Ukrainian art now – during the russian invasion – unites its citizens all over the world. For the past two years since the start of the full-scale-russian invasion, the Ukrainian rapper has been volunteering, participating in charity concerts, as well as releasing countless acclaimed tracks. KALTBLUT caught up with Alyona Alyona on the last day of her European tour to talk about her creative process, musical inspirations and her future projects.
KALTBLUT: Alyona, it’s nice to welcome you here in Berlin. How are you doing?
Alyona Alyona: I’m fine. I’m accumulating my last power to give it today to people who are coming to this gig. As today is the end of my tour and we are performing at such an iconic venue, Kantine am Berghain, we’re all really excited.
KALTBLUT: Absolutely, thank you so much for coming to Berlin! I hope you had a nice day so far?
Alyona Alyona: Coming to Berlin is always a pleasure. Usually, I come here once a month. Last year, I was here in May, June, July, August and September, either for charity, festivals or private work. I was here a lot. This year is different, it’s only my second time here. Something changed, but I’m happy to be here.
KALTBLUT: We’re happy to have you here, too. Today is the last concert in your European tour. How are you feeling?
Alyona Alyona:: It’s not a big tour but the road between the different cities was a bit hard. Some cities are approximately 100 kilometres away, which was easy. Our last concert was in Antwerpen, Belgium, so coming here took us more than 700 kilometres in one day.
It was also our only day off, which we spent sitting in the car. Today, I had half of the day off, so I spent the time recording in a studio with a German rapper. These times, I feel like I need to grasp each possibility I have to collaborate with other musicians as much as I can even when the time is limited. It’s the only possibility we have to spend this time together. So I spent time at the studio – no shopping, no nothing!
I kept telling myself: “Alena, you got to pull yourself together. No shopping.”
KALTBLUT: You mentioned that today you collaborated with another German artist. Tell me a little about that?
Alyona Alyona: We were shooting the music video for “Pushka”, filmed in Berlin, with Yetundey. She was our guide and dancer in my video. We didn’t actually plan it, but she’s a great dancer, so we said “come on, join us, let’s dance”.
Some time later, when I had my first gig here in Berlin, she was my opening act. And now we’re making a feature! It’s nice but it also feels like I never have time anymore. Today I said to her that five years ago I used to have time, but now in these unprecedented times, it’s tough. The time we have is precious.
KALTBLUT: Tell us more about the studio session. As you’re known for so many features, how is the process of collaborating with music artists from different backgrounds and countries who speak a different language to yourself?
Alyona Alyona: I think we have to have the same passion and feeling for music. We either get along with each other creatively, or we don’t.
With Yetunde, she sent me the example for a feature of her part way back in April. Only now we had the possibility to record it. Back then, when I heard the track, I could instantly feel that it matched my musical direction, which meant we had to do a feature!
For me, it’s always about feeling it. If the energy is the same, it’s cool. Today, our recording process looked like this: I wrote my verse and she tried to do some backing vocals for me in Ukrainian.
She already speaks fluent German, English and French, so singing in Ukrainian came easy to her. From the first take, the recording sounded great. I was impressed. For me, rapping in German is a little bit harder, so I didn’t attempt to repeat some parts of her lyrics.
It’s all about that gut feeling, if it feels right for you or not. It’s good to have the power of choice that we have now. Today, at the show, you will hear our song “Kupala” featuring Ela from Germany. This track really presents how two cultures and languages can mix well together. We did some backing vocals for her part. It was beautiful when she sang it.
What excited her about the project was combining Ukrainian melody with German language. When Ukrainians hear German words in Ukrainian native melody, it amazes us. It sounds natural.
KALTBLUT: It’s interesting because you’re almost bridging between countries with music.
Alyona Alyona: Yes! Sometimes, it feels like a step to push people to translate the lyrics and figure out what the song is about. As I look back into my childhood, I remember how I used to listen a lot to Eminem. Back then, I didn’t know what he was rapping about. Of course, having grown up I looked at the lyrics and understood them better. Sometimes, he was rapping about something controversial, but at that moment, I didn’t know and I didn’t care, I just listened and fell in love with rap. That’s how my passion for rap started.
KALTBLUT: Today is also a special day for you because it marks the date that your first single which kickstarted your musical career, “Rybky”, came out.
Alyona Alyona: Oh yes, “Rybky”, I remember this day… It was really cool.
KALTBLUT: How would you describe your musical journey since then so far?
Alyona Alyona: Time has passed pretty fast. This tour allowed me to reflect on the five-year-span of my career so far. We had a pandemic for two years and the following years until now, we’re at war. I ask myself, what have I done in these past five years? Sitting at home because of the pandemic or volunteering because of war. But I’m happy to live my life. I believe it was meant to be like this.
KALTBLUT: On this day a couple of years ago, you co-founded the label ENKO. How has the label progressed until now?
Alyona Alyona: I’m happy to be a part of the label that opened a lot of new directions for Ukrainian artists, which are aimed specifically at the development of Ukrainian music. I’m excited with what we have come up with this year.
This day is a special date for me. Every October 17th, since we launched the label, we release a newly launched ENKO project. This year, we’re proud to present ENKO SOUNDS, a portal of Ukrainian samples of more than 600 ethnic instrumental and vocal melodies.
It was created and recorded by some of the best Ukrainian artists and producers. So while making a track, we’d usually go to Splice and buy some samples, some melodies from different countries to mix in our tracks. Now, we have a Ukrainian pack and everybody can buy samples and put them in a song. Maybe they will even write their biggest hit with this sample!
It’s not only a Ukrainian song, but it has a Ukrainian soul. When I write my tracks, I really like to put some melodies or beats from other countries into my music. In my music, there are some parts of different worlds, cultures, and souls – it fuels my creative process. People feel it and recognise the melody and the harmony. One of the main missions in my music for me has always been, and will be, the development and support of young Ukrainian artists. I hope that these samples will inspire some world producers, artists and beat makers to use our melodies in their songs.
One of the main missions in my music for me has always been, and will be, the development and support of young Ukrainian artists.
KALTBLUT: Was it always an intention of yours to have some traditional elements of Ukrainian music in your songs?
Alyona Alyona: A little bit. I always like to put them in our songs, for our heritage. When we wrote beats before, we didn’t have a Ukrainian pack, which is why we used some other packs from other countries. The base of all fundamentals of music come from Asian and Indian melodies, which is why I like to put those elements into my songs, too. Now, I feel that having released our Ukrainian pack out worldwide, we are on a similar level. Now, any artist in the world can have a bit of Ukrainian soul in their music.
KALTBLUT: What is it like to be a female rapper in the Ukrainian Hip Hop scene?
Alyona Alyona: I don’t know. I can’t tell whose decision it was, was it written in heaven or someone else’s, to make it a woman who will become the first famous Ukrainian rapper to be recognised in the world and who will open the doors for many more talents. Now, we have a big scene.
In the beginning, some people on the Internet said, if we talk about the start of the Ukrainian Hip Hop scene, this woman is the one and I’m not proud of it. It feels that in Ukraine, women always held a special power. Since the time of the Cossacks, men would be in the war fighting and a woman would stay at home.
Every child, every animal in the yard was always on the woman’s shoulders. Sometimes, most of the things in Ukraine are in women’s hands. Maybe in the Ukrainian Rap scene, it was the same? I turned the wheel and then the other men and women started to follow. We can say I trail-blazed a way for others, of which I’m proud of. I had to do it first. I think in history it usually happens like this.
Keep up with Alyona Alyona on her Instagram at @alyona.alyona.official to keep up with new music and shows.
Photos provided by Alyona Alyona’s management.
