Headlining last year’s Creamfields, The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 surprised many people with the immense following of fans wherever they played across the country and Rifo begins our chat with his theory on why they’ve enjoyed such a cult following here.
“I don’t know but it seems that Australia has that kind of vibe to absorb new things and it’s a great place with such special people who really love music and love dancing music. It’s a passionate country Australia and that’s maybe the reason why you guys are so great with the Bloody Beetroots sound, but not only the Bloody Beetroots but also the fresh stuff from Europe and America goes down really well in Australia too.”
Rarely seen without his Venom mask on and generally shying away from all media (rarely giving interviews) Rifo still wants to get a message out to the people but he wants this to be done only through The Bloody Beetroots. All three members of Death Crew 77 wear the same masks on stage, becoming an important symbol for the Bloody Beetroots alter ego but what kind of revolution would bring about the removal of the masks? Rifo has contemplated this momentous event and what it would represent but his priorities have changed, he’s going to church.
“I’m working on these changes, the new Bloody Beetroots isn’t all going to be about music, it’s going to be about a social cultural movement through the church of noise. It’s going to be all about music, art, video and comic so my way of communication is going to be different.”
With The Bloody Beetroots sound blurring the lines between punk and electro they still manage to fit into the dance festivals and bring an army of supporters with them making for an intriguing mix of fans that quite often wouldn’t be found at a festival. Rifo is encouraged by being able to touch more than just one section of music lovers.
“I want to be able to play in any part of the world and the idea with the church of noise and Death Crew 77 is to bring people together, so I don’t complain when I have to play at dance festivals, I can modify my master change to be more hooky for the dance people and for all people cause I want them all together. I love playing, I just love playing for the people.
Recording in a studio environment is obviously far more structured and sterile than a live performance which the Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 have built an impressive reputation with; so what does Rifo believe the secret ingredients are in capturing and holding a crowd?
“My idea when I introduced the Death Crew was to get people dancing and even though we’re playing instruments, people like to dance and that’s why Death Crew 77 became so huge and so popular in less than one year cause it was the first band in the world to make that sound, that super edgy, punchy sound with the light instruments but it was a long process, I took about 3 months to set up that particular sound for the people, just for the people.”
At Summadayze three years ago when walking into the event Steve Aoki was absolutely tearing it up with this monster track with the catchy ‘one,two whoop whoop’ signalling another drop into mayhem on the dance floor – it was almost 12 months later when the mystery track was revealed, none other than ‘Warp 1.9’ and Rifo shares an unbelievable fact about its production.
“I composed Warp in five minutes. I woke up angry, I went to my studio and I found this sound and it was just a feeling you know, the priority of my life is to express myself so I have to tell you stories and if you want to tell stories, tell them great. When I have to tell stories I have to run, so when I’m with friends and then I have an idea I have to run to my studio and compose music. Maybe it’s why people jumped so fucking hard on ‘Warp’ cause it was a super hard feeling when I composed it and it took me 5 minutes so for 5 minutes they go fucking crazy!”
The Bloody Beetroots aren’t unique in wearing a mask, the most famous being Deadmau5 and his giant mouse ears which has earned him copious amounts of crap for his extravagant headpiece but if there were any haters out there, The Bloody Beetroots aren’t feeling the neagativity as Rifo relates.
“Nah, I don’t feel any negativity – there’s always people that hate you and people that love you. If you become popular you have to accept the fact that a lot of people are going to love you and a lot of people are going to hate you and this is the price you pay. It’s just like life, you cannot be the best for everybody, even if you’re just walking around and you’ve got a face that people don’t like you just have to accept that that’s your life, so I don’t feel any negativity in my life. I’m really relaxed with everybody!”
With the interview rolling towards its conclusion Rifo left with a parting message for the people;
“Check out the church of noise project cause it really is for the people even if they don’t care about politics or something like that but the church of noise is a box for you to set your soul free and be happy with this freedom.”
CATCH THE BLOODY BEETROOTS @ STEREOSONIC
SYD NOVEMBER 27th @ SHOWGROUNDS
PER NOVEMBER 28th @ CLAREMONT SHOWGROUNDS
MEL DECEMBER 3rd @ SHOWGROUNDS
ADL DECEMBER 3rd @ BONYTHON PARK
BNE DECEMBER 4th @ RNA SHOWGROUNDS
Read more of Glen's work through Teknoscape.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|