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Ilya Popenko
455 Plays3 months ago
Ilya Popenko is a multi-disciplinary artist who was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the US at the age of 16. He is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer as well as a songwriter and a performer. In 2011, he formed a band called Mad Meg who play in an eclectic style they themselves haphazardly identify as “Punk-Chanson-Noir”. Based out of New York, Mad Meg has toured extensively in Russia and the former Soviet Bloc, including tours that covered close to 30 cities throughout the vast, frozen expanse of Eastern Europe, and in the course of which they shared the stage with such luminaries as Nogu Svelo!, Rasputina, and Emir Kusturica and recorded a live album in a female prison in Lithuania. While Mad Meg is on hiatus, Ilya works on his solo songs, one of which he’s proud to present today.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guest
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Volante, editor and producer Peter Bauer.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hey everybody, this is Ken Volante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and I am quite pleased to have Ilya Pakenko on
Artistic Journey in Music and Photography
00:00:25
Speaker
the show. Ilya, welcome on to Something Rather Than Nothing. Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I yeah i encountered some of your solo music after, and of course you front the band Mad Meg, which I've been enjoying ah your music. You're pretty, yeah you do a lot of things artistically. And one of the things I noticed too was your
00:00:56
Speaker
incredible ah photography, but I just wanted to i wanted to start start with the start with that and just hear about taking photos and your time in New York City. I hadd noticed the photography and it was just um Just great portraiture and depiction of um ah folks and in in the city. Can you talk about your photography and your time in New York City and, um you know, doing
Photography and Filmmaking Transition
00:01:30
Speaker
photography? Sure. yeah ah I mean, I went to school here for photography. yeah I went to Pratt and my degree is specifically in photography and I've been now
00:01:42
Speaker
um that i And it's how I make money. I'm doing like video work and commercial photography as well. and ah yeah i mean i've been kind of Lately, I've been doing photography only for work. I've been transitioning more into film. um So I recently shot a feature documentary, which I'm taking to different festivals right now. And I shot a short narrative film. um I still do photography, but it's kind of, it's not, um it doesn't take prevalence right now.
Mad Meg Hiatus and Solo Freedom
00:02:23
Speaker
Tell me about tell me about ah your music in ah Mad Meg. i um i i i really loved I really loved the music. um And um I know it's it's kind of, ah
00:02:37
Speaker
difficult to describe, the kind of wild mix. I love the energy in it. And also, ah you're doing some, under your name, Ilya Popenko, doing some solo ah release. ah As far as music goes, what's been happening recently with um with with your work there? Well, Mad Meg is on a little bit of hiatus right now. um are Our drummer quit and then our bassist was facing some legal issues. ah So hopefully he'll come around eventually. So we're kind of been regrouping and resting for the past year or so. ah So meanwhile, I've been like recording stuff by myself at home, and ah but not playing live. But ah recording at home,
00:03:33
Speaker
It kind of gives you a certain freedom. You don't have to really like compromise with anyone. you ah You get more of a chance to experiment because you're just by yourself and you can use like ah whatever instruments that are available. and It's much faster than working with a band because band is like ah as a huge machine that has a lot of like components to it. um yeah And ah but I do, of course, miss playing life and i do, of course, miss collaborating with other musicians. And now hopefully we're going to get back to it. But as for now, we're taking a little break.
00:04:17
Speaker
Yeah, I love the horses, not mine. There's I love the vocal. I love your vocals. Thank you. There's this great immediacy to to your voice. um I really enjoy that. tell us so tell ah Tell the listeners a bit about touring with
Touring Eastern Europe
00:04:35
Speaker
Mad Meg. I know you have ah i mean ah ah but some some touring in Eastern Europe, ah Russia in in the area. and um what was yeah I mean, your music is wild. and the What were those shows ah like? I mean, I know even one spot you had played ah maybe multiple times in in a prison. What's a what's what's the Mad Meg tour? or What were some of those experiences like? and oh That was definitely yeah one of the funnest experiences of ah my life. That particular tour that we went on, it was um
00:05:16
Speaker
ah about 25 cities, I think, maybe a little more. And we started in the Baltic states, the Baltic countries like the Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and then we flew to Russia and then made it all the way to Siberia and then south of Russia and came back to Moscow. And that was before the war, of course. And ah The experience is different ah because we're more popular in like bigger cities, so Moscow, St. Petersburg would have like more people or some other larger cities, some smaller ones. you know We would maybe like struggle to fill the room, but it was still fun because we've encountered some crazy characters on the road.
00:06:08
Speaker
And yeah, the the the prison show that you're talking about is a female prison in Lithuania. I think that was our first stop on the on the tour, on the Eastern European tour and our promoter. Like that the venue canceled the show like last minute and our promoter is like, do you want to play ah a show in a female prison? And we're like, sure. yeah And we had we we had to hire like a sound engineer to do sound for that. And we also hired him to record and that ended up being like a life album. And yeah, it was ah
00:06:50
Speaker
It was definitely a weird experience, you know, having to go into that prison and sort of like sing for those inmates, like the majority of whom, like they either like killed their husbands or they were involved in like drug drug trade or something like that. So it's like domestic violence or drug related charges. Yeah. um
00:07:16
Speaker
All right, as a quick and easy ah transition here. ah yeah um You work in a lot of art, you work in a lot of forms, and creativity and in in in art. I wanted to ask you for for yourself as far as identity. you i mean Were you born an artist or were you creating, ah say, music or doing photography and you're like, shit, this is I'm an artist, this is what I do. Was there a moment like that um for you? Yeah, well, I was born in a
Artistic Family Background
00:07:50
Speaker
family of artists. My mom was a painter and my dad is an illustrator. he yeah He used to do like when he worked, he did storyboards for TV commercials. So I was kind of like predestined to to be involved in the art somehow. And you know how, like when I was growing up,
00:08:10
Speaker
Like I had never met a person who was not an artist until I was like 16 or something. Oh, wow. Really? Cause like all of their like social circle, uh, they were either artists or writers or something. So for me, like to see people who work actual jobs, it was. Like, fascinating. I'm like, what? You you can, like, add, you can do math, or you can, like, do something, a computer program. That's so fascinating. But I'm not really good at, like, just studying. So I kind of, like, rolled with the arts thing.
00:08:49
Speaker
And I started out as a fine artist. um When I went to college, I kind of like did painting and stuff, and then I realized that um doing photography is something that I like much better. And i by that time, I had been already doing photography a since I was 13. I sort of built my own darkroom in my bathroom, and I was like developing my own picture since I was 13. and um like but And also I was like dabbling with writing songs since I was 13, so that kind of was a parallel thing. And also once I was in college I took some film courses and that kind of like introduced me to filmmaking as well.
00:09:32
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I i was a big fan of Tarkovsky, Russian russia filmmaker. I hate the fucker. Do you? tell me about tell't Tell me about your responses to Tarkovsky. No, I mean, he's all right. I'm exaggerating, of course. asians it's just as It seems that he's a little self-indulgent and narcissistic. and
00:10:04
Speaker
He sacrifices the actual filmmaking ah for like some egotistic reasons. He's like, oh, look at me. I'm so fascinating. I'm going to shoot like running water for 10 minutes. yeah It's something like similar, a feeling that I get from Jodorowsky. films. you know yeah but yeah And and they're they're pretty you know they're pretty and inventive and everything, but I still get rid of the fact that he does it only for like shock value. you know
00:10:41
Speaker
there is yeah like The audience is not in like his main priority. yeah um Although Tarkovsky's first two films, which is Ivana's Childhood and Andrei Ruble, a little better because it was more about actual filmmaking rather than like showing off. It's symbolism. I see a point and definitely seeing with Andrei Rublev. and
00:11:13
Speaker
on childhood, but especially a rule that more ah poetic, more extended storytelling, um you know, as opposed, and the Jodorowsky reference to you as far as that critique, I've had that reaction to Jodorowsky. I've also had that reaction to another film favorite ah from folks, Ken Russell, people adore Ken Russell. I like some Ken Russell, but I find that scene characteristic at times with filmmakers. really ah Spending a lot of time what seems to be like in their mind, you know um so um um I Was wondering Ilya as far as talking about art and you being an artist ah what what is art? What is for you? What what is art? Yeah, I mean I've heard like different Interpretations from different artists or different people for me. It's sort of like a language and
00:12:12
Speaker
to communicate with the world because not everything can be expressed verbally. ah And plus I'm not a very verbal but person in general. So there are other languages besides verbal language to sort of communicate your feelings that like you cannot put certain stuff in words. So you find other ways be it ah music, poetry or visual arts. You sort of try to ah rid of certain things in your soul to be poetic or like in your in your mind and kind of um
00:12:53
Speaker
communicated to other people. And it's also, you know, it's ah like a fascinating thing where something comes out of nothing. I guess it's like that in every but but profession, but ah it's more pronounced than art. Like you have, you don't have anything, right? And then all of a sudden you build something and it becomes something like ah like having a child, you know, it's such a fascinating process, like, a birth of just like a human being out of another human being. Who does that? it yeah right yeah ah It's pretty magical. and And so is art. And especially ah like with art, it's not... like you don't I mean, some people do, but like I personally don't plan everything out. like Everything that I end up with is not if usually not something I intended. So it's also interesting to see
00:13:51
Speaker
how it comes out, it's sort of like you put a seed in there and you see how it grows and that process is also pretty interesting. Yeah, yeah. ah Part of my background, I've been very influenced by um Russian literature and history, 20th century, 19th century, particular um a Russian literature, and some of the surreal some of the surreal ah writers,
00:14:23
Speaker
Bo Gokov, a favorite of mine, Gogol. As far as as far as ah in the background or literature, has there been an influence upon you and in in your work with the kind of Russian writers, Russian literature?
Russian Literature's Influence
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah, of course, to a degree. um like ah Russians are generally a very literature-inclined nation. like They're not very visual. They're more into literature. And like all of those classics like Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, we were made
00:15:01
Speaker
to read them i at such an early age that, like at I don't know, what like you're 11 or something and you're reading a War and Peace. yeah I don't know how much of it you can really understand and yeah because you know I ah usually hate at school. It was harsh for me to ah love those particular writers, but I do love Dostoyevsky a lot and it it was not taught in ah Soviet schools. So and that's why um I like him and that that my um mystical realism sure ah with ah with a grain of humor. That is something that's very close to me and something that I um really kind of like translates in what I do.
00:15:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I, I really, I really appreciate your comments there. What about the role of art? What's art supposed to be doing and in your opinion, you know, whether you're making music or, you know, you're doing a documentary, uh, you know, you're creating something. What, what do you think the role of art is, uh, generally, but, you know, for you and created, um,
00:16:17
Speaker
I, I don't know if it's like, I'm going to run with this thought, but it might not make sense at the end because ah like I kind of always felt that art is supposed to be purposeless. Like once it becomes, ah once it has a purpose, it stops being art. Like if it has Like if you try to persuade people one way or another, that becomes like propaganda, right? And not art. Once ah ah like you're trying to sell a product, that becomes like design. So as long as you keep that purposeless purity, like to me, that's that's art.
00:17:00
Speaker
um And when like people say artists are supposed to you know Bring this and that or like make a world a better place. I'm like fuck off, you know, yeah yeah yeah yeah like I'm not I'm not responsible for you bitches, you know. Yeah. Yeah yeah I heard there was this part about, um, you know, I, I've always been the provocative statements around the relationship to the, to the audience, right. And here an artist say, Hey, look, you know, I'm making this and i'm I'm putting out, I'm putting it out there. It's a manifestation of like, of me. And and there might not necessarily be all this, uh, profound stuff for meeting. It might, it's supposed to come at you. It's supposed to.
00:17:43
Speaker
It's supposed to hit you um like that. And one of the things about your answer, about like moving towards meaning, is that's where a lot of the answers ah have like they seem to move towards. is like what's what's you know What's the deeper meaning of this? um But there's also this bit, I think, as something that comes from the the manifestation of the artist's mind. to appear disrupt I see disruptive elements in what in what you do both in like sound and thought and like provocative and I really I really uh love that piece of it it's not the first thing I think a lot of people go towards um but that's what I think is interesting about the question some people have the art piece of being like hey I just want this
00:18:28
Speaker
copacetic relationship, you know, me and the object and for others, particularly with music, it's that there's this disruptive, that there's something janky about that. And I've seen that in in in your work. And I really enjoy that because for me, that's when my thinking starts is the um when there's the to disruption. I mean, would you agree with that? Yeah, I mean, ah it it depends on like the personality of an artist. Um, if like some people like to make like smooth music and they want to, uh, make their listener comfortable, like my musical more desperate and and it's sort of like a, uh, screen for help in a way. Um, provocative. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, um, yeah, you kind of want to, uh, do something like contrarian to, uh,
00:19:29
Speaker
Whatever is the the status quo just to Like shake things up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah um I wanted to ask you a big question too. You didn't mention aspects of it with the what is art, but Why is there something rather than nothing Well So that's like an abstract question. It yeah doesn't like relate to anything. Well, who's to say that maybe we're we're creating nothing. Maybe and the world is filled with something and we're trying to like make a room of nothingness in it. I like that. i
00:20:16
Speaker
um i wanted I wanted to ask you about, um you know, I was starting with talking about ah photography and you mentioned working more on
Challenges in Filmmaking Transition
00:20:25
Speaker
ah film and documentary film. what's that been What's that process been like for you moving from the stills to creating, you know, that that that more full narrative in film? It's very it's very difficult for ah still photographers and even like the most famous one who started moving towards moving images like um David LaChapelle, who is a phenomenal photographer, and he started making music videos. And it's hard for still photographers to think in terms of like story and to think in terms of like that fourth dimension, where which is time. And so they become a little stiff, those videos or like Anton Corbine,
00:21:12
Speaker
also a famous photographer who started doing music videos. And they're also, they they're a little boring because there is no story. And I have the same problem because as a photographer, you sort of find your frame and you think your job is done. You're like, okay, I'm ready to go home. yeah And and that's that's where the filmmaker job just starts. You find the frame and then you have to tell a story. And like for me, that's a little boring, but ah I'm kind of, excited to investigate that aspect and sort of like learn a little more about it. Yeah, as I mentioned in Corbin, I think about the ah some work with the Pesh mode and the the singular visual. I think the you saying that really, I really picked up on that kind of like hovering around the single, you know, visuals to set the mood. I think it works ah
00:22:05
Speaker
Well, I want to call him just a photographer, but Derek Jarman working with the the Smiths, filmmaker, still photographer, that interplay of of of of music and sound. um When you're filming, when you're doing more of the filming and you thinking, in, you know, in your brain about sound and such, was that a big part? Do you hear that as far as when you're filming in sound back around it, you're very much focused on the visual capture? I like of the. If you're talking about film then yeah like music videos. um Well, the the latest, ah like the feature documentary that I shot, it's about a musician. So there's a lot of his music.
00:22:54
Speaker
in the film, but I also have a friend who is, she's a musician who writes, a composer who writes music for films and um like theater shows. So she just opened her whole catalog to me. So I've been using just her music for everything because it's the type of music that just works with everything else. but And of course, it's it's really interesting how music can change the scene completely or like the scene might not work and you you just throw music in there and it's like all of a sudden it glues everything together. Yeah, it is. Yeah, I've ah quite, quite amazing. ah and and And thanks for the feedback from like behind the camera, too. It's just it's interesting because um I
00:23:48
Speaker
hearing about the differences between, like you said, trying to maybe more capture the singular image or mood that way and kind of a full ah film. Ilya, I wanted to ask you so you can let the listeners know as far as um were to find like where to find your ah
Finding Ilya's Work Online
00:24:04
Speaker
material. I know you could find the the music, say, on Spotify and such, but where where can folks find about your photography and about the you know ah the art that you put out? yeah well i I have a like a big presence, like a bunch of websites. So ah for Mad Meg music, it's Mad Meg on Spotify and all the Apple music and stuff. My solo stuff is Ilya Popenko, also on Spotify and all that. um Our Instagram pages are at
00:24:43
Speaker
Mad Meg the band, I think, or Mad Meg band, but I think that would be like the search would show it to you. My personal Instagram is at, you definitely not Ilya Papenko with other stores. My photography website is Ilyapapenko.com. My commercial photography is IlyapapenkoPhoto.com. I'm already tired of listing everything. and yeah um My Facebook is Ilya Papenka, so yeah, I think that wraps it up. and you know oh And YouTube, yeah. i have ah Also, you can find that us on YouTube, and it's like MadMag if you search for it, or Ilya Papenka, that will eventually land you on our YouTube channel.
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Hey, Ilya, I want to thank you. um i yeah I really appreciate... um really dig on your music, Madbag. And then and then then your solo, I mean, um and I really mean that too. ah I love your singular voice within that, has an immediacy to it. um Really enjoy that track. And and and and everybody too, check out the photography, Ilya's photography and other material coming out. um Uh, really, really great to, to catch up with the, to meet you and catch up with you. Um, and, uh, appreciate what you make and everybody check out Ilya Papenko, uh, Mad Meg. Uh, I recommend going to Mad Meg and whether it's on Spotify and and, and checking out the, the, the great, uh, very unique in, I don't know, people say unique music, but I like the mix. I love the mix that you have, um, in your music and just wanted to thank you for coming onto the show.
00:26:38
Speaker
Thank you. thanks Thanks a lot, Ken. It was it was definitely fun. And like if you go to our YouTube channel, it's it's populated with all kinds of stuff, with my solo videos, with like more produced music videos of Mad Max. So there's like definitely a big variety of stuff that you can watch. And I think it's a pretty fun channel. It is a fun channel. Yeah, but yes, thanks so much for inviting me here. Yeah, I really appreciate it. And I got Ilya from ah New York City, something rather than nothing based in in Oregon, doing the coast to coast. Great pleasure to meet you, Ilya. Great luck with with your art. And everybody check out Ilya Pampanko, Mad Meg, and I'll have links ah and in the show notes. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks, Dan.
00:27:36
Speaker
What it's like being you I have no fucking clue
00:27:47
Speaker
Can I try on for size Looking right through your eyes Looking out of your eyes And I am not me And the horse is not mine I am not me And the horse is not mine
00:28:17
Speaker
What's the scope of your view?
00:28:22
Speaker
I have no fucking clue Do you see me at all? Or am I just a fly? Just a fly on your wall?
00:28:42
Speaker
And the horse is not mine I am not me And the horse is not mine What is it like being you? I have no fucking clue
00:29:08
Speaker
And I try on for size Looking twice through your eyes Looking twice through your eyes All the things that you say And I will never convey
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah, what it's like inside there Though we breathe the same air Though we breathe the same And I am not me And the horse is not mine I am not me And the horse is not mine
00:30:46
Speaker
do by butddle but i don but that i don't but dont by the don but but without that dog but the bottle of that door that bottle of that door but that This is something rather than nothing.