New Ukrainian grunge band HLAM: release of their debut single and participation in concerts in the midst of a full-scale war

The new Ukrainian grunge band HLAM released their debut single "Teplyy asfalʹt" on June 10. The song was released in collaboration with musician Dmytro Kozyrenko. The band's leader is Andriy Vorsin from Dnipro. He currently lives and creates music in Kyiv. The war has made its own adjustments not only in terms of safe living, but also in the musician's work: with the outbreak of full-scale warfare, the singer stopped writing Russian-language lyrics. Despite some difficulties caused by his lack of practical experience in writing Ukrainian-language songs, Andriy has reached the point where he is now able to freely create lyrics without the need for translation. Find out more about Ukrainian concerts in the context of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, upcoming tracks and the debut single "Teplyy asfalʹt" on Drive Music Media.

MEANING OF THE NAME OF THE BAND "HLAM" AND WRITTING OF UKRAINIAN-LANGUAGE TEXTS

The band's leader, Andriy Vorsin, chose the name by accident before one of the literary evenings during which he read his poems. And then the name stuck with the musician's grunge band. The name itself means "junk," and it has no hidden meanings. Nevertheless, the musician is happy with his choice and continues to create new compositions under this stage name.

With the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the musician stopped writing songs in Russian. At first it was hard, but Andriy set himself the goal of writing only in Ukrainian, so he tried to translate the songs of his favorite artists into Ukrainian and created his own lyrics. As the author himself notes, at first the lyrics were not very sincere, because to write a lyric in a certain language, you need to think in it, and translation skills are not enough.

ON CHOOSING A GENRE IN MUSIC, UNCOMING SINGLE AND PARTICIPAITING IN CONCERTS

According to the musician, he chose this genre because it best shows naked human emotions. Grunge is one of the most emotional genres, in which the author turns himself inside out in front of the listener. The musician follows this genre in literature, and he wants to continue his musical journey in it.

In the fall, HLAM plans to release their second single. It will be different in that it will be more punk, but there will be some grunge in it. The musician has not yet chosen which of the tracks will become a studio track, but he is sure that it will be one of the tracks on the list of the concert to be held at the Teplyy Lampoviy art club in Kyiv on June 14. During the acoustic set, the musician will perform 8 tracks: "Dude with a Shovel", "Monologues to the Walls", "A Smirk on a Pack of Cigarettes".

ABOUT THE SINGLE "TEPLIY ASFAL'T": FROM CREATION TO RELEASE

Andriy always starts with the lyrics. This lyric was written unconsciously, and according to the lead singer, this doesn't happen to him often. But this song was written in one go, and the musician did not make any changes to it. The melody also came about by accident, as Andriy was sitting and playing the guitar, and the melody came to him. Then came the process of preparing for the release. After he sent the acoustic version to the arranger, they started working together on the release.

The song was released on June 10, 2024. And now they continue to work on the next ones.

The main idea of the song is to make people realize that if you immerse yourself in everyday life, you can lose your humanity and empathy. The track is written in a metaphorical and schizophasic style and aims to show the all-encompassing ignorance of people who are always in a hurry and let the everyday life consume them. The idea of the cover was created by Andriy Vorsin. The cover artwork for the single was created by Ivan Dogil.

The artist will present his track during an acoustic set at the Tepliy Lampoviy art club on June 14.

The photos were provided by the band HLAM