May was a busy month for the Ukrainian rock band Sinoptik: They toured Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria, and still found time to become the first Ukrainian band to win the Global Battle of the Bands, a contest for young rock musicians from all over the world.
Ukraine has been holding selection competitions to enter bands in the Global Battle of the Bands since 2004. Bands from around 30 countries compete in the final, and the winners get a prize that differs from year to year (such as time in a recording studio) plus a golden statuette engraved with the words “Best New Band in the World.” The finals in 2016 were held on May 26 in Berlin, Germany.
Sinoptik’s music style is a mixture of classic rock tunes from the 1960s and the 2000s. Their look is that of Nirvana-style indie rock: the band mostly performs in casual clothes, and two of its members have long hair that sways as they jump and rock on stage along to the hard riffs played under their guitar solos.
Sinoptik was founded in Donetsk in 2009 by Dima Afanasiev-Gladkykh, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, on his return to Ukraine from London, where he studied music production. He says he came back to Ukraine “to develop local rock music” and to “bring the knowledge he gained in England to Donetsk.”
“I thought that I had to come back to play music, not organize concerts,” he told the Kyiv Post.
The first members of Sinoptik were Afanasiev-Gladkykh and drummer Boris Kukushkin, performing under the stage name Dyadya Borya (Uncle Borya). In 2014 they found their present bass player, Dima Sakir.
“Dima (Sakir) came to us (for an audition) in neat, clean shoes and a smart shirt. But then he started playing the bass guitar and burned out the amplifier. So we just had to take him into the band,” Afanasiev-Gladkykh said.
After the release of their first album, sung in Russian, in 2014, Kukushkin left the band, and his place at the drums was taken by Slava Los. Also in 2014, Sinoptik released their second album, this time sung in English, and performed at the Gogol Festival, a Kyiv-based art festival. Sakir said this was a turning point for the band, as after GogolFest Sinoptik started to get offers to play at other Ukrainian festivals and clubs.
However, along with success, the band encountered setbacks due to the launch of Russia’s covert war on Ukraine in the east. The band’s rehearsal studio in Donetsk burned down after a shell damaged its electrical wiring. All of their equipment was destroyed in the fire. After the accident, the band moved to Kyiv in 2015 because they felt they weren’t safe in their hometown.
Sinoptik only really found fame after the group made it to the Ukrainian national finals of the Global Battle of the Bands in April. Sakir says it takes a long time for Ukrainian rock bands to gain a mass following. Like many young music bands, Sinoptik is more focused on live performances rather than recording albums, although in April the band produced its latest one, entitled “Interplanet Overdrive.”
The band’s members don’t want to talk about politics, saying that they are “simply against the war.” In fact, their latest album seems like an attempt to escape from the grim reality of war and economic crisis, and “to set off on a psychedelic trip,” Sakir says.
The band will perform at various Ukrainian music summer festivals and plan to start another international tour in autumn.
Sinoptik will perform on July 7 during the four-day summer music festival “Faine misto” in Ternopil Oblast. The price varies from Hr 150 for one day ticket to Hr 620 for the whole festival. Tickets are available at gastroli.ua.
