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BACK
THE
DEADBEATS - The Beat Goes On…
By Adrian 'The Energizer' Bromley
Okay, rock 'n' rollers out there, it is time to sit back, kick up
your feet and grab a cold one. The Deadbeats are in the house! Put
out your smoke, you varmint. Give it up for the hardest working
rock band from Sweden. You heard me, asswipe -- I said Sweden.
With enough rock momentum to topple a train and enough attitude
to show up Mickey Rourke, Swedish hard rock/garage rock quartet
The Deadbeats (consisting of 'A-Team'-like cohorts Sgt.Sjöberg,
Awesome Andreas, Righteous Roberth and Benny Bomber) are coming
at ya in a hail of bullets and fists a-flying. It's time to get
this party going. So what are ya waiting for, buckethead? Crank
up the volume and let's get in on, folks!
"We've all been listening to rock and roll for so many years.
Many of us grew up on Kiss and Motorhead and great bands like that.
But we had always been playing death metal and we decided it was
time to play in a punk rock, old-school rock kind of band and The
Deadbeats were born," recounts guitarist Sgt. Sjoberg over
the phone from Sweden. "We started to really get into it and
demoed some material. I eventually gave Paul of Fueled Up Records
(a subsidiary of Necropolis Records) a copy of our demo and he signed
us right away.
"I think we got signed because we have a lot of energy and
really love this raw punk rock and rock 'n' roll, and it shows in
what we do," he says.
"You can feel the energy and power in our music. This record
really does show our influences, I think. You can see them all in
what we play – The Misfits, MC5, The Who...Kiss and Motorhead,
of course. They are both like gods to us. They are the two main
influences why we started playing out as The Deadbeats, at least
for the early demos I'd say. Now we have our own sound."
Unlike his other band, Ashes, Sjoberg feels a lot more comfortable
playing the style of music that makes up his new band. He states,
"Ever since I have been playing as a musician or playing with
other individuals or bands we have always gone back to our roots
when it comes to music, even if we played death metal. There was
no real problem in picking up the guitar and playing this music.
It wasn't foreign to us. We just got together and rehearsed a lot
and played live. It's been easy for us.
"I think there is a lot more for us to accomplish with this
band," he adds. "I think we have only touched the surface
of the creativity that we can get from this band. We have gotten
together a solid band, played more than 20 shows and already have
a good assortment of new material to work with. We're excited and
it shows, I think. We really want to just rock out and make this
happen."
On the making of the record, he says, "When we started we wanted
to get a real rock 'n' roll vibe. We started like a mix between
like Motorhead and Kiss. We eventually got our own style and it's
gotten a lot more strengthened. Just listen to songs like 'Get Your
Head Straight' and 'Shock-Out' and you'll hear the work that went
into them.
"I think people who hear this record will really get something
out of it," he answers when asked what he thinks music fans
will get out of the debut disc. "I think people will have fun
and just get a lot more out of it than most of the other records
out there today. We provide the listener with music that may not
be totally original, but it's full of feelings and will get you
going. Making real good rock 'n' roll is very difficult. I dunno
how we do it. It just happens. We write material and rehearse them.
Things get arranged around and then we gear up and go for it. It's
worked well up to this point."
With the direction and flow of the material on the debut disc, one
might wonder just how spontaneous the band's work really was come
recording time. It seems like it was one big-ass booze-fest. Nothing
says rock 'n' roll like four drunk bastards playing at volume 10.
"(laughing) Yeah…we were pretty drunk. We did drink a
lot in the studio. It's all part of the making of the music. It
adds to what you create. To get back to the question, some of the
material was spontaneous, a bit, but for the most part we had the
sound and song structures laid out. A little soloing here and there
and some idea changes and 'Voila!' the record was done."
So seeing that Sjoberg has other duties in Ashes and the rest of
the band are part of Edge Of Sanity, how much time does he and his
bandmates plan to spend on The Deadbeats? "Right now our priority
is The Deadbeats. We just released the self-titled debut and have
been getting really good reviews. We also have a tour booked right
now, which should be fun. Rock 'n' roll gives us a better chance
of being on the road longer than, say, a death metal band would.
Death metal bands who put out a record might get to tour for three
weeks or a month and then it's over and back to the studio, with
maybe a show or two here and there. But with a rock 'n' roll band,
you can just play a hell of a lot more."
Are they planning on touring lots in support of the new disc? "Yeah,"
declares Sjoberg. "We're taking this out on the road. Absolutely!
All of us have decided that if we do get a big tour then we're going
to quit our jobs. Fuck the jobs. The Deadbeats are the main priority
for us."
In closing I ask him why he would play this style of music when
some people might think it is passé or not important. Responds
Sjoberg, with a slight sense of annoyance, "People ask me why
we play this type of music and I tell them, 'It's fucking fun!'
This is something I grew up with, and I'm finally playing music
I grew up on and hadn't done before. It's giving me a lot of great
experiences. It had to come out of me sometime. Why not now? The
Deadbeats is my release and the metal fans are about to find out
just what has been inside of me all these years."
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