Thomas (Vocals, guitar, blues harp), Oli (drums) and Heiner (Upright bass) are Raucous Red Roosters, the band who’ve dragged their bluesy trash style all the way to Bedlam Breakout and back. We asked them our burning questions to work out the secrets of their brand of rock n roll….

How was your experience at PKB in London this year?

Olli: The whole weekend was awesome. We arrived on Friday and immediately met Thee Twangjackets. We spent the evening together in the pub opposite our hotel. We’ve already shared the stage with the guys in Germany. Great band and very nice people. 

Thomas: The Psychobilly Kicks Back itself was great. Unfortunately, the Belmont Beach Weirdos were cancelled. We were allowed to play longer and were able to present ourselves accordingly. The audience gave us a very warm reception. Our show went down really well. 

Heiner: It’s always great for us to play in England. The English audience is simply fantastic. People are much more open here than in Germany when it comes to a band not going pure old school psychobilly. 

Thomas: We are always happy to support Psychobilly Kicks Back. We owe a lot to Thomas Heiden, who organises PKB in Germany. He has always supported us and opened a few doors for us. We are happy to give that back. 

Tell us about your latest album, ‘All Good Things Come In Threes’!

Heiner: This is our third album in the six years the band has been around. Not bad, is it? 

Olli: The album was well received by both the audience and the critics. Many say it’s our best album so far. 

Thomas: Somehow the album shows a further development of the Roosters. Blues has somehow always been the basis of many of the songs we have. It was much more obvious on the first album. Over time, we became more and more varied. There are still  songs on the record that are orientated towards the classic blues scheme. But also songs more strongly influenced by psychobilly. There are also hillbilly and punk influences. We just do what we feel like doing and play the music that we also like to hear or would like to hear from other bands. 

Heiner: Nothing is more boring than a band where every song sounds the same and always varies the same song. We have no desire to copy ourselves. We like making music far too much for that.

Olli: You ask about our favourite song on the album.  One of mine is ‘Backdoor Man’. It’s an old blues song that we’ve often played live. It’s the slowest song on the album. I love playing this song at rehearsals or live. With fast tracks, the drummer doesn’t always have many opportunities to play variations. It’s different with slower songs. This is sometimes more interesting for the drummer.

Heiner: My favourite song on the record is ‘Let’s get Drunk’. It moves away from bluestrash or billy stuff. The chords and dynamics are more punkrock orientated. At the same time, the double bass makes you realise that it’s still rock ‘n’ roll. Boss!

Thomas: My favourite song to play and listen to is ‘Voodoo Queen’. For me, it’s the most complex song on the album: a slower introduction, then it gets faster, with variations of louder and quieter in between. A lot happens in 3 minutes 22 seconds.  I’m proud of this.

How do you think the Raucous Red Roosters sound is evolving over time? 

Olli: As Thomas said, we were very blues-orientated at the beginning. Even before the first album, we had a lot of blues songs in our live programme that we simply played harder, faster and dirtier.

Heiner:  This went down particularly well with the psychobilly audience. But it didn’t have much to do with old school psychobilly. I played psychobilly for years and have been part of the scene since my youth. But it’s also good to think outside the box and open up musically.

Thomas: In the beginning, there was no denying that I’d been playing mainly in blues bands since I was fourteen. That’s still a strong influence, but I enjoy billy or punk tracks much more.

Olli: Before the Roosters, I mainly played in punk bands. I didn’t have much to do with blues, garage or psychobilly. But it still all fits together well. Everyone simply does what they do best and what they love most.  A good mix.

Heiner: That’s right. We are a good influence on each other [laughs].

Tell us about your journey as the Raucous Red Roosters

Thomas: Our logo still says Raw and Primitive Bluez under our name. At the same time, we are definitely not a blues band. But we’re not a pure billy band either. Influences in my songwriting certainly come from blues classics, but also from The Cramps, Krewmen. 

Heiner: It’s difficult to name influences because we don’t orientate ourselves towards a genre or a specific band. Of course I could name bands that have influenced me, such as The Meteors, Batmobile or the Radiacs. But you won’t necessarily hear that directly from our songs.

Olli: The music of our youth, for me it was bands like Cercle Jerks or Minor Threat, had a personal influence on me. So that has a very indirect influence on the Roosters’ music.

Thomas: There have already been a few highlights. We haven’t been around that long. Six years. A lot has happened in such a short time. We’ve shared the stage with The Meteors, Frenzy and Batmobile, played in England and organised this incredible rock ‘n roll battle against the Raw King Rats.

Olli: That was definitely a highlight! The battle was something very special. It was more of a show than a normal concert. There were two stages, left and right in the hall. The audience stood in the centre. It started with a run-in and a face-off like a boxing match. Each band had different sets with different challenges.  The spectators had to vote on who was better after each round. There was also a referee who hosted the show. The show ended in a draw. In the end, however, the Roosters won the play-off.

What are your plans for 2026?

Heiner: We’re currently planning our gigs for 2026, and a few things have already been finalised. But we are still working on it. That’s quite a hassle. We are not that well known yet. So we have to work hard to make sure that some doors open for us. But things have always gone well for us so far.

Thomas: And then there are already some new songs for the next album. Who knows?  If things go well, we’ll have enough material for the next album by the end of 2026.

Thomas: We would like to thank the people who come to our gigs and support us. It’s always incredible when you see that people are prepared to travel further to see you live for the music you’ve written. 

Olli: And now it’s no longer just friends or relatives who you would expect to see you anyway. That’s amazing and makes you proud in a way. There’s never a dull moment with this band. We are excited to see where the journey will take us. What awaits us and what the future holds.

Heiner: But the biggest thank you goes to our wives. They just let us do our rock ‘n roll thing!

Kate Allvey

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