We recently connected with Andrew Yampolskyi and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

The Homeless Radio path was always full of different obstacles and difficulties. Nevertheless, on the 24th of February, 2022, I learned that all the problems meant nothing compared to the war and invasion of an aggressor country. Yes, my band, Homeless Radio, planned to make this year huge, full of new songs and releases, but all our lives changed on this dark Thursday.

2021 was a big year for Homeless Radio, Finally, we became a part of the great indie rock record label Sunset Alliance (Arizona) and released our debut EP The Truth. It was a big step for a Ukrainian indie rock band. Besides, we started to cooperate with some amazing sound producers and studious including Nikolas Quemtri and Konstantin Pyzhov. For the first time, my band found an algorithm for how to record, release and distribute songs in a proper way, so it seemed like a foundation for something new and excellent. To be honest, Covid slowed us down a lot, but we got used to working on the songs during the pandemic. Little did we know that some neighbor tyrant will spoil our plans.

At the beginning of the war, our band was separated across Ukraine. Our guitarist Fedir met his first bombs in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, while the drummer Ivan had a bad bombing morning in Kharkiv. The bassist Ivan, the second guitarist Ihor, and I were in our hometown, Izyum. It’s a small town full of countryside, so we thought it was a great place to hide from the Russian occupants. However, after the unsuccessful attempt to destroy big cities, the Russian army started to move in the Izyum direction. Ihor and Ivan were lucky to escape, while I was stuck in the occupation for 4 months.

I didn’t give up on music during that time. We had no electricity, gas, water, food, mobile, and Internet connection. Instead, we had constant checks, interrogations, roadblocks, and curfews. Russians were destroying and stealing everything they could see. However, my acoustic guitar didn’t bring any interest to them. Due to this, I wrote several songs and I think they sound pretty good. This piece of creativity helped me to go strong even in such disgusting conditions.

I remember May the third. On this day, our last single About You was released. Living without the Internet, I couldn’t check if the song came out or not. However, the Homeless Radio team consisting of the members of the band (Ihor, Ivan, Ivan and Fedir), the owner of Sunset Alliance David, artist Anastasiia, and video maker Stepan made this song come out even without my help. It became a support symbol for me being locked in my beloved hometown, and the whole of our motherland – Ukraine.

Because of the harder condition of living in the occupation, I had no chance but to leave the warzone and escape to Europe. Yes, I didn’t expect such complaints back at the begging of the year. It was terrible for me as a human, as a person, and as an artist. Day by day, little by little some parts of these roles were dying due to the war. However, I don’t want to give up. That which does not kill us makes us stronger – that’s why for almost a year Russian occupants losing this fight against Ukraine. Homeless Radio will live and still release new music whatever it takes!

Andrew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Homeless Radio is an indie rock band from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Our band was formed back in 2016. Practicing a lot in our skills, developing our songwriting style, garage rock sound, and instrumental and vocal skills, our band gained a small local fan base and recorded several demos by the time of 2020. This period includes a lot of live concerts in numerous Kharkiv music clubs, open-air stages, and a trip to Kyiv.

In the summer of 2020 we recorded our first EP The Truth and later at the beginning of 2021 Homeless Radio joined the Sunset Alliance record label. The songs from the EP spread across the world and became a part of numerous internet blogs, radio shows, and music playlists. The Truth has an energetic indie-rock/punk sound with the best traditions of garage rock. We were trying so hard to write catchy melodies and interesting song structures for every tune, so some listeners and bloggers considered this feature a pop music element. Besides, I wrote some conceptual lyrics that have a general plot based on the alternative ending of the legendary Titanic movie (where Jack is still alive due to his love of art).

Special attention belongs to the I Don’t Care song. Due to its grungy nature and well-composed lyrics, the song became our calling card. It is still regular for many radios and right now it counts more than 100k listens on Spotify.

Our latest single was released in May 2022 and it’s called About You. This single has a pretty different style and reminds more of some pop tune played by a punk band. Despite About You being much sweeter than all of the songs from The Truth, a listener can recognize the same Homeless Radio but with much better production and from a different musical angle. I think it’s good for dancing when the tunes from the EP are better for slamming.

For today, I can say that we are still developing and won’t be stuck in one sound or style. I like the idea of developing the own songwriting style, mixing different genres of music, various sound, musical instruments, melodies, and so forth. I want The Homeless Radio to be a band changing styles, not the styles changing band. Recently, we took part in the tribute compilation for the anniversary of the debut Before Braille LP. This time, you may hear our band playing with more heavy genres and metal styles. The song is already available to buy on Bandcamp and soon will appear on the music streaming services. I’m sure that experiments won’t stop here and you will never know how our next song will sound.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The latest happenings showed that the base of loyal listeners is really great. I felt abandoned leaving my hometown. The Russian army destroyed my home and places that I loved. Some good people I knew died. My dog died. Everything was dramatic, even if I tried to be positive all the time. Nevertheless, I received a lot of positive vibes when I connected to the Internet for the first time after the Russians destroyed the connection to the Internet in Izyum. Many people, who were listening to the Homeless Radio, wrote to me asking how am I, where am I, am I alive, and so forth. Special thanks to the amazing NAS (New Artist Spotlight) community. This group of cool musicians helped the Homeless Radio not to dissolve in the stream of media at the time when I had no chance to manage my band. Appreciation of our music is the main motivation for me to keep creating new tunes and share my art with others. Making stuff in this field may connect you with many great people who can be your inspiration.

Another important aspect is soul healing. Music helped me multiple times in the past to overcome some difficult situations, and during the war, it didn’t screw up again. In both cases of big happiness or huge sorrow, I’m coming back to music and art.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As I said previously, I’m obsessed with developing a unique songwriting style. I don’t want to make rock, I don’t want to make pop, I don’t want to make rap – I want to make something new combining every kind of music. There is no better feeling than writing something you particularly would and will listen to and enjoy.

Secondly, I like to write something that can help a listener. It may help in many ways. For example. when nobody understands one, a song can be the only thing that can support and follow you. A listener can interpret lyrics in the way they want and like to. They can create some new other meaning that is different from the original one. Music can inspire someone to do something, to create something, to decide something. Listeners can find answers to their questions in the lyrics. There are only a few of examples how music can help a listener. All the listed helped me personally, and I wish my music could have the same effect on someone. I’d be very happy!

Last but not least is a classical statement that every artist wish – to make their art a source of income. I’m far from that right now, but I hope I’m moving to this aim. Really, I can’t imagine what happiness it is to spend hours hardworking on some new music stuff and then receive financial benefits from it. But I certainly would like to try.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/homelessradio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homelessradio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homelessradioband
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/homelessradio1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcoq6hWcqEGrMQgvGlWWZig/videos
• Other: Buy the latest single About You https://shop.sunsetalliance.com/track/about-you Buy the debut EP The Truth https://shop.sunsetalliance.com/album/the-truth Buy the Before Braille cover Goodnight Quiet Noise https://shop.sunsetalliance.com/track/goodnight-quiet-noise-homeless-radio

Image Credits
Dmytro Kormylets