JOYSTIX Novembre 2006 US

HR80: Hi Blondie! Thanx for answering our questions. First of all, can you introduce your band THE JOYSTIX, where you're from and who are in it?
Blondie: We're a three piece power trio from Hungary. Our line-up is Blondie-Vox/Guitar, Brownstone-Bass, Jimm-Drums.
We formed in 2005 august and we had our first gig in 2005 September.

HR80: Your full-length album is out now, can you tell us about it?
Blondie: There are 12 simple to the point catchy punk rocknroll songs on the record, there are raw riffs but a slight glam touch on the melodies. We recorded it in the beginning of 2006. I built a small studio in my home and we worked there. We had no pressure and we had the time to finalize the songs and make demos etc. about ideas.
I had a clear vision how the band should sound like but I was not sure that I can do it by myself without a producer. Actually we think it's a good record, of course i see what could be done better or differently but I hope if someone likes this sleazy punk/rnr style will find something interesting in us.

HR80: 'Beauty-Fool' sounds like a hit! Do you get any airplay on radios in Hungary?
Blondie: Yeah I have the opinion that a song should be memorable of this or that after the first few listening. It can be a riff, a melody or the chorus. I love catchy choruses and a few songs on the record (Beauty-fool for example) are really chorus oriented.
Airplay in Hungary??? ... No! You know that this style is absolutely not popular especially in Hungary plus we have English lyrics. In Hungary generally music wise we go with the flow. The radios only playing that absolutely worthless shit pop music. We have the chance to get in only to underground radios but this is listened only by a few people. People here are just starting to get familiar with bands like backyard babies, or hellacopters...we're in 10 years delay in if we talk about sleaze or punk/rnr music.

HR80: Where do you get the inspiration for the lyrics? I'm thinking of course of 'What's Wrong With The Girls Today'? Personal experience?
Blondie: Well all of the lyrics are based on my personal experiences. The inspirations are mostly the girls. 'Something wrong with the girls today' is also a personal experience. You know I've had several love affairs as everyone and most of cases I experienced really weird things bout girls! Some things which are simply crazy!! The fights and those things when you try to give them something and its never enough (money, care, attention etc.) and they drive you completely nuts chit-chatting with their idiot girlfriends, yelling, crying crocodile tears about how rude you are while they fuck different guys ahhhh .. I think every guy knows what I'm talking about!

HR80: You did a cover of 'Spider', why did you decide to record this particular song and to put it on the album?
Blondie: As you know we had a project with Stuffy - The suckerstarz. Since then we're good friends and we always check what's each other doing musically. When I heard first time the HSMF song “Spider” I thought It should be a hit. I really felt in the song something. So when we did the joystix record I just thought lets put this song on ! I asked Stuffy about it and he liked the idea . It fits absolutely to the record I think, and the HSMF guys like our version too! Maybe we could help that some Hungarian guys give some attention to HSMF as they deserve it and we are really grateful to them that we can have a cool song on the record!!!

HR80: We can feel some influence of the SONICDOLLZ on few songs ('I Got Better Things To Do'), what happened with that band?
Blondie: Yes because I wrote all songs in Sonicdollz either. We started as a glampunk band we released better be dead EP by ourselves and we started to play gigs but people in Hungary didn’t know what to do with that type of music. It was too hard and punky for the Hard rock lovers, too soft for the punks so we had no audience. To get the whole picture you have to know that im a real rocknroll head I love everything what's rocknroll and for me it all began in the 50's. So I started to dig deep to the roots and started to listen more and more rockabilly and psychobilly music. It was a really exciting scene for me with all the accessories. The hair, the outlook, the style, the music, the cars. So we shifted our direction image and music wise more and more to rockabilly. We changed the bass to a double bass and we played a lot of rockabilly covers and we had lotsa gigs in Hungary. After 2 years of continous playing , recording songs etc. we got really tired because we couldn'’t succeed to reach that breakthrough success. We traveled a lot, and of course beside that we had our private jobs as well and we felt we did what we could and have no chance to go any further. We felt we burnt out. So we decided to stop.

Our bassplayer Franky stopped doing music, and I didn't exactly know what to do either. I had 2-3 months pause and during this time I was just thinking what to do. One day I put in a Danko jones cd and I thought fuck man I have to make music!!! I need a band like that!!! That's what I really wanna do!!! I called Jimm and Brownstone who I've known since a long time from different bands and they said yes immediately . I thought a name change is a must cause the new band I imagined had nothing to do with rockabilly and In Hungary sonicdollz was a known name for rockabilly lovers. So here we are!

HR80: There's no ballad or mid-tempo on this album, was it a deliberate choice?
Blondie: It's just happened naturally this way. I wanted to do a mid tempo song but it's always became uptempo when I finished the writing ! Hahaha. For the second record we already started to write the songs and its gonna be more diverse. I don't feel that we will have to include any ballad im really sick of the rock ballads, like aerosmith, bon jovi etc. but we have new ideas which are really dark mid-tempo ones. Some kinda Danzig, or 94 Motley flavor .

HR80: Do you listen to some current sleaze bands? What do you think of the Scandinavian scene for example?
Blondie: Yes I try to have wide range of music all the time. My big favorite from the last few year is Danko Jones. I love that band. But there are lots of good new bands in this style I listen, Kory Clarke's new band Dirty Rig, Robin Black, Captain Poons new band The bloodlights, Crystal Pistol, Towers of London etc. About the Scandinavian scene , of course I love those bands mostly the ones who formed this scene. They were a big influence on me The Hellacopters, Backyard Babies, Gluecifer, The Hives. Great bands, great scene!!

HR80: Can you tell us about your influences, who are the bands you grew up with?
Blondie: The influences are Motley Crue, Faster Pussycat, Vain, Iggy pop , Stooges, New york dolls, T-rex, as I mentioned the Scandinavian scene, Elvis, Warrior Soul, Ramones, Johnny Thunders, Monster magnet and the list goes on and on!.

HR80: Any plans of touring?
Blondie: Of course!! We are a live band. We love to be on stage ! We are looking for the possibilities to get everywhere it's possible. We hope that some of our plans can be realized in 2007!

HR80: Any chance of seeing you in France?
Blondie: Yes. It seems we will go and play there around next year April. At the moment its just a plan but we work on it together with Shotgun generation to get some gigs in France. Would be cool, we cant wait to do that!!!

HR80: Is it difficult to be a sleaze band in Hungary, in terms of finding a record deal, getting gigs?
Blondie: I think its difficult to be a sleaze band anywhere in the world. Hungary is the same. All the trendy styles are going well here for a few years and they disappear as usual in every country. To tell you the truth I don't really care about that whole buzz. I just want to play my music and we have the luck the we have a few fans who show up when we play so we can find places where we are able to play.
As i mentioned earlier most of the people who likes sleaze music here cannot go on with the time. They still listen their 89 Motley, Cinderella etc. record and that's it. They think that's sleaze or glam but I don't want to be part of this. Its kinda pathetic ... its 2006 now!!! You must have the roots but lets forget those hairbands from the eighties and tell everyone that ... huhh that was the time.. bullshit!!
Most of the bands at that time were so boring and shitty I'm not able to enjoy a single song from them..
To answer to your other question : to find a record deal its near impossible!!

HR80: Can you tell us about your side-projects?
Blondie: Hmm ..no side projects at the moment. All the 3 of us in concentrating to Joystix !

HR80: Is there any chance that the SUCKERSTARS get together again?
Blondie: Yes! We always talk about it and I'm sure we gonna record something in the near future!!! Real noisy garage stuff!!! We all wanna do that but we have to find some time when all the 3 of us located in the same country at the same time. Hahaha

HR80: thanx a lot!
Blondie: Thank you very much for the interview!!! I really like your mag and thank you very much for the support you showed for Joystix!! Hope to see ya in France soon!!!