners for the physical media (records and CD’s), but mainly due to socio-economic perturbations around the fancy coronavirus pandemic.

Interview by Vsevolod Baronin. 
Taken on 10/25/2008, Moscow, Russia. Originally published in Russian.

What is eccentricity for a world-class rock musician? Play 20 notes per second? To patent a seven-string electric guitar? To record a live album with an unheard-of and unimaginable creative concept? Or, finally, go on tour with master classes in Russia, not excluding cities like Ryazan that are quite unique for a musician of such level? Well, since Steve Vai, who does not need the introduction as the electric guitar maestro, did all of the above, we can award him the title of rock eccentric #1. Surprisingly, when communicating in person, Steve turned out to be not at all the character that his music and stage shows represent, but a very polite interlocutor who answers even the trickiest questions in great detail. Steve's answers, of course, sometimes radiate hints of the aforementioned eccentricity and that's why they are good: they allow you to look at familiar concepts from a completely unexpected side, which, perhaps, would never have occurred to a person who is not a rock guitarist of a truly galactic level.