‘Moody’, ‘mysterious’ and ‘melodic’ are the words I’d use to describe Molchat Doma. The band hail from Minsk in the former Soviet state of Belarus – an area widely hit by the pollution of the Chernobyl disaster. Their music is both familiar and alien, natural yet haunting. It’s summed up by the group’s name, which translates to ‘houses are silent’, an ominous and unsettling mental image. If you have never heard of them, I strongly suggest that you give them the time of day.
Hey, how’s life treating you? What’s Minsk like this time of the year?
Minsk is very gray, cold and windy at this time of year. It was very unusual to return to such cold weather, especially after Spain and Israel. But this is just a matter of habit.
How did music enter your lives?
It all started when I was 13 years old. My grandmother bought me the first acoustic guitar and I began to learn to play it on my own. At that time I was fond of heavy music, and after 3 months I was already playing the electric guitar. Then the first frivolous groups went, in which we played cover songs. In about 2012, Yegor and I began to make music together. What happened next – you can watch now.
Your music is quite human, with both its darkness and its light. Do you find catharsis in your art?
Our music comes up with a certain emotional mood. Sometimes it’s very gloomy and sad, sometimes it’s funny, cheerful and dancing. Apparently, for this reason, such a mixture is obtained.
You’ve explained how your music offers escape in a post-soviet country like Belarus. Other than music, what else do you find an escape in?
We are not trying to find a way out. We are more than happy with everything, since there are all our friends and relatives. Yes, sometimes there is such a mood when it seems that I would like to change something. Then I just go blank or go to bed, because for the world I can not do anything useful. Sometimes you need to change the situation, this, in my opinion, needs to be done by every person. In this case, travel comes to the rescue. But there is no desire to leave your home.
Post-punk is having quite a renaissance at the moment, especially over here in the UK, do you see yourselves as part of that movement? Or do you set yourselves, and your art, apart from others?
Renaissance? I do not think so. Because the whole modern European post-punk scene, in my opinion, is the same. Groups copy sounds and ideas from each other. Therefore, we do not consider ourselves part of this scene, if only because we are not from Europe and make our music a little differently (within the framework of post-punk, naturally).
As most of our readers can only understand English, how would you describe your music?
I would describe it like this, If Dave Gahan, Peter Hook and Vince Clark were born in the 90s in Minsk and started making their own music. haha
You played in Israel, what made you want to play there as your last gig on the tour?
Everything is pretty simple. We received an offer to play at the SoLoW festival in Haifa. We agreed. Well, since it wasn’t quite advisable for us to fly for one concert, we agreed to another concert in Tel Aviv. All the concerts were very good and as a whole, I really liked the trip to Israel.
You can follow our concerts on social networks. On the second part of our European tour, we will visit the Balkan countries, and finally, the UK.
What’s the plan for the rest of the year? What’s a Molchat Doma Christmas look like?
The plans are to prepare a new program for the next round, finish some of the songs that will be included in the next album and just relax. We will spend Christmas with our family as we usually do. Thanks!
Listen to Molchat Doma on Spotify and Apple Music. Get the latest edition of our print magazine featuring interviews with Black Honey, Mattiel, Matt Maltese and more HERE.
