From Franek to Kyiv: how PATSYKI Z FRANEKA began

The name of the band points to Ivano-Frankivsk, which locals call Franek. Nazar Khudyn and Roman Muzh lived in Kyiv, and their colleagues called them the lads from Franek, patsyki z Franeka. The two friends kept the nickname. They wrote rap greetings to order: a client sent a name, a birth date and a few funny facts, and the pair turned them into verses and filmed the clip themselves, with no cameraman and no tripod. The magazine Galytskyi Korespondent described their routine in January 2009.

In that trio Roman wrote most of the main texts, Nazar edited the lines and wrote the hooks, and Volodymyr Drabchuk finished whatever was left unfinished. Nazar played guitar, piano and saxophone and was the only instrumentalist. The members dated the beginning differently: autumn 2007, 1 January 2007, or Roman's birthday on 29 July 2008. Reference databases give 2008. The group made its public debut in October 2008 at Blogcamp CEE in Kyiv with a sad song about a friend named Stepan who lives on the internet. The members said the story is true. Ukrainian MTV aired their clips, though never in regular rotation. Their label was FFK Rekordz, short for Franek For Kief, and at that point they were planning an album called B-Dayz.

The line-up changed after that. Volodymyr and Roman left, and Nazar kept the band going. Chornyi joined him; he performs in a cat mask and goes by Liudyna-kit, the Cat-Man. In 2016 Lola arrived. She had studied at a conservatory and had conducting experience, and she sings and plays the bandura. A band whose name uses a masculine plural now has a woman at the front of the stage, and the members hear the question about it constantly. Nazar says they never expected to explain it so many times.

The turn came in 2016 at the Hit-Conveyor contest with the song VasЯ OMG. By Nazar's account, professional musicians laughed when the band announced it would win. In the semifinal they ranked 52nd and moved on after two other groups withdrew. Their audition performance made the jury rethink its low marks. The win brought them national airtime. Taras Topolia, Nazar recalls, told them they could not even read rap, and Nazar admits that was true at the time.

In 2017 the band took the same song to the casting of the eighth season of X-Factor. Four judges voted yes, the group hoped to go further, and another contestant advanced. The members live in Kyiv. Nazar has said he came to the city at seventeen with fifty hryvnias and is grateful for the chances it gave him. Franek stayed in the name, and on posters and channels the band is often signed with the short form PZF.