The Alphabet of Alexander Kullinkovich: A Journey Through Life and Music

City Life

For me, the city is uncomfortable. I don’t particularly love Minsk. It’s like a not-so-beloved parent to me: it’s there, but I don’t feel an overwhelming love for it. Even though it’s the city of my childhood, my hometown. While on tour, I always long to come home. I’m a homebody, and for me, it’s not so much the city that matters, but my place within it. My home. I call it my “refrigerator box.” Lately, so many tasks, calls, and questions pile up that it’s hard not to open that refrigerator box and crawl inside.

Women

I’m an incredible ladies’ man! For me, nothing is more sacred than a woman. A woman is a mother, and she should be loved and respected. This belief was probably passed down to me from my grandfathers. Nowadays, there are many posers. But my grandfathers were real, genuine Cossacks. In a Cossack village, wives would beat their husbands severely. A Cossack who hit a woman was a disgraced person. And the women would beat the men to the point of sending them to the trauma center. In tsarist Russia, there were posters in taverns that read, “Husband, do not anger your wife!”. I adore women. They can twist me around their fingers. And I believe that life is genuinely harder for women than for men. Although one drunk woman who loves me is worse than five thugs who hate me.

Kullinkovich and Company

There are things in me that aren’t present in “Neiro Dyubel”. Out of interest or perhaps for fun, many familiar editors would send young female journalists to interview me… to scare them. The girls thought I was terrifying and awful, with dirt hanging off me, barely able to speak, and struggling to read. Many people, especially young journalists, mistake my stage persona for the real me. I play punk rock, and this style requires certain things. But in life, I’m completely quiet. Unsociable. “K” stands for company. I always try to be the soul of the company and see no point in being in that company if it’s not the case.

Mother

The most important and sacred thing that exists for any person, if they are a human being at all. My mother trusted me greatly. When I was about 7, she said, “Sasha, you’re already grown up, try to do what you want, but do it right.” So, the air of freedom came early for me. I don’t remember anything that my mother forbade me to do. She didn’t punish me, although she should have. When my mother caught me smoking at 14, she asked, “What cigarettes do you smoke?” I replied, “Belomor.” “And what do you want to smoke?” “Kosmos.” And periodically, she would leave me 70 kopecks for a pack of “Kosmos.” I’m very grateful to her! Not for the “Kosmos,” but just for life. She had to endure a lot, work three jobs at once, to turn a 14 sq. meter house into apartments for all of us: me, my sister, even for my father, who was divorced from her. It cost her so much effort… In the end, all my songs are dedicated to my mother.

Neiro Dyubel

For me, the band is a lifelong endeavor. And almost everything is connected to it: new acquaintances, friends, beautiful places. By the way, the most beautiful place I’ve seen in my life is Norway, also starting with “N.” It turned out very interesting with it. On my 40th birthday, a barely familiar person called me and said he wanted to give me a gift – a trip to Norway. I only had to pay for the ticket to Vilnius. I hesitated, after all, I barely knew the person, what if he was a maniac… but I went. And I tell you, Norway is a country where every millimeter can be cut out and shown in Belarus for money. An incredibly beautiful country, all of it! And recently, another barely familiar person made me a similar offer: invited me to go to Holland, and he himself is from Germany. And I’m happily going in June with my son – to the herring festival in the Netherlands. All this thanks to “Neiro Dyubel.” The band is 26 years old this year, I’m 43. It’s more than half of my life. And my friends, and my beauties, and the bad, and the good – everything is connected with “Neiro Dyubel.”

Petr Nikolaevich Mamonov

A person who made almost all of me. Although he didn’t really give me any advice. But his way of thinking, philosophy, manner of behavior on stage… A person who speaks in sermons. I spent several unforgettable hours with him. He speaks as if he always understands everyone. A man of great mind!

Fishing

I’ve loved it since childhood! My father told me, “Sasha, you probably love fish so much because we conceived you in Karelia.” And Karelia is a land of lakes and fishermen. There are 5 tons of fish and 1 person per 10 km. As a child, I would wake up at five in the morning, get on my bike, and go to the Minsk Sea. I was about 8 years old. Now, thinking about it, I would never let my son go alone at that age. But back then… it was a different time. For me, fishing is a truly great thing. A connection with the cosmos (we laugh because Sasha shows a gesture meaning to drink – a flick to the throat). It’s communication, a night bonfire, fish soup, a tent. I can’t imagine fishing without an overnight stay. We haven’t gone fishing for the sake of fish for a long time. It’s primarily communication, rest.

Sasha

My son. Although I always really wanted a daughter. I think all men want a daughter. Sasha is very lucky that he wasn’t born a girl, I would really have poisoned his life. Just poisoned. With love. My son is sensible, polite, praised by neighbors. Like all children, he wants to be everything at once for now. But I would like him to dedicate himself to studying languages, to translation. The person who invited us to Holland is a translator. I want Sasha to see that you can earn a living by knowing languages: a house, a car, bread with caviar.

Fluttering

The most important word that allowed “Neiro Dyubel” to live for 26 years. There were situations when we could have broken up, and if it weren’t for this fluttering, everything could have ended within a year. The easiest thing in the world is to quietly go drink beer when something goes wrong and not flutter. But for me, fluttering is occupying a certain place in the food chain. A bird that stops fluttering will be eaten by a cat. And if it flutters until the end, it has a chance to survive: thunder might strike, a kind grandmother might hit the cat with a stick, the cat might hesitate… So, you need to flutter everywhere and always.

Learning

This is what is written on the cars that hinder everyone’s driving: “student.” I have never been afraid to learn. And I have always earned respect from the older generation because of this. There are people who pretend to know everything. But I’m not ashamed to ask if I don’t know something. In my life, I have realized: when you can laugh at yourself, you disarm your opponent.