Nėrius Pečiūra - interview about the history of Lithuanian punk
Nėrius Pečiūra (born January 8, 1967 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian journalist, editor, television director and screenwriter, composer, and radio presenter.
Nėrius Pečiūra at the concert/festival Rock March, Vilnius, 1988.
Biography
He studied at Secondary School No. 23 in Vilnius. Since 1984, he has been studying at the Faculty of History at Vilnius University. From 1993 to 1995, he edited the newspaper Ne vien rock ir pop. From 1995 to 1997, he was the editor of the weekly newspaper and, since 1996, the magazine Muzikos lietus. He works as the director of the public institution Kultūros kryptys.
Musical activities
Nėrius Pečiūra in the second Rock March. Vilnius, 1988. Under the pseudonym Atsuktuvas, he was one of the ideologists and inspirers of the Lithuanian punk movement. From 1986 to 1987, he played with Varveklis (Vikintas Darius Šimanskas) in the punk band WC. From 1988 to 1989, he led the punk band "Už Tėvynė". In 1988, he participated in the "Rock March through Lithuania".
MK - questions
NP - answers
1. When can the birth of punk subculture in Lithuania be dated?
The punk movement, punk fashion in Lithuania appeared in the early 80s. Schoolchildren and students began to wear tight pants, shave their sideburns like Gary Numan and wear cheap leather Soviet pensioners' sandals - this was the beginning of Lithuanian punk. And on the twenty-sixth of November 1983, the first Lithuanian punk rock band "Sa-Sa." held its first concert at the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University. Therefore, 1983 can be considered the year of birth of Lithuanian punk culture. The first concert of "Sa-Sa." is a clear and indisputable historical fact.
2. Who were the pioneers of this genre? Which bands?
"Sa-Sa." existed from 1983 to 1989. In 1994, the "Zona records" division released their only album. In this way, "Sa-Sa." remained in history and became a legend. In 1986, Varveklis-Icicle (Vikintas Darius Šimanskas) created the band "WC". I was the guitarist of "WC". "WC" existed from 1986 to 1997. Later, in 1988, about 10-20 new punk rock groups appeared.
https://zonarecords.bandcamp.com/album/pankrokas
3. When did you get involved in the scene? What were your influences?
I was born in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in 1967. I started punking in the early 80s. In 1986-1987 I played guitar in the band "WC". We were influenced not only by rock music, but by the desire to protest against the Soviet system. It seems to me that we became punks primarily because Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. It was a prison-type state and destroying it was our most important goal. So, that's what made Lithuanian punks in the 80s different from Western punks. We were patriots who dreamed of destroying the system. We dreamed of a free market, freedom of movement, freedom of speech and freedom of our country. And our dreams were 100 percent realized. We managed to change the world. The world we lived in. It is difficult for citizens of Western countries to understand the state when you do not have the right to freely create songs, when you are followed, controlled and persecuted by government structures. The Soviets banned everything. People were their slaves.
4. Did you have any contacts with other countries behind the Iron Curtain? I assume with Poland. And what about Czechoslovakia?
There was no contact with Poland or beyond. However, the "Iron Curtain" was not a metaphor. It was a real thing, a reality.
Nėrius Pečiūra: Lithuania's Persecuted Punk-Rockers
5. Your band WC played in the 1980s. Can you write a brief history and list your released recordings? What bands have you played in?
"WC" was formed in 1986. Because of which I was interrogated by the KGB, they asked me such nonsense as "who writes the lyrics for your band". In 1987 we made records that were released only in 1995 (Zona records or some of their labels) on the audio cassette "Pankrokas". Only in 2025 was a vinyl with "WC" songs released. While the Soviet Union existed and Lithuania was occupied, releasing punk rock records on cassette or vinyl was economically impossible. Because the economy was fully controlled by the state. Publishing your own newspaper, audio cassette or vinyl was a criminal and political crime from the Soviet point of view. And, for example, publishers of underground press were imprisoned in prisons in Siberia.
Since 1988 I have been playing in the classic punk rock band "Už Tėvynę". And my later musical experiments were under the name "UTV".
6. Was Lithuania persecuted by the USSR? What impact did this have on punks and their opportunities to play concerts?
In Soviet-occupied Lithuania, we lived like in a prison. People had no freedom of speech, no free economy, no private property. The police would arrest us on every corner for wearing punk clothes. The KGB persecuted us. In April 1988, the KGB officer who interrogated me threatened to put us in prison on some fabricated criminal charge. That's what he said: we won't put you in prison for politics, but we'll incriminate you, we'll invent, we'll fake some criminal offense.
The debut concert of "WC" in 1986 was illegal, it was not publicly announced.
7. The independent label ZONA records. How did it come about? Did you collaborate with them?
"Zona records" as a publisher of Lithuanian underground music appeared later, I think, in the early 90s. I didn't collaborate with them, only in 1995 they released "WC" records.
8. Is there a website or institution dedicated to the history of independent punk music in Lithuania? Are there any books published in Lithuania on this topic?
There is a website of the third generation of LT punks Ore.lt. It has existed since about 2000. It can contain a wide variety of materials on this topic.
Two books and two full-length documentaries have been published about the 80s LT punk generation, the band "WC", about the leader of "WC" Varveklis. His photographs are in Lithuanian school literature and history textbooks. He is a prominent historical figure of punk rock and youth resistance to the Soviets.
WC are playing at the concert.
Cover of album released on ZONA rec.
9. I visited Kryžių kalnas, a powerful place. What was life like in socialist Lithuania? Was there strong Russification? How did you maintain your identity and your own culture?
Quotes from the book "Varveklis, Strausas ir Drakonas":
..."The Soviet Union is a strict military totalitarian state that primarily terrorized its own citizens. Residents of occupied countries such as Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia were considered extremely unreliable bourgeois nationalists. It is a disgusting thing that people were strictly restricted - free thinking, freedom of creativity, the development of faith, intellect - the search for absolute truth were prohibited. Free economic activity was also strictly prohibited. This strongly bound and fettered people. The life of both people and the state was inferior and complex.
Therefore, the Soviet Union can be considered a prison-type state. And the KGB was a zealous executor of such a policy. Now the vocabulary of the KGB seems idiotic, but the methods of the State Security Committee were really vile and hypocritical. In treachery and cynicism, this organization surpassed all other organizations of this type known to history."...
..." The thinking of the generation of teenagers and young people of the eighties was partly shaped by The fact of the occupation of Lithuania. Which was always glossed over by official propaganda. Hidden and falsified in history textbooks full of nonsense. But in everyday life, in informal communication between people, the truth kept coming out like an awl from a bag. Varveklis's father listened to Western radio stations and read Shapoka's "History" to his children. The father of Varveklis's comrade Atsuktuvas was a lecturer in atheism at Vilnius University. That's why he wasn't afraid to visit churches, and often took his son with him. He would tell about the architecture, the paintings of saints, and sculptures. When he entered a Catholic church, he would smile and start the tour with his classic phrase:
- This is the only place where the language of scientific communism has not been introduced.
At breakfast, he would spread butter on black bread and mock Brezhnev's speeches.
- The economy must be economical. Translated into normal language, this means that butter must be buttered, - he would look closely at the sandwich lying on the plate.
The hatred of informal youth movements for the communists erupted in Kaunas in 1972. Then Romas Kalanta publicly burned himself. He was nineteen years old, he protested against the system. When the authorities tried to hide his funeral, demonstrations broke out, something like an anti-Soviet youth uprising. The most active participant in those events, a twenty-five-year-old young man, Vytautas Kaladė, was put in prison, became a political prisoner. Songs were composed about this. "O Romai, Romai, Kalanta, kada bus lasva Lithuania?" And that folklore was sung by children and teenagers with wooden guitars in the thick forests near the lakes - during tourist hikes around 1980."...
Vikintas Darius Simanskas, Nėrius Pečiūra and friends, 1986
10. What are you doing now? Are you still making music? Where do you play? Like solo interpret or with the band?
Now I am a professional underground artist, a performer of underground music. Every year I release my CDs and vinyls. Last year I had 50 concerts in Lithuania. These are small events, with about 50 people. The concerts take place in bars, courtyards of Vilnius Old Town, museums, ruins and other preferably strange places. I play mostly alone, I am too experienced to admire the organizational idea of a rock band.
Nėrius Pečiūra
MK: Thank you
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