New Groove Magazine Presents: The Hellfreaks

Genre: Metal

  1. How did you come up with the band Name?
    The band name isn’t young. I was more or less a kid when I formed the band. The only thing I can clearly remember is that I came up with the idea for the name when I was working at one of my very first jobs – a rockabilly bar where I didn’t even earn $2 an hour and so far from home that it was almost impossible to get back late at night. The birthplace of the band was quite a hopeless one, so compared to then, we’re very happy with how far it’s come!
  2. Tell us about Where you com from and how that reflects in your music?
    We all live in Budapest, the capital of Hungary but some of our band-mates come from different corners of the country. I don’t really think that our roots are reflected in our music but I do think that our work mentality is: we have had to sacrifice a lot to get where we are.
    As we travel a lot, we’ve seen a lot. We know that the following sentence might not be understandable for our Western European neighbors but Eastern Europeans will know exactly what we mean: Life is so much harder over here. Just because you have a job doesn’t mean that it’s enough to provide daily food. Just because you have a diploma, it doesn’t mean that you will have a job. If you fall – you will fall and there is no help or support from the state side. We’re surrounded by corruption and lies, fairness is missing in every corner of life over here. But on the other hand, we have our eyes open to the fact that it could be so much worse! So there is a very inspiring pain within our roots and that inspiration is often the seed of our music.
  1. Tell us about the song-writing process, how do you create your music?
    That changed a lot over time but what works best for us in the end is starting with the riff. We write the instrumental parts and start to work on the vocal melodies after that. Lyrics are the last step of the process.
  1. Who has influenced you the most?
    Literally everything can be an influence and I can talk only for myself: I write the lyrics and they are most inspired by everything I go through. I’m really bad at sharing my happy moments, that’s why my lyrics always have some dark vibes. It’s not that I’m an unhappy person but the hard times are just a way bigger muse for me than anything else.
  1. What was the first song you or your band ever wrote? Tell us if you performed it, trashed it, etc.….
    The very first song was “Hell, Sweet Hell”. We’ve played it endless times on stage, basically from day one. 

We split up as a band back in 2014 for a short time. When we decided to restart it, we did it with new members and a new mindset: we decided to expand our musical boundaries. When we recorded our 3rd album “Astoria” (the 1st one after the split up) we took the first step in the new direction that we can call our own now, which is a mix of punk rock and metal.
That’s why we took “Hell Sweet Hell” out of our setlist over time. We wanted to close a chapter of the band and this song was part of it.

  1. What song are you most connected to or proud of ?
    Our last album “God On The Run” is a record I’m really proud of. It’s hard to pick out one but if I had to, I would say “Men In Grey” because it involves singing techniques that I had to work really hard on and also because within just a few months, it became the most popular song on the bands Spotify page.
  1. Do you enjoy playing live and what do you enjoy about it?
    Of course we do, it’s the best feeling on earth to share your music directly with the audience and bring them together in one vibe.
  1. What is next for the band?
    Thanks to COVID 19, we’ve had to reschedule the whole year. Even though we released our new album ‘God On The Run” in February this year, we’re already working on new songs. Additionally, we’re going to release another video by the end of the year. It’s already recorded, we just can’t share more at this point. 
  1. Any additional thoughts or Comments you would like to add?
    Thank you so much for having us! Follow us, like us, subscribe to our YouTube channel as there is so much coming right now and we hope to see you all someday personally at a Hellfreaks show!

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