FUSION JAMS has already become a phenomenon on the Ukrainian music scene. However, while building a full-fledged ecosystem, the team aims to offer members of their community guidance that goes beyond just jam sessions. ‘We created the label No Time For Swing to demonstrate musicians our willingness to stand by their side and support them in releasing, recording, and producing their music’, FUSION JAMS co-founder Myshko Birchenko explains in an interview with DTF Magazine.
Now a new chapter in the FUSION JAMS story begins with the YouTube project Swing Live, launched by No Time For Swing with support from the brand Monkey Shoulder. Over the course of six months, the label will showcase live performances by some of the community’s most exciting artists, culminating in a vinyl compilation featuring selected live recordings and electronic remixes. All of this will be accompanied by a series of offline events and an educational program.
To mark the launch of Swing Live, we spoke with the FUSION JAMS team about why they created the project, its concept, and what it will include. We also asked whether the Ukrainian YouTube scene truly lacks live music sessions, why emerging musicians sometimes hesitate to join large jam stages, and where the collective is heading next. And today, we’re presenting the very first live performance.
PREMIERE OF THE FIRST SWING LIVE PERFORMANCE.
And it’s soul by FIGURAT
FIGURAT is a soul and rhythm and blues project by musician Dima Aleksieienko. He has performed with numerous Ukrainian bands and collectives while simultaneously releasing his own music, before eventually focusing on his solo work. In 2024, he released his debut solo album ‘Vse Odno’. FIGURAT plays at key music events regardless of their scale — including FUSION JAMS and Brudnyi Pes — and is now also featured in the lineup of Atlas Festival, Ukraine’s largest music festival.
‘It’s about the presence of our artists and our community’
— Let’s be direct: why do you need this project? What made you take it on?
Myshko Birchenko: The idea for Swing Live as a series of live performances from our community has been around for a while. We realized that the offline format alone wasn’t enough to showcase all the amazing musicians — not in Ukraine, and certainly not to the world. Then, in December last year, representatives from Monkey Shoulder approached us with ideas for collaboration. All of our ideas were dreams we had long wanted to bring to life, but we lacked the time or resources. That’s how the story of Swing Live’s realization began.
— So, did Monkey Shoulder approach FUSION JAMS first? How did the brand learn about this collective?
Monkey Shoulder: Yes, that’s true. We got to know FUSION JAMS last year while looking for a young Ukrainian music community to collaborate with. Though it would be more accurate to say we were looking not just for a project, but for a long-term partnership. And after the first meeting with Myshko and Hrynia, it became clear: these are exactly the people — and the values — we were looking for and wanted to support.
— Let’s go back to the question about the purpose of Swing Live.
Borys Tkachuk: The core idea behind Swing Live is about developing and showcasing our community and our artists — and fortunately, there are more and more of them. At the same time, we aim to show the artists the nearest paths for growth. For instance, the label was created to demonstrate our willingness to stand by musicians and support them in releasing, recording, and producing their music. And Swing Live is one of the ways an artist can present themselves to the world — online and on YouTube.
Hrynia Lozovyi: Our goal is to create a critical mass of content. We understand that platforms like YouTube are difficult to grow on. But for us, the mission is much broader than just hitting 10,000 views on every video. The aim of Swing Live is to showcase the presence of our artists and our community — and to highlight people in Ukrainian culture who, in our opinion, don’t get enough visibility.
Behind the scenes of the Swing Live shoot
— And what value did Monkey Shoulder see in Swing Live?
Monkey Shoulder: Music is meant to bring people together, and that’s exactly what FUSION JAMS is doing — creating music, bringing young artists together, and building a community around it. As a brand, we support underground music communities in many countries around the world.
The value lies in the fact that communities like this help develop culture — and culture, in turn, helps shape society and the country as a whole. Step by step, these small efforts lead to big changes in the future. And we want to support such communities in Ukraine as well. If not now, then when?
— Myshko mentioned different live formats. Your YouTube channel already features recordings of performances, including from events at the Concert Hall on Kyrylivska. How will the Swing Live sessions differ from those videos? Was something like Tiny Desk Concerts a reference point for you?
Myshko: Yes, we watch Tiny Desk and really enjoy it. That radio studio in Washington is a great reference point for how we’d like to sound and the kind of artists we want to gather around us. Drawing inspiration from high-quality live videos from Europe and the U.S., we’re aiming to create our own recognizable location. It’s still unclear whether it will be used exclusively for this project, but I can definitely say that we really like the place where we shot the episodes.
By the way, those who watch the live performances closely will notice posters in the background from almost every year of our existence. That was our way of manifesting the presence of the FUSION JAMS community.
Hrynia: Sure, we could have just recorded a classic studio live, but we wanted to stand out somehow. So we created this cozy little room. And that’s probably the unique feature of Swing Live — it’s a studio live performance, but set in a custom-designed space.
— Do you feel any competition in the live performances segment? Or does it seem to you, on the contrary, that in the Ukrainian YouTube space, the niche of improvisational and jazz-adjacent music is essentially unoccupied?
Myshko: I won’t get into specifics, but there’s very little video content featuring artist performances that I personally enjoy. That’s why we wanted to follow our own taste — to create the kind of content we ourselves appreciate. Are there competitors? Yes, there are. And it’s great that they exist. We aim to do it better than they do.
Nastia Bobrova: From my perspective — and this applies not only to live performances but to all of our activities — what we feel isn’t competition, but rather a lack of audience engagement. We’re constantly searching for new approaches to each format in order to capture people’s interest.
— Will there be a second season?
Myshko: Absolutely, yes. We will continue. It’s wonderful that there are people and brands willing to support this — it’s truly inspiring.
Lucas Bird. Live video releases — September 4 & 18
FIGURAT. Live video releases — May 29 & June 12
Bitlo. Live video releases — June 26 & July 10
— Nastia already touched upon the topic of audience scarcity. How large is the audience interested in the kind of music you promote (improvised, instrumental, jazz-adjacent, jazz)? Or are you targeting not just the Ukrainian audience?
Nastia: It’s important to understand that before Swing Live, we had exclusively instrumental live performances, which definitely make sense to promote to an international audience. But with this project, we’ll be experimenting with songs and lyrics, placing a stronger emphasis on Ukrainian-language texts. Accordingly, we’ll be focusing more on a Ukrainian audience.
— And what about the overall size of your audience?
Myshko: The FUSION JAMS community has quite a large and active audience — from 700 to 1900 attendees. However, we’re still figuring out how to translate that into an online following. Many people primarily see FUSION JAMS as an event- and concert-organizing community. But the content we create around it — like album releases, live videos, and so on — isn’t yet strongly associated with us. That’s something we’re working on.
Nastia: We’re also working on making the most recognizable name in the lineup actually be FUSION JAMS itself. People come specifically for the jams, and unfortunately, we have very few artists whose names alone can spark interest or act as a draw for the audience.
— Continuing on the topic of audience — considering that FUSION JAMS isn’t about a huge mainstream audience (and the reach that typically attracts big brands), why did Monkey Shoulder choose to support this particular collective?
Monkey Shoulder: We are a very young brand, especially by whisky industry standards. It was created about 20 years ago, and the idea was to break down stereotypes surrounding premium malt whisky. In those days, it was unacceptable to mix it in cocktails; it was almost taboo. However, Monkey Shoulder was created precisely for this purpose, even involving a renowned bartender to develop its flavor profile.
Cocktails are, first and foremost, about creativity — combining different ingredients to create something new and unexpected. And that’s exactly what the improvisational music scene is about: surprising people and doing things differently. That’s why it’s important for us to support communities and people like that.
Six collectives, vinyl, and a concept of a groovy track
— Swing Live features 13 live performances by six bands. Why did you decide to dedicate a separate video to each track? And why was the project decided to be stretched over half a year instead of having, say, 20-30 minute performances?
Myshko: First and foremost, because we wanted to create a long-term project that would allow us to stay relevant on YouTube for as long as possible. We don’t have a content production conveyor or our own in-house production studio.
— Who chose the tracks and how?
Myshko: I had a task for each artist: one of their songs had to be more ‘groovy’, and the other was up to their choice. I explained that we would be releasing a compilation and a vinyl, where our team would choose one track from each artist. Basically, it’s good that all the artists are our friends, and they trust us.
— Why precisely a ‘groovy’ song?
Myshko: Because we want to represent energetic music — we want to present our sound as life-affirming. We don’t want to immerse the audience in a melancholic state. The way our country feels right now is more about resilience and vitality, no matter how cliché that might sound. It’s more about action than about hanging one’s head or sinking into melancholy.
— Why these six bands specifically, and what do they have in common?
Myshko: We wanted to showcase the full diversity of our community. 19.99 — alternative music. FIGURAT — soul. Bitlo — probably acid jazz. Hyphen Dash — FUSION JAMS. ShchukaRyba — folk jazz. Lucas Bird — indie music.
All of them are, in one way or another, connected to us and are friends of our community. We ourselves were surprised that starting from a focus on instrumental music and improvisational jams, we eventually found ourselves surrounded by such an incredible number of amazing artists. So with Swing Live, we’re basically saying: ‘Look, we’re not just about that kind of modern London jazz. We’re about everything you hear! And this music fits within our concept — it coexists in a friendly and organic way’.
19.99. Live video releases — October 2 & 16
Hyphen Dash. Live video releases — July 24, August 7 & August 21
ShchukaRyba. Live video releases — October 30 & November 13
— The culmination of Swing Live will include the release of a vinyl record, featuring six tracks that are remixes of the participants’ live performances. Why did you decide to combine jazz-adjacent music with electronic music?
Myshko: The concept of combining remixes and live recordings actually emerged together with Monkey Shoulder, since one of their slogans is ‘Made for mixing’. The idea behind the remixes is also rooted in our core mission — to showcase not only local heroes of the instrumental scene, but also of the producer scene. Among those working on the remixes are our friends Ihor Kyrylenko and BADWOR7H. We’ll announce other names later.
Intimate jam sessions and educational component
— A live recording is a distinct online format that can exist on its own. Why did you decide to supplement it with an educational component and jam sessions?
Myshko: I often talk with partners, friends, and brands about our concerns: market problems and musicians’ competency issues. At one of our meetings with Monkey Shoulder, I brought up these topics, and they suggested developing them and making them a part of Swing Live. That’s how we decided that the educational component would be available at least for the artists featured in our live videos, and at most for the majority of FUSION JAMS musicians, becoming part of their development under the Swing Live umbrella.
Borys: The problem many musicians face, especially in the instrumental field, is that they write music but don’t know what happens to it after release. It’s common among musicians to keep their tracks on their computers, shelves, in drawers, or wherever, simply because they don’t know what to do with them or how to promote them. So these lectures are primarily aimed at increasing musicians’ competence.
Nastia: Actually, the story of FUSION JAMS began with intimate jam sessions. Later, at some point, we grew, and the scale expanded. We started getting comments from musicians saying that our jams felt more like a ‘killing arena’ — meaning that for beginners or lesser-known musicians, it can be intimidating to step on stage in front of an audience of a thousand or more. That’s why we brought back small jam sessions, which we now hold every two weeks (plus, they help us discover new names and talents). And the educational part is a great addition and extension of the jams.
Hrynia: In general, the educational program will last two days — there will be two lectures and two jam sessions. And what’s important is that the lectures will end with jam sessions, because our goal is the community, its expansion, and its retention.
Nastia: I believe that every musician, especially an instrumentalist, needs a community. And jam sessions create opportunities for that.
— What makes the jam sessions within the Swing Live project different from regular small jams?
Myshko: Essentially, nothing. By the way, we call the small-format jam sessions Small Jam or FUSION SMALLS. Smalls is a legendary jazz venue in New York where not everyone can get in — even musicians need a special invitation. So we have our own FUSION Smalls Jam, and not everyone can get in either. Not because we don’t let people in, but because not everyone knows about it.
— And finally, what’s your message to the audience watching Swing Live?
Nastia: Support Ukrainian music!
Myshko: Our dream is that modern Ukrainian listeners — in the broadest sense — share our passion for contemporary Ukrainian music in all its forms. As a musician and project producer, I want people to develop their musical taste without limiting themselves to specific genres. To listen to pop, hip-hop, jazz, trap, rap. And all of that exists here in Ukraine.
We create and launch our projects, including Swing Live, primarily driven by our own energy, our inner struggles, and emotions. But above all, we want to receive feedback from the audience — because without it, it’s hard. It might sound a bit modest, but in the end, it all comes down to an exchange between artists and the audience, between us and the community. You put out a lot of great content, you highlight amazing young artists — and together with them, you get that response: that it’s cool, that it matters, ‘I want more’, ‘please, keep making this’.
This material was created with the support of
