Damon Krukowski was driving with his wife, Naomi Yang. They were two-thirds of the late-’80s indie rock band Galaxie 500, touring through Eastern Eu

Islands in the Stream

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2021-06-16 12:30:06

Damon Krukowski was driving with his wife, Naomi Yang. They were two-thirds of the late-’80s indie rock band Galaxie 500, touring through Eastern Europe as a dream-pop outfit called Damon & Naomi. After years of war in the former Yugoslavia, Belgrade was still under economic sanctions, and off the grid; tech firms had no access to street maps. “We entered the noncorporate world, out of the reach of the West for political reasons,” Krukowski told me.

He had to find a pay phone and write down directions on paper, a crude throwback to the early days of touring. The venue was behind a radio station that had resisted the Milošević regime. And when Damon & Naomi took the stage and started to play, in a city severed from every method for a band to reach an audience, Krukowski realized that everyone in the room knew their songs.

“It was so moving, but it was about piracy,” he said. The Serbian radio station had downloaded Damon & Naomi’s files and broadcast them, creating a fan base. And Krukowski didn’t really have a problem with that. “Who could complain that their music had been able to reach people who had no means of purchasing it?” he asked. “It was amazing and we could play a show.”