My preparation for the New Year began with security and getting wristbands for admission and drinks for the annual Gogol Bordello show at Terminal 5 – (music venue in Hell’s Kitchen with a capacity of 3,000 people.) Inside the concert hall the assembled spectators were clapping hands over their heads, doing shoulder shimmies and floor work as soon as the after-dark scene began.
I witnessed many gypsy dances performed by the drunkest guests at the apogee of countryside weddings all my life. Today was the day, however, to meet the man (Eugene Hutz), who smuggled Gypsy/East-European music in the English-speaking world himself.
Incidentally, I discovered that the surname Hutz – in Ukrainian language translates as a “knot on a rope” as well as “a cone,” both a fire and a phallic symbol that represents a man’s creative force, fertility and a good fate.
Covered in confetti and champagne splashes I started peaking inside the rooms backstage. Finally I heard an echo of Eugene’s voice coming from the staircase at the end of the hall, singing a remake of the Gypsy King’s song “Volare.” He changed the original title into “Huyarem” – translated as “Fuck it, Sing it” in every imaginable Eastern European language. People waiting for an autograph picked up the chorus and sang:
Huyare-mmm, oh oh
Cantare-mmm, oh oh oh oh
Nel blu dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassu…
I pushed through the crowd and followed Eugene into the very last room. He crashed onto a leather couch, brushed back his curls and blinded me with his charming smile and a glinting gold tooth. I asked him to talk to us about the meaning of life in under a minute, and as a Virgo (the most googled sign of the zodiac) he gave us some wise answers!
Here is a 50 minute video with the best moments from the show + the interview with Eugene which starts on 2:11!
THE INTERVIEW:
What felt culturally familiar to you when you first came to New York?
Of course it’s East Village, where it’s a very condensed Ukrainian neighborhood,
distinctly different from the other diaspora stuff in NY like Brighton Beach & New Jersey & Greenpoint.People there are very authentic in their own understanding of their identity; they are very focused on it, way more than I was focused on it.I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ukrainian folklore being more preserved and performed better than I saw it in the diaspora. I’ve been to Karpaty, to other parts of Ukraine, where people took pride in their display of national awesomeness, but here I saw something that kind of blew my mind and I was like wow:
“Shit man, that’s some real Ukrainian shit!” and I saw it for the first time in New York City or upstate NY like Soyuzivka, so it happens often, actually any student of anthropology will always find that diaspora is always more preservational institution than the land itself.
How did create your style?
I get my clothing from stuff that I found on my floor, and what was there is
a very messing arrangement of picking stuff here and there. To put it in a more drastic way, it’s like I always had a taste for juxtaposing things, so for example like punk rock doesn’t go with any sport wear, at least European Punk rock, it is completely against something that is body fit, and I was kind of interested in actually smashing that together. In fact I found American punk rock being closer to me in a spirit, because I was an athlete in the past, I was a long distance runner, so American punk rock was a lot closer to me, than punk rock that I knew from Europe like Joy Divison and The fall and *** about and things like that. When I discovered Fugazi and Henry Rollins, I was like: “ That’s my shit, yo!”
Because it’s very dynamic athletic wise as well, so I started making clothes, that is just kind of like punk-sport-ethno wear.
Learning to play drums at 12 meant being hated by your neighbors, How do you deal with judgment?
I wasn’t trying to become a musician. I was just pounding on some shit that was standing in front of me. When you’re 12 years old you’re basically psychotic, it’s a pretty good way to get the energy out, so weather neighbors hated me or not, was kind of irrelevant to my life, they probably did and it continues to be so.The critical thinking, which is the root for all the judgment is a terrible way to live,
The entire western civilization is rooted in critical thinking and it’s a sure way to psychological mayhem, so the faster you walk away from judgment of any kind… that was started by Rene Descartes:
“I think therefore I am,” that’s like jumping off into Grand canyon and flying and freaking out and thinking:
“Why am I freaking out?” Judgment is a very feeble way to go about your life.
What do you value in people most?
It’s a direct way of communicating, if you ask someone a question and they start immediately answering that question, that’s the way to go, if there is some kind of detour from that, that’s already not on the right track, so channel of most authentic
clear open communication is perhaps… It is all about communication. The more open a person can get, or vulnerable a person can afford to be the more powerful it is. The more defense there is, it gets bundled up and gets absolutely paranoiac
and destructive for everyone aroundFear is an essential part of human condition, but you can’t let that rule your entire psyche. Because you’re going to have to basically die, and than come back around and do that whole fucking thing all over again.
Text, video, interview + pictures: Kasia Prada (kasia@flowersinagun.com)
