At the Trenčín Airport during the Pohoda festival, one of the most prominent music bands from Ukraine – Dakhabrakha, also performed, which brought its unique ethno chaos to the stage and among the several thousand crowds. Their music combines Ukrainian traditional music with influences from all over the world.
Their work is a fascinating mosaic of sounds. The basis is a female Viachlas overlapping with rhythmic and melodic structures from India, Africa or Australia. In the compositions of this quartet from Kiev heard striking bass lines, distorted electric guitars, the effects of jazz, spoken word, rap, and even punk. It was a fusion that not only surprised, but also pulled into an unrepeatable musical experience. It is thanks to this compact performance that the roaring applause was earned.
The band consists of percussionist Olena TSYBULSKA, violonist Nina Garenetska and multi -instrumentalists Marko Halanevych and Iryna Kovalenko.
– when they started with video formats at concerts and what is important to them to show them to the audience;
– What are other concerts abroad and at home.
Dakhabrakha was founded in 2004 in the Cyrus Center of Contemporary Art “DAKH” as a project of avant -garde theater director Vladyslava troickijho. Theater impact on the group to feel today – their performances are staged with a distinctive visual element in the form of animations from various Ukrainian artists and artists and photographs from the life of today’s Ukraine. Some are celebrating and bold, others are dark again. However, they all reflect many aspects of Ukrainian culture.
How did you like the concert you played on the main stage at Pohoda?
Marko Halanevych: We liked the concert, people were crazy and we feel enthusiasm and joy from which we can draw the following months. For us it is the second time at Pohoda and we always have the best memories for this festival. You are a neighboring country and organizing a world -class festival. You are a country where we can come and feel comfortable.
You are currently producing a new album. What does the creative process look like in such a difficult atmosphere?
Marko Halanevych: We started working on it before the beginning of the war and the first year and a half of war we could not work on it, because the circumstances were very intense. And now we are working on it again. You need a lot of emotions to create, especially positive. We have a lot of negative emotions, but finding the positive ones and creating and sharing something other than the negative emotions we have no escape is very demanding. During the tour when we travel in America or Europe, we always find a week when we create. But when we collect the material, it is important for us to record in Kiev, Ukraine. Although there are sirens and alarms, it is important for us to support our city, our homeland, where we want to create and record. We hope this album will soon see the light of day.
During the concert you had a visually interesting video projection. How are the videos presented and what is their art background?
Marko Halanevych: With this video clip format we started on February 24, 2022, when the war began. We understand that people may not understand our language, but understand music and understand the video. This can cause more emotions and people can better understand what we want to share.
In the video you can see the work of Ukrainian artists, illustrators and musicians, and it all puts together Maria Volkov, who gives the pictures life. For us, it is important in the videos to show the faces and stories of people who are the heroes of the nation who are the defenders of the nation and who defend us and our democracy. Some of them are no longer alive. We have to fight against Russian propaganda, which says that the Ukrainians are some Nazis, banders and beads bad. But we have only one goal – to live a happy life and we are trying to do it.
What does your normal life look like in Kiev?
Iryna Kovalenko: During the concert I was thinking about how it was possible. How can you create, live, sing, perform on stage during such a complicated period and enjoy people of life when there is a war in our country? Three days before the start of the festival there were big attacks in Kiev and I didn’t sleep for three nights. This is how life in Kiev looks like. At night, man is under sharpening, shocks, rockets. We do not know whether we will survive in the morning to die. If we do not die, we live everyday life – adults go to work, children to school and kindergarten, they go to the cafe.
And we decided to stay in Ukraine, to live as much as possible as possible and fully as possible. We could leave the country and start again, but that’s even harder. We don’t want that. That is why we continue our lives and create.
How many concerts did you have in Ukraine this year and what are other concerts for you abroad and at home?
Marko Halanevych: They differ in that concerts in Europe cannot be interrupted because of Russian bombings. We can confirm that the audience receives us as well here and at home, we have the same response. We had ten to twelve concerts. The farthest concert was in Denper, which is a hundred kilometers from the front line. We interrupted the concert because of the bomb threat and hid in the shelters. There we waited there and then we continued. Ukraine is a cultural nation and we want to perform because our nation wants to live a full life. We want to boom in Ukraine. People want to consume culture and music with us.
Has your relationship with a domestic audience changed after the Russian invasion? Has his involvement intensified?
Marko Halanevych: There is no big difference, it is very similar, but one such bigger difference is that people cry more. There is now a lot of trauma and many psychologically demanding situations in Ukraine. Next to us is a big neighbor, one of which is one of the goals to erase the Ukrainian nation as a nation and wants to make it something like a new Russian population. We are obliged to live, work, create, fight and defend our identity.
What about crossing the border – do you have to have permission?
Marko Halanevych: I have an exception from the Ministry of Culture so I can leave the country. I declare where I will be at that time, when I have concerts and when I will come back. The fact that I concert abroad has a greater positive impact on Ukraine than if I was with us.
You cheer up people. What pleases you and what do you find mental well -being?
Iryna Kovalenko: There are many things that makes me happy in my life, it’s my family for me. Specifically, at this time I try to remember every moment with my family. As I hugged my children, how it felt. It is complicated to understand it, but at the concerts I am fulfilling the faces of people enjoying music and energy.
Nina Harenetska: It gives me the strength that when I see people in my country who have lost their family members or business, but do not gone, they have not broken, they are looking for new possibilities. And they still bring something positive. The resilience of people motivates me.
Olena Tsybul: We live two lives, artistic and civilian. In that civilian we deal with ordinary family things, we have our own program. I try to be as much as possible with my child and I like the silence and loneliness they heal. In each of these lives we experience rest from the other. In artistic life we draw energy from people, rock fans. We meet various new and other artists, get to know each other, travel, and when we have time off, we go to museums and get to know local culture. And it charges us with energy.
Marko Halanevych: I have it very much like girls. But I have one more feeling and that I am a man and I’m here and not on the front, that I am not in the first line. So I have to work 10 times more than girls and I want to make full use of my potential to help the result on the front. When I have time between concerts or festivals, I paint the paintings that I sell and send the proceeds to the soldiers fighting in the war. And it also charges me when I see that the soldiers are at least a bit more satisfied, because they prevent the democratic values of our country, preventing our way of life, our language. And they give us the opportunity to work and develop.
What different, let’s say experimental genres would you like to include in your music in the future?
Marko Halanevych: We are open to experiment, one of our strengths is in them, we feel comfortable in it and we like to try them and we are not afraid to take unusual steps and changes. We will not say what the next experiment will be, because we do not know it ourselves, but it will be fun (laughs). In the process we understand what genre now I create, what my genre is, it starts … It starts. But it is all connected.
Iryna Kovalenko: Only during the process of creation we realize what genre is created and what it will be. The process will show what the result will be.
