Consisting out of members of (in)active bands such as The Shining, Wanderlust, Heros & Zeros, The Works and more, Savage Beat is a brand new outfit out of the capital of The Netherlands; Amsterdam. Their upcoming debut 12” on The Evil Has Landed Records, entitled “Trench Warfare”, sounds fuckin’ amazing, so I crawled out of my ‘interview-retirement’ and asked bassist Rogier a few questions. Enjoy and make sure to check these guys out (on the left)!

 

Hi Rogier, thanks for taking the time to do this interview! How’s everything going at the moment?

Hey man! I’m great! End of the holidays but with a lot of great stuff coming up! Thanks for the interview!

 

First things first, the interview is about your new band Savage Beat, but people might know you from other outfits such as The Shining and The Works. What about the other members? Can you introduce them and give our readers a little info about their musical background?

Sure thing! Savage beat consists of me, Paul Helmus & Lionn van der Horst who were both in Wanderlust, Marko Petrovic who was in The Works with me and Heros n Zeros and some other bands before that. Last but not least we have Steven van der Werff who is also in the Lords of Altamont en who was/is in a ton of other bands such as Buiten Gebruik, The Kickers and more.

 

Musically Savage Beat is quite different from your other work, where did the desire come from to form this band and record this type of music? What inspired you guys?

Well I had the idea for a band like this for years and finally we managed to get it going. The idea was to do a punk/oi band inspired by the likes of Blitz, Cock Sparrer, 4 Skins, Bruisers, Anti-Heroes, Templars and newer bands like Criminal Damage, No Hope For The Kids and stuff like that. Essentially it had to be a punk band with a lot of rock and roll going on. Obviously it also draws a lot of influence from a lot of other punk and Oi bands we like.

 

Your musical background versus the current sound of Savage Beat reminds me of Criminal Damage and newer bands such as Vanity and Tyrant. What do you think of those bands and can you relate to this assumption?

You mean hardcore guys playing Oi? Yeah I guess that’s true to some extent although most of us always have been into a wide variety of bands including the main influences for Savage Beat. The bands you mentioned are pretty good though! So I consider it a big compliment if you put us next to them!

 

You just dropped your upcoming debut 12” “Trench Warfare” on Bandcamp. I received a sneakpeek from you before, but listening to these six tracks over and over again I can only conclude they sound pretty fuckin’ good! I know it’s a bit early to tell, but how is the response you have received so far?

Well thanks for you kind words on the songs. The reactions have been pretty good so far. We’ve been receiving e-mails about the releasedate, pressinginfo, merchandise and all that. It’s cool to hear from people who like the songs and react enthusiastically to our stuff. Considering the fact we introduced this band on the internet a few days ago I would say the reactions haven been good!

 

For those who haven’t checked it out just yet, could you describe in your own words what people can expect from the record, both musically and lyrically?

Well they can expect 6 songs with lyrics about football, war, drinking and others important issues haha. Throw in some rocking solos, big choruses, nihilism and a love for punk, oi, rock and roll and a small dose of  early hardcore and you get Savage Beat.

 

The artwork by Frans Mettes is pretty sick as well. Is there a certain (background) story that goes along with the artwork?

After a particularly destructive birthday party he started drawing these after not drawing for I don’t know how many years. He had the songs and lyrics and I guess trench warfare gave enough inspiration for some skulls, knives and other misery. That and a hangover. We’re very happy with it. Hopefully we’ll be able to use it for a shirt and other stuuf in the future.

 

The 12” will be released by the French label The Evil Has Landed Records. Is this a new label? I can’t say I haven’t heard of it?

Yeah they are totally new as a label. We got in touch by coincidence and ended up being their first release. Together with our 12” they will release two more French hardcore bands and by the start of next year a Live LP by the Cockney Rejects as well. JM and Oliver who run the label have been active with labels since the 80ies and have released tons of records. So in that regard they’re not that new. JM was blown away by our songs when I send him a few and we started to talk about a record from there. Needless to say we were stoked on the idea of having our stuff released on record!

 

The French know how to properly worhship Blitz as well with bands like Rixe, Traitre and Syndrom 81. Any thoughts on those bands, or newer Oi! and streetpunk bands in general? What are your favorites?

I like all of them. Rixe is good (just saw them in NYC with my fiancée) and I like Syndrome 81 as well. As for other new bands…Bishops Green is really good. I got a 12” of a band called Concrete Elite in Austin last month. That rocks. Then there’s also bands like Crown Court, No Time and many others that I like a lot. At the moment there are some really good new OI/Punk bands. Oh yeah the Janitors from France rule too!

 

Do you have any plans in the pipeline to perform live and tour with Savage Beat?

Yeah the plan is to do some shows here and there. We gotta start planning some stuff. Right now we wanna do a release show in Amsterdam for the 12 inch and hopefully do some more shows.

 

Final question! Would you consider Savage Beat a full band, or a project?

I guess we’re somewhere in between right now. The plan is to write more songs and do some gigs. We’ll see where we’ll take it from there!

 

Alright, that’s it! Thanks again for your time. If there is anything else you’d like to get off your chest and I didn’t ask about it... feel free to add it!

Thanks a lot mano! We appreciate the interview! Our 12” will be out the 11th of November if all goes well! So be on the lookout for that!! We can’t wait for more reactions, reviews, show and so on! Cheers!