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Death Pill: The Ukrainian female punk trio separated by Russia’s war – ‘I don’t choose to live in a horror film’ | Ents & Arts News


From an underground music club in Ukraine’s capital, Mariana Navrotskaya couldn’t hear the air raid warnings ringing above her. It was her groupmate Anastasiia Khomenko who informed her after checking online that there was a nationwide alert in effect at the time they made the Zoom call.

“It’s good that you’re in a shelter,” she told her friend, worried but no longer shocked by what was happening in her hometown. “It’s my every day,” Mariana replied.

It’s 2pm in Kiev, 1pm for Anastasiia, who lives in Barcelona, ​​and 10:30pm for the third member of their trio, Nataliia Seryakova, who is now in Adelaide, southern Australia.

Crossing time zones, thousands of miles apart, three members of the feminist punk trio Death Pill reunited for the first UK news interview – it turns out, it’s also the first time The three of them first met each other. though on the screen, since they were split right after starting Russiawar of Ukraine 10 months ago.

Ukrainian band Death Pill

While Nataliia, 25, could temporarily move to Australia to work, Mariana, 26, chose to stay in Kyiv. Anastasiia, 29, made the difficult decision to bring her son Orest, who turned eight in November, to safety in Spain; leaving her husband Evgenij.

“When the war started, I didn’t want to leave Kiev,” she told Sky News. “But I knew I had to because I had a child and I wanted him to be safe and have a better life.

“Every time I think of the children in Ukraine, it breaks my heart. They have an airborne warning system, they [having to go] down to the shelter… it was a very difficult decision. I don’t want to emigrate. I love my country very much.”

Heavy punk trio Death Pill on the current lineup starts in 2021, when bass player Nataliia joins. Emerging from Ukraine’s diverse underground music scene, they have recorded their self-titled debut album and are ready to go out into the world.

“After all, rock music isn’t just about sadistic men with long curly hair, right?” Mariana said in their advertisement.

But then war broke out. For the first month, Anastasiia and her family slept in the bathroom, the safest place. Now, she’s away from her husband and parents – her father is fighting for Ukraine – and she and her band mates are spread across the world.

Despite the distance, they have been trying to perfect their online album ever since they were apart.

Their releases so far have started to resonate and they have been named by Metal Hammer as one of the 10 interesting new bands to watch out for in 2023. Signed with New Heavy Sounds in the US. London, plans to release it on 24 February 2023 – marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the war – and they are all hoping that one day, hopefully soon, they will be gone. tour together.

While it was never meant to be this way, the aim now is to use their platform to further raise awareness of what is happening in Ukraine.

“Right now we have a dream team, our golden trio,” Anastasiia said. “We played in a lot of cities in Ukraine… now we have a lot of attention from Europe, America. And we appreciate that because we can spread the word about it. fight.

“We can share all this information from people who are actually living and going through this… we woke up on February 24th after the missile attacks. That’s not a statement. transmission, but real life.”

‘A year ago we had it all’

Ukrainian band Death Pill

In recent months, Russia attacks energy supplies, causing power outages across Ukraine. That’s why Mariana put herself in the music club, where the generator is located, for this interview; She cannot be contacted from her home.

Despite everything, she is resilient. “It makes me stronger and stronger,” she said. “You absolutely cannot imagine this situation.

“It’s difficult to live in Ukraine – in Kiev, in any other city – because you need to find electricity, internet, water.

“A year ago, you had it all and you didn’t think about it. Now… when you read the history of World War II, you think it was terrible, but now is another time, it won’t. never happens again… I can’t find words to explain it’s f***** up.

“But now, it’s fun to live here because you understand the importance of everything that you [thought] to be…”

“Basically,” Anastasiia replied to her. They now appreciate the everyday things that they have been granted.

Nataliia and Anastasiia tell their bandmate that they think she is more active now than before the war.

“I’m going through big changes, and that’s great,” she replied. “How strong do you see the Ukrainians are?” Anastasiia talking about her friend.

But they miss each other. Brought together by a common desire to make music that has something to say, to stand out from the crowd, they yearn to see each other in person again.

I asked them how they feel about not being able to play together at the moment. “You want to see our tears?” Mariana replied. “It’s a very sad question.”

“It’s ***,” Nataliia said. “You can’t plan. So I just know, for example, what I can do in half a year. But after that, I don’t know. It’s slow, but it’s as good as it can be. That’s what it is. to be .”

‘We smashed patriarchy, now we smash Russia’

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One positive thing that emerged from the war was the underground music community coming together to support their country.

“Because we have a lot of people who are artists, musicians, great people of the nation [who] now have weapons to defend their country, to defend the whole of Europe,” Anastasiia said.

Nataliia says that Russian artists with any kind of background who are in other parts of the world and can see what’s really happening – rather than “propaganda” – should also stand up. protect Ukraine.

“Even many famous artists from Russia say nothing about it, and this is terrible,” she said. “[People say] they were born in Russia, but they have mouths to speak.”

She said that she had lost contact with some of her family members in Russia because they did not believe in the truth about what was happening in Ukraine.

“When the war started… there were a lot of explosions not far from me,” she said. “I saw an explosion in the window, it was 5km from my house.”

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Anastasiia says Russia has “taken everything” from us. “I miss being carefree because I’m no more. When I see [in Spain] a lot of people, they are very happy, carefree. I am so happy for each of them, and for you that you will never get what we have in life.

“But in a different way, I feel very angry because we’ve had this too in our lives. We’re also carefree and do silly things, just hang out and [making] music in Ukraine. And now the people of Ukraine just need to survive…

“To all the people who are supporting Russian terrorists, I want them to see what it’s like. I want them to open their eyes, in a horrible way. It’s the truth and it’s their life. We don’t want that and we don’t deserve it.”

Returning to Ukraine for the summer to see her husband, Anastasiia plans to do so again next year. “I’ll see Mariana,” she said. “We’ll play together, maybe sing some songs.”

Mariana said: “We broke the patriarchy together and now together we smash Russia.

“Right now for us, it’s our life,” Anastasiia said. “For me, it’s like I’m living in a movie. But I didn’t choose to live in a horror movie. I wanted a movie where we were rock stars.”

Death Pill released their self-titled debut album through the New Heavy Sounds label in London on February 24, 2023.

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