A few months ago, shortly after Russia began their invasion of Ukraine, I woke up one morning and improvised a guitar piece in an effort to express some of the sorrow and sadness I felt over the events that were unfolding in Ukraine.
When things like this happen, events that are clearly outside of my control, I often feel powerless and to be honest, somewhat apathetic, since there’s really no clear course of action to take, that I’m aware of at least, that I feel would make any difference.
I have a similar reaction to the mass shootings that keep occurring in the U.S., I feel a deep sadness and sense of sorrow when these events happen, but since I don’t really know what to do to change the situation, I tend to sort of compartmentalize the emotions I feel and after a day or two of watching news coverage of the events and sharing in the collective sadness that everyone is feeling, I simply carry on living my life the best way I know how.
But, this particular morning I woke up and I decided to at least try and channel some of what I was feeling into music, and so on a whim I improvised a two minute and two second instrumental guitar piece. I recorded the piece in one take, with no edits. I decided to call it “Song For Ukraine” and over the next few days I proceeded to share the piece on Facebook and I posted it in a handful of Facebook Groups I belong to around the world in places like Mexico, The Dominican Republic,
Chicago, Panama, Costa Rica and a few others. Places I have travelled to and lived over the years.
You can check that out here.
I received a lot of comments and feedback about the track, perhaps more than any other song I’ve ever posted on social media. I received hundreds of comments, most were positive, a few were cynical and wondered why I would care about this particular war as opposed to previous wars the the U.S. have been involved in, as if people that don’t know me online somehow know where I stand on other wars. But one comment in particular
really stood out to me, it was from a musician who was and is living in Ukraine, a musician by the name of Evgeniy Lenov.
He informed me that he was living in Kharkov, right in the middle of an active war zone and was in the process of making an album called “Symphony of War In Ukraine”. I was so intrigued by his story of making music under what I can only imagine to be one of the most intense, surreal and incredibly stressful circumstances possible, that I asked if there was any way I could help to share his story and his music and invited Evgeniy to do an interview so I could share his story on my blog and
Youtube Channel.
Through corresponding with Evgeniy, I learned that although he can read and write in English, with the help of Google Translate, he doesn’t speak English as his native languages are both Russian and Ukranian, but he offered to type out his responses in English so that I could share his story on my blog. So, I messaged him back and said this would be perfect and asked him when we could proceed. Then, a few weeks went by and I never heard back from him.
I didn’t want to be pressure him to do the interview since obviously his circumstances were not the most ideal, to say the least, and I knew that things could take a turn for the worse at any moment. A couple months went by and I started to fear the worst until one day I started to see him post on social media again with updates about his music. I breathed a sigh of relief, but I still had yet to hear back about doing our interview.
Then, a few days ago Evgeniy commented on one of my posts on Facebook. We got into a back and forth exchange and I asked Evgeniy how his album was coming along. He said he had finished it and sent me the link to the full album, which you can check out here.
I asked him if he still wanted to do the interview and he said now would be a better time and that he had recently moved to the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and that although there are still air raid sirens and occasionally incoming rockets, that in his words, “day to day life had become more or less peaceful”. I was relieved to hear that and so I sent him a list of questions about his experience of making an album in the middle of a war zone in Ukraine.
At the end of the interview, I’m going to link to a track from the album called “Part 12: Final” which in Evgeniy’s words "symbolizes the end of the war". I will also link to the full album, so be sure to check that out and support Evgeniy.
Making music under even the best of circumstances can be daunting in this day and age, but making music in the circumstances that Evgeniy made his album in are hard for me to even fathom really and my interaction with Evgeniy has been a great reminder to be grateful for the circumstances I find myself in, as well as a reminder that unfortunately, many other people that share our planet, as we speak our experiencing situations that to many of us would be unfathomable.
I hope you enjoy my interview with Evgeniy. I’ll be working on creating both an audio and video version of this story for my podcast and Youtube channel, respectively.
Check out my interview with Evgeniy Lenov and hear his music on my blog:
https://www.aarondavison.net/blog/making-music-in-a-war-zone-in-ukraine
Best,
Aaron Davison
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