A group of six people and “bear” is a cultural-shocking VIA”Ostriv dobrykh nadii.” On stage they are either extremely funny or deeply philosophical, but in real life they are critical and educated. Reflections of life and music of front man Liopych Yermolaev and bassist Vladimir Kotyk is the key to understanding all images.
Vladimir Kotyk:
“Recently, I filled questionnaires and wrote that the music is a hobby. I identified it as a professional hobby. Someone’s professional hobby is fishing professional racing, and I have music. There are often thoughts to only work with this, but in this format the genre seems to be really full. If you sacrifice something, it is difficult. There were professional tours to Ukraine for 5-7 days, during which music became everyday work, which was rather ambiguously perceived by the whole team. When you can tune the free schedule several times a month, then it’s a good evening and good to you and the audience. And when it is work, it becomes clear that you cannot always work for 100 percent. Waking up with the idea that we should go and do, always have a good mood, so there is dissonance. A format of “work plus interests” comes into an interesting product”.
“Love to the music is in my genes, my grandfather played the bass, and my mother as a child went to music school, father also played. Father was reading Zhvanetskyi in the evenings; we did some theater, my mother had many actors who she knew. I have an intelligent family: mother, father, brothers – lawyers, I am a programmer”
“Alex (Liopych Yermolaev – ed.note) – founder of work, I joined the guys. At the beginning a genre was defined as turbo-shanson. This is called Blatnjak chanson, chanson and in general it is good music. We constantly strive to evolve, grow professionally”
“There are irony, satire, and mockery then. Listen to us more, there are sharp social songs, many songs are about love, feelings. “French rolls”? Well, there can be banter love. It’s covert “cocktail compote.” For understanding many of our songs you should just listen”
“Who is our audience? Of course, that live music gathers younger people, it appeared historically. However, sometimes there is adult audience as well. When we do Facebook advertising, I say: “Ask people from age 18 to 40, do not stop only at 25 or 16 years.” My mother, for example, really likes going to our concerts, we played on her birthday. Mama has good musical taste, the music is too well known for her. And if we play a nonsense, it would not be supported and said it straight in the eye”
“Everything is interesting: playing accordion, formerly it was trombone, bass. There is original music and so, I would say, outright. This is what is lacking. You know, like a king and jester: the fool can say that cannot be said by a King. We break veiled social problems which are not discussed openly”
“Firstly, something that hurts is a lack of initiative when a person believes that nothing of it depends from him. It just kills me, when a person gives up waiting someone to bring everything needed. Homo soveticus made an amoeba from a person… It’s killing me! ”
“As my sister says, I am an intellectual who pretends to be savage. Sometimes it’s hard to be intellectual”
“I like to travel. I’m trying to escape to see the world around. We’ve recently been in Scandinavian countries. The most striking are responsibility and quality there. For example, road, markings. There is no concept of “do bad.” And we will someday have it! I always come back inspired, I believe that it will. And albeit we did not like Copenhagen: public restrooms there are like a museum, an element of culture. In public places here … By principle: “Nose is dusted, pants are not changed.” I myself try to influence cultural development, hold Music and Art Festival “Holova-Halosha” and try to develop a culture of people”
“We are patriots of Ukraine on 100%. Our problem is Russian songs. Now we ponder how to access Ukrainian format. There already is “gentle Ukrainization”, we simply must go through an evolutionary process, and younger generation will come and purge language environment. There used to be not enough of Ukrainian upper classes, and now there is a huge number of young people of 20 years old who speak Ukrainian very organically”
Liopych Yermolaev:
“We chose the freest style. We havent’ actually elected it, but it happened. The main thing is freedom and no any attachment to different styles”
“Did I attend Music School? Yes, I went there. (Laughs) I don’t really have musical education. We only have a professional musician-accordionist Vlad. He now works at the Philharmony by specialty. Of course, we would like to expand our musical outlook, it would be a plus. But its absence does not slow down the creative process. Here the main is fuse, rather than musical terms”
“I do not have a muse, there is an emotional state. Sometimes, emerge some issues and you begin reflection on them, and the lyrics are born from it, emotions, and then we chose words and images for it, history and everything else. Digging a hook it’s better to do alone, but then comes teamwork, which helps to reveal or even change the vector of thoughts or emotions”
“Energy is dressed by emotion, and then there is loaded content that is not reached by all. Most people stop on the energy and emotional perception, but do not consider sense. But there are those who try to understand the depth of what is going on. When a person uses the route “home-work-home-work” there appears a single-vector perception. Our power is designed to get our creativity into a man and break his worldview, charge it with energy for the next few steps away from the stereotypes and being conservative”
“In our songs there is something we see and what we do conclusions from. Basically it is a philosophy of action: not about sitting and moaning but about doing something”
“We have a song “Sviato zhyttia”. It’s about how people disappear on the Internet, “hang” there and stop acting. This song is a protest against degradation, lack of live communication. There is a song about pills that are promoted by pharmaceuticals, pills, rather than cure. Our songs only at first glance may seem superficial in content. Of course there are songs, which you just go crazy with and a kind of catharsis is happening”
“Old age is a state of mind, it comes when the person stops the development, ceases to think and act. It does not depend on age; there are young people who do not have the capacity for action and there are people who are far beyond 50, and you realize that they give you a head start on development, interest, commitment and love for life”
“In the professional music business there is more commerce than art. You are told what and when you have to do something, so a creative idea is lost, identity is being killed. I wish that the music brought financial results, but does not want anyone on top of you to point out what to do. Tours we organize ourselves, we take days off and go to work. In winter we are invited to concerts and in the summer at the festival. Now there is a “Faine misto”, we are waiting for confirmation of several invitations”
“Creativity is a sister of freedom”
“There is a lot of fun at various concerts. The most striking was the festival “Stara fortetsia”, where we played in a stage outfit during the festival theme. Then came on stage one extremely shocking spectator dressed as a drummer: the French national team shirt, glasses similar. He knocked on a drum made of papier-mâché and so hard that even disturbed our play. Guitarist Sasha Patlatyi asked a technician to take away “extra” drummer, well, he helped. All this happened while performing one of the songs. However, they started to take away not “extra” drummer but the real one. It was funny! ”
“How do I rest? I have no rest “(laughs)
“Zhytomyr for us became a family. Earlier, whenever you arrive everyone said it is an awful city. Now I’ve read a lot and I’m aware that it’s cool city with a rich history. And is not that easy as one thinks! This is not just Zhytomyr; it is the birthplace of space at least. I see only the development, and only losers think that it is bad”
“We must work hard every day, try and then we can achieve everything!”
Translated by Aliona Matushevich