Eugene Hutz Interview 2

FEATURE 5 I WANTED TO BE A STORYTELLER LIKE JOHNNY CASH BUT TELL STORIES LIKE IGGY POP EUGENE HUTZ “I always did my own thing at school, which nessed his Cossack fearlessness and lived with gave away my heritage,” says Hutz, who was 15 headhunters in Papua New Guinea before when he found out about his Roma back- pitching up in Sydney, marrying the daughter of ground. “When I was meant to be reading NSW premier John Robertson and becoming Gogol, I was reading Dostoevsky. When I was an advocate for the rights of colonised people: meant to be reading Dostoevsky, I was reading “He was the first voice to speak out against Gogol.” these completely racist ideas. He ran into con- That’s Nikolai Gogol, Ukraine’s most fa- flict when he raised the issue of Aboriginal mous writer, who smuggled Ukrainian culture rights; there were Australian farmers with rifles into Russia (just as Gogol Bordello would sneak ready to ambush him wherever he went because eastern European music into the English- they were OK with genocide. speaking world) and after whom Hutz would re- “Australians should write songs about him. name a band he had originally called Hutz & the Australian storytelling, the little I know, is very Bela Bartoks — only to discover that nobody he impressive. I Was Only 19 by Redgum,” he offers. met in America was familiar with the great Then there’s the aforementioned Bartok, Hungarian composer. one of the greatest composers of the 20th cen- “When I arrived in the States the only En- tury, a man for whom Hungarian peasant music glish phrases I knew were Sex Pistols, the Clash’ was as influential as the works of Debussy, and the Birthday Party,” he says. “With these Strauss, Stravinsky. words I made my way around the music scene, “In the mid-90s I wrote this novel in verse learning English by listening to Johnny Cash called Whisper of My Blood — A Tale of Ethno- and these other master storytellers whose ma- musicological Madness,” offers Hutz, who ranks terial was so dense and focused; they squeezed “folkloric exploration” among his greatest pas- all the water out, as [Charles] Bukowski once sions. “The story ended up being about a said. But I was already the leader of a band character like Bartok who was obsessed with when I left the Ukraine. I was on my path.” Balkan music. He created a symphonic orches- The young Eugene had wanted to be a paint- tra lifted up from the peasants in the village but er like his uncle. Then along came punk, whose they found the music frighteningly sophisti- DIY aesthetic dovetailed with the music he cated and refused to work with him, whereas made on his homemade gear, and offered a sort before it just felt natural.” of giant playing field on which one could do The novel was too pornographic to be pub- whatever the hell one liked. lished, he says, barking a laugh (“I was just hav- He had founded a band called Vinegar Tap ing a crazy ball by myself”). when, in 1986, his family was forced to flee Kiev But in New York City in 1999, it helped birth in the wake of the catastrophic nuclear reactor the idea for a new band. meltdown at Chernobyl, 150km away. It was “I think nostalgia is a form of mental and while staying with his mother’s family in the spiritual laziness but after seven years in the Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine that States there was a subconscious longing for my gangster whacked him with his microphone he was told about his Roma roots. Later, he eastern European vitamins. HERE COMES THE WORLD stand mid-song. How often does he hurt would make his way back to them. “First I had to look into the music I grew up himself? “Some people in my family hate that lineage on, which led me back to the Russian Five [Cui, WOMADelaide has a knack for pulling the “Only twice so far on this tour,” he twinkles. and still criticise me for popularising the idea,” Borodin, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Kor- corners of the world close together. “I might be crawling on all fours with illness off- says Hutz, who has campaigned for and remains sakov] — these composers took folklore and The annual four-day cacophony of stage, but when I am up there no one can tell a an ardent supporter of Romani rights. But as far arranged and refined it endlessly, leading to all music, culture and dance returns to thing. You know, if it wasn’t for Jim Osterberg, as further “edutainment” on the matter goes, he these masterpieces that are now so f..king over- Adelaide’s Botanic Park from March 9. aka the magnificent Iggy Pop, I don’t think any has been there, done that, had his fill of morons. played. More than 300 groups from 80 kind of existential rage or raw spirituality would “We played all the benefits. I attended all the “A lot of famous so-called Russian tunes are countries have appeared on the festival’s take place onstage. And being a modest disciple seminars. I dated anthropologists who were actually from Ukrainian folklore,” he continues, roster since its 1992 inception, and this of that school of rock ’n’ roll, I like to throw my- studying Roma camps. But I still had people mentioning several of them. “So Bartok was year’s line-up carries on the eclectic self around. coming up to me with the most idiotic ideas. I central to my question of: how do you bring me- tradition. It features a healthy roster of “Some people think I’m more insane than mean, the Roma saw the value in getting Ma- lodies and harmonies from back home into your local talent, including electronic sample ever,” he shrugs, sipping his tea. donna to learn a folk song in the Romani lan- music? Do you just quote them? Do you write kings the Avalanches, indigenous You don’t seem very insane, I say. guage, to sing with us at Wembley [at Live new lyrics to old melodies — which I wasn’t Australian rocker Dan Sultan and Arnhem “You didn’t know me 20 years ago. No differ- Earth] in 2007. But all the f..king white people interested in? Then I looked and found that Land’s up-and-coming trilingual rapper ence,” he says, a bit confusingly. just thought we’d played on Madonna’s song Bartok had moved into a completely new place Baker Boy. Still, there’s an uncommon tenderness to be [La Isla Bonita] when it was our song mashed where he’d internalised this music and made his From the US there will be genre-melding found in Seekers and Finders, whose understated with hers — and she had really gone out on a own music out of it. bassist Thundercat and saxophonist title track entwines Hutz’s voice with the spark- limb for a specific cultural purpose.” “This was the point where I thought, ‘OK, I Kamasi Washington, both of whom ling guest vocals of Russian-born American A sigh. “I have learned that my capacity for am ready to move to the big city and get a big contributed to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, and reflects edutainment is quite limited after all the dumb f..king job’, which was Gogol Bordello. On top of award-winning album To Pimp a Butterfly. on a life given over to adventure and discovery. motherf..kery I’ve experienced out there.” that I wanted to be a storyteller like Johnny British-Indian sitar virtuoso and “Seekers, finders, which one are you, which one Hutz’s family left Ukraine in 1989, only to Cash but tell stories like Iggy Pop, which was re- composer Anoushka Shankar fills the void am I …” soars the catchy chorus. “Some crack spend a further three years being handballed ally ambitious.” Another pause. “And maybe between Indian classical music and right through, some only try.” through Poland, Hungary, Austria and Italy as quite annoying for other people.” contemporary jazz and electronica, while “As people we are meant to be adventurous they waited for permission to enter the US as He agrees that it’s all turned out rather well. Mexican classical guitar duo Rodrigo y and curious,” says Hutz. “We owe it to ourselves political refugees. He has said this period of “People always give their best in response to our Gabriela strum out their southern Spain- to stop rushing to the bus stop, to peel off our limbo gave him the courage of his convictions music, their best idea of what they think danc- influenced lamentations. desensitised layers and look further. We need and a fierce sense of self. Today Hutz is multi- ing around the fire can be. The Manganiyar Seduction, a 43-strong newness to help us stay optimistic. New faces. lingual, widely read and business-savvy, and his “I think Australians are ready for another troupe of musicians from India, perform New music. New lovers. New food. New weath- poetic, sometimes surreal proclamations carry dance, another set of stories.” from a 36-windowed, multi-level “jewel er. New shapes and forms.” weight. He glances over at the guitar that rests box” stage. New interview questions. Hutz is over regur- Resettled in Burlington, Vermont, Hutz against a nearby pillar, its patchwork of stickers Planet Talks share the bill, alongside gitating his backstory: how he was born in Kiev formed the Fags, a punk rockabilly trio with a comfortably worn, a couple of them curling at yoga classes and Taste the World, a when it was still part of the Soviet Union, the set-list of tracks called things like Jung and the edges.

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