Boombox traveling overseas
On the band’s new program and recordings
The Ukrainian funky groove band Boombox, which has suddenly burst onto the country’s stale pop music arena, surprised everybody by managing not only to catch on but becoming so popular that it is winning hearts beyond Ukraine’s borders. The ambitious musicians are planning to conquer the New World very soon, with the US and Canada on its concert map. The band’s vocalist and lyrics writer Andrii Khlyvniuk spoke with The Day about the new concert and his musical tastes, as well as on why it is worth turning to classical literature.
“It is a special journey for us because this is the first time that our band will play on the other side of the planet. We’ll be performing in clubs. But this also has some advantages, as it will bring us back to The Days when we played in Ukrainian and Russian clubs.”
Are you preparing a special program for the mostly English-speaking audiences or do you expect to attract the Ukrainian diaspora?
“I mulled over doing an English-language disc. Work on a new, fourth album is now in full swing. We have already recorded a number of songs, including some in English. We are not hiding these songs, nor do we intend to sing them to English-speaking audiences only. It will not be a 100-percent English-language disc because most of our listeners understand Slavic — Ukrainian and Russian — languages. For example, I know English thanks to the Cherkasy Bohdan Khmelnytsky University, where I studied Romance and Germanic linguistics. Undoubtedly, every new language leaves its imprint on the individual. I have noticed that whenever I try to speak and think in a different language, I become a different person. You know that in the olden times an intellectual was supposed to know at least six languages.”
Today’s intellectuals are expected to have several degrees (no matter whether or not they were bought). Your situation is special: you went to colleges and universities but did not graduate from any.
“We lacked stamina… I studied graphic design at a college in my home town and even managed to work for some time in this field. I also attached great importance to vocal studies at college and university. I also went to a music school to play the standard and button accordion. But my musical education was not confined to the music school — it continued at the wonderful Cherkasy-based choir Svitanok. This choir still exists. It has won a lot of European competitions, and I took part in one of them. It was in 1994 at Neerpelt, Belgium, that the choir came off second best in a European contest of choral art.”
Do you think your music is here to stay? Do you consider yourselves professional musicians?
“Being mediocre is the greatest horror for an individual. It seems to me I am one of these people, in what concerns music. I cannot call myself a Charlie Parker or a Ray Charles, nor am I a public figure. I am just a musician who minds his own business.”
