Every year at this time, the post-Soviet countries dive into what are known as the May holidays – this is a string of holidays that date back to the Soviet era and have just ‘stuck’ since then, so strongly that the country practically comes to a standstill for the first 9 days of May (this year it happened for 12 days because it coincided with a weekend and Orthodox Easter). As for Ummagma – since we are a husband-wife team, everything ‘family’ related also affects our music – the stuff we go through, the stuff we write about, what inspires us (and doesn’t inspire us), the time we are in and out of the studio, budgetary considerations – basically everything.
We so happen to live in Ukraine, if you didn’t already know that, so May Days were interesting for us – I could have called this entry a ‘diary’, but the day-to-day play-through might seem a bit of a bore, so I’ll just jot some random things down pertaining to the band that occurred in the lead-up to and during the May Days.
Firstly, we’re pretty happy that our songs have been doing well in terms of chartering new territory chart-wise. For a band based in Ukraine, this seems all the more impressive. Last month we held our #2 spot in New York City’s Indie Darkroom (WNYZ), where we’ve maintained a presence since July 2012. We also came in at #10 in April’s Scottish New Music Chart (where we’ve ranked with various songs steadily since August 2012), so we’re thrilled about that too.
Well, when I say that the whole country draws to a standstill – this really only pertains to business activity, since many people actually become hyperactive compared to the rest of the year. That especially goes for drinking, their gardens and living it up. For us, it was a great time to host various musicians to come jam with us. We recorded some material and laid out some ideas for potential collaborations. We’ll keep you posted as to new developments for Ummagma.
