“We don’t want people to forget.”

On metal, touring, and the war in Ukraine
with Jinjer’s Eugene Abdukhanov

Photo by Alina Chernohorg

Jinjer is hands down the biggest metal band to come out of Ukraine. In spite of the Russian war on Ukraine, the band is now touring the world —raising money for charity, spreading awareness but also enjoying being musicians. WMC’s Lina Khatib sat down with Jinjer bassist Eugene Abdukhanov after their powerful set at Bloodstock Open Air 2022 to talk about their sound, metal from Ukraine, and what being called “ambassadors” is all about….

WMC: Nice to meet you, Eugene. Hope your family and loved ones are safe.

Eugene: Thanks for asking that, yes, everyone is alright. I am lucky to have all my family out of Ukraine at the moment.

WMC:  We were just watching your set – it was very touching to see people carrying Ukrainian flags in the audience. How do you feel when you see that?

Eugene: If you go back five or six years, and you just stumble upon any metalhead and ask them where Ukraine is, I am sure most of them will not know what this country is. And it just turned out to be that Jinjer was and is the first metal band to break through from Ukraine. Well, we must admit that a lot of people got to know about Ukraine because of Jinjer.
Some media already claimed back in the day, like three, four years ago, that Jinjer is the band to put Ukraine on the world map of metal music. So now, especially, during the war it’s very important for us to see flags and to see people supporting not only the band, but the whole country. And this is what gives us an extra charge of power, to understand that through Jinjer, people are helping the whole country. That’s something I am personally proud of.

WMC: You released an album in 2021. Are there plans for a next one under the circumstances?

Eugene: Obviously our plans were changed by fucking Putin. Yeah. Fuck that asshole. But now, what the reality taught me is that it’s very hard and almost impossible to plan. We are just trying to feel the moment we are living in. We have written new songs already. Yeah, under the shellings and bombings in Kyiv during the first weeks of war, Vlad, our drummer, wrote a bunch of cool songs. Then I wrote a couple, too. As soon as the Russians withdrew from Kyiv, I had the inspiration somehow. So new songs are already coming. But when they will be released it’s very hard to say. We definitely need to tour now because we are donating money in favour of Ukraine. And well, we just feel like it’s time to play. And shows now are on a bit of a different level of energy because we have so much inside to express.
And as soon as we are done with touring, we’ll sit down, lock ourselves in the studio, and dedicate some time to polish new songs. It is hard to say when the next album is going to be out. Maybe the end of 2023, maybe even 2024. What I can definitely say that new songs are already coming.

WMC: Has anything changed in your perspective as an artist regarding the sound of Jinjer?

Eugene: Actually no. We will always be a heavy band. We are not going to chase cheap popularity writing simple songs for the radio format. And as for the sound, it’s going to be heavy 100%. And it’s going to be as natural as we can make it because I am honestly sick and tired of bands nowadays using too many digital things—too many backing tracks, triggers, samples.
This is not what real live music should be because once you go on stage, there is only you and your instrument. Heavy, extreme, natural, progressive, we are what we are. We already have such a wide range, it’s easy to work within this range because we are not limited.\

WMC: And you also are now “ambassadors”.

Eugene: (Laughs) No. It’s a term created by the media. We are musicians from Ukraine who have a big fan base, and to be honest we are the biggest Ukrainian band worldwide. So, ambassadors or not, we just have the audience to speak to. Let the people call us what they want. The main point is to spread the news, to make everyone aware and to make everyone not forget.

WMC: Can you tell us a bit more about the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture? Because for a while you were not able to go out of Ukraine then you were given special permission?

Eugene: We are not the only band in this situation, there are many bands like this, hundreds of them.

WMC: But how did this process start? Is it the band that asks? Or did the Ministry reach out to the artists?

Eugene: In our case, we were first contacted by a festival that was meant to travel around Europe. We told them we already have all these festivals which we were meant to be playing booked and announced. So we either cancel all of them and join your festival, or we just have to play our own. They gave us the direct contact in the Ministry of Culture. We wrote an official letter and they let us out. This is how it happened.

WMC: But it’s also recognition of the importance of the arts in general, no?

Eugene: Well, (laughs) it’s a hard question. I honestly don’t think that the Ministry of Culture did even know about us. They just saw a bunch of festivals, audiences, and they saw that we were meant to be going to play them and they let us out. But I’m sure officials never heard of Jinjer.

WMC: Do you hope that the situation will change after the war is over?

Eugene: No, unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to change because bureaucracy is always bureaucracy. People who are sitting in ministries are very, very far away from real life.

WMC: This is common, unfortunately, in so many places.

Eugene: You know what I’m talking about. They only eat budget money and do nothing. On the other hand, we were granted this permission, I am extremely grateful for that.

WMC: Touring is already very exhausting for any band, but on top there is a war going on. So how do you keep going?

Eugene: We are musicians. We feel huge passion for this, otherwise we would not be doing this. We are playing music because we love playing music. I just go on stage and have fun, and honestly, these 45 minutes, one hour, one hour 20 minutes, depending on the set we play, is the only time when I don’t think about war. It’s the only time for me to forget about all the bullshit going on. Yeah, so perfect remedy.