Some of the most acclaimed musicians in the country have banded together to form Maru — a superband that promises to bring fresh new sounds to the Ukrainian music scene.
A superband is a musical group whose members have already performed in successful bands. Most of Maru’s musicians come from two of the most popular Ukrainian bands — Okean Elzy and Boombox.
Their debut album has received critical acclaim and already won a music award as the best album of the year.
Their style merges elements of jazz, indie and pop. However, the band members are in no hurry to pigeonhole themselves in a particular genre. This young band wants to keep experimenting, they said.
“Music has to give joy, sadness — some emotional experience,” Denys Dudko, Maru’s double bass player and the bass guitarist of Okean Elzy, told the Kyiv Post in an interview on May 2.
“I hope we bring this range of emotions to people.”
The band first formed in 2016 as the duo of Olga Lukacheva — a jazz singer and the leader of the Volga:Funk band — and Dudko. Lukacheva’s manager Marina Sikoyeva, who is also the manager of Maru now, first suggested bringing together the two musicians as an experiment for one show.
“At first it was interesting and unusual, and then we got into it and we still haven’t been able to stop,” Dudko said.
They first played covers of famous hits, but later realized they wanted to create their own music.
In a little while, the duet decided to expand their sounding opportunities by adding four more musicians — drummer Aleksandr Lyulyakin and keyboardist Pavlo Lytvynenko from Boombox, another drummer Denys Glinin from Okean Elzy and guitarist Aleksandr Zbrotskiy from Volga:Funk.
The founding member chose musicians they knew well, and respected.
“It’s very important when musicians are quick to understand each other. We speak the same language,” Dudko said.
Maru released their debut album “Maru 1” in September on both vinyl and in electronic format. The 11-track record has songs in Ukrainian and English.
In February, they received the prestigious (A)Prize award, presented by Ukrainian online radio station Radio Aristocrats, for the best Ukrainian album of the year.
Super staff
Although getting some of the best musicians in the country to play together sounds like a perfect plan, the band members have to juggle their busy schedules to make time for rehearsing.
“I don’t know any good musicians that are less busy than these ones,” Dudko said.
Lukacheva agreed, and said that what is the most important is that they all have a similar understanding of music.
They say they plan rehearsals or recording sessions well in advance, and gather whenever everyone is free, which might be only once every two weeks. However, because their style differs from what they play for other groups, it has quite a positive effect on productivity.
“We all switch to it (Maru’s style). It’s one of the positive factors that improves quality and speed,” Lukacheva said.
Despite sharing a pretty similar audience, Maru doesn’t feel there’s a rivalry between Boombox, Okean Elzy and themselves. They said there’s a friendly relationship between the bands.
“We’re always curious about our colleagues’ opinion. We listen to them and are always happy to see them at our shows,” Lukacheva said.
The band doesn’t plan to make any staff changes soon, but say that the music and sound they want to produce drives the development of Maru.
“It’s not a commercial strategy, no, it’s all about music,” Lukacheva said.
Lead singer Olga Lukacheva and double bass Denys Dudko of Ukrainian band Maru talk to the Kyiv Post at the One Love Coffee café in Kyiv on May 2. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Living organism
Dudko, who has experience in composing jazz music for his side project the Denys Dudko Sextet, writes all of Maru’s music, as well as the song lyrics in Ukrainian.
He said that it’s hard for him to find words to describe his music.
“I follow feelings, and my intuition.”
According to Dudko, most of his songs are sad, but he always adds some hope for the better.
“It has to be a game of contrasts,” he said.
He said he mostly knows how he wants a song to sound, but there’s always a room for improvisation.
“I don’t hand out notes,” he joked. “Everyone takes part in the creative process.”
The band hasn’t settled to one genre so far. Their music combines elements of jazz, pop and indie. Dudko says that being a very young band they allow themselves to be free and experiment.
Lukacheva agreed, saying that a band doesn’t have to stick to one clear genre.
“It’s a living organism,” she said.
Dudko said this is the main reason why their second album, which is scheduled to come out in June, “will be very different from the first one.”
“The sound will be more electronic. The whole album will be more energetic,” Dudko said.
The second album, as well as the first one, will be released in vinyl and electronic formats.
“We wanted to issue vinyl because it’s beautiful, and we care a lot about the quality of the sound,” Dudko said.
After the new release, Maru plan to go on tour around Ukraine and will consider performing at the music festivals.
They said they were very happy to be playing in the band because of the people who they work with, and the freedom they have.
“We want everything that all ambitious musicians want to achieve. We want our audience to derive pleasure from our music, and we want to enjoy our music ourselves,” Dudko said.
