The boisterous Ukrainian folk, klezmer and Balkan swing sounds of Kommuna Lux are set to fill the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center this Sunday, May 24.
We caught up with two of the members—via Zoom—who were hanging out in the sunshine near Sebastopol (in Sonoma County—not Sevastopol in Crimea), just days ahead of their Western US tour, which, in addition to modern takes on old school songs, is also raising money for the Ukrainian war effort.
“The set that we developed is pretty diverse,” said drummer Nicko Shevelov, pointing to jazz, disco and Latin influences, on top of the folky elements. “It’s just craziness from the beginning to the end, and people are dancing.”
And don’t forget the more sensual ballads.
The group was born in Odesa, the seaside getaway city in Ukraine, but the members currently live in a variety of locales and only recently came together to finalize the production.
Taras Luka, the accordion player, for example, now lives in Vancouver.
“I live in Canada last probably 3-and-a-half years,” he said. “It’s really nice. Really beautiful city. Lot of nature.”
Shevelov is from Lviv, Ukraine, but has been living in New York City for a dozen years.
Another bandmate lives in New Jersey.
“It’s challenging being in different places,” Luka said. “But it also has an element (of) freshness to it.”
What he means is that, because they’ve only been playing the latest songs together in person for a matter of days, there’s still a rawness that comes across on stage, because it isn’t the millionth time they’ve practiced or performed a particular track.
The group may not have original numbers. But they do perform songs in unique configurations.
“And that is what’s interesting,” Luka said. “We’re playing beautiful Ukrainian folk music and we do it in a really interesting arrangement.”
“Yeah. Contemporary and creative,” Shevelov chimes in.
The war with Russia looms large over the band—they’re using the show as a way to raise money to support the Ukrainian side.
“On the last tour, we bought a minivan bus to evacuate people on the front line and bring in supplies,” Luka said.
A couple years ago, Kommuna Lux raised money to support burn victims.
Kommuna Lux has raised more than $50,000 in direct aid, so far, via non-governmental organization KMLX.
Jeanine Renne, the US manager for Kommuna Lux, who is on the board of nonprofit KMLX, explained that Kommuna Lux began collecting donations at their concerts and directing the money to that nonprofit, which is a 501(c)3 organization.
Because KMLX has almost no overhead (except for business registration costs and some minor supplies like donation jars that keep getting broken on tour), nearly all of the money makes it to Ukraine.
In fact, they didn’t even have to pay to transfer the money overseas for a while—however Chase Bank recently resumed charging wire transfer fees, Renne added.
Other groups—namely Yagody and Vopli Vidipliassova—began contributing to the KMLX drive for Ukraine.
“Kommuna Lux supports two particular military units because we have relatives and even former band members in those units. We mainly buy them vehicles, because troops have to transport themselves most of the time and their vehicles keep getting broken axles driving in the fields, or they get blown up. We try to buy the vans in Poland and then take them to the border, where someone from the military will collect them. Then they add armor and do any repairs, and then the vehicle goes to the front until it’s destroyed,” Renne said.
“When the band first started collecting donations in Europe, they gave a lot of money to local grassroots causes near Odesa. Food, water, medicine, security cameras for a bomb shelter—there were a ton of little things. After their first US tour, we formed the 501(c)3. We partnered with some International Rotary branches in Ukraine so that 30% of the money we collected went straight to the Rotary. First, we bought new, modern Burn Unit beds for a hospital in the Dnipro region—it was a Rotary project, but it was funded entirely by us. Right now, we are working on funds to rebuild a playground in Odesa.”
That accounts for about a third of the money, while another big chunk goes to purchase front line vehicles. (There have been exceptions, such as the $300 that’s gone toward medical supplies for a different military unit—Kommuna Lux’s clarinet player is friends with one of the soldiers).
“We are constantly getting requests for money—there is no shortage of need,” Renne said. “But we try to mainly support big-ticket items like SUVs and vans for our ‘special’ brigades.”
They want to chip in, because it’s not so easy for someone in Ukraine to come up with $300 for night vision goggles. Collecting $5,000 for a vehicle is even more difficult.
These days, however, the money brought in at Kommuna Lux shows goes through Rotary.
For its part, Vopli Vidipliassova supports a shelter/hospital in Ukraine called Misto Dobra—bringing in $30-40K per tour.
Yagody gives money directly to brigades, ones where they have friends and relatives serving. And they’ve also donated to local causes in Lviv (their hometown), such as the Lviv Auto Angels, who buy cars for military units.
“It is really amazing how badly their military needs vehicles,” Renne said.
