Getting to Know… The Trousers | Interview

In the 475^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from the Budapest garage/hard rock band The Trousers.

“When we are asked to describe our style with three bands, we can’t, although it is an integrated and focused approach to rock music, not an eclectic one.” Right on, The Trousers! The Hungarian garage/hard rock band adds, “We play rock and roll, but with the energy of heavy metal.” Rock on! In our 475^th Q&A, we get the inside scoop on the band’s genesis, goals, musical influences, and current and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into Getting to Know… The Trousers: Interview No. 475!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes The Trousers distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

When we are asked to describe our style with three bands, we can’t, although it is an integrated and focused approach to rock music, not an eclectic one. It is made of four elements: the rawness and authenticity of 70’s hard rock like Motörhead, AC/DC or Black Sabbath, the intensity of sound that is coming from the 90’s and the 00’s like Queens of the Stone Age or Monster Magnet, but the songs and the melodies are very catchy, think about The Hellacopters, Cheap Trick or Thin Lizzy, whatever. And there is also a punkish attitude like Iggy and The Stooges or the Pistols. We play rock and roll, but with the energy of heavy metal.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did The Trousers form, and what were some of your goals or visions early?

The roots of the band go back to the mid-00’s, when there was a big indie rock hype in Budapest and in Europe. I was a guitarist in a successful band called Amber Smith, but I wanted to play more rock-oriented music, as my musical influences are not in the 80s new wave and post punk, but classic rock and hard rock. The first album was a kind of a mixture of indie and hard rock, but from the second LP, Soul machine (2010), it’s full garage rock, rock n roll with strong retro feelings. We wanted to play timeless rock music like the Stones, Iggy, AC/DC, Rival Sons, and others that never lose their relevance.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Of course we wanted to conquer the world, and it’s absolutely normal. We still want to 😊 but now, after the Covid-years and the fact that, except from metal, all the rock genres went totally underground, we have to be realistic. We are happy to make records – the seventh one is on the way – we play cool club gigs in Hungary and in central Europe (Slovenia, Austria, Czechia, etc.), and sometimes we support huge bands like Dirty Honey or Tygers of Pan Tang. But thanks to some enthusiastic promotion guys that we work with, our songs can be heard on underground rock radio from England to Spain, Brazil, or Nicaragua.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences, and how are they influential?

My first influences as a guitarist were the Mick Taylor period of the Stones, Billy Gibbons, Malcolm Young, and Tony Iommi. I have tried to write riffs like them, in different tunings. Regular, drop D, open G, open D. Song writing is different. You’ve got to have a killer riff, like all the old AC/DC songs or Sabbath songs, or Alice in Chains, and you must have a catchy song that can be performed with a single acoustic guitar, because it works. I learned a lot about this by listening to The Hellacopters albums “High Visibility” and “By the Grace of God.” But Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, and Cheap Trick did the same in the 70’s. Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains is the same. And you have to sound organic, that never goes out of style.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Once we played at a club in Budapest, I made a very rock n roll movement, and my trousers tore apart on my ass. Nomen est omen (the name is an omen), we are The Trousers anyway 😊. Once we played in Prague, Czechia, and they brought us a lot of dope. Our guitarist Pete got very high, and he was very happy, but he lost himself in the song. During the song’s performance, I tried to call his attention to stop playing, but it was not successful. The funniest things happen after the concerts and at the apartments where we sleep, related to alcohol consumption 😊.

To this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

On our 2013 album, Freakbeat, there is a song called “Real deep groove.”  At that time in Budapest, there was a guy, Lasse, at the Swedish embassy who was a great Hellacopters fan like us. When he returned home, he met Nicke Andersson, the leader of the band, to ask him to play a solo on this song. And it happened! Nicke is even in the video, in an animated form. We are very proud of this. Our latest single, “Second hand suicide”, from the forthcoming album, was called an instant rock classic on a site, and it’s a huge thing for us.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left-of-center we should know about The Trousers? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Through the years, we had a chance to support great bands who were all very satisfied with our performance. Just the name a few: Dirty Honey and Tygers of Pan Tang were already mentioned, Black Stone Cherry, MC5, Atomic Bitchwax, Peter Pan Speedrock, Peter Hook & The Light, The Blue Van, Honky, Barb Wire Dolls…

What is the band currently working on or promoting that you can share? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

“Second hand suicide” was released in May 2025, the first single of the forthcoming album called Necessary evil. It’s coming out in the autumn, then we will have an album release show and tour in central Europe. And who knows, maybe at other places, too.

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

Thank you, all the best for you and the readers!