Frequently Asked Questions
(Excerpts of interviews)

Q: Why is there such excessive fish imagery on the CD cover and web pages?

A: First, the fish represents the diverse dimensions of water: deep, transparent, clean, smooth, murky, secret and sensual... Secondly, the fish symbolizes dreaming, sub consciousness, sex and ancient life forms: healers, sexual goddesses and alien beings. Thirdly, there is one more reason for the image of the fish. The Greek word for fish is the first letter of the statement of who Christ truly is. Also, in some ancient Slavic traditions fish stands for the world of fantasy and imagination.

Q: The third reason sounds a bit religious...

A: We (Kin Za Za) participate in music as an open-ended spirituality, to make sense of existence. It's all about wild energy that represents possibility, creativity and craziness of life. Religion claims to know the truth and for Kin Za Za "to know the truth" is a disease. Truth/lie is not a belief it is a state of mind, an experience. For us, music in itself is an exciting alternative to lies and truths.

Q: Tell us a bit about the title of the opening song "The River"?

A: "The River" has two shores: life and death, lies and truths, love and hatred but the stream that unites them is neutral energy. "The River" is about this energy. The river has an indefinite beginning and no end. It flows into infinity yet it has a sense of direction. It's kind of symbolic for Kin ZaZa...we started something we don't want to finish. It's a never-ending journey and we are happy to be moving into this infinity. Ultimately, it's going to mean different things to different people. We gather our ideas to put them into music and if we are lucky, we might convey these ideas to a listener, who can unpack our sounds to extract their content into their own meaning.

Q: Why didn't you put standard CV`s or BIOS on the web, like everyone else does?

A: We thought the standard CV form was a bit too conventional. We wanted the text to represent our personalities rather than a chain of events. This is why we have opted for aphoristic, imaginary and myth-like forms for our BIOS.

Q: What do you think about the press coverage of the music...?

A: Taste is nobody's monopoly. There is too much imposition by the media of what is "good" and what is not "good". As somebody said: "Most of 'music coverage' is treated as a service wherein an audience is sold to a client (record industry)". We often hear of horrible reviews about albums we love and of plenty 'great' reviews about albums we hate. And often it's not a matter of taste. It's often a matter of how much a record label pays to ensure "proper coverage".

Q: What do you think about pop charts?

A: By the law of nature, shit always floats on top of the water. Although, by fluke of nature, there are some rare exceptions.

Q: How long did it take to produce "Number One in Shambala"?

A: Never Started. Never Finished. Only Digitally Captured This Message Into Computer between November 1999 -February 2001...Sorry couldn't resist...Creativity is a complex, never-ending process. It has neither beginning nor end. It is about mystery, fantasy and illumination. We don't like the term: 'produced'. It sounds too artificial. We were trying to make the production as transparent as possible. Most of the songs could be performed just with the guitar and vocal. Even though we paid scrupulous attention to the overall sound and the usage of synths, we used our production techniques, as a way of framing the picture, not as a way of changing it.

Q: "Number One in Shambala": What a bizarre title for an album?

A: It involves a bit of humour. Shambala is a place where Jesus and Buddha and the likes usually retire after their mission on Earth is accomplished. So when pop stars say, "Oh we are number one in the UK" or "we are number one in the US... "Well we are number one in Shambala".

Q: Is it one of those places with pop charts where the shit does not flow on top of the water?

A: Maybe.

Q: Tell us a joke

A: All societies are divided into four categories: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. One day there is an important job to be done and Everybody is sure that Somebody will do it. Anybody could do it but Nobody does it. Somebody gets angry with that, because it is Everybody's job. Everybody thinks that Anybody can do it but Nobody realizes that Everybody won't do it. It ends up that Everybody blames Somebody when Nobody does what Anybody could have done...