words romana dalgleish

Bob Rifo talks about shoegazing, a violent, oversexed copy machine and not talking too much.

Before my set you should… listen to Chopin, Debussy and Schubert so you’re relaxed and your heart will explode when you are there with me.

The people listening to my music are… the young because they’re going to discover my music, the old because they’re going to be reminded of the old stuff. Boys because they want to do some stage diving and the girls because they want to do stage diving with some guy, and kiss, and make love. I think girls need to do more stage diving and destroy more consoles and instruments when DJs are playing! Please girls, MORE destruction!

If I wasn’t a Bloody Beetroot… I would probably be a heroin addict who listens to Joy Division until he dies... awesome... decadent.

Onstage I wear… skinny jeans, my hat, my Ray Bans, my cigarettes and a dirty white T with black prints. It’s a different one, but it’s always extra dirty!

My greatest influences are… post punk, new wave and shoegaze. I used to read Tanino Liberatore’s ultraviolent comics, Ranxerox. He destroyed my naivety forever. That’s why we’re working together now. He designed the cover art for Frank Zappa’s The Man from Utopia and he made my album cover. Now we’re friends. The concept album brings together all the influences the Bloody Beetroots absorbed between 2006 and 2009. Tanino and I met in Paris in November 2008 and decided to work on the same project from two different angles: music and illustration.

At the moment I’m working on… My new album Romborama is an anarchical mission to destroy the idea of genre and it is finally done. Now I’m working with Giulio Favero (producers of The Melvins and ZU) on my new punk hardcore project RIFOKI, a collaboration between me and Steve Aoki. Steve used to play with This Machine Kills. I’m also starting to produce a new post punk, shoegaze, electro project called Bobermann.

We are called the Bloody Beetroots because… If you search Bloody Beetroots on Google you just get the Bloody Beetroots, the DJs and maybe some vegetables. You need to be clever if you want to be indie for life.

Best set I ever played… was in London, Ontario. It was just for 450 people, such a 1977 party. It was a disaster, a good disaster! I think the audience helped a lot and if you have the right venue you can destroy really well; I love sweaty clubs.

It all began… when I started to study classical music at 9 years old. I played classical guitar, I still play it now, I love it. I have no idea how it turned into the music I play now, for me it was natural, it’s just music. I love playing music and I don’t care about the genre. Now I can play bass, guitar, drums, piano, I can sing and shout. Yesterday I played the Ave Maria of Schubert – maybe I could try and use that one in a set.

If I could work with anyone I would work with… Portishead and The Germs because they are obscure, they don’t talk too much. They speak through their music and I love that way to explain things. I’m going to Venice in an hour and for sure I’m going to meet someone and I’ll start to talk and think... so tonight when I’m back home I’ll have a new song to compose. Emotions and stories, tales, adventures – that’s what my music is: it’s my life.


I’ll tell you something about me… I think I (Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo) have multiple identities, like a super hero. For example, I can play a big triangle with a mask on. Have you ever seen that? I think not. Who knows, I’m an anarchist: Today I play electro, tomorrow maybe I’m going to play punk and the day after tomorrow I’m gonna kill myself... Who knows?

My mum sees the Bloody Beetroots… on YouTube. She’s 60; she needs to stay at home. It is too hard for her, she’d die if she came to see the Bloody Beetroots! My mum is so angry about me always being away but I love her. My poor mum, she loves the beat generation.

My message for the kids is… School is all! Especially if you want to learn and destroy after that, a bit like search and destroy. You need to know it ALL! We need to change the society before anything else. Music is the best way to do it, more so than other art forms because music can be straight to the point. You can send messages to the people through music, especially if your philosophy is called PUNK.

When it comes to expressing myself… I love writing but just little words, there’s something magic about a few words. I wrote this thing this morning: Remember where you come from and always be yourself because one day you could end up cleaning shit. I don’t talk much but I think all the time.

Travelling all over the world I find that… I’m absorbing lots from many, many cultures. I don’t read magazines or newspapers, I try to discover my personal news, so I explore. I need to answer all of my personal questions. When I stay in HK, I’m totally sure I’ll discover something new.

Bloody Beetroots - Volar, 24 July, $280, Tel: 2810 1272