The Beatards

To start introduce yourselves and tell us what role each of you play in The Beatards.

What’s up.  This is DJO aka El Beatardo aka Dick Victory and uh, I’m the DJ.

Ayo. This is the Universally Talented Kid aka UTK the INC (which depending on the day can mean incendiary, incorporated, incredible or incapacitated) and I’m an EMCEE.

Whatagwan Padowan this is Chuck Wild aka Chuckles Tsunami aka Chalooch Buttafooko and I have feelings.

Describe your sound in three words.

Chuck Wild: Magic Mushroom Mayhem
UTK: Joyful Unabashed Exhuberocity
DJO: Chicks Dig It

How did the three of you come together to form The Beatards?

Chuck Wild: It was divine intervention.
UTK: We were all separately visited by the spirit of a shark-faced buffalo who told us to follow the scent of the unbroken egg.
DJO: But really me and UTK were in a hip hop spoken word play together. We started partying together and then we put together our own event- Mixtape Riot! We weren’t making music yet, just doing live remixes and DJing. UTK and Chuck were both dating girls who lived together, so they’d share coffee and cereal in the mornings.
Chuck Wild: Yeah we had to hear each other sexing through the walls sometimes, not fun.
UTK: We pulled Chuck into the Mixtape Riot! party and from there we been together ever since. Those girlfriends are ex’s too by the way, we listened to the voice of the shark-faced buffalo over the scolding of our moms.

Clockwise from top: DJO, UTK, Chuck Wild

You all have a wide range of music influences but where to your music roots lie?

DJO: I’m a punk rocker/ hip hopper.  I started out djing and collecting funk/soul records from mainly the 70′s and progressed from there.
UTK: I only have two great influences in my musical life…make that three…Motown, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony…and the all mighty New Jack Swing…and i also like John Mayer. seriously, he’s a pimp…and ScatMan John…unappreciated genius.
Chuck Wild: I got my start as the drummer in a punk band, then got really into hip hop, but honestly you can find me listening to old Jamaican and African records, crazy Bollywood soundtracks, and pygmy nose-flute music from the congo on the regular. I DJ one of the illest latin nights in NYC too, so the roots spread FAR.

How does your songwriting process generally work?

DJO: That’s a good one.  Sometimes I will have an idea, make a sketch, then bring it to the other fellas.  Sometimes I will basically do the entire song then bring the idea along with the basic theme of the song to the other guys and have them write on it.  Other times, I just add in various “heys” and “hos”.    This is how it basically works for the 3 of us.  In the end we all collaborate to finish the product but there are many different ways on how the song first starts.
UTK: He’s lying I write everything
Chuck Wild: They’re both lying Babyface writes all our shit. Babyface and Hammer.

What is the history of your musical careers?

DJO: I’ve been a DJ since my college days and I never stopped because that is all I have ever really wanted to do with my life.
UTK: I am by origin a Freestyle Emcee and Spoken Word artist. Began with a guitar at a party and then I started taking it seriously which meant I had to battle so I battled and I won a ton and lost a bit and then decided I didn’t want to just freestyle cause I like writing actual songs and here we are. Don’t try to battle me tho. grrrrrr.
Chuck Wild: I’ve been in bands and DJing since I was 15, and I also came up through the spoken word circuit. I was on the NYC teen slam team and would freestyle at parties all through school. I make beats almost everyday just to stay sane. On top of The Beatards music, I put out solo stuff under the name Captain Planet. That’s more on the funky Afro-Latin tip, check the new Speakin’ Nuyorican EP coming out next week on Bastard Jazz records.

Chuck Wild and UTK

Your music is licensed on MTV, how did that come about?

UTK: I did it.
Chuck Wild: Gary Coleman saw us perform and told Tyra Banks who told Verne Troyer who told Da Brat who told Jermaine Dupri who called me and I put it on.
DJO: Our music is published by BMI…  One of the music supervisors @ Bunim Murray  (The Producers of The Real World) got a hold of our cd and the rest as they say is history…

What else to you all have going on?

DJO: I do what ever pays meaning you might see me djing, or you might see me bartending @ Niagara, or you might see me making deliveries for my fledgling kimchee company, Mama O’s Premium Kimchee. (peep the full page spread in the New York Times w/ me and my moms)
UTK: uhhh I act. I got nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Featured Actor in a play for portraying a (gasp) kid who raps! You can see me in the films Rocket Science, Spinning into Butter and After.Life, and as an improv-comedy-emcee as a member of Freestyle Love Supreme(peep the skits on collegehumor.com) …and I’m in this Mcdonald’s commercial where some dude goes around the city asking what he can get for a dollar…and I’m the employee who sells him a dubba cheeburger…for shame.
Chuck Wild: I have a few records out under my superhero alter-ego Captain Planet and I’m also always doing collabos with other artists and making remixes. Check for hot fire tracks that I’m making with Jasmine Solano and Nola Darling coming soon!

What are you currently listening to that you can’t get enough of?

UTK: Busy Signal and more Busy Signal.
Chuck Wild: Just got the new Kid Cudi and I really can’t hate. Feelin the new Donnis mixtape, too. Also feelin’ some of that Major Lazer craziness.
DJO: Lady Gaga
UTK: Ladysmith Black Mambazo
DJO: Her too.

Where would you like to see yourselves in say five years?

UTK:  Married to Christina Aguilera and Salma Hayek…and Eva Mendes…and Meryl Streep (what can i say talent’s sexy…and so is polygamy)
Chuck Wild: Curled up next to the fireplace with a hot cup of cocoa, a great romance novel and my favorite blanket.
DJO: In the reflection of my sunglasses by the pool next to a couple topless models, sipping a daiquiri while getting my feet rubbed by a swedish nanny with strong hands.

"BIG BAD BEAT" EP available now on iTunes!

Best options for fans to check out your music, get in touch, etc?

www.thebeatardsnyc.com
www.myspace.com/thebeatards
Email us at thebeatards@gmail.com
www.twitter.com/thebeatard
And our BIG BAD BEAT EP is available on iTunes!

What would you like to say to music fans who are checking out The Beatards for the first time?

DJO: Bring your boogie shoes and a towel.
UTK: Free your mind and your pants will follow.
Chuck Wild: Hold me.

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Sept 16, 2009 – Mixtape Riot w Team Facelift & Retro Kidz @ Sutra – NY, NY
Sept 18, 2009 – Get Beatarded! @ Hope Lounge – Brooklyn, NY
Sept 19, 2009 – Stop Wack DJ’s @ K&M – Brooklyn, NY
Sept 19, 2009 – Booty Crisis w Planet Rump @ Public Assembly – Brooklyn, NY
Sept 25, 2009 – Grimey Time @ Beauty Bar Brooklyn – Brooklyn, NY
Oct 15, 2009 – Royal Flush Film Festival @ Hiro Ballroom – NY NY

The Moog

We’re The Moog and we play garage pop!  We’re five, guitars by Adi & Miguel, bass by Csabi , drums by Gergo and Tonyo the singer.

Tell us about Moog:

Right now we are the biggest indie act in Hungary, and now we’re planning to set foot on the other side of the Atlantic. We are a band of five young boys from the one big town in the country, Budapest, with great expectations of the world. We’ll have to live up to the task, ‘cause a year ago we wouldn’t even have dreamt about the things happening to us: an indie label, record, touring, radio, interviews; but we’re enjoying it: we play pop music and it’s fun.

Where did the band name come from?

We got our name thanks the best party we attended in 2003, when we were on holiday in Barcelona, Spain. Three of us were already in a band together then. One day lying on the beach we got invitations to a party that night, the flyer said ‘80s synth pop and disco. Even though this isn’t exactly our taste (well it might be closer to our singer, Tonyo, actually than to me). But anyway we had nothing better to do that night so we went to this party. The bar didn’t look so inviting with the progressive house music booming downstairs, but we discovered a small staircase leading up to a very small room with a dancefloor, all lit in red and Dead Or Alive blasting at full volume. There were some dancers; but what really made the evening for us was the DJ. He wore tight leather boots, tight pants, a hint of a shirt; his blonde hair was short in the front but very long in the back (a mullet!), typical Eurotrash look. And he was holding a small mirror in his right hand, in which he was looking at himself, adjusting his hairdo to the rhythm of the music. And then he started spinning around, with the mirror in hand, then he took a comb, combed his hair, and when he finally was pleased by his looks, he started stroking himself. It was just gorgeous, thrash beauty. So this bar was called Moog.

How long have you been together?

The band has been performing since the beginning of 2004.
Tonyo, Adi and I were highschool classmates from ‘96 to ‘02, but we played in different bands back then. While they were doing Placebo and HIM covers in Adi’s garage and recording it to tapes (unfortunately lost), later moving on to playing Blur and Starsailor, I played in yet another cover band starting off with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin covers, but towards the end of high school the set mostly consisted of Nirvana songs. So eventually after finishing high school, all three of us found our way back to pop music, and by that time the garage rock revival reached Hungary: the songs of The Hives, The White Stripes, BRMC, The Raveonettes and of course The Strokes we had downloaded from the net and burned to crappy sounding cds. We were waiting for exactly that type of music then: in the beginning of our first year at college, 2002, I joined their acoustic duo on drums, so then formed the core of The Moog.
We never got to be a serious band though, until we met Csabi in the summer of 2003; he joined the band later that year, and then things sped up: demo recording at the end of the year, first show in March 2004, and so on.
Band Website and Myspace Profile:

http://www.moog.hu is our official website, designed by our greatest fan and good friend, Xenka.
Our myspace url is http://www.myspace.com/moogband
MySpace – Blessing or Curse?

It is a blessing certainly, since our label, MuSick Records from California found us on MySpace. Also we have an ever growing amount of fans there, keeping in touch with us. I certainly see MySpace as the means by which our music can reach every garage/indie fan; this wouldn’t be possible through the older establishments of the music industry.

Sound best described as:

An engine knock! It is fast, loud, dynamic. At the same time, the pop tunes and sensitivity makes it kind of sweet and fascinating. I would say what we play is mainly pop music, it is pure fun to listen to, and to play as well. Though it’s got punk overtones as well, especially live, and some theatrical glam in our slower songs (Anyone, Xanax Youth) Of course that’s not so serious: it is always entertaining playing with different genres in our songs. We have a disco song (Never Hide), we got Sixties-beat songs (Your Sweet Neck, I Don’t Want You Now), straightforward indie pop (If I Died, Like You), and also bit more NY-style pop (Goodbye).
Influences:

We all would mention The Kinks, The Sonics, Ramones and maybe The Beatles as well as Nirvana, Blur, and newer bands like The Strokes, Mando Diao and perhaps The Hives. As far as individual band members’ taste goes, well, that’s quite a wide variety. If we added that up, it would range from Sebadoh to the Smiths, from Jesus and Mary Chain to Danzig, from Mando Diao to Velvet Undergound, from Blondie to Sonic Youth. So quite a mess. Or an exciting mixture, depending on the way you look at it.

Ultimate Goal as a Band?

To be rock dinosaurs one day.

Best Gig?

In a Hungarian village near Budapest, in a very small basement club, still with a hundred-or-so strong audience. The drinks were cheap, the people friendly and even thankful we came to play. We played all of our songs twice as fast as the original tempo; in the end we had to play some of our songs twice. But skinheads, punks and grungeboys of the village pogoed together to our songs. It was such a kind scene to watch.

Worst Gig?

In another country village, actually a town, when we were appearing with quite a famous act in the country, but no audience appeared. At all. And Adi broke guitar strings one after the other so Csabi and I had to entertain ourselves by playing a ten-minute long drum and bass jingle.

Upcoming Gigs:

We are touring the USA this spring for six weeks. The dates are going to be posted soon on our MySpace profile. There is a European tour coming up too, that’s gonna take place in May. We’ll keep you informed through MySpace, and also our official homepage, http://www.moog.hu

Funniest thing that’s ever happened to you on the road?

Well we haven’t been ‘on the road’ yet, just playing some shows abroad. Actually we are looking forward for things to happen on our first tour in the USA. Anyway… funniest thing? Perhaps our driver’s endless stream of talk and old jokes. That’s why I sleep long drives in the van and don’t notice funny things.

If you could tour with any band, who would you pick?

I would pick my favourite band at the moment, Sonic Youth, just to see them live as many times as I can. Anyway. I think it would be great to tour with The Raveonettes for example. Or The International Noise Conspiracy. Naah. I think our pick would be Motorhead, the nightliners and all.

What sets you apart from other bands of today?

I think it’s the fact that the band members are able to put their personalities and personal tastes through. We aren’t writing songs to be indie-rock or garage-pop songs; of course the basic mentality is given. But still, punk is there coming from Csabi and me, britpop is there in it from Adi, straight rock’n’roll from Miguel, and a more relaxed singing style of Tonyo altogether makes it very The Moog like. Yeah, I think, it’s the many layers the songs have that make us what we are.

Parting words/message to the fans?

We hope to see you all soon, on one of our forthcoming tours! We’d love to meet everyone, play to everyone and have fun!  cheers!