Wallflowers

“This album came out way different than anything we’ve done before.” That’s Jinjer vocalist Tatiana Shmailyuk talking about her band’s fourth full-length. Wallflowers sees the adventurous Ukrainian metal squad pushing even further into progressive and melodic territory—often in the same song, as evidenced by the dizzying seesaw effects of lead singles “Vortex” and “Mediator.” This time, the bulk of the music was composed by Jinjer drummer Vladislav “Vladi” Ulasevich, who led Shmailyuk, bassist Eugene Abdukhanov, and guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov down increasingly technical and surprising musical avenues. “We’re always open to trying something new,” Shmailyuk tells Apple Music. “I love experiments, and I really believe that a band dies when they stop evolving.” Below, she discusses each track on Wallflowers.
“Call Me a Symbol” “The song has a dual meaning: On the one hand, it’s a song of a woman that is adored by many people no matter what she does—even if it’s a pile of shit. So, she is very confident and even maybe bloodthirsty or evil. Some of these divas are pretty evil, like a queen or goddess. On the other hand, that’s something I’ve really wanted to be. But I think I never will be like this because I’m not that egocentric. My nature is pretty shy, but I would like to be like this woman for at least one day.”
“Colossus” “The lyrics for this one were written by Eugene, and he was writing this song for as long as I was writing all the songs on the album. I asked him, ‘Eugene, please, can you do this faster?’ I didn’t know what to expect, but he told me he was inspired by some political events of the past. So, I think the colossus is a symbol of a big country—that’s really what I can tell you. But for me, it’s more than this. It has a very human nature. I imagine a massive giant, like Gulliver.”
“Vortex” “It’s the first single and also the first song I started to write lyrics to—and also the first song I started to record. It’s dedicated to all those people like me who spend so much time thinking about their inner world that they start to be devoured by the dark thoughts. Their head is getting heavy—so heavy that it turns into a steel ball and falls off and makes a hole in the floor and then a hole in the ground and then a hole in the earth and then sucks you in. So, please don’t dive so deeply into your thoughts. It’s a bad habit.”
“Disclosure!” “Me and Eugene did an interview with a guy who used to work for Ukrainian television, and now he has his YouTube channel. He turned every question into a political topic. And of course, in Ukraine, this is a very painful situation. I was so angry and pissed off with this dude because he asked so many provocative questions. It showed us in a very bad light, but that’s what he wanted. For three days after, I was carrying this heavy emotion in my heart. That’s why I did this song with the exclamatory, like ‘teacher, teacher!’ because it makes it more intense.”
“Copycat” “The lyrics are about the people who spot a true artist, like a musician or a painter, and they try to copy that, taking all the credit and showing the product as their own ideas without giving credit to the owner, the pioneer. It’s very disgusting. And then the people who appreciate the art of the copycat, they have no idea that it’s stolen. It’s unfortunate that there are no filters to filter those people out.”
“Pearls and Swine” “‘To cast pearls before swine’ is a phrase from the Bible. And it means don’t try to explain yourself in front of a fool, especially when it’s a crowd of fools. It addresses the people who shine with genius, but they cannot find like-minded people, so the crowd tries to destroy them for being different. So, don’t bloom for everyone—that’s my advice.”
“Sleep of the Righteous” “This one is my favorite. The song is about my first experience of sleep paralysis. On some level of your sleep, your mind wakes up, but your body is still asleep. You experience this feeling of absolute helplessness, and you can see a lot of hallucinations. It’s a very terrifying thing to feel in the middle of the night. When I first experienced it, I thought there was an evil force coming to my room and pressing me against the bed.”
“Wallflower” “The song is about introverts, like me. The old title was ‘An Introvert,’ but you can agree that this is very plain and straightforward, with zero character. But then my husband told me there’s a word in English—wallflower—that means a shy person who stands near the wall at parties, and no one wants to dance with this person. I thought this was a very romantic and poetic word, so I wanted to use it for this song and for the whole album, eventually.”
“Dead Hands Feel No Pain” “My husband, Alex, helped me with the lyrics for this song. I was woken up one morning by a very loud noise of crowds outside my window. When I fell back asleep, I imagined myself sleeping in a cemetery with the noise of the crowd still in my head. Then, I was sitting on the gates that lead to the cemetery. I’m on the edge: Am I dead or am I alive? I’m a lost soul, probably a ghost. So, this is a song of a ghost.”
“As I Boil Ice” “I wanted to use this as the album title at first, because it’s very strong and very harsh. But then it didn’t quite fit with our artwork. We even tried to put an icicle near the flower on the front cover, but it’s really hard to notice. The song is about me not having any social skills when I do things for the first time, because I like to sit in my shell. When I try to do something for the first time, I get frustrated and decide I’ll never do it again. That’s the wrong way of thinking, of course. It’s like the first steps of a baby.”
“Mediator” ‘‘When you are young, you wear pink-colored glasses. You see the world very bright and fun to live in. But then, with age, you realize that it’s fucking horrible. There are people who can stay positive even during the hard times, but it’s not me. The song is kind of a monologue to God, if there even is a God—me grabbing Him by the beard and showing Him all the horrors of the world.”