Eugene Hutz, the Ukrainian frontman of international punk band GOGOL BORDELLO, has announced his debut memoir, Lost Innocent World: Chronicles Of A Ukrainian Punk Rocker in the Free World with Katherine Yeske Taylor — due on December 8, 2026 via Matt Holt Books, an imprint of BenBella Books.
The memoir chronicles his explosive journey from Ukrainian refugee to famed global punk icon, acclaimed thespian, cultural rebel, and vital political force.
With a foreword by SONIC YOUTH legend Thurston Moore, the memoir chronicles his journey from Ukrainian refugee to famed global punk icon, acclaimed thespian, cultural rebel, and vital political force.
There will also be a musical companion piece, illustrating the era and highlighting the resonance between Ukrainian musicians and the likes of SONIC YOUTH, Lydia Lunch and beyond.
To the hallowed ranks of Nick Cave, Henry Rollins and Patti Smith — writers who make music, or is it musicians who write? — let us now add the name of Eugene Hutz, says Pushcart Prize-winning author Jerry Stahl.
'Lost Innocent World' is every bit as wild-ass, intense, innovative, and beautiful on the page as the sounds that blast off the stage from his legendary band, GOGOL BORDELLO.
This comes at the heels of GOGOL BORDELLO's "raucous good time" tour and new album We Mean It, Man!, featuring Bernard Sumner and award-winning actor-director Liev Schreiber.
Hutz's journey from his Romani roots, family interrogations for being 'anti-Soviet,' and European refugee camps to a crash landing in his beloved New York hardcore scene may sound like a Tarantino movie, but it's only the beginning of Eugene's trajectory.
Born and raised in Boyarka, Ukraine — where a century earlier Sholem Aleichem wrote his world-famous tales — Eugene discovers rock 'n' roll music through his Western-spirited, freedom-loving father.
Uprooted by the Chernobyl disaster and inspired by a SONIC YOUTH concert in Kiev in 1989, Eugene embarks 'to find his own sonic heart' in New York City.
Follow along as he goes from being brutally discouraged by his Soviet music teachers to making records with Rick Rubin and headlining major world festivals.
The real punk saga kicks off when Eugene and his kin score asylum in the USA.
Safe in Vermont, but itching for rebellion, he grinds for years before birthing GOGOL BORDELLO, a badass musical fusion labeled 'gypsy punk' — a raw blend of traditional Eastern European music and punk that enraptures global music maniacs.
The band became the darlings of artists, tastemakers, and fashion icons, landing a breakthrough gig at the Whitney Biennial in 2002 that raised their profile and launched their international career.
Their embrace of multiculturalism created a unique style that seamlessly blends the disparate.
Lost Innocent World is Eugene's deeply personal account of surviving conflict and displacement — and a reminder of how powerful music can be in raising the resilience of the dispossessed.
Hutz is a Ukrainian-born artist, songwriter, and frontman of the International punk band GOGOL BORDELLO — a rare musical force raucously illuminating stages alongside SYSTEM OF A DOWN, RANCID, dueting with Regina Spektor and cutting albums with Rick Rubin and Steve Albini.