Brothers Grim

Brothers Grim / Братья Грим

Published: January 15, 2017

Brothers Grim (Братья Грим—spelled differently from the original Brothers Grimm; грим means stage or film makeup in Russian, but that might be coincidence) is a Russian soft rock group. It was founded in 1998 by the brothers/twins Grim—actually Konstantin (Kostya) and Boris (Borya) Burdaev (Констаинтин/Костя Бурдаев; Борис/Боря Бурдаев), who went by Konstantin Grim and Boris Grim in concert.

Konstantin says that he was a musician starting from the age of eight, so it was only natural that he and his brother should start a band (though a number of years after that!). Kostya played bass guitar and did back vocals; Borya sang and played acoustic guitar. They were actually the only two members of the band for the first few years, but by 2004 they’d been joined by Anton Sharonin (Антон Шаронин; percussion), and Maksim Malitskiy (Максим Малицкий; guitar). While the composition of the group was settling down, they played in clubs and small concert venues, mostly in Samara.

In 2004, the group changed membership a bit, signed with a record producer, and moved to Moscow. Things finally started happening: they released their first, self-titled album in 2005, plus several music videos, and won their first Golden Gramophone and Song of the Year awards in 2005. But it abruptly stopped in 2009, when the brothers allegedly had a major disagreement and broke up the band. Apparently, Kostya wrote on the group’s website that the group had disbanded before he even told Borya. A little while later, Kostya restarted the group under the name Grim, but then changed it back to the Brothers Grim in 2010.

After that, things went along pretty smoothly, though Borya never returned to the group. Kostya became the new lead vocalist. In 2014 there was another dustup when Borya tried to start his own band with the same name Brothers Grim, but he was forced to change his to Boris Grim and the Brothers Grim. He now performs simultaneously with four bands, and released three records in 2016 alone. The original-ish Brothers Grim is also still going, having now released a total of six records. The band currently consists of Kostya, Valeriy Zagorskiy (Валерий Загорский; guitar), Dmitry Kondrev (Дмитрий Кондрев; bass guitar), and Mikhail Mazurok (Михаил Мазурок; drums).

Find Bratya Grim on Amazon

“Eyelashes” (“Ресницы”), 2005, one of Brothers Grim’s first singles and best-loved songs:

 

Lyrics for “Ресницы”:

Губы у тебя вкуса миндаля,
Словно конопля дурят у-ну-ну-ну-ну…
Слов не говоря искусай меня.
Силы не жалей, дурака валяй.

Припев:
Хлопай ресницами и взлетай.
Присниться не забывай туру-ту-тай.. Туту-ту-ру-тутай…
Хлопай ресницами и взлетай синицею, иволгой.
Туру-ту-тай… Туту-ту-ру-тутай…

У тебя глаза словно бирюза.

Резко по газам вдарим у-ну-ну-ну-ну…
Може быть и я вкуса миндаля
И могу летать веками порхая.

Припев:
Хлопай ресницами и взлетай.
Присниться не забывай туру-ту-тай.. Туту-ту-ру-тутай…
Хлопай ресницами и взлетай синицею, иволгой.
Туру-ту-тай… Туту-ту-ру-тутай…

Хлопай и взлетай… Не забывай, не забывай…

 

“Favorite Music” (“Самая любимая музыка”), 2014:

 

Lyrics for “Самая любимая музыка”:

Молчит гитара в углу,
И видит девятый свой сон аккордеон.
Ключи скрипичные, бас – сказали, что я не спою,
Все тленный фарс.

Припев:
Ты моя самая любимая музыка.
Льется песня издалека, хмурые облака разгоняя.
Ты моя самая любимая музыка.
От рассвета и до заката слышать тебя – все, что мне надо.

Звучи, пой для меня,
Играй в телефонных проводах, являйся в снах.
В ночи и в радуге дня,
Звучи у прохожих в головах, в лесах, в полях.

Припев:
Ведь ты моя самая любимая музыка.
Льется песня издалека, хмурые облака разгоняя.
Ты моя самая любимая музыка.
От рассвета и до заката слышать тебя, все повторяя, что…

Ты моя самая любимая музыка.
Льется песня издалека, хмурые облака разгоняя.
Ты моя самая любимая музыка.
От рассвета и до заката слышать тебя – все, что мне надо.

Молчит гитара в углу…
Молчит гитара в углу…

Find Bratya Grim on Amazon

 

About the author

Julie Hersh

Julie studied Russian as a Second Language in Irkutsk and before that, Bishkek, with SRAS's Home and Abroad Scholarship program, with the goal of someday having some sort of Russia/Eurasia-related career. She recently got her master’s degree from the University of Glasgow and the University of Tartu, where she studied women’s dissent in Soviet Russia. She also has a bachelor’s degree in literature from Yale. Some of her favorite Russian authors are Sorokin, Shishkin, Il’f and Petrov, and Akhmatova. In her spare time Julie cautiously practices martial arts, reads feminist websites, and taste-tests instant coffee for her blog.

Program attended: Home and Abroad Scholar

View all posts by: Julie Hersh