Musician Dmitry Shurov, better known as Pianoboy. In the past, he was a pianist in the bands “Ocean Elzy” (from 2001 to 2004) and “Esthetic Education” (from 2004 to 2008), in 2006–2009 he was a pianist in the Zemfira band. Dmitry is known as a virtuoso pianist who plays the synthesizer so energetically and selflessly that the listeners get the impression that the musician creates a harmonious and sensual melody with the help of magic. Shurov also writes songs where his handwriting is immediately noticeable. Dmitry told more about his creativity during the war and his people in our interview.
Dmytro, we are glad to welcome you to Ternopil. How do you like the city, are you visiting here again?
Oh, a lot. Only in the period from February 24, I have already been there several times. The first month, fabric was often imported from France for some people who sew bulletproof vests. Then, for the first time during the war, I felt a pleasant feeling that here is a city, people live actively here, everyone works and there are a lot of families with children, I am glad that this city has accepted so many displaced people. It is like a different reality here, because in cities that are closer to the front, people are very scared. They live in cars, or do not leave their homes and are constantly under fire.
You are currently on a mini-tour of Ukraine, what is the mood of the people you see at your performances?
We are currently having very emotional concerts. People laugh, cry and scream. Everyone shows their emotions differently. Many people come with their whole families and bring their children with them. They say that for them this concert is like waking up from a very scary dream. That’s why I do it. First of all, of course, we collect money for the needs of the army, but I understand that people need to get up from the emotional bottom. We didn’t actually prepare the concert program, we had one rehearsal. We create everything at concerts. For example, we started playing with Grisha recently, but we met Moisey in a military hospital, he’s a violinist. It’s so good for us to improvise together right on stage now.
How important is a song now? For those who are at the front and in the rear?
Music is the fastest transport for emotions and for many people music is a time machine. We experienced some good emotions in life to music, and now it helps us cope with the present. Our soul remembers what we are fighting for: for freedom, our native eyes, vacations, our favorite office and many other things that are close to our hearts. Music really motivates fighters. This is our first tour for civilians in Ukraine, all the time before that we only sang for the military, medics and utility workers who continue to work in the frontline zones. They see terrible things and simply fall into a complete stupor. They need to be reminded of what life is, how to live on? Military music unites, when I just see the military singing “Oh in the meadow…” or shouting “Glory to Ukraine” at the top of my lungs, I understand that I am here for a reason.
Pianoboy before the full-scale invasion and now, do you feel any changes during this time?
I don’t feel any cardinal changes in myself. We have been at war for 8 years already, only now it is all over the territory. Sudden shelling of any peaceful city, such as my native Vinnytsia. The main change is that the music industry, as a business, has completely stopped. Everyone says that this is not necessary and not timely, but music is a very powerful weapon. In fact, since the beginning of the war we have not earned a penny, and we already have over 100 concerts in Ukraine and abroad. There is no planning in my life now, I am a person who knew that tomorrow we would, for example, write an album, but I am glad that I still have the opportunity to do a tour. For me, it is fundamentally in the basement. I do not want to risk people and my team. We are happy that it works even in this format, this is what we can give today. We have performances from an open field to bomb shelters and we ourselves are curious how long this “marathon” will continue and how much longer until our victory and whether we will be able to withstand it? I hope that we will withstand it…
Pianoboy before the full-scale invasion and now, do you feel any changes during this time?
I don’t feel any cardinal changes in myself. We’ve been at war for 8 years, only now it’s all over the territory. Sudden shelling of any peaceful city like, for example, my native Vinnytsia. The main change is that the music industry has completely stopped, as a business. Everyone says that it’s not necessary and not timely, but music is a very powerful weapon. In fact, since the beginning of the war we haven’t earned a penny, and we already have over 100 concerts in Ukraine and abroad. There’s no planning in my life now, I’m a person who knew that tomorrow, for example, we’d be writing an album, but I’m glad that I still have the opportunity to tour. For me, it’s basically in the basement. I don’t want to risk people and my team. We’re happy that it’s possible even in this format, this is what we can give today. We have performances from a clean field to bomb shelters and we ourselves are curious how long this “marathon” will continue and how much longer until our victory and will we be able to withstand it? I hope we will be able to withstand it…
In general, in such a difficult time, how are you doing? Where do you find the strength to perform? Where do you draw this energy from?
Absolutely not. I don’t write anything, so we released the song “Trymatys svoj” (Hold on to Your Own), which I wrote a year ago. We were lucky to shoot it in a unique location, Boryspil airport. I think the video turned out to be very symbolic, poignant and familiar to every Ukrainian. We all want only peaceful planes in the sky. It will happen, but we will not accept it with the condition of victory and any other conditions. However, I will not be bitter, sometimes it is very difficult, but when you come to the military, people who have completely lost their homes, there is no question of motivation. When I see people who remember your song after a concussion, but don’t remember the name of their wife. My motivation is our indomitable people.
You released the song “Trymatys Svoih”. Who are “your people” for you?
Probably every Ukrainian now knows who these people are. The war showed who is yours and who is not yours, because, specifically in my family, in the first most difficult weeks, complete strangers helped, or people we met once in our lives. Literally, a person with whom we worked maybe twice in our lives took our parents out under fire.
There are also people who called themselves friends and at the most needed moment simply disappeared. I can list many such moments. Therefore, now your people are those who are ready to simply work and move our country forward. Many trials have fallen, at first there was quarantine, which seriously crippled the music industry, but they still worked, and there were people who, even though they were wearing masks, even though they were half-full, came to our concerts, supported us, sang with us, you couldn’t even hear them singing, everyone was wearing masks, but it gives us faith. People who, even in the most difficult circumstances, showed their help, and we help them. All Ukrainians who are ready to unite for the sake of their own country, where people live well. No one will give us this, we just have to overcome it now.
In your opinion, has Ukrainian music changed during the war?
Very little time has passed. Now the music industry is just starting to come to its senses. Here’s how to release your song if, for example, on this day you saw the news, sat down on a chair and looked at the wall. I have a recorded jazz album, it is completely ready and was supposed to be released this spring. But I understand that I will be able to release it only after our victory. Such a release, in my opinion, is not timely. That is why those musicians who can no longer help but express themselves are surviving now. Perhaps this will lead to a qualitative leap in the musical sphere. But still, I think we will feel it not now, but in years, it was the same after the Revolution of Dignity.
What Ukrainian music is on your playlist now?
I don’t listen to music at all now. And that’s normal, because most musicians don’t listen to music. People who create are focused on their experiences and goals. But I still think that soon I will have to make a certain cut of what is happening in our Ukrainian music. Moreover, those new things that “reach” me seem very cool.
In your opinion, what do our performers lack for greater popularity in the world? How can we fix it?
The thing is that Ukraine is an isolated country in terms of the music market. The world music business has never visited us, this is the main reason why there is no such organizational bridge. That is, as in the world, there are big giants and they have representative offices in countries and through these representative offices they promote artists. Historically, our representative offices are in Russia, that is, the central offices, the distribution of musicians, even YouTube, everything is not in Ukraine. Until we have direct contact, young stars will not come to us. There is a lot of talent in Ukraine and they need competition. We need global concert companies to have a representative office in Ukraine so that they can notice our talents and launch them. But for now, the global market is closed to Ukrainians. Now, many of our musicians are doing “collaborations” with global artists. This way, they simply help maintain the level of discussion of Ukraine in the world. We also had world tours, we come to cities, give interviews, and talk about the real situation. This is very necessary, because Europe lives its own life and does not feel the same pain as we do.
Do you feel the revival of Ukrainian culture? What do you see its future as?
It’s still too early to talk about revival, especially since I see how difficult it is for people who are involved in culture. Here we are in Ternopil today, then we can be in Kharkiv, then to the Netherlands for a charity concert. I would rather say that Ukrainian culture is now surviving. Yes, we have begun to value our own more, to remember who we are and where we come from. It is worth considering that we have been fed pro-Russian for years. Now people are on a certain rise, so we need to wait and not make hasty conclusions, because it takes years to change tastes. Don’t break people’s tastes at the knee, they have to come to this on their own. We will revive our culture, but it is a long process, we should be ready for this.
Spoke – Tetiana Panchenko
