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BEAT DEVILS


Good evening and welcome for the first time to rockandroll.gr
Hi! It’s our pleasure! And thanks for your interest in our band!

When and how did you start your journey and who are the group members?
We gathered together as a company of friends and didn’t think at that time, that it will grow into something serious. As a fact, we didn’t think and care about lots of things and lived for today completely. That became somehow our rock & roll and punk rock kernel. We played our first show on 17th of March, 2001 and it was a starting point, so every year we try to make a so called “birthday show” around this date. In January 2004 we became trio, and that was another crucial point for the band – we moved to composing our own songs and got into studio to record our debut album by the end of that year. Since then till nowadays our lineup has never changed: Fedor N. is on the drums, Mike “Grem” Bogdanov is on the double bass & back vocals, Andy Loug is on the guitar & lead vocals.

What are your sound influences?
We grew up as a band, listening to the forefathers of 50s rockabilly, garage rockers of 60s, punk rockers of 70s and pioneers of 80s psychobilly. Of course, there are certain bands, that made a great influence on our sound – Batmobile, The Long Tall Texans, The Blue Cats, Hillbilly Hellcats, The Living End, Mad Heads. And also another great influence we got from the bands, that we shared a stage – basically through our friendship offstage – The Magnetix & Stressor, The Peacocks, Milwaukee Wildmen, Sir Psyko & his Monsters, The Arkhams, Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space and many others. Psychobilly scene is like a big family, you know and you always get inspiration from each other. Basically, it is a main reason why these subcultures (both rockabilly & psychobilly) are still alive and has not gone too mainstream. Besides rockabilly & psychobilly we listen to a great amount of music- old and modern, that help to keep our years in shape and enrich musical horizon of the band.


Could you tell us about your recent EP called “No Circus Without a Clown”
Since our last full-length album “Dig My Beat” (released in 2018), we’ve been exploring different ideas and concepts of the next release… We wanted our music to develop into something innovative, but to stay ourselves at the same time – to stay devoted to the music we love (rockabilly & psychobilly). It is a tough thing not to repeat ourselves and we always try to care about our fans & listeners – we always try to give them something new. We’ve arranged and rehearsed about 15 songs during the period of 2019-2020 (we’ll give you a spoiler, that none of them passed onto the “No Circus”). Then we made a break in those searchings and came up with the idea to make an EP, to make four songs, but each of them would be a hit (hopefully). The process went easily and smooth, and in the beginning of 2021 we got those songs finally. The concept of the release is an exploration of the mystical side of a clown – as a symbol of the bridge between the show and the audience. The clown is our guide in the world of fantasies and illusions, sometimes he can bring you to the darkness and evil, where your fears live. Then, it is people’s choice to choose the right choice.

What do you think are the most important moments in your career?
We consider the biggest moment was, when we all – Fedor, Grem & Andy got together for the first rehearsal. The chemistry is working since then. Every record release was a big event, of course. And of course tours across Russia and abroad – in 2009 we played our first foreign show – and it was Pineda Psychobilly Meeting – a real adventure, full of music, friends, fun & booze. Going on tour makes the band a small family, and it is a great experience of friendship. For some period of time we produced the psychobilly festival in Moscow “Capital Nightmare”, we also helped young bands with the concerts in Moscow, we supported local promoters in bringing the big bands from abroad here, such as Nekromantix, Mad Sin, Space Cadets, Creepshow and others.

What is the people’s response to the music you play? Are there any special moments from the concerts you have given you can share with us?
It is always great when people sing along with us during the show – whether it is ‘Nightmare Baby’, or ‘Wild Rockin’ Mama’ or even ‘Dancing on my Bones’. And then a concert turns into something real special. In 2021 we had a big show, celebrating 20th anniversary of the band and we saw there several generations of Beat Devils fans and the crowd was singing every song – unbelievable impressions and energy exchange. And you understand that every moment of this band was worth it. There were also funny episodes, of course. Once we were involved in the open-air festival of different genres, and we decided to start our show with Johnny Burnette’s “Train Kept A Rollin’”, showing to the audience some wild and true roots of rock’n’roll. But after we played only seconds of the song’s intro – our guitarman Andy tore the string. So, instead of the classic rockabilly hit, the crowd has got almost 5 minutes of drum’n’double-bass solo (while Andy as fixing his guitar).
In November 2019 we went to Finland to play at Tawastia Stomp – a great Halloween event for psychos, organized by our long-time friends and cool people. We played along with The Meteors, The Epileptic Hillbillys and The Spellbound on the same day and so, as the youngest dudes, we were first on the bill. And we were surprised and honored at the same time, when the crowd came in right before our coming to the stage and we, being the first band, received a support from the fully crowded venue. That’s what we love about Finnish psychos – always great support and great response from the first song till the last, and great, simply GREAT, hospitality. We really enjoyed our time there.

Which are your future plans?
Literally, we got some more release rockets in our pockets. So there would be a couple of premieres from Beat Devils in the nearest future. The global plans are to get it going and keeeeep on rrrrrrocking!

Where can we find you online?
We got Instagram (where we agreed to keep only photos & videos, no gig posters and other advertisements). You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube and BandLink. And the web-site, of course (yes, we are old school!) All the links are below:
http://www.beatdevils.ru
https://www.facebook.com/thebeatdevils
https://twitter.com/Beat_Devils
https://instagram.com/beat_devils
https://band.link/beatdevils
https://www.youtube.com/beatdevils

Thanks for the interview, I hope talking to you again in the future
Thanks a lot again for having us. Our respect to people, who are doing this hard and great media work for rock’n’roll and help the scene and bands to get more recognized!