Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Danylo Fedoryka. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Danylo, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
My name is Danylo Fedoryka (Danylo is the Ukrainian version of “Daniel”). My brother Alex and I founded SCYTHIAN 20 years ago after a few years of busking to help make rent in the DC Area. We started out playing predominantly Celtic music and played the Irish pubs in the NOVA/DC area about once a month for fun. We were both working jobs we knew wouldn’t fulfill us, so promised each other we’d quit work on the same day to force ourselves to go full-time. Thus SCYTHIAN started and since then we’ve played over 2,000 shows nationally and internationally.
Though we’ve played for the President on St. Patrick’s Day, after the Pope at World Youth Day Sydney and countless big stages across the U.S., it was a show in the South Side of Philadelphia at the very beginning that may have had the deepest impact on our band.
Let me back up a little here. SCYTHIAN is our second musical venture. Our first was playing classical music as a family band. Our mother Irene was a Juliard School of Music graduate and left a promising career as a concert pianist in order to have a family of her own. She ended up having 10 kids and she trained all of us on our instruments and had us performing on stages by the age of three. We mostly played nursing homes, Rotary clubs, local fetsivals, but also played at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trapp Children’s festival. Leading up to shows we had a weeks worth of rehearsals and my mom kept repeating that we had no right to be moody and play without putting all of our heart into the music, because that music was meant for an irrepeatable soul. If only one person showed up to our shows, we owed it to them to give them our all. As kids, this was very annoying to hear, but she would never back down and would remind us before every show that music wasn’t for our glory, but an act of service to touch people’s hearts. She really believe beauty would save the world.
Fast forward 20 or so years: our band is quickly gaining momentum in the DC Area. The City Paper named us “Band of the Year” two years in a row. We had a standing Thursday gig at Fado Irish Pub in Chinatown DC with lines out the door every week. We were young and starting to “drink our own cool-aid” so to speak. We were on top of the world, doing what we loved, and felt there was no stopping us. That is until we decided to expand our territory up into Philadelphia. We booked a show on South Street in downtown Philly and had a massive crowd show up – which gave us such a high. It wasn’t until we booked a followup show that we ate our humble pie. Since the first show was so successful the owner upped the cover charge and only two people showed up for our show: a friend and his 88-year old mother. The place was so empty that they took two chairs and sat right in front of the stage on the dance floor. Amidst feelings of bone-crushing humiliation I found myself playing half-heartedly trying to figure out why no one was there. It was then that I looked up and saw the delighted smile on a little old lady and remembered what my mother had taught me: “if only ONE person shows up, you owe them your all.” At that moment I turned to the guys and said “let’s give this woman the best show of her life – let’s pretend we’re playing sold out Wembley Stadium!” They all agreed and we proceed to play at 110%, jumping all over the stage, doing splits – you name it. After every song came a feeble measured clap and at the end of the night we could see the sheer joy in the woman’s face. She came up to us and said “you remind me of the Beatles!” which pretty much confirmed that this is how we wanted to play from that moment on.
Since then, it’s been “100% or Bust” for SCYTHIAN and one of the most consistent comments we get: “Where do you get your energy” or “you look like you’re having the time of your lives.” And it’s true. My mom always said – “If you feel down or moody, start smiling and the rest of you will catch up.” Having this “100% or Bust” approach really proves how true this is, because no matter how I feel when I take the stage, within a few songs I feel so energized connecting with my bandmates and the audience.
As annoying at the time it was, my mom’s insistence on respecting and honoring the audience due to the value of each person has made my career 100% enjoyable to the point where it doesn’t feel like work. We have such a great rapport with fans because they sense that we’re truly giving our all and so they want to give it back. Thanks mom for your wisdom and for giving us your heart!
Danylo, 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?
SCYTHIAN is a Celtic-Americana-Ukrainian fusion that engages audiences across the nation. Founded by two 1st-generation Ukrainians, SCYTHIAN brings technical prowess which comes from being raised by a Juliard-trained mother and combines it with a fun-loving spirit which cannot but help get people on their feet and dancing.
We started out as street performers looking to find a way to share our new-found love of Celtic music while making a few extra bucks to pay for gas and rent. The Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria was our stomping ground and the pedestrian nature of the area made it ideal for playing to large crowds. Even before we ever dreamed of being a band we had a robust email list to notify people of our next busking performance. It was there that we got our first bookings to play house parties, back-yard BBQ’s and we realized we had something special. One Wednesday night we stopped in a local pub after busking and there was a musician playing. A bold friend ask if we could play during his set break and the response was electric. Within a month we were playing on that stage and packing the place out. For about a year we played part time while amassing a repertoire til we were asked to be the house band for Fado Irish Pub in Chinatown every Thursday. That one-day a week guaranteed gig gave us the courage to quit our jobs on the same day in order to force us to go full time. That was 20 years and over 2,000 gigs ago and it’s been a dream playing for a living.
I’m most proud of the fact that we did it all ourselves. We never signed to a record label. We didn’t have any management until ten years in and that was just for a couple of years. We’re DYI and have built a niche for ourselves where we’re the masters of our own destiny. We have founded an award-winning roots music camping festival in the DC Area called Appaloosa Music Festival. Since we tour, we find talent before they blow up and so past alumni include Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Watchouse and more. This February we’re hosting our own music festival at sea called “String Break.” We host a yearly fan-trip to Ireland with two or three busses of fans following us around Ireland. We learned the ropes because we did every part of the job from the top to the bottom and through it’s been a lot of work, we were doing what we loved so it didn’t feel like work.
Main thing you want people to know: Because our show is so varied and hard to put into a genre, it’s been a struggle to ride the waves of a genre (ie – “I like country and found these guys on a country spotify playlist”), but we’re realizing that this is one reason we’ve enjoyed such longevity: having no boundaries in our music has made it very enjoyable to play and change things up. If you come to a SCYTHIAN show you will be entertained. The music may not be your cup-of-tea at first, but if you stick around long enough something will grab you. Also, you’ll enjoy watching people enjoy playing music.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
COVID LOCKDOWNS! – As an Irish Band heading into St. Patrick’s Day, a robust tour came to a screeching halt on March 15, 2020. All shows cancelled indefinitely. Prospects were grim since touring is our sole income. St. Patrick’s Day was just two days away and I got the idea of doing a livestream out of our kitchen. We had 10 days left on a Kickstarter campaign for a new album and have $7,000 more to raise. I notified all the festivals we played that we were doing a live stream St. Patrick’s Day show and they spread the word. With two-days notice we had over 60,000 people tune in to watch us be goofy in our kitchen. We raised over $20,000 for our Kickstarted campaign and I knew that this is what we had to do. I immediately ordered high-tech Live Streaming gear and told the guys we had to do this every two weeks. We named it The Quaranstreams. When I went back to get more gear the next week it was all sold out, but luckily we had just enough to pull off a decent live stream. Every two weeks we emptied my livingroom, put a persian rug in it, set up our gear, got 7 camera angles, smoke machines and lights and contacted all our festivals about the stream. We ended up doing 32 live streams which garnered over 600,000 views. We even had an exclusive live stream for one of Britian’s largest papers.
The Quaranstreams were all free of charge and we had a different theme for each stream and sold Tee-Shirts based on the theme. We also asked for Venmo tips. We sold over 1,200 Tee’s during the lockdowns and made enough in tips to pay our mortgages and put food on the tables. If you go to SCYTHIAN’S facebook page you can still see all the Quaranstreams in the video section.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I don’t have to go into an office; I work for myself; I get to meet people and make them happy and I get to make something special with my friends. 20 years in, it barely feels like work – it feels like we’re building a tree fort as kids.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.scythianmusic.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/scythianmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scythian
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@scythianmusic
Image Credits
Rob Laughter