If I was worried I was underdressed for the bar of the Trafalgar St James, the Hilton’s five-star outpost on Trafalgar Square, then I needn’t have been. Jeans and a linen shirt may have been a little on the dressed-down side, but the moment TS Galbadrakh walked in, there was no way anyone would pay me any attention.
Galbadrakh, known as Gala, is the lead vocalist and horsehead fiddle player for Mongolian hard rock band The Hu, who combine modern heavy metal instrumentation with traditional Mongolian instruments. The band has proved a huge hit on Youtube, garnering views in the tens of millions on the video for single “Yuve Yuve Yu”, and Gala is in town to promote their new album, The Gereg, and the European tour that will accompany it. Having just finished an impromptu photoshoot on location in Central London, he arrives at the hotel in a sort of black leather tunic with scaled shoulder pads and his brother Tuga in tow to translate for us – Gala speaks little English and my Mongolian is hardly fluent.
If Genghis Khan had chosen to make music rather than burn Eurasia to the ground, it might have sounded something like The Hu. And saying that isn’t just a lazy stereotype, because The Hu deliberately channel Mongolian history in their music. Their name stems from the Mongolian word hunnu, which means people and has been suggested – slightly confusingly – as the ultimate root of the demonym “Hun”, another steppe people who stormed from the plains to brutalise Eastern Europe. Just as Baltic folk metal bands such as Finntroll, Turisas and Korpiklaani draw on their own culture and mythology through their music and aesthetic, so The Hu take inspiration from their nomadic ancestors. But Gala dismisses the comparison to European bands. “We’re coming up with something new. We’d like to call ourselves hunnu rock – it has lots of different elements combined. We’re the first band, and we really hope that we’re not the last one, to play this style.”
Gala himself is classically trained, studying at music school from the age of eleven, then going to a conservatoire, completing a master's in traditional music and playing the morin khuur, the horsehead fiddle, in the Mongolian national orchestra. Gala also sings khoomei, the traditional guttural vocal technique that aims to mimic the sound of the wind and waterfalls of the Altai Mountains.
In 2016, the band was brought together by Ulaanbaatar-based veteran producer Dashka, of whom Gala tells me, “He was there from the beginning. He’s almost like another member. He’s been in the music industry for over 30 years. He has produced more than 300 albums as a composer.” Dashka provided artistic and musical direction, conceiving the band’s music videos and writing much of the lyrical content. Fast-forward three years and The Hu have booked 22 dates across Europe, including eight festival appearances. “Looking at our Youtube comments from Europe, people say, ‘Oh, come to our country.’ That gives us so much strength. We’re excited about all the shows – from the little ones in the club to the big one in Germany [Rock Am Ring], for 90,000 people.”
It is The Hu’s unique style and traditional edge, plus their evident popularity and novelty factor, that makes them natural ambassadors for Mongolian culture. The foreign ministry in Ulaanbaatar was quick to realise it and appointed them just that – official ambassadors to the outside world on behalf of the country. “We want people to be interested in Mongolian history,” Gala agrees, “and through our music [to] help people understand what we’re about, how beautiful our country is. If, because of the music, people are inspired to visit Mongolia, it would be wonderful.”
Even the album name, The Gereg, is a nod to this semi-ambassadorial role. The gereg was one of the first diplomatic passports in the world, issued by the great khans – Ogedei, Kublai and others – vouching for safe travel and horses from Mongol waystations. “We want the album to be our passport to the world,” Gala tells me. “We want to travel every nation without any restriction and we want our music to be heard in every nation.” Genghis Khan might have been the first Mongolian to conquer the known world, but if all goes to plan, he won’t be the last.
Follow us on Vero for exclusive music content and commentary, all the latest music lifestyle news and insider access into the GQ world, from behind-the-scenes insight to recommendations from our Editors and high-profile talent.
Now read:
Ten life lessons from Bruce Springsteen
Jay Z’s new billionaire status proves that side hustles have always been a thing
