Interview with Atomic Simao

Keith Henderson

After the review of Nodo, here is my E-nterview with Jora Valchuk (drums), Dima Dudko (sax), and Ray Listratenko (guitar) of Atomic Simao (Kiev, Ukraine).

Of course, Ray is not currently playing with the band, but was a major player on the Nodo and Sphyro recordings and they may collaborate more in the future when circumstances allow. And he and Dima were kind enough to add their voices to my virtual conversation with founder/drummer Jora to help round out this interview portion.

Aural Innovations (AI): Atomic Simao is an interesting name. What does it mean? Simao looks Portuguese to me, in fact there's a well-known soccer player with that name. Coincidence?

Jora Valchuk (JV): Partially coincidence. Simao is really the surname of a Portuguese football player. I'm not really a fan of his talent. He's just a good player who once upon a time even played for FC Barcelona, but regardless of that I just love his surname, that's all :) So the name is just two words that sound nice together.

AI: How did the band start? Did you all come from other bands?

JV: I was dreaming about starting a band while I was playing as a percussionist in a band called "DoZa". I was looking for musicians to play experimental music without any borders. It wasn't as easy as I thought. There were a lot of jams in the garage with different people without any idea of what it's gonna be in the end. But one day we had a gig in Kharkiv and some of our members couldn't come and so we spontaneously asked Artyom to play with us on guitar. He was playing at that concert with his band Janovsky featuring Givotnoe. And he agreed to play. After that gig we found a lot of common musical things between us and we decided to collaborate with each other in spite of living in two different cities (Kharkiv and Kiev). So the first Atomic Simao line-up was: Artyom - guitar; Jora -drums; Vova - electronica; Andrey - guitar loop.

Ray Listratenko (RL): We all came from different bands. As for me I was playing in rock group called The Wind. We played acoustic ballads and new-age themes. That then transformed into electric psychedelic rock. Now I am deeply involved in loop technology. Discovering more space in hidden melodies.

Dima Dudko (DD): As for me, I was at the first Atomic Simao gig as a listener. And later after a rehearsal with the band called DoZa (who I played with then), I dropped by another concert by Simao. There we jammed and I was invited.

Atomic Simao, promo photo

AI: Did you have similar musical background, or more diversity? What other styles were involved? Did you have formal music training in school, or are you all self-taught?

DD: Some styles and bands we like are in common. We played a lot together with Jora and Bart before Simao. There were some common bands we played in. Later, the sax brought some jazzy notes into stoned Nodo-style Simao music :) That was after Nodo. I think we can call ourselves self-taught.

JV: We all have very different musical backgrounds. As for me I am self-taught drummer and was raised and influenced on break-beat and acid-jazz music. I think everyone brings a unique part of himself into our sound. Maybe this is a recipe!

RL: When I was a kid, my parents took me to a musical school to study accordion. I remember I was crying, begging them to stop torturing me :)

AI: To my ears, it seems like many of your songs must have started out as freeform jamming. Is that accurate, or are your songs more composed than that?

JV: Our first two albums we're totally free-jamming music. But now we're in process to release new material with new members. Third album will be more structured. A lot of drive-y funky space music with trippy saxophone sauce! :) It will be more organized and very diverse in comparison with our first albums.

DD: Even if some of them are actually composed beforehand, such a composing process is still a kind of jam-like type.

AI: Do you record "live" all at once in the studio, or through overdubbing to a rhythm track?

JV: It comes spontaneously. Totally improvised stuff. I can compare it with the "catch a wave" feeling, when everybody feels each other without a glance. But yes, we make overdubs when it's necessary, for example, some band members re-recorded almost all their parts when we all came back to Kiev after the Kharkiv trip to record at Driben Indie Records.

DD: I like the approach of combining these two methods. That's about us [in a nutshell].

RL: To record "live" all at once takes a special state of mind amongst all of the bandmates. You are not able to explain to everybody how he might sound or what to play next. The truth is you have it or you don't have it. Personally I felt such an inspiration for only the second time in my whole life thanks to all the people who took part there. I think it's pure magic.

AI: Between your two guitarists on Nodo, Artyom and Ray, it seems like you have a nice mixture of textural stylings and/or circular guitar licks combined with freak-out echo-guitar soloing a la Hendrix or Acid Mothers Temple. Have they been playing together for a long time, and how has their "chemistry" as a unit evolved?

JV: Artyom and Ray played before together and they also have a psychedelic/ambient/space-rock project called 'RayJa Expedition.' I think they perfectly complementary each other. You can find RayJa Expedition on VK (the "Russian Facebook").

RL: Artyom is the most comfortable guitar player I ever played with! You can improvise with him almost on the go and it all transforms into a beautiful melody.

AI: Now you've added saxophone to the mix, with the addition of Dima, so there's even a new lead instrument involved. How does everyone now combine their various riffs and solos without "stepping over" one another, so to speak? How does everyone communicate their intentions to each other when playing either in studio, or on stage, and how do you and the bassists adjust to what they're doing?

DD: Usually I try to solve this problem due to my habit of listening to the soloists in the band while I'm on the stage/rehearsal/studio. If there's a place for me at the moment I play. Let's say that instruments in the band are voices, then sometimes I get a chance to take part in some kind of a dialogue (Q&A for example) or play the same phrase/melody with the guitarist for example, even when it's getting really loud and messy and it seems that there's no place for an additional instrument. But sometimes it's possible to get carried away and to forget about others :) It happens. The two guitars plus sax period was tough :) But there were more possibilities and variety. Sphyro is a good example.

RL: When you play such kind of music you can always feel when there is time to step in and when it is time to support somebody who struggles while soloing :)

JV: The main thing is to listen to each other and then you'll have a chance that it's gonna be music, not sonic-gibberish. I think that the saxophone added a lot to our music. Now we have a sound very similar to sex between psychedelic and jazz music!

AI: I hear you will soon re-release your first album on vinyl in Greece [now available!]. Is the recent trend back towards vinyl amongst underground bands also present in the Ukraine as it is elsewhere?

DD: I think so, yes. Because a couple of underground bands I know in Ukraine are also getting vinyls released lately.

JV: I can remember The Crawls. They released their album with Nasoni Records on vinyl. But it's not a trend for the Ukrainian scene. It's more like a pleasant surprise.

Atomic Simao, promo photo

AI: How did you end up recording your albums at the studio in Kharkiv?

DD: It began with our Kharkiv fellows and I guess the reason was that this studio was a kind of popular place to record. In addition, some very popular Ukrainian performers were their clients. Then the place itself is interesting and cozy :) Interiors, animals, etc.

AI: Have you been able to put together traveling tours outside of Kiev, or are you mainly focused on doing individual shows and festivals here and there around the capital?

JV: We had a lot of gigs in Kiev and played shows in Kharkiv, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy. Also took part at Moscow Psych Festival in Russia, and had a gig in the famous St. Petersburg club 'Griboedoff.' And had two shows in Gomel, Belarus. Now we have plans to arrange our first European tour.

AI: How is the climate right now in Ukraine for underground (specifically psychedelic) music of this nature?

JV: I've discovered some good bands for last two years. Such as The Curse of Wendigo, Somali Yacht Club, Dreadnought, In Submarine, RayJa Expedition. A lot of talented people here in Ukraine we haven't heard yet, but we will!

DD: I think even psychedelic-like bands can be found in most of the large and medium cities here. Especially ones where different styles of music can be combined and associated with psychedelia. And overall, underground music I'm sure is widespread in every place throughout Ukraine :)

AI: When we first made contact, the political situation in Ukraine just involved street protests there in Kiev. Since then, of course, it turned into a real "hot" war for control in the east. How has this turmoil affected your daily lives, and what impact has it had on continuing the band? Has there actually been anything good come of the whole tragic situation?

DD: Thank God we are all alive and got the opportunity to go on with our music. Some of our current and former bandmates were rooting for the protests and some were against that. And some of us even managed not to quarrel about that and maintain normal relations between us. We were meeting different people in the eastern cities when we were on tour in the spring there. There were different points of view, but everywhere we met a community that was good to us and enjoyed our music. Even in Moscow in the end of spring we were met with hospitality at our gig. People wanted to hear us there for a long time. We met our fans, friends and relatives there. We wished peace to everybody from the stage. Those were good moments.

AI: Sun In Everyone is a track on your newest album, Sphyro, and you [Jora] sometimes use the pseudonym Sun Everyone for yourself (as you are credited on the Nodo album liner notes). Is this a concept that is important for your views on life, or anything spiritually?

JV: No it's not :) The dudes decided to name a song similar to my 'vk' account nickname. The truth is that these words belong to Socrates: "Sun is in everyone. Just let it shine."

DD: That track is one of my favourites. We thought the name was very appropriate and fitting :) A warm track and sunny sound plus a bit of philosophy.

AI: Where do you see the band heading in the near future? Have you thought of adding actual vocals, with written lyrics to some songs, or will you stay primarily instrumental?

DD: The sound of the third album will be different. A couple of other members added and yes, a tiny bit of vocal phrases.

JV: We added vocal partially to our third album, which we're hoping to release in March-April, 2015!

AI: Do you have hopes of making the band truly a financial success, or are you in it mainly for the artistic expression and creative outlet?

JV: Of course it would be nice! But it's not the main thing for me. We love the way we exist, the way we create our music, the way we joke about our music. These things really make me happy ! :)

DD: Financial success is actually not the goal, but who knows :)

Atomic Simao, promo photo

Stream and download the albums from the Atomic Simao Bandcamp site.