Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Homeless Radio
Introduction of the project: Homeless Radio is a Ukrainian rock band from Kharkiv, blending indie, garage rock, skate punk, post-grunge, and pop influences into their raw, high-energy sound. Formed in 2016, the group consists of Andrew Yampolskyi (vocals/guitar), Fedir Orlov (guitar), Stepan Tkachuk (bass), Ihor Pankieiev (guitar), and Ivan Orlov (drums).
The interview is answered by Andrew Yampolskyi.
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My parents and relatives had a few musical instruments at home, including a little guitar and an accordion. Interestingly, I wasn’t obsessed with playing them – I was rather obsessed with destroying them in a rock’n’roll way. I must’ve seen something like that on TV and thought it looked cool.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
Since early childhood, I was deeply interested in creating art. I never really doubted that this was what I wanted to do for a living. The problem was figuring out which form of art I wanted to pursue. I tried painting, acting, writing stories – at one point I even thought about becoming a film director or a novelist. But since I never had any formal training in those fields, none of them felt like the right fit or matched the way I imagined things in my head.
Songwriting turned out to be exactly what I had been looking for. I’d always been drawn to music, but for a long time I assumed you had to start learning an instrument in early childhood. When I discovered rock music, I realized it was totally possible to learn even as a teenager. Discovering Nirvana and other great grunge bands inspired me to pick up a guitar, start singing, and begin writing songs.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
Homeless Radio is a band formed by friends who are passionate about creating unusual music. Our genre – or at least the one we started with – wasn’t very popular when we first began playing together, so writing alt-garage punk with pop-influenced melodies became the thing that united us. Each of us listens to both similar and very different music, and that mix helps us come up with eclectic ideas. Although the band was formed in Kharkiv, in one way or another all of the members are connected to my hometown, Izyum.
Due to the war in our country, our band is currently separated, but we’re still working on music remotely. Moreover, our guitarist Ihor is serving in the army.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
At the moment, our music drifts somewhere between punk, indie, alternative rock, and grunge. Even though the sound can be quite raw, our melodies are pretty pop-ish, so almost anyone can enjoy our music – no matter what genre they usually prefer. Many listeners point out the influence of ’90s and ’00s rock bands, especially the early garage-punk revival scene.
That said, we plan to keep developing our sound and stepping outside the box. I’m sure our future releases will surprise our listeners.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
The more diverse the music you listen to, the more you grow as a songwriter. I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, staying locked within strict genre boundaries feels like a mistake – it can distract you from learning new things and evolving. Of course, simply listening to or blending unconnected genres like jazz, heavy metal, EDM, or hip-hop doesn’t automatically mean you’ll write a great song. But combining elements from different styles in a creative, thoughtful way can definitely open up new, unexplored spaces for a writer.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
As for the songwriting itself, having an instrument – usually a guitar – and my voice works best when I’m coming up with a melody, a riff, or a chord progression. After that, the guys and I continue developing the project in Reaper, using tons of different plugins. If I need to double-check the harmonic structure, I use Guitar Pro to create a MIDI demo of the song. And since I’m a non-native English speaker, I usually spend hours with Google and dictionaries to craft interesting lyrics.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
I finished the new Dispatch game a week ago, and it has a fantastic soundtrack featuring mostly indie artists. Radio by Bershy and Pound Cake by Thot Squad are my favorite tracks from the game – I highly recommend checking it out!
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I think all our songs are connected to my personal experiences in some way, whether directly or through my impressions of something. Many things inspire me, and I really like the idea of creating something abstract that each listener can interpret in their own way – that’s what gives music its versatility.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I hope listeners find their own associations with my songs. In my opinion, that can create a strong and unique experience. I don’t want to be too dramatic, but we’re going through pretty dark times, especially in our homeland, Ukraine. Right now, I hope our songs can bring some hope and kindness to our listeners.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
If you love something and are ready to keep going no matter what – working hard – one way or another, it will work out. I was just a guy from a small Ukrainian town, most of my bandmates were the same, and I didn’t have any natural musical talent or knowledge. I really struggled to sing and play the guitar. The only thing I had was my imagination.
Maybe we don’t have millions of listeners around the world, but some people know us and listen to our music, which proves that hard work matters, even when it’s tough. I’ll sound pretty banal, but music showed me that it’s worth believing in yourself.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
I’ve never been, but I believe the Lollapalooza festivals are some of the wildest out there. Still, I’d be happy to play at any festival or venue.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
That’s a tough one, since I’ve never seriously worked with anyone outside the band. My favorite songwriters for years have been Julian Casablancas and Alex Turner, so I’d probably choose them. But I’d also be happy to collaborate with anyone super creative, like Jesse Rutherford, Tyler, the Creator, or Billie Eilish… The list of talented people I’d love to work with could go on and on!
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
We have this link uniting all our music and social media platforms: https://linktr.ee/Homelessradio
I post all the news on our Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/homelessradio
And surely, our Spotify page is the biggest one: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4pmHFfPbHQbTUzfWoJPf8J
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
I hope our experiments will turn into something exciting, maybe attracting more listeners to our music. Of course, I’d love for more people to hear us so we could record an LP and play some live shows or even go on tour. Given the current situation, though, that’s a bit complicated.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I hope our music and lyrics bring our listeners joy, evoke memories, and maybe help them experience something alongside us. As a band, we want to show our listeners how we can evolve and explore new directions – but that’s still to come (consider this a little teaser for our next single). And of course, we hope to shine some light on our part of the world, especially Ukraine, which has so many great artists who deserve to be enjoyed internationally.
Our latest song Fed To The Teeth:
