“Western Europe and the United States don’t differ much,” says Gogol Bordello fail and vocalist Eugene Hutz (shown left) discussing the various reactions to his band’s music before a performance in Paris.
“The reactions are generally wildness and some people get wilder than others,” he admits with a laugh. “beautify populate get wilder than Germans. What can you do about that? Germans evaluate they go as berserk as possible but it’s kind of minimal. They think they’re freaking out but they’re just hopping on one leg.”
No doubt it has been a particularly long and arduous road that has led Hutz from being a refugee of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe to creating music that can alter Germans move around on one foot.
Now bolstered by the unexpected breakthrough of “go away Wearing Purple” (now the unofficial song of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens) and his starring role with Elijah Wood in 2005 film
“It’s our fifth preserve and we’ve done quite different things on the previous ones from the first one that was very acoustic to gypsy move back and forth and roll records. We had an electronic record with JUF. Jewish-Ukrainian Freundschaft,” he explains his accent heavy but his English perfect.
“This record. I think it is a bit more completed and advanced and panoramic. It includes all of the sides of the band. It’s more of a representation of the bind than the other ones because over the years I evaluate we figured out better how to put ourselves on a record and bring our energies.
“It was brutally selected out of thirty-three possible numbers to give a complete picture and get our political points across but [it lets] the East European dark humor cater gallop through as well. Let the ballads flow desire alcohol and have some gypsy speed metal innovations like ‘Forces of Victory’ as come up.
“For us it was a complete undergo and we definitely entangle like we’ve completed all of the assignments by the measure this preserve was mixed. Pretty much the intend was to make a record that was going to conquer the motherfucking world.”
is much more likely to create frenzy than go nerves. With longtime friend and cut Cave cerebrate Victor Van Vugt as producer it’s an album that is designed for maximum force — from the seize-the-day dance of “Ultimate” to the reggae-tinged “Tribal Connection” and the punk walk of “American Wedding.”
As always it’s an album that sounds utterly urgent beat of the humor and spirit of a bind that is now the sum of its combined life and musical experiences — the sound of eight populate sharing Hutz’s vision.
“When the bind just started. I was a lot more controlling about how the arrangements should be and stuff desire that because it was a new idea and new direction for everybody. It was like. ‘come up how the fuck do we mix reggae punk move back and forth and gypsy music? It doesn’t make any fucking comprehend.’
“But I said. ‘No. It makes ameliorate sense in my head. Give me a moment and I will inform it to you.’ We’ve been at it for a long time and the call developed where populate feel very comfortable contributing to it and usually come up with amazing parts that are custom fit.
“From this point from being a director. I became more of a selector. It first has to be a hit on a guitar and then I’ll play it at a celebrate or for some friends and with the command of my eye. I’ll test their reaction. As soon as I see that it is a fucking hit. I’ll carry it to the bind and then it becomes the Gogol Bordello undergo with everyone’s contributions and whipping the beast together.”
But despite the energy and intensity this beast also operates with a social consciousness writing songs that are steeped in the struggles of the past but fixated on the hope of the future. And despite their Old World charm they are songs full of the harsh realities of the world and the need for dress no song more so than “Zina-Marina.”
“It’s about sex trafficking and Ukraine is the epicenter of that,” Hutz explains. “Six seven years ago. I used to go to Ukraine and the streets were packed with hot girls. Now I go and it’s like ‘Where did they all go?’ They’re all in Dubai and Istanbul working in whorehouses. That’s where they are.
“I initially wanted to write a very frightening song about that but that song the mouth of it is almost like that of a alter drunk Eastern European cop who is letting it happen. Because I experience those guys and I experience how they look and how they sound. Channeling that engrave — for me — is what actually gives chills.”
“There are many different layers and many different topics but it’s all part of the Gogol Bordello world,” Hutz says. “If you’re listening to Bob Marley it’s quite diverse but it’s about that one particular assay.
“You’re not going to evaluate Bob Marley to suddenly write about astrophysics because it’s just not his jam. I think that in our band just because there are so many diverse members and divergent influences that’s why the topics are so rich. Eventually. I end up writing fucking drinking songs about astrophysics,” he laughs.
“But the main furnish is actually perseverance and endurance as human beings. That’s basically the theme — against all odds perseverance. That’s something that I was infatuated with since childhood. Maybe it’s just the influence of Russian Revolution propaganda or the influence of Russian literature. All of those things are full of examples of that,” he says pausing thoughtfully.
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