First, let me introduce the participants of this interview:
Band Malinconia: Anton Goncharov - drums Vladimir Shulga - rhythm guitar Vitaly Derevyankin - bass guitar Tatyana Mikhailova - vocals Yuri Politko - guitar Elena Chebanenko - keyboards
Aktsent: How long has the band been around, and what was the idea behind starting it? Anton: Malinconia was formed on the basis of the band Constellation. The birth date would be January 8, 2004 — that's when we had our first rehearsal with vocalist Tatyana Mikhailova. The band that existed before played lighter music, and the vocalist sang in a clean voice. When Tanya joined, we started playing heavier music.
Aktsent: What does the band's name mean? Anton: Malinconia (from Old Italian) means sadness, melancholy. I think the name reflects what we want to convey to people — dramatic, depressive, heavy-laden romanticism.
Aktsent: What style does your band play exactly? Vitaly: The posters say Gothic-doom. But really, we play whatever music we like. Tanya: All I can say is that we play music — what people call it is a different question entirely.
Aktsent: Who is responsible for writing the music and lyrics in the band? Anton: Most of the band's lyrics are written by Anton Eine (the brother of our former keyboardist), with whom we stay in touch. Lately, Lena has been showing her talents — she writes very profound and dramatic lyrics. I write most of the music.
photo from that very performance at the "Premiere of the Century" festival
Aktsent: Do you plan to change your style in the future? Anton: We don't plan to radically change our genre for now, because we haven't exhausted ourselves yet. We have 6-7 full compositions and around 20-25 more fragments written, so there's so much we still want to do in this style. Last time we experimented with growl vocals, but if you listen to the people — who always speak the truth — the experiment wasn't entirely successful. Still, we plan to use growl in the future, though it won't overshadow the female vocals, since that's our main vocal style.
Aktsent: Which well-known musicians are your friends? Vitaly: These are people widely known in narrow circles, such as GrimFaith, Tedeum, Atmosfera, Nikolai Ratov.
Aktsent: Do you plan to do a duet with anyone, shoot a music video, or find a producer? Tanya: Right now we occasionally practice a vocal duet — my voice and growl. Yura: We're planning to play with Nikolai Ratov. Vitalik: A music video is in the works, but we won't reveal the details just yet. Tanya: As for a producer, we don't have one, and we're not actively looking, but who knows — maybe offers will start coming in soon.
Aktsent: What gigs and festivals have you taken part in? Anton: This year the band played around 10 shows. It's been the most eventful year in the band's history — our lineup is only 9 months old, and we've already performed at many Kyiv venues (Barvy, Oriyana), played a show in Illichivsk at the "2 Kapitany" club, in Vinnytsia at "Terorraiser Fest", and in Chernihiv at the Summer Theatre during the "Wind of Change" festival. The band also took part in a gig at the Torba club at the end of June. And now we're performing in Kherson for the second time.
Malinconia's first encounter with Kherson
Aktsent: We noticed that Tanya and Lena wear costumes for performances. Tanya: I wouldn't call them costumes in the full sense — it's clothing that creates, let's say, a certain mood.
Aktsent: How did the band's costume style develop? Does it relate to the subculture of the music you play? Did a designer work on your image? Tanya: Our clothing style is actually pretty ordinary, civilized, so to speak. But as far as I know, everyone prefers black — though without going overboard. We haven't really worked on this much yet, but I don't think the guys need to be dressed in latex with painted nails. We play gothic-doom, but we're not goths.
Aktsent: Who is your musical guru? Anton: LACUNA COIL Tanya: Emma Chapplin Vitaly: Lacrimosa Vladimir: IN FLAMES Yuri: DIMMU BORGIR, and of course TATU :)
Aktsent: What hobbies do band members have besides music? Vitaly: I absolutely love fishing. Vladimir: I collect lighters — apart from music, that's my only hobby. Tanya: Music is both my life and my hobby. Yura: Work, computers, trivia games. Lena: Philosophy — I work as a university lecturer. Anton: Music, the internet, and my pets (fish, a turtle).
Aktsent: We know what russian rock is, but what is Ukrainian rock — does it even exist? Lena: russian rock is a genre; Ukrainian rock is a phenomenon — very polyphonic and multifaceted. People call "Ukrainian rock" whatever they want, whatever seems trendy to label that way, so nobody can say for sure what it really is. Ukrainian rock is all the bands, all the musicians who dare to call themselves that.
Aktsent: What do you think about the quality of Kherson's rock scene? Yuri: I can't say much about the quality of Kherson's rock scene because we haven't heard that much of it, but from what we heard here at the festival, I'd say it's very high quality, at a pretty high level. They could even give some of our Kyiv bands a run for their money.
Aktsent: What kind of music does Kyiv listen to? Anton: In Kyiv you can find musicians playing in any underground style. There are a lot of bands. Everyone finds what they like.
Aktsent: What are your plans for the future? Yuri: In the new year we plan to record an album and shoot a music video (as mentioned above).
Aktsent: What would you like to wish Kherson? Anton: We wish Kherson growth in its music infrastructure. Lena: Inspiration and self-fulfillment. Anton: More good bands and concerts — so that people truly listen, take in what they're hearing, let it pass through their hearts, touch them, and spark positive emotions and inner goodness.