Undervud has become internationally renowned for their indie rock music with soulful, poetic elements. The group is headed by Maksim Kucherenko (Максим Кучеренко) and Vladimir Tkachenko (Владимир Ткаченко). Kucherenko is a Crimean native born in Simferopol; Tkachenko was born in Kerson in southern Ukraine. The two met at the Crimean Medical Institute in the 1990’s as students. The two performed mostly covers of Western music at student parties before turning to writing their own songs. They were later joined by other band members and became known for holding raucous concerts on the banks of the Yalta and Alushta, and, on one notable occasion, on the roof of the medical institute. Undervud lists a 1995 concert at the Rechnoye café as their official inception in their current form.
Undervud continued to perform in local venues for the next several years, releasing their first professional album in 1998. They gained local popularity through this time. Unlike many other post-Soviet rock bands that rose to fame in the 90s, Undervud focused less on finding the meaning of life and more on personal emotions and optimism about the world.
The band was nearly disbanded when tragedy struck in late 1998. One of the band members, Vyacheslav Kislovsky, died as a result of an unsuccessful heart operation. Undervud went into mourning, releasing “Бумеранг” (“Boomerang”) as a memorial song and going dormant in their grief. Kucherenko and Tkachenko graduated and went their separate ways. Kucherenko found work as a psychiatrist in Sevastopol and Kucherenko returned to the Kherson region to practice anesthesiology. Despite the separation, the two eventually struck up a new collaboration.
In 2000, Kucherenko and Tkachenko decided to focus on music full time. The two reunited and moved to Moscow, where they signed onto the Snigiri record label and acquired a new supporting cast of band members. In 2001, Undervud released the hit single “Гагарин, я вас любила! ” (“Gagarin, I loved you!”). This breakout hit propelled them into the spotlight. The follow-up full length album, entitled Всё пройдет, милая (Everything Will Pass, Dear) was praised by critics as “the best thing that Ukraine gave Russia since Gogol.”
The new incarnation of Undervud proved prolific – the group released nine albums between 2002 and 2019 along with many other singles. Interestingly, despite the group’s popularity and critical acclaim, several of their albums were partially crowd-funded. Undervud racked up awards and critical praise, including Best Album, the Rock Alternative Music Prize, and Song of the Year. The group also won the literary International Voloshin Prize. Although the prize is literary, the awarding jury awarded it for the group’s contribution of poetry in music.
Even with a busy release and concert schedule, the lead band members have pursued other creative projects. In 2005, Kucherenko and Tkachenko published a collection of collaborative poetry entitled Sound and Silence. Kucherenko has taken part in recording a rock opera adaptation of The Master and Margarita outside of his work with Undervud. Kucherenko and Tkachenko’s most recent side project is a COVID-19 collaboration entitled Quarantine Island, which has released the single “Кафка” (“Kafka”), sung entirely from home.
As a Crimean band loved across Russia and Ukraine, Undervud’s position on the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea has remained a matter of speculation. In 2015, the group released the single “Крым” (“Crimea”), which included the lyrics “Tell me whose Crimea, and I’ll tell you who you are.” While the group has publicly stated that the song is apolitical and simply describes the divisions politics have driven into ordinary peoples’ lives, the Ukrainian government has interpreted the ambiguity in the song as anti-Ukrainian. In 2016, Kucherenko was detained at the Kyiv Boryspil Airport and sent back to Moscow. Ukraine subsequently reversed the decision and allowed Undervud to perform the song in Kyiv. The group continues to perform the song while describing it as apolitical.
Undervud can be found on Amazon Music, iTunes, and YouTube under their Russian name “Ундервуд” and on Spotify under their transliterated name “Undervud.”
Lyrics to Крым
В отдельно взятой семье
Правила жизни просты:
Кто–то носит зарплату,
Кто–то поливает цветы.
Казалось бы, куда уже проще,
Но всё это лирика, в общем.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Ну?
Что может случится,
Когда открываются рты
В ток–шоу на кухне
При сознании своей правоты?
И как написал Папа Римский в фейсбуке:
Не лайкайте в суе имя Господа, суки.
Но скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Хоть трава не расти,
Хоть шаром покати,
Ты не ешь и не пьёшь,
Ты постишься в сети.
Но и я не грущу, на судьбу не ропщу.
О–о–о, котиков пощу.
О–о–о, котиков пощу.
Ты ходишь на выборы
И слушаешь группу “Глисты”.
Они милые парни.
Я слышал, у них есть хиты.
Мы разные люди, что говорить,
Ты патриотка, а я зашёл покурить.
Но скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Женщина в доме
Грустно стоит у плиты.
А объевшийся груш
С остервенением крутит болты.
У нас на двоих огромный IQ,
Но сегодня вопросы здесь я задаю.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, кто ты.
Скажи мне, чей Крым,
И я тебе скажу, и я тебе скажу, и я тебе скажу,
Кто ты.
Translated lyrics
In a separate family
Rules of living are simple:
Someone brings salary,
Someone waters flowers.
And it would seem what can be simpler?
But that’s all the lyrics actually
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you who you are.
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you who you are.
Well?
What can happen
When mouths are opening
In the talk-show in the kitchen
Realizing on their rightness?
And, how Pope wrote in Facebook:
Don’t put likes under God’s name in vain, bitches!
But, tell me, whose Crimea,
And I will tell you who you are
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you who you are.
Let the grass doesn’t grow,
Let everything be as bare as a bone
You don’t eat and drink
You post yourself on the Internet
But I am not sad as well, I don’t blame my fate
O-o-o, I post the kitties
O-o-o, I post the kitties
You go to the polls
And listen to the band “Worms”
They are very cute guys.
I heard they have even hits.
We are different people, that’s for sure,
You are “a patriot”, but I just came to have a smoke
But, tell me, whose Crimea,
And I will tell you who you are
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you who you are.
A woman at home
Is standing sadly by the stove
And her husband
Is frenziedly tightening the bolts
We have a huge IQ for two
But today I am asking questions here
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you who you are.
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you who you are.
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you who you are.
Tell me whose Crimea
And I will tell you, and I will tell you, and I will tell you,
Who you are.
