Here is the first of a series of interviews with people involved in the Gothic and Alternative music scene and to get an understanding in their own words how Russias war of war crimes against humanity is impacting people just like you and me in Ukraine. For the first interview I happy to finally have an interview with DJ Featon who responsible for various Gothic activities in Ukraine including the Gothica magazine and organizing festivals and gothic parties for people to attend.

Could you tell me a bit about yourself and your involvement in the Goth/alternative scene, so for how long, what you do?, Your 5 top favourite bands?, films, books? etc?

Gothic in Ukraine is my magazine 🙂 Joke. I do a lot of things. It all started somewhere in 2004-2005. At that time I was publishing the gothic fanzine “Dark Culture”. 13 issues were published and then I closed it and started working on a professional “Gothica” magazine. At the same time, I was the editor of the Ukrainian Gothic Portal, helped organize the annual Children of the Night festival. Then I organize a lot of parties and founded several festivals. The largest is a three-day open air of industrial music – Energy Open Air (from 2010 to 2013). And its one-day club “brother” Winter Energy festival, which was also founded in 2010, is still alive. Since 2009 I performed at various events and festivals as dj Featon, and since 2010 with my EBM project T44 (currently frozen). That’s in short. I still like to take pictures as a concert photographer. It is difficult to name the five most favorite bands, sometimes the accents change. But the number one band for me was and will always be Pink Floyd. I love the atmosphere of books by Murakami, King, and Max Frai. But number one is Tolkien. As for movies, action and art house are also different. Lynch, Barton. Spielberg, Arоnofsky, Villeneuve.

It was not directly in the question here, but if they ask me what Ukrainian I can recommend. There are a lot of interesting musical projects – Onuka, DakhaBrakha, SadSvit, Stas Korolyov, Ragapop, ZwyntarS and others.

What do you miss most of all since russia started a full scale war?

Safety, of course. It is calmer now, but in the first months of the war, russian troops constantly fired missiles at the territory of Ukraine. Sometimes the air alert could be 10 or more hours a day.

Could you tell me in your own words how the full scale war being carried out by russia in Ukraine has affected your life?

I live in the center of Ukraine in the relatively safe city – Cherkasy, so so far the war has not directly affected me. But today, at the beginning of December, the russian authorities are making constant attempts to destroy the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, so we have to be without electricity for part of the day. Just today, russian troops fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine, 60 of which were shot down by air defense.

How do you feel towards russians after they have invaded Ukraine?

This war was not unexpected. We have been counting down this war since March 2014, when russian troops seized the Crimean peninsula and began military operations in eastern Ukraine. What was the reason for this? First of all, the Russian leaders suffered a defeat in Ukraine after their protégé Yanukovych fled the country after the Revolution of Dignity. But the Russians had been planning the seizure of Crimea for years, so it was not a spontaneous operation. I have personally been to russia many times and I remember that there was anti-Ukrainian propaganda on central television back in 2007.

Regarding the russians, I can say that I feel only contempt that they turned out to be such worthless people who did not find the strength to resist evil. This is not to mention a large part of the population that fully supports this war. And those who fight and kill people in Ukraine are war criminals. So they will have to rake up the contempt of civilized people for decades.

What worries do you have most about russia’s war in Ukraine?

What worries me the most is that Ukrainians are dying, both military and civilians.

What are your hopes for the future?

Hopes are simple. The first thing is to liberate the entire occupied territory of Ukraine, and then build and develop the country.

What more help would you like to see countries give to Ukraine?

The main thing is constant military aid, without it it will be difficult for Ukraine to win the war. russia has a lot of resources and has already “put everything on the line”.

Is there any more action that you would like countries to take in regards to Russia?

I don’t have all the information, but at least the economic sanctions could be tougher. The tenth month of the war, and Russian banks are not disconnected from SWIFT.