Instinct has been the baseline coursing through The Bloody Beetroots — the brainchild of Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo — since he began his aggro-rebellious route through the EDM world in the mid-2000s. While his symphonically derived mind and wild electro-punk shows originated from his home base in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, he quickly rose through the underground circuit, emerging at the forefront of global dance culture with his own chaotic, gritty style and the landmark hit “Warp 1.9,” a collaboration with DJ Steve Aoki. That momentum carried into a catalog of collaborations with artists as diverse as Paul McCartney, Tom Morello, Perry Farrell, Tommy Lee, and Dennis Lyxz?n of Refused.
Now, two decades on — after extensive touring with a full live electro-core band and separate DJ sets under the moniker SBCR — Rifo has amassed a vast archive of lived experiences. Each memory carries tonal weight. Each adventure becomes source material with its own name, character, space, and time. His visual impressions become blueprints for his music.
With the foresight of a classically trained composer, Rifo translates these mental images into a cohesive audio narrative. He sees a scene before he hears a sound. A motif forms; structure follows. Key, tonal center, emotional arc, and rhythm are often sketched as concepts and notes onto paper before he strikes an instrument or steps into the studio. In this process, vision becomes a framework long before it transmutes into The Bloody Beetroots’ signature collision of cinematic composition and electro-punk chaos.
On FOREVER PART ONE, his compositional method remains intact, now sharpened by time. Revisiting memories from Italy alongside present-day visuals, Rifo honors his past but allows room to recalibrate his sound in real-time toward whatever narrative unfolds.
The Production:
This conceptual architecture sets the stage for what happens when Rifo enters the recording studio’s soundproofed walls. Here, his sonic photographs are carefully developed and brought to light, emerging into life through a balance of intuition and structure — a form of compositional industrialization: these lived experiences are transformed into sonic elements built to command both stage and space.
As Rifo explains, “I come from live music culture. My tracks must live in that world — they must work ‘LIVE,’ whether I’m playing with the band or doing a DJ set.” For him, the approach has to feel human and tangible. “If that physical sensation translates outside of the live performance too, even better — that means the track leveled up. But for me, music is physical.”
With the framework of each song already mapped out, the studio becomes a testing ground —a space to feel the music outside the mind in real time. Here, visual impressions collide with cinematic sounds and motifs, set down with a punk ferocity. Abstract ideas are molded, evolving into tracks that feel as immediate as they are painstakingly designed.
Rifo is meticulous about finding the right balance of roughness in his soundscapes. “I get there by experimenting with different kinds of distortion on instruments — virtual or real — but I’m not loyal to any single machine or plugin. I want to leave room for experimentation and avoid getting trapped in a fixed formula.” Throughout The Bloody Beetroots catalog, the consistent trait is always that rough edge — yet it evolves from track to track, song to song. “The goal is truth, not cleanliness,” he emphasizes.
This commitment to authenticity extends to the collaborators Rifo brings into the studio on FOREVER PART ONE. Grabbitz, Bob Vylan, Teddy Killerz, and Tokky Horror, among others, are aligned energies that augment the sonic vision — not features added for polish or bullet points. As Rifo explains, “I’m looking for a certain kind of mental alignment. I know that alignment can lead to something magic — whether it becomes a ‘win’ in the music business or not. If there’s no alignment of thought, I don’t think real creative development can happen, and that’s where I stop. But if that alignment is there, that’s where sharing begins: a vision forms, and a process starts that serves that vision — until it finally becomes music.”
Even when styles differ in theory, what matters to Rifo is authenticity — voices that carry conviction rather than perfection. This priority allows him to embrace edgier aesthetics while maintaining the spontaneity that emerges during real-time studio sessions. “My punk, don’t-give-a-f*ck attitude gives me extra freedom to break a few rules, step off the path, and finish a song from different angles. I think that’s part of why it can sound cutting-edge — but it’s not something I plan. It’s instinct. It’s experimentation. And again — it’s about serving the music.”
Rifo’s philosophy of realism and grit permeates every sonic decision. “There’s basically no risk of my tracks being too clean. I’m chasing a certain rawness because it’s part of where I come from. Dirt is at the root of what I do — I’ve always felt more like a craftsman than an industrial manufacturer.” Sound design, BPM, and compositional intent support the story, guided by the principle that The Bloody Beetroots exist to explore sound as language —shaped by Rifo’s innate ability to hear and visualize music. FOREVER PART ONE cements that creative process — inseparable from his identity as a composer, punk provocateur, and boundary-pushing innovator.
For The Bloody Beetroots, listening to sounds traveling through the air comes first. Translating those sounds into musical motifs and mini compositions is the ultimate goal. As he puts it, “My motto is: let the music speak. Not just the music I put out — also the music that comes to me. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose… but either way, I’m always having a ridiculous amount of fun in the process.”
Photo by Luca Rizzardi
