The Russians are coming

In Russia’s post-Soviet thaw, the red of the Communist era is being replaced by the prospects of green. At least that’s what’s caught the eye of the U.S. record industry as the onetime Siberia of world pop culture starts to turn out its first generation of international pop-music contenders.

“All the Things She Said” by t.A.T.u., a pair of saucy, dance-pop Lolitas from Moscow, is the fastest-rising single in the United States, ranking No. 5 on the most recent Billboard sales chart. Driven by that video’s aggressive sexuality, the group’s debut album, “200 Km/H in the Wrong Lane,” jumped 57 spots in the latest album chart to No. 53.Meanwhile, pop-country band Bering Strait earned a Grammy nomination for its bluegrass-inflected instrumental “Bearing Straight.” Expatriates from Obninsk, about 60 miles southwest of Moscow, the seven musicians have been in Nashville for almost five years struggling to break into the born-in-the-U.S.A. country idiom.

The two acts have very little in common, other than strict classical music training and mid-’80s upbringings with easy access to “decadent” Western pop culture.

Bering Strait is hungry for American recognition and fame; t.A.T.u. claims not to care.

“This is the first generation in Russia that has the ability to reach out to us in the West,” says Martin Kierszenbaum, t.A.T.u.’s artists-and-repertoire executive at Interscope Records, which released the duo’s album in December. “They basically grew up after the fall of communism, so they have one foot entrenched in Russian traditions like bard music, a very melancholy, robust folk music. And they have the other foot in straight-up MTV: jeans and Madonna singles.”

Lena Katina and Julia Volkova of t.A.T.u. (pronounced “tattoo,” the name has no meaning) say that they met when they were both 11-year-old singers in a touring vocal group. Tiny, redheaded Katina and dark, pixieish Volkova fell in love, they say, and at age 15 or so they answered a casting call for Svengali-like producer and psychologist Dr. Ivan Shapovalov, who writes all their material: t.A.T.u. was born.

Russian pop, t.A.T.u. style, is not quite a revolution, but a frantic, Prodigy-meets-Dido affair ranging from strident techno-pop with a slight Eastern tint to quieter piano moments. The Russian version of the album came out in 2001 and the single won MTV Russia’s video of the year honor. Producer Trevor Horn (Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood) reworked three of the best tracks for the album’s English-language version, and the single debuted at No. 1 in the U.K. this week.

But t.A.T.u.’s two don’t exactly act like pop stars. They duck the spotlight, often have caustic one-liners for the press, say they’re inspired by no other pop music and live with their parents in Moscow. They are anti-Britneys.

“We are all alone in the world. We are unique,” say Lena, 18, and Julia, 17, combining their responses through a translator in a phone interview from Moscow, when asked about bands they might have seen on MTV. “There is no other band in the world that we want to be like.”

Asked whether it’s important to make it in America, Lena, who speaks English well, picks up on the cultural bias of the question and yells, “Moscow is the best city in the world!” They say they have no plans to live anywhere else. As for touring, Kierszenbaum says it will happen, though no plans are in place.

It may be that rock stardom simply has no native model yet in Russia, but Bering Strait has tried a different tack.It’s used its naivete regarding the music biz to offer Nashville the possibility of a new twist on the country formula.

The members all shared a classical guitar teacher who loved bluegrass music, and became a band in 1988, when they were 10 years old. Weaned on Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Garth Brooks and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, by age 12 they were a novelty act.

In 1994, the band got a steady gig in a Mexican restaurant in Moscow. Art dealer Ray Johnson brought them to Tim DuBois, a collector of Russian art who, as head of the Arista Nashville label, had signed the likes of Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn and Diamond Rio.

“They were great entertainers, but if I were to have signed them at that time, it would have been too much about the novelty of the fact that they were from Russia,” says DuBois, who brought them to Arista 2 1/2 years later.

“The Ballad of Bering Strait,” a documentary film on the band that opens Feb. 21 at the Laemmle Sunset 5, sees the group start with a bang at the Grand Ole Opry, then lose four record deals in as many years. It’s a quiet, introspective film, in which the twentysomethings echo the seriousness of t.A.T.u.’s Katina and Volkova, though in a friendlier way. Bering Strait seems interested less in fame than in simply persevering.

“If we were to stay in Moscow and play country music, we’d be bound to play those clubs for the rest of our lives,” says lead guitarist Ilya Toshinsky, with a notable drawl on the word “couuuuntry.” “It would still be like an exotic attraction for Western tourists.”

Like t.A.T.u., Bering Strait breaks only a little new ground on its debut album. Released in January, “Bering Strait” is mostly straight-ahead pop-country (plus one Russian folk song) featuring the Americanized vocals of Natasha Borzilova and Lydia Salnikova. (The band will headline the Roxy on Feb. 18.)

Its most remarkable points are the blazing instrumentals and the fact that it’s on Nashville’s hottest new label, Universal South, DuBois’ venture with former MCA Nashville head Tony Brown (George Strait, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, Steve Earle). But opinions are mixed as to whether it’s the edge of a new crimson tide.

“I doubt that we’re going to be overrun by Russian bands anytime soon,” says DuBois with a laugh, though he adds that a couple of other bands there have come to his attention.

“I’m going to say yes,” says Interscope’s Kierszenbaum, who also works with Sting and Smash Mouth. “Because in the process of working with Julia and Lena, I’ve discovered this incredible wealth of talent from Moscow. They bring something completely fresh and exotic, in terms of the melodies and the approach.”

Bering Strait’s Toshinsky feels that it’s just a matter of time. “The songwriting is there, the ideas are there,” he says. “The execution is just not there yet.”