Bulgarian own BDFM play a type of hardcore that will surely appeal to all the kids out there who like their hardcore mixed with a little bit of thrash. With solid musicianship, creative songwriting and skilled vocals, their music got what it takes! The band is preparing to release their debut album so keep your eyes and ears open!
How are you doing? What’s new with BFDM lately? Could you tell us what was a reason to change a vocalist and how is the work on your new record going?
We’re fine, thanks. We’re currently recording some new and not so new tracks which we intend to put into our first full length CD. There is a lot of work recently and we’re trying to make the whole concept of the album. We hope it will be finished this summer. Yes, there’s been a change in the band – we’re having a new vocalist for about 8 months now and things seem to be quite good so far. There wasn’t any conflict among us with the ex-frontman of the band, it just turned out that he was no longer able to take the strain. That’s all.
What people should expect from the new songs? How do they differ from your demo?
We try to keep the same sound line, we still share the same ideas and I personally could say that BFDM still have the same certain old school-hardcore-punk-rock attitude with the tiniest feature of thrash metal guitar riffs. We’re also open to hip-hop influence in our music. Basically we name it street rock. There’s a bit of difference in the emotional way of singing of the previous and the current singer but I think it all sounds rougher and tighter now. The lyrics keep almost the same spirit – a critical middle class way of disagreement with the world’s political and moral trends. No macho smash-your-head bullshit! Respect to all kinds of hardcore bands when they’re real!
Did you find a label to put it out yet? When can we expect to see the full length drop?
We haven’t found any label yet since we haven’t looked for one. The album will be most probably a DYI production within our country, as was the demo three years ago. We’re recording it in our own studio and our guitarist Michael will be the sound engineer, just like on the demo record. Anyway, we’re ready to collaborate with labels. The album can be expected in summer 2009.
Listening to your music I can hear a lot of NYHC influences, but it’s more in the vein of the bands like Cro Mags, Crown Of Thornz or Leeway than the usual AF/Madball stuff. What are your main influences? Who do you look up to?
Most part of the audience is aware of our classic 80’s taste but we try to make music our own way. It’s true that we have played numbers of Cro Mags covers at the start and we formed our affinity to such kinds of bands like Killing Time, Maximum Penalty and Leeway, but we’ve always been open-minded to all sorts of influence in our music. I personally mostly listen to pure UK punk/hardcore and the other guys have their own vision in music, but as long as we play together, we think and feel music one and the same way.
Do you guys have any influences out of hardcore?
Apart from the hardcore scene, we are all keen on jazz, funk, hip-hop, reggae and other styles. One has to be tolerant with all music styles, especially when they make music themselves. Of course, I don’t mean mainstream pop or disco music which we all resent!
How do you work on making new songs?
Usually when we start making a new song, it’s someone’s personal idea and when we all hear it, we discuss it and everybody is adding something to it. Thus, you get a mixture of different ideas where the personal feeling of the author is kept and shared with the other members at the same time. However, it is all to the author’s credit.
What topics do you consider in your lyrics?
The lyrics of BFDM are basically inspired of the world we live in. It’s all about the imperfect reality where injustice, corruption and greed are all around. There is a feeling of a high-spirited nature in capture of the unconscionable and indifferent society where everything is going down. We all think this is what hardcore should deal with.
Your bands name is BFDM, does that break down to stand for something?
BFDM is an abbreviation of “brothers from different mothers”. It all came as a spontaneous idea at the mere beginning and it was an idea of our ex-vocalist. The name represents the meaning itself.
Can you give me a brief background on the band? How did you guys meet, how long you’ve been around etc.
The band’s been around for about three years now but every one of us came from other hardcore bands from the Bulgarian scene – Face up/Vendetta/ADIM, Skinflick, Breakaway and Outrage. Some of us have been into hardcore for about ten years now and the senior ones for even more. Perhaps it was the love to the Cro-mags that each one of us was feeling when we decided to form a band just for the fun. Then we started making covers and it happened that we had the ideas for our own songs. At the time we all played in other bands.
Some of us still have their other bands but that is not a problem to pursue what we have together.
For anyone who doesn’t know much about the scene in Bulgaria, can you describe it for us and what are the best bands around?
It all started in the city of Varna in the late 80’s and early 90’s when Confront were the first to introduce real anarcho-punk/hardcore and to the public. The scene in Varna is still one of the most active in Bulgaria with bands like Indignity, Outrage, Another day, A-moral and many others. Here in Sofia bands like Last hope, ADIM (ex-Vendetta), Brothers in blood, Redound (ex-Envy), and Melekh are well known and make concerts regularly. There are many other good bands in other cities that deserve to be seen. The whole scene is seeing a large variety of styles, different influences, appearance and attitude which is good because everyone’s taste will be pleased.
What bands, if any, would you consider to be your true peers in either the Hardcore or Metal scenes?
This is quite a difficult question! If I start naming them the list will go on for hours. Anyway, let’s try: Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys, Black flag, Bad Brains, Warzone, Murphy’s law, Agnostic front, Madball, Merauder, Subzero, Doom, Napalm death, Extreme noise terror...Life of agony, Faith no more, Voivod...and many more!
Do you think that the past and the current situation in Bulgaria have affected your band and the scene in your country in general in any way?
You know that Bulgaria suffered a hard reformation from the so-called “communist” regime to that messed up bureaucratic way of governing called “democracy” today. It was almost twenty years ago but it doesn’t seem that things have got better. Now we are in the EU and we all see another way of deception. Anyway, we don’t try to determine the band as a political one but life surely reflects in our lyrics.
What are the future plans for the bands? Any plans for the tour?
We currently don’t have any other certain intentions, except finishing the records for the album which is the next goal. When all has successfully ended we shall look for a small tour inside Bulgaria and eventually abroad. We’ll be waiting for offers as soon as it is ready.
Well, is there anything else that you'd like to expound upon?
We’d like to thank you for your time! Respect to all the crews and bands! Stay hardcore!
BFDM @ Myspace
