Gogol Bordello: Whutza Revolution?
Words: Ryan Patrick Hooper
Photo: Courtesy of Gogol Bordello
Gogol Bordello was born in the gutters of New York City over a decade ago. Splashed with Eastern European musical culture and the rhythm of gypsy bonfires and curdled within the veins and beating, adrenaline-pumped heart of punk rock, the collective, led by the charismatic, multi-tasking Eugene Hutz, has pulled a fresh wave of followers from every genre and trend - what once was sneakers, khakis and polo power is now beyond the limits of musical pretenses altogether. With Gogol Bordello working on their fifth and most anticipated album to date, REAX caught up with Hutz as he navigated his way through the “most big-ass” tour bus he has ever seen (“It can practically fit fathoms of women in the back and in the front, so I’m not mad about that,” he confidently chimes) while the band regrouped in Santa Cruz, CA before crashing their way through the rest of North America and beyond.
REAX: From what your publicist told me, you guys are fresh out of the studio, recording your next album.
Eugene Hutz: We are in the final stages, and the record is in the final stages. We’ve been making it for three months basically. It is an incredible creative time for the whole band.
REAX: Three months is a considerable chunk of time. When you look back at the recording process and the origins of the album itself, what do you see?
EH: First of all, it is not over yet so I am not in a reflective mode by any means. I know what fueled this record was very intense times, a very intense period for the band and for me. The last two years I’ve spent in Brazil, living in Rio De Janeiro and traveling around other parts of Brazil and really getting to know that part of the world … surpassing the tourist step by becoming somewhat of a local, and finding out how deeply connected Eastern Europe and Latin America truly is.
REAX: What originally brought you down to Brazil?
EH: I had just come to visit friends originally and play some music … and I just never left. I really felt like it was an instant home. That had a lot do with the themes of the songs - not in a literal way, you know, but it is a very mystical part of the world. Coming from another part of the world that is kind of a cradle of mythology, it was just naturally very inspiring for me to collect so many thoughts and see what culture can do, see the same tendencies of aristocratic spirit that was claimed by the elite … completely moving to the outskirts of town to the ghettos. The favelas of Brazil, the ghettos of Columbia, the mahalas of Yugoslavia, all of these words are used to describe the same thing. Yes, the outskirts of town is the ghettos, but that is where the culture, where the thinking is and where the vision is. If there is any vision of the future, that’s where it is. It does not come from the well fed, you know?
REAX: You mentioned feeling an extremely personal connection to the culture and country.
EH: Brazil, in general, is extremely music driven. Music literally belongs to the streets. You hear it everywhere and it is very high quality music. The streets got a lot of swing! It is nothing like what you see in the U.S.. Rio is an actual 24-hour city. When somebody tells me now that New York is 24-hour city, it is a joke. What is there 24-hour besides the subway? Laughs It is a myth! However, Rio is an actual 24-hour city where whole neighborhoods are up and it is a completely different ambiance. That is attractive to me - the street swing, the 24-hour nature and … to come back from the tour to reflect and kind of feel like the magic swirl that you acquire on tour doesn’t leave you. You basically settle into another magical swirl of ambiance. I always hated the transitions from touring to the so-called common life. It is such a hammering and brutal experience that any musician can tell you about. I had to find a way to avoid it and I found it. Laughs Everything that interests the world is very much so in your face in Brazil. It is a very alive place.
REAX: It sounds absolutely amazing, but you don’t seem like the type of person who can just sit back and observe.
EH: A year and a half ago, I started meeting musicians down there. But this year, just a couple of months ago, I was playing like a regular in a carnival with Brazilian rock musicians I really liked and made friends with. I really felt like part of the place, you know, and traveling and actually playing in parts of Brazil that are the roots area - not the carnival in Sao Paulo, which is like a huge show business basically. I was playing at the poor people’s carnival, which is where the whole idea of carnival is crystallized. I have to follow the torch of the eternal carnival, you know? That is my trajectory. I have to follow where it is. We’ll see what the next stop is, but that’s where I’m at now.
REAX: Throughout all of your interviews, revolution is a concept that regularly pops up - hubs of change, sweat, blood and truth. Speaking to the idea of culture and revolution, poverty-stricken areas are tangled within extremely strong waves of heart-on-your-sleeve emotions - violence, confusion, crime and drugs. How do these massive elements play into your perceptions of revolution?
EH: The word revolution is extremely overused and has a lot of baggage. It seems to reoccur in what I write about, but for me, it is an eternal revolution. Obviously, the revolutionary thoughts of the 21st century discredited itself pretty heavily. That had a lot to do with egomaniacs … who should not be speaking for the people. On the eternal note, it is a perpetual effort not letting your positive channel slip away ‘cause that is the main core of everything. Otherwise, what the fuck is the point?
To give you one example of that is thanks to movies like City Of God and movies about Brazilian violence. Now, there is an overwhelming aura of violence about Rio. But, really, it’s just like anywhere else. I don’t think the actual statistical rate is higher than similar parts of the world, Harlem, Compton, Detroit or whatever. What this does not include is that there is a huge, new, ultra-positive movement in the ghettos and favelas of Brazil where people who … originally were drug dealers, or were part of the violence, eventually come to a point of realizing and trying to turn their neighborhoods around by major communal efforts of organizing summer schools and educating the new generation of kids in a completely positive way, completely breaking down that gun dealer, hip-hop gangster shit into the dust! It comes from people who have experienced eternal revolution and project it farther. It is culture power and it is positive power. It has a real place in this world, and it is a real thing that works in very brutal environments. It is not a myth. It’s there, I saw it, I touched it.
REAX: What role does the music of Gogol Bordello play into all of this?
EH: Gogol Bordello is just a part of the extended family of people who make an effort to project a positive eternal revolution on the people. It has nothing to do with political systems that it is within. It is a real human effort. I see it happening in front of my eyes every night when I play in front of thousands of people. It is our function! It is our mission within the culture. It doesn’t make us better or anything like that. It just makes us fulfill what we are put on this earth to do. Great music is just as important as good air, good food and good sex. It is very primal and that is what we deliver. Otherwise, we would feel hungry and unsatisfied and lost.
Gogol Bordello in Florida:
July 27 - Ritz Theatre, Ybor City
July 28 - Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale
July 29 - Club Firestone, Orlando
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