It\u2019s close to midnight in Berlin and I\u2019m getting ready to speak with Eugene H\u00fctz over the phone. The often itinerant Gogol Bordello chief is wrapping up his work for the day in New York City, but really, his mind is elsewhere. To be exact: 5,687 miles away in Ukraine. Born and bred in Kyiv, H\u00fctz has watched the grotesque spectacle of war and mass killings play out on television since the conflict began when Russia invaded his home nation in February. Understandably, his sentences are laced with expletives and a palpable sense of outrage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty classic Russian behaviour,\u201d says H\u00fctz. \u201cBut this time it seems to be particularly fucking brutal. That\u2019s where the shock is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet fury have the hour, anger can be power, do you know that you can use it?\u201d sang Joe Strummer in \u2018Clampdown\u2019 (1979) by The Clash. It\u2019s a stirring conceit on paper, but how useful are mere words in the barbaric light of reality when villages not far from where you grew up are being raped, slaughtered, and tortured? Doing what he can, H\u00fctz has taken on the mantle as a kind of unofficial artistic ambassador for Ukraine, turning his Instagram account into an anti-war repository that takes swipes at Russian propaganda. Technically, H\u00fctz has always been fighting the cause. After all, the \u2018Gogol\u2019 in Gogol Bordello is a reference to Nikolai Gogol, the 19th-century writer of Ukrainian heritage who wrote about his homeland in Russian at a time when the Ukrainian language was repressed under the rule of the Russian Tsar. According to H\u00fctz, Gogol\u2019s work was almost like a \u201csmuggling operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been out of touch with my heritage,\u201d explains H\u00fctz. Evidently, misattributions when it comes to Soviet cultural history stick in his craw. \u201cMany pieces of music that are supposedly Russian are usually borrowed from places like Japan or Ukraine or Poland,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s hilarious how clueless some people are. But anybody who knows a bit about European culture will be well aware that this cultural appropriation has taken place for hundreds of years.\u201d A zine contributor who was immersed in the Ukrainian punk scene at the ripe old age of 13, beyond everything else, H\u00fctz is your textbook music nerd. He rhymes off bands \u2013 both established and underground \u2013 with elan, and is sage-like when recounting classic shows from his childhood. In the West, there\u2019s a tendency to pigeonhole the former Soviet Union as a singular yawning mass, rather than see it from multiple perspectives, particularly when it comes to creative pursuits. H\u00fctz, however, is quick to point out the idiosyncrasies that mark his home country out as unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ask Sonic Youth, who played Kyiv in 1989, or someone like Lydia Lunch, they\u2019ll tell you that, out of all the Soviet countries, Kyiv was the only place where there were hip kids who understood what they were trying to do,\u201d says H\u00fctz. When he talks about his past in Ukraine, it\u2019s not in a way that\u2019s didactic or intended as a history lesson. It\u2019s more borne from a place of pride, coupled with a sense of frustration at being overlooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine is unique because it has a central European mix,\u201d H\u00fctz continues. When you went to the countryside, especially the Karpaty area, you would see that you are living in a magical country where there are various dialects of Ukrainian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Tartar, and Romani. And that’s when people were like, \u2018Oh, so I’m like, part of this special mix, not just part not a part of that sanitized, Soviet crap.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":101277,"id":101277,"title":"gogol bordello - ukraine - city winery - daniel efram -031022 - nyc - 07668-2","filename":"gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-scaled.jpg","filesize":658519,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-scaled.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/solidarity-eugene-hutz\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":100542,"date":"2022-07-05 09:35:04","modified":"2022-07-05 09:35:04","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-scaled.jpg","thumbnail-width":128,"thumbnail-height":85,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-scaled.jpg","medium-width":1920,"medium-height":1280,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-scaled.jpg","medium_large-width":1920,"medium_large-height":1280,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-scaled.jpg","large-width":1920,"large-height":1280,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-1536x1024.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-2048x1366.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1366,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-scaled.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":18,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gogol-bordello-ukraine-city-winery-daniel-efram-031022-nyc-07668-2-3071x2048.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":3071,"wpvr_mobile-height":2048}},{"ID":101278,"id":101278,"title":"gogol bordello - 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That eclectic richness also defines Gogol Bordello, which has become one of the great cult (and live) bands of the 21st century. Like a magpie weaving a mashup of trinkets into its nest, their kitchen-sink approach combines instruments such as accordion, fiddle, horn, guitar and bass into an impossibly palatable whole. Initially, some naysayer critics dismissed the group\u2019s brand of \u2018gypsy punk\u2019 as a disingenuous schtick that played into stereotypes rather than subverting them. Yet fast forward 30 years, and the group is not only still selling out shows globally, but as far as H\u00fctz is concerned, serving their most important purpose yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis past month makes it look like I\u2019ve been chilling on a hammock for most of my previous life, and I’ve been going crazy for fucking 30 years bustin\u2019 shit out!\u201d he laughs. By this, he\u2019s referring to recent fundraiser shows alongside the likes of Patti Smith, as well as the none-too-subtly titled tribute song, \u2018Zelensky: The Man With The Iron Balls\u2019 (2022), written in tandem with Primus\u2019 Les Claypool, The Police\u2019s Stewart Copeland, and John Lennon\u2019s son, Sean. When it comes to the arts in a time of crisis, there\u2019s often a tendency for those involved in it to trivialize what they\u2019re doing as pointless frippery.<\/p>\n
H\u00fctz doesn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur singles and shows absolutely make a difference,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you are in the trenches with a fucking rocket launcher; or travelling through rural Ukraine to escape the invaders while holding a loaded gun, it\u2019s natural to feel disconnected. Any reminder that there is activity to support them going on out there in Germany or Australia or Brazil or the States or Japan or wherever else can transform that perception and make it feel like life is possible again.<\/p>\n
In the past, Gogol Bordello has been described as a trans-global art syndicate; a fire-spitting travelling roadshow nonplussed about belonging to a particular home, community, style, or even a scene. Rather, it\u2019s a project committed to multiculturalism that can be accessed by everyone and anyone. For someone who spends so much time on the road, being a good world citizen surely trumps any notion of nationalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ukrainian situation reminds me of the oneness of the world. It’s omnipresent and it’s inevitable,\u201d says H\u00fctz, leaving room for a pause. \u201cWe live in that one quantum field of infinite possibilities, yet some people are consumed by their personal shit. In reality, life on Earth is designed so that what\u2019s happening to the person across the street will happen to you. Maybe not tomorrow, but at one point the tables are gonna get turned around, so it’s a lot wiser to open up to that oneness on your terms. That way, you will be a little bit more prepared when suddenly, it\u2019s you who is at the epicentre of the fucking disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before our time chatting comes to a close, I\u2019m intrigued to discover what music H\u00fctz has been listening to during this impossible time. A man known for lighting up parties with his bonkers DJ sets that span everything from Dancehall to esoteric Balkan jazz, his recent predilections are unsurprisingly more pointed. He flags various tunes by The Clash, Patti Smith\u2019s \u2018People Have the Power (1988) and Socal Punks Rancid\u2019s call to arms, \u2018Solidarity\u2019, a song named after the independent Polish trade union and social movement Solidarno\u015b\u0107, whose protests led, in 1989, to the country\u2019s first partially-open elections since 1947.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem with pop culture is that it\u2019s catered to those who are half asleep; It\u2019s like people are wandering around the world without any real sense of direction or focussing on what it\u2019s made out of,\u201d laments H\u00fctz. \u201cThat’s why Joe Strummer and Patti have become crucial: they make the simple point that we do have the power as long as we\u2019re fearless. Russia holds people in a state of complete ignorance and arrested development by using fear, but that doesn\u2019t work on Ukrainians. We are distinctly different \u2013 we will crawl bare hand over fucking tanks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a catastrophic time,\u201d admits H\u00fctz. Before adding, \u201cBut we will win.\u201d If anger truly is power, this phone call leaves me no reason to doubt his words.<\/p>\n