It's been said many a time that rock 'n roll is a dying breed. I disagree. Sometimes bands come along that shine so brightly that their light is undeniable; when we are caught within their glow we are mesmerised. This is The Answer. Welcome to the rock 'n roll revival. In a recent chat with Cormac and Micky I discussed with them their latest album, touring with AC/DC, and the new single 'Nowhere Freeway' (featuring Lynne Jackaman of Saint Jude), amongst a whole load of other stuff. 'Revival' (aptly named) is the kind of album that makes you feel part of something special. Since its release in October 2011, 'Revival' has been received with open arms. Years in the making, the guys pulled out all the stops to get this record just right, including heading to El Paso in Mexico to record it. "It's like a proper kind of sanctuary for musicians. You were able to just focus on getting a good live performance, but you also felt like you were doing something special. We felt like we were here to record a classic album, and that's obviously the way you want to be feeling whenever you're in the middle of the recording process," said Cormac of recording 'Revival'. Micky told me: "It was sort of residential, which kind of suits us; we can focus. It's a very alien place for us to go, it was a secluded out-in-the-desert kind of vibe, so it definitely added to the whole mystery of the thing, you know." New single 'Nowhere Freeway' (video below) has just been released, and it's fantastic, by far my favourite song on the album. If you haven't heard it, it's a duet featuring Lynne Jackaman from Saint Jude - I wanted to know if the track was written specifically with Lynne in mind: "No, it wasn't," Cormac said. "It was initially written as a two-part harmony between me and Micky, but we felt this album could benefit with a duet and, you know, getting a female vocalist in for a change of flavour. "I think just across the board on this album. We challenged ourselves and pushed ourselves further than we have gone before, you know, and we actually came back from America with all the tunes tracked. We were listening back to 'Nowhere Freeway' and the two-part harmony and the narrative working its way through the song seemed to really lend itself to getting a female vocalist on board, so we decided that we'd go and kidnap Lynne and hold her for ransom." "Plus she can really hit some notes that I can't, being a chick and that," Micky added. "It hits the nail on the head for what we wanted to achieve, it's a proper duet and Lynne gives a great performance; I think on the day in the studio it wasn't until the end of the session and I was kinda just slagging her a bit, saying 'come on give it a bit of welly!!' You know? 'I know you can do better than that', kinda thing, and she was like 'Right let's do this', and it was literally that last take that made it onto the album. It's great." My other favourite track on the album is 'Trouble'. I love the heavier, blusey riffs and, of course, the accent of the harmonica. Micky told me: "That's another track that kinda comes alive. They all are great, but at the minute I am really liking 'Waste Your Tears' - we've been closing on it every night on this tour and it's one of the best closers we've had I think, and I really enjoy playing that track." My favourite thing about The Answer is the distinct blues sound that they incorporate into their writing; this doesn't come around often in a lot of bands, although they are out there. When The Answer started it was great to hear a band that incorporated it into a more current sound. Cormac commented: "I hear what you are saying in the sense of there is that distinct lack of connection right back to the blues of it all; it's about taking the essence of that and threading it in a way where it's going to sound contemporary. That's the age-old challenge of any rock'n'roll band I think." Interested to delve deeper into the inner workings of this album, we started chatting more about the challenges of writing, performing and producing an album of this standard. "We started writing and recording right off the back of the AC/DC tour. We left that tour feeling very damn good about ourselves; we were in a good place as a band. I think our biggest challenge was bottling that energy up and releasing it into the songwriting. We knew we had an album like 'Revival' in us, but obviously bringing it all out is a completely different challenge, it was just about making sure that we didn't get weighed down by the pressures of needing to deliver, and everything that comes with this." 'Revival' is a very different album to the previous 'Rise' and 'Everyday Demons'. Cormac explained the difference between the albums and told me why 'Revival' is so special to the band: "Well, 'Rise' was an album which essentially was a collection of songs we had been writing since the band's formation. It took us three years to get a record deal, so we had a big bunch of songs there to pick and choose from. 'Everyday Demons', the second album, was completely alien to us and we just had to write an entire album from scratch in three months. This time round, I think it has come more easily, like earlier I was talking about the pressure of having to make sure every song counts, the way modern music is, you have to do your best at all times. "This time, we knew that we had it in us. It wasn't quite as much of a challenge, which meant that we were able to focus on what we were good at, bringing the most out of the songs; expressing ourselves as we wanted to, individually and collectively as musicians." From one end of the spectrum to the other, Micky told me what his highlight of making the album was: "I think actually in pre-production when our producer Chris French-Smith came over, and having it all actually gelling together a month before going out to record, it was a real highlight for us because we worked really hard for six to seven months previously, writing the songs, getting natured and nurtured. "He came over and helped us a little bit with the vision of it, to think a bit bigger and make it happen. That's when we got really excited about going in the studio." I watched the making of 'Revival' and you can see him on the floor, altering pedals, making sure that the sound was just right: "He's completely wired up, you know," Cormac enlightened me. "He's like a mad professor in the studio, he has that way about him, but that was perfect for the kind of album that we wanted to make. It really suited us down to the ground. All the time we spent in El Paso was great; it was like songwriters'/sound recorders' paradise." The Answer can be forgiven for taking so long between releases, especially since they spent the best part of two years on the road with AC/DC. I had to ask if there was anything they might like to share from that tour. Micky (careful not to give anything away) told me: "Every day was an adventure, it really was. They were really cool with us actually - they are a bit older now, it's a lot more chilled, now the tour is a bit more of a family thing really, apparently for the first time. "According to their crew, it has been very different on previous tours, but this time around they were looking after us and we were getting up to all the madness. There was a lot of madness on that tour, that's all you need to know," he laughs. Cormac recalled a time on tour: "I remember going on a two-day bender in New Orleans with our sound guy, drum tech at the time. We were in the taxi on the way home. When the dust had settled, we hit this pile of traffic on the roads. It was like 5.00am on a Sunday morning and I was saying, 'why would there be traffic, must have been an accident' and they said, 'Cormac, it's rush hour on a Monday morning! Everyone laughed. 'Oh right, I need to get to bed'." I can imagine on a tour of this magnitude, things can get carried away, and time can get lost in a sense. Cormac answered: "Well, that's why we had to make the DVD, to catch up on time, and kinda take stock and get some sort of grasp of what happened In that year-and-a-half," Cormac told me. Micky added: "It's nice to have that time of our lives documented – it brings back memories." The Answer are currently touring Europe throughout January, and then they head to Japan. In March, they are touring back through Ireland and the UK with 'The Union'. It's going to be a great tour, continuing the mission to re-ignite the rock 'n roll revival. The Answer weren't always as big as they are, they had to start somewhere. I asked what influences they each had in common, but also those that were different. Cormac: "I suppose I'd be into straight-down-the-line soul records, some of the old stuff like Otis Redding and all that. I suppose I'd be into those blues musicians a bit more than the boys. But do you know there is a lot about our musical taste where everybody meets in the middle. The blues is obviously a big part of the band. You know, we all agree up through the Nirvanas and the Pearl Jams at this stage." Micky: "I think they are probably our common ground, the sorta nineties thing, but I'm a big fan of the eighties Metal stuff." Cormac added: "See, I wouldn't be so fussed with the eighties stuff, Paul is as big a Van Halen and Motley Crue fan as you're ever gonna find." Micky responded: "That's more our side of it, Cormac is into more the soul and blues side of it and we kind of meet in that modern, more nineties thing, and obviously rock or the British Heavy Metal scene." As we all know, The Answer are from Ireland, so I asked them how playing in Ireland was any different to playing in the UK and what the music scene is like over there, especially when they were breaking out. Cormac: "It feels like much more of a local thing in Northern Ireland. The all-round Northern Irish scene is quite compact; all roads lead to Belfast essentially," Micky explained. "It's only a Belfast or a Dublin gig that feels anything like London or anything of that scale." Cormac continued: "When we were cutting our teeth, we were pretty much the only rock 'n roll band making noise with the exception of maybe one or two. Since we've gone out and done more things, there are more and more bands. "There are a bunch of bands now who have obviously said - 'fuck the indie kids, I'm gonna go out and do what I love doin. I'm gonna rock out'. As a result, there are now, on the Northern Irish scene, about eight or nine really quality rock'n'roll bands kicking around. "There's Swanee River, who we did this leg of the Irish tour with. They are very blues rock. Million Dollor Re-load are kind of AC/DC-esque, Trucker Diablo, good, solid Northern Irish rock, Last Known Addiction, Band Wagon, that's just to name a few. It's properly happening right now." Speaking of new bands, if you're new to the industry and new to being in this crazy game, I asked what advice they would give the up-and-coming new bands. Cormac advised: "I would say to make sure in their own minds that's what they really want to do, make sure you have a group of musicians around you that you are gonna get on with and have good chemistry with. If you have good songs and the work ethic then go for it, you know, because all it takes is a lucky break, and the world needs good ass-kickin' rock bands." So there you have it. It has been an absolute pleasure meeting the guys and having this chat. Make sure you catch The Answer on their tour with The Union in March. Welcome to the Rock'n'roll Revival!! March 2012 02 – Dublin – Whelan's 03 – Belfast – Mandela Hall 04 – Cork - Cyprus Avenue 06 – Leeds – Cockpit 07 - Glasgow – Garage 08 – Aberdeen - Lemon Tree 10 – Wolverhampton – Wulfrun Hall 11 – Nottingham - Rock City 12 – Newcastle – Academy 13 – Manchester - Academy II 15 – London - Electric Ballroom 16 – Bristol – Academy 17 - Brighton - Concorde II 'Revival' is out now via Spinefarm Records
1 Comment
Rogue Male first exploded into being in 1983. They released their debut album ‘First Visit’ in 1985, and woke the music world up with an almighty roar. Their fusion of punk and rock was metal plated, they were new and raw. Eyes were opened on a worldwide scale and they enjoyed success in the UK, Europe and United States to much critical acclaim. Yet a shadow was lurking over the rogues and even though they were set up to achieve what seemed like the success they had always dreamed of, management confusion and record companies taking the soul, the punch, from their music, they sadly disbanded in 1987. However in 2007 an independent Polish label ‘Music Mind’ re-released the Rogue Male albums, and when Jim Lyttle was made aware of this, and the fact that yet again they were receiving attention on a mass scale, it seemed to make sense to reform the band. In a recent visit to London I am talking to Jim Lyttle, John Binnie, Phil Clarke and Larry Paterson aka Rogue Male. We are settled in a little pub in Camden and pints are at the ready. Already I feel comfortable with the guys and we are having a laugh.
I asked the guys how it feels to be together again after all of this time. “As far as I am concerned it was fantastic” John tells me “Getting back in with Jim here. We lost touch for quite a while and we met up again in Ireland. I was playing with another band, and it was like we’d never been apart. We had the old friends kinda feeling, you know, the same old thing.” Jim reminisced “When he came off stage it was like hey bud, remember me. We started talkin’ and it was like listen, what are ya doin’? John told me the band he was playing with was coming to an end, and I went well as it happens Rogue Male is kicking off again, are you interested? and he was like yeah, so it was like ok we are back in.” It’s great news that not only was the band reforming, but the original line up was coming into play. Phil Clark tells me how he came to being back in the band. “I’d been moving around a bit, did the whole France thing and ended up in Ireland. I never thought that I would see these guys again, but thanks to Facebook, I picked up Jimmy again and we became friends. The next thing he says is oh Rogue Male is going again. I said, oh what line up have you got? He said they were having problems finding a bass player and I said; well I’ll have a go” Phil Laughs. Jim jumps in “we threw a few rehearsals together and bingo it worked again you know. It was like the natural magic that was in the band was back again, then Larry came on the scene” Larry speaks up “Yeah I’m the new boy” he laughs and tells me how he feels about becoming a part of the rogues “Well, someone’s got to do it!” he laughs “It’s really good. I was into Rogue Male when I was a kid in New Zealand we imported the album in about 1985, and was like fuckin’ hell. We used to have these weekend parties in Christ church and it used to be tradition that the first song would be a Rogue Male song. It’s really fun to be playing it now” With a history like these guys have there were obviously struggles at times, Jim recalls one of their biggest struggles “Well, we have all had our ups and downs with drugs and alcohol so you know, when the band split up in the 80’s it was a big thing for me. I just crashed and hit the bottle. I didn’t come out of it for about twelve or fifteen years and finally got cleaned up and dried out. Phil was the same. A polish record company re-released the two albums and it kicked me back in again, there was interest! It’s always been there in the back of my head, gotta get the band back together, gotta get the guys back together, and that’s basically when the Polish company released the albums. They did it without asking me of course, when it was brought to my attention, I got involved and that spurred me on and I put together an album. I would have loved to have done it with these guys but I didn’t know anyone. I was living in the middle of nowhere in the Irish hills. I just had to get away from everybody. Back in the 80’s I just disappeared you know, but it has always been there in the back of my mind, I have to get Rogue Male back together again, the energy in this band is something that cannot be surpassed you know, and bingo here we are.” So we know how they got back together, but I asked the guys how they actually met in the first instance, back in the 80’s when it all started. Phil recalls “well I was living in France at the time. I grew up in London, but I knew that I had to get back to London to make it in music; there was an ad in the melody maker, Rogue Male Bass player wanted. I’d just been playing in a punk band. I was a heavy rocker but I liked the punk scene. I played in a punk band for a bit but they always knew it was temporary. I had my hair dyed on the top and long and bumped into Jim at the audition and he had his hair dyed the same, and it was like whoa, you know yeah ok. So it clicked, we’d both been punks we liked the same music and Johnny was working in the rehearsal studio at the time. John says fondly “That’s right, I was helping to run the rehearsal studio where these guys were rehearsing and I was playing in a band, we just kind of got talking and I used to be listening to these guys” Jim interjected as he laughed “I will tell you what happened right, we were auditioning for guitar players and there was a string of about fifty guitar players all lined up outside comin’ in and trying and it was bit no no no, but Johnny was sitting listening to us in the office the whole time and sort of gotten to know the songs and everything” John joins in “l loved it” as Jim continues the story “So we went through all these guys, and thought Christ it’s a bit shite really. We were packing up one night and he went you know I’m a guitar player…” Phil interjects “No, no Jim, do you remember we took a break for coffee and John was playing on his own in the studio, just practising in one of the studios and we walked past and just went...” Jim jumps in “BINGO!” as Phil continues his recollection of the story “well we thought, fuckin’ who is this? Listening to this guy, as we opened the door there was Johnny.” Jim adds “So we were like do you wanna come in for a blast? He came in and bingo, and the rest is up to Johnny” as he laughs. John continues the story fondly “Well after that I was sold because like I said I’ve been listening to them rehearsing from the office anyway, and I thought fuckin’ hell, I love this stuff, the punk rock side of it. I like playin’ that sort of stuff. I was comin’ from more of a heavy rock side of it, but the kinda punk thing that Jimmy was doing, that energy. Just give me some of that!” Just hearing the guys tell the story I can sense just how close they are and also how much it means to them to be back and playing together Jim tells me how they found Larry “The biggest worry for me really this time round was getting’ the drummer. Getting the right drummer was difficult, we tried a few. We auditioned three or four different people. One or two were ok. Good enough in their own right, but there is a certain magic that has to happen in this band you know, and understanding that feeling there was only one man that could do it and that was Larry Paterson.” Larry looked over at Jim and said “Aww isn’t that nice.” He laughs “It’s my sort of stuff. I come from a different background, probably because I’m a head banger really; you know Motorhead, Priest and Iron Maiden. But Rogue Male has always featured high on that list too, and I just got talking to Jim and then we had a jam, they said yeah ok, and that was it. It is easily the best band that I have been in” With nothing but positivity surrounding the band and now that they are back I wanted to know what lies ahead, where they see themselves going and what they are most looking forward to Phil says “gigs, tour, gigs, just playing, just fuckin’ dishing it out” Larry added “it’s nice to be touring the world on a bus, it’s nice on a plane, it’s nice to be walking if we bloody have to because you meet such cool people everywhere. You can turn up at the ‘Dog and Duck’ somewhere and there will be two blokes, but if they are into it there is nothing like it really, that’s why we are all destitute because it gets under your skin.” I don’t think anyone could have said it better. It can be tough playing in a band these days, and the only reason why the rogues are doing it is for the love of the music, the thrill of playing live “It’s a way of life can’t think of doing anything else” Jim says, swiftly corrected by John “We can’t do anything else” Jim laughs “that’s more like it Johnny! Fuckin’ can’t do anything else.” With all the touring and the history that these guys have, I find it hard to believe that there isn’t a funny story or two. Jim tells me of his fondest memory from tour “There were several strange things that happened, but we won’t get into the nitty gritty! When we toured France there was a guy in a wheelchair who happened to turn up to every gig that we played. From one end of France to the other, and he managed to get there before we did every time. So when we turned up to the gig, this guy was sitting outside in a wheelchair, and he thumbed it, we were like wow there is that guy again. In the end we thought as well throw him on the bus and we took him with us then. It was about half way through, because we didn’t know who he was and then we got to know him so we threw him on the bus. Actually we were thinking of tying a rope around him and just pulling him behind us but there was enough room in the boot so we just chucked him in there” Jim laughs “that was a strange one because there he was at every gig. That is dedication for ya” Rogue Male, now in the midst of recording a new album for our listening pleasure, Jim tells me about how it’s going “All the tracks are written and ready to roll. We’re not going to veer too far away from what we are about. We don’t care what is comin’ or going or anything like that. We just do what we do and that’s it you know, back in the 80’s it was said that we were scene setters we didn’t follow any particular trail we are trail blazers come what may. The new stuff is still relevant to what we were about in the 80’s although we are aware of a modern approach to it as well.” Jim continues “I’ve always said that I like versatility, and Rogue Male are capable of coming up with anything really and I think anything goes and more importantly we’ll make it go. We’ll try anything….” With that said, the sky is obviously the limit for the rogues and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us. I have had a great time with the guys. Roll on next time! If you haven’t already and want to see what these guys have in store please check out below the video of their new single ‘Liar’ The 100 Club 10th October 2011
The first time I saw The Darkness was in 2003 and at about 11am or so when I emerged from a tent near the Pyramid Stage I wasn’t in great condition. It was incredibly sunny and I was standing there watching the band, and Justin, who was wearing from what I can remember a white cat suit that may or may not have had a long tail. I could probably look it up online but where is the fun in that? They were great. It was just as they were starting to take off the first time round and they were fun and played great rock and roll! Rock of Ages has hit London adapted from the Tony award winning Broadway version of the stage show. It stars Shayne ward as the self obsessed rock star Stacee Jaxx and Justin Lee Collins as Dupree the owner of the famous Bourbon room. Set in the 80’s on the sunset strip Rock of Ages takes us on a journey of a small town girl and city boy as they find love together and the trials and tribulations that they encounter.
Enter the sleazy world of glam rock, strip clubs and washed up rock stars. Rock of Ages is a musical that instantly grabs with its edgy cast and brilliant 80’s soundtrack. It might not be everyone’s bag, but it was most certainly mine. As the story unravelled what made me laugh was I could relate the characters to a lot of my friends. Which seemed somewhat strange as this was set 30 years ago. But in my world, glam rock is still kicking and if my friends are anything to go by so are the outfits! Drew played by Oliver Tompsett is from Detroit and moved to LA to make it as a rock musician and find love. Cue Sherrie an actress from a small town moved to LA to make it as an actress. Drew and Sherrie meet in Dupree’s Bourbon room and instantly the connection is made. Although as with all young and new love there is mass misunderstanding so it does take our two lovers time to find one another but the story on the way is outstanding. The parallel plot of ROA is that of a property developer Hertz (Rohan Tickell) and his son Franz (Sandy Moffat) are trying to persuade the mayor to tear down the sunset strip and rid the sleaze from the city. Regina (Jodie Jacobs) assistant to the mayor refuses to believe that this can happen and instantly leaves her job and leads a protest to stop the development from happening. Meanwhile a relationship surprisingly forms between her and Franz. It’s suprising because every time we meet Franz he steals the scene with high leg kicks, and gay innuendo and when we learn that he isn’t gay the cast seem just as surprised as the audience. When told in the story that everyone thought he was gay Franz says “I’m not gay, I’m just German” a fantastic comedic character upon many. As great as the story, music and performances all round are there is one performance that really stood out to me and that is of Lonny the narrator played by Simon Lipkin he is a sex obsessed stroke of comedy genius that glues the entire show together. With his hilarious t-shirts 'Hooray for Boobies' and witty banter Lonny steals the show. Before the first interval Lonny narrates that at the end of the first half of a show your usually left with a hit tune and jazz hands as he leads the cast into Whitesnake’s 'Here I Go Again' of course ended with jazz hands and a funny sentiment leaving you wanting more. Rock of Ages is a show not to be missed; the cast are all spectacular and extremely talented. Shayne Ward, who I was concerned about the most, can actually pull off rock star status. Who knew! Make sure you go see this in your leathers. My only criticism if I have one was that the audience weren’t sure what to do and I think could have been a bit more involved, so if you are going to go see Rock of Ages be prepared to rock out! \m/ StoneWire! A band stepping out of their South East London digs and thrusting themselves upon us. Their self titled EP is dirty to the core and is promising if you wanna shake your ass and listen to some great rock and roll. These guys are really something to be excited about. From their thundering bass lines to their solid drum beats they don’t fail to impress. Tracks like “Why me” and “Walk on” Have quite a bluesy feel to them. Sky’s vocals show hints of her influences in blues while still retaining the dirty rock sound, these tracks should certainly get you moving. Then on the other hand you have tracks like “Forgiveness” which is the track that stood out the most to me. It has a great melodic guitar riff and key changes. The harmonies in the vocals give me goose bumps. Combined with the drums and bass it’s a really well written song that definitely delivers on the ballad front. I love a good rock ballad and quite clearly these guys feel the same. I went to meet up with Sky for an interview just as they have come back from a sold out tour in Munich to talk about the band and also get personal insight into Sky and what made her wanna rock!!! So we took ourselves to a surprisingly quite pub in the west end for a Friday night and settled ourselves on a nice table on the one of the only warm days that we have had this summer. We have ice cold beers and the mood is set. When did you first know that you wanted to be a musician and how old were you
When I first knew I wanted to be a musician it was at a very early age, I started music when I was about 6 years old. I played the accordion, very rock and roll! In an orchestra (laughs) but it taught me the structure of music. When I was about 9 years old and I heard Kiss for the very first time and there was Paul Stanley, I marched into the living room, where the family congregated for something and I said well that’s it! I’m gonna be a musician and after that I said I want to be a singer and everyone was like “yes O.k, whatever” I have a musical family so they kind of went with it When you say musical family, who was musical and what did they do? My father wasn’t so musical, my mum is a very good singer. The sister of my grandmother had an operatic voice, she wanted me to go to a special boarding school where they only train musicians and she wanted me to go into opera, but I thought after hearing Kiss its very rock and roll so I had to decline, (laughs) I got hooked on the dirty rock very soon. It runs through the family a bit and I’m guessing this is where the singing comes from. My mother’s side. Who are your major influences and are there any that might seem unusual to anyone listening to your music? Maybe someone they wouldn’t expect? Um…Difficult because obviously where I was very much into the rock music after hearing Kiss I discovered AC/DC and deep purple. I really found my love for the 70’s rock you know the Who, Zeppelin one of my favourite bands ever, Aerosmith, oh my god I get goose bumps just thinking about them. There aren’t as many women in rock. Most of the women in the industry are a touch too heavy for me. Like Doro Pesch she is amazing but it’s just not my cup of tea. I’m influenced quite heavily from people like Robert Plant that’s very obvious but I orientated myself a lot on the black soul gospel scene, I love that music, I might not want to sing it all the time because it’s not aggressive enough for me or edgy enough but I love working with it. Early Ike and Tina Turner funnily enough were very influential for me along with gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson was very important for very much the Diva’s, Aretha Franklin that’s an obvious also. My vocal coach was from New Orleans. She taught me Jazz. I love the soulful voice with the umph of the beat and the guitars, I love the marriage of those too so heads up for the black ladies, and they taught me! Awesome. So what struggles have you all faced in the band and why? I think it has a lot to do with being female in this industry that we are in. It’s not pop it’s rock and this is the struggle we face I have always found that I have had to prove myself much more than the guys. It is a lot harder I find for females. So I have found that a bit of a struggle. In terms of the band it’s about finding the right musicians. I have worked with some fantastic people, great people, but I think from a musician’s point of view it was never 100% they didn’t quite get me. Or I didn’t get them so it didn’t always work. When I started taking a step back from it all I thought I wanna be in a band I don’t want to be solo artist, that isn’t for me. I was looking with a fresh pair of eyes for want I wanted in a band. That’s how we overcome it and I thought still gonna kick their ass as a female! So yeah that’s how I did it! I grew some balls! (Laughs) How did you and Rob meet the other guys in the band? Again, it felt very natural, that it was meant to be. We had other musicians first; unfortunately we had a guitarist that didn’t work out. So he had to go. We had a bass player who was quite good but un-reliable. Obviously I have worked with Rob in the same band for years. We looked at what we wanted, and found Steve through a friend he is the bass player. He comes from a very heavy background I’m talking Megadeath, Rob Zombie and all that sort of rock. But he loves the roots rock, he loves Clutch as well and that’s very much me. So that really worked and we got on great. But then the other guitarist left so then we got Rich who is the rhythm guitarist. I knew I wanted to have big vocals you know harmonies and all that and Rich could sing with us, he could sing with me as well as play. He plays acoustic guitar as well, which is very important for our sound too. Then the other guitarist had to go, so then we got Jack, he’s lovely but I was against him for so long due to his age. How old is he? He’s young (laughs) the other guys were the ones who said look it’s music, you don’t want anyone giving you shit for being a female so you can’t give him a hard time for his age. So Jack came, I knew he could play but then he came for an audition and I thought right I am gonna run him through the paces, I said lets do Led Zeppelin and the most difficult Deep Purple and there he was and I forgot my cue for vocals as I was just gobsmacked. He stepped up! Oh my did he…So we decided to just give it a try you know it was very relaxed. The guy’s were right. I can’t be offended by people saying urgggh you’re a female to me doing the same thing because he is young he is very young but he is an amazing guitarist and for some reason it works. Well once you have chemistry within a group it’s very hard to ignore it. And that is the beauty of it the way we work there is not one ego; there is 5 of us and not one ego running around with a self important attitude. Everybody is willing to listen to each other and as soon as we hit the stage it shows. Most people tell us that it looks like we have so much fun and I’m glad it comes across because we are having a great time. You finished the EP Last month, how do you feel now that it’s completed? Very proud, I love the EP, I love the songs on it, and I think I am also quite proud because we only just properly formed in January. We all sat down together and said Right! Where do we want to take it from here? What’s the next step; we need a website and EP. We wanted to do an album and we thought what is the point in doing an album when people are not yet aware of you. So we decided for the obvious middle ground of the EP. I don’t like demos. We set a target to be finished so we actually said July is EP. You have to treat it a little bit like a business. I am glad that we have come so far. We are very critical in our music but we are really happy with the songs that we have chosen. I’m even happier at the positive reaction we have received; people contact us through the site and complement the music and us as a band It must be good to get that kind of response, you don’t always expect it, but obviously it’s what you hoped for. I have been listening to your EP. Forgiveness is a track that really stood out to me and I was just wondering what the inspiration for writing that was? Again, it is probably weighted on the female thing. I am a big believer in what a song means personally. “Forgiveness” is for anyone out there that feels that they have to fit other people’s expectations and not quite being what was expected and asking for that forgiveness for not being the person that was expected and eventually waking up and going, you know what? I don’t need your forgiveness, I don’t need anything from anyone, this is me, this is who I am so take it or leave it. It is perfect how it is, if you don’t like it then it’s your problem not mine. It’s the realisation that you don’t need to confirm with anybody that you are who you are. Who are they to judge? And that is what “forgiveness” is about. It’s about needing the approval and realising no I don’t. Brilliant! I think that is a really good message to be portraying. You and Rob have been together for as long as I have known you which must be about 6 or 7 years now. But I know you have been together forever. Do you work well together writing? Do you write together? Would you ever write about your relationship or each other? Not so much, Rob and me are together, I can not imagine being in a band without Rob. It’s been now 19 years which is a very long time, We used to a write together a lot in the past and Rob used to grab the guitar because my guitar playing is atrocious, or he plays the piano as well……bastard (laughs) and so we used to work on stuff, but we’re not really writing songs together just the two of us. It’s either the band or me on my own. I need a lot of alone time because I have a crazy head and I think a lot. What process do you go through to write the songs? It’s two ways really, we rehearse and one of the guys will be like I have come up with this riff or this beat mainly a riff so then we get the structure of the songs together and I sit in and I get inspiration as to how it’s going I get a feel for the song. Sometimes I just get an idea for a melody, or I will pick a theme and think of what I want to write I start writing. Then I present in a rough way, a melody and the lyrics to the guys and we work around that. That is how forgiveness happened. The others it’s just the other way round. We understand each other in such a great way for such a short time it just feels so natural to write together. You have just completed a tour in Munich in Germany. You had sold out shows but how did the whole tour turn out in general. The whole tour was amazing. It could have been a bit better in terms of the organisation. However I was a little bit nervous in terms of how everything was done. I was worried because we aren’t well known so we thought we would be playing to a very quiet crowd. But it didn’t happen like that we were sold out several times and it was quite amazing, the good thing is the EP was already online before it was finished and people bought it. The crowd starting singing our songs back at us which are quite something else. Especially in another country it’s quite mad. It went really well. It was a good experience for the band, it was a bonding experience as we have our very own bus she’s amazing. You probably saw the photo’s of the JD dispensers and my white wine dispenser! (laughs) Yes!! I saw your tour bus and you have literally got 3 dispensers of JD on the wall, I don’t know how you can drink and travel it would make me so ill. Yeah pretty much! haha we were good we took it fairly easy, none of us take it to the excess which I think is important too. We had our moments, and when the bus stopped we were havin’ a rockin’ time. Have you got one unforgettable tour memory that would stick with you? There was one show, towards the end my ears were hurting for the applause and they would not let us get off stage and it was like “Encore!” we were running out of songs. I am looking forward to a bigger tour as well. I was hoping for more dates. For the dates we had it was great. When do you think that you will release an album? The album will be next year now; we are going to give the EP a while. We played a charity gig in July and sometimes we do a few covers because it’s a charity gig and its better as the crowd knows more of the songs. We stumbled across a guy who lived next door to one of the venues who came and said he was the promoter for something called legends of rock and he was really impressed. I didn’t believe a word. So we headlined our original set that night we did two gigs that day. Anyway he came to check us out and now we are booked for a 3 day great Yarmouth as an original piece. Planet rock and everybody is involved so I am very excited. But I checked the website and guess who is playing on the bill with us? Our very good friends Voodoo six. But I loved that it just came from him listening to us. Have you got any gigs coming up or anything we should be aware of? We are playing on Sunday 11th September at the half moon in Putney we will be playing a full hour. So I am hoping that we see a lot of our London friends as quite an important gig for us. We have played in London before but kept them low key for the beginning. So this is like our proper debut in London. |
AuthorAll articles are © Michelle Nevill Archives
July 2014
Categories |