The Ukrainian folk band Yagody is making its third tour of the United States, including its first stop in Pittsburgh later this month.
Yagody — which translates to “berries” — will perform April 9 at City Winery Pittsburgh in the Strip District.
The band’s mission is to preserve, as well as move forward, Ukrainian folk traditions. Founded by Zoryana Dybovska and including Vasylyna Voloshyn, Nadiia Parashchuk and Tetyana Voitiv, the group toured New Mexico and the northwest last spring, with another northwest tour in January.
In a Zoom call in March from Poland, Dybovska and manager Viktor Lykhodko, who translated, spoke with TribLive about music in tough times, their live show, the group’s latest single and more. Find a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below.
Is it difficult to launch an international tour from Ukraine?
Lykhodko: I can answer, because I’m organizing. It’s really not easy. But during four years of war, we do not feel comfortable about, but have an understanding of, how to do that because just to get the visas, we must go through the border. And if the men don’t have permission to cross the border, we have to apply for the special permission to the Minister of Culture and point to the exact borderline where they will cross the border. So even getting the visa, it’s a real issue because the visa department in the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, doesn’t work. So we have to go to Warsaw, the nearest capital where we can receive American visas. So it will take about eight, nine hours with the border waiting from Lviv to Warsaw and back there. It’s about 24 hours we spend, and a lot of money, just to get the visa, and every time we need to go to the airport, somewhere to fly, it’s really not easy. But what else can we do?
How do you think playing music during these tough times helps?
Dybovska: Music and art are about the energy and changing the energy between people. Always during the tours, the main aim and goal is to show our culture to people all over the world and to show that Ukrainians are different from Russians, and that’s not a comparable culture and attitude. It’s completely different things, a different way of art. I was really surprised, and the whole band was surprised, how United States people and citizens in different cities and small towns and big cities are supporting Ukrainians and Ukraine. We were really surprised because we toured in Europe during the last three, four years, but we couldn’t believe that so far from Ukraine, so far from Europe, over the ocean, a lot of people support so much and so sincerely, and that’s touched me a lot.
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For those who don’t speak Ukrainian, does it feel like the music transcends language then?
Dybovska: For sure, a sense of which the band and me personally, as the leader of the band, translated through music, it’s about the feeling. It’s not about something to understand, to proceed through the mind. The band Imagine Dragons, I love a lot. I first heard their songs not so far ago when I was on a plane and fell in love with this band, feeling how emotional and powerful their music was; it’s an example of a big star, a super worldwide star. The same with their music of Yagody. We’re trying to translate in different songs, different feelings of the Ukrainian nation and Ukrainian people. In some songs there is love, as in most songs all over the world. In some songs, there is a pain of the nation’s different feelings. I’m sure that people understand what we’re trying to translate through music when they don’t understand the language.
How would you describe a typical show and what do you want people to take away from it?
Dybovska: Again, it’s about emotions, and during the show we have a translation of some stories before the songs. I talk about the songs to the people who are in the audience, and our drummer, he speaks English very well. He’s based in London, but he has Georgian blood but Ukrainian passport. But I speak very little English, and he translates every time I or the other girls are describing the story of the song. The main goal is to show the people, the audience, the Ukrainian culture and what it means.
Can you tell the story behind the newest single, “Ne Lamai Kalynu” (“Do Not Break the Viburnum”)?
Lykhodko: I wanted to tell more than she said, because it’s easier to explain. Kalynu is a kind of tree. And “Ne Lamai Kalynu,” the name of the song, means don’t break this tree. It’s an idiom. It’s not a direct meaning phrase. It means that if you are going to the army, don’t love the girl. Because the army sometimes takes some people. So when you come back, you will have time and opportunity to love the girl, to make a family, to make children. But before, don’t love the girl because you will break her heart. So “Ne Lamai Kalynu” means don’t break the tree, but it’s an idiom, not a direct meaning. So it’s about love, as in most of the songs all over the world, but also it’s about some tragic cases of love because of war happening in countries like Ukraine.