Yuri Shif: The Raconteur

A windy afternoon in early January. We are getting ready for an interview. Long distance conversation. It will be in Russian, so we are putting some final thoughts together, before having a talk with Yuri Shif.  Aleks, who is helping me with translation is working hard on a Russian keyboard, letter by letter translating the questions we plan to start with. Even though she is fluent, we seem to struggle. Everything takes time if you haven’t used the requisite skills for quite a while.

Our meeting with Yuri was slightly delayed and after a quick call we arranged to talk in an hours time.  During the wait I got involved into quite an argument with an acquaintance of Aleks about creativity and how it could be used for gaining money. He was quietly occupying small space on the sofa at the far end of the room, seemingly refusing to leave and occasionally raising opinions reminding us of his existence.  He believed in the importance of the end goal – accumulation of capital and attachment to things above all else. I stressed the joy of process; the art of going, not getting there if you are a craftsman. Often “there” doesn’t exist to get to anyway. The money keeps us going along the next creative path, but what would be the point if we didn’t enjoy stretching our legs?

After an hour of circular argument I was saved by the message from Yuri – we’re ready to talk.

We opened with a quite British way of chatting about weather, which led to talking about bike rides in winter . Yuri mentioned he recently had a test ride with one of the motorcycles he built and this was quite unusual occurrence out there. After a short pause he added: “For us and most of our customers the ride is not as important with these strange bikes as the process getting there“.

We briefly mentioned the argument to Yuri. He listened silently and then said: “Process… but of course we are having a blast” he smiled.

Aleks eagerly moved on to our pre-prepped questionnaire. Yuri was working on some answers, but he seemed distracted by something and at some point not long after he said: “I’ll be glad to answer all your questions, I’ll be more than happy to do that for you. Truthfully and openly,  so I have a proposition for you“, after short pause he followed “I have done several of these (meaning interviews)… and I always come up with a story to tell. I’m afraid some of them have already been told.. they are all good of course, but some are better”

We like stories, especially the good ones.

He continued “I’m afraid I might come up with a bad story… and  I can…. I had a… a very good story I have told recently. Talented young journalist just retold it in print.” Which was followed by: “Have a read here and I’ll get back to you“. He forwarded to us a magazine with the earlier interview he had. Suddenly Yuri disappeared.

We had some time to go through and digest the information in the article… The interview was quite revealing in many ways. But what intrigued was Yuri sounds quite composed, but the thoughts he expressed and the way he did it – was very charismatic. Charismatic, but considered. And much of the questions I had in mind were answered to very reasonable extent.

Again, the acquaintance guy interrupted me with another statement: “You people from ex USSR never had freedoms to do what you wanted to do..” and there I had to cut him off: “Freedom is a state of mind, perspective you choose. If you can work with it and move along the right direction, you’re always free”.  This seemed to silence him.

After short pause of calm Yuri got back to us. We spoke about the article. He seemed to be happy with that interview. He said with a smile: “The guy, the previous interviewer is very good, smart boy so a lot of your questions were answered there. Not all of them..  And I was in quite a splendid mood, so I decided to answer… (laughs). But I shall be happy to talk to you, if you have something else to ask, just go ahead’, I’ll think of something..” (smiles again)

We relaxed. It was quite interesting how two conversations that day fell in line with the subject of idea and the process for a creative, skilled person. Again we referred to the argument I had earlier on about importance of the process and what the final object stands for, what its place?.

Yuri suddenly showed us our native Lithuanian language motorcycle magazine with another article about him. Certainly it was interesting about how did he do that interview. Yuri said: “My assistant.. Anastasya.. my Muse, my wife, usually she sends information to the press”. It was January ’11 issue. He laughed “Look, I’m on the cover“. “Well”, I said, “You are famous!” referring to one of his sarcastic lines he made in the russian article we just read. “No no“, Yuri replied, “I am just at work“.

And he proceeded: So let’s get back to the question.. even though if we want to create “art” and we want our work to survive, we have to go along with some rules of business. We have to, if we want to be successful, if we want to create..  There are many artists and they are extremely talented people who live in poverty and no one knows about them. It doesn’t mean they are not talented. The are. They can be extremely talented, but there are some laws of business, laws of commerce, you have to obey if you want to survive. Even if we want to do art more than business. We have to know how to sell our works. Even if we do this for our own pleasure, if we do art, it all has to go hand in hand, otherwise we would not be able to do this. We have to understand: if this is done to satisfy personal ambitions, or if what we want to do is to make business. Even if its for personal ambition, we have to create some sort of business like venture, this has to be commercially viable otherwise we’ll just die. It all have to be balanced out.

So, if this has to be business like, it involves customer as the customer is the final point of the valuation, end of old and start of the new process. Through our own experience we know its hard work. The question to Yuri was: does the process involve deeper understanding of the “persona” of the client? friendship? Conflict? He replied with a smile:  No conflicts. We work to the final moment, if somethings not right, we’ll work until its right.  And I’m a.. let’s say.. grown up boy, we sort things out. Most often I know what the customer needs against what he wants. Its quite psychological understanding. If you create an excellent product, actually all we create, make is a product, doesn’t matter what you take: clothing, bikes, websites, eventually its a product. Sometimes product can become better than the client. Whats the difference? It may be, someone famous is using your product. If your product is excellent, very likely it will make an ordinary person to become the star. It may change the persons life. It will change the persons life, because he has the stimulation to grow. As I mentioned It’s very psychological thing and motorcycle is very personal. Custom project can talk about the personality of the person ordering it. Its like the clothes you do, once you put the client and the custom built for him motorcycle together – it makes them one. It seems I am able to achieve it recently.

Recently, what would you mean by that?

The last few years I should say.

Are you very self critical?

Short pause.. and Yuri’s voice suddenly became very serious. -Yes I am very critical of my work. I am the best critic of my work. It does not matter if the project is commercial or not, I have to like it. Until I’m not entirely happy – its not finished and we’ll keep working. Being truthful, who can know better than me about my ideas? Its again, same like you and your clothing, who can better understand you and your ideas if not yourselves if you live with them if you’re a designer.

Would you say you can spot something more honest and real about your client what he would not be able to notice once you evaluate him from the distance/ side?

Certainly its easier for me to spot. I have to know better what the person needs. Why? Because I am professional. Why am I professional? Because thats my life and my living. That is why they turn to me. The customer might think they know, but honestly, but being realistic most of the times they don’t. I always say “yes, you’re are right”. I do not argue. The good thing about my profession is creating motorcycle for a person takes a very long time. It may be three month, six, nine, I have plenty of time not only to build it, but to make a connection between both and bring the client to the right understanding, to knowledge. For the client its a first, fifth or tenth motorcycle project, for me its counted in hundreds. Its my living, I educate myself about it, I have my view on it. I have to make the right connection.

Is this the situation when the person ordering a custom project and committed about his knowledge would be like pupil trying to lecture his teacher?

…. no, that’s not like that. To every customer and every order I put a lot of attention, for e.g the last story. Ok, I’ll tell you a story I haven’t told yet. It’s a simple one. I work also with Minsk motorcycles developing small 125cc motorcycles. The company took this little motorcycle to the show in Italy. After that I received a call from a guy, he is a successful young person and he asked to build a custom using that little Minsk. I explained to him its not very right to do an expensive custom build with pricey parts out of such motorbike, therefore I suggested if he likes word Minsk, motorcycle Minsk,  why not to do this the fastest Minsk? I said, lets build together the fastest Minsk in the world! Costing less and more exciting to do. He agreed. I used to race carts and I  used to be sports director for the team, so I know how to build such engines making them very fast and reliable. It looks like standard Minsk engine, but we did some serious tuning on it and its very powerful now. So we are working now on Minsk Cafe Racer for him. And its fun and great! And it is a very serious project. (Yuri sound very excited talking about this project)

Do you have projects in your mind, but you don’t have the right person to build it for?

Yes, the Minsk project is actually one of them. I’ve already said that, any project can start not with the original idea, but the budget. Many projects I have in my mind, I have not right to start. I can not do it if it is not calculated and secured financially. What can I do with the money I have? If the idea is not supported financially or if we don’t run the finances right – the project most likely will die. The best idea not secured financially has a great possibility of failure as a project.

We were back to the beginning of our conversation: process, creativity and financial support have to go hand in hand. Yuri proceeded: so looking back at the 10 years of our business, it sort of proves I wasn’t doing everything wrong. There are quite a few guys I know here and in Russia who are much better artists and craftsmen than I am. I often even look up to them, they are my friends, but I know some of them will not be able to expand.. to make it financially. I always say if the artist is not able to succeed with finances by himself – they have to try to find help .. they have to find a patron. He has to find a supporter who could help with funds. There are people willing to help. Same happened to me, I had some friends to support me. It’s wasn’t a gift and thats the good part of it. I had to return the money ofcourse, but they provided me financial back up at the start, they provided the stimulation.

They helped opening the possibility?

Yes, absolutely. Possibility.

I think, everyone has a possibility to do or achieve something. Every human has to hold on to their possibility and sometimes even to create one.

And my friends gave me this possibility not because they saw me as a “good guy”. They saw potential in my works and this obliges you to achieve the results, it leads you to the results.

You mentioned, you’re not planning to build motorcycles all your life. You said you want to do literature, were you serious?

Of course I was. I am a very serious man (he smiles… )

Do you have a genre in mind?

His dreamy thoughtful voice replies: I’d like to do scenarios.. stories..drama..

Any examples you could tell?

No, I can’t talk about it yet…. not yet. Quite humbly replied Yuri.

Would you be telling stories that culmination is to educate, to teach something? would you say the motorcycle you build are the culmination of someones personal story you are trying to tell?

No, motorcycle is just a motorcycle. Its something I can do right now. On one hand I can express myself, on the other it pays. They fall in line here..

I always see pictures, some sort of stories… it doesn’t… you see.. today I build a motorcycle.. but it doesn’t stop me to think of some sort of a story…. again all stories I create, all the information is already there somewhere. All the ideas, all the information.. all the ideas we get as artists, designers, our mission is to make them real and pass on to people. Thats what we do, doesn’t matter what shape it takes. It becomes part of the story. Your clothing as well, you have a tale and you take it to people, you share it. Same here. All in the past is just a learning, life education to something else you’ll do in the future. One has to be learning all the time.

Feels like I am very lucky with my clients. I have some unfulfilled thoughts or dreams and I always try to achieve some of them under specific projects. For me its not important who will end up owning the idea once it materialise, the most important the idea is alive and can live its own life.  I created it, you saw it, it pleases you – thats very important. Sometimes I have the thoughts, but I can not make them in to reality for my own money, therefore I always enjoy seeing these motorcycles living their own lifes. Very important is the motorcycles are alive now and the idea lives on.  I am happy I can do it now. To get to this point I had to design and build a lot of motorcycles and I’m still learning. I start a new project to make something even better than I did, but I don’t know if this would happen. People say: next work of an artist has to be better than the previous one. But your previous work was very good. Every time you start something new – its affected by so many different factors.

I often say: every person has a certain mission – the reason the person is here on this Earth and I like to think mine is not only to build motorcycles. I have to say, there is one law I believe in: every human gets exact amount of hardship as much one is able to overcome. Some people try to overcome them and achieve, some may give themselves away to depression..

Even depression is a particular form of overcoming the difficulty. Depression is like a blown fuse for the organism. Its a protective layer. You just have to fix it and move on. .. again.. destiny or whatever you call it, gives you a mission to take with you. Some people gets a mission to give, some people gets a mission to receive. It doesn’t mean everyone has to create and be great creators. Some people are destined to be on receiving end. It doesn’t mean they are good or bad, its just they are that way, thats all.. and again, for them, there are people able to create. Therefore, it seems, there is a balance in the world.