Сериал / Serial by Vtoroi Ka

Our series begins with a smile or an album no one was prepared for.

Dedicated to everyone tired of endless butts popping up in their feed! Hang in there, dear ones; Prometheus will soon disappear...

The songs for "Serial" were written between 2019 and 2021. It was a prosperous period for us when financial issues took a back seat, allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in creativity. Every penny we had was invested in equipping our space, upgrading tools, and acquiring new instruments. We tried to renew everything we could to feel complete creative freedom. In the end, we even had to reinvent the process of writing material.

The creative process for "Serial" was drastically different from "Dependency Day." We no longer wrote songs together. Instead, we developed a new method. Each week, we would pick a random word to inspire a song. This challenge included us and our dear friend Rashid, whom you might know from the track "Fuck It." Over the week, each of us would work independently, crafting our songs. On Sundays, we’d gather, listen to each other’s tracks, marvel at the results, discuss challenges we faced, pick a new theme/word, and head off into the next week. This process lasted for a year. Occasionally, we’d change the challenge. Some periods involved writing a song a day for a month—tracks like "School 39" and "Half a Million" emerged during such stretches. Other times, we had a month to create a mini-album with a specific concept, like "Your Last EP," and so on. Many songs from those mini-albums, such as "Waiting for Sunday," "Dad’s Car," "We Play to the End," "Series," and others (some yet unreleased), were born.

This method required diving deep within ourselves to create. It meant extracting personal emotions, childhood traumas, unrequited love... As a result, most songs turned out to be very personal. We grew deeply attached to them, making it hard to let them go.

*Fun fact!* Unlike the songs from "Dependency Day," which were created under varying degrees of intoxication, all the songs in "Series" were written in complete sobriety.

Even though it was hard to let go of the songs, we were eager to release the album. From the start of our creative journey, we dreamed of a conceptual album about school and growing up. As we listened to the accumulated songs, we realized this was it! Initially, our desktop folder labeled "SERIES LP" contained about 30 songs. While we no longer wrote collaborative tracks, the demo refinement process was done together. Some songs had their arrangements completely redone, verses added, or trimmed down. We felt like Lennon and McCartney, striving to give everything a cohesive form. At this stage, half the tracks were discarded. By the time we reached mixing and mastering, even more songs were cut. In the end, only 11 tracks survived.

Living in our dreamlike worlds, we forgot to prepare the audience for the material. Social media activity was never our forte, and we always had to force ourselves to engage. By May 2021, the album was fully ready, and we realized we needed promo materials to support it. We spent the entire summer on DIY shoots, bits of which are only now being released, but we couldn’t get anything concrete. Negotiations with the label initially set to release the album fell through due to terms we couldn’t agree on. Everything, to put it mildly, wasn’t going well. At the same time, our friends and acquaintances pressured us by claiming this material would make us soar! The more time passed, the less we believed it (thankfully).

Things shifted closer to fall when Yulia joined our team. We decided to release the album the same way we did "Dependency Day," but with more quality. Yulia arranged a professional photoshoot with a stylist—something we’d never done before. She also connected us with Kanat Kalmatov, who later directed the music video for "39 School". Working with Kanat was highly professional and efficient. We brainstormed the video concept over Telegram calls, and Kanat flew from Moscow to Bishkek, where we filmed all the material in one day. A week later, the video was ready and didn’t require any revisions.

Yulia was also responsible for the album cover. Our only request was for it to echo the "Dependency Day" cover. She took a photo from our session, removed all the extras, and told us to print it. Then we got to work on embroidery... At first glance, it might look like the fonts and drawings were done with pencils, but they were all embroidered by hand. We loved the result!

Everything that happened afterward, you already know. "School 39" spread far and wide and is now our main **banger**, which is very exciting. However, the album didn’t receive the same attention as the single with its visuals. We could open a big discussion about this, but we’ll limit ourselves to conclusions. Overall, we’re satisfied! Our primary goal of releasing the album has been achieved. The fact that it didn’t explode like "Bandana" isn’t surprising and doesn’t make us doubt our genius. However, we don’t plan to release any more albums—at least not until there’s massive demand for one. Releasing albums these days is a thankless task. But don’t be upset, dear kitty! Instead, we’ll shift to regularly releasing singles. In fact, the next one drops in just two weeks. Much love to you all!

Vtoroi Ka is a musical duo from Kyrgyzstan, known for their distinctive approach to creativity. The band members take full responsibility for every step of the music-making process, from composing the instrumentals and writing lyrics to mixing and mastering.

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