As the lights dim over Ukrainian Fashion Week’s main catwalk, all eyes are on Margaryta Kulichova and her outrageous head adornment: dried sunflower stems and flowers woven into an unusual crown. But then, instead of striking a pose like a model, Kulichova turns on a synthesizer and starts singing.
Kulichova is one of the two main members of Grisly Faye, a new Ukrainian electronic music band. Sitting beside her is the other, Ievhen Matkovsky, who plays electronic drums.
But Grisly Faye has won admirers as much for their look as their sound, and a third, unofficial member of the band is Daria Melnik, who works as a stylist. Melnik makes handmade outfits and accessories, including the flowery crown Kulichova is wearing.
Melnik says that the idea for this particular adornment came to her when she was visiting her grandfather in Kryvyi Rih on the way back from a tour, and she came across a huge field of sunflowers. The scene reminded her of the awakening of nature after a long winter, she says.
Melnik creates a different look for Kulichova for almost every performance.
Favor underground clubs
Because of its members’ stylish look, Ukrainian designer Elena Golets asked Grisly Faye to perform at her fashion show during the 38th Ukrainian Fashion Week. But this glamorous and crowded event is actually a rather unusual place for Grisly Faye to perform: they mostly hold concerts in small underground clubs, which accommodate 250-300 people, or give outdoor performances in the forest and mountains. The band has performed in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, as well as Ukraine.
Nature is a common theme not just in the band’s look, but in its music. Grisly Faye mixes tones from analog synthesizers with vocals and sounds of nature recorded outdoors into hypnotizing melodies.
Grisly Faye’s two musicians create their songs together, but Kulichova was the one who came up with idea to record the sounds of nature and city life, and inserting them in the tunes.
“The idea is to take outdoor sounds and bring them to electronic music. I keep hearing a lot of things that sometimes irritate me or amaze me. I try to seize these sounds, retain them and reproduce them,” Kulichova says.
The band was founded by Kulichova and Polish musician Wojtek Szupelak in March 2014. They performed together for a year, but then Szupelak left Grisly Faye to pursue a solo career. Matkovsky join the band in the summer of 2015.
The band has just finished an international winter tour, travelling 9,500 kilometers and recording in a studio in the Dutch city of Utrecht. On March 1, the musicians released their first music video for their single “Carla,” a tribute to Hungarian musician Mate Tulipan and his musical project “Carla Under Water.”
Grisly Faye’s songs have very abstract lyrics that can be interpreted in various ways. The band says that they never specify what a song is about, as they don’t want to put constraints on the audience’s interpretations. In fact, Matkovsky says that different people could find the same song either sad or uplifting.
In addition to performing, Kulichova was one of the founders of the Mezzanine music club, which features concerts by modern electronic bands. Matkovsky is one of the owners of the Closer arts club. Both clubs are located in the same building, near Taras Shevchenko metro station in Kyiv’s Podil district.
Kulichova has had a passion for music since childhood, when her parents enrolled her in academic music classes. After nine years of singing in choir, Kulichova switched to playing various musical instruments and eventually ended up mixing samples together in her computer to create music.
Kulichova says she can’t sleep until she finishes a song, as the music refuses to leave her mind, even at night.
“Music is a feeling that comes from within and just pours out,” Matkovsky adds.
