Interview: Gorilla

Septembre 2003

They're certainly one of the most appreciated current band. They are coming from Hungary, and their sophisticated Psychobilly is very well done, with a big originality, personnal songs, and an amazing slap-bass player.
Thanx a lot to Pete Gorilla, the guitarist and singer, who answered me.

 

1) Who are you? Describe yourself in a few words?

My name is Peter Lukats (some people know me as Pete Gorilla in the european psycho scene).
Actually I am an advertising graphic designer, this is the filed what I live on, so my main hobby is the psychobilly and rockabilly guitar playing, and the music itself. I love the computer games, the movies etc.
I really love Stray Cats, and other performances of Brian Setzer (BSO etc), I love Nekromantix, Mad Sin, but I love some old hungarian rockandroll bands from the early '80s.

2) How long have you been playing for?

Almost 18 years. I was born in 1971 and I bought my first guitar, and formed my first band in 86. It was a high school rockandroll band. We played almost everything from Elvis to The Beatles.

3) Where are you from ?

I am from Budapest, Hungary. I was born and grew up in this amazing and beautiful city, but based on different reasons in early 2001 I moved to Canada (Cambridge, Ontario) with my family.

4) What are your maine musical influences?

My main musical infulience is a hungarian rock and roll band from 1980-82, calls "HUNGARIA". It was the first hungarian rockandroll band, who played own rockandroll (little swing or rockabilly infuleces) song, and Elvis etc tunes. Then I met the rock and roll, and this became my entire life. Later I listened Elvis, Buddy Holly (we arrived to the rockabilly), Stray Cats, and at the and of the day, the early psycho bands.

5) Other Influences?

I really love classical music, especially the movie soundtracks.

6) Can you describe your music?

The music of the Gorilla is a very strange and interesting mixture of the greater rockabilly-psychobilly styles. Everybody in the band has brought his own stile, own ispiration, and infulences.
My younger brother Tamas Lukats (as known as Tom Alien) was faster, and dynamic young kid 10 years ago, and he has find the rockabilly, the Stray Cats to boring and slow, and turned to the psycho (Nekromantix, Demented, Mad Sin).
Laszlo Gyori (as known as Tubush) the drummer, had a band then, called the Boppers, who played neorockabilly songs, like Restless, Shaking Piramidz, and Batmobile etc.
I have had a Stray Cats style rockabilly band, called Gunning Dogs. I was focus to the guitar playing a lot. So when the Boppers, and the Gunning Dogs spitted up (almost at the same time) we've put this new band Gorilla together, and we put the 3 very different styles together, and this mixture the backbone of the Gorilla' music. We didn't mix them up but kept them separatley, and this is a reason of the lots of different sounded Gorilla tunes.

7) "Flamenco Death" is a strange album: 4 (great) studio tracks and a live in Leipzig. Why have you choosen to publish these songs together?

Before I left Hungary in 2001 january, we decided to record few song what had no chance to be taking part in the first two Gorilla CDs. They were in stock; they were in our head, except one, the "Playcard maniacs" because it was an old Gunning Dogs (my former band) song. So we just wanted to make them, and release a 4 songs EP.
But then we were informed about this Leipzig live tracks, we checked them, and our friend Guido Neumann (who had a big part in the Gorilla's carrier) has put the 4 studio song and the Lepizig gig in one CD.

8) How did you decided to record the swing version of "HOTEL PHANTOM"?

Because I really love BSO, and I felt the challage to make something similar, but based on psycho tune.So, then I called my friend Zoltan Dudinszki, who is the main saxhopone player and composer of the biggest hungarian swing orchestra, and we have put this arrangement together. It was a big fun to make it.

9) How is the rockabilly and psychobilly scene in Hungary?

Actually is preatty good, there are a lot of good bands. For exaple the Mystery Gang Trio.

10) What are the bands you are close to?

Nekromatix, Mad Sin.

11) You've played a song on a hugarian sampler (a tribute to AC/DC). Can you tell us a little more about it?

Yes. The Gorilla's Drummer big AD/DC fan and the Hungarian EMI asked us to be taking part on this tribute album. It was a big pleasure, because we could be on a CD with the biggest Hungarian Stars.So finaly we've chosen the "Highway To Hell", because this song is really good to put on rockabilly rhythm.

12) I've been told that you're living in Canada, and the rest of the band is supposed to be in Hungary. What will happen for GORILLA?

That's true. Now really hard to play together, but we have lots of future plans. My main plan to bring GORILLA over the seas to make a new album, and play all over the States (Canada has no big psycho scene), and then we would like to play in Europe, to promote the new album. But I still have no information about a timeing of this project, but we trying to make it as soon as we can.

13) Have you got something else to add ?

Yes I have. I really miss the European psycho scene, the lots of nice people, who loved the Gorilla. I keep thinking about them a lot.