Algonquin musician promotes awareness of Ukrainian resistance: ‘I have to do something’

Not long after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, musician Nerijus Glezekas saw a photograph of a sobbing Ukrainian boy of about 5 or 6, walking alone toward Poland’s border.

“I burst into tears,” recalled the Lithuanian immigrant and Algonquin resident. “He looked like my son.”

Glezekas, known professionally as Nerijus, responded by attending rallies, writing protest songs and playing fundraisers that raised more than $6,000 for Ukrainian relief efforts.

“I’m an artist,” he said. “I have to do something.”

His then-bandmates, however, didn’t share his activism. After the group broke up, he composed an anthemic call to resistance titled “Seeds Will Grow.” Released on YouTube and Instagram, the song was picked up by a Ukrainian radio station.

It sparked more than 500 messages from Ukrainian soldiers, one of whom wrote that “Seeds Will Grow” helped him survive emotionally and physically, according to Glezekas, who continues to help raise morale and spread awareness.

Glezekas, who’s followed events since 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, wasn’t surprised by the 2022 invasion. While he has no friends or relatives in Ukraine, he and his family know what it’s like to live in an occupied nation. His great-grandfather was a Lithuanian partisan who opposed the Soviet occupation. In 1946, he and his family were sent to Siberia where he spent 10 years in a labor camp.

Glezekas’ grandmother escaped Siberia and returned to Lithuania in 1956 when she was 16. He remembers hearing her stories about how unbearable life was and how she and her family were treated as less than human.

“Lithuanians know what the Russians are,” he said.

“It’s the same evil,” he continued. “The concept is the same. They’re going to roll their tanks in and if necessary they’re going to shoot you. There’s no democracy, no freedom, there’s just a barbaric regime.”

Glezekas’ aunt and uncle immigrated to the U.S. during the 1990s. Other relatives followed, including his mother who arrived in 2000. Glezekas immigrated in 2002 at age 16. (His parents are divorced and his father lives in Lithuania.)

“In early 1990s overall, America was a dream for everyone, especially Eastern European people,” said Glezekas, who described the U.S. as a “stairway to heaven.”

That he uses a Led Zeppelin reference to describe his adopted country is unsurprising. At age 6, he heard “Whole Lotta Love” for the first time. It changed his life.

“The sound of it knocked me out,” he said.

At age 7, his musician father brought home a drum set. Glezekas began playing, learning the basics from his father’s fellow musicians. His professional debut came a couple of years later and by age 13 he was playing blues and rock ‘n’ roll Friday nights at a music club. Around the same time, he received an acoustic guitar from his uncle in America. His father taught him to play.

“It was like a dream come true. It’s such a beautiful instrument,” he said.

Arriving in the U.S. as a teen, Glezekas played all-ages shows and, at age 21 he joined a Chicago alternative rock band. Eventually, he tired of playing other people’s music and began composing originals in 2011.

The last few years, in addition to producing his own music, he works full-time as a musician-for-hire, recording drum parts in his home studio. Playing fairs, festivals and fundraisers, he continues to raise awareness and demonstrate support for Ukraine.

Invited to perform in Kyiv, he says he’ll visit after the war. Until then, he’ll contribute the best way he can: through music.

Nerijus Glezekas’ music is available at nerijusmusic.com and Instagram @nglezekas. He performs Sunday, Aug. 18, at Uketober Fest, a Ukrainian culture festival at St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church, 5000 N. Cumberland Ave., Chicago. See stjosephukr.com.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240816/news/i-have-to-do-something-algonquin-musician-promotes-awareness-of-ukrainian-resistance/