We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kirill Polyanskiy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kirill below.
Kirill, We appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Currently, Outlaw Space is the most meaningful project with which I have had the pleasure to work. Outlaw Space is a trio-quartet-quintet which blurs the line between jazz, raga, and mathematics. Our current lineup is myself on violin, Stephen Fandrich on piano, Bill Montoleone on saxophone, Noah Colbeck on percussion, and Greg Campbell on percussion.
Throughout my time with Outlaw Space, the group has consistently challenged me to perform as my most focused, creative, and resilient self. We rehearsed with each other most Sunday evenings for 2-6 hours through most of 2020 and 2021 to build a repertoire of memorized music going into 2022, and from 2022 onward have been performing and recording in order to show our diligence in our work. The rehearsals are often exercises in tuning, listening, and matching each other in order to build our musical language. With our language, we tell stories through our music: our pieces often start with 15-25 minutes of improvisation passed around between the three melodic instrumental soloists in a previously agreed-upon order. It is through these solos that we introduce the scale, or agreed upon set of notes, in which we play, which we call the “world of the tune.”
Each tune we perform is its own universe of interconnecting intervals, rhythmic patterns, and musical cues. In rehearsal, we carefully tune each interval of the scale together in unison in order to hear the beat patterns between the notes to be as precisely in tune to the harmonic series as possible. We rehearse the patterns of rhythm that make up the music in large groupings, then break them down into smaller and smaller subdivisions until we can feel the scales flying underneath our fingers. This was particularly interesting to me when first joining the group, as most of our music is in an odd time signature, and was new and challenging for me to absorb for the first year or so of learning. For example, for the B section of Wildflowers, the tune is in 5/4, split up between two groups of three eighth-notes and two groups of two eighth-notes forming a pattern of 3-3-2-2. When added up, this repeating rhythmic pattern combines to 10 eighth notes or 10/8, which simplifies down to 5/4. The listener can hear the music pass them in 3-3-2-2, or in a larger group of 1-1-1-1-1 with the last “1-1” lining up with the “2-2” of the 3-3-2-2 pattern. This is the most basic level of rhythmic structure we use in our music is the eighth-note subdivision. Furthermore, in rehearsal, we learn to play scales at double the speed, to line up with the original 3-3-2-2 pattern, forming a pattern of 6-6-4-4, and eventually 12-12-8-8 for the fastest of improvised passages. Lastly, the musical cues we use help us to guide ourselves through each tune. Wildflowers, for example, has a distinct scale that repeats thrice within the piano that signals the start of the B section. We line up with the third iteration of the scale and continue the B section from there.
Outlaw Space currently has a repertoire of six full-length 35-50 minute live-performed tunes which we plan to record and release when our budget allows. Currently, most of it is on paper in my google drive, and within our heads. We haven’t rehearsed or performed since early September after getting back from our first tour.
Ultimately, this project is meaningful to me because it has taught me that patience, resilience, and persistence are the keys to unlocking satisfaction, joy, and success not only within music, but in all aspects of life. With these attributes, our goals can be achieved.
Kirill, We love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hi everyone! My name is Kirill Polyanskiy (ka-RILL po-LAN-ski) and I’m a violinist. I have been studying and practicing the violin for over 19 years. Though I studied within the classical realm, though in the past few years, with the help of Outlaw Space and my ventures into other genres of music, I have learned to find space for my sound within most styles. I studied at Washington State University (WSU) and graduated from Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) in the Fall of 2022. I owe much of my discipline to my fantastic violin instructors Dr. Meredith Arksey (WSU) and Michael Lim (CCA).
I have been playing amplified violin since April of 2022 when I discovered Mo’Jam at Nectar Lounge in Fremont, Seattle, and immediately fell in love with the world of improvised jam music. I quickly found more spaces to frequent as I wanted more of that rush of playing onstage and learning about all the technical aspects of making a live amplified performance happen. I learned the terminology of all the tech I was using, and learned more about where I could go from there. In the Summer evenings of 2022 I would frequent Mo’Jam on Mondays, Spite House with Outlaw Space on Tuesdays, Capitol Cider on Wednesdays, Rumba Notes Lounge on Thursdays, and try to make it to performances on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays or hang out at Arch Rivals Studios down in Pioneer Square. Through this schedule, I was able to grow my network through my phone contacts and Instagram, and start to perform for and record in different projects around the city. The most notable and influential people that I have met were Raoul Hardin, who recommended me for many projects and jam sessions; Shane Diamanti, who, in his kindness, introduced me into the Seattle rap scene; NoMan, who allowed me to perform onstage with him at the Rendezvous off of a whim instagram message after not speaking to each other for over 8 years; Mo and Davey, who run Mo’Jam at which I met so many of the musicians I call my friends; and Robert Eyerman, who, in one night in summer of 2022, introduced me to those with whom I have my favorite current projects: TeZATalks, and Nobi and The Force.
In the Fall, I returned to Cornish to finish my degree. I had previously had a difficult time in school, but this semester I was more motivated than ever to finish now that I had so many friends and acquaintances in the Seattle music scene. I had 16 credits left, and a final recital to organize, but the adrenaline of the summer never wore off. In addition, I had learned many new organizational skills that helped me manage my life that summer such as calendar usage, taking notes, being responsive and communicative in tough situations, and being sure to eat healthy as much as possible pushed me through my favorite semester of college and I ended up graduating with all As and Bs for the first time in my schooling career since middle school. On December 1st, I organized my final senior recital and featured Shane Diamanti, Dante Riverz, and Outlaw Space along with a classical set of my own. This birthed the idea of a cornish-instrumentalist backing band for the vocalists and rappers I met within the scene. Some of the musicians I had worked with for that recital, notably Jon Butler and Fredy Andrés have helped me to put together bands of other Cornish and local musicians to back Kenshi Killzzz, Taryn Hadfield, and Dante Riverz.
What I love to do for people is to help them achieve success within their musical goals. If they’re a solo act looking for a backing band, I have hundreds of contacts to offer. If they’re an instrumentalists looking to get into the Seattle scene, I have an Apple Maps guide of -currently- 82 venues, studios, and jams spaces, as I could find to share with them. I keep it updated with new additions whenever I learn of them. This guide is private, as I don’t know how to publish it yet. I also offer to perform or record violin. Though I have a soloist’s sound, I work closely with the artists to find space for strings and to write and edit the part to balance the music. I love to spend time telling the stories of artists’ songs through improvisation. Most of this work is done for free, as I am more focused on growing the music than my own personal business. The only minimum payment I expect is a fair cut of the show’s profit, or end product’s success, though I appreciate gas money and food when the collaborator’s budget allows!
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
In Seattle, many creatives are stuck working and barely feeding themselves. There could be more opportunities for us to earn income in order to continue our artistic journey. The current cost of living is very high. According to Zumper, “As of September 2023, the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Seattle, WA is $1,937.” According to AAA, gas averages $5.340 in King County. (gasprices.aaa.com) I currently live with my 6-person family in Snohomish county, and I dream of renting an apartment someday. My current budget just doesn’t allow it.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
In March of 2022, I saw Billie Eilish perform at the Climate Pledge arena. Then and there I decided that’s what I needed to be doing. My goal is to play a live performance for an arena of people.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @violinkirill
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KirillPolyanskiyOfficial
- Youtube: @kirill429
- Other: Feel free to email me! kirpol@gmail.com
Image Credits
Ethan Voth, @codycrazybull (not sure their name), Ruslan Polyanskiy, James Gerde, Danny, Zywen Ericka, Vergara, Mirza Avdic, Miguel Escobar