Editor’s note: This interview took place long before Russia’s active war in Ukraine. Belarus was a staging ground for Russia’s invasion. While Belarus publicly supports Russia, some Belarusians are fighting on the Ukrainian side.

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Much has been written about an initial wave of TikTok users missing the point on the existentialist themes on “Sudno (Судно)” (“Vessel”) by Belarusian new-wave and post-punk trio Molchat Doma. TikTok users made the song go viral in 2020 as a soundtrack to humorous cat and outfit change videos.

It sparked the band’s appearance on the Billboard’s Top Album Sales and World Albums charts with Monument, the trio’s third album.

But after that first rush, there’s no escaping that the song, which includes lyrics about a suicidal artist, began to strike a chord with Western audiences that not only saw parallels between Belarus’ political struggles (the country is run by the self-titled “last dictator of Europe”) and the justice and equality movements elsewhere.

“This [the TikTok success] is pure coincidence, really. We like this song, but at the same time, we think that we have much cooler and deeper songs than ‘Sudno,’” guitarist-keyboardist Roman Komogortsev said over email, through a translator.

Molchat Doma is now set for its first American tour, a monthlong trek that concludes with shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Komogortsev, singer Egor Shkukto and bassist Pavel Kozlov founded Molchat Doma (Молчат Дома, which means “houses are silent” in Russian) in 2017 over a shared love of minor key synth melodies and depressive synth-pop in Belarus’ capital, Minsk. They released two albums that grew the band’s name through word of mouth. Sophomore album Etazhi (“Floors”) went through numerous pressings in Europe before Sacred Bones signed the band in early 2020.

Prior to the pandemic, Molchat Doma sold out its first show in London. The latest album was written during the pandemic’s early months. There were no lockdowns in Belarus, which allowed the trio to work together as it normally would.

The group’s music became a score to protests against the rule of Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, who has a powerful grip on the country’s rule, and whose opponents have been disappeared. Molchat Doma wouldn’t dare comment on the topic. Publicly opposing Lukashenko has more often than not led to arrest and imprisonment in Belarus.

The trio told the New York Times that Monument was finished before a disputed presidential election in August 2020, and that its songs were about failed relationships and current affairs.

“That doesn’t mean it [current affairs] doesn’t concern us,” Komogortsev told the Times. “It does.”

Molchat Doma answered several questions for RIFF and its editor, himself an emigrant from Belarus.

RIFF: What’s Minsk like right now? Can you describe the ways in which it changed since 1988, when I was last there? How do people live? What do they do when they are not working? What are the places where people go for fun? Is Gorky Park still a thing? Is there still a circus in town? What’s affordable and what’s expensive?

Roman Komogortsev: Naturally, Minsk has changed during this time: multistory buildings, business centers, shopping supermarkets and so on appeared. Like any city, Minsk is developing. But the main feature of Minsk is its Soviet legacy. If you come here, you can see many monuments of the Soviet era, such as the monuments of Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, as well as local cultural figures. You can also find many different brutalistic buildings: the “Moscow” cinema, the Sports Palace, the circus building, the monument on Victory Square. It’s all interesting, strong, intriguing. In their free time, people, as elsewhere, go to bars, restaurants, of which there are many. In summer, there are two large parks, Gorky Park and Chelyuskintsev Park. In general, the city has large wide streets and avenues, it is very clean here. The sleeping areas look pretty depressing, but it’s probably like everywhere else, haha. This is due to the fact that, in most cases, typical residential development is used. Now, of course, the situation is changing and the new quarters already look more modern, but again, the Soviet legacy is making itself felt.

How did you discover and latch onto this sort of Joy-Division-esque, angular post-punk music? I’ve read at least one of you is a Depeche Mode fan.

Everything happened quite organically. In 2014, the musical movement New Russian Wave was popular in our latitudes, where some of the groups played similar music. Well, at the same time we began to research it. On top of that, some musical groups slipped through in our childhood. Our parents listened to similar music. This left an imprint on us.

Was it relatively difficult to get the gear your band uses to perform and record?

Absolutely not. As elsewhere, we have music stores where we have the necessary equipment. If we take our setup specifically, then in our area there are people who collect vintage instruments, and in general, it is not so difficult to get them.

What was it like making a record in Belarus during a pandemic?

Everything happened as always. In our country, as such, there was no quarantine. We could and can safely move around the city. Another thing is that we ourselves tried not to appear unnecessarily on the street at the peak moments of the COVID and tried to stay at home. All material was completed almost remotely. We only got together for rehearsals and recording instruments and vocals.

How easy, or difficult, is it for a band from Belarus to come to America to play shows? Are there any steps involved that musicians from other countries are unlikely to face?

This is a complex process. Starting from visa issues, ending with a huge flight to another part of the world. But these are all technical and solvable issues. Another thing is that we haven’t been to America and have heard about life there only from films or stories. For us, this is a small zone of unknown, but this makes it even more desirable to get there, and even more so to play concerts there! … But we hope America will shock us!

In what ways do you hope American listeners connect with your music or the words you sing? Do you want people to understand the state of mind you sing about, of the situations faced by people in Belarus, or just vibe with the music?

The most interesting and incomprehensible thing to us that happens to our music is how people generally feel what we put into songs without knowing the language. This is pure magic that delights wildly every time. Every fucking time! We conditionally perform somewhere in Europe, where people do not know Russian, and they try to sing in Russian! It’s simply unrealistic!

From reading other stories about you, it seems Belarusians connect with your music and use it as a way to protest the leadership in your country and the way it’s run. Yet you are uncomfortable saying certain things because of what may happen to you if you do. How do you balance what some people may believe with how you feel?

Let’s not talk about it, please.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.