Алиби без лишних слов

The Alibi Sisters Anya and Alina Zavalsky

Popular Ukrainian girl-pop duo Alibi was all over the news last week as rumours spread that they were going to split up. Is it true? "The end of something is usually the beginning of something new," the girls told What's On when they sat down with us for a chat. So are they breaking up? Not quite. Both Zavalsky sisters will be looking into doing some solo projects, but that doesn't mean they'll never perform again as Alibi.  Indeed, as Alibi celebrates its seventh anniversary this year, the duo ranks as one of the longest-lived acts on the Ukrainian show-biz scene. "Alibi is the thing that unites our family," Alina says.  'Any big project that we're planning for the near future will just make it stronger.

We're going to see the project bloom even more in the future, as we get more comfortable with Western ex- л The girls are proud to have helped pioneer the Ukrainian pop market years ago when, hard as it is to imagine now, there existed no competitive girl groups and there was no certainty that their experiment would be successful. Of course it was - beyond their wildest dreams. Their collective intuition, which plays an extremely important role in their lives, turned out to be correct, and now it's telling them that they should try their hands at musical styles in which Alibi doesn't typically traffick Towards that end they recently threw a party called the Long Farewell, during which the sisters showcased their other talents. Anya presented a book of her poetry, which she'd completed long ago but never showed anyone. "What took her so long?" you may ask Well, she was busy writing texts for Alibi songs, and besides, she considered many of the poems too private to show to other people. Dedicated as it is to different men in her life, the poetry turned out to be highly romantic and very emotional But reading it publicly she saw how successful it was. "I reached a crucial moment in my life and realised that in order to start something new I had to put an end to the old things I was doing," Anya says. A new period in her creative life is starting. "I called the party the Long Farewell to emphasise that I'm energised to participate in different projects and open to everything new," she says.  Multi-talented and Creative So, apparentiy, was talented photographer Mikhail Novosyolov, who loved the idea of Anya branching out and conceived the idea of publishing an art book consisting of both poems and pictures, and in which Anya plays the main role. In the wake of that project, the young poet is even thinking of taking up fiction writing. "Poems to me are private and highly emotional, while fiction is about observing the world around you. I've got a lot of impressions from our tours, and I think that at some point they'll ferment into my next piece of work," Anya says. Alina, meanwhile, is also expanding her image and her oeuvre, taking the stage as a jazz singer in a vintage dress and throwback hair. Speaking of creative work, the Zavalsky sisters agree that the best of it is done in a state of melancholy. "When I'm depressed, the best psychologist I can find is a piece of paper, where I can express all my feelings," Anya says. 'And usually I get right back into the swing of things as soon as I hear the music and start singing," her sister adds. Creative work, the ladies say, is like a cardiogram image on a doctor's screen: it's all ups and downs, and that's not a bad thing "If you want to succeed, you should be sincere with your audience," the sisters say. "Sometimes if you want to rise higher, you have to fall down first." Anya and Alina are proud of having been trendsetters for the horde of Ukrainian girl bands that appeared in their wake: girl-pop is now one of the things that foreigners in the know think of when they think of this country. "Nobody knows how much work we'll do as Alibi in the future," the girls say, speaking at once, "but when the desire to write, create and perform together overcomes us, we'll be back for sure." In other words, a bright new year is starting for these Ukrainian pop luminaries turned writers, jazz singers, and anything else they'd like to be.