Billy's Bandrussian // deutsch

The Billy's Band - romantic alco-jazz

Tackling anything by Tom Waits is like wrestling an alligator: do it well and you`ve got a new pair of  shoes:, screw up and you`re dead, Jack. Describing themselves as a Dixiland funeral with an infinite happy end, Billy`s band is on the fringe in its St.Petersburg home and will be on the fringe of the fringe here. Bandleader, Billy Novik barks gruff and hip (in Russian and English) just like Waits – or perhaps Cookie Monster on a vodka bender.

Billy's Band is like a combined Dixieland and polka band that plays almost jazzy. When you hear a big smash, it's one of the dudes crashing cymbals over his head to a crazy march. The lead singer/bassist (yeah, it's a bassist heading the ship) Billy Novik has a voice that can only be compared to Louis Armstrong. It's gritty and feels like it comes straight out of his gut. But he's a funny little white guy with a funny hat and even funnier stories about being told the difference between a bass and a coffin ("the dead guy's inside of the coffin").

They were wearing worn-down trench coats and no shirts, letting their bellies show for everyone. You might call them strange, but I just call them special. They were that kind of underground street band that's got oodles of talent, but you don't want them to be too big because that dark atmosphere really suits their style. The crowd went wild for these guys, bringing them out for an encore and standing ovation. I might pick up a CD tomorrow -- they were that good.
A great deal of the band`s repertoire is Waits` stuff, and when the band ventures out on its own, the genius, the oddity, and the antiquated charm still shines, just like those alligator shoes I was talking about.

The Billy’s Band is a famous Tom-Waits-influenced-romantic-alco-jazz-quartet from St Petersburg, Russia. Welcomed soundtrack creators, the authors of 8 top-notch albums and regular participants of various Russian and European music festivals The Billy’s Band have already conquered the heart of Russian, Italian, German, French, Finish, Israeli, Estonian and American public. Their music is a perfect English-Russian cocktail of jazz and blues, Slavonic Lieds, rock ballads and sporadic beats of an enigmatic Russian soul.

Take a glass of a roller coaster life; add a pinch of death and a thimbleful of love... Voila! You get “The Graveyard Dixieland with an Endless Happy End”, which permanently overwhelms the public at The Billy’s Band gigs.

Musicians of
Billy's Band

Billy Novik: contrabass, vocal, piano, banjo

Andrey Ryzhik: guitar, dombra, cymbals, tambourine, howling;

Anton Matezius: Russian accordion, percussion, marimba, howling;

Featuring Mikhail Zhydkikh: saxophone, percussion.

The band performs its own written songs, e.g. Blues In The Head show. It makes its own interpretations for many of Tom Waits’ songs, e.g. Being Tom Waits show. In its list the Band also has programs specially designed for night clubs.

Though Billy Novik’s voice strikingly resembles the one of Tom Waits’, the Band doesn’t knock off the album covers of the famous predecessor. It plays blues-absurd or alko-jazz.

The guys are aged between 28 to 42 y.o., and have been playing together for 5 years! For the last few years The Billy’s Band very often performed in notorious St.Petersburg clubs, such as The Red Club and Platforma. In Moscow, it played in B2, Totchka and many-many others. The Band’s concerts territory expands as far as Russia, US, Canada, Germany, Finland, Estonia, France, Latvia, Ukraine.

Translated by Darya Bielecka

BILLY`s band ON FACEBOOK

In Tom Waits’ Wake

                        Coming from St.Petersburg, The Billy's Band

has moved past Tom Waits’ covers to the sound of its own.

By Sergey Chernov

The Billy’s Band, Tom Waits-influenced-cabaret-rock-trio from St.Petersburg, is in their heyday. With four albums under their belt and another waiting to be released, the off-beat band has been packing hometown clubs and since last January 2003 became a frequent guest to Moscow.

The star of the show is hoarse voice of Billy Novik, the band’s singer, songwriter and double bass player. Mr Novik is backed by Andrei Ryzhik (or “Redheaded”) on guitar and Anton Matezius on accordion. Occasionally, the band expands to up to eight musicians with recruits from local jazz circuits.

Officially formed in August 2001, The Billy’s Band passed usual rocky route resulted in playing as often as six nights a week in a couple of local Irish pubs and other watering holes. Their initial zeal for glory was Tom-Waits-cover-like-band, with Mr Novik’s voice drawing natural parallels with that of the American troubadour.

Indeed, it was Mr Waits’ “Asylum Years” of 1999 that turned Mr Novik’s life upside down. Having played with an obscure rock band from 1990 to 1995, Mr Novik lost any faith in his talent ever since. He even decided to give that kind of music up. With “Asylum Years” Mr Novik overcame his hang-ups. In his own words, he was surprised to hear someone “with such hoarse voice, weird musical ear and minimalist accompanists” creating somewhat “grabbing your heart”.

Though The Billy’s Band named its first demo “Being Tom Waits”, the band of 2004 was the one exceeding a tribute band. On the other side, they were heavily-dependant on Mr Novik’s “cheerless” years in the area of Kupchino, St.Petersburg’s Southern outskirts, where he grew up and later worked as a pathologist in a kid’s hospital — a job he finally quitted in June 2002. The Billy’s Band also tends toward dramatic performances, putting together theatre-based-shows of the Waits’.

“Our work is now clearly divided into the two parts: live concerts with songs in Russian and theatre performances ... at Tom Waits’  wake" Mr Novik says.

Press-release by Boris Barabanov

The story of St.-Pete’s trio The Billy’s Band is a tale of a magnificent rise of self-made people to the deserved success and audience’s love. On the other hand, it is the case of a complete refutation of the most stagnated stereotypes, a chain of victories over conventions of the so-called Big Showbiz.

Until 2001 there was no The Billy’s Band. There was a club named The Boom Brother with its Director, Billy Novik, a singer and a guitar player with a degree in pediatrics. The Art-Director of the club was Andrey Ryzhik,who also played the guitar. It was in the womb of this short-life club that The Billy’s Band was born. Their first programs were a good mixture of Anglo-Saxon Folk, Country, scenes from Mr Tarantino’s movies and first cover versions of Tom Wait’s’ songs. Mr Novik was discovering Mr Wait’s art very fastly during that time.

At about the same period Anton Matezius, an accordion-player, joined the band. The three had various experiences of working on musical projects of all sorts. However, none of them had any substantial project in their portfolio. Actually, they hadn’t even thought about it. It just happened that once upon a time the guys were invited by friends to play in German clubs, where a revelation came to them they were a band. A band with a rather eccentric and maybe even unique sound palette: Mr Ryzhik’s electric guitar with its sometimes classical hard-rock and sometimes strange, grabbing on the ear sounds. Mr Matezius’ accordion that reminds of for tunes by Yan Thirssen and Andrey Petrov. Billy Novik’s hoarse voice so incompatible with his look of a young intellectual until the moment you see him at one of the band’s concerts.

It happened that Mr Novik became a vocalist and a rhythm-section wrapped in one. He started to accompany himself on the contrabass, tapping with his leg on the tambourine that was on the floor. That so-called street formula, picked up from the Berlin and Munich street musicians, was successfully transferred on-stage in St.Pete and shocked the local clubbing public. Above all, the trio was a naturally looking street theatre: Mr Ryzhik with his jumping-up ability and palm-like hairdo, romantic Mr Matezius in a tailcoat and Mr Novik, a brutal outsider wearing a hat.

Being Tom Waits was the first experience for The Billy’s Band to make its own unofficial album. Some tracks were the guys’ first original songs. The Paris Seasons was the real and serious debut in sound recording. The album was fully stuffed with A. Ryzhik, A. Matezius and B. Novik author’s songs, written during the band’s adventurous visit to Paris. The album was a superb combination of City Folklore with distinct St.Pete’s flavor, American Blues and Saloon Swing. Songs were followed by short instrumental air plays and Mr Novik’s soliloquies. Famous St.Pete’s jazz musicians who gave a hand to The Billy’s Band for studio sound recording were later united into The Billy’s Big Band a special band for big-performance concerts. The Paris Seasons were followed by a year of exhausting concerts tours all through Moscow and St.Pete stages. As a result the band recorded a concert album named Postcard from…. Plus, a studio record of A Bit of Death a Bit of Love, a sort of a summarizing album, for which the very first band’s songs were restored and re-recorded. Moreover, the band became popular thanks to radio and TV broadcasts of cover-versions of Poezd v Ogne by Boris Grebenshchikov and Winter Dream by Alsu. The latter was sung during the very first minutes of the New Year 2004, just after President Putin’s congratulations, on Federal Channel NTV. The Billy’s Band from now on is the most on-demand band of the two capitals. They got a number of prestigious awards, like the one of Nashe Radio Побоroll and Night Life Award 2004

Just think all that happened with a band that had no contract with any leading record-label, no sponsors, no videos except a comic-style video Winter Dream shot by St.Pete’s friends from the art-group named Purga. The main idea of The Billy’s Band is DO IT YOURSELF. Like the first punk bands of the 70’s, the guys record, design, release, distribute and promote their albums themselves. They are also totally responsible for the management of concerts. The Billy’s Band looks at their new album Having Fun St.-Pete Style signed for release with a major recording company Grand Records as an experiment: can we also be a part of Big Showbiz? The album was sold with record sales figures. Meanwhile, an ironic thriller All Night Shop Assistant was shown in lots of movie theatres. The sound track for the movie was completed by The Billy’s Band. The short-term plans of the band include release of several videos, a concert DVD, re-release of the old albums with bonus tracks, and final legitimization of relation with Tom Waits. They want to make a sound track accompanying the performance Being Tom Waits, which is sold out every night both in Moscow and St.Petersburg. From their point of view, the band’s biggest achievement for the day is its being independent, self-driven in taking decisions without marching abreast with anyone or becoming part of the main stream.

They still call themselves Funeral Dixieland with An Infinite Happy End and they are convinced that the key to success is to be always in a state of becoming. As Billy says “No dog pisses on a car driving at full speed”.

Translated by Darya Bielecka

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Billy's Band