Sports are for everyone. Music is for everyone. Poetry is for everyone. The leader of the Lyapis Trubitskoy group, Sergei Mikhalok, shows by his example that even at 40 years old you can be in excellent sports and musical shape!
1999 Sergei Mikhalok acts as a kind of jester, colored shirts, funny face, beer belly, etc. The creativity of the Lyapis Trubetskoy group is accompanied by alcoholic intoxication; their music could easily be classified as popular pop music. “Yabloni”, “Au”, “Metelitsa” played from all the cassette players in the country, the group was at the zenith of its glory... By that time Sergei already weighed 107 kilograms, and realized that it was time to change something, both creatively and in terms of self-development .
Diet principles of Sergei Mikhalok
Sergei lost the first 15 kilograms at home. In addition to exercising, he changed his diet and eating habits. The main principle is to find taste in simple foods, such as tomato salad or fish. If you simply force yourself not to eat what you love, then nothing will happen. At the same time, you should not limit yourself in the amount of food, the main thing is not quantity but quality. Since 2000, Sergei Mikhalok stopped drinking strong alcoholic drinks, with the exception of several breakdowns.
“I believe that you are what you eat. For example, you chew chips, and your brain, entrails, bones become the same structure... If you hit the hump, everything crumbles. Leis people, at best with dill, at worst with pork and fat.”
After Sergei lost 25 kilograms, it did not look very good, since there was almost no muscle mass. Therefore, he began to diligently pump iron and also practices martial arts.
In 2005, the Leader of the Lyapis Trubetskoy Group led a kind of reclusive lifestyle and completely withdrew into himself, left alone with his thoughts. During this period, he devoted even more time to sports: Daily two-hour cyclocross races around the city + Muay Thai training.
After Thai boxing, Mikhalok switched to classical boxing, which, according to Sergei himself, is a little more difficult. Usually a musician-athlete has five training sessions a week, even on tour, training is sacred. In the most severe situations, at least an hour-long boxing warm-up. , – a set of 3 minutes with a break of 1 minute. Well, the main exercise is shadow boxing.
Today, Sergei Mikhalok’s lifestyle is intense training every morning, individual training, plus jogging, plus diet...
“I gained excellent physical shape, mental harmony and gave up bad habits such as drugs, alcohol, and smoking... I lost weight and can do 23 - not bad for a 40-year-old former alcoholic and drug addict.” 
Perfice Te - Improve yourself
Metamorphoses also occurred with the group itself. Many of the team were not ready to accept a new way of thinking and new music. Now “Lyapis” play fast music that requires serious internal organization. If earlier you could allow yourself to yell “Apple Tree” in a drunken state, to put it mildly, not quite hitting the notes, but with the new repertoire this is simply not permissible. Some of the guys in the group followed Mikhalko’s new beliefs and became seriously interested in martial arts. So now, as a joke, “Lyapis” call themselves a pop-boxing group.
Nikifor Lyapis, a hack poet with the pseudonym Trubetskoy, became associated not only with a cult work, but also with a well-known group.
History and composition
In 1989, the Lyapis Trubetskoy team appeared on the stage of the large-scale event “Three Colors” in the city of Minsk. Under the leadership of a student at the Belarusian Institute of Culture, Dmitry Sviridovich, Ruslan Vladyko and Alexey Lyubavin played at concerts, but did not exist as a group outside of events.
Sergei Mikhalok is originally from Dresden, but received his education in Minsk, where he arrived with his family only in the early 80s. The biography of the Lyapis leader has been associated with creativity since childhood. In the early 90s, Mikhalok was actively involved in amateur performances, writing music and lyrics. With the help of a guitarist, bass player and drummer, he brings his own punk rock compositions to life on stage.
It is noteworthy that before participating in the Minsk “Festival of Musical Minorities” the group did not have full daily rehearsals. Participants met immediately before the event. After this festival in the Teacher’s House, the group began to work in an intensive mode, and already in 1994 a fateful meeting took place with Evgeny Kalmykov, who later became the director of the group.
At that time, the group received a fee for a performance for the first time and went on a debut tour with the Bamboo Theater (without leaving the borders of the republic) on a bus with the concert program “Conquest of Space.”
A series of concerts, the festival “Unknown Cinema of Gagarin” (organized by artist Vasily Novitsky), performances on the same stage with famous rock bands (Chufella Marzufella) led Lyapis to the idea of recording a cassette.
In 1995, a recording was made from a concert at the Alternative Theater, which was called “Love Kapets”. One hundred cassettes were produced, of which less than half were sold. With the growing popularity of the group, the work was re-released, but as “Wounded Heart”.
In 1995, the composition of the group was as follows: Ruslan Vladyko (guitarist), Alexey Lyubavin (drummer), Valery Bashkov (bassist) and leader Sergei Mikhalok. A year later, the musical accompaniment in the group was supplemented by a trumpet, violin, horn and another guitar (Egor Dryndin, Vitaly Drozdov, Pavel Kuzyukovich, Alexander Rolov).
Music
In 1996, at the suggestion of the head of Kompleksbank, Evgeniy Kravtsov, Lyapis recorded at the Mezzo Forte music studio. In June, at the rock music festival in Gorky Park in Minsk, the group played the album “Wounded Heart”. The composition “Lu-ka-shen-ko” (the motif is from the song “Bu-ra-ti-no”) created a furor. The hit was not included in the list of songs on the album, but all two hundred copies of the cassettes were sold out.
Song "Lu-ka-shen-ko" by the group "Lyapis Trubetskoy"On October 4, 1996, the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy” presented the public with their second album “Smyarotnaya Vesele”. The presentation took place in Minsk, at the Trade Union Palace of Culture. The concert recorded on cassette did not satisfy the soloist, but the recording was of high quality. There is no label on the cover. The hits “Kinula”, “It’s a pity that the sailor”, “Pilot and Spring” appeared on the recording.
The excitement around the new rock idols led to the emergence of opponents of their work. The press reacted sharply negatively. However, at the Rock Coronation-96, Lapis took three awards: “Best Group of the Year”, “Album of the Year” and “Best Author of the Year” (there were four nominations in total). The awards provided Lyapis with the title of “rock king”.
Song "Au" by the group "Lyapis Trubetskoy"After that, there was no news about “Lyapis Trubetskoy” for a year, except for media speculation about the creative crisis of Sergei Mikhalok. At this time, the group practically did not give concerts and did not release new material.
In 1997, directors as part of the tandem “Bolek & Lelek” shot the first video for the group for the song “Au”. The video contains photographs of the participants and animation made from plasticine. The song “You threw it” becomes a particularly recognizable hit of Lyapisov. In 1998, the group went on a tour within Belarus.
The song “You threw it” by the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy”The popularity of the group is growing rapidly in Russia. The storm of indignation among Belarusian fans has subsided. Later the album “Lapisdance” with remixes was released. It is interesting that Sergei Mikhalok himself did not take any part in the recording of the remixed tracks.
Then, with the support of the Soyuz studio with Evgeny Kravtsov, an album with recordings from the archive of the group “Lubov Kapets: Archive Recordings” is released. The cover of “Green-Eyed Taxi” (part of the album “Wounded Heart”) won great popularity on Russian radio stations, for which the author of the song, Oleg Kvasha, caused a scandal in 1999.
Song “Green-Eyed Taxi” by the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy”In 1998, the album “Beauty” was released. It is impossible to guess his exact mood. However, how to define a single genre of compositions. After the presentation of the album, Lyapis continues to tour.
In the early 2000s, the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy” signed a contract for cooperation with the Real Records studio, which releases the collection “Heavy”. But not all compositions aroused delight. Some radio stations refused to broadcast the songs “Along the Alleys” and “Druzhban”. Later, “Union” re-released the album “Beauty” with a different name - “All the Girls Like It”, which included the hits “Love turned its back on me”, “Grapevine” and a cover of “My Baby”.
Song “In a White Dress” by the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy”In 2001, the album “Youth” appeared. Later I had to part with Alexei Lyubavin. In his place they took a new drummer - Alexander Starozhuk. 2003 was marked by the release of a major collection “Chyrvony Pants”, a year later - “Golden Eggs” (“Rainka”, “Postmen”).
In 2004-2005, work continued on the next album, new compositions, and the soundtrack for the film “Men Don’t Cry” was recorded. The material accumulated during this period became the content of the collection “Men Don’t Cry,” released in 2006. It included songs that managed to gain popularity over the year (“Andryusha”, “Hare”), and several soundtracks. By the way, tracks from this album made it to the top of the charts (“Hare” on “Our Radio”).
Song "Capital" by the group "Lyapis Trubetskoy"In 2006, bass guitarist Dmitry Sviridovich left the band twice. Instead, Denis Sturchenko remained on this instrument. The album “Men Don’t Cry” was renamed “Capital”. We can say that the collection is a debut in the style of socio-political satire. Until this time, Lapis had not touched upon such topics, but the fans welcomed the new trend cordially.
Until 2011, the Lyapis Trubetskoy group continued active creative activity. The song “Capital” became an absolute hit for the group, the video won the music charts. The group members changed (the founder Sergei Mikhalok remained unchanged), but the work never stopped. During this time, the compositions “Golden Antelope”, “Manifesto”, “Rock Baby Dolls” were written and released. The albums “Manifes” and “Kultprosvet” were created.
Song “Sochi” (“I’ll steal you”) by the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy”In 2011, Lyapis appeared on the list of groups whose mention is prohibited in official media. And Mikhalok was threatened with criminal punishment for incorrect statements addressed to him. But there were no sufficient grounds to bring charges.
Until 2014, rock kings tour and give concerts on social issues. Tracks are being written (“Jester”, “I Believe”, “I’ll Steal You”), the albums “Rabkor” (2012) and “Matryoshka” (2014) are being released.
Song “Warriors of Light” by the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy”The collection “Matryoshka” caused conflicting reactions among the public and government officials. The Lyapis concert halls were packed to capacity, but it happened that performances were canceled due to the content of the album (an insult to the Russian authorities).
In the early spring of 2014, Sergei Mikhalok announced that the rock group Lyapis Trubetskoy would cease to exist on the first day of autumn. Now there is the Trubetskoy project (initial composition: Pavel Bulatnikov, Ruslan Vladyko, Alexander Starozhuk and Alexander Myshknvich) and the new team of Sergei Mikhalok Brutto.
"Lyapis Trubetskoy" now
The Lyapis Trubetskoy team has disbanded since 2014 and has not given large-scale joint concerts. However, the ex-members still perform their favorite hits.
On July 14, 2018, led by Pavel Bulatnikov, the Trubetskoy project promises an incendiary program in Kaliningrad with the inclusion of LT hits. The concert will take place as part of the FIFA Fan Fest.
Discography
- 1998 – “In a white dress”
- 1998 – “Ay”
- 1998 – “Evpatoria”
- 1998 – “Green-Eyed Taxi”
- 2000 – “Along the Alleys”
- 2001 – “Sochi”
- 2004 – “Rainka”
- 2008 – “Sparks”
- 2008 – “Trubetskoy”
- 2011 – “Jester”
- 2014 – “Warriors of Light”
The leader of the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy” Sergei Mikhalok explained the reasons for the collapse of the popular Belarusian group. The musician spoke about this in a kind of “testament of Lyapis”, published on the official page of Brutto - Mikhalko’s new project - on the social network Facebook.
The musician noted that the idea to create it was born after the release of the Western Agitpop album “Lyapis Trubetskoy” in Germany in 2010.
“My solo album “Funny Pictures” was supposed to be a buffer between Brutto and Lyapis. I emphasize that “Funny Pictures” is my joint work with my friend from Kyiv Vitaly Telezin. Neither in concept, nor in musical and poetic embodiment, this album has nothing in common with the revolutionary pop, festive and propaganda “Lapis.
However, the dissolution of the Lyapis Trubetskoy team was prevented by political events in Belarus, where in 2010, after the next presidential election, a series of persecutions of political opponents of Alexander Lukashenko and citizens who disagreed with the policies of the current government began. “They started putting pressure on us, banning concerts, and the dissolution of the group would have been perceived as cowardice and cowardice,” explained the musician.
After these events, writes Mikhalok, he left for Moscow, where he “embodied some of the songs for Brutto with Lapis in the album Rabkor.” At the same time, he emphasized that this album is a reflection of his “subjective, deeply personal view of contemporary art as a method of agitation and influence on mass consciousness.”
“Even then it became clear that some of the musicians and fans of Trubetskoy did not share my revolutionary mood and my daring, brutal actions,” noted the leader of Brutto.
“The idea of Brutto tore Lapis apart from the inside and broke through the inflated ball of Lapis’ prosperity,” Mikhalok called the main reason for the collapse of the group. - Panic, anger, rage, confusion, resentment and mutual hatred gripped the core of the Lyapis Crew syndicate and the group's fans. I decided to leave Trubetskoy and began looking for like-minded people to create Brutto. During the preparation of Brutto, we recorded another album “Matryoshka” with Lyapis, thereby putting a bold exclamation point at the end of the thorny, contradictory path of the Lyapis Trubetskoy group.
Let us remind you that on September 1, after more than two decades of successful creative activity, the Lyapis Trubetskoy group completed its musical career. On the night of August 31 to September 1, the musicians of the disbanded group presented two independent projects on the Internet, reports BelaPAN .
Thus, the ex-leader and ideological inspirer of “Lyapisov” Sergei Mikhalok founded the group Brutto (its official website brut.to has already launched). In turn, three ex-members of the Lyapis Trubetskoy group of the latest lineup - vocalist Pavel Bulatnikov, guitarist Ruslan Vladyko and drummer Alexander Storozhuk - founded the Trubetskoy group, which, according to them, is the successor of the Lyapis work. Guitarist Pavel Tretyak and Alexander Myshkevich also joined this group.
Sergei Vladimirovich Mikhalok was born in 1972 in Dresden, Germany. His father was a military man, and therefore the family often had to move, and as a child Sergei had the opportunity to live in Altai, Siberia and other places. Only in the late 1980s did his family return to Minsk. Since childhood, Sergei was interested in performing, and after school he decided to enter the Belarusian Institute of Culture.
The group "Lyapis Trubetskoy" appeared in 1990, it was founded by Mikhalok a little earlier, but the new group was not immediately heard of. Gradually, the popularity of the group grew, eventually reaching beyond the borders of Belarus. It is known that almost the only author of all the songs of the group is Sergei Mikhalok. The peak of the team's popularity came in the late 1990s and early 2000s - in those years, "Lyapis Trubetskoy" quite strongly seeped into Russian show business, which the real fans of the group did not approve of. So, the group continued to perform their humorous songs, appearing here and there in Russian television parties.
Later, Mikhalok again somewhat changed the style and image of his group, and after the release of the song “Capital” the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy” gained unprecedented new popularity.
By the way, they say that at custom concerts Mikhalok charges several times more money for the performance of his old songs, citing the fact that they “got him.”
Those who followed the work of the group might have noticed that today Sergei Mikhalok looks much younger. By the way, in the 1990s he suffered clinical death - the reason for this was all the same drugs, a real scourge of rock musicians. Sergei later said in an interview that everything related to narcotic substances remained in his “punk youth.”
It is known that in addition to Lyapis Trubetskoy, Sergei took on other projects at different times. So, in 2000, he created the comic duet “Sasha and Sirozha” together with Alexey “Khatson” Khatskevich; in 2001 he became the founder of the Children of the Sun movement.
As for Sergei’s own creativity, if it all began in the 1990s as a project far from politics, then today politics is more and more clearly present in the group’s texts. By the way, Sergei Mikhalok has already become a rather dangerous person for the Belarusian authorities; he was even summoned to explain some of his particularly harsh texts. By the way, recently Mikhalok has been writing his poems under the pseudonym “Yuzik Kilevich.”
As for the musician’s personal life, it is known that he was married to Ales Berulava, the lead singer of the groups “Mantana” and “Merry Poppins”. Sergei also has a son named Pavel, born in 1995.
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According to unverified information, Mikhalok is today one of the three highest paid artists in Belarus. By the way, Sergei does not conduct any side projects with music, claiming that music is his only work. “... Music makes me feel like a working class. Each concert brings me my only and stable income,” he says.
Sergei speaks very reluctantly about his numerous tattoos - he considers them simply an addition to his visual image. However, on the group’s website there is a separate post about Sergei Mikhalok’s tattoos, with a link to his interview. In a recent interview, Sergei said: “Basically, tattoos are such notches. I drive into myself, into my epidermis, things that are very important to me, those that I should not forget.”
Let us remind you that Sergei Mikhalok now lives in Ukraine, where his new band Brutto recently went on tour. Lyapis Trubetskoy broke up last year. The other part of the legendary team performs under the name “Trubetskoy”.
“I returned to live in Minsk because my second son Makar was born, because I have a new group. Why the hell should I even be running? I'm tired of running! And I made the main mistake - I decided that they would not touch me in Belarus, since I was no longer “Lapis”, but Brutto. And the f...inans! In general, our fans in the authorities warned that a KGB operation was being carried out against us, and within a day I moved from Minsk to Kyiv. They could have staged a provocation. I'm a drug addict who could wake up with a relapse in the hospital. They could just throw it in - they say he couldn’t handle it. There are no former alcoholics or drug addicts. Every second I fight the urge to drink and use. But no,” he said.
Sergei Mikhalok also told how he performed in Donetsk with two machines of machine gunners.
“We played a concert in Donetsk, when ninety-five percent of comments on the Internet boiled down to “Come, Maidan pederasts, we will kill you!” And we arrived with two cars of machine gunners, we had a cue ball in the club, and everyone shouted “Glory to Ukraine!” - in Donetsk, the center of separatism. If I sing “Kill the slave in you!”, “Be brave!”, “Go forward!”, then why should I piss? How do I know what will happen in Mariupol? I am a normal person, I also fear for my life. But last year, during a tour in Russia, the danger to my life was greater than in Mariupol. Every Lapis concert could end badly: I encountered opposition not only from the authorities, but also from radical groups. And at the “Invasion” festival, where everything was in the flags of the DPR and “Crimea is ours,” I did not piss and sang “Warriors of Light” - the anthem of the Maidan. The FSB and the “E” Center for Combating Youth Extremism worked for us. Although a couple of times, on the contrary, they helped, they said that right-wing radicals want to cover us in Kaliningrad. For them, we are Maidanists, Bandera-fascists,” he noted.
As “Belarusian Partisan” wrote, the album “Funny Pictures” should have included the song “Empire of Good”. However, at that time it did not fit into the overall concept of the record. Recently the Song was found in the archives of a Kyiv studio and has now been posted on the Brutto YouTube channel.
In an interview with the magazine, Sergei Mikhalok also stated that he does not yet plan to visit Russia.
“No, I won’t go to Russia. I don't know what an entry ticket is or not. An aggressive environment has been created. By the way, the state doesn’t need to waste effort on me - there are enough activists. There are already relatives of those killed in the DPR who are sure that I sang on the Maidan for American money and now I come to Russia, sprinkled with the blood of Russian fighters. My head will already be broken by right-wing football fans, left-wing hardcores or cowards who piss off going to war, but walk around Samara with two hundred sabers. If they attack me without sabers, then I will cut down two or three mummers. What if with a saber? Have you ever seen a man with a saber? And he is sure that I burned children in Odessa, that I personally did it... A newspaper was published in Tyumen, where it was reported that I shouted “Kill the Russian, kill the Jew!” on the Maidan, and then came to their northern international city. Propaganda and information warfare have done a lot,” Mikhalok said.
Speaking about the future of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, the musician said that these countries should not be brothers, but should be normal neighbors.
“I am for socialism of the Scandinavian type. I like the relationship between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Do you know the names of their presidents? Me neither. And so I want us not to know the names of our presidents, so that they are just functionaries. If we become independent states, then we will truly be friends. There is no need to push us into the Eurasian Union, the Warsaw Pact, or build the USSR again. The Empire has collapsed! Pieces fell off! What kind of architect do you need to be to put together a house from crumbling stones? We shouldn't be brothers, we should be normal neighbors. We are being pitted against each other! And I want everyone to have their own. I need my living space. I'm traveling on the train in my compartment. Well, come in and talk. I sat and talked - and that’s it, get out of here! I don’t need: “Let me lie down here, this is a cool crossword puzzle!” I want us to travel in the same carriage, but we each have our own compartment. Then we will all love each other again,” said the musician.
Sergei Mikhalok also spoke about his former colleagues - musicians from the Lyapis Trubetskoy group.
“I don’t know what they were thinking at all. I was surprised that they did not realize that their personal fate and the fate of their children directly depended on me. I was very careless and they made no effort to stop me. I understood that sooner or later we would part. Everyone was firmly convinced that I had merged with Lapis, and I want to say that the revival album Capital was already more Brutto than Lapis. It contains much more of my position than all the musicians combined. When they ask me about their new group “Trubetskoy,” I answer that at a competition of cover bands playing Lapis songs, they would not be among the top three! They say to me: “How do you feel about your colleagues in the shop?” But I don’t work at a factory, I don’t have colleagues in the workshop. Fuck... I turned everyone around - so, by and large! What workshop? What colleagues?