ON TOUR DURING WARTIME
Ukraine’s DakhaBrakha
CONTENTS
- INTRO: Touring During Wartime: Telling The Story of Their Country
- LIVE:
– Dakha Brakha on Tiny Desk meets Global Fest in January 2021
– DakhaBrakha’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert 2015 - LISTEN AND READ: Interview with the band on NPR.org
ON TOUR DURING WARTIME
Telling the story of their country
For Ukraine’s boisterous and joyful “ethno-chaos” band DakhaBrakha things have gotten serious. One month into a world tour and they found their country at war. The quartet agreed to carry on.
“Well, of course, it’s a big pain and it’s a big tragedy for our country, and we feel it every moment,” band member Marko Halanevych told NPR.org. “A lot of people in Ukraine and around the world, they tell us it’s our best possibility to be useful and helpful, is to be on stage and to show people our culture, music and to tell our story and to tell the story of our country.”
Over the past decade the band has toured North America extensively and been vocal about Ukraine’s vulnerable position sharing a border with Russia. When I heard them issue a call for support and solidarity at the end of a sunny Sunday workshop stage performance during the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in 2017, I didn’t know what they were asking of us or why.
The band wraps up their American tour this coming week and continues touring in Europe through May.
LISTEN AND READ
Halanevych, the band’s only male member, gave an insightful interview to NPR.org (National Public Radio).
• You can read it here. The article has links to two new songs.
• Listen to the five-minute interview here.
