Yuriy Gurzhy is part of the amazing Russen Disko party crew outta Berlin. Responsible for serious party times in the Kreuzberg area of the capital and a successful compilation series documenting their club nights; Thus enabling us to sample those crucial tunes coming out of the East. Not content with one of the most buzzing nights in Berlin, they release the aforementioned compilation CDs, write books and articles, operate a radio show called Radio Multi Kulti, play in bands such as Rotfront and produce and remix music for other performers .... phew!
There is no denying the influence that Russen Disko has on NaZdrove. Along with Gypsy and Balkanic diaspora musical influences on our night, RD provides another crucial element of our sound, giving us the Eastern vibe with a healthy dose of ska, reggae and alround baro sound. We wanted to find out more from these eclectic inspirational impresarios ...if you do too, then read on!!!!
Obviously Russen Disko didn't start as soon you guys both moved to Berlin. How did you and Wladimir link up and what you were both up to before RD?
Russen Disko started about two or three years after my arrival in Berlin. Wladimir and I met at a gig of a band I had joined. Wladimir also knew the guys in the band and they had invited him to film the concert. He was the only friend of theirs that had a video camera. The following day we went to his place to watch the video and I saw that he had a huge tape collection. I borrowed some of his tapes and I returned a couple of days later with some Ukrainian music he had never heard before. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
I hear that you debuted at the ‘Red October’ Night. Can you tell us a little about that night and also the influence of the emigre community on RD.
It was the anniversary e posters advertising the event and suddenly 300 people turned up. Most of them Germans. That was cool.
Capital cities by their nature are cosmopolitan. There’s a growing Russoeast Euro community in Berlin. Was this a pulling factor for you to move there?
The Russian Diaspora was ABSOLUTELY NOT THE FACTOR! We’ve never wanted to throw ‘Ghetto’ - parties ‘for Russians only’. That would have been so saaaad!!! The Russian parties are nostalgic events, like dancing to the cheapest worst sounding pop-music you can (YOU CAN’T) imagine. We wanted to expose the music we loved to the people of Berlin. Whoever would be interested.
We gather this night led to you guys to continue DJing and a long time association with Kaffe Burger.
Yes that’s right. Kaffe Burger was about to re-open after 20 years and the new owners happened to have visited our party. So they approached us right there and asked whether we considered doing RussenDisko regularly in the new place they were about to open.
Can you tell the readers about a typical RD evening at KB?
We come in around 10pm and start spinning and drinking. People come, drink, dig the music and at some point , usually around midnight no one can sit anymore and everyone dances wherever there’s enough space.
Can you also explain how you build up a night musically. I guess there’s a mixture of fast and slow music and a fairly wide mixture of styles?
That’s right. But we have no plan. It’s totally improvised
Is the image of RD as important as the music?
Music IS the image, in a way :)
You’ve been playing out for over 10 years now.
Oh fuck, yes.....
Has the crowd changed in that time?
I’ve no idea ... It’s still a very wild mix ... you can meet your grandpa dancing to Russian dancehall with some Japanese tourists!!!
How has the reception to the music you play changed. Was there a ‘What the fuck is this’ reaction at first or did you have an understanding crowd straight from the start?
There’s still quite a number of people with that attitude, man! Most of the crowd is understanding and very adventurous. I love them for that!
But 10 years is quite a long time. Are you still getting a buzz when you play them at Kaffe Burger?
Well, it depends on the reaction of the crowd I guess .... every time people on the dance floor get excited, I get excited too.
What are some of your favourite songs to play at RD?
Well, my top 5 changes every week.
The East is so big!!! How do you find out about all these amazing bands?
Well, in all these years we became actually friends with a lot of these bands so they keep us updates. I also read alot of music blogs and check out regularly hundreds of MP3s.
Are there any new bands that we should look out for?
Sure! Always! Check out the new record of PERKABALA and also the hilarious band SELO & LUDY who are from my hometown of Harkiv. Oh yeah also UKRAINIA, A Canadian - Ukrainian band, these guys ROCK!! Also NAYEKHOVICHI are great and the only Klezmer punk band in the world. The only one that matters anyway!
While some of the bands you have featured on the compilations have played traditional folk (albeit the Eastern Europe
Yes, that’s a natural process. The history of music is all about mixing. Hardly any music exists without incorporating elements from what’s happening around.
You’ve just toured with Rotfront and as Russen Disko DJ. How would you compare the reception to your DJing on tour to playing at home at KB?
It’s like going out with a wife - compared to the first date with a girl you just met. Ha! Ha!
You have just played at St. Pauli which has a football club well known for its antifascist following?
Yeah, St-Pauli is a district of Hamburg. But we are 100% antifa, of course.
The compilation CDs you’ve released have been pretty astounding. Tell us about the label.
At some point, after the first two Russen Disko comps, we realised that no record label would want to do as much as we had been planning ... so we decided to start our own label.
Which CDs were you most excited to release. Any upcoming releases?
My personal favourite is our latest release, Ukraine Do Amerika. It’s a great compilation. The sound is fantastic and I’m very fond of the artwork Alex Cuccumberass did together with Dimitri Kireev - these guys are amazing! There are no plans for the next releases however. We are closing RussenDisko Records as none of us has neither the time nor experience to run a record label the way it should be done. But the new compilations will still come.
Regarding your band Rotfront. You’ve listed reggae, Punk, ska, Zieguner as influences as well as Boney M, Taraf and The Clash. That’s quite a mix!!
All the music my friend Simon from Hungary and I have been enjoying through our lives directly influences Rotfront. Everything’s allowed. My first music guru was my granddad Boris Rivkin. As a boy he was playing the violin and wanted to become a professional musician, but during World War II his violin was stolen and after 1945 he became ... a dentist. But he wasve been grooving to since I was 2, 3 years old. From him I’ve heard things like Barry Sisters, or the Beatles but also some German Disco like Boney M or Dschinghis Khan - that was my favourite music when I was 4 or 5.
Shetl Superstars Orchestra is a band you do with Lemez Lovas from Oi Va Voi. How did you hook up with Lemez?
Lemez contacted me years ago and invited Rotfront to play in London. Back then no one actually knew the band. Even in Berlin there was like 20 or 30 people in the audience. We also would have had to go to Dusseldorf to get visas at the English Embassy - the whole idea of going to London seemed totally unreal ... I’d spent half an hour on the phone trying to talk Lemez out of it ... but he was persistent. So we went there, and had a great gig and dj’ed together with Lem and a couple of years later we’ve put out a compilation together. it’s called Shetl Superstars - funky jewish sounds from around the world. And while working on it, we actually recorded some songs together as we both deeply respect each other’s stuff. I’m a fan of Lemez’ Oi Va Voi songs and he’s been a fan of RussenDisko and Rotfront.
Is it essentially you two with guest musicians?
Yeah, it’s us with Yaniv Fridel, who’s producing the album together with Lemez in London. And we are inviting our friends to sing some songs. The first album was a compilation and we will release our first ‘real’ album soon which will be called “Shengen Visa Wedding”. It’s a concept album. I would even call it a modern musical - a love story of two immigrants who are involved in various ‘not-so-kosher’ business ... they travel around the world, with many adventures, and find each other in te end ... I hope...
I was surprised to see that you were credited for ‘Disko Boy’ on Shantel’s Disko Partizani LP?
I have a deep respect towards Shantel. He’s also a good friend. He mailed me that instrumental track and asked whether I would write some lyrics for it. I listened to it a couple of times, loved it alot and had all the lyrics pretty fast. The musical inspiration was a song of Barry Sisters and lyrically it was pretty much something coming directly from my observations as a DJ. A guy too shy to impress a girl ... happens all the time.
Who else have you written for? You’ve done some remixes - I’m thinking Alec Kopyt and the AMSTERDAM KLEZMER BAND amongst others?
Alec Kopyt is a legendary legend. He’s the greatest!! A friend, a mentor, an inspiration. I’ve produced a track of his forich.
Ok, finally, what release can we expect from you in the future?
There’s a new compilation we’ve been working on lately with Lemez Lovas - ‘Godfathers of Jewish Funk’. As for RussenDisko - We’re gonna release a new compilation this year, pretty different from what we’ve done before. The ROTFRONT LP ‘Emigranski Raggamuffin’ came out this year and as I said before the ‘Shengen Visa Wedding’ LP will be out this year as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment