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Welcome to Our Kind Guests!
2012-10-05 16:27:05

As you might experience with your eyes we hereby proudly announce that our new – a bit gap-toothed for now - website started to work. We bet you got several generally raised immediate questions about this formation so we offer the following interview of Zenekolonia in order to find the answers to these annoying doubts.

Forming the audience

"Yellow Spots, established in 2003, have acquired a cult position and a dedicated
audience rarely to be found in Hungary with their music going beyond their own
definition of “gutting rock’n’roll”, incorporating swing, jazz, rockabilly, psychobilly
and punk elements and with their legendary and spectacular stage shows. The band
broke up earlier this year; the name is kept by drummer/lyric writer Schleki with new
musicians, while the others have formed a new band called Gutting Revue. György
Ambrózy (‘Aberrant’) has been asked about the causes of the change, the current
circumstances of the music industry, and the plans of Gutting Revue.


Not such a long time ago I would have introduced you as the lead singer of Yellow Spots,
but the world has changed a lot within a few months; the band’s broken up, you’ve
formed a new one called Gutting Revue with the old members, while Yellow Spots are
looking for a new singer. What has led you to this point?


The founder of Yellow Spots was Schleki, who functioned as a drummer, lyric writer and as
the leader of the band as well. We got in confrontations concerning several things, and in a
few months the situation got to a point where we asked him to give up his title as a leader, and
let’s take a new basis for the band. But he insisted on being the boss, so we decided to start it
again with a new drummer, with another name and refreshed.

So Gutting Revue holds the legacy of Yellow Spots, then?

More or less. Since Schleki identifies the band with himself, he’s recruited new members, that
is, there’s a new band going under the name of Yellow Spots, with all brand new members but
the drummer. I’ve posted in a forum that Schleki keeps the name, I keep the band – it was a
good deal (laughing). But all jokes aside: for us, Yellow Spots broke up in August.

The band had existed since 2003, however, a regular album never has been published,
the various demos and EPs were self-published. Was it an incident that breaking up
happened during the preparations of the first such publication called AgylebenyFlört
(Flirt of Brain Lobes)?


We played together for nearly nine years, but never made a studio record I could describe
like ‘yeah, that sounds right, that’s a real album’. And it encumbered us in many ways.
AgylebenyFlört would have been launched by a music publisher, and it practically was
finished under professional conditions, however, after the conflicts we mentioned before, the
bulk of the band didn’t assented to play on the record, so those tracks had to be replayed. We
reached at a point in the studio when the problems came to light, we started discussing them,
besides, we had a tour abroad, so we were confined to each other’s company for a long time.
We didn’t want it to happen, but we couldn’t come to an agreement; we felt we wouldn’t be
able to carry on like this; the band had grown out of Schleki’s conceptions and attitudes. We
wanted quality instead of quantity. We don’t mind it any more, of course. As far as I know,
the album will be launched, the songs – written by our guitarist, Mark – will be played by
other musicians.

After the events the press reported on the change. Has it caused any confusion among
your fans that suddenly they should pay attention to two bands, moreover, most of the
former members of Yellow Spots play under a different name?


But yes, I’ve even heard gossips like I’ve been kicked out of the band because I drink too
much (laughing). People don’t understand yet what’s happened, but it’s gonna clear up. When
we start the concerts with the new band in October they’ll see that the musicians on stage are
the same; only the show is renewed a little, and a new drummer will be at the drums.

You’ve played abroad several times, and Gutting Revue also is scheduled for some dates
abroad. Does this music work anywhere in the world, even with Hungarian lyrics?


Why, it even has a better reception abroad. For the lyrics being Hungarian, the audience
receives our productions much better in the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic.
There’s a much more experienced and receptive underground atmosphere there. We are
planning to make an English version of some of the tracks from our first published records –
it’s important because of foreign labels.

The main change occurs in our lyrics. In Yellow Spots, they were written by Schleki and me;
and since childish word puns rather belong to him, while I represent a more poetic line with
social criticism, it’s obvious that the latter will be emphasised now, but the absurd, bizarre
humour remains in focus, only in a slightly more intellectual way. We agreed with Schleki
that we wouldn’t use each other’s lyrics. The music will keep some reminiscences.

It’s increasingly common these days that bands work on a do-it yourself basis, avoiding
traditional ways; they record at home, organize their own tours, they don’t need the
background that was inevitable, let’s say, ten years ago. Yellow Spots’ records were self-
published, too; do you think it could be a way for Gutting Revue as well?


If it comes to the pinch, you’ll adapt to the circumstances. If no one supports and helps
these bands they’ll try to exist on a do-it-yourself basis, or they stop. Many great bands stop
because they get tired of playing for twenty people in the basement for years, and similarly,
a lot of scummy bands get to the top just because they have some background, some support.
We are eight in the band, and our music is based on swing that doesn’t sound good in any
conditions; half of us are professionals, and we need to hire a bus in order to get somewhere,
and so on. That is, it’s not as simple for us as for a four-piece band.

Yellow Spots shows were famously spectacular, the traditions of the classic Berlin
cabaret were amalgamated with glam rock elements. Will Gutting Revue carry on with
the legacy of the band in appearance as well?


I found appearance, communication with the audience and the lyrics as important as the
music; concerts shouldn’t be simple concerts but performances. This is a curiosity here; we’ll
stick to it anyway, but in new ways.

Was the stage show your idea originally?

Yes, and also our first bassist Napocska’s, but it mainly developed from improvisations,
it was a long process till it became the trademark of the band. The band was founded by
Schleki, he set the musicians up, and the members came from different backgrounds.
For example, our guitarist graduated from a jazz school, while I came from a punk band.
Ostensibly incongruous things came together on stage.

So as a teenager, were you inspired by punk?

Yes, especially the punk and new wave of the eighties in Hungary: CPG, Qss, Nagy Feró’s
early Career, Bizottság, Neurotic, etc…

There’s an interview on your website in which you say that you don’t want to make
music for mediocre people. What do you mean by that?


Where’s that line? (laughing) I might have said it, but I can’t remember. It’s true that I want
to form the audience, not to suit them. If you look over the most significant performers of
rock history, none of them started their career like ‘let’s play something like this one or that
one’, but played what came out of them, and it influenced others. Today, boundaries have
faded between underground and mainstream, the underground also has a mainstream line, the
world of marketable copycats.

So you say that touring is the only way to get fans?

No, it’s publishing records. Because let’s see how you get to know a band: not by watching
them play live and saying they are fucking well, but by getting the records, listening to them,
knowing their lyrics.

If we sit down to talk here in a year, what would you like to say about the realised plans?

That we have a studio material we’re proud of. And we play concerts – not in a pub in the
middle of nowhere, in front of five people (laughing) – but the kind we start like ‘we’ll kick
ass’."

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