You're reading: Glam band proud to be Ukrainian

Daring, devilish and disturbing, The Hardkiss is often mistaken for a Western European band. “Are these guys from Ukraine?” awed listeners ask when watching their music videos. They might look like a mixture of Lady Gaga, Paramore and good old glam and punk, but the up-and-coming band is definitely Ukrainian.

Moreover, they are happy to be Ukrainian since their homeland gives them carte blanche to implement  the craziest and most wonderful ideas they have.

On the day she meets with a Kyiv Post reporter, Yuliya Sanina, the band’s frontwoman, is not dressed in her usual audacious outfit. Absent also is the heavy makeup and loud head ornament.

Like Oprah Winfrey without her false mink eyelashes, she looks rather different and hard to recognize without the usual attire which includes anything from strange headwear and wigs, huge platform boots, heavy neck decorations and even heavier make-up.

“I am just not that kind of an artist who feels comfortable wearing jeans and a T-shirt onstage,” says Sanina.

Meanwhile, her appearance is certainly not the only focal point of the band’s performances.   “Our music is so grand that it needs support in order to be perceived better. We are among those few bands that move from city to city with our stage props and try to involve novel elements each time we perform.”

Their music is very unusual for Ukrainian show business. It emerged from a creative partnership that started between Sanina and an MTV Ukraine producer Valeriy Bebko. She sought him out while working at a university newspaper. A conversation about the ins and outs of the music channel led to further meetings and discussions of joint music plans.

At the time, Bebko wrote music while Sanina was getting ready to leave Sister Siren, a pop-rock band she joined at the age of 14. Eventually, the duet Val&Sanina was created, but only lasted for half a year.

“We started it all wrong, listening to other people’s advice. They told us to be ‘simpler.’ After six months of going down that route, we realized we were wasting time toying with the audience and doing what they ask for. It is far better to bring up individuals who will at the end become loyal listeners,” explains Sanina.

So they moved on to make music they wanted to play rather than what the market dictates. Two more musicians joined them under the new, catchy name: The Hardkiss. Sanina said the name fits well because their tracks turned out to be “harder and our images more outstanding.”

They get professional help with their striking images that feature masks, beards, piercings and plenty of contrast and color. Sanina says that their stylist, Slava Chayka, found them on social networks and offered to work together. When listening to his ideas for their first video “Babylon,” the band was quite surprised.

“We told him we want something a-typical. No vanilla, tears, glitters or pink tights. So he made up an image of me with white eyebrows and skeletons on my hair. That was so cool and brave! At that point we had no idea that far more is waiting in stock,” Sanina laughs.

Curiously, Sanina was brought up with jazz and graduated from the only jazz musical school in Ukraine, which is reflected in what she produces.

Typically, the whole band works on every single idea, every script and visual material. Furthermore, they usually sit down together to plan their work up to six months in advance.

The band would love to conquer Europe, but Sanina is happy they’re working from Ukraine. “All European musicians dream about such a market as Ukraine. We’ve got grateful listeners and plenty of work to do here,” she says.

The band is currently experimenting for its next performance at Koktebel Jazz Fest this autumn where they promise to “surprise people not only with visual material.”

The Hardkiss already holds a handful of awards and nominations like “Discovery of the Year” and “Best Video Clip of the Year” from the Yuna Awards 2012. Other accolades include the special prize of “Brand of the Year.”

The band has also signed up with Pepsi for the next two years, and you can catch a glimpse of Pepsi cans in some of their videos.

When asked what’s next in store for Hardkiss, Sanina says the band is dreaming about performing at the MTV Video Awards. She says it would be a “the perfect option” since the band would have an opportunity to perform with all top stars at once.

KyivPost intern Yuliya Hudoshnyk can be reached at [email protected]