Balkun Brothers is a band of psychedelic rock'n'roll from U.S.A. Maybe now they try to make a carrier in Europe but surely they are already known in the States.

With a bio that makes you ''dizzy'' Balkun Brothers are getting ready at May 30 for the third album with a very ''catchy'' title Devil on TV.
The Balkun Brothers from Connecticut, Steve and Nick, have collaborations and support acts with Iggy Pop, Gary Clark Jr, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper and the huge Rolling Stones.
They shared the stage as a direct support group of Gogol Bordello and Joe Bonamassa , they played as session musicians in a tour alongside Eric Sardinas. The Balkun Brothers for the first time ever in any media in Greece gave us an interview for the Greek fans and we are extremely proud and happy to present you the FUTURE OF ROCK 'N' ROLL.

Let’s introduce yourselves

Hello! I am Steve Balkun, I provide the guitar/bass and vocals, and my younger brother Nick Balkun plays the drums and backup vocals. We are the Balkun Brothers!

Your music is a mixture of Blues, Rock n Roll and elements of Northern Rock. This is a sound that i think is your own sound. How can you describe your music and your influences?

To put it simply we call our music Rock n Roll. But yes, we have many influences that work their way into the music. When we were young kids we were listening to alternative rock like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana and Primus. So that music was really what got us interested in playing at first and then we got into classic rock like Led Zeppelin, Johnny Winter and Jimi Hendrix, who had more of a direct blues based sound, so we naturally wanted to know where this sound came from. And that led us to finding the music of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Son House, Elmore James, Buddy Guy and all the great blues artists that we love. But we listen to almost every kind of music and can find sounds and artists to be inspired by in Jazz, Hip-Hop, Regaee, Funk, Country, R&B, Metal, even Classical and world music. To us there is only good music and bad music, the genre is not as important. So for our sound, we have a foundation of Rock and Blues but we like to experiment and bring in new sounds as much as we can, because we want to have our own sound and not just sound exactly like somebody else. We try to make sounds that we enjoy and hopefully others will too.
I would sum it up as Heavy Grooving Psychedelic Blues Rock!

Tell us with your own words your experiences alongside Iggy Pop, Gogol Bordello, Gary Clark Jr, Motley Crüe, Alice Cooper and the huge Rolling Stones?

We have had great opportunities to play some major festivals and be included in amazing line-ups that included these artists. So playing these huge festivals is always exciting, we get to play in front of large crowds of people on gigantic stages, its a thrill. But to be on a line up alongside these artists is a great experience. We got to play direct support for Gogol Bordello at a huge festival called Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in front of thousands of people and the guys from Gogol Bordello were back stage watching us. We came off stage and they told us they loved our show and told us we were "Shredding from beyond!" in their own words, we thought that was a fantastic compliment.

Also we want a few words about your collaboration with Joe Bonamassa and Eric Sardinas the two young "kings of blues"

Playing with both Joe and Eric were incredible experiences. I(Steve) Was lucky enough to be chosen in a contest to play with Joe Bonamassa and his band out in Los Angeles. It was a great experience to play alongside such a giant of blues guitar, an experience i won't soon forget. And Eric Sardinas has been one of my favorite guitarists since i was a teenager and i saw him for the first time. It was one of those concerts that changed my whole outlook on guitar playing, he really inspired me to play slide guitar and resonator guitar. His show just blew my mind and it was really a dream come true to play shows with Eric and his band. We did a two week run of shows with them a couple of years ago and it was some of the most fun we have had. Eric and his band were incredibly gracious with us and we got to share the stage with them for a rendition of The Door' RoadHouse Blues!

How can you manage to be from East Coast of U.S.A and have a contract with a French label called Dixiefrog Records?

Dixie-Frog heard of us through other artists and were interested in our sound, and so one thing led to another and we are happy and grateful to be working with them. They have been extremely supportive of us and our vision.

Tell us a few things about your new album called "DEVIL ON TV" that will be released on May? We will wait for more surprises on your sound era like "Eat Yo' Vegetables" or like "Montezuma"?

Devil On TV, we feel is our best work yet. It really is our first album that actually sounds like how we sound as a band now. We self-produced the record at Nick's studio which allowed us to really capture our sound how we've always wanted it to sound. We have worked with other producers in the past and the production never quite hit the mark of how we thought our recordings should sound, and thats quite disappointing. So for this record we really wanted to get as close to our raw live sound as we could. Everything was recorded live, but then we took time to experiment in the studio and come up with some different sounds and textures to lay over the basic live tracks, to enhance the audio experience. So not only is the album a good representation of our live sound, it is the first time we have used samples and over-dubs to create "sound-scapes" to connect all of the tunes and give a more psychedelic listening experience. So yes there may be some surprises in there after all!

Do you have any "a dream comes true" artists that Balkun Brothers want to share the stage with?

We'd love to play with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or Primus! Jimmy Page or Jack White too! Theres so many great artists we'd love to play with, and sadly so many that have already passed on too.

Did you ever come to Greece? Even for vacations? Did you have any plans for visit Greece in the near future?

We have never been to Greece, but we love to travel and would be very excited to come see your beautiful country, hopefully soon!

Please give us a wish for our newborn site Black Velvet Radio and a message for your fans here in Greece!

We wish for you to spread to word of rock n roll across the universe!!

Youtube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/BalkunBrothers/videos
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BalkunBrothers/?fref=ts

www.blackvelvetradio.gr When all colours turns to … Music.

 

Black Velvet Radio