© 2025
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
On October 9th, the founder of our media, Asya Radko, was invited to a private viewing of the exhibition "Women in Water" by the renowned American artist and one of the protagonists of pop art, James Francis Gill, held at Castle Fine Art Gallery in Exeter. The collaboration between James Gill and Castle Fine Art began in 2019. The event was attended by Richard Roden, Sales Director at Castle Fine Art in Exeter, and took place with the support of Queens Kunst Galerien and Ted Bauer, CEO of Premium Modern Art. For the artist himself, this exhibition represents a sense of calm and a desire to preserve beauty in such an unstable and turbulent world, given everything happening around us. His goal as an artist is to bring people peace. James Francis Gill began painting in the pop art genre in the 1960s and became one of the first artists to introduce pop art to the world. Our founder, Asya, had the chance to speak with James personally about the private viewing, his favorite painting from the «Women in Water» series, and his upcoming projects.
FEIA is a Ukrainian singer who feels a deep connection to nature and believes that her defining quality is her sense of magic. For her, FEIA is not just an image — it’s who she truly is. She brings all her emotions and the breath of a forest fairytale into her music. In our conversation, FEIA opened up about the beginning of her musical journey, honesty in music, and the meanings she weaves into her songs.
Paul McCartney is a British multi-instrumentalist musician and one of the deepest lyricists of our time, as well as a member of The Beatles, who has remained faithful to his simplicity and craft throughout his life. But he has another side — a love for photography, through which he has captured many important moments of life during the early years and the first wave of The Beatles’ popularity in 1963–1964. The uniqueness of Paul’s photographs lies in their sincerity: they are not staged shots, and they can transport the viewer back in time. The slight blurring and defocusing in some photos adds a feeling of being able to see the beauty in every moment. This is exactly the kind of exhibition titled Rearview Mirror: Liverpool - London - Paris, which opened at the end of August in London at Gagosian and will run until October 4, 2025. Drive Music Media received background information about Paul’s works and how they capture a time before "Beatlemania" through the lens and perspective of 21-year-old Paul — how he saw that time and how he preserved it on his film.
Oleksandra Stepanenko is a Ukrainian writer and the author of 9 Circles of Heaven, which tells the story of a soldier with the call sign Dante. The writer’s goal was to show that, despite the hell of war, the soldier achieves ascent rather than decline. The story also intersects with her own life, as her husband is a defender of Ukraine. Oleksandra shared with Drive Music Media the meanings embedded in her book 9 Circles of Heaven and her upcoming projects.
Julia Brevetti is a Canadian artist working in realism and pop art, known for her “Vintage Cars” series previously featured by Drive Music Media, is now creating a new painting collection featuring various liquor bottles. The series has already gained recognition on social media, which earned her a spot in a group exhibition featuring the iconic liquor brand Campari. The story of this collection begins with Julia’s family, who have been collecting bottles for many years. In addition, Julia released a rather unusual collection for her style — a series of skull paintings. This body of work carries a therapeutic meaning for the artist, as through the prism of art she portrayed the “death” of another version of herself. Julia shared with Drive Music Media about her new liquor bottle series and the skull painting collection.