5 years after their initial enrollment and almost a year after the release of their debut LP “General Thrashing” on Zero Hero Recordings, Moscow twisted, insanely melodic hardcore rock’n’rollers from THE BARBER make his way onto our pages to drop you a brief update on their band. If you’re a big fan of EVERY TIME I DIE, MOTORHEAD, NORMA JEAN and CANCER BATS, then you’ll love these guys. THE BARBER looks to build some new momentum as they continue on into the new year and we figured it would be cool to help them out and have a little chit-chat about their wild endeavour and inducing an exhilaration that lifts skirts and spirits.
THE BARBER was formed in May 2012 in Moscow, Russia. For 4 years they have released several full-length albums, EPs and videos, have played as the support with “John Coffey” at their gigs in Moscow and St. Petersburg and 4 times have toured over Russia and Israel. Now THE BARBER is preparing for their first European tour (France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands) which will start in May 2017.
THE BARBER is: guitarist Vladimir Ukhanov, vocalist Alexey Mosin, drummer Anton Yalovchuk, and bassist Arseniy Krickun.
Hey guys! You remind me of some of times when I was sooo much into jams in the vein of early HE IS LEGEND, MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER or EVERY TIME I DIE. What led you to forming THE BARBER?
Hi, yeah, we’re also inspired by all the bands you listed. 5 years of the Barber could be devided into several phases begining with the hardest – chaotic hardcore like THE CHARIOT and NORMA JEAN and finishing with more structural tracks and more rock’n’roll riffs. Old school bands such as MOTORHEAD, METALLICA, BLACK SABBATH, ACDC, PANTERA and others influenced greatly upon the choice of our music style. In our work we try to concentrate history, classics and modern framing and energy, but also to cover actual themes.
3 lengthy records in 4 years sounds makes you a one hell of a prolific band. Are you all unemployed? :)
Haha, of course no, only our drummer is. Almost all of us have families, some – even babies. But u know all this doesn’t prevent us from doing our music. We compose rather quickly, we have some kind of algorithm and we’ve followed it for a long time already. But finally we decided to slow down a little bit, as to make a record in a year isn’t so cool. We should appreciate our records more and polish them more thoroughly.
Ok, so let’s learn a bit about your local DIY music scene. Does this specific southern rockfish subgenre of post hardcore continue to generate a devoted following in Moscow? Tell us a bit about your view on your local hardcore punk scene.
Speaking about Moscow such a specific underground misic has never been popular here, bands like us can gather a gig of 200 people in half a year. Of course there occurs some exceptions. More people come to thematical fests. To tell u the truth now dusgusting Russian rap and mainstream bands run the show. In Moscow just as in Russia a band gathers fucking hell of people or few of them. No golden mean. That is in common. However there is action, there are talended and individual bands and musicians, every one of whom is worth of attention. In Moscow there are a lot of everything, people are spoiled, gig a day and so on. That’s why to gather good quantity of people on gig of the band like us is rather difficult.
Are you a heavy touring band? How do you compare Moscow to other independent music communities in Russia?
Yes, we are. Such music exists for live shows, otherwise no sense in all this. We goes on tour every year, sometimes we goes on one-city tour, thanx to our huge country. In regions situation is different: few gigs and few action, that’s why more people comes to your gig. There u can make show and sometimes even earn some money, sell ur staff and feal good vibes. In this respect Moscow is more worse for us. But even here u can hit the jackpot.
What plans do you have for putting this band into even more action in 2017?
We never make some global, far reaching plans. We always set some small goals and try to bring them into action. Great shoot forward for us in 2017 will be our first euro-tour. I think this goal is for a band like us. To tell u the secret we have some plans to visit China in fall 2017, we hope so. And of course we’ll possibly record new material this summer. So we have a lot of things to do.
Thanks so much for the brief update. Feel free to add your final words. Take care!
Thanx for interesting questions. We have some words for those who heard us or will hear – don’t deny yourself anything, never! Especially if it’s some crazy thing. Drink, smoke, partying, fuck, buy the best clothes – who knows, tomorrow could be too late.
