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Gogol Bordello’s leader Eugene Hutz has spoken out about his love for his adopted homeland of Brazil, where the band’s new record was written and produced.
The eccentric Hutz has said it was not an overnight decision to move to the South American hotspot saying: “I was always drawn to Brazil in many ways but it has taken 10 years for me to make the move. We were already experimenting with Brazilian drumming and making collaborations with Brazilian immigrants in New York.”
The deciding factor for Hutz to set up base in the vibrant Rio de Janeiro was a new love concern in his life, the Ukrainian front man said:
“It clicked even more so when I met a girl that was living in Rio de Janeiro – that really made the call. Once I got there I also fell in love with the whole country. It just kind of happened. I was lucky to have really good first experiences there.”
He spent a lot of time with his friend Manu Chao to begin with and travelled widely through Brazil searching for an authentic experience to really appreciate “all its power”.
He said: “There were lots of lucky circumstances and events that led up to that. It all became very inspirational for the new album.”
“My anonymity there lasted only so long,” he says, “but at the same time that does not get in the way of anything because Brazilians are really homey, they don’t really get on anybody’s back – they’re way too smooth for that.”
His freedom in this new and exotic environment gave Hutz a unique perspective on Brazilian life. A great stock of “non-touristic kind of experiences” fed their way into his work.
Hutz also described how he never really felt all that Ukrainian to begin with having been brought up in a culturally rich family. He said “I was brought up in a very mixed home– in a good sense – where elements of other cultures were celebrated.”
“There was gipsy culture from my mother’s side and a big Western influence from my dad who was just a rock and roll fanatic. All these things souped up into quite a cosmopolitan atmosphere to begin with.”
Gogol Bordello are on an epic world tour that began in New York in March and ends in London in December. The band have been showcasing their onstage talents all over the world with their latest album Trans-Continental Hustle.
Check out Gogol Bordello on their official site: