New York’s Gogol Bordello is known for blending Gypsy music and punk, but its latest album, We Mean It, Man!, is a reminder that the group’s influences are even more eclectic than that.
The band, known for its raucous live performances, will perform a sold-out show at San Antonio’s Paper Tiger on Friday, March 13, with support from labelmates Puzzled Panther and Boris and the Joy. Gogol Bordello also will play Austin’s SXSW on Thursday, March 12, as part of a showcase for its label, Casa Gogol — though frontman and ringleader Eugene Hütz hates the word “showcase,” which he calls “too industry.”
That semantic unease illustrates Gogol Bordello’s interesting position as a punk band created by and for underdogs that’s since found international fame and — to a degree — industry acceptance, precisely because of its uncompromising vision.
But as Hütz told the Current during a recent phone conversation, the definition of punk has always been malleable. Few have stretched it to extremes and taken it around the world quite like Gogol Bordello.
Your new album, We Mean It, Man!, released in February, is named for a line in the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen.” How is this album different from your previous work?
This is our post-punk revenge, so to speak. Meaning revenge against ourselves for being possibly a little bit standoffish in terms of kind of cutting our ties with a lot of the musical world for a long time and just kind of doing our own thing — to the point where some people stopped seeing the connection between us and our roots. Our roots like gypsy music and punk rock are well-pronounced, of course, but the larger picture of it is that Gogol Bordello was a very post-punk, post-hardcore, post-industrial, post-everything project, which kind of was thriving on all those things while moving forward. And so this album just kind of encapsulates more of our influences and more of our roots in terms of music like Joy Division and The Cure and something that is so deeply ingrained in what we do, and yet some of our fans somehow fail to see, maybe because of our own utterly ambitious presentation of our project. But now we have a bunch of albums out, the idea of Gogol Bordello — our vision — is pretty well established. It’s time to tell the larger story.
I think some people, if they’re not really entrenched in all the different influences you have named over the years, might be surprised by some of them. You have mentioned Jimi Hendrix, Parliament-Funkadelic, Gang of Four. I know you have also given shout-outs to Sonic Youth. I think it’s pretty obvious that the Pogues are an influence that really comes through with the combination of folk and punk. And you have also mentioned Manu Chao and Nick Cave. This is a wide range of influences. How do all of these come into play in your sound and in your performance onstage?
Well, for us, they come naturally and, you know, for us, they have always been there as normal part of our musical supercollider. Especially Nick Cave, Jimi Hendrix for me personally, Sonic Youth, the Pogues and Fela Kuti. Interestingly enough, since you bring up the Pogues. The Pogues is of course a fundamental influence on Gogol Bordello, but when I met Shane MacGowan, which I was lucky to experience several times, Shane told me that his inspiration for the Pogues was Fela Kuti.
The vision of Fela Kuti, taking the music of the roots of Nigeria and making something absolutely modern out of it was exactly the [motive] behind the creation of the Pogues.
If somebody just simply sounds like somebody, that’s not influence, that’s emulation. Influences is receiving the frequency of a particular kind and doing something entirely your own with it. Therefore, I particularly enjoy baffling people by exposing our lesser-known influences like Alan Vega and Suicide and Gang of Four and Nick Cave and Joy Division, precisely because of this. It’s like, those are my influences. I mean, I’m the one who knows what my influences are! And I’m telling you, that’s why I started playing music, and that’s why I continue to play music.
You have called punk “urban folk music.” Do you think that punk is meeting the moment right now under American fascism? Or do you think the music industry has kind of changed that?
I think that it’s quite debatable what is punk. And it’s always been debatable since the very beginning of punk. There [were] people who were doing it for authentic reasons and people [who] were doing it for commercial reasons.
From the beginning, there were tons of punk bands who had their first record out on [a] major label, including Sex Pistols. And so that debate has been going on forever. However, there are things that are just an undeniably dignified kind of punk, such as Fugazi for an example.
Bands like that are hard to find and they are always few. But those bands’ legacy is so crucial and important. It’s powerful enough to carry on the torch in a way that overrides the pseudo-punk around it.
And that mechanism is something that we certainly celebrate: the idea that Fugazi might no longer be around in its original form, but their body of work is still out there. And it’s still doing its work and it’s still getting that punk job done. It’s still there stimulating consciousness and independence and fighting every possible fascist tendency in the world.
Who are some newer punk bands that you admire?
Actually, the band that I’ve really liked since their inception is Viagra Boys. That, to me, is a kind of art-punk that I can really relate to, because they’re just as multilayered as Gogol Bordello. And there’s a lot to find out in that band. To me that’s like the Butthole Surfers meets Devo meets The Stooges. And there is a great humor about that, and there is a great way of confronting everything with a really radical irony about it. Another band I really like is Amyl and the Sniffers. Needless to say, Idles. Another band I like is Shame, also from the UK, from London. It could be probably be described more accurately as post-punk, you know, but that I would say is a kind of a pretty good [knuckle punch] of bands that are vital at the moment.
Another band that I really, really like is Bad Nerves.
What was it like working with Rick Rubin for Transcontinental Hustle? He’s known to bring this more polished studio sound as opposed to someone more aligned with what I imagine your DIY punk ethos would be, someone like Steve Albini. What was it like working with those two very different people?
Well, actually, in terms of meticulousness, it wasn’t that different. The difference is in methodology and the taste and angles of capturing the sound. But every producer we work with [is] very precise. And DIY doesn’t mean that something is going to be necessarily more rowdy and abrasive. That’s not really my idea of music, actually. I always found true magic to be in kind of capturing the raw energy but in fairly polished sounds.
Fun House from the Stooges is masterfully produced. It’s all mythology how people go in a studio and freak out for two days and they’re all high and then [a] masterpiece happens. That never fucking happens. People [are] happy to believe in mythology. But you know, it’s a science to deliver records.
And Rick Rubin, Steve Albini or Victor Van Vugt, who we worked with on Super Taranta!, who is known for his work with Nick Cave, or [on] the last record, Nick Launay. Speaking of meticulous producers, here we go again. It’s like being under microscope. And the band shares that idea. What really unifies this experience is that we’re kind of a band that invites a producer into being basically a temporary member of the band.
So, with that open attitude, we managed to pretty much have a joyous experience with all the recordings as different as they were, and definitely had a blast with Nick Launay, who is, as you mentioned, Gang of Four and all the post punk bands I mentioned before. Nick Launay started off those bands on that sound. You know, the post-punk was basically meticulously woven as a concept very much with Nick Launey having his hand in it from the early days with PIL, Gang of Four, Killing Joke, Midnight Oil, later on with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave, Idles and Gogol Bordello now.
I want to shift gears here and talk about Roma stuff. Do you think that Eastern Europe has gotten better or worse towards the Roma people?
I think it’s gotten better. Negative feedback [from] Romanis is still there, but believe me, there were times when it was more extreme. I mean Hitler’s Final Solution plan was initially developed for Romanis and then applied to the Jewish population later. So, it’s a dark hole of European human rights. I do know that in the last 20 years there has been a major front of Romani-rights awareness and talk between communities and better representation and better delegates and better expression of voices for many people.
People have different views about the word “Gypsy.” Some consider it a slur, while others like the Gypsy Kings — who are actually Gitano — embrace the term. How do you feel about it?
I feel alright about it. I mean [the] Gypsy Kings example is probably the best one. There’s nothing not to embrace. And [just] because somebody who has no idea about [the] etymology of [the] word “Gypsy” is appalled by it … Who gives a fuck?
The etymology of where Gypsy comes from [is] a mistaken belief of Europeans that Gypsies come from Egypt, meaning Egyptian. Like what kind of [an] insult is it being Egyptian? It’s not.
Semantics is a chameleon kind of department. Just because some word is going through scrutiny, it doesn’t mean that that’s its ultimate state of affairs. If Gypsy Kings are picking that name, they are Romanis and they know what they’re doing. So I would take cues from there.
You have been very outspoken about the Ukrainian resistance against Russia’s aggression. You still have family in Kyiv. What are your thoughts on the current state of the war there?
Well, needless to say, it’s a tragedy. And I know that because of the coverage and the ongoing, like, madness of it, you know, people worldwide sort of lose their initial sensitivity towards it, which is expectable. That’s what happens. It’s people’s defense mechanism against stress. But considering how catastrophic that is, I think it’s worth[while] for anyone to keep up with that subject, and because the bigger picture of it is that it’s not going on somewhere on the outskirts of the world.
And just because people didn’t know where Ukraine is until now, it doesn’t make it any less of a Central European country. And by meaning Central European, I actually mean precisely that it’s geographically [in the] center of Europe.
And its overall history and significance as the birth of one of the most powerful pockets of civilization in Europe. From the ancient times, from Scythians and onto the first proto-Slavic tribes and the general formation of the Ukrainian nation, it remains there. One of the positive outcomes, if I may say so, [is that] it uncovers Ukraine. For people who thought it was some kind of obscure territory in the middle of nowhere, it’s right there. It’s in your face.
It’s large. And I think that, needless to say, Ukrainian people showed the world what they’re capable of, way beyond any kind of hype. You know, I think that Ukraine is going to transcend this catastrophic difficulty and come up on the top 100%. Anybody who knows Ukrainian people will tell you that right away [laughs], and the rest of the world is going to catch up sooner or later.
You collaborated with Les Claypool of Primus on the song “Man with the Iron Balls” about Zelensky. So I take it you approve of his leadership?
One-thousand percent. Zelenskyy is an absolute hero. Any scrutiny that he may undergo for invented or real criticism, it all basically gets overridden by his stance. And his stance alone is significant enough to basically call him a great example of perseverance and the unifying quality.
So, what’s your take on the United States roping Ukraine into the conflict in Iran?
I think that you’re roping me into some interview that we’re actually not really supposed to be having. I don’t run a political column to discuss the latest events of the day, because the latest events of the day is not my department. And no, I haven’t been following the events. I’ve been on tour, sleeping for two hours here and one hour there and crossing the border and getting the sound check and then doing an interview, then doing a show. Yeah, that’s really not my way. I’m more of a political philosopher.
Sold out, 8 p.m. Friday, March 13, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com.
Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
