"First, we drank beer for five days straight, and then we went to the studio." Belarusians created a punk band in America and recorded an album in Belarusian

The band 5051 was born in New York in 2019. Before that, its members knew each other from Belarus, but never played music together. Vocalist Ivan Shlyk and bassist Alex Khatskevich are from Vitebsk, drummer Dzianis Ihnatsiuk is from Horki. The guys studied at the same university with Dzianis, but, according to Ivan, they only really knew of each other's existence.

"In the summer of 2019, we just gathered in New York and went to drink beer every day. Maybe it was like that for five days straight. And on one of those days, we thought: what if tomorrow we don't waste time, don't drink beer as always, but go to a music studio?" — recalls Ivan.

The next day, the Belarusians came to the studio. Truth be told, almost none of them knew exactly what to play. But everyone knew Max Korzh's songs.

In one rehearsal, the musicians covered about seven of his songs, after which they found a Russian-language festival in New York. That's where 5051's first concert took place — with covers of Korzh's songs.

After that, the band gradually moved on to their own songs. Ivan writes the music, and bassist Ales writes the lyrics.

The first two 5051 albums were in Russian. The musicians decided to make the new album Belarusian-language.

According to Ivan, this decision was not related to the war or geopolitics. The idea of making music in Belarusian appeared even before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"We just wanted to add something to Belarusian culture. And become a bit more a part of it," says the musician.

At the same time, he was interested not only in using the Belarusian language but also in checking how it would sound specifically in punk rock.

The main audience of 5051 in the USA is also Belarusian- and Russian-speaking.

Now the musicians clearly feel the difference between their first performances and the concerts of recent years. If in 2019 they mostly performed covers, now in various US cities people know their own songs and sing along to individual lines.

Dozens of people gather for the artists' intimate performances in pubs in Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and New York.

The band did not use artificial intelligence for creating music — neural networks were only needed for the sketch of the new album's cover.

"I just don't see the point in wasting my time broadcasting other people's visions to the world instead of my own."

Павялічыць

The band also has its own origin story for its name. 5051 is a peculiar way to encrypt an unprintable word. The musicians wanted the name on posters and in public places to be something the listener would have to decipher themselves.

The new album's name was born by chance. In an interview for the "ABA Together" project, the musicians were asked what helps them relax after concerts and tours. Joking, they replied: food, sleep, and courtesans.

This punk answer unexpectedly appealed to them too.

"We thought: damn, that sounds good. Imagine naming the album that," recalls Shlyk.

Thus, this phrase became the album's title.

Павялічыць

Now 5051 continues to perform in the USA and tries to understand how far Belarusian music, created overseas, can go. And the musicians promise to come to Belarus when there is an opportunity.

Павялічыць

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