Category Archives: Interview

Taking on the role of the animal: An interview with LoonRise (Arnaud Delannoy)

Searching the tags of the internet for new music can lead you into some exciting rabbit holes. This time I was in search of artists who use their talents to elevate the plight of those without a voice. Namely animals. I stumbled upon an album named “Eulogy for the Wordless Souls” by LoonRise. The name alone told me I was on the right path. From there though, it just became more and more interesting. Firstly, even if nowadays music is so incredibly mixed and inspired by the past, I have to say I was, pleasantly, surprised to hear the grunge coming at me through my very worn out headphones.

Personally, grunge played a major factor in my music listening early days, as for so many. But to hear it in 2023 and for it to sound fun and fresh, that just put a big smile on my face. The fact that the singer was then singing about animals, their liberation and humans’ connection to them, well, that just sealed the deal for me.

On the project’s Bandcamp page there is no social media links or nothing. Just a name for the artist responsible: Arnaud Delannoy. Turns out, he is a French multi-instrumentalist and composer who is, apparently, on a mission to learn how to play every instrument in the world. Or so it seems, judging by his moderately popular YouTube channel.

When I wrote to Arnaud inquiring about a possible interview, I told him I really enjoyed his album. He told me, humbly, that mine was the only feedback he’d gotten besides close friends. Which makes sense when you read the interview below – Arnaud has not rushed into telling the world about this particular part of his musical endeavours. Far from it, he is focused on his family and his goats and his countless other musical adventures as well. Good things happen slowly, someone said, and “Eulogy for the Wordless Souls” is a very good thing.

A kind and powerful thing.

Photo by Margaux Chalmel

Halldór Kristínarson: Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions. I‘m very excited about sharing your album, Eulogy for the Wordless Souls, with the world. What can you tell me about your musical background and who Arnaud Delannoy is?

Arnaud Delannoy: I’m not going to tell my whole life here, I’ll try to make it short! I was taught classical music lessons as a child, first in piano, and much later in cello. Then, for the past 25 years, I taught myself around a hundred instruments, European classical, but also from all over the world. I have always focused my profession as a musician on instrumental diversity. I approached traditional musical styles from different parts of the world, composed and recorded symphonic pieces for classical orchestra, worked as a composer and performer for the theater… I have always done it all alone, writing, recording all the instruments, including mixing. It’s an advantage sometimes, but I’m starting to feel the frustration and the limits.

I’m like a newborn in the rock world! This idea popped into my head one year ago, but before that I hadn’t actually played an electric guitar in over 20 years, when I was in high school.

HK: When I first reached out to you about your grunge-rock, animal rights project LoonRise, you told me that besides a few close friends mine was the first feedback you were getting. And the project is not up on your other social media like YouTube. Why have you not wanted to share this awesome project with the world until now?

AD: I actually do have a YouTube channel which is quite well followed, thanks in particular to videos of exotic instruments. But this LoonRise project is so different that I didn’t want to mix everything up. My fear is giving listeners the impression of having engaged in yet another stylistic exercise by trying out rock music… However playing rock is an old, deep and above all sincere desire. So I chose to start from scratch and I created a new channel just for LoonRise. It’s not that I didn’t want to share this project with the world!

I’m at the very beginning of the process, my priority so far was to complete my album, I haven’t thought strategy yet. Should I find a music label ? Should I use promotion on social media ? Should I seek a financial support to start a group? These questions are not the most exciting for me, but I’ll have to seriously look into this.

HK: Since when have you had interested in the rights of animals? What motivated you to make a whole album about the subject?

AD: This position on animals comes from a long reflection, over several years. A decade ago, I was like everyone else, eating meat without even thinking about what was behind it. I began a relationship with a young vegetarian woman, who has since become my wife. Very slowly, and very gradually, her point of view began to open my eyes. The second trigger was when we took in goat kids rescued from slaughter. I quickly realized that what is usually referred to as «farm animals» are life companions as intelligent, endearing and sensitive as cats and dogs. From there, in my perspective, eating pork, beef, was no more justifiable than eating the neighbor’s dog. The line that we draw between the «friendly» and «edible» species no longer made sense – and going further, the line that we draw between human and non-human animals. So I started to learn more about the breeding and slaughter conditions of these farm animals, as well as the ecological impact of their consumption. And the more I learned, the more difficult it was for me to accept what is happening daily around the life industry.

When I decided to embark on this rock project, it was obvious to me that this was the subject I wanted to talk about. I had no desire to write about myself. Animals will never have the opportunity to express themselves in words, so I have, for most songs, taken on the role of an animal, imagined how by his eyes he could describe the tortures that humans inflicted on him – whether by his consumption, exploitation, hunting or destruction of his habitat…

But the album is not only about that, I also mention my concerns about the climate and ecological disaster towards which the human rushes blindly… but after all, animal cause and ecology are two sides of the same struggle.

This is what the name LoonRise says. I have long been moved by the call of the loons (which I unfortunately do not find in my country). These birds have a call full of mystery, one that best evokes the depths and secrets of nature. It is not without reason that it is so used, often wrongly and through, in the cinema, to create any wild nature atmosphere!

LoonRise means the uprising, the revolt of nature.

HK: When it comes to music who are some of your inspirations? What about in regards to your activism, what inspires you to use your voice and your talent in this way?

AD: Studies show that the music we listen to as teenagers will continue to affect us throughout our adult lives…  I started my adolescence in ’96, just after the grunge wave, but it still resonated in the middle school yard. Even if I listened to a lot of older rock, especially the period late 60’s – early 70’s, I remained more deeply marked by the music of the 90’s. My inspirations for this album are therefore obvious: Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, even Silverchair… and of course Nirvana.

This genre of rock also seems to me to be the most effective to carry the message I want to convey. It can be both heavy and gentle, it allows to sing, scream with rage but also whisper. It is not a necessarily dark and violent genre, there can be light, it can express hope. It suits me precisely because I do not define myself as a dark and desperate person.

Unlike metal, the melody is omnipresent, preponderant. I’m a big fan of melody, and that’s where I focus the most. It’s the key to getting into the mind of listeners. It is what we remember, that we listen above all. And in my opinion, it is what makes it possible to transmit a message…

Photo by Margaux Chalmel

HK: Why do you think music is a effective form of protest?

AD: As for the animal and ecological cause, is there really an effective way to protest? I have a lot of admiration for these young people who shout their despair at climate inaction by blocking roads, even sticking themselves to the asphalt, those who break the law by spraying red paint on butcher shops…  But they also attract exasperation and even violence. Openly protesting on these issues creates a fierce counter-reaction, and many reinforce their anti-environmentalist positions.

What seemed obvious to me is that it is very difficult to convince through dialogue regarding the animal cause. People are so much set in their ways, caring about their piece of daily flesh on the plate, that they turn away as soon as we try to question the human right to dispose of the life of animals. Many stubbornly refuse to know what is happening before the steak or milk bottle arrives in the supermarket aisle. Conversations often become aggressive, and never lead to anything. With meat, cognitive dissonance is very strong. I know, I was a willing victim of it for a good part of my life!

We need to find ways to get that message through the back door.

I don’t know yet if I will have a different impact with music. I would like to imagine that some listeners who will appreciate my music will be touched by certain sentences, certain ideas, that would emerge… But I don’t expect miracles. I won’t convert entire halls to veganism after a concert! This is a long path.

Anyway, for me, I couldn’t image expressing myself otherwise.

That said, it already worked a bit, a musician friend who helped me a few days to finish the mix decided, after leaving the studio, to stop eating meat. He was already on his way to thinking, but listening to my songs over and over prompted him to take another step. Who knows, maybe I’ve even spared the life of a chicken!

HK: What do you hope to achieve with Loonrise and the rest of your musical projects?

AD: As I said, in the LoonRise project, for the moment I am both well advanced, since the album is finished, but also at the beginning, since I have neither band nor public.

My priority is to find musicians to play the songs on stage, it’s essential if I want to expand my audience a little and make my lyrics heard by more! I’m not looking for fame or money with this project. I lead the life I want to have, and my priorities will always be to have time for myself, at home, with my wife… and goats. But I admit that I have been a solitary musician locked in his studio for too long, I would like to find again the thrill of being on the rock stage one day. Bringing these song to life together with other musicians would be a great achievement for me!

HK: What do you have coming up, project wise, musical or not?

AD: For now my life has gotten very busy, my biggest project right now is to finish renovating my house with my wife! Nothing to do with music, unfortunately, and it takes me a lot longer than making an album. Regarding the music, I should soon finish a project of Celtic « stock music » that I launched with a friend a few months ago. So it really has nothing to do with rock, since I play bagpipes, violin and harp!

In my personal projects, there is no shortage of desires, I still have many foreign instruments for which I would like to write compositions, full of symphonic themes that I would like to explore. And also, of course, I already have in mind the idea of writing new rock songs… But I think the first thing I’ll do when I get some time is make one or more video clips for the LoonRise project.

HK: Anything else you‘d like to shout from the rooftops?

AD: There are so many things I could shout from rooftops! I only mentioned the violence of humans against other species, but the violence of humans against themselves is an unlimited source of indignation. But I do not feel legitimate enough on these subjects to shout them, others are more concerned than me and will do it better. So I think I’ll just stay on the side of those who have no words, the wordless, and keep doing it for them.

Transcending Politics: Interview With Magna Zero And Exclusive Premiere

Lifelong friendships, a longing to inspire a kind of oneness among all creatures and some good ‘ol basement jamming is some of what makes up Magna Zero. Three friends who, after some time apart, got back together to once again make music.

This time their jamming together has resulted in a debut album as Magna Zero. It means The Great Nothing, and it is also the title of the album. The band explained to me, that what they experience when they play together is ” a melting away of the ego into a state of oneness with all things in the universe”, hence the Latin derived name and album title.

Through groovy bass lines, some epic guitar solos and lyrics that convey the strange experience of living in today’s turbulent world, Magna Zero tries to unite the people of the world through themes of mortality, grief, purpose, selflessness, connection, and compassion.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the band briefly about their music and specifically about the single, Endure, which Shouts is thrilled to premiere for you all.

Exclusive Premiere: Endure by Magna Zero


Halldór: First of all, for those not familiar with Magna Zero, who are you and what’s the story behind its creation?

Chris: Magna Zero is simply 3 long-time friends getting together to jam. For me it’s a reprieve. No egos. Just getting to play my guitar freely and exploring new sounds. 

Jason: We decided to form this band shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown first started, and then the studio where we rehearse in Los Angeles basically became a ghost town. We were able to continue playing there, so we found ourselves in this incredibly unique situation where we had this amazing, creative space pretty much to ourselves for about a year. And that particular year happened to be one of the most monumental spaces of time in recent human history, a time of collective introspection through the quarantine we all found ourselves in, and also a time that served as a catalyst for social change. Both of these aspects fueled our band’s creative process, and we just exploded with new music every time we got together, which was quite often. Playing music together was really the only in-person interaction we had with other people besides our time with our families, so the studio was a gift not only for our artistic expression, but also for our psyches.  

Dave: We’re a true collaborative based on the bonds of brotherhood and the bonds of the known and unknown universe. The music is inspired by that core. From this the music shapes itself into what it has become—songs that speak to the soul of our Moral Universe.

Halldór: You are about to release your debut album. Can you tell us a bit about the creative process behind this album, and specifically the song Endure?

Chris: Most of the tracks came out of free jams. We were smart enough to record most of the jams on Dave’s cell phone. I think we got close to 100 of these live jams before we then took turns picking out a favorite track to turn into a song. I believe Endure started with a baseline from Jason. I just tried to play around with it and add some color. I wanted to be as spare as possible to let the bass and drums groove. There’s this tension with trying to hold on to the sparseness until it kind of explodes in the guitar solo.

Dave: The album spans from death giving birth to life. Giving up oneself to find the ‘self’. Death is the center of life. Black holes give life to all galaxies known. It’s an entire journey of ultimate, unashamed, bare- bones nothingness equivocating to everything living in the entire Universe. The ultimate album of self-preservation and self-love. 

Jason: What Dave’s describing reminds me of the age-old saying, “Die before you die, so that you can truly live”. Our album is titled, The Great Nothing. The phrase is literally our band name translated from Latin into English. It’s the closest expression in words for what we experience when we play music together, a melting away of the ego into a state of oneness with all things in the universe. The path to this for the band is to become nothing, and paradoxically, experience a sense of unity with everything. The song Endure is a message of love prevailing over strife. Even when we experience the darkest moments imaginable, it is love that ultimately lifts us back to our natural state of harmony with each other and with the earth. Since the pandemic, we’ve been seeing a shift in consciousness that is heart-based and that is bringing people together on a scale that was unimaginable just a few years ago. Now more than ever before, strangers from the other side of the world are supporting each other and standing together for compassion, kindness, and justice. Throughout the massive challenges we’re seeing and experiencing in modern times, it’s love that brings us together for positive change forward into a future of hope.

Halldór: Do you all have a background in writing political music? Do you consider your music political or rather more spiritual?

Chris: I’m not a fan of politics, as I feel it creates unnecessary division. I don’t want to be a ‘political’ band. As cheesy or cliché as it is, I feel like we need to focus more on peace and love. And I hope our music conveys that.

Jason: I’d describe playing music together as a spiritual experience shared between us and with our audience. For me, this transcends politics. It’s like a glimpse into something much bigger than any single one of us, while connecting us all. Music is a peak experience. Like painting, mountain climbing, meditating, or a thousand other things, it brings us closer to something deeper yet familiar, as the material world falls away and we feel at one with each other and the universe. When we are playing music together, the space between all things and the time that separates them collapses, and we are completely present to the ever flowing moment of the now. Echoing what Dave said earlier, it’s as if we are tapping into something void of form, a Great Nothing that connects us back to everything, much like a singularity links the nothingness of a black hole to the creation of something words simply cannot express.  

Dave: Our music is the continuous evolution of earth and all that inhabits it, to lose themselves in order to find themselves, to become the NOTHING that shapes this planet into something positive.

Halldór: What do you hope to achieve with your music?

Dave: I hope to inspire all things, for people to hear the sound we make to be inspired, to be moved, to be changed, to be humbled, as this is what the music does to me and my rough edges.

Jason: As word spreads about our songs and visuals, we feel a tremendous sense of fulfillment because we believe that the work we do adds to the momentum of positivity, peace, and love in the world today. 

Halldór: Do you feel resistance or lack of interest from people when they understand your lyrics or that you make critical music? Do you feel like a lot of artists specifically use their music for change or to send out positive, constructive messages?

Jason: Our music resonates with people who share in the values of kindness, compassion, and unity. There are so many great bands and artists out there doing similar work. While some of them are household names, many are independent, lesser-known folks who are incredibly talented. It’s inspiring to hear music that not only moves you, but also is a catalyst for positive change in the world. As a musical artist, why wouldn’t you want to do that?

Magna Zero (L-R) David, Jason, Chris

Halldór: Life in your country, the US, does seem turbulent, as in most places. What are some of the things that affect you or drive you to pen down some lyrics or come up with a tune?

Jason: When we look at what’s happening in the world today, all the cruelty and suffering we’re inflicting on each other and all of the damage we’re doing to our planet, it’s easy to get down and feel like the problems we face are insurmountable, like nothing we do in our individual lives really makes a difference. But it does. What we’re seeing in our local community is an overwhelming response to call out and end bigotry and hatred. There’s a rallying cry against the destruction of our planet, and a willingness on the part of the individual to take personal responsibility for the actions made in daily life. It’s a choice to live with optimism, hope, and positivity towards ourselves and others. Creating this music with Dave and Chris helps anchor me in staying true to that choice.

Chris: If anything, I hope The Great Nothing shows that life is good.

Halldór: Can you recommend other likeminded bands or musicians from your scene or any artists that inspire you?

Jason: My short list these days includes Bob Marley, Rage Against The Machine, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, and Black Sabbath…these artists move me with their groove and especially with their lyrics.

Chris: Influences are tricky. There’s just too many. Bands that just make me feel good when I listen to them and especially see them live. Guitarists that play with soul and express themselves through their playing.

Dave: I’m inspired by so many, where to start? The pages continue to be written on my inspiration…from my childhood: The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Zeppelin, The Eagles. My teenage years: Metallica, Sabbath, Rush!!, Iron Maiden, The Police, Boston, Dr. Know, Subhumans, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Excel, D.R.I. My 20’s: Alice In Chains, NIN, Soundgarden, Fugazi, Radiohead, Ani DiFranco, Elliot Smith, Gang Starr, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, WuTang, Beck. Now: Jungle, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tame Impala, St. Vincent, My Morning Jacket, Father John Misty, Angel Obel.

Halldór: Outside of the music, do you partake in any projects or activism of any kind? Anything you’d like to share with the Shouts audience?

Jason: I’d like to share that as a public schoolteacher, I’m inspired by the thousands of kids I’ve worked with over the years, who despite differences in color, creed, gender identity, or politics, choose to accept each other for who they are and be friends. From my experience, I have a strong sense that our young brothers and sisters growing up today have a sense of moral responsibility to ensure there is a planet for their grandchildren to live in. Every day I see reminders from our youth of the goodness that is within the human spirit. Based on what I’m seeing in kids today, I believe we have strong reason to be hopeful that together, people from all over the world can continue to partner for a better future. 


Dread in the Air: A Conversation with Kyrylo Brener of Ukrainian post-hardcore band, KAT

In my attempts to connect with Ukrainian bands since the full-scale Russian invasion began on February 24th, several things have become clear. Many of these bands are well-connected to one another, and are largely one gigantic network of friends and companions, despite a sometimes cavernous distance between their tastes and styles of music. Given the current circumstances, this also means that safe havens in western and southern Ukraine have seen among the shifting tenancy of millions of internal refugees, many displaced musicians from all around the country, from Kyiv to Kharkiv to Odesa.

Another thing, too, has become clear: each and every one of them I have contacted has made reference to a little-known album that is quickly becoming a profound soundtrack to the ongoing horror and dread of Russia’s all-out assault on Ukrainian existence that has now spread into its fifth month.

This album of which I’m speaking explores themes of impending societal collapse, psychic destitution, viewing power struggles in a contested region from a birds’ eye view over years of conflict, watching your familiar life dissolve into destruction, taking inspiration from the tragic existences of poets whose lives were cut short, and feeling both the survival-insistence on your own identity as well as the unrelenting forces of dehumanization that can make living in a war such an unbearable paradox. On a conceptual level alone, these are strong themes that could elevate a well-executed albums to zeitgeist-status, but Kharkiv-based post-hardcore band, KAT, has reached another level with a razor-sharp 2022 offering that is poised to become one of the most essential albums of the year, in Ukraine and further afield.

KAT is Kyrylo Brener (guitar), Max Dukarev (bass, vocals), and Andriy Kasyanenko (drums). The band’s brand of post-hardcore finds that elusive balance so sought after in the subgenre: catchy and angular riffage executed with precision and a sustained tense atmosphere of exploration. A tight yet expansive sound, a haze of feedback and fuzz behind the driving basslines, guitar riffs reminiscent of the likes of Fugazi and Nirvana, and plangent vocals screamed or sung entirely in Ukrainian.

Not to judge a book by its cover, but the album art alone is enough of an invitation to know you are in the throes of a well-wrought and intentional work. The album cover shows what was once an opulent and lavish feast of exotic foods and indulgent ceremony that has decayed, over the span of several weeks, into a deeply atmospheric reckoning with the omniscience of decay—of beauty and richness dissolving into death and the kind of life that consumes death, while remaining equally mesmerizing in the process of degradation. In a sense, the first visual gesture of the album puts you in the right frame of mind to apprehend the music: that in dissolution you find beauty and strength; in rot, you locate the soul’s boundlessness; that in putrefaction, you insist on imagination and, yes, even joy.

But you will be hard-pressed to find joy in this album, and for good reason. KAT’s Bandcamp page dedicates the album as follows:

These songs are dedicated to those who defend Ukraine from the Russian occupiers. These songs are dedicated to those killed in the war. These songs are dedicated to our ruined city. These songs are dedicated to everyone in Ukraine, because there is no person who wasn’t affected by the war. You can destroy our cities and kill our people. But it is impossible to break the will and the spirit.

The band released the album during the peak intensity of Russia’s brutal, senseless invasion. And they recorded the album in a studio in a forest three hours outside of Kharkiv (Spivaki Records) that, since March, has been occupied by Russian soldiers.

To release an album during a war is no small achievement, and to have written an album several months prior that, across the board, is being described as prophetic in light of the past months of horror in Ukraine is nothing short of allegorical. Self-described as a small act not even very well known in Ukraine, Kharkiv-based post-hardcore trio, KAT, is making waves with their newest album, “Поклик,” which is the band’s first album whose lyrics were written entirely in Ukrainian.

Guitarist and primary lyricist behind this harbinger album, Kyrylo Brener, joined me via Zoom in Lviv—where he was watching NBA playoff games in a Green Bay Packer’s sweater and relocating to a room without windows as an air raid siren shrieked out in the streets—to discuss the band’s prescient and blistering new album, its context, and the reality on the ground in Ukraine.

NY: Where are you based now and what is the current situation like?

KB: Right now I am in Lviv, where I’ve been living since about mid-March or something like that. It’s the closest thing to normal life in Ukraine right now. Shops are open, you can go get a coffee, have a beer, take a walk, play soccer, for example. Usual activities are present here, and people are trying to live normal lives and get back to work. My bandmates left Kharkiv several weeks ago for southern Ukraine. They stayed in Kharkiv much longer than me, volunteering and helping out.

NY: Can you describe the experience of recording an album shortly before a full-scale invasion, and then releasing the album in the midst of it?

KB: To be honest, everyone in Ukraine had talked about the possibility of an invasion since about October, at least. Even then, it was really stressful to live in the kind of environment where you read the news every day and it says a full-scale war is probably going to happen in your country. Although, no one actually believed it would happen, to be honest. Everyone thought it was crazy, even for Russians, that they will not get anything from this.

We didn’t write lyrics about this specifically, but something, this feeling of global dread, was in the air. We started writing lyrics for this album in the summer of 2021. Usually it’s me who comes up with the idea and basic structure for the lyrics. Then Max, the vocalist, adjusts the lyrics to the rhythm of the song and his voice, so we work in a pair on the lyrics. This process took maybe 7 or 8 months. For the last couple songs, the lyrics were finished after we had already finished the instrumental parts. Those songs were more involved/affected by this feeling of dread. As 2021 went on, this feeling of dread became bigger and bigger. So when this war started, I listened back to these lyrics and thought of them on very much a different and deeper level. Some things I listen to and they seem prophetic, which is very strange to me since I wrote them and I don’t consider myself a poet. This is the first time that has happened to me, and I’ve been playing music for about 15 years. With KAT, in our previous albums we have tied to the themes of war and injustice, speaking of Russia-Ukraine relationships. Even the old albums, as I listen to them now, sound very actual right now to the state of things.

NY: Tell me about the recording process for the album.

KB: We went to a very beautiful record studio in the Kharkiv region. This studio is lost in the woods, about three hours by car from Kharkiv. It’s a very small village where you have basically five houses, no grocery stores, and among the woods you have this record studio and a second house where the owner lived. I don’t know how to describe it other than maybe the most beautiful experience of my life. You live in the studio in nature, and all of your time is spent talking about music, writing music, etc.

Why I wanted to bring this up is that this region is one of the most affected regions by war. Particularly this village and the nearby city of Izyum, which is a very strategic and important point for Russians. The area has become a heavy battlefield. We talked to the owner of the studio, and he basically didn’t respond for something like a month, and I was very glad to hear that he was alive. Currently, he is in Kyiv, but he said the studio is occupied by Russians and they are living in it. Taking into account that the battlefield tensions run high there, I don’t know if the studio will survive. I hope so, because I would say this studio is the best in Ukraine. Beyond the nature, they have very cool amps and gear in the studio. I just hope it will be fine, but with Russian soldiers there, who knows.

L-R: Kyrylo Brener, Max Dukarev, Andriy Kasyanenko. Photo retrieved from the band’s Facebook page.

NY: You mentioned that this album came into existence well before the war. Can you describe some of your inspirations behind this album, and where your art brain was at the time of its inception?

KB: In this album in particular, I went to a bookstore to buy two or three books from different poets, take them home and read them, and find inspiration. The initial idea behind this album, by the way, was to dedicate it to dead poets. Not just Ukrainian poets, but dead poets around the world. Because usually poets are people who have, let’s say, interesting or tragic lives. Often they die young, many of them have mental health issues. It’s interesting to see the context behind the lyrics, behind the poem. It’s not just the words, it’s the person behind them. You can always understand their word choice better when you know that.

The first song, “The Letter, was inspired by Vasl Stus. He was a very famous poet here. As I said, he had a very tragic life. In the 80s, in the USSR, he was a Ukrainian-speaking poet, a nationalist in the good sense. He was very much oppressed by the government, and eventually he was sentenced to 20 years or something in the gulag, where he died. For our people, he became this symbol of struggle against the Russian government. Once in the bookstore, I bought a book of Stus’s letters to his son. It was just a collection of letters he sent to his son from the gulag. I imagined a copy of a letter he might send to his son, and these are the lyrics of that song, “The Letter” (Лист).

A couple songs were also inspired by the Polish poet Rafał Wojaczek. Again, it was a coincidence that I bought a collection of his poems in the bookstore. He also died very young, 24 or something. He had some issues with mental health and alcohol addiction. The themes of the album are about Ukraine, fighting for our identity, this war with Russia that’s been going on, but in some lyrical way, many of the words and sentences I wrote were inspired by his poetry. The song about the Donbas, “Атлантида” (Atlantis) was inspired by movies. Throughout our whole career as a band, almost all the lyrics I’ve written were either inspired by poetry or other books. For example, our album “Guernica,” was inspired by the famous Picasso painting after the bombing in Guernica during the war in Spain. My idea was to take some parts of this enormous and complex picture, and try to represent them in the song. At the same time, we tried to talk about Ukraine in this song. War is probably very similar everywhere; anyone who has lived through a war can understand the experiences of people in war.

We have a close friend in the city of Chernihiv, which was hugely bombed by Russians in the first month. He was in the city the whole time. He hid, he didn’t have enough food, didn’t have hot water. He’s fine now and the city is not occupied. He said that once he got internet, he listened to our album, Guernica, and he said he felt each and every song deeply because the lyrics are about bombing and surviving bombing. Of course, when we wrote this album five years ago we had no idea that this would be the case with the album in real life.

To be honest, I never really want to write about stuff like that again. I would concentrate on something different on our next albums. I think we’ve said enough. Maybe we need to focus a little bit on something else other than war and dehumanization.

The album cover of Поклик, the band’s latest release.

NY: Can you talk about some of your personal experiences relating to the war?

KB: In my work, I had a coworker from Mariupol. I remember we discussed with him the state of things before February 24th. We were all kind of scared, living in Kharkiv and Mariupol, thinking we probably need to move somewhere. Then when the whole thing started, he was unable to move in the first days, and then it became very dangerous. No one could guarantee that you won’t die, that’s just the truth. I was in Lviv, it was middle of March I think. He called me from Mariupol with a very bad connection. He got my number and said “I’m fine. Tell the guys at work I’m still alive.” But he said that it’s hell, a total nightmare: people are drinking from puddles because there is no water and starting fires in the streets because they have to cook some food, all during the bombing and missiles. There are so many corpses in the street, and no people to bury them. He said, “I don’t know how to escape, maybe I’ll escape through Russia.” There is a chance to escape through Russia for people in eastern Ukraine who have a lot of relatives in Russia. For example, I have a lot of relatives in this country. That was the last time I heard from him. To this day, I don’t know what’s happened to him. Maybe he escaped to Russia, maybe he died, we don’t know.

I have relatives in St. Petersburg, and through the last 8 years, they were really pro-Ukrainian. They mentioned to us that things are very bad in Russia, especially, for example, you can see it by how they treat kids. The daughter of my uncle, she’s 9 or 10. The last thing my uncle told me is that in the school her teachers had her write an essay or a letter of support to Russian soldiers. Absolute propaganda. They are afraid to post this stuff and say anything online, too, so they are thinking of moving to another country.

A second example, a very different example, is my aunt, my mother’s sister. They live very close to Kharkiv, like two hours away by car in Russia. And even before the war, she called my mother and said she’s seeing a lot of military stuff going on in her city, building a hospital for soldiers, etc. She was very afraid and terrified. At the same time, she is under the Russian propaganda, trying to tell us we have Nazis here. My mother told her, “What are you talking about? You think we’re Nazis?!”

Kharkiv is a Russian speaking city. There are some historical reasons—it wasn’t always like that—but anyway, at this point in time, about 90% of people in Kharkiv are Russian speaking, and no one had been oppressing them. I’ve switched to Ukrainian sort of as a protest to what’s going on. I consider Ukrainian my native language, but either way, I identify with both languages, and no one here was in any way oppressing Russians. Not at all. You could speak Ukrainian or Russian, whatever you want. My aunt told us we have some Nazis and that Russian speaking people in Ukraine are being oppressed, and we just said, “Who do you believe, your relatives or the television?”

It’s very surreal when your relatives don’t believe you. I don’t know how to explain that. In the first days of the full-scale war, we tried to convince people we know in Russia about what’s going on. And already, a lot of shit was put in their heads, and I don’t even know how to turn them away from it. They can call you and say, “We are so worried about you and terrified, and we just want peace,” but at the same time, they can say things like, “But you have Nazis in Ukraine and NATO will only oppress Russia.” They can say all kinds of shit, but it is so exhausting that I don’t even want to argue about this right now. To be honest, I don’t speak to them anymore.

At the same time, I discuss all these things with many of my friends… For example, Russians who are consuming this propaganda, just like Trump-supporting people believing everything Fox News says—they don’t have a right to not have information. We don’t live in North Korea. You can choose the source of your information. So if you’re watching, say, Fox News and a bunch of pro-Trump shit, that’s the choice you made. If you’re Russian, if you listen to your state-sponsored TV station, you chose to do that. And you can choose the opposite. You can read different sources. Even in Russia, there are different sources. There is a choice. The problem is that these people don’t want to, and now we have this situation.

None of this will go away for many generations. Definitely not in my generation, probably not even in the next. This hate toward Russia will grow, and will be—I don’t even know how to explain it. And, again, for what reason? Russians now occupy, like, three regions in Ukraine, and not even the whole region. There is so much loss and devastation on both sides. For what reason? There is none.

NY: How do you see Ukrainian art and music and culture evolving after this war?

KB: Every great tragedy brings great explosions in culture. You can see it in Germany after World War II. We can see it in history after all wars, really. This huge trauma for all generations needs to be relieved in some way. You need to express yourself and your feelings. If we can understand we can live in a peaceful country, we will see a great growth in the music scenes in Ukraine. The difference now is how connected is our global society.

I agree that lots of musicians will switch to singing in Ukrainian. No one, NO ONE, will keep singing in Russian, that’s for sure. A lot of bands will also switch from English to Ukrainian. Starting from this point in time, our bands will switch to Ukrainian, I am pretty sure. We will see a lot of great bands and great albums. Especially if the west will put some money not just into the economy of Ukraine, but also in cultural stuff—some grants, some clubs, stuff like that. This will also help bring young people into music. Bands like us, guys in our 30s, will continue expressing ourselves and what we went through during this time, too. So, I expect growth all around.

NY: What kind of toll has this situation taken on you and your family?

KB: Psychologically, I am always asking myself, “Why me, why am I here and not there?” At the same time, everyone said that if you can work, work, because the economy is struggling right now and it helps when people can pay some taxes, because so many people lost their jobs when the war started, like my parents. They both lost their jobs and moved away from Kharkiv. I’m very far from them. They don’t have any money, so I’m supporting them and a couple other relatives from Kharkiv. Still, you can’t help but think, “Why are there some people hiding in shelters and I’m sitting here with my laptop drinking coffee?” It’s always a battle inside your head.

Everyone in Ukraine, everyone in the safer areas, knows what I’m talking about. What everyone is saying, including the therapists, is, if you can, live your life, because if you’re living your life, you can help. You can help the army; you can help refugees. I am a lucky person because I have an IT job that I can keep working at. A lot of people, whole families, have moved and don’t have any money or any things and are living in huge shelters for refugees. They don’t have food, and can’t go to the store to buy any. They go to places where volunteers give food out. If you can help, then that’s very good. Everyone here in the western part of Ukraine, the safer parts, are trying to help as much as we can on different levels.

I would not say that what is happening right now is fueling my creativity process, but I am feeling the need to express this experience and these tensions somehow. Right now I’m trying to put myself into some sports activities that relieves the stress. I am jogging, and listening to music, and as for now, I’m okay. Obviously I want to play music again, I want to write new songs. I don’t expect to return to Kharkiv in the near future. Maybe the guys will move to some other city closer to me and we can at least play together again. It’s hard to predict right now.

NY: What, if anything, would you like to broadcast to the rest of the world about the current crisis in Ukraine?

KB: We are all used to the idea that you can die right now. There is a chance. In some cities the chance is low, and in some it’s high. So we have to think about it in a pragmatic way, and just need to know that that can happen. That’s why I really hope and pray, not that I am a religious person, that every one of my friends and relatives will be safe and we will see the end of the war. That’s the main thing for us right now.

Sometimes I look at our planet and our societies and I don’t have any faith that we actually have the humanity. But to the world outside of Ukraine watching or reading about what is happening, just try to think about what’s important in life, and what it means to be human and a part of a global society. That’s it, really.

It’s horrifying, seeing what is going on in this war, and walking on the street thinking that people, any person around me, could do this harm to another person. I don’t know why there is so much evil and hate and cruelty inside of people. I can see it; it tears me apart, and I don’t know how you can cure those people. I can’t call them people, and I can’t call them animals because animals wouldn’t do this.

When you imagine this victim could be your girlfriend, your mother, your friends, your brothers… We need to think again about our planet and our society and why in 2022 we have this stuff happening. Of course, there are other wars and lots of people suffering. Sometimes you feel like you don’t have any power to influence, and have to focus on small things that can influence the life close to you. That’s all we can do as small persons, so let’s do at least that.

Kyrylo, it’s been an honor and a pleasure to have this conversation with you. Thanks for being part of Shouts!

Thanks so much for this talk. It was really great to meet you and discuss these things, Nathaniel!

Cover photo retrieved from the band’s Facebook page. For updates on the band follow KAT on their online platforms.