The Ukrainians
It's hard to believe that the Ukrainians have been around for 12 years now, purveying their particular brand of music. Granted, there's been a long hiatus, but they recently began playing shows again, just issued a live disc, and there's soon to be a Best Of set. Not bad for a group that began as an offshoot of British indie band the Wedding Present, playing a session for the BBC's John Peel.
"We really thought the Ukrainian thing was going to be a one-off Wedding Present session for the BBC," explained Len Liggins, one of the band's founders. "We thought Peel would think it was a bit whacky, play it once on his show and that'd be it. We were gobsmacked when he repeated the session five times - no other session in the show's 30-year history has been repeated more. Then he rang us up and asked us to do a second session, and he was even more enthusiastic about that one! So, realizing that people out there seemed to want more of this alien-sounding Ukrainain stuff, we decided to go for it. We wrote some songs ourselves and started working towards an album. About half way through, though, some members of The Wedding Present got cold feet. They thought that their fans would get confused with a group that had two very different identities - indie guitar stuff in English on the one hand, and folk instruments and a strange Eastern European tongue on the other! So, we all decided, quite amicably, that the material we'd recorded so far would be released under a different band name. We came up with The Ukrainians because it sounded definitive, and that's what we wanted to be. It just happened naturally from then on that the second half of the album (also definitively called The Ukrainians) was recorded by just me, Peter and Roman. Before the album was released, there was a buzz within the record company (Cooking Vinyl Records). They were very enthusiastic about it and so were we. We really wanted to go on the road with it. So, knowing that the other members of The Wedding Present wanted to continue ploughing their own indie guitar furrow, we got in three new people (drums, bass and accordion) to complete a line up which could go out and play live."
"Everyone wanted to interview us and find out why a bunch of Westerners with Ukrainian background were going to bring Ukrainian culture back to the youth of Ukraine and make it cool! We were media celebrities before we'd got out of the airport!" |
When they arrived at Kiev (now called Kyiv) they were greeted by airport, reporters, photographers and TV crews . "There was a massive dance troup and choir in national dress who sang and danced for us there and then in the airport arrival lounge! Everyone wanted to interview us and find out why a bunch of Westerners with Ukrainian background were going to bring Ukrainian culture back to the youth of Ukraine and make it cool! We were media celebrities before we'd got out of the airport!"
The record that helped put them on the map, at least in the UK and US, was Pizni is the Smiths, an EP of Smiths covers that worked wonderfully, capturing both the humor of the Ukrainians and their serious musicianship.
"Paul, our bass player, and I were big Smiths fans," recounted Liggins. "We were getting drunk after a gig in Germany once and we said we should do a Smiths' song in Ukrainian style. The ludicrous and almost surreally impossible nature of such a suggestion made us all laugh. But doing a few covers of Western 'pop' songs was already in our minds as we'd started work on a version of The Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs", which appeared on the second album Vorony (it means 'Crows'). It was while we were in the studio recording the other tracks for this album that Paul, Peter and I decided to come up with a list of Smiths songs we really liked. We couldn't agree on one, so we decided to do an EP of four. We translated the words, came up with our parts and arranged the songs over pizza, beer and bison grass flavored vodka in the studio's relaxation room over a period of a couple of days. Then we recorded them while they were fresh in our minds. We didn't expect the record to be as big as it was. It got into the Indie charts in a number of countries, got a lot of European radio play - even daytime play on BBC's Radio 1 - and was voted the best single of 1993 in Berlin (above Depeche Mode, Chumbawamba and Nick Cave!)."
The band experienced the perennial rotating personnel problem, but their sound remained very consistent - rootsy, but with a definitre punk edge. According to Liggins, they were able to keep that trademark sound "because it's always been me and Peter who have written most of the songs. We didn't do courses in motivation, you know, we just enjoyed doing what we were doing - and we still do. Peter and I have a deep love not just of Ukrainian music and culture but of all things Central and Eastern European. People from that part of the world are still in many ways too naive and sensitive to cope with the more negative influences coming from the West. Cynicism and the selfish ethos of capitalism don't square up with their nature. I love their humanity and their faith in human nature. But that's why Peter and I don't lose our interest! As for the other members who come and go, I think they get caught up in the whirlwind of our enthusiasm until they want to go off and do something else! But it works the other way, too. When new members join us they bring their own enthusiasm, their own characters and their own idiosyncratic playing styles with them - and that reinvigorates us."
However, in the middle of the ‘90s, the Ukrainians appeared to have fallen off the planet (and only recently clambered back on). It was, Liggins explained, because "we had a falling out with our record company. What happened was that Peter and I had a bright idea for a new album and single. We explained it to the execs. It was to be a folk/dance crossover type idea with some Prince songs thrown in. They said "sounds great", so we went off and did it. Unfortunately, when they heard the tapes, their jaws dropped. It was more radical than they had expected and they weren't willing to release it because they thought we would alienate most of our fans. They may have been right. They may have been wrong. We'll never know because the records didn't get released (except for the Prince EP which dribbled out in 1998 with no promotion) - and unfortunately we'd spent all the money. So, still signed to them and with no way of providing them with an album they were happy with, we were well and truly stuck. Time went by and we couldn't record or play live. Then, at the end of 1999, it all got sorted out. When we were free, we decided that the first thing we'd do was to compile a live album from tapes we already had. That became Drink to my Horse!, which we released recently on our own label in Europe, Zirka Records. Naturally having a record out gave us the itch to play live again, so we reassembled the group and organised two low-key warm-up gigs in Yorkshire. We did one rehearsal the day before the first of these, and it all fitted into place. So I think we're back. It depends on how we're received over the next few months. If the interest is still there..."
Which begs the question: What's next for the Ukrainians?
"Well, we've just recorded a new single. That will be on the Best of The Ukrainians album which will be released later this year. As for gigs, we've just been invited to play a short tour in Poland in play and a Festival near London in June. What happens after that I guess is in the lap of the gods...
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