Anton Slepakov is the frontman of the band “Vagonovozhati”, a cult figure for fans of electronic alternative.
At the end of March, Anton Slepakov, together with Andriy Sokolov, began creating a new project — “Warnyakannya”. This is a kind of diary that records Anton’s reflection on the events of the full-scale Russian invasion, and Andriy creates musical accompaniment to these poems (or stises, as the authors call them).
The musicians perform in different cities and all the funds collected at the concerts are donated to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and internally displaced persons.
Anton told us more about the importance of the project and creative plans in our interview.
- Anton Slepakov in the Fine City! How are you?
In general, very good, if only the war were over… And so, we “strongly” tuned in to this tour and this program, while there were no special problems. The project “warнякання” is conceived by us as a charitable one. All the funds from which we transfer to charity, for the needs of the military, or displaced persons. Therefore, in each city, in each specific case, we cooperate with the host party and find out what needs there are so that they can be covered. Each concert is our very specific, small drop of help to all those who are currently helping our country.
- Many Ukrainian artists have experienced an external transformation, switching to a purely Ukrainian direction, if we talk about an internal transformation, what kind of transformation did you experience?
Of course, I didn’t believe that all this would happen in reality. Our brain is set up in such a way that it repels this information. And it seemed to us that our neighbor would have enough common sense. Now the war is very close, it is felt at such a “subcutaneous level”. You hear explosions, you see the frightened eyes of loved ones, children, animals sitting in shelters. You feel that you are living in wartime. Unfortunately…
I haven’t felt any such changes, but now I only do what resonates, and this project we’re on tour with has resonated with me.
- “Warnyakannya” is a project about what? What do you see as the goal of this bold experiment, without exaggeration?
I don’t think it’s boldness. On the one hand, it’s a great pity and sad that a full-scale war became the trigger and inspiration for this project. I would have written about lighter things with great pleasure, but these texts found me by themselves, they simply fixed themselves, and at some point Andriy — my colleague on this project said that we have no right to reject it. All these feelings, emotions will simply melt away and disappear, you won’t remember how and what you felt in March, April, and so on. Therefore, we began to record these states, and also, with the help of this project, to do something useful — donate. This turned out to be very convenient, because our old projects are frozen and it is almost impossible to actively engage in music, the musical process, or even show business, as before, and collect donations from there. This is the relevance and special mission of this project.
- You are not alone in the “Warnyakannya” project, tell us about your partner?
This is a very old friend of mine, whom I have known since my time in Dnipro. We did the “Trucks” project there. When the project ended and the new “Vagonovozhatye” began, one of the first invited Andriy. For some reason, he was unable to “join” there at the beginning, but he joined last and became a sound engineer, stage technician and our main assistant. As a musical, electronic unit, he makes a lot of interesting music, which we later began to implement in our project, which did not have a name. Well, when the full-scale war began, he said: “Let’s do what we can”, and later it was called “warnyakannya”. Andriy is very reliable, cool and humane, we appreciate him and are incredibly happy that we have such cooperation. Do you feel support from other Ukrainian cultural figures in your project “warnyakannya”? Is it possible that you are collaborating with someone? And who has changed their attitude during the war?
I’m not sure that we need this support. After all, we are confident in what we are doing. You know, artists don’t always find time to get acquainted with other people’s work, because they themselves are very busy now. They have tours, volunteer work, or something else that brings our victory closer. Therefore, we have not felt such full-fledged support from anyone. Although our cooperation with Oleksandr Kolmen Serdyuk, who unexpectedly acted as our tour manager in this project. We have already had 3 joint tours, where he helps us with various managerial needs. I realized that it is not the time for me to find out who is better and who is worse. Now we have one common enemy, so it is not the time to sort Ukrainians by certain distinctions. It is very good that many have realized what our true northern neighbor is like, that cooperation with him for the past 8 years was a very big mistake. It is good that many have finally opened their eyes. Everything is fine with “Vagonovozhati”, we just don’t play right now, because “warnyakannya” is a more mobile project and it requires much less effort in terms of logistics, equipment, and many other important aspects. “Vagonovozhati” is still a more complex participant in the musical process, which is more suitable for peacetime. Everything is fine with us, we are in great shape, we remember everything, but we are waiting for better times! We don’t know what will happen next. We are currently creating “warnyakannya” — this is our experiment, the first album we are creating in real time. There is no final point in it, time itself suggests one direction or another. It seems to me that any experience, even traumatic ones, should not be forgotten. You need to think about it, experience it, so this project will help not to forget it. Any creativity is not aimed at prophecy. If we start from “Vagonovozhati”, then we recently released a clip and this is a track in which the mantra for our victory is embedded. In this sentence, the main thing is victory, and what bottle you will uncork is a secondary thing. Tetiana Panchenko
