Latgalian Singer-Songwriter Vinsents Kūkuojs on Songs, Poetry and Building Stoves
In an interview with the portal LaKuga, Latgalian singer-songwriter Vinsents Kūkuojs says he has built about 600 stoves, hearths and fireplaces. He also talks about music, his father's poetry, ceramics and painting.
Vinsents Kūkuojs, a singer-songwriter from Latgale, the eastern region of Latvia, has built around 600 stoves, hearths and fireplaces over roughly the past fifteen years. One of his stoves heats the Great Synagogue in Ludza. In an interview with the Latgalian portal LaKuga, he describes how music, poetry, ceramics, stove-building and painting have come together in his life.
Songs and poetry
Kūkuojs calls himself not a bard but a songwriter who invites people to love. He began writing songs about sixteen years ago, setting out together with his friend Haralds Urtāns: the two read poetry and tried to express it through song. Lyrics matter to him, but he considers wordless, meditative music freer, because each listener can feel something different in it.
In 2023 he took part in the Latgalian poetry slam "Rogovkys dzejis voga" and won first place. In his songs he also uses poems by his father, Ontons Kūkuojs, a poet and ceramicist. He remembers his father as someone for whom it was very important to lift Latgale spiritually through poetry and ceramics.
Stove-building and ceramics
Kūkuojs came to stove-building through ceramics: as a potter he knew the power of fire. He studied in the ceramics department of an art school and by his fourth year had earned the title of master of decorative arts. After Latvia regained independence, ceramics no longer paid, so he gave it up.
When building, he says, safety comes first, followed by functionality, fire resistance and design. He prefers building stoves for private owners who will fire them themselves and understand them.
Painting and the future
Today he finds a kind of meditation in painting. His album "Breineiguo nosta" came out in 2017; he makes no promises of a new one and invites people to come to concerts instead. The band Trikmīņs has been reformed and is performing again.
