Turning empty bottles into stardom

The Bottle Boys are Denmark’s latest viral sensation

Empty beer bottles lying around? Why not record a cover of your favourite pop song and upload it to YouTube? Then all that’s left to do is wait for the offers to perform on TV shows in the USA to come rolling in.

That’s what a trio of Danes calling themselves The Bottle Boys did when they uploaded a cover of Lady Gaga’s ‘Pokerface’. The video (see it below) has recently become a viral hit, garnering nearly 150,000 views.

The group – which featuries Christopher Bogár, Philipp Brodersen, Johannes Ettrup, Kaspar Frederiksen and Martin Handberg – are about as innovative with their instruments as Lady Gaga is with her outfits.

“It’s all about bottles – and only bottles. We play them, build new instruments from them, and much, much more,” according to their Facebook page.

The group formed in 2005 at Copenhagen’s Institute of Musicology, and over the past seven years have moved from playing bottles filled with varying levels of water to create different notes to playing entire drum sets made of bottles and duct tape.

The Bottle Boys are now USA-bound, having signed a contract with an American TV company. On the other side of the pond, the video is be played on various morning television shows, and the group hopes it will lead to bigger gigs.

“We hope that the video will be seen by many people so that we can come over at play on David Letterman’s show,” Handberg told Ritzau. “Our ultimate goal is to play at the Super Bowl.”

But you don’t need to be an American TV viewer to catch The Bottle Boys in action. They are known for displaying their skills on the festival circuit in Denmark, having played at Roskilde Festival, Samsø Festival and Skanderborg.

The band’s motto? “Everything can be played on bottles!”

 





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