Review Fix Exclusive: Operation Offbeat’s Max Beeger Talks Origin in Music And More

Hamburg, Germany. 18th October 2019. 2Tone 40th Anniversary, Roddy Radiation & The Skabilly Rebels live at Monkey Club, supported by OPeration Offbeat.

Review Fix chats with Operation Offbeat’s Max Beeger, who discusses the band’s origin, creative process and goals.

Review Fix: How did the project start?

Max Beeger: A few years ago I was a bit frustrated about my Hamburg band being invited for the odd gig in the UK, but never actually making it. So I put on an ad in UK forums, trying to find musicians for a „London-Hamburg-Ska-Connection“; people who’d be interested in features, mutual gigs and the like. The response was big enough to start a complete new band in London; with me commuting and couch surfing. We gigged in the UK and Germany until we got a deal; but split up over line up issues and general exhaustion my end… So I moved the band back to Hamburg, where we recorded the second half of „Your idea of luck“ and are now waiting for the plague to disappear, so we can gig again!

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Beeger: It usually starts with a riff or a melody snippet, hitting me out of nowhere. Which often happens shortly before I fall asleep at night; so I whistle the idea on my mobile to remember it next morning. My wife thinks I’m nuts, but that’s all for the arts. Then I’d hit my home studio and jam on said snippet until I’ve got the major song parts, sing along with it until I have a rough idea what I want to write about, then send a demo to the band. If they decide to try it, we’d turn it into a decent version together!

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

Beeger: ‘Fire‘! The exception from the rule in two ways- the first time I’ve written cheerful lyrics without tongue in cheek. Which I want to do more often in the future.

Second; it wasn’t even planned to become a song in the end. I had just bought a mandolin, and a whistle, and adusted my banjo (I’m a huge folk fan!) and just wanted to try out my acoustic gear. ‚Fire‘ was more or less the accidental end result. It’s one of my favourites in the set and hasn’t worn off to me yet!

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2020?

Beeger: We’re making the best out of the situation- no gigs in the diary would leave me more time to write and do some networking, hoping to return stronger than before! I miss the roadtrips and the excitement that comes with it, so the main 2020 outcome I wish for is a proper schedule for 2021!

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Beeger: Something we got to hear a lot in the past is „I usually don’t listen to Ska, but this is different“ and I love that. I absolutely don’t think of us as the reinvention of the wheel, but if we add a flavour to the mix that the Ska and the Rock guys both dig, I’m happy.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Beeger: We have an album finished in writing, that we’d like to release in spring, also there’s another video for „Cross the line“ in the making. Also there’ll be another collaboration with the fantastic Specialied Project- a great UK charity; if you haven’t heard of them, please check them out: https://specializedproject.com

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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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