Review Fix Exclusive: Pokerface Drummer Doc Talks ‘Divide and Rule’ And More

Review Fix chats with Pokerface drummer Doc, who discusses the band’s origin, new album “Divide and Rule” and their goals for 2016. An eclectic group of trash metals from Russia, Doc and the rest of the band have their sights set on making a big splash on the United States metal scene.

Review Fix: How did you guys get together?

Doc: Nowadays it’s not big deal to create metal band, you know. But it’s very difficult to be famous.
But if you really want – you need a strategy, good management and some funds. You see – nothing about musicians, genres, songs and gears. We started to build metal band in 2013, we used to play with about tens musicians, we were trying to construct metal project on person-risk free strategy. So in result we work hard in metal project POKERFACE. All together.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Doc: Unfortunately, we are not full-time musicians. We write some riffs at home, on mic or music-sequencer and later try it on music base with real staff and environment. We always record several variants on recorder and listen to these tracks in home, in silence. We are keeping ears open to new ideas, critics and something like that. Sometimes we give tracks to sound producer asking what he thinks about it. After that we test new track on gigs or live show and make some fixes. That’s how track becomes ready to be recorded.

Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?

Doc: Nowadays not many band are playing old thrash with female growling vocal. Many clones melodic death, metalcore etc. But growling cute sexy girl? Very rarely. And we are can do a dynamic show with powerful music on the stage, you know. We are not so special as Unusual-New-Experimental-Style-F*cking-Music-Gods but we are enough special for real moment in real music environment.

Review Fix: How would you describe your style?

Doc: Simple, raw and aggressive speed-thrash. Some guys describe our style as thrash-death. I know nothing about precise metal-segmentation (it’s a myth) and I call our music as thrash. Main thing is – play music you want. Let music reviewers to give the names of your style.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?

Doc: The main goal – we could spread our product in Europe via promoters and streaming services. Now we have a huge amount reviews on our band, albums and tracks. It’s very important to understand how you do the business and how you must go further. We have about 8 points from 10 in average for “Divide And Rule” and that’s enough mark for keep going. Another goal – album opens doors to touring organizations, to recording label’s offers, promoters etc. Album – it’s a good boost for band.

Review Fix: What’s the standout song? Is there a story behind it?

Doc: The “Chessboard Killer” is really outstanding, of course. That song is about psychomaniac from Moscow. He killed many-many homeless and lonely people. It was so creepy and scaring and our ex-member Dietrich wrote this track. Nowadays, we play this one every gig. Several guys think we are greeting the murders but it’s a bullshit, we just play song about human-beast. It’s not a propaganda.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Doc: We have a strategy and we are keeping follow it. Our plans – huge promotion in Europe, gigs, tours, festivals, second LP album, promotion and again and again and maybe someday we will be famous band from my first answer!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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