Here is Dustyesky, live in Brunswick Heads, special isolation performance for Australian
Broadcasting Collective. We sing together, apart, just over 1.5 metres to be sure.
A Russian choir out of a bunch of men that don't speak Russian. It's kind of bizarre,
but it works.
Dustesky is the leading genuine fake Russian choir in Southern Hemisphere. We are 28 men,
middle-aged, very hairy, and we all live outside the tiny little hamlet of Mullumbimby or as
we call it, Mullumgrad.
It turns out that we are the choir fit for pandemic
And more about music. An amateur choir from Australia, which is famous for performing
Russian songs, gains popularity
Suddenly they got contacted by Russian TV. And I don’t think they were quite prepared
for the reaction. It was like they got to be like. A boy band suddenly. A boy band for
old people.
They are famous for singing Russian classical songs even though they don’t speak the language
We make clip for interwebs. Russian TV jazz it up, and it go crazy over there.
The irony of going viral during COVID-19 in Mother Russia., we cannot get enough of it.
We are choir born for pandemics, most infectious choir on the planet right now.
Comrade Glen, he is big boss. Strong, silent type. Dustyesky is his troubled love child.
Glenn Wright Is one of the founders of Dustyesky. He has a long history in the music industry
from back in Sydney, the Harbourside Brasserie. And he's just really great at seeding ideas
and making them happen
I moved up north to Mullumbimby and I started the Mullumbimby Music Festival. I came up
with this idea of putting together a Russian choir with locals. I've had a longstanding
love affair with the music of Russia. There’s just this incredible tradition. The Russian
people are kind of edgy I think. But I just love the passion and I think that’s what
the choir try’s to create
Cheers Tom, prost whatever…
I was having a beer with my friend Tom Whittaker, Comrade Whittaker.
That was a good rehearsal. It was great.
Tom said we need to find someone to lead us musically and he suggested Andrew Swain
I was at a party with Glenn and Tom and it was two o'clock in the morning and we were
drinking vodka. And that was when they asked me, well, I was pretty much anybody's at that
stage. And then the next morning, I woke up and I went, oh, Russian. and away we went!
Andrew Swain has a long history in choirs , he is a choir master himself , you couldn’t
get someone better to be doing the arrangements
Remember When we get louder not to speed up just relax, give it all. But don’t race
in
When we started the group, I didn't audition anybody. I do come from a background where
I do believe that everybody can sing
Who knew parking was a problem in Mullum?
Mark Swivel came along and he was new to town and kind of new to the choir and I don’t
know how he got in cos it’s pretty tough , but he was exactly the right person and
the right fit
Now each of the Dustyeskies live alone in shipping container. We do many things for
workings. Most of the boys work in typewriter factory, some of them are salmon smokers,
of course we make the gherkin liqueur, that is how we live our life we make most of our
money from that
We do a little bit sing song now for the good people of mullumgrad.
Swiv's a lawyer, but he's also a comedian. He brought humour and a dynamism to the show
What we think of the red gherkin beer boys. What we think is good.
Da.
Da. That is absolute seal of approvals right there
We did our first gig at the 2015 Mullum music festival , and it went really well . It felt
like we were Russians in fact some of the people in the audience thought we were Russian
which we all got a kick out of and the original idea was that that would happen
It was a massive reaction. right from the outset, they got other gigs, you know, other
festivals wanted them to come and perform there. but they had to be really careful , like
they couldn’t grow too quickly because they only had three songs
And it was kind of then that the momentum of Dustyyesky, it just started to roll.
We got invited to sing at the Fringe in Sydney. Then we got invited to Womad. So the stages
were getting bigger.
Proper musicians on every stage, tens of thousands of people. For some reason we there as well
We really love our rehearsals. And in fact, I think sometimes we love the rehearsals more
than the gigs.
It's the highlight of my week, and I think it's true for a lot of the other guys too,
The songs we sing. They've lasted the test of time. they're the songs of the folk, the
people of Russia. We try and recreate this passion of the Russians
We bring to you only songs of despair and suffering to fill your hearts with love and
joy
By the end of it, everybody dancing and behaving in quite a silly fashion, but also, I think
everybody sees that we respect the music deeply.
Today we’re visiting a very unusual choir from Australia “Dustyesky”
The Russians started to notice us and we were really nervous about whether they'd like us
or hate us.
Everyone go Dustyesky – I know that Russian writer boy and we go no its dusty fridge for
beer, like icebox very good
The Russian Ambassador come along with his entourage. If you look under bond villain
on Wikipedia, there is picture of him. That is what he looks like. Beautiful man. So he
love it, his wife loves it too.
About Russian folk songs in Australian style. (Pavel Matveev reports ) this could go
Out of the blue TV One, which is like the Russian version of the ABC, did that little
spot at the end of the news
The hearts of audience are taken by the choir which performs their songs in Russian
And suddenly my phone started getting like messages from Russia in the middle of the
night. I was like, what's going on. And eventually we found out that, you know, we'd been shown
all over Russia all day at the end of every newscast. They are moved by it and they're
reminded of how rich their culture is and they easily accept what we do as a compliment.
We not interested in politics. We do not endorse any political system or government. We invite
President Putin to come to Mullumgrad, and to sing with us, to go fishing with us, to
drink with us, and we hang out in the river together. We take off our shirts and cover
ourselves in macadamia butter and see what happens.
Comrade Swainski, Glenski elbows want to hug you.
No we can’t.
Why not.
Today the day, 5th May we’d be in the motherland
We'd always wanted to go to Russia, but it's so hard to organize anything with 28 guys.
It's like herding cats. Eventually we get the phone call. It's the Russian Ministry
of Culture. We want you guys to come to Russia to sing for the red regiment of the immortal
soldiers for the Grand Victory Day Parade in Red Square. We're like, here we go, 250,000
people and Putin and the tanks and all the stuff
They were going to invite 28 men to travel all the way around the world for four minutes,
and we said, "Most of men not last that long, but we give it a crack anyway."
So all the crew from dustyesky should have been on a plane. pretty much right now flying
to Russia and then COVID hit. So it's cancelled
Bloody COVID got in the way didn't it? Urgh
So Russian TV invited them to put a clip together. They just did it on their iPhones, all in
different locations of where they are in isolation.
COVID-19 is terrible shadow, but also an opportunity, and it bring us together. We are ridiculous
enough as it is, but we all sing together, alone, in shipping container. Is beautiful
and ridiculous and it sound good. Amazing, why nyet.
It's surprising that, you know, a bunch of guys from a small town in Australia really
have, you know, gone global with this.
How do you say viral in Russian? Millions of people have watched it. And I've been getting
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of comments from Russian people saying, you guys are amazing.
This is incredible. You're beautiful.
We’ve had so many responses from Facebook Messenger from people in Russian and wow-
this one’s just come back. A choir in Russia has recorded Waltzing Matilda as a response
to what we did for them in Russia – except they’re really good.
Hello Moscow calling can you hear me
Yes we can hear you
Instead of the concert that we were gonna sing it. they've asked me and one other member
of the choir in a COVID friendly fashion to appear with the anchor man of this program
singing with him on the telly. Now I’m really scared
OK when you’re ready guys
The Dustyesky choir, their performance is going to be a part of our special 9th of May
Victory Day coverage its going to build up their fame even more
They've since indicated that they will go ahead with the Russians with the celebrations
for Victory Day. But just at a later date. So there's hope we might end up in Russia
I really hope Dustyesky do get to go to Russia because I feel like that's the next part of
their story. This is gonna be extraordinary for them to take that next jump and really
feel what it's like and the emotional connection of singing these songs that don't belong to
them, to people who own these songs.
They are songs that the Russians have stopped singing, and to us there is something amazingly
beautiful about helping people rediscover their own culture.
The accidental nature of the whole thing has been a really fantastic journey, not just
for me, but for everybody.
The songs of Russia are actually the songs of entire world. That is the lesson, if you
want one, of Dustyesky. That there is no particular culture, there is just the song and it holds
all of us within it.