On July 17th, The HU will return to Hungary on the stage of Budapest Park. The band from Ulaanbaatar has become one of the most interesting spots on the international metal scene in recent years, combining traditional Mongolian folk instruments, musical motifs and, of course, throat singing with the basic instruments of rock and metal music in a unique form, and this concept is gaining more and more followers, so they now regularly appear among the main stage productions of the most serious festivals. Before the concert in Budapest, we had the opportunity to interview one of the band’s frontmen, Galbadrakh „Gala” Tsendbaatar, who, in addition to throat singing, plays the horse’s head violin – or morin khuur, as they call it in Mongolia – and thinks of Hungary as a kind of second home.
Are you in Mongolia right now, or did I catch you somewhere on tour?
Right now we’re in France, Marseilles, about to perform today. We have started our European festival season of 2023 and the American leg should start soon as well.
In a few days you will play in Hungary again, this will be your second time here. You visited us for the first time last November, what memories do you have of the first concert?
Hungary seems like a second home to me. We feel like we’re somehow connected through our ancestors. I heard that the kids are born with the Mongolian blue mark and it seems like our second home, absolutely.
Did you know anything more about Hungary beforehand and how was the two visited our country for the first time compared to this?
Hungarian beef stew is very popular in Mongolia. It’s called gorges in Mongolia and we still are very love to eat. So from the food and the words, from what I understand there are several different vocabulary of words that are similar to each other. And of course, the history, it’s a long history that we know from each other, about Hungaria, and Attila, the Hun king and so on and so forth. So we know a lot of about the history as well.
You are currently playing at the biggest international metal festivals, and in the fall you will tour in America with Asking Alexandria. What is it like to experience the fact that in a few years the band became Mongolia’s number one musical export?
We just see success as a starting point for us and there are so many things to do in our opinion. We’ve been a professional musicians for about 20 years and our producer has been for 30, 40 years. So up until today, we have done a lot of work that has prepared for this very occasion. And also, when we started to give you people see the glamorous touring and doing all of this great work, but we also work very, very hard along the way. Even now, we are still on a very tight schedule and we make sure to do everything on our hands to share our culture around the world and bring good music around to our fans.
How is the metal scene in Mongolia nowadays? Do you think there is a band that anyone who pays attention to Mongolian bands?
To give you a little bit of background, Mongolia has like three million people in the population, but we have so much diverse music genres advanced in Mongolia. And the metal rock scenery has been really active since the start of the 1990s. So we have, like, the Metal Rock community embraces so many musicians. Currently, we are really encouraging this new young band called Gravel of Crown. And I think we believe that they’re doing such a great job introducing the rock scenery in Mongolia and keeping it going as well. So I recommend you listen to them.
Your second album Rumble of Thunder was released last fall. I know that the songs are mostly written by your producer, Dashka but what makes the new album different for you personally on a musical, atmospherical or emotional level?
I think we tried to expand on the Hunnu Rock genre much more. As you can already hear, we have added soft-type songs like Mother Nature. But at the same time, we also brought in sell the world like a little bit of a hard rock type of style as well. So we really did our best to expand on the Hunu Rock genre itself. And at the same time as music we have developed as musicians a lot and our connection with each other has improved significantly on the recording of this album. So as you can hear from the Deluxe album’s acoustic sessions. You can hear a different addition that was being added on while performing and recording, and so on and so forth. So as the musicians and as the people who are in the band, we have, we understand each other perfectly. We have developed these musicians as well.
What is the main challenge to you as a musician to play in a band that uses traditional Mongolian folk instruments and traditional metal and rock instruments at the same time?
The unique thing about playing both modern and traditional instruments in the band is that Mongolian traditional instruments have the same tuning as modern rock music with the fifth and quint tuning techniques. So the playing of the horse fiddle is also really similar to a guitar riff. So it’s, you know, there are so many similarities between them. So it is actually, you know, if you have the right ear for it, you will be able to perform seamlessly. Also, as we see, throat singing is the Mongolian version of the screaming vocal technique of the rock and metal scene.
I think probably nothing else tells more about the soul of a nation than its music. What do you think are the three words that can be used to describe the traditional Mongolian musical motifs that appear in your songs?
First: energy, second: hour, and third: love, I would say. So it makes you feel energy, power, you know, gives you power inside. And then it will touch your heartstring.
As you told me earlier, you have a mission with the band to share the Mongolian culture with the music. What would you tell people who have never been there and only have superficial information about your country, what is the most important thing to know about Mongolia?
Mongolia has a positive energy, has an amazing landscape and nature. Yeah, nature is filled with the highest mountain and desert and there are just so many beautiful scenery in Mongolia that you can imagine. Everything in our environment carries that energy, which we try to transcribe through our music into the world. So whatever you’re feeling inside when you hear our music is the feeling that you will get about the Mongolian tradition, rich history and all the beautiful things that our Mongolian people have contributed to world history and has been continuing to do so as well. Mongolia is a modern society as well. So in that part, we bring in the modern rock scenery to our music as well. So what I’m trying to say here, there is a mixture of everything in Mongolia is, the modern and the tradition, and we’re trying to bring everything in one piece to the future as well. It’s a great pleasure for us that the work that we have been doing has been recognized by UNESCO. And I can’t wait to meet our Hungarian brethren and all the good food! It’s been a while, so let’s have a rocking night and meet everyone again!
Tickets for the concert are still available on the website of Live Nation Hungary!
Photo: The HU Facebook
