 Let there be light. Let there be sound. And let there be monsters! Let them cast a spell on you. Let them eat you alive. And let them capture your hearts! No need to run. No need to hide. Just give in…
Q: Tell me something about the birth of The Monsters…how did you get together?
Beat-Man: We started out as friends and colleagues back in 1984, going to concerts together seeing bands like: the Cramps Gun Club or Alien Sex Fiends. And that´s how we got to that sort of music,too. Back then, I already played in a New Wave band called Anti Statek, the songs were about dead people, shadows and stuff like that. In 1986, we rehearsed for the first time and because no one wanted to sing, I did. Back then, I was such shit on guitar that it was left unplugged most of the time. We had several line-up changes until Janosh (bass) joined in a year later. He was even worse than me! We always had to stop in the middle of a song and Yves, our first guitarist, had to take his hand to slip it from chord to chord. However, he learned quite fast and in 1988 we recorded our first single for Record Junkie called “Nightmares”.
Q: How did you evolve throughout the years?
Beat-Man: Well, technically, we didn´t improve as much as one could think would happen after 16 years…we´re still no Jazz musicians and, actually, we´re still stuck on the same three chords. But the music changed simultaneously with our lives. As you grow old, the things around you get more and more complicated and even harder and life can grow colder. It gets hard to take things easily when you´re not 18 anymore. Situations change and we had the task to see it all relatively down-to-earth and take the core out of complicated things to bring them on stage. It was and still is important to me to make a song as simple as possible but with that certain catchy tune you won´t forget! The lyrics, too, have really lost their positive sides throughout the years. There´s not one positive sylablle in it…all is pretty negative at the moment. But it´s all to be seen with a good portion of irony and black humor…like world affairs these days!!!
Q: How do you write songs and what are the lyrics about?
Beat-Man: I create them alone when I´m at home. Actually, there are no lyrics. I think the music is the most important thing about music. Otherwise, I´d write a book!!!
Q: Did the years weld you together?
Beat-Man: We´ve been good friends from the start, but when you´re playing together in a band, then it surely welds you together. It´s something like marriage. At first, you get on each other´s nerves, argue about peanuts and you know when someone is in a bad mood. But we´ve never had a big fight in all these years; we really get along with each other. We´re four musicians plus Pumi, our technician, and we´re the closest friends. If someone is in trouble we back him up and the other way around. It´s a really good basis for playing together in a band and really works out well.
Q: How hard is it to weather through this life of recording and playing shows? I know that you´ve got a family…is it hard to prioritize?
Beat-Man: At the moment it´s quite hard for me personally. I´m going through rough times at the moment. But there´s ups where there are downs, and the deeper you fall, the higher you rise!!! Except for this, it´s not so strenous because I´m a work-a-holic and a tough guy. But more important for this job is acceptance from the people surrounding you. My son Chet is most important in my life…the rest follows at quite some distance!
Q: When did you get the idea of creating you´re own label?
Beat-Man: When we started out, no label was interested in us, and so we did it ourselves. After that the labels we´re interested again!!! It´s a funny game. Labels never take risks. I made my label up in a different way and take up quite a risk and sign bands that other labels think are too weird to prevail on the music market. Who, I ask you, would have released a burial chapel, a Cajun band or an Elvis impersonator? All cool stuff in my opinion. You surely won´t end up being a millionaire, but at least you can change the dull music business where it´s all bout copying one another, and that´s what I care about. I´m different and so are my bands. Being different and unadapted is what it should be about.
Q: Tell me something about your numerous side-projects!
Beat-Man: In 1980 I started recording myself and called this one-man band “Taeb Zerfall”. Then, we started “The Monsters” and in 1992 or so I started a one-man band as “Lightning Beat-Man”, recorded an LP and went on tour by myself. However, it was too strenious because that show was a wrestling show as well. In 1998,finally, I broke something in my back and I lost my voice for a year – so I quit! At that time my whole private life changed rapidly and at the millenium change something struck me and told me to preach Rock´n´Roll and Blues Trash. And that´s what I did then and still do as “Reverend Beat-Man”. The recent project is “Die Zorros”. Some theater director asked me if I would like to work with Olif M. Guz and Patrik Abt for some primitive peasant stage play about a guy that wants to kill himself and everyone making a big party about it. Well, that worked out so well that we thought we could just keep on making music together! We´re releasing our first album on December, 31st this year. But I have to say something beforehand: when we started out, we agreed that everyone should play the instrument he can master the least. So, I´m playing drums and it is drastically desolate what we´re trying to do there…Striptease and Red Light District music from the 60s and 70s!
Q: How did you get to use a “clone drum set” – the first one ever!
Beat-Man: Di Putto wasn´t able to accompany us at all tours because he´s the only one with a regular job and so we asked Swan Lee to come along for one tour and it worked out great. When we rehearse we have two drummers anyway and as each one has his own style, we thought it´d be a good idea to use two drums because it pushes the music a bit more. That´s what we did then but I thought the picture was too boring with two drum sets and the tour bus was too small anyway. So, we started to use only one kick drum with each one hitting on one side. You need a special technique to do that because you have to consider the re-hit. But all worked out well and when both drummers are available we´re using the cloen drum set on tour. It´s the world´s first one, yeah! We put thousands of francs into the development to get to a high level of sound.
Q: What bands do you like to play with and which one´s would you love to play with?
Beat-Man: We loved the show with “El Guapo Stuntteam”. They are great guys and we fit together pretty good, although the music is completely different. We usually always have good support bands we play with and they give their best on stage. And that´s good!!! At the moment I can´t think of another band I´d like to play with.
Q: Any future plans?
Beat-Man: Absolutely none…maybe staying alive and being here tomorrow!
Q: Is there a life after the band?
Beat-Man: The band will always be there, otherwise we wouldn´t have released anything! We´re already part of rock history…although people try best to ignore us! But that doesn´t matter…doing things is important.
Q: Is there a worldly wisdom you´d like to or could mediate to the fans?
Beat-Man: Better not.I´m in a relatively negative stage of my life and I don´t think I could give any good advice right now…
Q: Any funny tour stories?
Beat-Man: There are hundreds of them!!! But one is quite funny, I think. When I put new strings on my guitar I always roll them up at the top of my guitar´s neck so I don´t have to cut them. So, we were playing somewhere and rockin´ like hell, and I started waving my guitar about the crowd when one guy put his fingers into this coil and got stuck because they tightened up!!! So we had to continue with that guy sticking to my guitar…and when I pushed the song a little more, he nearly got his finger cut off!!!! Another story was, when I was on tour with Lightning Beat-Man somewhere in Holland. Some guy in the crowd wore a wrestling mask and he and his girlfriend were completely stoned from some psychedelic drugs. In the middle of one song, I went into the crowd and started fighting with him…some sort of shww fight, you know! He went for it, too and got the joke – but his girl didn´t! She took it serious because she was so much on her trip and attacked me and started punching and kicking me. Anyway, she broke my nose which was sort of hanging around under my wrestling mask then, and I crwaled back on stage and told the bass player(Robert Butler) that I needed to go to hospital. However, all he said was: “Lightning Beat-Man just broke his nose…one, two, three, four!!!” And on with the show…it was gorgeous!
Further Links:
 Voodoo Rhythm
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