On their new album Wallflowers, out this August from Napalm Records, the Ukrainian metal group Jinjer sound devastating.
Although musical force has long been part of the Jinjer repertoire, Wallflowers proves startlingly heavy, like a soundtrack for venturing into an oppressively overcast environment with little knowledge of what lies ahead but an undeniable ambition to find out. At the center of Wallflowers, there’s fiery passion, communicated by the alternatingly roaring and lighter vocals from the group’s Tatiana Shmayluk, alongside the bracing instrumentation. The groove gets intense enough that it suggests scenes of carving chunks out of the earth— or belting out the lyrics and fist-pumping along from the crowd at a metal festival.
The dynamic range that appears across Wallflowers is impressive. The album shifts from the atmosphere-oriented passages that appear on “Vortex,” “Wallflower,” and elsewhere, to the pummeling onslaughts on tracks like “Copycat” and album closer “Mediator”— the latter of which features moments of blisteringly fast instrumentation—but the musical breadth goes on from there.
Without really at all impeding the heavy, forward push, Wallflowers proves intricate, like a musical reflection of a storm. Although the transitions and overall trek are relatively smooth— and the album mostly stays energetic, keeping at least the main focus on the path forward— Wallflowers feels at times like it’s just about constantly shifting. This extra infusion of unease expands the album’s already formidable impact.
Overall, Wallflowers proves emotive, yet powerful— in other words, it’s aptly suited to really latching onto as a listener and following along with the musical explorations that Jinjer present.
Below, check out what Jinjer vocalist vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk has to say about Wallflowers, including the role that sleep paralysis played in her formulation of the lyrics and a call-out to the classic hits found on MTV ’90s. Shmayluk performs in Jinjer alongside guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov, bassist Eugene Abdukhanov, and drummer Vlad Ulasevich.
You guys have been making music for awhile now. Are there particular creative sparks that come to mind that kept the process going for you guys with this new album?
It’s definitely a new chapter for us. Me and [bassist] Eugene [Abdukhanov] always say that the day we stop evolving, it’s the day that Jinjer is dead. It’s your baby— you cannot stop loving it. You cannot hate it. For us, it’s definitely something very new, and we’ve never done this before, because the sound— it’s mostly the bass. The bass is very aggressive, and it gave the whole album a pretty heavy sound, which we have never had before.
Would you say that you intentionally pursued that extra heaviness— that real musical punch, so to speak?
Honestly, no one asks me if I really want that sound in our album. I never participate in the arrangement of the sound, choosing the sound and stuff, because I really don’t care. As soon as the melody is kicking ass, that’s the very important thing for me. But when I heard that thing, I was surprised, and I really— the reason why I don’t participate in choosing the sound and correcting something is because I totally trust the guys, and they know what to do, and my job is to deliver sense, much sense into lyrics and nice, sweet melodies.
Would you say that for your vocals, there’s a particular vibe that you wanted to shine through?
The latest album was made in a really weird way for me, because we as a band had more than enough time to record, and compose, and write lyrics, but I only started writing lyrics when it was a deadline for me. So, I wrote lyrics, and I didn’t even have time—
well, of course it’s my fault, but whatever— I didn’t have time to compose the vocal lines, the vocal arrangements. Everything that I did on the album, except for maybe two songs that I was pretty sure how to sing, that was only improvisation. I was improvising and making this thing right in front of the microphone together with the band. But I didn’t have anything in particular, like the one, common sound and stuff. […] That works the best for me. At least it’s pretty sincere and raw.
For all elements of the sound, does the eventual live experience weigh on how you shape things?
When we compose, and when we record songs, they tell me: “Hey Tat, you be sure you can sing it live, you know?” Because sometimes it was hard for me. For example, when we recorded “I Speak Astronomy,” there is a really, really high note, and that was challenging for me to sing and still is. So, I think I need to be a little bit more careful about composing and keeping that in mind so that it’s going to sound live how it’s going to sound live. Something I can do in the studio— it’s really hard for me to do it live. […] I just have to do that high note, for example, in the studio, in the sake of the feeling that you have when you are listening to the album in the headphones, like on the record.
Are there particular inspirations that come to mind that you drew from for the lyrics on this record?
First of all, the main area is my inner world, my head. So, when we dive in there, we have a lot of things, like we look around and we see, for example, my introverted self. And the song “Wallflower” is dedicated to this problem— not problem, but to this topic: introverts. And then we look around, and we see “Sleep of the Righteous.” “Sleep of the Righteous” was dedicated to my constant experiences of sleep paralysis. That’s the thing that scared me from since I was a teenager— like, damn. It’s such a crazy thing in my life that I just had to write something about that, and maybe find out that a lot of people have the same problem, like the same sleeping disorder. I don’t know— I’m really curious how many people out there experienced the same stuff.
So, it’s basically more of a psychology [thing]. […] It’s a very dark place to be, when you listen to this album, you know? But it can be therapeutic for someone. For me, like for example, I love to listen to very sad songs if I’m really sad. It kind of helps.
Would you say that you have a level of catharsis with the songwriting process for Jinjer?
I have an absolutely different approach to making music and a different effect that it has on me. Making music for me is always like giving birth to a baby. Painful— pain, sweat, tears, hysteria, always like mental breakdowns. I become crazy and very neurotic almost. I don’t know why, but due to this, it helps me to create. I get used to creating under pressure, like when deadlines hit me, and I become like a ball of nerves. I’m so unstable mentally when I do my job, like writing lyrics and stuff. It’s not a pleasant thing for me really.
Would you say that it’s like a relief to have the record finished and ready to share with the world?
Absolutely. The last day of me recording the album, of course I was celebrating— every time it was just like clapping, and just getting drunk, and just having some party. That was a great relief— great relief. Every time we talk about writing a new album, and we think like— ah, it’s not going to happen until maybe in two years at least. And we have like two years at least to just be free and play these tours and concerts and stuff. And then bam, the time flies so fast, that here we are writing another album. It’s like, no, come on, we’ve just written the album, and they say no— it was two years ago. So, it’s much stress for me, unlike the rest of the guys. They feel pretty okay and stuff.
Are there things that come to mind that you would like to explore in the future?
There’s going to be more time dedicated to shows right now, since we start getting back to normal life, and I don’t think we’re going to have much time to explore something new as a band. Maybe playing a concert in Alaska. That’s my goal— that’s what I want to do. But, since we’ve played almost every continent of this world— I don’t know, maybe start a T.V. show? I don’t know what can we do. To play a concert with a symphonic orchestra? I don’t think we have anything planned. Just shooting music videos, just an old school metal life.
Are there any records that you’ve been having on rotation a lot lately?
I stopped listening to metal many years ago, and people know that. I now listen to only this new album, our new album, just because I need to remember the words, the parts, and I need to get ready for the shows to play this album and stuff.
Before recording this album, I listened to just MTV, you know— ’90s. I have this channel on my TV: MTV ’90s. And all the greatest hits that were there, you know? I’ve even got this compilation on my phone. I Shazam’ed something on the radio maybe and just started to put it [together]. I lost interest, I think, in new music. I’m just living my past music experiences, when I was a child and everything was so attractive and exciting for me. That’s why— I listen to the ’90s hits and am just jamming to that. That gives me a lot of fun.
This interview has been edited, mostly for length.
Watch the video for “Mediator” here:
For more from Jinjer, check out their official website.
Photos courtesy of Jinjer and Alina Chernohor.
