The diverse band, The Villebillies, arose from the musical depths of Louisville, KY. This 10 member band broke all the rules in the music world by not keeping one genre and, instead, created their own sound.

With a combination of rap, rhythm and blues, bluegrass and rock, this eclectic group got together.

“We feed off each other and perfect it,” said Demi “Reverend D. Ipcus” Demaree, vocalist.

The guys in the band know each other from elementary school and high school, including Demaree, Dustin “Tuckmonster” Tucker (vocals), Derek“Child” Monyhan, (vocals), David “2B” Mouser (vocals), Dylan “Jimmy Shivers” O’Daniel (vocals), Tim “Tip E Toe” Bernauer (drums/percussion), Justin “JuJu BadCredit” Reid (electric guitar), Adam “Powder” Goff (acoustic guitar), William “BJ” Young (keyboard) and Ron Ping (bass).

Demaree said they started hanging out and making music together. It became their passion and decided to make a living out of it.

Their debut album is out on shelves right now with Rhythm and Booze/Universal Motown Records.

What’s with the booze? I can tell, you’re probably wondering. I asked that very question to Demaree. He laughed. He told me, when they started playing together, they all were 21 and 22 years old. A lot of their songs were about bourbon, being done with a certain thing or being with a girl for seven years, he said.

“We just started drinking a lot,” Demaree said. He calls it whiskey-soaked rock.

But then, once they started getting noticed about their music, they wanted their own label. That’s how Rhythm and Booze Productions got named, he said.

He said as they continued to make music together, their songs got more serious. Like, their last song on the CD, titled “Greatest Moment.”

Demaree said after all the songs they wrote over the years, they could only choose 12 songs or less and that made it difficult for the band to decide which ones to use.

“We had hundreds of songs to choose from,” he said. “We thought the Villebillies were a taste of what we started and a taste of where we’re going. We didn’t want to freak out the world.”

Singing and rapping about drinking in the early years, and then moving on to their more serious side shows the world how diverse the Villebillies really are.

Demaree told me that if I asked any band member who their influences in music were, I would get different answers from artists like Michael Jackson to Tool to TuPac. That is why they use so many different genres of music. They like them all, he said.

But how do 10 guys agree on what to play with so many different musical influences?

“Everybody gives their two cents,” Demaree said. “We don’t argue about anything. I thought everybody worked like that.”

Read our review of their debut album.