Jackie Canchole

The Gypsy King | Eugene Hütz had wild dreams of world domination before he became a true Renaissance man.

Gogol Bordello
w/ guests. Oct. 15 (8pm). Edmonton Event Centre (WEM). Tickets: $24.50, available through Ticketmaster (451-8000/ticketmaster.ca)

“Of course I would be in favour of advancing as much money as possible for arts and culture,” Eugene Hütz says when I ask what the Gypsy advice might be for artists in need of grant money. “But culture also needs to show its guts and fight for it. Just to talk about how you’re not getting enough money, that’s not enough of a culture, I think.”

It’s been more than two years since Gogol Bordello last visited our little Ukie-overrun town — and Hütz remembers the Sidetrack gig well. “There were lots of Ukrainian families backstage, lots of vodka that time. I think I more remember the hangover,” he laughs.

I tell him there’s a big indie-hipster moustache fascination going ’round here lately — arguably embodied best by The Wet Secrets’ hit song “Grow Your Own Fucking Moustache, Asshole” — and Hütz responds with his own facial-hair philosophy.

“Mine is simply a tribute to all the other men in my family,” he begins. “First of all, moustaches can never be a trend. Maybe some shady whiskers can be accomplished as a trend, but a real moustache is something that stays; it takes time to get to the point. So it can’t just be a trend. [For the Romany people] it was part of a culture where every musician or dancer or any badass representative of that culture had a moustache of a chosen personal style. So that was the most flamboyant and interesting aspect of personal style.” He sighs. “Then the ’90s came and everyone started looking like a fucking clone, wearing the same black stuff with a cellphone.”

As he says this, I recognize the stack of press kits from indie rock bands beside my desk reflecting precisely the uniform he’s talking about.

So what is it with this pseudo-Roma trend that people identify with here?

Hütz explains that the Gypsies were among the first global cultures that weren’t focused on empire-building: “It wasn’t just nomadic forces that came to steal your women and horses, but it was a completely different approach. It was travelling tribes who were multilingual and multiskilled and who were pacifistic — which is what everybody’s trying to become now, multilingual and multiskilled so they can enjoy the rest of the world outside their hometown. It’s a spiritual advancement.”

And it’s that multiskilled-ness that’s kept Hütz on his toes the past 10 years since Gogol Bordello’s inception. From starring in films like 2005’s Everything Is Illuminated, to starring and contributing dialogue and music as he did for Madonna’s directorial feature film debut earlier this year, Filth and Wisdom, it’s a wonder Hütz has any time left for the band.

“No more than three steps at a time,” he laughs. “If there would be 120 hours in a day, I would consider one step at a time. But there is not, there is only 24. The only option is to keep things simultaneously going.”

And go he does. He has plans for many a project in the future, including feature films, but next time he wants to call all the shots — much like another very famously mustachioed man from Hütz’ childhood.

“[Charlie] Chaplin was a demiurge, he was a complete renaissance man. He channelled in every way: writing, acting, directing, music, everything ... he was the only American artist on Russian television, so I grew up watching a lot of Charlie Chaplin. So I naturally grew into this school of thought: wouldn’t it be great to write, act, direct, write your music along with it, and do everything yourself?

“As a matter of fact, I always thought it was weird that this one guy writes the script and another guy writes the music —  that’s fuckin’ lame! I learned that the whole process is extremely divided. But I stayed wanting to write and direct and that’s why Gogol Bordello is the way it is. Well, it’s broader than that because people in the band bring so much to it. They add so much. [The band] is the basic core of it, it’s my main activity, it’s my home. It speaks for everything I do.”

As for their notoriously riotous live shows, Hütz says there’s a lot more to Gogol Bordello than a bunch of screeching Gypsies riding drums around the stage.

“I don’t see it as a party — it seems like the party is the lowest denominator in the whole thing, and people latch onto that because it’s digestible. Then they climb the whole ladder of it and some fall off and get stuck on some stage stuff.

“Mostly, from talking to fans, people realize it’s a much more advanced thing,” Hütz explains. “It’s more of a soul-searching journey than any fucking party.  And what would a party do anyway besides leave you with a hangover?”