Šiauliai-raised S.Urbonavičius-Samas: “I can’t be happy about current Lithuania” | Life
We continue our trips around Lithuania, during which we get people to share their insights about EU investments in the city of their childhood or youth over the past 20 years. this time with musician, songwriter, producer Saulius Urbonavičius-Sam, we are watching how Šiauliai and Vilnius are changing and becoming more beautiful.
Today, the name of S.Urbonavičius is mostly associated not with Panevėžys, where the artist was born, but with Šiauliai. Here, at the Faculty of Arts of Šiauliai Pedagogical Institute, the musician spent a bright year not only for him, but also for the history of Lithuanian rock music. At first, Sam’s solo, underground project, later, with the involvement of other art and music students who studied in Šiauliai, became the well-known legendary band “BIX”.
From ghosts to brush hunts
“The action revolved around the Faculty of Arts. It was a mansion in front of Šiauliai police and security. Parking lot next to cultural woman, cafes “Kišenė”, “Kaštonas”, etc. It was here that all the creative people of Šiauliai used to gather bodybuilders, cottage cheese and tough spent time in the center, in pumpkins. around culture girl the underground cultural life of Šiauliai was going on”, – the artist remembers his youth.
Now people no longer understand what a deficit means when everything is missing.
In the aforementioned in culture Sam met a lot of like-minded people – among them the painter Paulius Arlauskas, members of the group “Zuvys”: “They continue to live well as artists.”
He spent a lot of time with his friends in the place where “Golden Boy”, the symbol of Šiauliai, “Sagittarius” is now settled. It is true that he was not here during the studies of S.Urbonavičius. “The most significant was the old cemetery. We used to go there several times to catch some ghosts,” smiles the performer.
“In general, the student days were uh… And a lot of first dates, and music,” S. Urbonavičius remembers. “But still, the most important place for me at that time was the art shop near Gaidis Clock Square.”
If he was at the art store he was near bodybuilders the beloved “Milk bar”, maybe you could get some paint, paint… Finding drawing tools was not so easy – you had to hunt. “Now maybe people don’t understand what a deficit means when everything is missing,” says the man.
Lithuania gained colors
For S. Urbonavičiis, who visited Šiauliai again, the changes in the city are obvious. Loved in youth and difficult places are known. Sentimental memories of a musician on the way and the more than 130-year-old candy factory “Rūta”. Once nationalized, the factory was returned to the family that founded it 30 years ago. “Despite war or pestilence, sweets are needed,” laughs S. Urbonavičius while tasting the nostalgic sweets.
As a teenager he liked to ride bicycles, the performer admits that he had a well-known “Šiauliai Vairo” model. Many years later, when he visited the now “Baltik Vairas” factory, he was surprised with pride that EU investment funds are currently being allocated to artificial intelligence, which helps to quickly plan production processes. Vairas produces as many as 1,200 bicycles per day.
Loved in youth and difficult places are known.
“When I came to study in Šiauliai, my growth as a person began. In the city itself, there was still a good Soviet era, maybe more precisely – its end, when everything still looks gray. Šiauliai without the old town, everything was surrounded by Soviet houses, there was a soldier’s monument, etc. Although the city had exceptional objects, it was not so attractive, many things were rotten, for example, the park stage was collapsed.
Now a lot of interesting things have appeared here – both the Golden Boy of Šiauliai, as a symbol that can be used for identification, and the Iron Fox, the renovated stage of the park… Šiauliai is changing as we see it, it is becoming more and more fantastic. Things that have survived and become symbols of the city are also pleasing. “Valerijon’s” pharmacy has been working without a break for 152 years!”, the musician rejoices, adding that women from Latvia have been flocking to the pharmacy for more than one and a half hundred years. They come here for rejuvenating, regenerating, luxurious creams created according to pharmaceutical traditions, which was made possible by EU investments.
“We’re not just keeping up with the world, we want to be at the forefront, which is fantastic.” I walked in Šiauliai, I lived here and I didn’t know so much about the deep history of this city… If it weren’t for the EU investments, there would be no Golden Boy here, and it would be very difficult for the hundred-year-old businesses,” he assures after going back down memory lane.
“Edit your country creatively”
Changes in S. Urbonavičius can be seen throughout the country – as he reveals to them especially well those who grew up in captive Lithuania, among gray cities, surrounded by depressed people in gray clothes. “I saw all this with my own eyes. We are now light years away from this point in such a short period of time. The way we live is the cosmos… I still remember how my mother and I used to stand in line to buy a baguette. What about other products!” says the founder of the BIX group.
Changes are felt especially well by those who grew up in captive Lithuania, among gray cities, surrounded by depressed people in gray clothes.
“I can’t be happy for our Lithuania, how great it is, how everything has exploded, how people who do not complain, work, strive, do miraculous things and change Lithuania. This is fantastic! I look at it with a smile on my face”, says S. Urbonavičius, comparing the days of his youth and the present.
It is the freedom to do what you want and work for the common good that inspires a musician to go further. He encourages others to look creatively at the future and create: “Yes, there are all kinds of nuances, flaws, things – after all, there is no paradise on Earth. However, the things that need to be corrected are our creative path – we, Lithuanians, are the masters of our country and we can change creatively. You only need to want, complain more and less or blame each other. From the Soviet era, there is a leftover mindset that someone has to take care of us and everything will come by itself. But no one will do anything for us.
Today we are free to earn money, beautify ourselves, beautify the environment, decorate cities. Businesses create great spaces, bars, restaurants – for me, this is freedom. Damn, do it!
Recently, a member of the “BIX” group, who has been working with young people, says that he also sees clear changes in people, determined by more of the environment. According to him, the children of free Lithuania differ in their internal characteristics. “It’s a difference that is hard to put into words. Those who did not see, did not feel the previous conditions, may think that everything that is very now, came naturally. And we are a little different: we lived at a time when not much could be said, when you had to hide everything under a sheet, speak in coded words, create coded art. Now people are more open, they can say what they want, be who they want to be. The inner freedom of young people can really be felt today,” the artist believes.
“People grow together with the environment”
According to S. Urbonavičius, the fact that we are currently in a much more beautiful environment has a huge influence on our mentality. As he says, it affects us directly and indirectly:
“When you see an abandoned place, you don’t feel guilty about throwing garbage, kicking something, being careless. But when you see a tidy environment, it kindly obliges you not to pollute it yourself.”
Correctable things are our creative path – we, Lithuanians, are the masters of our country and we can creatively change it.
Sam also valued the beauty of the environment because it can provide people with a good aesthetic education, in other words, external changes change us from the inside as well. “Architects and artists create spaces by considering the nuances of every line – this is how they indirectly train people’s aesthetic sense. After being in beautiful places and going to places where everything is messy, dirty, we don’t feel good, we start longing for aesthetics. The fact is that people grow together with the beautifying environment”, smiles S. Urbonavičius.