“Music is the meaning of life for me, and for other people, they just may not know it,” said Eugene Hütz, whose multinational band Gogol Bordello has been going for almost 30 years, and with We Mean It, Man! released earlier this year, they are showing no signs of slowing down.
Eugene greets me with a ‘fuck yeah man, here we go,’ backstage at his show in Southampton, only 15 minutes before he’ll step out onto the stage for 90 minutes of just one date on a ‘swashbuckling’ tour soundtracked by the gypsy-punk/hardcore genre he has defined for decades.
“We champion fusion,” he said about the band’s ability to blend musical ideas and create a performance which entices mosh pits as much as it shines a light on the fiddle.
“I don’t really consider ourselves an Eastern European band; it’s just my origin. Part of what you know very well becomes a tool. For the most part, [our music] is an amalgamation of all the things we’ve experienced.”
Gogol Bordello are by definition a band with international roots, from Russian-born fiddler Sergey Ryabtsev to Ecuadorian MC Pedro Erazo. Eugene himself was born in Ukraine, but in 1992, found himself settling in Vermont.
2004’s Immigrant Punk and 2010’s Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher) are just some examples of Gogol Bordello showing they aren’t afraid to explore politics within music, with Eugene saying, ‘In our case, it comes and goes.’
“A lot of people are talking about immigration issues now they’ve finally woken up to it. I don’t consider it some new hip topic to talk about. [Music] is the purest form of information, so the more you are cautious to that, the more you are emotionally alive.”
Gogol Bordello released their ninth studio album, We Mean It, Man!, in February, which is a fiercely topical record that utilises synthesisers alongside traditional folk instruments. Although they formed in 1999, Eugene said he avoids consciously changing his music to fit with current trends.
“We’re more spear headers of our own trajectory,” he said. “Some people found [the newest album] to be so innovative. It’s almost like a gypsy-punk-Prodigy hybrid.”
We Mean It, Man! proves that Gogol Bordello are far more than a folk group, but are also as relevant as ever and have no plans to slow down
“Most people think of me as a songwriter with an acoustic guitar, or some gypsy boy who came down a mountain,” Eugene said. “I never did that. I grew up listening to Joy Division and The Birthday Party. I had vast influences because I was very attuned to what was going on musically.
“You can construct new things that other people can find uplifting, and find a much better way of being on this rock called Planet Earth.”
