Ilya Popenko, lead singer of NYC-based Mad Meg has released a solo track and music video for his new single “The Horse is Not Mine.”
Ilya Popenko is a multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker, photographer and songwriter, born in the former Soviet Union. In 2011, he formed Mad Meg, a psychedelic progressive rock band plays in an eclectic style they themselves identify as “Punk-Chanson-Noir”. The band has toured extensively in Russia and the former Soviet Bloc, including tours that covered close to 30 cities throughout the vast, frozen expanse of Eastern Europe, and in the course of which they shared the stage with such luminaries as Nogu Svelo!, Brooklyn-based rock band Rasputina, and Emir Kusturica.
While Mad Meg is on hiatus, Ilya has continued to work on his solo songs. In his new music video for “The Horse is Not Mine,” Ilya performs the song dressed in horse costumes amidst surrealist animation that interacts with live action footage. The lyrics of the chorus may seem like nonsense, but when describing the song, the artist shares that the lyrics are a verbatim translation of the Russian saying, “I’m not me, and the horse is not mine,” which is used to say, “I have nothing to do with that.” Ilya likes to incorporate direct translations of Russian proverbs in his songs, as lost in translation and taken out of context, they lose their original meaning and become an abstract and beautiful combination of words. The music video is directed by Nikolai Metin and incorporates animation by Katya Mezentseva.
Ilya Popenko’s new single “Horse is Not Mine” is available to stream everywhere and to learn more about the artist and the band fans can visit here.
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