I was not one of the founders of Pussy Riot, I joined later. Initially, when I joined, one of the first things we did together was sing the song “Puti zassal” (roughly translated as “Putin has pissed himself) on the Red Square. I got involved in political art when my friend introduced me to “Voina art group”, and we decided to create an improvised musical collective called “Dick the in ass.” This was around the time when Andrei Yerofeev and Yuri Samodurov (former director of the Andrei Sakharov Center) were being sued for their exhibition titled “caution, religion!” [which included paintings and other art critically examining the intersection of religion with commercial interests, politics, and popular culture, deemed extremist by critics of the exhibition]. Together with the collective “Dick in the Ass” we interrupted a 2009 courtroom hearing against Yerofeev by singing a song called “All cops are bastards, remember this!” at full volume with instruments in the courtroom. I liked this a lot. I decided the film the whole thing on video.
It was all very new and incredibly interesting. And as time passed, together with my friend (who is the base guitarist who introduced me to Voina) we started recording Pussy Riot songs at her house. I lived there at the time. It was really interesting, so I decided to join.
At the time, around 15 people were in Pussy Riot if you count everyone who wrote the words, played the music, filmed and photographed the actions.