Yury Shevchuk: Low bow to those who "fret on the bunk" for their views

Euroradio has got through to Yury Shevchuk, who is in Tomsk on tour now. Recently, the administration of the Kemerovo region of Russia cancelled the concerts of the DDT band in Kemerovo and Yurga, and they also “failed to find a hall” for the St. Petersburg rockers in Tyumen,  while in Omsk, a local official prohibited the concert halls to cooperate with the DDT.

Euroradio: Have you had a slight déjà vu feeling, as if you returned to the Soviet era?

Yury Shevchuk: Many people still have the "Cold War" in their heads, you know. However, no one could cancel Spring, right? In general, I'm calm about this, I am not shocked, I know this country and I think I know these people, too. Maybe I think too much of myself but that’s the way it is. As for the concerts cancellations, it happened only in Kemerovo. In Yurga, we gave a free concert the day before yesterday for the people who are not to blame for such situation. It went really well, we collected money for the children’s orphanage in Yurga, and had a very good concert in a local club. What should we do? Fight, fight for every city. This is the life that we and you have, this is our fate.

Euroradio: You know that in Belarus there are lists of banned musicians…

Yury Shevchuk: Of course, I know. Of course! And I'm very sorry that we cannot show our program “Otherwise” in Belarus so far.  This program has turned out not bad – we have nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe we will bring it to you someday, God helps!

Euroradio: Don’t you have a feeling that Russia is taking Belarus’ way more and more confidently - rigidly dispersed opposition rallies, and now, banned concerts?

Yury Shevchuk: In Russia, everything is happening in not such a brutal way, of course. However, there still are people for whom Lukashenka is a hero and an almost god-like person. And in Russia, there are too many of these people - they want some "iron order," the lack of civil liberties and democracy – they believe that they are smarter than everyone else. They think it is not necessary for the people to think, but only to plow and sow, and to get some odds and ends from the royal table in the form of pensions and salaries. This is understandable and we have enough of such people. But in Russia there are many other people too – those who think that a person, his inner freedom, his personality are most valuable under any social system. In a word, we’ll stay in such situation for a long time to come! However, gloom is a sin. And of course - I'd like to give a low bow to the people who "fret on the bunk," as they say in the street, for their opinions. A low bow, and the deepest respect for their fortitude and courage. We, have such people too.

Euroradio: Today's Russian authorities are sometimes compared to Belarusian ones, they say that they have a lot in common. Do you agree?

Yury Shevchuk: There is something in common, of course. That's unwillingness to listen to all citizens - this is a very serious thing. But I don’t really want to talk about this! I hope that today we will have a great concert. And that we will come to Minsk!

Euroradio: Why can't you come to Minsk with a concert now - do you have many concerts or is there some lack of other opportunities?

Yury Shevchuk: There are no opportunities to come to you so far - we are looking for them.

Euroradio: Banned Belarusian musicians returned to the tradition of "apartment concerts." Once upon a time you had to go through it. Is this a way out of this situation?

Yury Shevchuk: Of course, this is a way out. We started with "apartment. concerts" once. I hope that we will not finish on that. However, in Yurga it was nearly an “apartment concert”, figuratively speaking. So far, we have a different situation than you have: there was a call from the president's administration to my promoters – they promised to clarify the situation with cancelled concerts. Probably, your banned musicians do not get such calls!

Euroradio: I guess, if we do have such calls, they come only to notify about cancellation of another concert!

Yury Shevchuk: Well, you see! But I hope we will see you - personally, I love Belarus. These are the most hardworking people in the CIS. And the cleanliness of your cities - not from the regime of iron: it is in the souls of people. And those couples who walk hand in hand – you won’t see this anywhere else! The people are very kind. In fact, we have good people, too. Everything will be fine, I think. We need to come through this all, to do something, to make our way to the light. As old Ecclesiast said: "This shall pass, too". No one is eternal, and nothing is eternal under this moon.

Euroradio: However, now we have what we have - you are approaching the situation in which our prohibited musicians are ...

Yury Shevchuk: There is a rhyme! I would like to tell our colleagues in Belarus: rock is the music of freedom. God turned his face to us and tests us again, and this is normal: whether we will hold out or nor, whether we will break or not. This is a serious thing. And what we're going through - this is normal. And I'm even grateful, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, that we have a new challenge connected with some kind of our mental work. It goes well. As for our Belarusian colleagues - hello and a huge bow!

Euroradio: Are you saying that you agree with the principle that an artist should be half-starved, or forbidden in order to be creative? 

Yury Shevchuk: I do not think that an artist must be hungry. The hunger for knowledge, for information, for inner freedom - this is normal, an artist is always hungry in the metaphysical sense.  As for the physical hunger, it is not easy to write anything then! I came through this already!

Euroradio: Perhaps these cancelled concerts will push you to new thoughts and new songs?

Yury Shevchuk: Well, I have enough life contemplations, enough of everything for the new songs. Everything is fine with this.