This is an English translation of the SBS Ukrainian radio interview conducted between SBS correspondent, Romana Becker and Marko Halanevich from DakhaBrakha.
DakhaBrakha will be performing at WOMADelaide festival between 11-14 March 2011.
Romana It was a pleasant surprise for the Ukrainian community in Australia to learn that DakhaBrakha was invited to perform at WOMADelaide this year. It is an enormous tribute to perform at such an internationally prestigious festival. Could you share with our listeners how this came about and tell us about your feelings about performing here?
Marko It is a real honour to have this opportunity to represent Ukraine and our culture at this festival, especially considering that this is the first time that an ensemble from Ukraine has performed at WOMADelaide. We are putting a lot of serious effort into planning and preparing our performances for this festival.
As for how we got the invitation, recently we performed at a festival in Montreal, Canada and it was at the Festival’s art market that one of the organizers of WOMADelaide saw us and invited us to perform in Adelaide. We are always delighted to see the responses we get from audiences around the world.
Romana Your group’s name, DakhaBrakha is fascinating and sounds like it comes from some long forgotten Ukrainian dialect. Could you explain the meaning of this name and what hidden sub texts it carries?
Marko In reality these are old Ukrainian words from Hrinchenko’s Dictionary. Dakhaty means to give and Brakhaty means to take. This serves as a symbol or allegory in that we give energy and take from the earth, from each other and from higher spiritual sources. As a band we like to give energy. People who have seen our concerts will attest, we are an energetic ensemble.
Romana There are a lot of ancient Ukrainian words – why settle for Dakha Brakha. Was there a deep seated philosophical reason or did you accidentally stumble on these words?
Marko It seems that a lot of ensembles search long and hard for a suitable name and we’re no exception. The core of our music is ethnic Ukrainian music with a Ukrainian Melos. The artistic director of the Dakh Theatre, Vladislav Toitsky who came up with the concept of a Ukrainian folk band which would fuse world music styles, stumbled upon these words in the dictionary and the melding of Dakh and dakha seemed to suit our purposes.
Romana That’s interesting because initially, the band’s name seems rather frivolous and joyous, but when you delve deeper into the subtext there is some deep philosophy as you have pointed out. Your Wikipedia page points out that your ensemble started performing in 2004 and among your first performances was the Maidan stage during the Orange Revolution. It is very pleasing to note that you still continue to take part in actions which are significant for Ukraine especially during these currently difficult and complex times. I am referring to your public support of the renowned writer Maria Matios who was recently interrogated by the Security Forces for writing anti-Government publications. You were also a key member of the Ukrainian artists against the cultural destruction of Kyiv’s historical and architectural heritage which sent a public letter of protest to the President of Ukraine. So it is obvious to me that that you are not only a group which entertains Ukrainians and audiences abroad but you like to prick consciences about important socio-political questions. Could you tell us more about your social actions beyond your songs?
Marko There is no doubt that we are public figures and with our creative energy we can carry a message to the wider community, that Ukrainians need to start looking after each other – and that our future is in our hands. We see that future as a European nation –which in reality means that there is a more civilized path that we should be exploring. Unfortunately we currently find ourselves in a tenuous situation which could make us culturally and politically marginalised. We have a lot of work ahead of us.
Romana Could you expand more on the role that artists have in carrying the hopes and dreams of people? What social responsibilities do public performers have, and do all performers in Ukraine see the situation the same way as you do?
Marko Artists need to have a positive influence on their society so that it evolves in a fair and just way. Unfortunately, there are many show business artists at the moment who merely serve the government of the day regardless of what the policies are. I don’t subscribe to the notion that was recently voiced by one prominent performer who regards himself as a social plumber – a “fixit man.” No, people observe us and we know that we can have a positive influence on a significant sector of the Ukrainian community. We have a role to play in the development of Ukrainian culture and nationhood.
Romana During the time of Ukrainian rebirth in the late 80’s and early 90’s there was a renaissance of Ukrainian folklore and many exciting ensembles like Bozhychy and Berehenya were formed. Does Ukrainian folklore still enjoy popularity or are folk bands metamorphosing into world music in much the same way as your band has done?
Marko It is pleasing to note that folklore is still popular and that many people still find it uplifting. Although it is not for everybody, we think that we can play a role in popularising Ukrainian folklore in a more contemporary and accessible manner. We want to appeal not only to aficionados of folklore but also to people who have never shown an interest in it. Recently we were awarded the Sergey Kuryokhin Grand Prix in St Petersburg for our international contribution to folklore and this suggests to us that we are moving in the right direction with this genre. We are proud of the fact that we have popularised Ukrainian ethnic music
Romana You have certainly made Ukrainian folklore accessible to a wide audience who may not otherwise have been in contact with it.
Marko It’s great that Ukrainian folk music works so well and can have a broad appeal in an experimental format. What is most pleasing is that sceptics in Ukraine, who for all sorts of historical reasons still carry a trace of cultural inferiority, can see the broad success that comes from presenting Ukrainian folklore on the world stage. Maybe they can share some of the pride.
Romana I read recently that the renowned Ukrainian writer Yuri Andrukhovych wrote that he regards your album, Light as the best Ukrainian CD released last year. Could you tell us about this album?
Marko We were honoured to hear this from Yuri Andrukhovych, because he is an interesting and important literary figure for whom we have a great deal of respect. Regarding the album, it is a much lighter album than our earlier recordings and as such more widely accessible. I think it’s also a more hip album than our previous ones in that it calls on a range of popular trends like drum and bass or rap as in our Carpathian rap number. We enjoyed fusing various styles.
Romana Marko, you and your fellow ensemble members are not only musicians, but also actors. You do realize that you will be in Adelaide not only during the internationally renowned WOMADelaide festival but you will also catch some of The Fringe Festival which encompasses theatre, cabaret, circus among others and is the second largest Fringe Festival in the world after The Edinburgh Festival. Will there be an opportunity for you to take in some of this Festival also during your stay in Adelaide? Or maybe, your next visit to Adelaide will be DakhaBrakha at Womadelaide and Dakh Theatre at The Fringe or Adelaide Festival with your theatrical performance from The Mystical Ukraine, Prologue to Macbeth which you performed at The Barbican in London?
Marko That would be simply awesome – a dream come true if we could perform with Dakh and DakhaBrakha with our performances.
Romana In one of your interviews you said that DakhaBrakha would like to try out for Eurovision. Why Eurovision which is usually the domain of Europop?
Marko For as long as we have existed, people have being coming up to us and urging us to try for Eurovision to show that there is more to Ukrainian music than Europop and that Ukraine can produce music which is interesting, different and thoughtful. The organizers of the Ukrainian Eurovision urged us to enter and represent Ukraine with an interesting song even though we were fully aware that this isn’t the format for us. Nevertheless we relented, and got through to the second round of finals which coincided with a Festival in Slovenia. We chose the festival and forfeited our spot in the second round of Eurovision finalists.
Romana As a musical ensemble, you started off with three drums but now you have a wide range of instruments, not only national Ukrainian ones, but instruments from all corners of the globe. How many instruments will you be bringing with you to WOMADelaide, and will you be bringing your didgeridoo?
Marko It’s going to be a long flight, so I doubt that we will bring all of our instruments. Regarding the didgeridoo, you know, it is a difficult instrument to play well, and playing it front of indigenous Australians who are masters of the instrument is daunting. We’ll see what we can fit on the plane.
Romana Are you prepared to estimate the number of instruments you will bring? Will you bring your large drums, for example?
Marko We’ll bring the large drums. As for number of instruments, there are so many small ones that it is hard to put a number on how many we will bring.
Romana We are eagerly waiting your arrival. There is a buzz in the community about your performance at WOMADelaide and a lot of advertising has gone out. The weather is beautiful in March, so you can also have a welcome escape from the cold and relax and enjoy yourself during this festive time in Adelaide. We look forward to meeting you in Adelaide.
Marko Likewise, we are looking forward to performing at the festival, to see some of Australia, to meet members of the Ukrainian Community. It will all be a great honour.
You can hear a podcast of this interview on the SBS radio Ukrainian programme or on itunes. The links are provided below.
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/ukrainian/highlight/page/id/142737/t/DakhaBrakha-welcome-to-Australia (in Ukrainian)
http://itunes.apple.com/hk/podcast/ukrainian/id161320399
DakhaBrakha also did a morning TV on the NovyTV channel recently, in which they talk about their upcoming visit to Australia.
