In this interview Maria Arkhipova, the leading lady of Pop Rock group from Kyiv Amariia opens up about her band and the challenges of playing live in Kyiv under the Russian attack.
Amariia started as solo project in 2019 after Maria’s former band In.Vader disbanded. Next year guitarist and songwriter Ilya Potochnyak joined up with her and in summer of 2021 after attaching a drummer to form a whole band, Amariia was playing the biggest festivals in Ukraine. Noteworthy is also Amariia’s semifinal place in Ukraine’s Eurovision qualifications.
Maria can call two cities as here home at the moment, London and Kyiv. As the rest of the band cannot travel for the time being, Maria sings solo charity gigs in the UK. The whole band does play charity gigs in Kyiv though, whenever possible. Amariia’s last concert in Kyiv was at Volume Club on 28.10.2022. Before the concert there was no air raids for three days but just as the band was taking the stage an alarm went off and the whole club was evacuated to bomb shelter. Fortunately there was no explosions that time and concert was only delayed by 40 minutes.
Maria is very proud of Ukrainians since even though everybody is tired, they still do all they can to help their army. This of course includes musicians and artists, who organize events and use their voice for the good cause. Now organizing concerts is even harder than in August as Russian strikes have hit power plants and the Ukrainian power grid and so black outs in Kyiv are becoming more frequent and longer. Despite everything gigs do still happen with the help of generators and batteries and that is the most inspiring thing says Maria.
Amariia is working on their debut album every day Maria spends in Kyiv. Because of Russian war the work is going slowly but its going nevertheless. Band remains hopeful and is planning to do a charity tour around Europe once the album is ready and done.
Amariia interview 14.11.2022
Maria Arkhipova
Producer: Janne Vuorela
https://amariiaofficial.com/
Imperiumin artikkeli: https://www.impe.fi/articles/1/3149
Help Ukraine: https://helpukraine.center/
Picture: Amariia
