Gogol Bordello's Great Global Revolution:

An Interview with Tommy Gobena

By Jessica Hopsicker

The bleach fumes were getting to me. As I went outside for a breath of fresh air and a cigarette, my drunken neighbor sat down beside me at the picnic table. It didn't take him long to question my choice of music that cranked through the open window of my ground floor apartment. “What the hell is this shit?”

“Celtic I think,” another neighbor quipped.

“Nah not this,” I grinned as if preparing to preach, “this is Gypsy Punk, Gogol Bordello, the guy's Ukrainian, he-“ It was then he cut me off by lifting a cheek and letting one rip in my direction, “I just dropped some ass, that's what I think about your gypsy shit.” He nodded, seeming rather pleased with his flatulence.

“Um, yeah, why don't you just go and beat your girlfriend a couple more times,” I bit back my retort, and smiled snidely nodding along with him, figuring it was time to take my leave. After all, I had better things to do; like scrubbing the toilet, and de-molding the shower ceiling tiles while dancing around like a maniac. Sure enough moments later, I happened upon the open window to see him pull his pick-up truck to where they sat drinking. Country music blared in retaliation.

At that moment, it became astoundingly clear that I had grown far too weird, and even cultured for such a small town. My neighbor's reaction was warranted from such a sonic strike. After all, I was stationed in my old high school district, where any significant change came few and far between. Librarians never heard of HP Lovecraft, and gas station clerks fight to find the word costume when you happen in to buy a cup of tea dressed as a pirate. The great global revolution that blew through bypassed this place entirely. Of course it would fall upon deaf ears, the concept of intermingling ideas and the blending of beliefs is simply unheard of. Lets face it cultural crossbreeding seems a far better route than inbreeding.

In 1999, the super eclectic, insanely eccentric and positively electric Gogol Bordello began. Since then they have broken borders not just in the physical landscape but the musical terrain as well. The man behind the maelstrom is the Kiev-born crazy Ukrainian Eugene Hutz. He blatantly displays his Gypsy roots from his descent from the Sirva Roma Gypsies in the Carpathian Mountains . After fleeing the Chernobyl meltdown his family had to migrate around Europe for refuge camps, but ultimately ended up here.

The roots of the revolution began in the Lower East Side of New York. Today the group hails from all walks of life and parts of the globe, bringing their roots and influences into a sound that is truly beyond classification.

Critics worldwide hail the live performances as legendary; and they are reserving the same kind of praise for the bands' newest accomplishment SUPER TARANTA!. Eugene himself dubbed it as ‘pure orgasmo hysteria'. The theme of the disk is New Rebel Intelligence, (NRI), a concept that the band developed by combining globalization with string theory, creationism, and political cataclysms with out and out melodic anarchy. It's a far cry from the brainless claptrap that saturates the media today.

Tommy Gobena, the Ethiopian-born bassist, is the newest addition to the calamitous menagerie. He takes this latest accomplishment to a different level entirely. Throwing the likes of reggae, funk, R&B, African Groove, and dub into the volatile cocktail. Initially, I was confounded, could there possibly be enough room? The more I listened, diving deeper into the circus of kick drums, violins, accordions, and guitars it became apparent that he was the one keeping the chaos together. Transforming it into a sound that is tighter than a wound clock.

It was blessing to finally interview someone in the band, after all with appearances on late night talk shows, NPR, Henry Rollins, Live Earth, and a new album on their plate, it seemed as if it would never happen. Through cell phone static and an ocean between us, for fifteen minutes I made the Tribal Connection. He assured me that they weren't going to slow down any time soon.

JH: So, where exactly am I calling right now?

TG: I'm somewhere on the road closer to England .

JH: Sounds like fun.

TG: Yes, it's a long drive.

JH: So, how is it to be a bassist in a band where there are so many other things going on at any given time during a show?

TG: You know it actually complements the whole sound because all the other instruments are really high-sounding instruments. The violin, the accordion, the guitar. So they are very high on the frequency side, then the bass comes in really low. So it like fills in the space in between. It's actually a very well planned out on top kind of idea. So it's great.

JH: Right, what does your background bring to the sound?

TG: Well, I'm Ethiopian originally, so I come from a lot of African-groove, dub, reggae kind of background. I also played R&B and funk and stuff like that. So all my influences are based on grooves that are a little bit heavier on the bass. They were looking for a bass player like that. I never heard of them initially but after I auditioned for them I really loved the originality and the honesty and the energy they have. So I went in for the audition and it worked out really nice. They liked the kind of background I have, they were actually looking for people like me.

JH: That is pretty much my next question is: how did you happen along with this musical revolution?

TG: Our sound engineer is friends with a friend of mine that is a producer in New York . When they were looking for a bass player, they called my friend and they're like, "we need a bass player, do you know anyone?" And I had worked with him closer to the time they called him and he said, "Why don't you call Thomas and see if he is interested?" So they called me, and I listened to it, and it was great. I went in for an audition and ended up jamming for seven hours straight. So it was like a match made in heaven kind of a choice.

JH: What is it like working with someone with the likes of Eugene ?

TG: It's great. He's a very creative, vibrant person. It's never boring, it's always fun, and the fact that we all come from different places so we get to work off of each other's differences in cultures and whatnot, so it's very colorful.

JH: And the music itself, I mean gypsy, speed metal, dub, reggae, flamenco, punk; I mean how do you classify such a genre?

TG: You don't classify it as a genre. You classify it as good music.

JH: Clearly, it is.

TG: It is what it is. Like you said, the influences that we come from and that's how it works. We bring people like that together and put them in a creative environment and it comes out naturally. It's a natural progression.

JH: And it is refreshing to hear something other than consumer-driven music about status symbols or woe-be-gone drivel.

TG: Absolutely. That's what I liked about the band I first heard it. I'd never heard anything like that in my life before. That's sort of really attracted me and the rest was for me to actually play with them and find out. We love to find out how other people are, you know? Sometime gigs like that end up just being like you go into an office or something. You don't really like it, but you get paid for it. I wasn't looking for something like that. But when I went in and played for them and met everybody, and these are beautiful people, you know we're like family now. It's good to know that when you join a band.

JH: Exactly, and it isn't like work.

TG: No, it's not work. It's work from the fact that its known to be demanding; when we're touring and stuff we're driving twenty-four hours at times. Like we're doing it right now. But when you get on stage everything become something else.

JH: The fans are completely different animals themselves. How do you invoke such anarchy?

TG: It's just exchange of energy. They see us do what we do on stage. They ask, "can you give it back to us?" And we give it back to them and it's like a symbiotic relationship. It just gives you hope that not the whole music industry is driven by money and all that other stuff. That's actually music. You go and play in front of a crowd like that and you know what's good and what's bad right off the bat. Nobody can fake what we have on stage and nobody can fake what the crowd is reacting like. It's not driven by anything else but the good music. It sort of conveys a refreshing kind of environment.

JH: Exactly. I saw the show at Bonnaroo while I was covering it and it was just completely insane.

TG: Absolutely, absolutely.

JH: I was up front swinging around in like ninety plus heat. So much dust.

TG: You forget all those things once the music starts. You complain before and you complain after but during you just lose yourself in the music.

JH: Exactly. Even when I nearly busted my toes.

TG: That happens sometimes as well. I hope you're doing well now.

JH: It was amazing.

JH: Do you think you'll ever be able to outdo yourself with this SUPER TARANTA!? I mean clearly it's the best album yet.

TG: Yeah, it keeps getting better. That's the whole thing about music and musicians. You know once you're in the right path, there's no way to go back. You just keep creating. Especially with bands like us, it's not really commercial driven. It's always about the creativity and taking it to the next level. Bands that are concerned about other stuff might lose track of what they're doing and go a different place, but we really focus on our art and what we do and the creativity and where all that stuff really comes from. I have no doubt that the next one will be even better than this one.

JH: The band has been described as legendary in the global touring circuit.

TG: I believe it.

JH: Did you ever think it would be that way?

TG: Definitely. Of course, there's no reason why we can't be, you know? Like I said, SUPER TARANTA! was taking everything to the next level. So whatever the next album that we have, it's the same people, same creative energy, different experiences and we'll try to reflect on those and take it to the next level once again. We're not about to slow down.

JH: My next question is, what's next for you, and/or Gogol Bordello?

TG: Well, we just released a new album, so it's going to be basically tour-driven. We just did a summer leg in Europe and we're going to do a little west coast thing for a week and a half next, come back and do a whole US tour in October, and all European tour in November and December. So, basically support the album for now. I'm sure if side projects pop up that we might hear about in the future, but that's what we're doing.

JH: You're clearly making waves in the music industry.

TG: I hope so. I mean we don't want to go mainstream just for just the Hell of being commercial, but we want to bring the mainstream to our little corner party. So as long we're bringing people together, that's great.

JH: Is there anything else you want to add to college students who are fans?

TG: I know we're doing a show at Virginia Tech sometime in October. So they should look out for us. Hopefully people will be inspired to be creative and original in whatever they do. Especially college students need to hear stuff like that.