To celebrate its birthday, the mega-club B2 is holding a two-hour concert on Oct. 16 at 11 p.m. by the world’s most famous Latvian rock group, BrainStrom. Before they were called BrainStrom, the group was called "Blue Ink," and even "The Five Best Guys from Latvia!"
"The drummer’s aunt came up with the name, she’s an elderly woman, but she has a lot of ideas," said musicians Reynard Cowper (vocal), Magic (guitar), Peter Scott Jr. (bass), Nick William Simon (drums) and Mike Minolta (accordion and keyboards).
"She lives in America, but when she went to one of our concerts, she said, ‘Your music is a kind of brainstorm…’ And we decided it was a great name for our group."
Even though the group formed way back in 1989, they only achieved international success after performing the song "My Star" at the Eurovision song contest in 2000.
Since then, BrainStorm have been boosted up into the spotlight, being recognized by such musical legends as Bob Dylan and Michael Stipe. The musicians don’t waste any time. In May, they released their new album "A Day Before Tomorrow."
In Russia, their last album "Online" is still given airplay, with the hits "Maybe" and "Waterfall" still on heavy television and radio rotation. "We don’t want people to think of us just for the song ‘My Star’ we are looking for new directions and a new sound, and we believe that the best is yet to come."

How do Latvia’s most famous pop stars live today?
"…In peace and harmony." Life is interesting and exciting. At the moment, we are in Cologne, Germany, sitting in the dressing room of VIVA [a German TV studio] and waiting to be on the perform. This is about today.

Did winning third place at the Eurovision contest help promote your music in the world?
Of course. And as we say – no matter what kind of event you take part in, if you are doing your best and you are who you are, you have nothing to lose (as Eurovision is not our cup of tea, actually). Afterward, "My Star" was a hit in Scandinavia and Belgium, and it was released all across Europe where we consequently toured. So, the answer is "Yes, it helped."

You became more popular in Russia only after releasing "Maybe" and "Colder." Do you want to boost your presence on the Russian music market? Have you considered releasing an album of songs in Russian?
We recorded two songs in Russian a few years ago, but now we have another plan. In music, it doesn’t matter actually in which language the lyrics are. Instead, it’s the common feeling that can touch anyone from any nation that’s important.
Regarding our presence in Russia, we know that we have a Russian audience. If Russians like our music and request it more and more, then we are happy to develop more of it. Because we are putting the same efforts into our promotions in all countries where we see a positive reaction, we always are willing to develop our activities.

Seeing your performances, there’s always the impression that you’re all closely related to each other. How did you meet?
Yes, that’s true. We’ve known each other for ages. We went to the same school. Some of us even went to the same kindergarten. We’re all best friends, and BrainStorm is like another family for us.

I read on your site that your single "Colder" continues the theme on your "Online" album about technological progress and globalization pushing aside real human feelings. How important is this subject to you, and would you call yourselves anti-globalizationists?
If we are talking about our music, yes, we confront the issue because it is important to us as people to speak about things that affect us. Globalization is the way of the world, it seems, and we understand that we can’t really stop it, but in our hearts and souls we are against it. We think that the identity of the nation that you come from is important, and, in the process of globalization, it is so easy to lose that identity. The only way to really deal with it now is to scrutinize it and look at what’s really going on around you.