Earlier this year Gogol Bordello traveled to London and shook the foundations of the Camden Roundhouse from the very core. The high amounts of energy exuded took no break as every person in the pit jumped and danced in a sea of perfect unison. Front man Eugene Hütz offered some insight into the sound of Gogol, the role of rock music while growing up in the Ukraine and the energetic spark of live performance, which ignites the soul.
Gogol Bordello is often described as ‘Gypsy punk’. Do you feel like that’s a good way to describe the music you’re creating?
Well nobody described it really. The way that came about is several actual ethical gypsies who reside in New Orleans came to our show and were blown away, and they came up to us and said this is kind of like Gypsy Punk Rock or something, and I thought, “Wow that’s the name of the album right there.” It was probably the most appropriate term that popped in my head at that moment, and it remains to be a most appropriate title for that album. From then on the band kept changing and evolving so many times. The element of it is still there, but it’s music of an open mind, and an adventurous soul. It’s certainly based equally in rock ‘n’ roll and folklore of many countries. So maybe you can say it’s like a trans-global, rock ‘n’ folk, if you need to (laughs).
Where you grew up was there a lot of rock ‘n’ roll, or was it not really a part of the culture?
Well I grew up in Ukraine and there was nothing available for rock ‘n’ roll, absolutely nothing. So the way to find it was through the black market, which we of course did. So, was a lot of it available for the public? Absolutely not. Did we have everything? Fuck yeah. I was skipping school to go to the black market every week. In fact I feel like because of such a deficit for music being served, myself and other people who grew up like that, benefit way more from music. You take it all for granted here. Back then, I grew up with the attitude that music is a treasure. Consequently life is full of treasures.
Would you say that type of music is more prevalent now in the Ukraine?
Well the distinction is between Soviet Union years and once it collapsed there was no gate anymore. It doesn’t mean that suddenly everyone got down with the cream of the crop music, it just means that everything poured in there in uncontrollable volumes without anyone being able to judge the great music from total shit. So, they have some time to figure it out now.
When you would skip school, what kind of music did you go get?
You know, the usual…Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Black Sabbath, Parliament Funkadelic, Nick Cave, everything that was a channel of powerful energy.
What was it about that music that you enjoyed?
I think for me the musical storytelling became the focus. It remains to be the focus even now underneath it all. It seems to be a worthy thing to do. Somewhere in there, there is an importance of communication, and an importance to tell your story and hear the other story out as well, you know?
How does the songwriting process work with such a large group?
It’s a fucking mess. It’s a lesser mess than it used to be, back when I literally carried around black garbage bags full of lyrics with me. Yes, overall there aren’t really any rules, but I am the principal songwriter of the band. It’s just the way it’s happened from the beginning. It became my main discipline. I bring the songs pretty much completed to the band.
And then they add with their parts?
They add a lot, but sometimes I’ll play a song and instantly their reaction shows zero resonance. That’s how I know that song was not a “Bohemian Rhapsody,” no matter what I thought (laughs).
Gogol is known to be an amazing live show. Do you enjoy the performing aspect more than making records in the studio, or are both just as important?
Absolutely equal. Touring is important, and recording is important. Every band faces that challenge. In a way there’s a lot of myths floating in press and amongst people about records being done in some kind of a psychedelic state of mind, and how they just captured the magic, and how all these people were just on some sort of synergetic fire and it just came out like that. All those myths are absolute loads of crap. I’ve met all those people that made all those magical albums and they told me how it was done. It’s absolutely done redundantly, laboriously, and tediously. It has nothing to do with any spontaneous magic. It’s a very crafty thing to do, just like making movies, which is even more annoying. At least with records you don’t have to wake up at six in the morning and put on safari clothes and freeze your ass off for 23 hours (laughs).
That’s why it must be nice to have so much energy in the live performance. You can go out there and enjoy it.
It’s the most fun and fulfilling artistic experience I can have. Not to say I don’t enjoy writing, or the catharsis of writing, that’s all great stuff, but playing live allows you complete freedom from the mind. The work is done; it’s already crafted. Now you’re just recklessly playing what has been created. Somewhere between the clash of the recklessness and what has been crafted there is a spark that makes the eyes light up, and that’s the atmosphere that the soul just loves. Not just my soul, but also every soul loves the sparkling eyes. There’s mystery in why it happens, but it ain’t no mystery that we all love it.
In giving the crowd this experience, how do you hope your music will make people feel?
Many different kinds of feelings are in the mix, but I feel like predominantly a feeling of belonging together. It’s quite a rare instance in this civilization. This civilization, not to knock down its accomplishments, but has happened to almost exhaust itself of giving unity, which is detrimental and is damaging to the very individual who is promoting the individualist idea. Most of the western civilizations are locked in the individuals’ heads. They don’t see any way out of it. They’re completely convinced that they’re greatest facility is intellect, and that’s actually such an ironic situation because the rest of the world that maybe doesn’t have such a higher technology, but has other tools, not only have survival, but actual spiritual elevation, and their method of life is the opposite. It’s something for the west to consider, that they’re actually the minority who is locked in their head. On this very planet the majority doesn’t believe that. They don’t think that, they’re ancestors don’t think that, and I think that some of the cultures are going to skip that stage altogether of driving themselves into an egomaniacal state. Evolution sometimes just jumps the gun and skips forward into quantum leaps. That happens too.
