America House Community Stories: Dima

Cardinal Birds, a punk rock band from Kyiv and good friends of America House, managed to record a single about the war in Ukraine, which was joined by Madonna's drummer and other famous musicians from Britain, the U.S. and Canada.

In this interview we talk about this and other experiences during the war with the band’s vocalist Dmytro. 

How did the war start for you? How did you spend the first days? 

February 23rd was an ordinary day. We were in the studio with the guys, we had just finished the final parts for our album and were already preparing for its release. The following morning I woke up around 5 AM. I thought it was just a bad dream and I needed to continue sleeping.Then I heard the first explosions and realized that the war had begun. Of course, all my plans had changed. I spent two weeks at home and in the bomb shelter of the kindergarten. I wrote to friends from Canada, Britain, and America about what was happening in Ukraine. I asked them to spread information. I wrote about Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, about the murder of children, rape and other war crimes commited by russians. Then I decided that I would work on the information front among foreign musicians. 

What else did you do besides fighting on the information front? 

I noticed that many music bands started releasing merch in the colors of our flag. I thought that it would be cool to also do this so that people could support Ukraine, and we could donate money to the Armed Forces. Then I volunteered for a few more days in a supermarket where there were not enough workers, but a lot of customers. I fetched water, carried sacks of potatoes. It was that moment when I thought that I should implement the idea with merch. 

I designed the t-shirts that we started selling them through Amazon. More than a hundred T-shirts have already been sold in Britain, America, Argentina and even Japan. We sent the first profit to the "Come Back Alive" fund and gave some money to our guitarist, who was fundraising for a car for his brother, a military medic at the front. 

When did you return to making music? 

One day the guys said: ‘Maybe we should try to write some music?’. Honestly, I was hesitant about it — what music when the war is going on? But later I still joined my band members. Max, our drummer, wrote some chords in Garage Band, Vlad recorded the guitar at home. I started working on vocal parts and lyrics. Then I remembered that Ukrainians in the USA are called "Uke". It started back in the 1950s, when Ukrainians played in the National Hockey League and formed one of the most powerful offensive lines, which was called the Uke Line. I used the metaphor that we hold the defense and attack like the players of that team. 

Prominent musicians from all over the world took part in making your single ‘Uke Line’. Tell us how it was. 

Yes, it all happened quite spontaneously. Madonna's drummer Steve Sydelnik helped us with the programming, legendary engineer Howie Weinberg, who mastered songs for Metallica and Nirvana, did it for us as well. Canadian musician, Gordie Johnson worked on the mixing, and Ben Scrivener, a folk musician from London, recorded the bass guitar. Then the bassist of Sum 41 band also talked about our track on his radio show. 

Gordie Johnson texted me when the war started. I got to know him thanks to the project about American musicians with Ukrainian roots, which I implemented at the American House Kyiv. Gordy asked how I was doing and how Ukraine was coping with this war. I talked about all the terrible things that the russian army did. He shared it on his social media. I also told him about a new song. He offered to help us with the mixing, since he has a studio in Austin and is a well-known engineer himself. We agreed. When we were recording the vocals, I thought it would be cool if Gordy sang with us, since his mother and grandmother were from Ukraine. I wrote him this idea and he replied with just an emoji. I thought that I must be asking too much, he helped us a lot anyway. A week later, he sent an edited track with his vocals already. When I heard it, I was just shocked and so grateful. The song began to sound differently. I remember when I was writing the vocals, I had pictures from the war in my head, it was difficult to concentrate on the vocals. 

Gordy then wrote that he could work on the mastering further and send it to one of the engineers he knew. He managed to get Howie Weinberg to master the song. We were shocked again, because Howie is a legendary engineer, he has about three thousand master tracks, he worked with Metallica, Nirvana, Def Leppard. This is the music we grew up with and were inspired by. Two of the five bands on my playlist are ones that Howie Weinberg worked with. We were so impressed. 

Another drummer from UK, Steve Sidelnyk, who also has Ukrainian roots, texted me when the war started. Steve is a drum programmer, he used to play with Madonna, worked with Moby, programmed music for Dido. I told him about our song. The quality of the drums we recorded was satisfactory, but we wanted to improve it. Steve helped us pick out some sounds and sent drum samples to mix with the drums which helped improve the sound. Steve also shared that he has a truck driver friend who brings humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and they constantly support us.  

Sometime after that we got in touch with another musician from London, Ben. I met him a year ago. He plays folk music. With the beginning of the war, he also started writing, asking how I was. I told him that we were working on a song, said that there was no way to record the bass, because I didn't have a bass guitar and a sound card at the time. And he said: ‘If you want, I can do it.’ I said that it would be amazing, because we were thinking of writing a bass guitar in the program to somehow fill the void of the bass. And he accumulated a bass part in a friend's studio in London and sent it all to us. He is a very cool musician and a talented person. He and I also helped Ukrainians with moving to Britain. I posted information on social networks about having a friend in Britain who he helps to place people in London. Together with him, we were looking for Ukrainians in need and he helped them in London.  

You can see all these people in the music video we made. I am very grateful for their support of Ukraine, they are ready to invest in Ukraine, no one said anything about money: if it is necessary — we will do it. This is very cool.  

How did Sum 41 learn about your song? 

There's a punk rock band called Sum 41; we've always looked up to them with the guys. The bass guitarist of Sum 41 hosts his own show on Canadian radio, where he shares new music and songs he likes. I DMed him on Instagram about our song so that he would listen to it if possible, because we transfer all the money from the auditions to help Ukrainians. He read it and replied to me that he would like to share this track on his show. He asked me to record a voice message about the song and the situation in Ukraine. Two weeks ago, an episode featuring our song was released. It was cool that Sum 41 themselves are talking about our group. 

And finally. Share how you manage to hang in these days. 

I always try to occupy myself with something: working, designing in Photoshop, playing the guitar. Even just to distract myself, I can clean my apartment. The best advice is to do something and move on. And everything will be Ukraine.