East London's Death Ray Trebuchay bring many ingredients to the mix. They hit you in the head when they summersault between Balkan Brass Jazzy Punk blasts and samba surf ska melees. It's all punked up into a big band assault even though there are only six members in the band. They blitzed the Nazdrove crowd this summer with a deranged set of punked out brass, even more so when they pulled out a Kalashnikov cover!!! Scary face masks abounded to only add to their frenetic live performance. Certainly a band that you can't resist dancing to.
Could you tell us a little about the band's sound? There's quite a few things going on there. Tell us what went into that mix and which influences came to dominate?
I guess that the Balkan brass sound is the biggest influence, but it’s mixed up with quite a lot of other stuff... especially hardcore punk and experimental music.
Tell us about the band members, your musical roots and how you came together?
I always loved the sound of Balkan brass, but the idea for the band came after traveling to the Guca trumpet festival in Serbia. I don’t know if you have heard of it but it’s totally amazing, there’s about 150,000 people there and all the music is Balkan brass. They all go apeshit! I came back and decided to put together a band, then spent 6 months going to gigs and asking round to find the right people. I came from a classical background but most of the other dudes are hardcore jazz players.
You've played mostly in London. Tell us a bit about what's going on there. What club nights have you played and are pretty happening at the moment?
The best nights we have played have been at Shunt, you should check out shunt.co.uk is being closed soon, so go down when you can! The entrance to the club is an anonymous looking door in London Bridge Train station. You step through and into another world…
You've also played a few festivals. Which have been your faves?
Secret Garden was amazing, they put so much detail into what they do. Glastonbury of course, and the Glade was cool as well. Bestival was good apart from the fact that the Sugarhill Gang’s tour bus crashed into our van.
Without wanting to pigeonhole things, would you say there a sorta Balkany punky ska style diy scene forming or would you say things are a lot more fluid or looser than that?
Sort of, in a way I think it is just this country catching up with what has been going on in the continent for years. I don’t know if I would put us with that scene though, there are a lot of differences. All the music is written out and then memorised for one thing.
Is there something behind the music? A message and ethos? What are you trying to say as well as play?
Enjoy yourself.
I heard something about a new record. Do you want to tell us something about that? Title?Label? Songs? Artwork?
We have got our first single coming out on Feb. the 2nd, produced by Seb Rochford from Polar Bear. The man’s some sort of genius. The tracks are Number 6 and I’m Gonna Kick You In the Ass.
Any tours or gigs to support the release of that? And what festivals are you hoping to hit next year?
We are doing some gigs with Acoustic Ladyland that may form into a mini-tour, check out the myspace for details, it’s myspace.com/deathrayband. We will probably do a few less festivals this year, we did about 20 festival gigs last summer and at the end I was about ready to eat my own head if I saw another pieminister. I think Secret Garden and Glastonbury are going to be for certain though.
Cheers Dudes,
Llywelyn
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