Photo credit: Sanjay Suchak
Ukrainian punks Gogol Bordello just announced their fiery new album SOLIDARTINE, produced by hardcore legend Walter Schreifels (Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Quicksand, Rival Schools), which is due out on September 16 via Casa Gogol/Cooking Vinyl.
The seven piece of mixed heritage from locations such as Ukraine, Ecuador, and Russia have consistently riled up audiences with an inimitable patchwork of punk, dub, folk, Latin swing, and Eastern European magic. With the more hardcore leanings of SOLIDARITINE, the sense of urgency and a fresh bolt of energy returns the band to their incendiary beginnings while keeping their agit prop leanings front and center. Tapping Schreifels) for the producer seat, Gogol dove deep into the studio and emerged with an album rife with the insurgent sound of survival.
Pre-order HERE
Tell us about your story as a group
We are a Lower East side immigrant art punk street crew that made it big enough… and is staying big enough.
What do you think is the most important aspect of your life right now?
Ending the war in Ukraine and raising the level of empathy world wide. Then getting ready for the Ukraine victory afterparty.
What makes this song special in your opinion? (you can pick a song from the new album)
The track “Focus Coin” playfully reverts all that bar bro-talk about Bitcoin & NFTs and other popular topics into a talk about the hardest currency there is— your ability to focus. People’s focus these days is broken, it’s too dispersed. Is hard for them to see through the lies around them. Sonically, it’s a locomotion of hooks and all our fav punky and dancey grooves… punk, ska, hard core… it just feels like this one came out right pretty seamlessly.
What inspired this release?
Desire to create a joyful tool-box for the post traumatized world… Overcoming the pandemic, war. The desire to provide an uplifting message.
What are some of the core messages here?
Well, Title “Solidaritine” says a lot… It’s obviously an imaginary substance, a kind of a brother of Adrenalin , which is supposed to unite us in solving mutual matters.
So salvage your intelligence asap and strengthen your inner core. Empathy and true friendship are real, but you gotta weed through a lot of fakes. What else is fkn new haha
How do you think tik tok and social media are contributing to change an artist’s career?
Hard to say. But it seems it did help artists who are fighting in the war to stay creative and connected and popular while in the trenches.
What excites you about your life?
Animals. Some animals still live in a state of semi-freedom and if you observe closely, they experience a lot of the same emotions we usually identify only as human emotions. They experience joy and sadness and attachment and trust and love the same way we do.
Long-term friendships are also a huge inspiration for me. I still have super close friends from childhood and friendships I made through music that have been strong for decades, while things around us seem to collapse like dominoes.
What are some of your core values as a human being?
Loyalty to your true calling.
Code of friendship.
Family of course.
Pan-tribal cosmopolitan cooperation.
What are your projects for this year?
Doing all we can to end the war in Ukraine.
