Music is not just a set of sounds, it is the language of the soul, capable of expressing the deepest feelings and experiences. For a musician, it is not just a profession, but a vocation, a life-long journey. In this candid interview Mikhail Gutman tells us about his musical development, the influence of his family, the search for his voice, the response of his audience and how music helps him through difficult times.
Mikhail, you have been involved with music since childhood. What was your first musical experience, what instrument did you play?
– My first musical experience dates back to my earliest childhood, when I was probably about five years old. I put a bunch of clothes pegs on a string around my neck, played them like a guitar, and sang Vladimir Vysotsky’s songs for my family, as my dad loved his work very much and often played them at home. In general, what I heard more often, I sang. There were, of course, also songs from TV.
Later my musical experience was a variety of pop music, including foreign, which my then not yet elderly grandfather listened to. I was a child, and my grandfather used to buy the latest compilations and popular albums of various bands from record shops. That’s how I got into music too. I wondered why my grandfather was so passionate about music. I asked him questions about it, and he told me that when he was about my age, about eight years old, he and his mother were evacuated from Ukraine to Omsk because of the war. At that time he learnt to play the violin, but it broke somewhere in the crowd of trains and railway stations. My grandfather was never able to finish his music studies, but his love for it remained, which he passed on to me.
I also learnt to play the accordion, I went to music school as a child, but I don’t like to remember this experience. The accordion was not interesting to me, and I learnt it with a bit of effort.
How has studying pop vocals at the School of Jazz influenced your musical development and style?
– That training basically shaped me as a vocalist. I started writing my own songs long before that, in my youth. Gradually my music got better, I showed it to my friends, got good feedback, and I was repeatedly advised to take a more professional approach to songwriting: make arrangements, record them in a recording studio. So at one point I got to recording my own songs. I prepared the material, went to the studio and sang. I listened to it, it didn’t sound right. It didn’t sound right. It turned out I couldn’t sing at all. I sang terribly, you could say I didn’t sing at all. But the passion for music and the desire to improve possessed me, and I decided to study singing. That’s how I ended up at the Jazz School, where I got my first voice training. There I learnt a lot of things and discovered the subtleties of vocals. Later I learnt to sing a lot more, went to vocal teachers, studied with Seth Riggs, but vocal training at the Jazz School was the foundation, for which I love their teaching staff and am always grateful.
How do you choose themes for your songs and what inspires you to create them? Do you have a special method or technique?
– I guess I just write about what I care about. Something touched my soul – music plays in my head, a line sounds. If I’m not lazy, I sit down at the synthesiser, start playing, write it down on a piece of paper. That’s how a song is born. On the one hand, it’s quite an easy process for me: I used to dream about songs and just write them down. On the other hand, I feel like my brain warms up like a computer after writing a song. Then I can’t calm down for a long time, I don’t sleep well. Although with time I learnt to manage this state more or less.
And when Russia started the war in Ukraine, some topics came by themselves. After all, I grew up in Ukraine, and it was there that my grandfather let me hear probably the first music in my life. I was feeling bad, the war kept me awake, I was literally sick… That’s when I left Russia for good. And then the songs were born: ‘Farewell, Mute Country’, ‘My Soul Weeps’ and ‘No to War’. From the titles you can already understand the direction of the songs, but you should definitely listen to them – it’s very important to me. There is a channel on YouTube, which I have recently started to develop. You can hear and see everything there. By the way, the video for two of my songs – ‘My Soul Weeps’ and ‘No to War’ – was made by a film director from Ukraine. I specifically looked for a person from there, who had personally experienced it and knew from his own experience what a visual representation should be like. And he did his job perfectly, for which I am immensely grateful. And that’s why I would also like everyone to hear and see my songs.
I've always been very interested in how exactly a complete song is created. How important is the content of a song to you compared to the melody? Does a song go through a lot of transformations from idea to finished result?
– Content is very important to me. Listen for yourself. For me, my songs are like children: I nurture them, create them, grow them, comb them and make them better. Every word in the lyrics has meaning. When writing, I periodically check facts in encyclopaedias and use dictionaries. In doing so, I think about how hard it was for writers in the past when there was no internet and digital resources.
When writing a song, I start with the lyrics. Most often a line comes into my head, rolls around in my head, then another line comes to me, and then I can’t resist, I sit down at my desk and start writing. I have a synthesiser next to me, so I can play something in parallel and see how it will sound. In the end, I make a demo recording of the vocals to the ready-made verses with piano accompaniment. And then other specialists get involved – arrangers, musicians – and a full-fledged song is born.
As for transformations, everything is quite different. The last song ‘No to War’ I wrote in one day. I didn’t change anything in particular. The song ‘You are my story’ I brought with me from Russia, from my past life. Here, in Israel, I remembered it and began to ‘conjure’ it up. I reworked it for a long time, added one verse. And in the end it was born for two or three years. Listen to them for sure.
How do you see your music career developing in the future?
– This is the kind of question to which I feel a slight fear and excitement. Like any creative person, of course I want recognition, a stage, fame! But when I imagine it, I get afraid: what will I do with it… Then I say to myself: ‘You want it, you are worthy, so everything will work out and you will manage’. That makes it easier. I really want to be heard. It kills me to write in a desk. You can’t do that.
Everything I do is first of all for people, and the main reward for me is always their good feedback, emotions, even tears – in the best sense, of course.
Now my YouTube channel is developing; a year ago it was in its infancy, but today it has almost all my songs, video clips and many thousands of views and likes. It turns out that this is how I learnt that someone else needs me, that I am interesting, that I am doing my job well and that I have prospects. It inspires me and gives me strength to develop and create. And I know that everything will be fine!
I develop professionally as well: I get to know and work with new musicians and technologies, listen to music, attend concerts of my favourite artists. So I grow a little by little and see prospects and a wonderful future.
You mentioned that it is very important for a musician to share his creativity and not to ‘write in a desk’. What difficulties do you face in popularising your creativity? How do you cope with them?
– Probably the main difficulty in popularisation is resources. Resources in every sense. This is, of course, money. After all, every stage of publishing, if everything is done seriously and professionally, costs money, however small. Not to mention the creation of the song, its design and promotion. These stages require more tangible finances. And in principle, I think there is no upper limit to the costs: professional session musicians, music video shooting, locations, advertising… money, money, money!
Knowledge is also a resource. Many things were incomprehensible and even somewhat foreign to me. I am a musician, I love music, perhaps I even understand something about it. But I am rather indifferent to music videos, and they are vital. I have to master this field. Or, for example, various music platforms, streaming… You have to deal with it all and spend time on it – another important resource.
That’s how I manage it. For example, a little over a year ago, my YouTube channel had about 100 subscribers – mostly my family members. Now the channel has 8000 subscribers, tens and even hundreds of thousands of listens. I’ve developed the channel a little bit. So little by little I’m moving forward. Although, of course, I want much more.
What tools and platforms do you find most effective for promoting an independent artist's music? What have you tried and what haven't you tried?
– I find YouTube to be the most effective. Again, there’s a lot I don’t know yet, and some I’m just learning. I feel the potential of Spotify and many other platforms, but I don’t have enough for everything yet. In general, it’s a whole science – let’s call it ‘artist marketing’. Music, like any product (no matter how cynical it sounds), can be packaged and sold. You can put a good song in a bad wrapper and not let it take off, or you can invest in something mediocre and get a huge audience and profit. I don’t need to give examples, do I? It turns out that a musician has to be both a maker and a reaper.
How do you keep in touch with your audience and what feedback is most valuable to you?
– Feedback comes through my YouTube channel and social networks like Facebook. There is a lot of feedback under each release or video. That’s the connection and communication. I try to respond to everyone. After all, anyone who cares about me, who heard me, was touched and decided to say a few words, is my listener. It is for this person that my music was written and probably for the sake of these emotions and words. Again, this is how I realise that I am needed, that my songs ‘go in’. Of course, there are also my close people – family, friends. From all of them I hear some words. Of course, they love me and therefore they are somewhat biased. Nevertheless, we discuss everything, and this is also very important to me.
Please tell us about your experience of live performances. What emotions do you feel on stage? What is the most valuable for you?
– Oh, I love it! I don’t know what to compare it to. Maybe love or drugs. When you feel that you are listened to, that you are needed… It’s a special feeling and even a need. And then people sincerely applaud, are happy, want more – and you give it to them. You exchange energy, positive emotions. How is this not feelings and love? And without love, life is meaningless. That is why it is so important and desirable for me.
Which musicians or composers have had the greatest influence on your work? Can you talk about how their music has influenced your style?
– Since I have been surrounded by Vladimir Vysotsky’s work since childhood, I think he is the first poet and musician who influenced me. Maybe that’s why the meaning of a song, every word in it, is so important to me.
Next, I remember in the 90s, I was influenced by the Scorpions. They amazed me with their ballads. I listened to them and now I love them very much. And I was happy to attend their concert this summer in London. And the fact that my composition ‘You Are My Story’ was compared by one of the Golden Time Talent judges to Scorpions in some aspects of its sound is a very clear indication of who influences me. It was flattering to hear such good comments about myself from the judges of the contest.
And then it just went on from there, whoever influenced me! Now sometimes I suddenly feel that I lack blues or jazz – and I rush to listen to it. That’s how I fill myself with new things and, I’d like to think, become a little better.
Video evaluation of season 61 – Golden Time Talent jury – Dr Roddy Knight
What kind of music do you listen to in your everyday life? Are there any young artists whose music impresses you?
– I have a huge collection of music. There are dozens and hundreds of gigabytes on my phone and in my car, where I listen to music most of the time. There is modern rock, rock from the 60s and 70s, classics, and quality pop music. One could take up the whole interview with one enumeration. I would like to tell you about one singer I discovered here in Israel when I was learning Hebrew. This is Miri Mesika. She is simply my musical love. Her songs are, without exaggeration, world-class. I went to four of her concerts in one year. She’s just a great performer and musician. I recommend listening to her.
Are there any specific goals you have set for yourself as a musician for this year?
– Yes, of course there are goals. You can’t do without them. Firstly, I want to write a new album of my songs. I already have ideas, something comes into my head. I hope to sit down at the instrument soon to start.
Secondly, last year I sent my works to several music competitions, the results of which I expect this year. I believe in a good result.
And lastly, I want to attend some powerful concert of someone I love. That’s my minimum.
