Gogol Bordello: Curing And Inspiring Hysteria For Both Sexes

05/12/09 6:12pm

by Noah Love (CHARTattack)

The immigrant punks are back. Gogol Bordello's Super Taranta! is the summer soundtrack to your patio party, DJ night and wedding. We caught up with Gogol frontman Eugene Hütz to discuss the group's new epic.

Chart: Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike was about as definitive a political and musical statement that maybe any band could make. Obviously musicians don't want to repeat themselves, so what steps did you take to make sure that Super Taranta! was a progression for the group?
Eugene Hütz: I think that the nature of the band takes care of those things. Nobody in the band is such a person that wants to step in one place. Super Taranta! is already our fifth album. And every album has taken things to the next level. But the thing is that this album was like — it was time for us to make the classic Gogol Bordello record, one that includes more panoramic vision of what the band is about, you know? It's like, I love the Gyspy Punks record, but it does leave out heart-wrenching ballads that get into your head. And a lot of our fans, and ourselves, do crave that. So it was like bringing all the elements of Gogol Bordello together, and making a record that's like Gogol Bordello times 100, you know?

Tell me about the origin of the Super Taranta! title.
We invented the title. You won't find a word like that anywhere in the dictionary. The word "Taranta” is obviously derived from the word tarantella. It's a slang for tarantella in Italy, which is a form of this extreme romantic music that was supposed to cure women out of hysteria. And I've been obsessed with the beat of tarantella for years, since I lived in Italy. Super Taranta! is not really a celebration of tarantella itself. Gogol Bordello takes things and internalizes them and spits them back out. It's our own interpretation, you know? It's rather the affinity with the madness of tarantella that we feel, you know? It's like the music of tarantella has a very specific purpose. It's like a therapy music — a therapy music for women with hysteria. Well, Super Taranta! also includes the cure for the man. Because we're such nice guys, of course. So fucking generous, you know? So fucking generous!

Gypsy Punks was focused on political lyricism. Super Taranta! is a little more abstract. Did you feel you got a lot off your chest on Gypsy Punks and were perhaps freed up to explore a little bit more of the cultural aspect on this one?
Yeah, I felt like actually that I never wanted to be so political. For me, the word politics itself is just a synonym for waste of time. I don't believe in it. I'm not interested in politics in terms of what has this guy said now, and what is he going to do next. That's just daily news. I don't give a fuck about it. I just realized I'm spending too much of my time talking politics with the Gypsy Punks record.

I am much more interested in culture and anthropology and just life, you know? So I kind of wanted to bring it a bit back to that. I'm much more interested in seeing an integrated intelligence and, you know, cultural anthropology and religions and spirituality than any politics. It's like, for me, that's how I feel about life, as absurd as that sounds. But you know, drinking songs about astrophysicists, that's what I strive for.

The following feature is from the July 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, go to the CHARTattack Shop.