Handsomebeast!

A few days ago I got the opportunity to ask "Houston “space-rockers” Handsomebeast!". They are  ready to release a new single and video called "Playboi". The guys have not released anything since 2016, but that is soon to change. This first single introduces this new  "Playboi" character and this will not be the last we hear from him. 

After hearing the single myself, all I can say is that it's very good and very catchy. Funky in al the right ways! Plus the video for the single is fantastic! Check out what they had to say!

Desert of my Eye (Pao, owner): First of all you guys have great music! It's so catchy and funky. Love it. Besides the name being inspired by Ron Burgundy, who is Handsomebeast and what can you tell me about the band? I saw some of the Youtube uploads go back to 2012 and your last album was in 2016.
Handsomebeast: Thank you! That is a very kind thing to say. Broadly speaking, we are an eccentric group of close friends that all taught each other how to play music. Everybody in the band except for Nick grew up in Houston, and played in bands with each other since we were 13 years old. We played a lot of punk rock growing up, which undoubtedly led to our collectively rugged and masculine exterior. We then played some blues, then some experimental rock, and then created Handsomebeast, which was founded upon the principles of funk and such.With Playboi, and the music that is following it, we feel that we’ve truly hit our stride. This music is as suave and interesting as we’d like to imagine we are.

D.O.M.E: Do you think that the band's name, Handsomebeast, has transitioned into a more literal thing with this new "Playboi" single?
Hb: I must imagine so. Perhaps we’ve willed it into existence.

D.O.M.E: What is it inspired by?
Hb: We were watching a bunch of classic heist / crime movies at the time, and I think some of that noir spirit creeped into the songwriting process. We also were motivated to try and experiment with more minimal song structures...we wanted to make something you could play out of some trunk speakers next to the paleta man.

D.O.M.E: The video is great. I was not expecting the heist towards the end! What's the concept behind it? I read that it's the first of a series with the "Playboi" character. What can we expect next?Hb: A tasteful twist into crime can be an effective way to get the proverbial party going! The “Playboi” video is basically a glimpse into the world of that Playboi character and his cronies, or as we like to call them, “The Goons.” They work hard and they play hard. And by work I mean commit crimes. This definitely isn’t the last time we’ll see these characters.

D.O.M.E: How/why did you guys decide to shoot in NOLA?
Hb: We try to get over to NOLA as often as we can. There is no city like it. The band actually originally formed there in 2009 while Nick, Tony, Peewee and Jacob were students in the music industry program at the Loyola University New Orleans. Nick ended up living there and attending school for 4 years (even graduating from Loyola, surprisingly) before moving to Houston to join the boys in order to seriously pursue global dominance with Handsomebeast. So we still have a pretty serious love affair with NOLA and I assume we always will.

D.O.M.E: On a different note, how do you think being from Houston influences the band's sound?
Hb: We don’t sip the syrup in Houston, but we’re pretty sure that some of it got into the water. I think there is a distinct Houston swagger that has seeped its way into our new music.

D.O.M.E: What are your influences?
Hb: We all have pretty varied tastes from an individual standpoint. But when it comes to Handsomebeast, we try to make musically ambitious pop tunes. So artists like Anderson .Paak Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vulfpeck and St. Vincent are pretty inspirational for us. We also are getting into movies as musical inspiration, a la the heist theme of this video and song.

D.O.M.E: For someone that might be hearing Handsomebeast for the first time, is there something you want to add?! 
Hb: Follow us on instagram @handsomebeasttx! We don’t use instagram as a slutty promotional tool; we use it to try and make people laugh and also to express ourselves visually, In a sexy way.