Image Credit: Elizaveta Dirat of Elizaveta.Visuals
I had the opportunity to interview Nika, the lead singer of Chase the Comet. Although her partner Aleksandr was unavailable for this interview, Nika provided insights into her musical journey, the band, her hobbies, and more. I trust you will find it engaging.
AA: I would like to learn more about your background and the personal journeys that have influenced you both. Please tell me where you each grew up, describing your hometown and the surroundings where you were raised. I’m especially curious about how your upbringing has affected your fundamental values and viewpoints.
Nika: I grew up in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in Russia. It’s a pretty big city, maybe sixth by population in the whole country. It is located maybe about 500 km away from Moscow. I grew up in a dynasty of actors, my mother and father are both actors, my grandparents on one side are actors too so naturally, I was on stage since early age. I grew up in the theater while my mom performed and my dad was away most of the time so that shaped me a lot, especially growing up in the post-Soviet environment. I was born in the USSR, but when it collapsed, the country was in ruins and it created this environment of constant danger, uncertainty, anxiety, and with my dad not around most of the time because he went to Moscow to work often, I had to learn how to defend myself and hide my vulnerable little girl inside me. I remember when I was little my mom never let me go walk outside by myself because there were little girls that were found dead in the wells, cut in pieces all the time, and it was simply dangerous, or the other time my mom went out to a balcony (we lived on the first floor), and there was a drunk hobo sleeping there, after that my mom had grids installed on all our windows to prevent men from climbing inside. But there was always hope, you know. Hope for better times in the country and in the family, hope for bigger roles for my mom and for bigger gigs for my Dad, for better food on the table and for a separate apartment - we shared the so-called “communal apartment” with another theater family. And hope for a better future is the message I often convey in our songs. That however hard it is, we’ll push through.
AA: Moreover, I would like to hear about your cultural heritage. In what ways has it shaped your identity? What traditions or stories from your culture have significantly contributed to who you are today? Are there specific experiences or milestones—accomplishments, challenges, or turning points—that profoundly impacted your personal growth?
Nika: I believe that cultural heritage affected me a lot, especially literature and art. Maybe I’m not as educated as I would want to be, but I believe a lot of depth in my personality comes from reading Tolstoy, Bulgakov and Dostoevsky (I absolutely love the first two and find the latter very tedious) in original versions when I was a teenager. Traditions that affected me, I don’t even know what to say because being Russian is something that we were made to be ashamed of in the last couple of years because of the current government’s political course, and even though I explicitly spoke out against the war and supported Ukraine, it is unfair to judge or blame anything that comes from Russia automatically linking it to the aggressive actions of the dictators’ regime. I believe courage and resilience is something that defines a Russian (or should, at least) with all the history that our ancestors have gone through. We also have a certain tendency to disregard the rules which was praised as a true Gryffindor’s quality in the Harry Potter novels haha, and I find both these qualities my core qualities. At the same time, I believe that a lot of our heritage, including the wars that our ancestors fought, have left an unrelenting imprint in our minds that now we have to heal as generational trauma which I’ve done a lot in the last couple years.
Nika: Besides, even though I am Russian by passport, I have many nationalities’ blood in me: including Ukrainian, Georgian, Lithuanian, even some German-Austrian (my ancestor Otto Redlin was taken prisoner during Napoleon’s war and stayed in Uzbekistan), I am also half-Tatar - Tatars are a Muslim nation that live in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan republics that are parts of Russia. Spending time with my Muslim grandparents in a village and my other Christian grandparents (actors) taught me a lot about religion and showed me very different aspects of life and people. My ancestors from my Dad’s side were also part of the former Russian aristocracy (my great-grandma was a Georgian princess and my great-grandfather was a Lithuanian prince who got 2 most significant medals in the WW1) - and one of my great-grandfather’s sisters was the last Emperor’s wife’s handmaiden! So pride and a certain, let’s say, imperiousness haha, is in my blood.
AA: I’m excited to delve into the details of each member's musical journey. Could you all share a particular moment or experience that sparked your passion for music? Perhaps it was a memorable concert you attended, a song that resonated deeply with you, or a moment of inspiration that inspired you to pick an instrument.
Nika: I always loved singing, but apparently, I was not very good at it because when I was six, my parents decided to put me in a choir because they couldn’t put up with me being pitchy😂. My favorite animated movie that inspired my passion to singing was called “the musicians of Bremen” and it was a Soviet Musical that I just adored because of the songs. It was about a rock band so you can definitely see how it affected my whole life and inspired me to join a band later. Surprisingly, I never really wanted to play an instrument even though my mom started me on piano when I was seven, but I was never really into it, singing, harmonizing and socializing has always been more exciting for me than dryly practicing an instrument. I learned to play guitar later in life (Alex taught me) and both my piano and guitar skills are enough for me to be able to compose songs but are definitely not the skills that I would like to demonstrate publicly.
AA: What obstacles have both of you faced on your journey, and what strategies did you employ to overcome them? It would be great to hear about your actions to transform your passion into a successful music career.
Nika: One of the first struggles that I personally faced was not feeling comfortable seeing myself on video when we were on a TV show Back in Russia, first in 2007 and then in 2008. For me it was pure torture because I was always hyper-sensitive about my body and I had that some teenage plumpness that was called extra weight. Plus the camera always adds a few kilos and I was constantly reminded about how important it was to lose weight. Seeing me fat made me feel extremely uncomfortable with my body and with being looked at in general. At the same time, we were also struggling with not getting opportunities and for some reason we thought that we were so good that we were supposed to get a lot of opportunities and that we were supposed to be invited to play everywhere. Oh, how wrong we were! So, that was the first part of our creative journey as a band. Years later my mindset shifted into this overachiever mentality where I did a thousand percent and more to get somewhere. That was already after we moved to the States. And still almost all the doors seemed to have been closed and it was really a struggle. Anything that would pan out at first then would fall through and it was extremely hurtful and I felt like the universe was not giving me what I wanted. And I think that was part of the reason why I burned out because I had tried so hard and I saw little to no result at all. So, in the last few years after working on a lot of my traumas and pains I shifted into yet another mentality and mindset where I am creating what I want to see. But at the same time I am not going to push myself to the limits anymore and I am going to live out of the feminine strategy of accepting the good which I was never able to do before. At this point, I still wouldn't call my career a successful music career yet. I think a successful music career is what I'm manifesting right now. Because I used to live in this energy deficit mode where I would always give more than I would receive. And right now, I don't want to do that anymore. I think there should be a fair balance of the energy put into something and the energy received, and the same with resources. And in 20 years of my music career, in 20 years of playing in a band, I have invested so much and I have given so much, and I received a lot too but... this balance is not yet fair, in my opinion. So, I'm just going to wait and see what will manifest in my reality after all this tremendous inner work that I have been doing in the last couple of years.
AA: Is there a specific musician for each of you whose creativity and life story has significantly influenced your decision to pursue music? Did their narrative inspire you to take the leap and form your band? Please describe how their journey and artistry have shaped your musical path.
Nika: I would say one of the musicians who inspired me a lot is Freddie Mercury, mostly with his energy and charisma and passion. And honestly, any story of perseverance, be it a musician or an athlete or a person struggling with their health, all of those stories have inspired me a lot. And I always thought that I had to struggle to get somewhere and I had to show the strength of my spirit to finally achieve what I thought I deserved. I was inspired by many bands and musicians and definitely stories of people making it from the poorest neighborhoods and families and people who were bullied and becoming world-famous rock stars, that's something that drove me a lot. But most of all, it was the feeling of me and kind of like my duty to share what I have with the world and bring the change that I can bring. Because I always wanted to serve the humanity, to be the light. And I'm not a doctor or a scientist to really make this change important on a big scale. So I picked music and made delivering the message of perseverance and resilience my path and my mission.
AA: I’m eager to dive into the story behind your band, Chase The Comet. What events or experiences first brought the two of you together? How did you realize you shared a deep passion for creating music? Could you share more about the formation of the band, including any memorable moments or challenges you faced in the beginning? And since launching this creative project, what has your journey been like for both of you? I’d love to hear about the highs, lows, and everything in between.
Nika: Well, it would be really hard to put 20 years of musical history in an answer to a question, but I'll try to make it short and sweet haha. 20 years ago, back in 2005, my very good friend David, (he was a drummer) said that they wanted to see if I would be a good fit as a singer for their band. They already had a male singer, and they wanted to have a female singer, too. Such a genre as ska-punk was popular in those days, and there was a band called Elysium, which Alex was very fond of. That band was from my hometown, and they had both female and male singers. Alex wanted to create something like this, and the fact that I was from the same city as Elysium did the trick and that's how I first made it to the band practice.
Nika: Of course, that band was not called Chase the Comet just yet. It actually didn't really have a name at that time. Later, we started calling ourselves the S.U.N.Band, where the letters S-U-N signified the initials of the founders' names, which was S for Sasha (which is a short name for Alexander in Russian), U for Yuriy (which was our bassist's name), and N was both Nikita and Nika, where Nikita was the male vocalist. Later, in a few years, we turned it into The Sun without the dots, and it was not a very good idea because the name was very hard to Google, and it was just the beginning of the Internet in 2006-2007, the beginning of a wide spread Internet use in Russia. So, for some reason, we didn't have an idea to Google that, and also it turned out that it's extremely inconvenient for Russian-speaking people to pronounce the article THE because we don't have the TH sound in our language, so people were just saying ZE SUN, and it just sounded weird. However, we went to a TV Project in 2008 under that name, and that's how our first wave of popularity, if I can call it so, happened for us. And we realized later that it was not a good band name and that we needed to change that. So, after releasing an EP and one album, we changed that to MyRockBand, which apparently was not a good band name either. So, we usually say “3rd Time’s the Charm”, and in 2017, a year after we had moved to the United States, we changed it finally to Chase the Comet, and hopefully we will stay with this band name because I humbly think it's amazing. Going back to the highs and lows, I think I'm going to just briefly focus on the two most important things. The first one was, of course, my relationship with Alex, because we started dating for the first time shortly after I had joined the band, and we dated for two months. We were 15 years old, and it didn't last long, we broke up and almost ruined the band because the tension was palpable, and we didn't speak, and it took us a while to learn to coexist peacefully again, and later we fell in love with each other again and started dating in 2008, and when we started dating for the second time, we were really worried about the band’s future if we broke up.
Nika: But we got older and it was more serious, and we had learned to deal with each other by then while playing together but still there were a lot of risks. We all know the story of Ben Moody and Amy Lee from Evanescence, the guys were together and they were creating fantastic music, but then they broke up and things went south with the band, and there's a lot of stories like that, take Blondie and her guitarist, so we didn't want to be that couple that breaks up, and I think many times the fear to lose the band as it was also helped us find compromise in our personal relationships. Another issue was always finding a drummer. With the years we've learned to exist without a bassist, because Alex learned to put it all in the playback, and that saves us a lot of nerves and a lot of resources and makes our touring somewhat sustainable, since we don't have to pay another person and make sure that they can go on tour with us and coordinate our practices. But finding a good drummer has always been an issue, even back in Russia, and it has become even worse here in America, because obviously everybody wants to get paid for the work that they do, especially if they're really good at it, and we can't afford to have a bad drummer. You know they say, if the band is good, but the drummer is bad, the whole band sucks, right?
AA: Additionally, I would love to hear about the inspiration behind your band’s name. What led you to choose this name, and what meaning does it carry for each of you as individuals and the group as a whole?
Nika: So as I mentioned, the name Chase the Comet is our third band name, and we came up with it back in 2017 when we realized, with the help of our then drummer and our American friends, that the name MyRockBand was not a good band name for the American market. So we started thinking about something that would represent the idea behind the band, and my stage name at that time was Nika Comet already. I have been going under this stage name since 2013 or 2014, and we wanted to come up with something with Comet. Chase the Comet also gives an association with chasing the dream, and that was, we thought, a perfect way to convey our message.
AA: What is the experience of being an independent band in today's music landscape? How do you all navigate the challenges and opportunities of the industry without the backing of a record label?
Nika: Oh, yes. Being in an independent band is knowing how to do everything by yourself. And, to be honest with you, I can't complain about acquiring all the skills that I have acquired because I had to learn to promote our band. And that actually helped us both make some money with these new acquired skills. The thing is, as an independent musician, you also have to be the marketer behind your music. You have to be the producer. It's been a long time since Alex and I discovered that if we keep going to studios to record our music, we won't have enough money. And, little by little, we started recording everything at home by ourselves. So, we minimized our expenses because we produced our music ourselves and we recorded ourselves at home. And the only part of production that is not made in-house is mixing. I'm pretty sure Alex could have learned mixing as well. But it's really, really good to have a fresh set of ears to work on your stuff after you already produced and recorded it. So, the next thing, we learned how to do video editing and photo retouching.
Nika: Fortunately, in the last couple of years with the appearance of AI, that has become even easier. We learned how to create content. We learned how to manage our social media, how to run ads… I built our website. I learned e-commerce and the whole process of creating products. And by products, I mean a song with a music video and uploading it to distributors and delivering it to music fans all over the world and printing merch. I work with multiple designers from all over the world helping me put my vision into the reality. And, you know, there's a never-ending flow to the lineup of products that we can possibly have. A few years ago, I released my own book, and I marketed it, and I put it on Amazon, and I had it printed in 2 languages. So, there's multiple things that you learn to do as an entrepreneur because... A band has to be a business, and fortunately, we have some amazing people who support us as a business, but at the same time, as I mentioned earlier, it's still too much energy and resources that I put out there and that are not getting back just yet. Another thing is taking care of shows. And here, again, I have to be my own stylist. I learned how to do my hair and makeup. So, that's another part of being in a band. You have to be able to create that image. So, I choose my own outfits, and I try to make them memorable and stylish and be in tune with what I'm trying to deliver. And, of course, booking shows. I, myself, booked a few independent tours that we went on, and that's a whole other job that other bands have people doing for them. We didn't have such people.
Nika: So, I'm always trying to explain it to people that nowadays, and for the last 15 years, being a musician in a band doesn't mean that you just write songs and perform them. You have to be so many people in one, and I guess that's what makes me me. Because I have a pretty thorough understanding of many, many things. And, surprisingly, these are the things that turn you into a very valuable professional, like a content creator, or a video editor, or even a marketer, a PR specialist, a promoter or a booking agent. All of these jobs I could have been doing for other people, but I prefer to keep the best for myself haha. And, hopefully, that will bring me some results soon.
AA: I'm curious about the creative process behind your lyrics. What specific sources or experiences spark your inspiration? Additionally, can you share what emotions and sensations wash over you when you step on stage and present your original work to a live audience? How does it feel to connect with the crowd through your music?
Nika: Usually, the lyrics just come to me with the idea of a song. And, as Alex says, he usually just channels whatever he gets, you know, from the field. I guess that's what it is, but sometimes we have to think about it, sometimes we have to talk about it and discuss what we want to put in there. But when I start working on the lyrics, it's most often just, like, channeling, indeed. And that's why it feels the truest, and when I get to perform my songs in front of people, it's always a blast. And I feel that's where I belong, I feel the happiest, and I'm able to share not just the message, because I think when people hear it for the first time, they're not really able to focus on the lyrics fully. It's more of the whole that they feel, the energy, the music that sparks the response and the emotion. And then, if later they get back home and they get to listen to our music, and they can actually dig deep down, I think they're in for a wild ride. We have songs that we do not really perform live, but that have really deep meaning that can give you goosebumps. I hope so. At least I get them when I listen to Out of the Matrix (the song on the same-titled album), for example.
AA: I am excited to explore your band's music. Each single tells a unique story, and I want to know what inspired you to create them. Please share your thoughts on each song you worked on. Describe your connection to each track, including the creative process, the emotions they bring out, and any personal stories that influenced them.
Nika: I think it would be really hard and it would take half of my day to talk that much in detail about every song that we have created, besides, I think they are pretty self-explanatory. But I'll share a short story about the creation of Take Me Up. I wrote this song when we lost a friend. He died and we thought it was suicide. But there was a very shady story. He was not a very close friend of ours, but he was a fantastic guy, super sweet, and he had shot a video for our song Party Song. That was our first ever music video that we made for the band. We started editing with him, and then it was harder and harder to get a hold of him so at some point we just told him: can we just come to you with a USB drive and you can just put everything that you had filmed on our USB drive and we'll be gone and we won't bother you anymore. He agreed. So we drove to him and it was a two-hour drive, mind you, because Moscow is a horrible city to drive in. When we got there, we called him and he said he wouldn't be able to meet us because he had to go to his mom urgently. And we felt that something was off, so there was no way for us to get the materials and we were super bummed and we felt weird as if we had done or said something wrong and had to go back home empty-handed. So imagine our shock when three days later we open VK (a Russian version of Facebook), and we see that he died the next day after that incident. And he did not just die, he was found dead, lying on the ground next to the building where he lived - he fell out of the window. And it shook us deeply. We even have an episode of our DIY reality show that we were making at that time called My Rock Band Show. And we thought it was suicide and we wrote Take Me Up. And then about six months later I finally had the courage to reach out to his mom to ask her for the materials for the music video at last. And it turned out that he had actually been killed and the investigation was stopped because someone was preventing the investigation from going. Like the evidence was stolen or spoiled and stuff like that. His mom said that he had been having issues with this one corporate client at work (he worked in some serious bank) who he hadn’t given a loan to so that's why he was eliminated. And that was a huge shock because that was the first person of our age that was just taken from life so cruelly, so abruptly. That's why Take Me Up turned out to be such a strong and emotional song.
AA: What are your favorite songs from what you’ve released so far, and what makes them special to you?
Nika: To me, all my songs are like kids. I can't really say that some of them are my favorite. I love singing some songs in acoustic more than the others. Some are just really fun to play with the band. I love to listen to some a bit more and I am proud of some slightly more than of the others. For example, I really love playing First Time live with the band. The energy is just amazing. But I don't think this song is a big single of ours. It's just very close to the music that I listen to on a regular basis. And it's just one example. And then, for example, Until the Morning Sun Appears is a song that I'm extremely proud of from the point of view of harmony and vocal line and the lyrics as well. But we never really played it with the band. I love singing it in acoustic, however.
AA: I recently had the pleasure of listening to your 2024 album, titled “ILL.U.ME.NATION PART 1.” I’m curious to know which tracks from this album that you both feel particularly proud of in terms of writing and production. Additionally, could guys share the overarching themes or messages that you aim to convey to your listeners through this work?
Nika: Ill.U.Me.Nation. Part 1 is a very intricate work of art, in my opinion. And there's quite a few songs I'm proud of. Actually, all of them. But I just pointed out Until the Morning Sun Appears. And then Mother Earth. I am very proud of the lyrics and the idea for this song. I'd had it for quite a while before it actually turned into something tangible. And it was extremely difficult to work on this one and find the right pace and the right instrumental. And I think Alex figured it out beautifully. And I was trying to give him my feedback pretty much every step of the way. And we worked closely together on achieving the right atmosphere for that track. Broken Toys is a very unusual composition for us. And I can honestly say that it was influenced by Billie Eilish, surprisingly. And I wanted to try something that I've never tried before, vocal-wise. To come from this quiet place where a person is so drained and so helpless that they barely have strength to talk. And that's where I was when I wrote this song. It was COVID times. And I thought I had to put it into the arrangement because when you're in that state, when you're in that moment, you don't want to listen to anything loud. And you definitely don't have all this power to sing your lungs out. And I think it came out beautifully with the song. And then the music video that we shot at Salton Sea here in California also adds to this haunting atmosphere. But I don't really like to play this song live because the feelings are just too heavy. And when I’m on stage, I want to mostly share the positive energy. But this is also why this song is first on the album. We want to pick up the audience where they are. Maybe they're not in their happy place. Maybe they're lost or frustrated or don't know how to keep going. And this is where we pick them up with Broken toys and we unravel all these thoughts that might be coming into a person's head. They definitely come into my head often. The topics such as, you know, growing up or growing old. And this is the second song and then how we're treating our planet. And that's how we come to Mother Earth. And then slowly, closer to the end of the album, we want to make sure that the listener follows us into finding that strength to move on and learning to be playful again with Play and Triumphant. Finding their true power through all the struggles. And that's exactly what we did ourselves. And we want to share this experience with our listeners through our music.
AA: We’d love to hear about any exciting projects, tours, or collaborations you have on the horizon! What are you looking forward to the most?
Nika: For now, we don't really have anything far going planned, but we're open to what the universe will throw at us. And we're waiting for the right opportunities. It's been long overdue. Right now, we are expecting our drummer from Uzbekistan to come to Los Angeles, which is happening in the beginning of May, and we're going to shoot a few music videos with him. And we're pretty excited about that. It took us a lot of effort to bring in a person from Uzbekistan. It's not easy getting a visa to the United States for people from the former Soviet Union countries, such as Russia as well, speaking about ourselves. But we did it, and now he's coming to take part in these music videos, including the one for I'm Coming Out, our newest single. And hopefully something else, preferably a tour or tours, will pan out in the very near future.
AA: I'm curious how Nika manages to navigate the challenges that come with being perceived primarily as the vocalist of the band. It must be quite a struggle when people focus on surface-level aspects—such as looks or stage presence—instead of appreciating the depth of your artistic abilities and the significant contributions you make musically and creatively. How do you handle that disconnect, and what strategies do you employ to ensure that your true talents are recognized and valued by both fans and critics alike?
Nika: This is a very interesting question, and to be honest with you, it annoyed the shit out of me back in the day that people would follow me on Instagram and they would leave comments under my pictures saying I was beautiful and sexy but wouldn’t really translate into our music’s popularity. Fortunately most of those people were respectful, but of course there were people who were totally out of line, you know, sliding into my DMs and just being inappropriate. Of course, I wanted people to see that I was beautiful because this was something that I lacked growing up. When I was little, even my parents, they would tell me that I was beautiful, but there was always a but. Like “you are beautiful but you have to lose weight, but you have to wear this, you have to wear that”, there were a lot of conditions and I was never considered beautiful when I was growing up. And as I said, I was always kind of bullied for my extra weight, so it was important for me to feel seen, to feel beautiful, but at the same time, I was very annoyed that that was pretty much all some people could see. It took me a while to get over that and with the years I stopped trying to match the bombshell image that was expected of me. And we lost a lot of “fans” because people were not really interested to hear what I had to say as a human being, as a personality.
Nika: They were interested in an image and even though it hurt me on some level, on the other level, I was actually thinking, well, if you're here only for the looks, then good riddance. So I think it was also me trying to resist this fact that people will still assess me based on the image, but that doesn't say anything about me that actually says a lot about them and I can't control that. And if people still decide to judge me based on the looks and if people still think that it is alright to comment on a video of a band that the front woman needs to lose weight, it doesn't say anything about me. It says about them and their complete ignorance about what a creative person should be like. Well, if you wanna look at a thirst-trap with minimum clothes on her, go to OnlyFans. And I am happy that I'm finally in a place where I don't have to prove anything to anyone or meet anyone’s expectations. I can just be me and look the way I want to look, which is still pretty haha.
Nika: Both my Dad and Alex think I’m the prettiest with no make-up, with my natural hair and nails. And I finally got there too😁 But I love shining on stage. I love being different. Sexy if I need to. Or not. See, that’s the point, if only play a pretty woman card, there’s always fear that you’ll stop being one - even just cause we all get older. I don’t play it but that actually gives me an advantage. There's so much more that we have to offer as a power couple than just me being pretty. I mean, I am beautiful, but it’s an ensemble of mind, spirit and body rather than just a body/a face. I think times when we objectify women’s bodies (or just anyone’s bodies) and treat them separately from the rest should be left behind.
AA: If you were given the fantastic opportunity to open for any band or go on a world tour, which bands would you choose to join on this exciting journey? Additionally, what specific reasons motivate your desire to tour alongside them?
Nika: I would love to tour with many bands that I personally listen to, but at the same time, I would also love to tour with the bands that I don't necessarily listen to, but whose audience would appreciate being introduced to our music. One of my favorite bands is A Day To Remember, but I don't know if genre-wise they would take us with them on tour (I’d be totally over the moon!!!) . Or Chunk No Captain Chunk. I think we are a bit more genre-versatile than these guys and it would also be cool to be on tour with someone who offers as much genre versatility as we do. I would definitely want to be on tour with the Foo Fighters. I just love these guys. If you ever make me choose between Nirvana and Foo Fighters, with all respect to Nirvana, I'm a Foo Fighters gal all the way. I would definitely want to open up for Pink. She's one of my inspirations. I love her. One of the best live shows that I've ever been to. The energy, the sound, the singing, the show, the musicianship. It was just fantabulous. I would consider it an honor to open up for her. All in all, I think it's great when you don't only get an opportunity to perform for another artist's audience, but when you can also connect and actually learn something from the artist themselves. Last year we got to tour with CKY and Crobot. Everybody on that tour was just so amazing and supportive, and we had a great time with all the guys from those bands. I was actually really sad when it was over, because the last day of the tour we had a show in Anaheim, California, and Chad, the frontman for CKY, said: come on, let's get on stage together, all 3 bands right after we play the last song, join us on stage. We want to take a picture with you. And I said: shall we put the photographer behind the drum kit so they could take a picture of us with the audience? And he said: I appreciate the audience, but I want a picture with you all, not with the audience this time. It was you and I and all these guys who were on tour together for a freaking month. So I want a picture with you all. And that was just so amazing that people who have been doing this for so long and who have achieved much success in their field can still stay genuine and appreciative of a good band that is not that famous yet.
AA: Can you share a funny or interesting behind-the-scenes moment from a music video shoot or recording session?
Nika: Oh, that would definitely be filming the music video for Broken Toys. We actually even made a behind-the-scenes video about it, where I tell this story, and you could actually see how it happened and what happened. So, we went to shoot that video to Salton Sea, it's located about three hours east from Los Angeles, a little to the south from the famous Joshua Tree Park. If you've never heard of it, it's basically an area of an ecological disaster. About a hundred years ago, some people decided that it would be really cool to have a lake in Southern California, because they would use the water to water whatever they were growing there and they would make it a fancy resort, just like Palm Springs, but with the actual lake! And they got the water from the Colorado River, and after a while, the lake started vaporizing cause it’s basically a desert there. And the less water it had, the more chemical elements there were, because there's a lot of plantations around, so all the pesticides from those plantations, they were leaking into the lake. The fish started dying, and it started smelling, and people started getting sick, because they lived there on a regular basis, so the amount of chemicals in the water and air, like ammonia and sulfur I think, became hazardous for people to live there. And so the property got very cheap, people started leaving, and now it's all abandoned, and the whole towns around the lake are abandoned and look like in the apocalypse. I can't say it's dangerous to be in the water, but it's definitely not healthy, because of everything that is in that water, and we had already shot a video for To Be there, back in 2016. A friend of mine told me that there was that swing set in the water that had an absolutely ethereal feeling, and it was also the same friend that had a VHS camera, and Alex and I got really pumped about the idea to shoot a video on a VHS tape, and so we took our friend Ellie as a videographer, and we went there, and the idea was to get to that swing that was in the water, but of course, when I imagined it in my mind, I didn't really think how deep i had to walk in that water. I had prepped a few trash bags to put on my legs, because I didn't want the water to touch them. Alex took the VHS camera, that huge thing, not a handy cam that we used to have at home back in the 90s, but like a big camera that was used for TV, he put it on his shoulder, he started walking, and then it turned out that there were actual waves in that lake, because of the wind, and its bottom was so viscous that once one set their foot on it, the foot started slowly sucked in, so it was really, really hard to walk, and I was wearing those princess shoes that
Nika: I had used for princess parties, and I was wearing this big dress with a lot of skirts… We walked pretty far, and when the water started going over our knees, and I started freaking out, literally panicking, because I realized it was still pretty far to walk to that swing, and I didn't know how deep it was going to get, and I was almost falling, because of the waves and the wind. And I sobbed: Alex, I can't do this, I need to go back, and he said, no, come on, keep walking, so I was crying, and then that actually turned out to be a pretty appropriate makeup for the video, because if you watch the video for Broken Toys, you can see me with l my mascara all over my face. It was because I was crying for real.
Nika: The worst was when both our crotches were in the water, and it started stinging. Later I figured the water was just salty but at that moment I felt as if we were getting a dose of radiation. I had to get my shit together, and told myself, well, you came here for the swing, come on, now go for it, so I got on the swing, and Alex had trouble standing there, because of the waves, and he was also holding that camera, and he had to be really careful with it, because it was not ours, and apparently it's pretty expensive nowadays, because it's like a relic, but we did it, and you can watch the result of my suffering in our music video for Broken Toys.
AA: What is each member’s favorite part about being on the road or performing at local events?
Nika: My favorite part about being in the band is actually being on the road and being able to play a show every day and meet new people and see new places. And honestly, every part of it, even the driving, because we don't have any other people that go on the road with us. We do everything ourselves. We drive, we put together the stage, we load-unload, and I sell merch. We don't have a merch person. But still, for me, being on the road is a bliss. And that probably comes from my childhood, because I used to travel with my mom a lot. My mom's an actress and I used to perform with her. So being on the road is just something magical by itself. And when you also get to give people a charge of energy and see their happy faces and hear good words and, you know, see different places. Even though we don't get to really, like, see cities unless we have days-off, but just driving between states is such an amazing experience. I love driving. It's my meditation. And during those two month-long tours that we went on in 2024, we drove over 23,000 miles together with Alex. It was just the two of us driving. And every part of it just makes me so happy. I would say that being on those two tours was probably the happiest period of my life in general. So I can't wait to get back on the road.
AA: What insights or recommendations does each member have for musicians who face rejection or experience setbacks in their careers? Specifically, how can these artists cope with disappointment and use those challenges as stepping stones for future growth?
Nika: Honestly, every musician, even a famous musician, is not guaranteed to not feel disappointment or setbacks. As human beings, we all face that in different periods of our lives, not just in careers. I would say the best way to cope with other people's disappointment is, first of all, to never expect that it's going to be something else. To focus on why you are doing this, if you are doing this, creating music and any other art, because deep inside you are craving for approval, you are doomed. Because you ARE going to get disappointed. And if it’s your own disappointment, you gotta learn how to process that. Because there's always going to be people who are not going to like us, and whatever setbacks one is having, there's always a reason for them.
Nika: Even if we are not able to see this reason in the moment, and we feel like whatever is happening is holding us back or making us miserable, we can't see the bigger picture. One of the best examples for me of this was when we came to the United States and we got cheated trying to rent an apartment, and we lost money, and we had nowhere to live, and we didn't have any connections, or documents, nothing. It was really bad, and it felt like the end of the world.
Nika: Years later we realized that we actually saved so much money because this happened to us, because after that people felt sorry for us, and we got to couch surf a lot, which also gave us a sense of community, and we connected with one of our very good friends who actually mixed two of our albums later. The starting point of that friendship and of that connection was actually the fact that we lost money trying to rent an apartment. A lot of Americans that we met after that were really touched by our story, so even though it was really hard to live through that, I wouldn't have changed a thing because I believe that the universe only gives us the lessons that we're supposed to go through. And if something's not working, maybe it's time to just relax, sit back, and give it some time, and wait until things change.
AA: What three standout qualities make you truly exceptional as a singer?
Nika: I honestly don't think I'm exceptional as a singer. I'm definitely very good. But I think what makes me exceptional is the charisma and the stage presence that I have as an artist, as a showman. And also the ability to be versatile and not just stick to one thing that I'm good at, but to try different things and new things and mix them to achieve different results. I think it’s the versatility. And that comes from very big studio experience. Not just recording for our band, but also working with other bands and working with different sound producers, for private employers, and analyzing. I think a lot of creative people think they don't need to be smart, but actually being smart helps you analyze things better. And when you're able to analyze, you're able to apply the results of your analysis to the things that you do, even creatively. So I think that's a perfect harmony between both hemispheres of the brain that I try to achieve. It's not that I do this on purpose, it's just how I am. And that's what helps me learn things and notice things. Being aware and being able to analyze and apply that knowledge or practical tools.
AA: Each member share three individuals who have significantly influenced your life, positively or negatively, and why.
Nika: It would be hard to name other individuals than my mom and dad, and their influence is obvious, but also it's hard to say negative or positive. It just shaped me into who I am a lot, including shaping me against my own conscious will, but they definitely gave me a lot of my creative spirit and my charisma. The things that I don't agree with, I worked on, and I think they are in an almost perfect balance now. And then as a third one, I'm just going to mention, not an individual, but an event. It's an event called Aniwa that I first went to in 2023. It's a gathering of the Indigenous elders for the purpose of sharing wisdom and knowledge, and educating the Little Brothers (that's what some Indigenous people are calling us Western people), about nature and harmony and balance. And going to that event in 2023 changed the course of our lives together with Alex, and this year I am extremely excited to take Alex with me for the first time.
AA: What are each member's favorite movies, and why are they significant to you? Is it the story, the characters, the visuals, or something else that resonates with you?
Nika: In general, I can say for the both of us, Alex and I, that we love fantasy. We adore the Lord of the Rings trilogy and just Tolkien's world in general. And I am more of a fan than Alex, actually. We love the Harry Potter movies as well as the books too. And for Tolkien as well. It was the books first and then the movies. We both love the Back to the Future trilogy. When we met, I actually named it as my favorite movies. And Alex said it was the same for him. I don't know if he lied haha. But we love a lot of movies that we watched as kids. A lot of 90s movies. And we love something serious and mind-blowing like Interstellar or Inception. Stuff like that. Regarding the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, this is something that I re-watch every year, and it is absolutely necessary to re-watch the Director's Cut Extended Edition, and usually after I watch the Lord of the Rings, I watch The Hobbit as well, and that's a big treat for me, and I usually do it around Christmas time.
AA: What TV shows do each of you enjoy and look forward to watching? What captures your attention in these shows—perhaps the surprises, character development, or overall production quality?
Nika: We watched many shows and we absolutely love, and I'm saying we because in most cases, our tastes match. For example, Alex's all-time favorite show is The Office (US), and I love that show with all my heart as well, but it's among my favorites, not my favorite. I love Friends. I love The Big Bang Theory. We both love a good drama series too, like Money Heist or Breaking Bad or a sci-fi masterpiece The Expanse. The Game of Thrones is one of our all-time favorites. Right now, we are watching, with much interest, another HBO show, The Last of Us. It's because we also play video games and the game with the same title is actually Alex's favorite. I love it too, and when he played it, I was always next to him following the plot and getting scared haha, and we are enjoying the series right now.
AA: Which books do each member appreciate the most, and what makes them significant to you? Is it their writing style, the themes they address, or the feelings they inspire?
Nika: As I mentioned, we are both suckers for fantasy. So, of course, Tolkien's World started with books for me. And I love Harry Potter. I love the Chronicles of Amber. I read it in Russian, so I'm not exactly sure if that's what it's called in English. I also love Terry Goodkind’s “the Sword of Truth” series. I didn't read it until the end, but I absolutely fell in love with the first five or seven books. I love inspirational books. I read books by Wayne Dyer, Joe Dispenza, Eckhart Tolle, John Kehoe, Neil Walsh, Vadim Zeland (he’s a Russian author). All of those books are about the law of attraction and manifestation and visualization. And I think that’s also why I love fantasy because in fantasy, however hard the hero struggles, they still find a way. And that appeals to me a lot.
AA: Which podcasts does each member passionately recommend, and what makes them stand out?
Nika: I don’t honestly listen to any specific podcasts on a regular basis but lately I watch Abraham Hicks’ YouTube channel relatively often. She speaks about the laws of the Universe and how to apply them in daily life.
AA: I want to know about each member's favorite bands or music artists that all like. I’d also like to hear about each member's most memorable concert experience. Please share details about the atmosphere, the performance, the venue, and anything else that made it special for you.
Nika: I already mentioned that one of my favorite bands is A Day To Remember, and I love bands that can masterfully combine the heaviness and the pop melodies and state-of-theart production, and I also respect A Day To Remember a lot from the musical point of view because they always, even though they stay loyal to themselves, they always try something new, they always are looking for new ways to express themselves, to not get bored, and at the same time they still do what I like them for, and I think this is a perfect combination. They just released a new album in March, and I absolutely love it. I love Blink-182, I love a lot of other pop-punk bands like New Found Glory (also one of my favorite bands), I already mentioned them before, I love some pop songs sometimes, I absolutely love Pink and Rihanna, and some songs of Katy Perry, I like some classic older bands like Motörhead, AC/DC, I love a not very well-known project of Askin' Alexandria frontman Danny Worsnop, the band is called We Are Harlot, and unfortunately they just released one album, and it was like 10 years ago. That album is fire, that is such a perfect mix of energy, rock and roll, great melodies, great musicianship, and I just love it, I would recommend listening to it to any rock fan. I generally love positive and energetic music, but I also listen to a lot of ambient and new age, they usually come one after the other, so for example, when I ride a horse, (I do horse riding), I listen to my personal playlist, it's available on Spotify, it's called Energy Pump by Nika Comet (that's where you can find all my favorite songs and all my favorite bands and artists), and after I'm done, I turn on some meditation music and just chill.
Nika: With the concert - I already mentioned P!nk and also last year I got us dance floor tickets to ADTR and I went to the first row and got into slam and a circle pit and it was AWESOME! Once we also flew to Mexico to see the Foo Fighters and the next day after the show we met Dave Grohl and the late Taylor Hawkins on a Teotihuacan pyramid! We shook their hands and I even managed to take a picture with Taylor!
AA: How does each member define happiness in their life?
Nika: Happiness is just being grateful for being here. Being in peace with who you are and seeing the beauty around you. Being content with what you have. Enjoying the elusiveness and the eternity of the moment.
AA: Each member take time to reflect on your personal experiences with mental health. Consider how these experiences have impacted various areas of your life, such as relationships, work, and personal growth. What specific insights have you gained through these moments?
Nika: I used to struggle a lot with mental health issues. I had panic attacks and it was really hard for me to deal with my horrible mood swings. And when I stopped drinking alcohol and smoking weed, it all got worse because obviously alcohol and weed were just covering up my emotions. And as a child, I was never taught to deal with my emotions. I guess no one was really taught that, at least not in our country. And that's why I had to learn to deal with all that as an adult. And I had to discover a lot of things about myself, about my past. And therapy is the way to go. I pretty much tell all the people who struggle with anything that they need to go to therapy. And they at least need to start this process because it is a process. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in six months (though one might definitely start feeling better!) It's a process. And you have to be patient and you have to actually believe that you can get better. And especially with people nowadays being so focused on just carrying their diagnosis all over as if it's a thing that can never change. Like, oh, I have anxiety. Everybody has anxiety. I have a horrible anxiety and yet I've learned to deal with it. And therapy helps you understand where this comes from and how to deal with it more effectively so that eventually you can stop being conditioned by the things that were, I won't say that were not your choice, but let's say they were not your conscious choice. So as an adult, you can change into a person who is able to make conscious choices rather than being conditioned by the choices that were made for you when you were a child. So therapy and of course, believing that change is possible.
AA: Additionally, think about how you all have managed the challenges related to your mental health. Share strategies, coping mechanisms, or support systems that have significantly impacted your journey. What insights would each member like to share with others around the ages you all are who are grappling with mental health challenges?
Nika: One of the things that the universe wanted me to learn, in my opinion, was to trust the divine flow, which I really had issues with back in the day, because I felt like the world was kind of like, a dangerous place. I was never afraid of the world itself but mostly people. So I learned to show my spikes, I learned to always stay put, and the spiritual journey that I have been on in the last couple of years has shown me how to trust the flow myself. That is a lot about stepping into my feminine energy, because that's what feminine energy is about, acceptance and trust. And this is something that I, as a woman, learned, and then I realized that this is a change that is happening on the collective level. So a lot of women are waking up to feel that right now. And even women who were always independent and who were, in a way, competing with men, they are learning to be more yielding, let's say, and that doesn't mean weak, that was the main lesson, that yielding or accepting doesn't mean being weak. And for men, I think the main lesson is to learn to take initiative in their hands and be more proactive, at least that's the lesson I see Alex is going through, especially since we're twin flames and a couple for so long. That is a very important change, an energetic change, first of all, and I really believe that changing the energies, me stepping more into my feminine energy, him stepping more into his masculine energy, is that balance and that harmony that we were lacking for so long. But that was the point, the universe showed us the way, or if you want to call it God, it doesn't really matter what you call it, but trusting that anything that happens to you happens for a reason and knowing that there's a divine timing for everything is something that I did not just understand with my mind, but something that I lived through with my spirit. And that is why I firmly believe that a lot of good things are coming our way because we’ve been able to honor that balance and get there and change our energy and harmonize ourselves with the divine idea of masculine, feminine, yin and yang, day and night, and still perceive everything as one.
AA: I’d like to direct a question to each of you; I’m genuinely curious to know if any of you have hobbies or interests that ignite your passion outside of your musical endeavors.
Nika: As I mentioned before, I ride horses. I do dressage. I used to compete and took lessons from some really serious athletes and judges. I continue riding a lot, about three times a week. I work with a senior Andalusian horse right now and his name is Dominio - hopefully you’ll see him in one of our music videos soon. I also love running. I go to the gym, maybe not as often as I wanted to. Right now, I'm focusing a lot on recalibrating my energies. A lot of my focus goes there. I spend a lot of time in nature, just enjoying being rather than getting myself busy with something. Hopefully, I will be able to have more energy in the coming years. I actually thought about maybe learning a little bit of Chinese. I'm a lot into Chinese teachings. I do Tai Chi and Qi Gong. I'm extremely fascinated by the Chinese Book of Change or I-Ching. Also, I'm learning more about the way of the Dao. Probably, I'll look into that. In this case, Chinese, if I ever get to start learning it, would be my fifth language. I'm a little out of practice with my French. My Spanish is not very fluent, but I fluently speak English and Russian. Learning another language that is completely different from the ones that I already know would be an interesting challenge.
AA: What message would each member share with everyone if you had the world's attention for five minutes?
Nika: Everyone needs to go to therapy😂 and spend time in nature contemplating and standing with their bare feet on the ground so that we can save this beautiful planet for future generations.
AA: Thank you to Nika from Chase The Comet for sharing her story and interests with us.
Below are all the links where you can follow Chase the Comet:
VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR LATEST MUSIC NOW!
Join our FANmily: https://www.chasethecomet.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/chasethecomet
YouTube: http://youtube.com/chasethecomet
Facebook: http://facebook.com/chasethecomet
TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@chasethecomet
*** Image by Elizaveta Dirat of Elizaveta. Video by Chasing The Comet, unless specified otherwise***
