The Guitaraculas.....New LP 'Two Bottles Of Blood'

Available here : www.trashwax.com

The amazingly awesome GUITARACULAS have an LP out at last and it's on our very own Trash Wax label....for those of you who may not be familiar with The Guitaraculas or Messer Chups (the over talented Oleg Gitarkin plays in both) they're a Russian band taking Rockabilly and Surf into some pretty damned interesting places ! It's not easy for these guys to get together very often as Oleg is based in St Petersburg, Sasha in London and Rockin' Eugene is in Moscow and the Sax player is in The Netherlands somewhere so any chance of catching them live really shouldn't be missed !
This album very nearly didn't happen at all as Oleg explains it developed out of what was more or less a jam session....The CD release of the album was released in Russia on Oleg's label 'Gitaracula Records' with completely different mixes than the tracks on this lovely vinyl release. Here's what Oleg had to say in a recent interview for Mad Music For Bad People magazine (highly recommended incidently). I just think that these guys are the dog's bollox and if you need any more convincing just checkout the video below of 'Vampira's Curse'....Pure Magic !

Video for 'Love's Secret Domain' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbnYUHnR9TU

- Who are The Guitaraculas and where are they based ?

Initially we started off as a duo – myself, Oleg Guitaracula of Messer Chups on guitar and my friend Sasha Bassferatu of an old Russian 80’s goth band on bass and vocals (he also appeared as The Voxter on Messer Chups’ Heretic Channel album). I live in St. Petersburg, Russia and Sasha lives in the UK, in Manchester. Later, Ir  Vendermeulen ( who incidentally lives in Amsterdam), became our saxophone player. Recently, we grew into a four piece – we got Rockin’ Eugen from Moscow on drums. So, as you can see, we are an international outfit really.

Different artwork for the Russian CD (rear).

- When did The Guitaraculas first start and why ?

About a year ago, in November of 2013 to be precise, Sasha was visiting St. Petersburg and we decided to do a cover of Coil – just the two of us you know? We got ourselves into a studio and ended up doing an albums worth of tracks. I had some riffs and half-finished pieces, plus a few complete songs. Sasha added some lyrics where they were needed, and we kinda “kept the tape rolling” – know what I mean? I asked Ir to add some sax, theremin vox  and I also played the drums on the original recording. Then I spent ages mixing the thing – between other work and touring with Messer Chups etc. 

The Linkster !

- Describe The Guitaraculas sound and what are their influences ? Where does the inspiration come from ?

Its basically the 60’s surf with some hot-rod, rockabilly, horror and any other retro psychotronic trash thrown into – you name it. We are influenced by many - From Link Wray and The Cramps to Ministry and Coil, from Henry Mancini and John Barry to Bauhaus and Nick Cave. 

- Are The Guitaraculas and The Bonecollectors related ?

Not at all, these are two very different projects.

I just like this poster !

- What is the 'Scene' like in Russia for bands such as The Guitaraculas ?

There isn’t such a thing as “retro” scene in Russia, not in the terms as it is in Europe. In big towns like Moscow and St. Petersburg there is a reasonable niche for this sort music, although it’s admittedly a far narrower gap than say in Spain. But it’s always been like this – in “retro cultural” aspects Russia is quite behind such countries. We do have some rockabilly and psychobilly bands and some surf and garage bands (they are all decent musicians, to extend) – but the situation with clubs is dire. That is probably why initially, The Guitaraculas didn’t plan to play live, but with addition of a drummer I think we just might. I reckon we may prove a good draw, purely on the connection with Messer Chups if anything else.    

Video For 'Vampira's Curse' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbnYUHnR9TU

- What are the plans for future Guitaraculas releases ? More albums ? singles ?

I think we are slowly gearing up for a second album. We did some video shooting this summer – there will be two new videos of us on You-tube pretty soon. One is a full blown trash overtake of the Coil number – Love’s Secret Domain. The other is going to be an upgraded version of Vampira’s Curse. So look out. 

- Apart from playing in Russia are there any plans to take The Guitaraculas on tour to Europe ?

Anything is possible. The trouble is we all live so far apart, we don’t even rehearse regularly, but if there are offers we might do it – why not?

- Can you tell us or recommend other bands which are similar to The Guitaraculas ?

Why, of course, the Messer Chups, haha ))))

- Anything you would like to say or add in closing?

There will be a double cd release in Australia soon – one disc will be a Messer Chups album and the other The Guitaraculas.  I have remixed it for the occasion – asked our drummer to overdub my original drumming (I was never happy with it). The album seems to be doing seriously well, considering we basically recorded it to amuse ourselves. But then, this is quite a common thing with many interesting objects d’art isn’t it?

Big thanks to Oleg & Sasha.

BUY THE ALBUM HERE : www.trashwax.com   or just email me at the address above.

Stay Sick Kiddies !