Der Aufsteiger am Metal-Himmel schlechthin: Jinjer ist in aller Munde. Sie waren dieses Jahr nonstop auf Tour durch die halbe Welt. Viele Festivals haben sie diesen Sommer erlebt, wie z.B. Wacken, Elbriot und Reload. Die Japan- und Nord-Amerika-Tour, und nun auch noch die große Headliner-Tour quer durch Europa. Begleitet werden sie auf der aktuellen Tour von drei weiteren Bands, den ebenfalls aus der Ukraine stammenden Space Of Variations, Khroma aus Finnland und den Kanadiern von The Agonist. Auch im kommenden Jahr steht wieder eine Tour an – in Deutschland wurden sie bereits beim Impericon Festival bestätigt.
Um so mehr hatten wir uns darüber gefreut, dass es möglich war ein Interview mit Eugene Abdukhanov, dem Bassisten von Jinjer, zu erhaschen.
Vor dem Auftritt der Band trafen wir Eugene im Backstage des Knust in Hamburg und konnten mit ihm über die derzeitige Tour und einiges weiteres sprechen:
Festivalstalker: Hey Eugene, thanks so much that we can have this interview with you.
Eugene: Always welcome.
Festivalstalker: How are you?
Eugene: I’m fine – a bit sleepy. But generally fine.
Festivalstalker: It was a very turbulent year for you – as a band. You had a lot of touring going on …
Eugene: Non-stop touring!
Very, very nervous – very stressful for sure
Festivalstalker: Yeah! Played big festivals like Wacken here in Germany as well – how was it? How was the
experience in Wacken for example?
Eugene: It was tremendous. Very, very nervous – very stressful for sure. But it did pay off – the show was fine. Very satisfying! And we got the video out there which is very popular on YouTube and people started talking about us seriously after Wacken.
Festivalstalker: During this time, you managed to release a new album and bring out various music videos. How did you manage that? I mean you were on tour the entire time.
Eugene: We had more or less the whole spring free – we only had a small tour in Japan and a few shows in South Africa. In total 7 shows for the whole spring. So, we started composing songs and later on recorded them. The whole recording didn’t take long. It was just two weeks or so.
Festivalstalker: What about the fact that your family is back home – do you have enough time to see them?
Eugene: Of course not! I call my son every day, but it will never fill all that lost time. It‘s the hardest part about the job and the lifestyle, because it’s all fun and it’s all Rock’n’Roll, but you are away from the people you love – which honestly sucks.
Festivalstalker: Yeah, sure – so the backside …
Eugene: The side effect yeah …
Festivalstalker: What can you tell us about the Ukrainian metal scene?
Eugene: Oh, come on – the Ukrainian metal scene – guys … I will not say anything about that. I have talked about this thousands of times. This is the Ukrainian metal scene right now playing on stage. Go and check that: it’s Space of Variations. Yeah – I think that is the best answer I can give.
Festivalstalker: Yeah okay. How is it living in the Ukraine as a successful metal band? Is it that you get recognized in your home country as well? Or is it more internationally?
Eugene: First of all – we always pulled our popularity up in the Ukraine by increasing our popularity outside. So, we would first build our fanbase outside, played our first shows outside and then after that it helped us to get more or less big in Ukraine. But at some point, we realized that this is it. We just reached our ceiling; we cannot go over this. Three or four years ago, we just said „No“ to shows in the Ukraine. Since then we only played one festival in the summer and one headlining show in Kiew.
Festivalstalker: What do you like about shows in Germany?
Eugene: In general, it is definitely one of the best places in the world to play extreme music, because you have very dedicated fans. Who either come and support, standing in the back or in the first row and buy merch. Or there is another group of really crazy fans who build up mosh pits and really go crazy during the show. So, you can see both of these people in Germany. Good venues, a lot of places to play – what can be better?
we will be touring next year for sure!
Festivalstalker: Yeah – are there any concrete plans on upcoming tours or such? Or having a break for some time since it was so stressful?
Eugene: No – we will be touring next year for sure! We will have two months- January and February and then it is again touring. We will be touring all year long next year.
Festivalstalker: Thank you so much for your time!
Eugene: Always welcome!
Festivalstalker: Looking forward to the show.
Eugene: Yeah – same as me!
Wer die Band noch dieses Jahr live sehen will muss international unterwegs sein.
Ansonsten gibt es nächstes Jahr auf dem Impericon Festival schon einmal die Möglichkeit – Tickets gibt es hier!
Und so wie es klingt kommt da noch einiges mehr auf uns zu- man darf gespannt sein!
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