Although the “Woman with a Beard” at the Eurovision Song Contest never put forward her candidacy, in Novosibirsk every third person knows her. And even if he himself was not at the concert, then he must have heard something about her. Yes, the group is addressed in this way - using the singular and the feminine. The creative union of Barbara and Sergey formed a new, almost full-fledged, member of society.
Title
The name of the group sounds rather eccentric, if not shocking. The soloist of the group - Varvara Sapozhnikova, was not afraid to be branded as a girl with excessive hair on her face, like the notorious Conchita Wurst - a woman with a beard, who won at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest.
Of course, Barbara has no facial hair. Beard is a creative pseudonym and a hallmark of another major member and producer of the group - Sergey Pisarevsky. Earlier at concerts, they presented themselves to the audience as follows: “Here is a woman, and here is Beard, together -“ Woman with a Beard ”. The group received this name with the light hand of Barbara.
History
Their joint activity began in 2001, when they met at the Black Widow art gallery. Even then, Beard was imbued with the voice and charisma of Barbara. He invited her to perform on stage, feeling a great potential in a charming blonde. At one time, Beard organized more than one creative team, and he had experience in producing. But they began to officially act as a new group only in 2002.
Initially, Beard did not plan to take part in the activities of the group as a musician, but it was not possible to assemble the participants in a new team. Famous guitarists did not want to take risks, joining an unknown team. It was then that Sergei Pisarevsky decided to personally support Varvara by stepping on the stage with her. I must say, Beard did not lose, and timid musicians probably bite their elbows for a long time, watching the successes of the new team.
In a fairly short time, “Woman with a Beard” easily won the love of the picky public of Novosibirsk. The musicians started, of course, with the opening acts of recognized groups in the same Black Widow, then they took part in the Siberian Six-String underground acoustic festival (S.S.A.). Having established himself as a charismatic and promising team, Varvara and Beard undertook regular rehearsals. First, they were joined by Alexander Kasperovich (guitarist of the Jade band), known in the musical environment as Khryak. Then, as a drummer, Cyril Pisarevsky came under the pseudonym Boar, the son of Beard. Later, Yevgeny Nalivaiko, nicknamed Pig (keyboards), began to play in the team. Then the team was supplemented by Barbara’s protégé - Dmitry Ganin (Ganya), the leader of the N.P.V.K. punk band. When the concert activity of “Women with a Beard” became quite dense, the composition of the participants began to gradually change. To date, the band has many successful concerts in Omsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Altai Territory and the Kemerovo Region.
“Woman with a Beard” sang wonderful with such famous performers as Chizh, Chicherina, Maxim Leonidov, Mara, as well as the groups “Time Machine”, “Aria”, “Crematorium” and others. Her concert activity continues to this day, but, unfortunately, is not so active.
Composition of the group
The group often changed. For one reason or another, the participants left the team, they were replaced by new ones. Since 2002, Sergey Panyutin, a former member of the Samosad group, who replaced Dmitry Ganin, joined the Woman with a Beard. Vladimir Fil, known as part of the “Checked”, “Crossroads” and “Gulf” teams, temporarily took the stage instead of Panyutin in 2004. Periodically, drummer Mikhail Pavstyuk, previously working with Nord-West and Free Time bands, as well as bass player Andrei Siminenko, an ex-member of the Checked, Crossroads and Thin Lori bands, played with Varvara and Beard. In 2006, the place of the leader-guitarist Alexander Kasperovich was finally taken by the debutant Vyacheslav Shevchenko. Regular band members, its founders and inspirers, the main authors of texts and music are Barbara and Beard. The rest of the team today: Pisarevsky Jr. (drums), Panyutin (bass), Nalyvayko (keys) and Shevchenko (lead guitar). This is the composition of the group at the moment.
Female
Varvara Sapozhnikova - smiling blonde, Novosibirsk Janis Joplin. For her sake, in fact, the group started. It is not surprising that the mention of it is made in the name of the team. As mentioned above, it was Varvara who proposed the original name of the group. And this, of course, betrays in her a man of courageous, witty, with a wonderful sense of humor.
Barbara was born on Sakhalin, but most of her conscious life (after 16 years) lived in Novosibirsk. According to her, she has been fond of creativity since childhood, but it was always at the level of a hobby, she never had a musical education. Prior to serious interest in pop music, she worked in finance, medicine, in an IT company, and even in the service industry. As a singer, she first tried herself in Dmitry Gayduk's group “Sakrabanda”, but the real debut was still participation in “Woman with a Beard”, where she became not only a soloist, but also a songwriter. Barbara was married several times, with the former spouses she maintained a warm relationship. There is a son, Maxim.
Beard
Sergey Pisarevsky is not a native of Novosibirsk either. His homeland is in Tajikistan, but he grew up and studied in the capital of Siberia. Like Varvara, Pisarevsky lived for some time on the island of Sakhalin. He studied music since childhood, both in theory and in practice. Quite tolerably, he mastered the guitar and piano, tried to play the xylophone, button accordion and even clarinet. While living on Sakhalin, he worked on the organization of musical rock groups, combined this activity with the work of a long-distance navigation navigator. Returning to Novosibirsk, he founded the group "April", but the lack of income from these events made him leave the music for almost 10 years. Again, picking up the guitar prompted him to meet with Barbara in 2001.
Repertoire
Determining the genre in which "Woman with a Beard" works is quite problematic. The musicians themselves do not characterize the direction of their work, but it definitely shows the motives of rock and roll and blues, folk and reggae, jazz and bossa nova. This unusual mixture of genres gives rise to "Russian rock" of a hooligan orientation with a touch of bard song.
Albums
The group recorded three albums: Barbadonna (2006), Universal Love (2011) and Road to Altai (2012). However, since 2002, many different songs, Women with a Beard, have been featured in various collections from concerts and festivals, including Cuba - My Love, Megarock, and Recommended Records. The team also regularly took part in promotions and music sessions, for example, Short Circuit, Wings 2006, a festival in memory of Tatyana Snezhina and Sergey Bugaev, as well as in a bike show (Old Melnik, Full Gas, “ Freedom Territory ”,“ Steel Wind ”) along with eminent teams. Beard founded his own Rock On competition for young performers who want to make themselves known on the rock stage of Novosibirsk and the region.
Today, “Woman with a Beard” gives concerts in the clubs “Pipe”, “Stray Dog”, Rock City, “Pulse”, “Macondo” and “888”. These are popular venues among local rock parties. You can find out when the band’s next concert will be held in Novosibirsk on the official website of Women with a Beard or on the poster of the city’s music events.