Interviews: The Hellfreaks

In this new occasion we have had the opportunity to interview  the  Punk Rock/Rock band The Hellfreaks, from Hungary. Check out this band and give them a like on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that? 

The only thing, that was clear to me, is that I wanted to have a one-word- band name, because at that time I played drums in a band with a longer bandname and I was just sick of it. But to be honest, all that did not happen yesterday. The band is now 9 years old and I was more or less a kid when we formed it. The only thing, I can clearly remember, I came up with the Hellfreaks idea, when I was working at one of my very first working places, at a rockabilly bar, where I didn’t even earn 2$ / hour, so far from home, that it was almost impossible to get back late at night. So in my eyes the birthplace of the band was quite a hopeless place and compared to that I’m very happy about how far it went! 

2.Why did you want to play this genre? 

All of us were surrounded with rock music in our childhood. Personally I (Sue, singer) grew up with my sister in the same room. In her early teen-years she started to listen to The Offspring and I’m pretty sure, this was the main influence, that’s defined my musical taste till these days. But if you listen to all of our three longplayers, you can hear that our style has changed pretty much: we turned from a billy-influenced band to punkrock and we’re by far not at the end of our road. I personally never wanted to do anything else than rock influenced music. I’m a very honest person and that’s the genre where I can stay honest and don’t have to act like something, that I’m not. 

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed? 

We’ve had many-many changes in the line-up since the foundation of the band in 2009. By now, I’m the only founding member and the current line-up formed 1,5 years ago. Our bassplayer Gabi and guitarist Tom had already known each other before from other bands, but the music of The Hellfreaks brought these 4 people, that we are, together. 

4. Each band member favourite band? 

Gabi (bass): Red Hot Chilli Peppers 

Tom (guitar): Guns and Roses 

Béla (drums): Led Zeppelin 

Sue (singer): Distillers 

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs? 

The best part of being a musician is the songwriting for us. There is nothing or noone who we need to make us sit down and write. It’s way more a soul healing process that we need for ourselves. It’s the time when you’re able to close out every thought, that poisons your grey days, it’s the time when you have the chance to express yourself the way like no other way you’re able to, it’s the time where you can hate and love yourself at the same time - but the feeling, when you are done and satisfied with your own writing, is better than anything else. Of course there are artists that inspire us on the way of our songwriting, but in the end, it’s more or less a natural process for us, spiced with a huge amount of work, but such work that we love to do! 

6. Where was your last gig? 

We played at Punkáci Detom - a children charity festival in Slovakia. 

7. Where would you like to act? 

Uh, there are too many places to mention … we already made it to the US, which is a huge thing for a band from Hungary. Would be awesome to make it back! But another little dream would be Japan. 

8. Whom would you like to feature with? 

The same as your question before - there are just too many to mention! But for example Zebrahead would be an awesome thing! 

9. Whom not? 

Any racist band, artist.  

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that? 

The rest of the guys had so many bands before that it’s more than natural to go on stage for them. I’ve been on stage with my music for a bit more than 10 years, but even before that I was touring my a**- off as an acrodunk-artist, where we had shows in front of many more people than we had ever had with our band. But one thought I always have before going on stage and which always keeps me calm is: it doesn’t matter what happens, with a good portion of humor you can handle everything on stage!  

11. What bands have inspired you the most? 

I can only speak for myself: I’m very much into female fronted rock bands. Right now I listen to a lot of Marmozets, The Pretty Reckless or Dead Sara. The singers of these bands are just so fantastic! There is so much I’m trying - or would love - to learn from them.  

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for? 

As a girl, you can imagine what kind of emails from time to time I get… I’ve seen bodyparts of some male fans that I definitely never asked for and I’m not talking about their elbows! A weird, but very cool story was a guy at a german punk festival. He came over to me after our show and asked me to kiss a piece of paper that he had with himself - so I gave him the lipstick-smack. Weeks later, he sent me an email with a photo of his hairy ass and a fresh tattoo on it: it was my lipstick print! I loved it! 

13. What do you think of your fans? 

We’re very very grateful for their support, we know, that we’d be nothing without them. 

14. What do you think of our site? 

The world needs more stuff like this! 

15. Something to add? 

Check out our latest video BURN THE HORIZON! Mainly recorded in California, partly recorded in Hungary. The video is produced by Steven Shea and made it the 6th highest new music video worldwide on IMVDb ranking in the release week. And if you like it, keep yourselves updated on our Facebook page. The next video is right around the corner and you will definitely piss your pants when you see it!