Ievgen Galych is a Ukrainian rock musician, showman, and the frontman of the rock band O.Torvald. The band has existed since 2005, but he chose the musical path even earlier in his childhood. When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started, he made a drastic decision to put on pause his music career and join the fight to defend Ukraine. In this interview, Ievgen shared his military experience, his interpretation of tragic events in new songs, and the balance between his soldier and musician identities.
The Decision to Join the Military
In 2022, I could not stand aside — I just had to defend my home. If it had been an incomprehensible war for me, if I had any doubts, I would not have gone. But it was very obvious that our peaceful cities were being bombed, and our peaceful territories were being seized in a completely lawless and boorish way, so we had to fight.
In the early days of the full-scale invasion, Ievgen started actively volunteering and searching for ways to join the armed forces, even though his first attempts were unsuccessful.
My best friend and I stood in lines at military registration and enlistment offices to negotiate to be accepted into some units. Since we had not been involved in the army before, we were not accepted anywhere, although I held the rank of junior lieutenant. It turned out that we had mutual acquaintances in one of the territorial defence battalions, and they were looking for officers, so I joined the 135th Territorial Defense Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which eventually became a full-fledged battalion of the Armed Forces.
After that, Ievgen dedicated himself almost entirely to military service for more than two years, while his musical career faded into the background, except for rare charity public appearances.
I had my first combat missions in the summer of 2022. And then, until January 2024, I spent 99 % of my time in military service, in the war. I was called up as a platoon commander, leading 26 people. After that, I transitioned to the role of officer in a support force group, and later, I became an officer in civil-military cooperation. The responsibilities are entirely different, not all of them could be mentioned. My primary duties were to be in a unit, fulfil the tasks the higher command assigned to us, and participate in combat operations.
Now, the situation has changed because I have other tasks from the state, and I try to fulfill them, although I am still a military man.
Music and charity
O.Torvald and Ievgen Galych personally find public attention very helpful to raise money for military needs.
We have never measured the total amount of aid. When I was constantly involved in the unit, we raised money through my media activity. At that time, we collected money for certain purchases. At first, it was for military uniforms, then for bulletproof vests and helmets, vehicles, drones and so on. Relatively speaking, we raised about five, seven, or ten million ( up to apr 242 000 $). For one concert last year we raised two million, and this year we raised about a couple of million hryvnias for different causes. Now we are not only raising funds for my unit, but we are also involved in various collections of the Defence Intelligence and others.
Publicity also aids in sourcing essential equipment and items for military use:
Some people helped us with the necessary equipment. For example, once I started collecting donations for a car, and a friend told me, “I have a completely appropriate SUV in my yard. Come pick it up, but it won’t start. If you can get it running, it’s yours”.
As both a soldier and a musician, I am currently trying to use all my media presence to support my unit and the neighbouring units we cooperate with. But now I would like to do more. I have exhausted my resources as a qualified military man, so now I am using my resources as a qualified musician.
Coming back to music
In April 2024, O.Torvald released their first album since the full-scale invasion, titled Fatigue. To record this, the members of the band gathered together in one house and switched all the devices off to immerse themselves in the creative process.
We have never been a band that uses speculative themes in our music. Moreover, we have always been interested in writing more art-therapeutic music, especially recently. We’re not interested in using literal clichés. That’s why we wrote the album about our experiences metaphorically enough to make it more poetic and creatively presented. There are no hidden themes there, we have always tried to talk about our condition. The album begins with the track “704”, symbolising 704 days of the full-scale invasion. It was on this day that we started writing the album. All these 704 days, every time you experience different emotions. The album ends with the track Fatigue and the final lines, in which I say that now I am no longer afraid to see hell because I have seen it on earth. This literally describes what I witnessed during the war. We would like to forget those memories forever, but we will never be able to do that.
The band already has good news about the next release:
All my best songs are about love, so I continue working in this direction. I want to love and spread the love around me. But still, I come up with different painful tracks. Well, we are working. The new material is already ready.
The impact of art and artist
The musician’s point of view and senses, coded in their music, have shaped their opinions and prompted reconsidering values and decision-making. When asked, How do you think your decision to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine has affected your fans and people who know you? Ievgen answers with the particular cases.
I can only talk about the feedback I have recieved. Some musicians, my friends, have joined the Armed Forces, thanking me for it.
They were like, ‘Hey, dude, thanks for helping us understand why we should join.
Unfortunately, some followers lost their lives. There was a guy from Mykolaiv who went to serve. I think our common patriotic thoughts inspired him. I know that he was very fond of O.Torvald, he attended many of our concerts. This is a war, we cannot control what today or tomorrow will bring, whether in peaceful cities or during the fighting.
We are at war with a completely inadequate enemy, absolutely unprincipled and morally destroyed. We have to be prepared for the fact that we all will have to fight, and some of us will die.
Global plans
In 2023, Ievgen Galych was supposed to join his colleagues from Druga Rika for the North American tour, but he had to cancel his participation because of urgent military duties. Now, he and his band are planning to catch up on the international plans. He views their mission as cultural diplomacy, aiming to showcase the greatness of Ukrainian modern culture.
We are planning a foreign tour for next year. It will definitely be a charity tour, but we want to perform for those refugees who have been forced to leave the country legally.
However, our main task is not to perform only for Ukrainians, but for our Western partners, people who live in peaceful cities. We would like to tell them how strong, prosperous, and unbreakable our country is. And we will tell all this in our songs for people from other countries who will attend concert.
He believes that Ukrainian music deserves more attention:
We have some fantastic international stars in Ukraine. This is, for example, Jamala, who writes world music that is perceived outside of Ukraine. We have a new album from Okean Elzy. We would like Okean Elzy to be loved outside of Ukraine as much as they are in Ukraine. We have an authentic cultural code that is present in the songs of Klavdiya Petrivna, Artem Pivovarov, and some other pop stars. I would like the world to perceive Klavdiya Pertivna as a modern Ukrainian Taylor Swift.
There is a young, promising, cool alternative band called O.Torvald, which has no equal in terms of energy, so we would like to show our energy to the whole world,– he adds with a smile on the question about the representation of Ukrainian music abroad.
He told that, he would like the whole world to know Ukrainian. And he would like it to become fashionable to speak Ukrainian, although He also ready to sing in English to convey the meanings.
