SCYTHIAN

Scythian’s “Immigrant Road Show” is an adventure if some hard kicking, infectiously hypnotic fiddling music. Once you start listening you just can’t get enough and suddenly you find yourself dancing across the floor, the walls, the furniture and then right out the door to find where the heck are these boys playing so I can get some more! Gypsy Fiddle is just a masterful piece and showcases their classical roots, their street roots and their obvious musical talents. Make no mistake, the sound of these boys is hard rocking – but with the musical genius of their classical background makes for an unbelievable dancing experience. Kesh Jigs is a hard rocking tune and definitely places them in the realm of Celtic Rock. Stonehenge Revisited – a mystical embracing of our Celtic Roots. Technoaccordian will just put a smile on your face with its Celtic Techno sound – and the list just goes on. This is a superb CD, the quality incredible, the talent top notch. 5 Golden Celtic Radio Stars for the Scythian boys! - CelticRadio.Net

- Bryan Rodgers, May 16, 2008

Scythian brings first-generation authenticity to their unique hodgepodge of Irish, Celtic, klezmer, and gypsy influences.
Drawing inspiration from the storytelling songcraft of traditional Irish music, the band - multi-instrumentalist brothers Alexander and Danylo Fedoryka, drummer Michael Ounallah, and bassist Josef Crosby - move their sound into a much more indefinable realm by infusing the traditionalist main course with modern-day flavors. Their third CD, Immigrant Road Show, is a resounding listen that lends raucous rock and roll-style gusto and volume to their acoustically-driven songs.
"Hills of Donegal" is a prime example of this process, as decidedly un-traditional lyrics blend with stirring ancient melodies. On the other side of the coin is "Tuesday Morning," which employs a more straightforward rock rhythm that the band brushes gently with fiddle sauce to give it a slight hint of worldliness. The sinister "Jacobites" is juxtaposed next to the upbeat and cheery "Highway 81," showing nearly the full breadth of Scythian's dynamic ability in the scant space of 7 minutes. The instrumental "Boyko Dream" wanders well off the path of traditionalism with jazzy percussion interludes and frenetic instrumental workmanship, while the aptly named "Final Reel" brings the sublime sound that only songs with "Reel" in the title seem to provide.
All four members prove to be engaging, talented, and inventive performers along the way, with 3/4 of the band contributing vocals along with accordion and a litany of stringed instruments. With the recent trend of success for "traditional fusion" acts such as DeVotchKa, Man Man, and Gogol Bordello, it's no surprise that Scythian is closing in on widespread recognition as well. Having won over audiences at this year's Merlefest with multiple shows, the band are staring down a laundry list of concerts and festivals in 2008 that will surely bring their Immigrant Road Show streaking to the front of the pack. How could one resist their tour website's greeting - "Come and join us for some pints and a jig or two!"
- Homegrown Music Network

It was like shooting fish in a barrel. The thousands of people who cycle through the bus lines at MerleFest sometimes spend as little as 30 seconds and sometimes more than an hour waiting for the free shuttles back to the campgrounds and parking lots. But at the end of each evening, all four lines are slammed full of people just biding their time after spending the evening grooving to their favorite performers. Last year was no different.

The four members of Scythian, having nothing better to do until their debut MerleFest performance the following morning, snagged their instruments and a roll of stickers and proceeded to crank out energetic, cross-cultural, Celtic-inspired jams for scores of unsuspecting bus riders. And it worked. While not every person who enjoyed their music that night attended their set the next day, they certainly remembered the band’s unbridled enthusiasm and their name.

On Thursday, February 12, Scythian will return to the High Country for a show at Canyons in Blowing Rock. Tickets are $10 in advance and the show will begin at 10:00 p.m.

The show is presented in association with Asheville’s Highland Brewery, and the brewery will host Gaelic Ale Pint Night at the show. Along with discounted pints of one of the brewery’s flagship beers, Highland reps will be on hand giving away pint glasses, t-shirts, stickers and more.

Fiddlers and bassists Josef (Joey) Crosby and Alexander Fedoryka, guitarist and accordion player Daniel Fedoryka, and drummer and percussionist Michael Ounallah create the Celtic cacophony that has fans from Spindale to Sydney, Australia raving about their heart-pounding live shows.

Interestingly enough, the band that is becoming one of the fastest-growing festival draws in the country started out on the streets of Washington, D.C. as just another group of busking musicians relying on the kindness of passersby (it should however be noted that most busking groups don’t all consist of classically trained musicians).

Watching their cases fill with money on a regular basis lit a fire under Crosby and the Fedoryka brothers. The trio began performing at Irish pubs, playing a mixture of traditional Irish music and bluegrass to growing crowds.

According to Crosby, Alexander’s four-month trip to Ireland also proved to be one of the group’s important early inspirations. According to the band’s bio, Alex spent much of his time playing in the streets, where he picked up the Celtic spirit and combined it with the Gypsy soul of his own Ukrainian ancestry.

When Ounallah joined in 2004, the band “unwittingly stumbled” onto the genre-defying ethnic fusion that came to include not only traditional Irish and bluegrass sounds, but also the feverish European strains of gypsy and klezmer music with an unmistakable rock edge.

“We finally started clicking on what we wanted to go for,” said Crosby. “It became more experimental and open.”

It didn’t take long for the members of Scythian to decide that their music deserved and needed to be heard beyond the nation’s capital. The fearless foursome decided to hit the road to see if their sound would appeal to people up and down Eastern Seaboard as much as it had in their hometown.

“Kind of close to the beginning, we realized that we wanted to take this all the way,” said Crosby. “At that point, we just decided to book anywhere we could on the East Coast.”

In 2007, the band released Immigrant Roadshow, the band’s third album. The buoyant blend of styles on the critically acclaimed disc careen from the traditional melodic fiddle work of “Immigrant Stomp” and pounding Irish rhythm of “Kesh Jigs,” to the mash-up madness of “Technoccordion” and emotive Eastern European sounds of “Gypsy Fiddle.”

The disc won rave reviews.

CelticRadio.net said of the disc, “Scythian’s Immigrant Road Show is an adventure of some hard kicking, infectiously hypnotic fiddling music. Once you start listening you just can’t get enough and suddenly you find yourself dancing across the floor, the walls, the furniture and then right out the door to find where the heck are these boys playing so I can get some more!”

Through steady touring and the positive reviews from Immigrant Road Show, Scythian’s crowds began to grow. Their on-stage prowess helped them win an increasing number of slots at prestigious festivals all over the country, including last year’s slot at MerleFest, as well as Bristol Rhythm & Roots, LEAF, Shakori Hills Music Fest, Suwanee Spring Fest and dozens of others.

“I really love the kind of community that comes with festivals,” said Crosby. “There’s something palpable in the air. For me the pinnacle of our year is festival season.”

The band’s already impressive resume grew further when they performed for President Bush and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Prime Minister of Ireland at the St. Patrick’s Day Luncheon.

And just when they thought their year couldn’t get any better, Scythian made their first jaunt overseas, performing for more than 300,000 people in Sydney, Australia at the World Youth Day Festival.

“It’s really tough to travel with that many people and that much gear, but in the end it’s so rewarding,” said Crosby.

Needless to say, Scythian is on a roll. In addition to their upcoming show at Canyons, the band will return to MerleFest and will head back to the High Country this summer for an appearance at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. According to Crosby, the band is more dedicated than ever to making music together and taking Scythian as far as possible.

“Everybody has a vested interest in succeeding and growing the band name and the fanbase,” said Crosby.

To hear music by Scythian, click to www.scythianmusic.com. - High Country Press

Rain and sleet couldn't freeze these fans. Instead, Scythian's high energy music warmed everyone up as they danced the night away along with any thought of the cold September air on opening night for the Michigan Irish Music Festival.

From the outside, this group, made up of two brothers and two friends, could look like your cliche boy band -- there's the trendy guy, the rocker, the hippie and the preppy one. But appearances are often deceiving -- these guys are classically trained musicians who showed their skills are just as eclectic as the musical styles they cover.

Danylo Fedoryka (vocals/guitar/accordian) had great physical presence on stage and even came into the crowd -- while playing -- to dance with his fans. His brother Oleksander (vocals/violin/bass/mandolin/harmonica) surprised the fans by playing such a wide variety of instruments.

Michael Ounallah (drums/percussion/washboards) had some nice drum solos, kept the beat strong and filled the rest of the music without being overbearing.

My favorite performer was Josef Crosby (vocals/violin/bass guitar). His speed, dexterity, and varied improvisational riffs on the musical themes were impressive.

Songs ranged from the serious to the funny, and the most infectious part of this band was the audience participation. True entertainers know how to work the crowd, and Scythian accomplished this with ease.

Fans were singing and clapping, but most of all, dancing -- the kind of dance that cultivates joy and and spreads it around. This is music that makes you feel good inside.

Scythian's eclectic style included Scottish and Irish folk, dirty blues, Klezmer, rock, go-go, bluegrass, and, if that's not enough, they threw in some disco-tech for the fun of it. But the theme that underscored all their songs was the Celtic spirit. Even in the dirty blues version of "Danny Boy," the melody found its was back to its Celtic roots, if only for a second.

Some of their covers included "Wild Thing," "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and a brief ouga chaka ouga ouga "Hooked on a Feelin'."

My favorite of all musical numbers was the haunting and dramatic "Drums of Belfast." The music was like an aural picture, and I imagined drummers setting off to some battle long ago, ending in a triumphant display of joy.

Scythian played for more than 90 minutes. With all the other festivities and music, that's definitely getting your money's worth.

Roughly 200 weathered the cold and stayed to see a great show. But don't worry if you missed it. They will be closing the pub tomorrow night at 9:45, and in that intimate venue, this show might get better than it already is. - Muskegon Chronicle

By Fritz Hahn
Washington Post Staff Writer
August 6, 2004

IT'S A LONG way from busking for gas money in Old Town Alexandria to appearing in M. Night Shyamalan's latest thriller, "The Village," but that's the story of the local Celtic band Scythian (Sith-ee-yin). Throw in a taping of the upcoming "Real World" series in Philadelphia and a new weekly gig at the popular Chinatown pub Fado (808 Seventh St. NW; 202-789-0066), and it begins to sound more like a fairy tale.

On paper, Scythian is a traditional Irish group: the lineup includes two classically trained fiddlers, and the twenty-something musicians play accordion, guitar, electric bass and mandolin. In concert, though, Scythian proves to be one of Washington's most energetic and eclectic bands.

One night at Fado mixes spirited takes on traditional rebel tunes like "Come Out Ye Black and Tans" and covers of Irish punks-with-pennywhistles the Pogues with klezmer-influenced versions of Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Hell" and They Might Be Giants' "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"; a Celtic-tinged interpretation of Charlie Daniels's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"; a careening, double-time "Danny Boy"; and a take on "Wild Thing" that features a fiddle singing over the familiar, thumping bass line.

"It's been a big struggle for us," says guitarist-accordionist-vocalist Danylo Fedoryka. "We've played 40 bars in one year, and got a lot of experience, but the first thing we're asked is, 'Can you play the typical covers?' We say 'No, we want to present something that's different.' " Between songs, the band leads the crowd in drinking games, toasts friends and passes tambourines around for audience members who want to play along. Things may get a bit hokey -- especially if you cringe at audience-participation numbers like "The Wild Rover" -- but the band's enthusiasm is contagious, and shows seem to end with everyone dancing, jumping around or hoisting glasses.

Despite their modern influences, it was traditional jigs and reels that helped Scythian land spots in "The Village." At a casting call last year, a crew member "liked their look," so the Fedoryka brothers (Danylo and fiddler-vocalist Alex) and fiddler Joe Crosby scored roles as extras -- with the promise of an on-screen musical performance. While director Shyamalan ultimately went with solo piano music in the film instead of Celtic tunes, all got varying bits of screen time as extras in the titular village, and more importantly, networking during the two-month shoot helped the band get slots at well-known Philadelphia pubs like Finnegan's Wake and the Plough and Stars, where MTV requested the band perform during the taping of an episode of "The Real World."

"The whole reason we went is because we wanted to play music [in the film], but even though we didn't get in the movie as musicians, we got more than we ever imagined," Alex Fedoryka says.

The four members of Scythian were introduced to music at a young age. Alex and Danylo began studying violin and piano, respectively, at 3. Crosby picked up violin at 5, which is when drummer Alex "Animal" Culdell began performing with his father, a Scottish piper. The Fedorykas are an especially musical family. All 10 children learned to play an instrument, and their mother Irene graduated from Juilliard. Alex went to Japan to study the Suzuki method, and the family ensemble performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap.

But, Alex explains, he eventually grew tired of "rigid" classical music and lost his passion for the violin. It was Celtic music that lured him back.

"About four years ago . . . I was staying over at our buddy Pat Kilroy's, and he gave me some CDs with great [Celtic] fiddlers -- Eileen Ivers, Frankie Gavin," Alex says. "I'd never heard anything like it. I'd only heard the sing-song Irish [pub] music, but as soon as I heard [the fiddlers], I went home and learned everything off the CDs. Like a month later, I got my brother and said, 'You've got to listen to these tunes.' He learned guitar so he could play them, and it was his idea to start busking for gas money."

Setting up outside the Torpedo Factory art center, the Fedoryka brothers were later joined by Crosby, who they've known since they were children -- their fathers, immigrants from Ukraine and Austria, are friends who earned doctorates together. As they played for dollar bills and spare change, the trio began to explore folk music beyond the Irish style picked up from newly discovered CDs. Not only did playing on the street make them tighter, practiced performers, it honed a certain style of stagecraft.

"As a street musician, you have to do anything you can to get people to stop for a second," Alex says. "We started out playing Irish music, threw in some bluegrass, then some Gypsy-type stuff and Ukrainian music -- whatever could keep people standing there and keep a crowd."

They began interacting with the passersby, giving egg-size shakers to children and encouraging them to play along.

Says Danylo: "We got people from toddlers to 90-year-old people to punk skaters coming up to us. There's something about the Irish music that people gravitated towards, and we gravitated towards, and eventually it became our own sound."

To learn more about Irish music, Alex spent four months in Ireland in 2002, watching and experimenting. "My sister was living in Dublin for a couple years," he says, "so I hung out in Dublin long enough to make friends with people, but I was playing in rock bands, I was playing in Gypsy bands, some straight-up singer-songwriter rock bands.

"I'd go to all kinds of [jam] sessions. I busked a lot. I met a lot of young traditional musicians. There's a revival of the driving Celtic rhythms, and I got caught up in that."

Scythian continues to be one of the hardest-working bands on the Irish pub circuit. Friday, for example, they're at Finn Mac Cool's (713 Eighth St. SE; 202-547-7100). Thursday, it's back to Fado. On Aug. 13, Scythian plays the Maryland BBQ Bash in Bel Air. Then Aug. 17, the band makes its debut at Iota (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-522-8340), heads back to Fado two days later, then has a weekend engagement at Flanagan's (7637 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda; 301-986-1007). A new album should be released in a few weeks.

"We're aware that there's something going on, and we're having a tremendous amount of fun, but we don't know where this is taking us," Alex says. "We're not focusing on one thing. It started with Celtic music, but then we got into the Jewish music, and as soon as people hear that, they start doing leg kicks. Bluegrass has a different feel, but the end result is always the same. . . . What I want is the feel of a village square dance or a country dance, where people can get together, they can drink, they can dance and not care if they make fools of themselves. The point is just to have a good time." - The Washington Post

By Emily Cary
June 27, 2006

The high-energy Celtic band Scythian is street-savvy about drawing in audiences of all ages.

After testing the waters as street musicians in Alexandria during college, brothers Oleksander (Leks) and Danylo (Dan) Fedoryka joined forces with Josef Crosby and veered in a direction that expertly incorporates traditional Celtic folk, gypsy and klezmer music with the percussion and drums of jazz artist Mike Ounallah.

As youngesters, Leks Fedoryka (violin/mandolin/harmonica/bass/vocals) and his brother Dan (rhythm guitar/accordion/keyboards/vocals) played at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap, Leks on violin and Dan on piano, and they take the Strathmore's outdoor pavilion stage on Wednesday with their dynamic ensemble.

They owe their virtuosity to their mother, a Juilliard graduate, who made certain that they and their eight sibilings practiced regularly.

Crosby, a former concertmaster for the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, took so readily to Celtic fiddling that he and Leks are in demand at every concert as Scythian's "dueling fiddles." Ounallah, who is half Scothc-Irish and half Jordanian, is pursuing his masters degree in Jazz Percussion and theory at the University of Maryland. His expertise in world beats facillitated the repertoire of gypsy and klezmer music that complements the Fedorykas' Ukranian heritage.

"Scythian began as a fluke six years ago when I was visiting a friend in college and he pulled out a tape of Celtic music," Leks Fedoryka says. "We stayed up until early morning listening to those great fiddles over and over again. I was haunted by the energy and became obsessed with learning to play that way.

"When I got home and told Dan we had to play those tuns, it was his idea to perform in the streets for gas money, so we went to the Alexandria waterfront with a 5-gallon paint bucket. As soon as we began playing, people passing by stopped and started clapping. Before long, money appeared in the bucket."

"We soon realized that classical music doesn't have the communal affect you get when you pick up a fiddle at a campfire or on the street," Dan Fedoryka adds. "Celtic music, on the other hand, makes a direct contact with the audience and before long people start dancing."

Each time people stopped to listen, they picked that moment to hand out tambourines, in order to personalize the music, according to Leks Fedoryka.

"That allowed the people to actively participate, and we did the same by going into the crowd and dancing. The whole point is that music is a language. To take advantage of the momeny, we began using wireless equipment to communicate with people and motivate them."

"Playing together in the street we learned so much and stumbled on something that turned out to be bigger than we ever imagined," Crosby says.
- DC Examiner

By Joel Fowler
July 20, 2006

Oleksander and Danylo Fedoryka could never have expected their current career path while growing up as classically trained musicians in the Shenandoah Valley. When these two brothers of Ukrainian heritage decided to leave Front Royal to go to the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, they dreamed of concertos and symphonies. What they came back from the Midwest with was an odd appreciation for Irish Celtic music and a thirst for public interaction.

“You can either thank or blame my friend Pat Kilroy for getting us into this,” said Oleksander (known to his friends as ‘Leks’) as he and Danylo (who’s answered to ‘Dan’ for as long as he can remember) prepare for a night of revelry with their band Scythian at the D.C. Irish pub Fado, located in the heart of Chinatown.

“Irish music always had a folksy feel to it, so unlike anything in our classical background. It gave us the ability to act out and basically was just fun!” Leks said.

After graduation, violinist Leks and pianist Dan came back home to Virginia with a schoolmate, Josef (‘Joe’) Crosby, in tow. Realizing that the commute on I-66 would be too long and the fact that Front Royal wasn’t the hotbed of musical opportunity, the D.C. area was calling to the boys. But why did the guys settle on renting a house in the Del Ray area of Alexandria?

“I think it was the [Potomac] waterfront that first attracted us,” Dan said. “We wanted to be a place where kids would be, you know, a real family place. When we thought of moving to D.C., Old Town Alexandria was the first place we thought of.”

The band members were able to find flexible work at a Springfield travel agency while still pursuing their philharmonic pursuits. Leks was even able to study in Japan for six months under Dr. Suzuki (founder of the Suzuki School of Music). However, the siblings weren’t getting the same communal vibe they experienced with their music as they did in college.
Then, an idea hit them. Why don’t they try out street performing, like they saw other musicians down by the Potomac do on the weekends? And so, the days of the Fedorykas’ busking (a European term for the art of open-air sidewalk performance) began.

From busk ‘til dawn

“It was sort of my idea,” Dan admits as to setting up shop on the corner of King and Union by the steps of the Torpedo Factory. “I thought Leks could play his violin while I strummed my guitar. I didn’t think it was anyway to make any ‘real’ money. We just thought it might give us a couple of extra bucks for gas and food. We only had 4 or 5 songs at that time, since we were still trying to transition from classical to Celtic. So we started playing and then all of a sudden, people start throwing money and kids are dancing around us. I just looked at Leks and said, ‘Man, this is a great way to make a few bucks.’”

As time passed, the guys’ small collection of songs became more of a theatrical show, incorporating Joe as a second fiddle and releasing the crew’s inner spirit to flail around a bit (though they admit that not any of them were Fred Astaire when it came to dancing). But, experience was not the only way the boys learned.

“Yeah, a big tip of the cap goes to Curtis, the blues guy that plays on the right hand side of King by Bugsy’s. He gave us the most important piece of advice when it comes to busking – you have to do something that will catch peoples’ attention, and kids’ attentions are a whole lot easier to reach than adults. So, play to the kids!” Dan said.

Did they find a song or a gimmick to make children want to stop and take notice?

“It was the ‘Orange Blossom Special,’” Joe said, “that was our guaranteed kids’ special. We’d call out, ‘Okay kids, this is a song about a choo-choo train that ran away from home.’ They’d get to make train sounds, and we had a conductor’s whistle. They’d just form a circle and run around having a great time. But that was our money maker.”

“One time, we had a really great day on the corner, so we decided to have a night on the town,” Dan said. “The first bar we went to we yelled out, ‘Drinks are on us!’ and then we paid the bartender with 100 singles. They’d looked at us funny, like ‘what are you guys? Strippers?’ It was great.”

Ups and downs

“You always get an immediate reaction from a crowd,” Leks said, “even more so than a club, because you don’t have the electrical equipment and a stage to block your interaction with them. You can dance around with the kids if you want. Also, you get to fool around and make mistakes. In classical, one mistake and the night is shot. With what we do now, one mistake would be considered a good night. Also, you don’t need to get booked to play; you play for however long and whenever you want to. Finally, it can be really lucrative. Even today, if I’ve got an afternoon free, I’ll take my violin case and stroll down to Old Town. It’s like a fairy tale. My violin case, it’s a magic case. I open it up and an hour later, I have a stack of dollar bills. We made $100 an hour sometimes. Usually, we’d make between $250 - $300 a night.”

And the disadvantages?

“Well, there’s a whole subculture of people who perform down at the Torpedo Factory,” Dan said. “It was cool because we got to the point where we would get along with other performers or clash with them. It’s cutthroat man. Total turf war man.”

What’s the most frustrating part of singing for your supper?

“Pennies!” Joe said. “Those are the worst. Someone threw like only five pennies in the case one time. I’m like, ‘what does that mean? Is this guy broke or does he only like our music a little bit?’”

Onward and upward

While they loved what they were doing after about two years of playing on the street, Leks, Dan, and Joe knew they wanted something more permanent and have the possibility of playing to a larger audience. So they hired a drummer (who has since been replaced by Mike Ounallah) and formed their current band, Scythian – a name on loan from a group of barbarians from the Black Sea in 2000 B.C.

“These guys were from the Ukrainian area, and they came over and defeated the Celts, but mixed into their culture. I think that really speaks to who we are,” said Leks.

Scythian started by playing at every pub that would have them, before settling into weekly gigs at Flanagan’s in Bethesda and then the D.C. bar they’re playing this evening where they’ve been a Thursday night staple over the last two years. Do they still bring that street spirit to the stage?

“We still have that energy, which is I think a big thing we developed from the street,” said Dan. You have to still connect and communicate to a crowd. Doesn’t matter if it’s 20 or 200 people, you still have to get their attentions. We even hand out tambourines and small percussions to get the crowd involved.”

The future

Scythian’s future is about as bright as anybody could ask for in the Celtic music genre. They’ve appeared on television (MTV’s “Real World: Philadelphia”), film (M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village”), and national radio (XM Satellite Radio’s “The Bob Edwards Show”). They have an e-mail list of visitors to their website, www.scythianmusic.com that has surpassed more than 8,000 people from around the world. They’ve graced stages at the Kennedy and Strathmore Centers. The band just recently returned from a festival in Pennsylvania called The Irish Fling, and are scheduled to appear at the world’s largest Irish festival in Milwaukee and headlining the Irish Fair Minnesota festival (both in August).

Even though they might have pressed two full-length CDs independently, King Street has never left Scythian’s soul, which is why they entitled their first CD, “Dance at the Crosswalk.”

“Yeah, that’s our tribute to the waterfront where it all began,” Leks explained. “Alexandria was always the best. We tried different areas in D.C. thinking, ‘any place with a lot of people could be a good place.’ But we tried Georgetown and a lot of other spots and didn’t do so well, because people really didn’t get into it. Nobody cared. But in Alexandria, there’s a certain amount of culture and this European feel that families go out and have walks together. They stopped and meet us because parents want to expose their children to music. It’s really quite special when you think about it.”

Dan said, “After the Fling, we had sold 300 CDs at $15 a pop. On the ride home (in the band’s own van), Leks and I just looked at each other and asked, ‘can you believe this all started out by earning quarters and dollar bills on King Street?’ It’s really a dream that we haven’t woken up from.” - The Alexandria Times

BY MARGARET HAIR
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 4, 2006

WASHINGTON // Scythian, a collection of four classically trained musicians who have spent the last three years developing a following in pubs from D.C. to New York, is not easy to label.

A set from their regular Thursday night gig at Fado Irish Pub in Washington features dueling fiddle action by Oleksander (Alex) Fedoryka and Josef Crosby; a slightly Celtic-tinged rendition of "Wild Thing"; a funky washboard/drum solo by Mike Ounallah; and happy-go-lucky encouragement by guitarist Danylo (Dan) Fedoryka.

It's hard to nail down Scythian's take on influences from Irish, gypsy, klezmer, rock, funk and folk styles as a certain type of music. It's less of a challenge to say the result is infectiously giddy and disarmingly eclectic.

This summer will be Scythian's first festival season. From June to September, the guys say they will play more shows than they have in the last three years combined.
The group got its start as a street act, when brothers Alex and Dan decided to put their 20-some years of classical training to good use a few summers ago by earning a couple of bucks playing on sidewalks in Alexandria, Va. A year later, Crosby, a lifelong friend who was fresh out of college and also happened to be an accomplished violinist, followed suit.

"Before we knew it, we were a band. It was never really planned," Alex Fedoryka says.

From there, Scythian landed itself as an opening act for Irish music legends Gaelic Storm. When Gaelic Storm canceled their set, Scythian was asked to take their spot.

"So we brought three hours of music, and we just made it happen for a St. Paddy's Day show. And we realized, well, here we go, we have three hours of music, let's just start doing pubs. Why not, you know?" Alex Fedoryka says. "And that's how it all really started as the unit we are now, seven drummers later."

Seven drummers? Yes. It is, the guys say, a long story. In any case, Ounallah, a graduate student in jazz percussion at the University of Maryland, brings a rock-based background that has revolutionized Scythian's sound.

"It's like this new fusion that we can't put a finger on," Crosby says.
The addition of Latin, zydeco and jazz beats to music that strives to keep its Celtic roots - or gypsy or Middle Eastern, depending on the tune - has lent Scythian the ability to identify with a diverse audience, Alex Fedoryka says.

"It's fusion of a lot of the ethnic cultures, and I think that that's why we can appeal to so many of the people in a pub, and, even though it is Irish, they really respond well to it," he says.

But, until a few years ago, not one of them liked Celtic music.

"I always really disliked Irish music," says Alex Fedoryka, who grew up in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Then a friend introduced him to Celtic fiddling a few years ago, and he was hooked.

"We stayed up one night listening to these amazing fiddlers play just like ... virtuosic on the fiddle," he says. "When I heard the music, I couldn't help but ... become obsessed with it, because I felt that, in a way it was also tragic. ... Here I was, I had been playing the violin ever since I was 2 years old, and I had never been exposed to it."

He gave tapes of the songs to his brother, who set aside his classical piano skills to learn guitar. Alex Fedoryka spent four months in Dublin to immerse himself in Irish music and culture.

A grassroots effort to the core, Scythian does its own management. With two albums out and a third in the works, the guys are in no hurry to sign on with a record label.

"I think that can be one of the dangers of music, is you're looking for that goal of a multimillion-dollar record deal or to be famous, to have your picture everywhere, and in a sense, the music becomes subservient to your goal," Dan Fedoryka says.

Instead, he wants Scythian to be "Grateful Dead mainstream" - a traveling circus that goes where it wants and plays a different show every night for as many people as possible.
- The Baltimore Sun

By Margaret Hair, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
June 23, 2006

WASHINGTON _ They've been called an Irish party band and adrenaline-heavy Celtic not-quite-rock. They say their live set is a potluck of styles, musical whiplash, even a vaudeville show.

Scythian, a collection of four classically trained musicians who have spent the last three years developing a jigging following by gigging in pubs from D.C. to New York City, is not easy to label.

A set from their regular Thursday night gig at Fado Irish Pub in Washington features dueling fiddle action by Oleksander (Alex) Fedoryka and Josef Crosby; a slightly Celtic-tinged rendition of "Wild Thing"; a funky washboard/drum solo by Mike Ounallah; happy-go-lucky encouragement by guitarist Danylo (Dan) Fedoryka for the crowd to get the weekend started early; and at least one round of shots of Jagermeister, purchased for the band by a zealous fiddle-loving fan.

"People are always saying, I can't put you guys in a genre, I can't, you know, pigeonhole you guys," says Dan Fedoryka.

It's hard to nail down Scythian's take on influences from Irish, gypsy, klezmer, rock, funk and folk styles as a certain type of music. It's less of a challenge to say the result is infectiously giddy and disarmingly eclectic.

This summer will be Scythian's first festival season, a step that Alex Fedoryka calls a "transitionary period," where concert organizers are starting to come to the band instead of the other way around.

Eighteen shows in June. Thursdays at Fado. Weekend trips up and down the eastern seaboard, to Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, to name a few. About 150 shows in the last year. Six million hits on www.scythianmusic.com.

"I feel like I've already made it ... to be able to play music for a living, and save money and travel, it's just like, everything else is just gravy for me," Alex Fedoryka says.

From June to September, the guys say they will play more shows than they have in the last three years combined.

The group got its start as a street act, when brothers Alex and Dan decided to put their 20-some years of classical training to good use a few summers ago by earning a couple of bucks playing on sidewalks in Alexandria, Va. A year later, Crosby, a lifelong friend who was fresh out of college and also happened to be an accomplished violinist, followed suit.

"Before we knew it, we were a band. It was never really planned," Alex Fedoryka says.

Busking for coins, his brother says, taught Scythian that to get attention, you have to put yourself out there _ be a little tongue-in-cheek, a little self-effacing and a lot energetic.

"In the streets, if you're not high energy, or if you don't present the music in a way that's accessible to everybody, no one is gonna stop and listen," he says. "So that was cool, because that became the basis of our band."

From there, Scythian landed itself as an opening act for Irish music icons Gaelic Storm _ the band that had Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio kicking their heels in "Titanic." When Gaelic Storm canceled their set, Scythian was asked to take their spot.

"So we brought three hours of music, and we just made it happen for a St. Paddy's Day show. And we realized, well, here we go, we have three hours of music, let's just start doing pubs. Why not, you know?" Alex Fedoryka says. "And that's how it all really started as the unit we are now, seven drummers later."

Seven drummers? Yes. It is, the guys say, a long story. In any case, Ounallah, a graduate student in jazz percussion at the University of Maryland, brings a rock-based background that has revolutionized Scythian's sound.

"It's like this new fusion that we can't put a finger on," Crosby says.

Ounallah, who spent two summers following jam-band Phish on tour and supporting himself by selling falafel sandwiches to fans, found Scythian through an ad on Craigslist.

He is humble about his contribution to the group: "I'm the beginning of the Bronze Age of drummers with Scythian. Everything else was just kind of Middle Ages stuff," he says.

The addition of Latin, zydeco and jazz beats to music that strives to keep its Celtic roots _ or gypsy or Middle Eastern, depending on the tune _ has lent Scythian the ability to identify with a diverse audience, Alex Fedoryka says.

"It's fusion of a lot of the ethnic cultures, and I think that that's why we can appeal to so many of the people in a pub, and, even though it is Irish, they really respond well to it," he says.

"It's something I think that's happening that's kind of original, because all of us are coming from different backgrounds _ and most notably, none of us come from strictly a Celtic background."

The Fedorykas are 100 percent Ukrainian.

Crosby's father is Austrian.

The most Irish blood in the crew comes from Ounallah, who is 50 percent Scots-Irish and 50 percent Jordanian. All have parents who are first-generation immigrants.

And until a few years ago, not a one of them liked Celtic music.

"I always really disliked Irish music," says Alex, who grew up in Virginia's heavily Irish Shenandoah Valley.

"Maybe I shouldn't say that ... but it was so hokey ... everything I had ever been exposed to just really turned me off. I never even thought for a second that there was another world to it."

When a friend introduced him to Celtic fiddling a few years ago, Alex Fedoryka was hooked.

"We stayed up one night listening to these amazing fiddlers play just like ... virtuosic on the fiddle," he says. "When I heard the music, I couldn't help but ... become obsessed with it, because I felt that, in a way it was also tragic ... here I was, I had been playing the violin ever since I was 2 years old, and I had never been exposed to it."

He gave tapes of the songs to his brother, who set aside his classical piano skills to learn guitar. Alex Fedoryka picked up and spent four months in Dublin to immerse himself in Irish music and culture.

It was love at first listen _ though, Dan Fedoryka admits, the phrase doesn't have quite the same ring to it when used with a sense other than "sight."

"The first time I heard it, it was just like, this was something that connects so easily to people, and I just felt compelled to do it," Alex Fedoryka says.

For the Fedoryka brothers, Celtic tunes were social, and performing them meant making an immediate connection with listeners _ a connection that had been missing in recital performances.

"With classical music ... people are supposed to be able to see what you're doing and appreciate it," Dan Fedoryka says. "But in a way, it taught us to be like, `No man ... if you're playing music, and you enjoy it, it has to come through. And if it comes through, people will listen.'"

Two years and more than 300 shows since their first full set, Scythian will finally get a chance to play with Gaelic Storm. Only this time, they won't be the opener. At the Minnesota Irish Festival in August, the band will get equal billing as a co-headliner.

"Then the next week we're at the biggest Irish festival in the world. It's in Milwaukee," Dan Fedoryka says. "Go figure, Milwaukee's got the biggest Irish festival in the world."

A grassroots effort to the core, Scythian does its own management. With two albums out and a third in the works, the guys are in no hurry to sign on with a record label.

"I think that can be one of the dangers of music, is you're looking for that goal of a multimillion-dollar record deal or to be famous, to have your picture everywhere, and in a sense, the music becomes subservient to your goal," Dan Fedoryka says.

Instead, he wants Scythian to be "Grateful Dead mainstream" _ a traveling circus that goes where it wants and plays a different show every night for as many people as possible.

"That's the thing we love about it ... even though we live in the same house, and we spend more time together than married couples do, we really have a good time up on stage, and there isn't any of those long-term goals ... every show is just, `Let's play man.' Whatever that is, that formula, I would like to keep it that way," Dan Fedoryka says.

"Also, another goal of mine is to have people following us in cars, making falafel sandwiches," he says, looking at Ounallah.

For now, the guys are enjoying their creative freedom, keeping their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks.

"We try to basically to limit the distance between us and the crowd, we try to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible as quickly as possible," says Dan Fedoryka, smiling and launching into a description of one of the group's most genre-ambiguous songs, a Euro-pop/bluegrass/house number called "Technocordion."

"It's kind of very cheesy, but people love it," he says.

Scythian is like a modern-day version of 1984 mockumentary subjects Spinal Tap _ a reference Dan made more than once, and one that shows up a few times on the band's Web site _ right down to the mysteriously lengthy roster of former drummers and how much the idea for "Technocordion" screams of "Jazz Odyssey."

The difference, of course, being that the members of Scythian are young, legitimately talented and on the way up. Their shows draw consistently large and overjoyed crowds _ and their haircuts are much more conservative.

Add the fact that Scythian, unlike Spinal Tap, is a real, not fictional, band, and the similarities turn out to be not so striking.

Still, that seven drummers thing is a little ridiculous.
- The Monitor