TRANSLATED USING GOOGLE TRANSLATE FROM EUREKA MAGAZINE – SPANISH LANGUAGE VERSION
Eureka Digital’s Post
He is a legend of Russian punk, went into exile in Argentina for opposing Putin and the war against Ukraine, and loves Argentine rock.
Dmitry Spirin is a leading figure in Russian punk rock. His protest music and fervent criticism of the government forced him to leave his country and come to Argentina, where he found the rock scene of his dreams. He was already a great connoisseur of Argentinian punk bands before arriving here, and now he dreams of translating their songs into Russian.
Dmitry is one of the leading figures of punk in Russia, a genre that exploded in the 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union. His band Tarakany! (Cockroaches!) spearheaded a new movement in which young people, with greater individual freedoms, took to the streets to celebrate with rock music that spoke of fun, parties, and alcohol.
However, with Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, certain rights were once again restricted, and many musicians expressed their discontent. Those who opposed the government, like him, began to fall victim to censorship. He, simply for publicly expressing his support for Alexei Navalny, the Russian prime minister’s most prominent opponent, was criminally charged and forced to move to Hungary.
After the start of the war against Ukraine, he had no choice but to go into exile outside of Europe and chose to settle in Argentina, drawn by the quality of life and the punk scene, of which he declared himself a fan even before visiting the country. “Bands like Attaque 77 and Cadena Perpetua are really good. There’s something in the melodies of the songs and in the language that, even though I don’t understand a word, touches my soul,” he tells LA NACION in his first interview with an Argentine media outlet. With his first solo album recently released—the anti-war album Guerra Caliente—he is putting together a band to share his music with the local audience.
–When did you start writing songs against Putin?
Tarakany! was a punk-pop band. We started in 1991, a time when Russia was full of expectations, fun, and energy because 70 years of communism were over and the country was taking its first steps toward a new life, normal and integrated into the world. For my generation, the ’90s were full of hope, and we made happy songs about adolescence, girls, and partying. That’s how it was for the first ten years, until a new era arrived where we began to express darker and sadder feelings about issues like nationalism and racism, and to voice our opposition to Putin, who was showing his first signs of tyranny, attacking freedom of expression, shutting down television channels, and imprisoning those who opposed his policies.
–How did openly opposing the government affect the band?
“Putin’s regime is a full-scale dictatorship, and many rock bands denounce it through our songs, album covers, t-shirts, interviews, and music videos. In recent years, even before the war against Ukraine began, this tyranny started persecuting people and launched a crusade against us. They blacklisted us and canceled our concerts. During the pandemic, they disguised these restrictions as anti-Covid measures. We were even prevented from playing in cities that had hosted live shows the day before or the day after, because the necessary health conditions weren’t met for ours. Then, I was charged with a minor offense for posting a video supporting Navalny because the Russian government considered it inciting violence under one of the many laws they’ve passed that restrict civil rights. My lawyer recommended that I leave Moscow, so my wife and I went to our second home in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.”
–How did the invasion of Ukraine affect you?
“In February 2022, we knew something was happening on the border. When the war started, Tarakany! came to an end: I knew I would never be able to return to Russia. My anti-war stance there had become a crime. For me, it was an absolutely unbelievable situation. I can’t remain silent. I couldn’t imagine being in my country, playing with my band, and not saying a word about the greatest tragedy of my life, and I think of the lives of many Russians, and of course, the Ukrainian people. When the Soviet Union fell, we ceased to be an evil empire in the eyes of others. My generation never imagined that our own country would start a war, not with aliens or an evil organization, but against our own brothers. I felt betrayed. That’s why I stayed in Europe.”
–But then you also made the decision to leave Europe…
Many of us started to. We felt that our nationality was a disgrace and our passports a burden. We don’t want millions of people to see us as passive supporters of Putin or the war, because you can’t explain to everyone that this isn’t the case. It’s not that we feel discriminated against by people, but the local authorities started making our lives more difficult when it came to visas and residence permits. I understand: we are citizens of an aggressive country that started the first major war in Europe since the Balkan conflict. Moreover, Hungary is ruled by Viktor Orbán, who is a petty dictator. So we looked for another place to relocate that had a good standard of living, was welcoming to immigrants, and reflected our values ??of democracy, freedoms, and human rights—everything we lost in Russia.
–And they chose Argentina…
Yes, we found that Argentina met all those criteria. We came to visit the country in May 2022 and it was love at first sight. We knew right away that this was the country for us. We moved in November 2022 and we’ve been here for three years now; we even adopted a stray dog, but I still don’t speak Spanish, which is embarrassing.
–What was it like starting over with your music in such a distant country?
“Since the war broke out, I haven’t felt like making music. I was too depressed to write, so my first year and a half in Argentina was about adapting, but I wasn’t involved in any creative process. Later, a friend suggested we organize shows for Russian bands in Buenos Aires, and we managed to bring over a band called Nogu Svelo!, based in the United States. Their leader, Max Pokrovsky, who is like a brother to me and my favorite Russian musician, never stopped playing, and after the invasion, he started writing songs against the conflict. At his concerts, I discovered that a musician could fight with just his microphone and guitar and not seem irrelevant or stupid. He inspired me so much that I looked for an electric guitar on Facebook and bought it. I put it away for a while, and when I took it out again months later, I was seized by a kind of creative fever, from which many songs about the war emerged. I feel like I’m at a stage where it’s not just art, but a political statement.”
–Is that how you recorded your first solo album, Guerra Caliente?
“I met another Russian musician in Argentina, Vladimir Skorokhodov, who helped me record some demos. I then sent them to the former guitarist of Tarakany!, who lives in Georgia, so he could produce them and record some of the instruments. Now I’m hoping to add a drummer to the band so we can play here in Buenos Aires. In fact, I’m already working on my second album, which will feature covers of anti-war and anti-Putin bands from the Russian underground who are even trying to release their music there. Their voices aren’t that big yet, so they send me their songs so that I, as a former member of a famous band, can give them more exposure.”
–Did you know anything about Argentine rock before coming to Argentina?
American rock isn’t that big in Russia. Not many people there listen to that music. Ten or fifteen years ago, someone uploaded some Argentinian punk rock albums to a Ramones forum, and I thought they were really good, by bands like Attaque 77, Cadena Perpetua, and Expulsados. I think it’s a shame that these groups aren’t known worldwide. For my third album, I’d like to translate my favorite Argentinian punk songs into Russian so my people can know how brilliant the scene is here.
–What do you like most about Argentina?
“In Russia, Western rock isn’t very popular, while here I see tons of people wearing Ramones t-shirts, a band I’m a huge fan of. Actually, the only pictures I’d seen of the country were from one of their concerts in Buenos Aires. I don’t know if there’s a country in the world like Argentina in terms of its attitude toward rock, and that made me even happier than I already was. I immediately started building my collection of Argentine rock vinyl records and going to concerts. One of my favorite bands is Los Ramonos, who play Ramones songs dressed as monkeys. I remember on my second day here I went to see Richie Ramone and I immersed myself in the Argentine Ramones culture and I felt at home, not in my country, but in my own environment. The people were my age, dressed like me, very relaxed, and they liked the same music I did. I was in the middle of the crowd and I thought, ‘Thank God I’m in Argentina. This is my new life!’”
