The Spirit of Garage Rock: The Royal Hangmen

If you’re going to see the Royal Hangmen, it’s probably safest to do so indoors. That’s because the Winterthur, Switzerland-based band dishes out the kind of fuzz guitar-and-organ fueled garage rock fury that could cause an avalanche.

Whether the band’s cranking out tunes in a studio or in the hotbox confines of a wine-cellar, the band’s music has all the stuff we at Garagerocktopia love about garage rock, whether your thing is the old-school sounds of bands like the Standells or true-to-form ‘80s bands like the Cynics, all done with the sheer joy that makes it impossible to keep your feet still.

For band leader Vasco Saxer, it’s not just the sound of garage rock that the band has tapped into, but really, the spirit of the music and how it reflects what was going on with the youth of the world in the days of Swinging London, Motown and the first wave of what would come to be known as “garage rock.”

“There was a spirit during the ‘60s,” explained Saxer, talking to Garagerocktopia via phone and later, email. “There was a feeling of freedom, and a feeling of how all of us who loved that freedom were against others who didn’t. Back then, that was the big picture of what was going on, one that crossed borders. These days, everybody just sticks to their own thing, including music and politics.”

The Royal Hangmen’s body of work thus far is fairly small, though we hasten to add it’s a matter of quality over quantity. The band has two full albums, plus a smattering of singles, EPs and cuts on compilations. Both of the albums -- Hanged, Drawn and Quartered, as well as a self-titled album, have more great songs than we can mention here.

Normally, we here at Garagerocktopia aren’t huge fans of covers, but the EP, Hell Yeah, is a tribute to towering (such as garage rock bands can be) ‘80s garage rock bands like the Cynics, with four expertly-chosen songs, out of which the Royal Hangmen play the bejeebers. Its songs accomplish what too many cover versions don’t – keeping what makes the original so groovy while the Royal Hangmen put their own infectious stamp on them.

 

The band has also recently collaborated with the German band  the Nitribitts, on the split single, “Out on the Floor/She Don’t Care.”

Musically, as with so many other folks in garage rock bands, Saxer said he got hooked on the Beatles and other British bands of the era as a teenager. Later, seeing the legendary American band the Fuzztones in Zurich blew his mind enough to make him join a garage rock band called the Vertical Drops and convert him to a lifetime a garage rock devotee.

The Royal Hangmen were founded by Saxer and bassist Roger Rutishauser, mostly just to play for fun. Patrick Wyss and Chrstopher Gasser would join later, but Saxer was the only hangman who had actually been in a band before. Soon, though, things would get more interesting for the guys who just thought they were going to be party buds.

 “After finding some old equipment and a rehearsal space, we really tried hard to play stuff like ‘96 Tears’, ‘(I´m Not Your) Steppin´Stone,’ ’Psycho’ and others,” said Saxer. “First, we were just happy if we managed to play the song from beginning to end without anybody missing the breaks and chord changes. The first gig followed, luckily we only had to play for 15 minutes. Our bass player was so inexperienced and nervous that he forgot to plug his bass into the amp. Nobody seemed to notice that and the gig went down really well.”

In fact, the sound man was so impressed that he invited the Royal Hangmen to his home studio, where the band cut a demo, which included the first original material as well as covers. That demo caught the attention of the Greek fanzine and record label, Lost in Tyme, which quickly picked them up. And things just seemed to keep happening for the band.

“In 2008, we did a public one-off Sonics tribute concert at our rehearsal room with an added saxophone player,” Saxer recounted. “One of the guests who showed up was Daniel Jörg, who joined us on harp and percussion a few weeks later and made us a five piece band.”

Soon, the band was opening for some of the very band whose music inspired them to pick up instruments and play in the first place.

“We were able to open for our heroes, the Sonics and later the Pretty Things, when they played in Switzerland,” said Saxer. “Unfortunately our drummer called it quits, but was soon replaced by Luca Portner. Tours and many concerts followed. Finally, we recorded our second album in Hamburg, where the Beatles have so much history, with producer Dennis Rux. Before the album release, our bass player and founding member Roger Rutishauser decided to leave the band , so we recruited Basil Schmucki."

As the name of the genre would indicate, garage rock, technically speaking, is far from the most demanding subgenre of rock and roll to play. Many artists we have interviewed have made this very point. Heck, it’s called “garage rock” for a reason.

But there’s a funny thing about simple music: it’s easy to play, but it’s very difficult to play well, with the emotion and conviction that elevates it from something any 16 year-old can do to something truly special. The Royal Hangmen have accomplished this. Part of their success lies not just on their sense of fun, but one of their biggest secret weapons is the equipment on which they perform.

“I personally prefer to play with my Rickenbacker guitar,” Saxer reveals, “but played though one of the rarest Vox amps that exist, a UL 730,” said Saxer. “It´s the same kind of amp the Beatles used on Revolver and Sgt. Pepper and is rare as a hen´s teeth. Also the Vox Continental organ is very important piece, one that has dominated our sound since the beginning.”

In its earliest days, garage rock largely was literally bunches of teenage boys, many still in high school, who were looking mostly to get the attention of teenage girls. Everybody involved was well below drinking age and probably barely had their driver’s licenses.

Fast forward to today, where many garage rockers are either professional musicians or artists who’ve played music for decades. And no longer are they performing in garages or high school dances, but in places specifically frequented by grown-ups. For European bands, it’s even cooler as it’s not terribly difficult to move around many of the world’s most musically-hip cities, be it London, or Madrid, or Paris to do shows.

Some of the Royal Hangmen’s most fondly-remembered gigs have actually been in the wine cellars of central Europe. These places have their problems -- but to hear Saxer explain it, the coolness of such venues far outweigh their problems.

“I remember there was always this special smell of must in all of them. So the air is normally a bit of a problem,” explains Saxer. “When the place is packed it really gets sweaty and hot. But we always enjoyed playing these places, as they fit perfectly for garage rock. Generally we prefer to play in small places and clubs anyway, as you have a more direct approach to the crowd there.”

Few garage rockers have been able to quit their day jobs. But Saxer has one of the cooler 9-to-5 days, as he is the proprietor of something we here in the states don’t have so much anymore, an actual record store in Winterthur.

“I mainly sell vinyl, from rock to metal to death metal,” said Saxer. “If I only sold garage rock I couldn’t survive, because there’s not a big interest in that kind of music. I live in a small town, so I have to have something for everybody.”

We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

Also, we do have a Facebook page for this blog. We don’t put personal stuff on it – no pictures of grandkids or our dinners or politics or anything like that. What we do post are announcements about upcoming features, maybe extra stuff about the bands, and any cool music, movies or TV Shows we stumble across that might have even the most tangential connection with the music featured here. While we don't spend all day thinking about it, we do like "likes" if you're so inclined ...