Cover of the song "As at War" by Alexander Pushny

On January 5, 2021, Alexander Pushnoy presented a new cover of the Agata Kristi band's song "Like War" to the audience, and within a few hours it had tens of thousands of views.

Alexander Pushnoy on YouTube

Alexander Pushnoy is a musician and TV presenter. He came up with the idea of sharing his creativity by recording videos even before YouTube became popular in Russia. The musician appeared his channel in 2009, but in 2004 he created his site where he published his musical works in different genres.

After a while Pushnoy realized that viewers are interested not only in the result of his creativity, but also in the process of making music: working with equipment, recording technology. He started to publish videos on how to get quality sound without professional equipment and share the process of making music. Thanks to his advice you can turn your own apartment into a recording studio.

His videos will also help in choosing the right instrument - on the channel you can find reviews of popular models of electric guitars, and their comparison with each other.

The audience's attention is also attracted, of course, by the colorful covers, which preserve the atmosphere of the original while adding Pushny's own creative solutions. As a rule, he records them at his home, clearly demonstrating how high quality the sound and image can be on a home recording.

As in war - the story of the song

The original song "Like War" was performed by the Russian rock band Agatha Christie. The famous song was released on the album "Shameful Star" in 1993.

Its author, Gleb Samoilov, wanted to save the song for his solo album for a long time, but eventually made it part of the band's work. In one of his interviews the musician notes that the idea of the lyrics was inspired by his first love. At that time, long before the song itself appeared in his mind, the line "I'm on you like in war" was born. Samoilov was repeatedly pointed out that this wording was incorrect from the point of view of the Russian language, but the musician always replies that this was the idea - to describe the feeling of contradiction clearly, briefly and without the pathos typical of a lyrical subject like love and parting.

The music video was directed by Igor Pesotsky. Only two members of the band - Vadim and Gleb Samoilov, who flew to Moscow from Yekaterinburg, took part in it. The preparation of the scenery was unusual - the clip was filmed in the so-called "Ames Room", which creates an optical illusion, distorting the space. When watching it, the viewer can really lose the sense of reality - all this perfectly lays on the music and lyrics. You can notice that there is not a single close-up in the video, which is not only due to the artistic purpose. On the eve of the shooting, Gleb Samoilov got a huge flush, which had to be carefully hidden.

Gleb Samoilov on the meaning of composition

From the first lines it becomes clear that "Like War" is a song about the vivid feelings between love and hate. The author notes that it is not only and not so much about the inevitable separation - it is about the contradictions that inevitably arise in even the happiest of relationships, because people in them do not become an organic extension of each other.

Listeners and critics often call the song one of the first songs with sexual overtones from the band Agatha Christie. Gleb Samoilov says the song is primarily about love and the relationship of two self-sufficient individuals. In a 1995 interview with Televik, Samoilov said that the song's characters love each other despite the contradictions that make them push away their loved one, and that the lyrics of "Like War" are about the impossibility of becoming one for different people.

Performed by Alexander Pushny

Alexander Pushnoy recorded a cover of "How at War" in his home studio. Beforehand, the musician even bought a license to use the song.

Despite the simple visuals, the clip still draws the eye: the musician plays electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums extremely emotionally, and sometimes the instruments become imaginary. The sound of the music, on the one hand, is recognizable and conveys the mood of the original, but, on the other hand, in Pushny's arrangement the song sounds different, even more energetic and driving. The vocal performance also pleases the audience - the musician very vividly conveys the emotional vortex of the lyrical hero of the song, and even his irony looks organically in the video.