Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hütz On The Band's Upcoming Touring, Deep Purple, Fugazi, Rick Rubin & More
[Music] about true cash now with their Bell draw bits get ready to listen to your favorite art artists [Music] aside from having to do media today how's your day going yeah I got up unusually early so uh cause I'm a night owl and uh it's never changed ever since I realized it about the age of six what's early for you early for me is like 9 A.M uh early for me is like 1pm wow I'm I'm impressed yeah but uh but I mean I mean I go to bed at like seven six seven a.m it's regular and uh we just we're right from the studio last night from mixing stations like 2 30 in the morning it's the usual you know and it's like our lunch time midnight is my lunch time basically wow okay so you have a big European tour coming up does your sleep schedule change when you're on a European tour like that no I mean that's the kind of irony of it my life on tour and on and home doesn't really that differ all that much I mean some people think that tour is just some kind of crazy Crusade you know and you go out there and uh blow the heads off and blow the minds off and you're just like in this kind of thing but it's actually over the years have kind of evened out where elements of tour life became part of my normal life so-called normal life and likewise I mean it's not like you know after a while there's a lot of sense of homecoming when you go to places so it's not really uh you know I've been to Madrid I've been to Barcelona and numerous times London and you know you know you have friends you know where to go it's not like a yeah you know it's like almost like on the opposite you you have to work harder to find uh new exciting things about these places wow well when I look at your career and this is intended to be a huge compliment you are you it's an original sound it is not something that you have to change to meet friends it's increasing charts nothing like that you're original all these years later when did you kind of realize that it was going to be okay just doing art as you and not following Transit all right um well I mean punk rock is kind of all about defined fashion and and it was never uh not the kind of punk rock that I was into it was all about fashion Defiance and uh sticking to your own establishing your own aesthetic you know and I mean even I mean my mentors but people that I consider to be mentors you know the Aussie or you know uh Nick Cave you know those are people who clearly have that quality uh established there uh nowhere near following any kind of trend or fashion you always know they're always prolific they're always bus now so busting out some new work and uh yeah it's kind of about what's the word for do you mean where'd you go it's it's it's being it's about creating your own word a world you know and um in in Ukraine if I remember it correctly I think it's Latin word and my uncle my uncle is the painter you know my father's brother I mean he taught me early on he was kind of big on my babysitting uh activities so you know just growing up with a guy who's always wearing like paints colored pants and shirts and you know long hair and like yeah and consider it to be kind of uh you know but other my other surrounding people right you know who never cared about like you know what's uh what's the latest Trend and I noticed that actually as a kid I already had more interesting for me conversations than like with my peers or with uh you know some reading some interviews with some popular organ musicians you know he would say things like you know I'd be like you know getting into metal and or into uh hardcore and I tell him like check this out you know he's like yeah I can see it things are already pretty much reach the limit you know they're like what do you mean he's like well it doesn't sound so different from like Deep Purple really I was like how so this is so different from the purple and he's like no I think it's kind of like I mean it's people playing Unison on guitars drastic riffs I'm all about it that's great but it's kind of the purple in rock just more updated versions of it uh and he'll love that uh it's like our family classic the purple in rock my dad and my father and and nice his brother were really into that and it kind of really good it would draw like a really profound parallels like that like listen it's like becoming what art kind of get into the same category as sport in a way like okay a year a hundred years ago when Olympics 120 years ago when Olympics started getting uh becoming like a global thing again uh uh you know people were like jumping like I don't know what it was like four meters long or like four and a half yeah well now they jump like six but I sound like 26 you know athletes keep getting kind of like it's kind of dancing around the same accomplishments you know yeah variations on a theme so in a lot of ways music is like that too it's it's actually mind-blowing to I mean thank you I do take it as a compliment but it's intended to be uh a compliment because you mentioned Nick caves that explains a lot to me I would assume Tom Waits as well where they're artists who are doing Rock things but the music does not sound like traditional punk rock it's just they are themselves all the years later yeah and actually it's incredibly hard to pull off anything original if you think about it um it's it's not it's not you know people accuse you know musicians all the time of being not original enough and all that but yeah and I'm one of those people but to be more objective is like it's actually kind of almost impossible to get it into that land it's like jumping 26 meters when world record is like what like seven and a half or something like that right it's kind of like I don't know well another thing I'm curious about or I have a question about did you see the documentary called meet me in the bathroom the one about the strokes and the Interpol and all that uh I know about it I have not seen it yet although a lot of my friends are in it and I was intending to check it out as a matter of fact uh Brian Chase uh my friend and our colleague in a our new band puzzle Panther um the punk rock Glory side colleague yeah amazing drummer I know that he's pretty prominent in that and I was intending to check it out well you were around the same scene at the same time as all these fans and I was curious if you overlapped with The Strokes and Interpol and yeah yeah yes actually I know Alexander a really good body of mine throughout all these times even before he was in the AES or or before Google Morello I mean there were places where the scene thrived experimental and experimental music was late 90s uh turn of the center in New York was still a magical place and um so there was I mean there was a lot of bands that are not on that documentary oh yeah people baby Liars uh you know on Wave can you say long ways in cheeks just to name a few check check yeah it like the list goes on I mean I think that that Commander is about very particular uh slice of the take of that time and uh there are other documentaries that are actually have a more uh like they don't have any strokes and uh uh Interpol they have all those other bands like you know so I mean that's just that is I think there are several documentaries like this one in particular I mentioned called kill your Idols I think it has uh more of a I think it has what the names that I met named are pretty much all there yeah yeah and it has like Jim sclerunus you know Lydia launcher kind of captures like a kind of almost like a passing of the torch kind of moment right not that anybody uh from the from the you know the icons like Thurston Moore and James Cleveland stop doing active in America but right by any means they're like busting out amazing [ __ ] all the time you know making great yeah but I think it was really interesting in terms of like Contin showing the continuity of uh New York aesthetic um really being kind of you know regurgitated in a good way by the newcomers and transplants like like us who are bringing some new funk to the game you know bringing some new Vibe and swing into it okay well back to you and not that documentary the big European tour is coming up but are you allowed to say what's happening for the band in late 2023 early 2024 are you planning ahead oh [ __ ] yeah um you know it's that there's never we're never we're a band that's like works like a yeah here's a new record and we tour this record and you don't hear about it for three years uh it's a different kind of band it's all kind of work in progress at all times you know that's the kind of reality of it uh so you know the new record came out in the fall you know it's a great record go grab it check it out you just might gonna [ __ ] dig it and uh you know the next record after that started the next day you know you know uh it's it's um I mean I think it's really like kind of just zoom in for a second on the personalities on Google mordell you'll see that it's kind of that that form of uh kind of Maniacs that you know some people kind of just think kind of like you know a certain form of workaholism for sure but workaholism in terms of I mean we have a great work ethic so it's it's uh it's like please let's not start you know like you know well the last question I have for you is you're on the very short list of artists who worked with Rick Rubin and Rick Rubin chooses who he works with he won't you could give him a briefcase with hundreds of thousands of dollars if he doesn't like you he won't work with you what was it that connected you and Rick in the first place um well wow I mean I remember standing backstage in uh after a show in Los Angeles and um you know I was like after a share whatever shirt but you know like completely all wrangled up and and wet and they're sweaty and they're talking to my friends and uh suddenly I met recruitment you know and came up with uh with uh with his friend and you know his friend introduced him and uh wow so it was a big moment you know um I actually was so um kind of lost in the moment I mean I I have like several drinks at that point you know it actually actually didn't realize it's Rick you know it was just it was a dance situation you know but I could tell it was a you know really a kind of um intelligent conversation about and that was like Beyond Small Talk suddenly we were just talking about like uh you know songwriting as as what it is as where is the entity of the song comes from like right it's like it's not exactly small talk you know yeah and um and then you know I think that well apparently apparently um before that several friends of his um Tom Morello chiefly uh introduced Rick to our music and basically brought into our show you know and um so after that we kind of what can I have couple more conversations and then the next thing I knew I was you know in Rick's house kind of showing him a badge of new songs I was writing and uh I think it was I mean you know I think that he kind of appreciated that he he saw what I always encourage people to see and go to Bordello because people get lost in all kind of uh you know Goku Barilla is kind of like he's got a lot of uh layers in that Pig you know some people just can never get past its theatrics like they just like think that that's like the driving force of it it's not yeah it's one of the things you know because there's like it goes because you know for me that was never the driving force that's just what like actually completely secondary to the it was like illustrating the songs you know but uh here came a person who had insights straight into the matters you know who was like let's get together and see all these new songs and uh make a record out of it and amplify the idea and amplify the the epicness of these songs and I think that actually uh that was the concept of the album it in my personal vision of like you know the the the the discography you know like that album kind of stands out to me I was kind of like Fellini like black and white uh film you know the other records might be so colorful and uh you know swashbuckling and so rambunctious you know in all kind of ways and this one I think was just more about uh boiling it down really to these archetypal yeah uh he he usually figures out the elements and he focuses on the elements rather than the production yeah I mean he just abstracts you know yeah yeah people go like oh I can't wait to see what's he gonna end and he's like no yeah what's he gonna take yeah we're gonna take out all the effects and uh you know less back vocals and uh less Reverb and uh and and kind of stripping down but stripping down in a more um you know he he kept um special The Specialist was always one of his bands and he kind of saw a big a parallel between us and the specials and uh I am also a huge fan of the specials that was an easy stomping ground to share and we actually played with the specials right about that time several times and had a great Accord with the band you know so so I think those are the things that keep on exciting is that you know it was also I mean we had we had a really unbridled energy also and the band was quite unruly actually you know just like because like on a lot of France you know yeah yeah maybe maybe that had to do something with that too you know well to recap what I've learned European tours start of what's to come from the band you're proud of the last record keep checking the social media to know what's coming soon and you're still original you're still you thank you man yeah I mean I mean a lot of things going on and I'm going to be doing punk rock museum tours and uh newly opened program Museum and uh uh Las Vegas just opened this weekend so I signed up to do some um you know tour guiding as many other great dudes and dudettes there you know I think Roger Merritt from Agnostic Front is doing the next weekend so you know I mean I've been talking my wife my whole life about punk rock being until six in the morning so might as well do the museum for the for the young ones to hear are you doing the Mob Museum as part of that that's where my wife and I got married in Vegas the mafia Museum oh no I never been there please go there you'll enjoy it yeah check out all yeah Vegas and and MOB that they would have a museum I have to be there you know but then yeah man we're already cooking the next record that's and uh I mean also producing young bands has been what's really um New York continues to be like a fertile place you know if you've got an eye for it you will find all those things that are always here you know it's like when I came here and um you know mid 90s people were telling me Oh you missed it oh it all happened I like okay and then you know and then that whole thing and then like you know this whole Decades of uh amazing things can't happen so it's the same thing now you know the young ones come and take the torch and shape shift it and transform it and um there's a really cool band that we've been taking out on tour with us called crazy in the brands kind of Post Punk artsy very energetic great front man Chris uh band and uh you know the the new baby here in the Cradle is a puzzled Panther you know as I mentioned before that's the band that you know I'm producing the first release and and playing with them you know okay okay I look forward to checking that out I was not aware but thank you for the many years of great art and looking forward to the next gig in New York hey man thank you so much really appreciate it just
2023-04-11 18:35
