Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit today, what can we say? ‘Midnite City’ has to be one of the finest and most complete albums we’ve heard in a long time. We know you of course as the current lead singer with Tigertailz, and ex-vocalist/guitarist with one of my favourite bands this millennium Teenage Casket Company, not to mention your stints with Vega, China Doll, Sins of America and current ‘covers band’ Poizon. That’s a lot of experience under the belt and it shows on the album – do you feel that everything you’ve done before has led to this?
It really does feel like that. In a lot of ways this is the album I feel I was always destined to make really. A lot of people have picked up on that too, but I don’t think I could have written this album without having all that experience under my belt beforehand. Everything that I have done before has definitely led me to this and I’m so proud of it.
Take us inside the process of making the album? Where do you start? How do the songs evolve?
The writing process for me literally hasn’t changed since I started writing songs at the age of 11. I write everything on an acoustic guitar. To me, I think that’s always a good test as to whether or not you’ve actually got as good song on your hands or not. So many bands can go into a studio and make a really weak, average song sound 10 times better with a big production etc which can basically cover over the cracks but I think a truly great song should be able to hold its own in its simplest format and be stripped down to one guy singing and playing acoustic guitar. If the song is strong in its most basic form, then you’re onto a winner. And that’s basically how I wrote all the songs on this album, sat on my couch at home with my acoustic guitar.
It will usually start with a nice chord progression which will then evoke a basic melody and maybe a couple of lines here and there. If the melody is strong, I will then get to work on building the song from the ground up. The feel of the song will then dictate where I’m going to go lyrically.
Do you enjoy the process of creating? Are you someone who continually writes or does the best come out under a little gentle pressure?
I’m an artist so I love creating. I write all the time and must have literally hundreds of songs that I’ve never done anything with. To me, song writing is a way of expressing myself. I also find it extremely therapeutic and it’s often the way I deal with emotional issues. It’s basically a release and helps me deal with things in a good, constructive way that isn’t going to hurt anyone.
What does it feel like as an artist waiting for the songs you’ve lived with for some time to get released to the fans? Is there a sense of excitement or a little panic in there too?
A bit of both really. It’s really hard when you’ve been so close to it for such a long time to look at it objectively. I mean, we the band, are the biggest fans of this album. We love it! And on a personal level, it’s by far the best thing I’ve done to date. As a result I am really, really proud of it but it is a little nerve racking waiting to hear what other people think of it. All we can hope is that they love it as much as we do. And so far, so good!
It’s also the first time that I’ve really done a full on Melodic Rock/ Hair Metal style album and as a result, it falls into a completely different category and scene from what I’ve been used to so there’s also that to contend with as well. To some people I may be viewed as a newcomer to the scene even though I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. I think ultimately it boils down to the quality of the songs and I think the songs on this album speak for themselves really.
I must admit my greatest struggle with ‘Midnite City’ is picking a favourite song, it’s so solid from the first to the last: you must have your favourite moments on the album?
It’s really hard to pick favourites because I honestly don’t think that there are any weak tracks on the album. It’s a good problem to have I guess! If you were to ask me tomorrow, I’d probably give you 3 different songs but as of right now my favourites on the album are ‘We Belong’, ‘Ghosts Of My Old Friends’ and ‘One Step Away’. But honestly, I really do love them all.
The opening track ‘We Belong’ could well be our song of the year how does it feel when you hear that final playback on a track like that?
Wow thanks! What a compliment. I love that song too! It feels amazing to hear the final product to be honest with you. To hear all your hard work finally come to fruition is a wonderful and very rewarding feeling. I think ‘We Belong’ really sums up the album in a nutshell. It sets the stall out so to speak. It’s a really powerful, straight to the point track, with a huge chorus and tons of attitude. Hence why it opens the album.
I remember reading an interview with Paul Stanley a few years ago where he said that the first song on any Kiss album was always really important as it would set the tone for the whole album and what was to follow and I feel that’s exactly what ‘We Belong’ does. It sums up what Midnite City is all about in 3 minutes and 55 seconds. It’s the perfect album opener and will also be the opening song of our live show.
‘Summer of out Lives’ one of the original songs you demoed to get the deal with AOR Heaven has a nice Teenage Casket Company kick to the opening and more of that punky edge that really suits your vocals well but it’s that melody that clinches it – do hooks like that constantly pop into your head?
Thankfully they seem to yeah! My song writing is all about pop and melodies. Even the harder stuff still I write still have those sweet melodies underneath and I think that comes from a combination of the bands I grew up listening to as a kid and the stuff that I listen to nowadays which is primarily pop music. I mean, I hate the concept of One Direction. The puppets on a string talentless side of it but you cannot argue with their songwriters or those songs! There are a million OK Rock bands out there but I don’t think any of them get that ‘pop’ thing or really know how to write a great catchy song so I find myself listening to a lot of chart stuff as a result. I will never go and buy an album because someone says it’s cool or whatever. If I don’t like it, I don’t like it and I’m not going to listen to it. I grew up on the type of songs that I would hear once and would stick in my head for days. That I would wake up singing or when driving in my car or in the shower or whatever and to write those sorts of massive hooks, you have to write great melodies and that’s what I always try to do when I write. No hook. No song in my opinion!
‘Everything You Meant to Me’ is a huge ballad and gave us goosebumps, what’s the secret of a great ballad? And which ballad do you wish you’d written?
I think the key is to really mean what you’re saying. It has to be sincere. I don’t think you can just sit down and write a huge ballad without actually having gone through and lived what you’re talking about. You can’t half ass write something like ‘Everything You Meant To Me’. In my experience, you have to have had your heart ripped out, stomped all over and handed back to you on a plate before you can sit down and write something that really means something and connects with people.
The other thing is to write it in the moment that you’re feeling it so that that hurt and pain really comes through in the lyrics and music, and it’s that that makes it ‘real’. If you get it right, it will resound with people and mean something to them so that they can relate to it in their own life in a way where they’ll say, ‘What this guy is singing about sums up exactly how I am feeling right now’ or maybe it’s something that they recognize having gone through at some point earlier in their lives.
It can also help and comfort people and make them feel that they’re not alone because at some point in life, we all go through losing someone we really love.
It’s got to come straight from the heart, simple as that!
‘One Step Away’ reminded us of Rick Springfield, I know you’re a fan, do you hear that in that song?
I actually didn’t. But a lot of people have since pointed that out and now I do. I’m a big fan of Rick Springfield so I guess it has to come out somewhere. Lyrically it also follows a similar path as ‘Jessie’s Girl’ so there’s also a connection there too I suppose. But I never sit down and say, ‘OK, today I’m going to write a song that sounds like such and such’. Whatever comes out comes out but I will never deny my influences because I am proud of them and I happily wear them on my sleeve at all times, so being compared to Rick is absolutely fine by me!
Final track ‘Think About You’ could well be our favourite at the moment – tell us a little about the writing of that one, was it newly written for the album or a song you’d lived with for a while?
Believe it or now that song dates back to 1998 and my first real band, Inside Out. I was the drummer in that band and I wrote that song back then. We did an 8 track demo of it all those years ago and a year or so later the band split and I moved to Nottingham. I always thought it was a great song that I could never really find a home for in the bands I was playing in, so it literally sat on a shelf for years and years, and then when I started writing songs for Midnite City, I remembered it and thought that it would work great alongside the new material I was writing for the album. Every other song on the album was written in the past year apart from ‘Think About You’ but it sits so well with the style of the album and I’m glad to have finally found a home for it.
How much stock as an artist do you put by reviews? Do you read them or let them pass you by?
I read them all and thankfully so far the reviews for the album have all been really, really positive so we’re obviously all super happy about that. But if we do get one or two bad reviews along the way, then that’s OK too. Everyone has a right to their opinion. So long as they actually sit down and listen to it a few times, I’m cool with whatever reviews come our way. This is a very honest album so as long as the reviews are honest too, that’s fine.
The UK has a wonderful rock scene at the moment and there are a number of great new bands playing the sort of music we love. Does it feel like a special time at the moment? Can you feel Rock rising again?
The UK does have a decent scene but if I’m totally honest, I’m not a fan of any of it! There’s a million bands out there doing their thing but there isn’t a single band out there that has caught my eye in the past seven or eight years that I think are anything to write home about, no bands that have come out of the UK anyway, which is kind of sad really. Elsewhere, I think the band Heat is great but really that’s about it. There’s definitely a lot more bands about these days and there is somewhat of a scene. I just don’t think that there are any good ones!
With an album like ‘Midnite City’ how on earth do you choose what to play live – what makes it into the set-list and how hard a decision is it? Do you play it all or thrown in some choice covers or the odd older song from your repertoire?
I guess it’s a good problem to have! Trying to decide which song was going to be the first single was also a struggle as there are easily at least 8 songs on the album which could’ve been. In the end we went with ‘Summer Of Our Lives’. (Video will be out at the end of September).
As for the live thing, most of our upcoming shows are going to be either support slots or slots on festivals which are typically about 40 minute sets so we’ll be playing 8 songs from the album live, leaving some of the slower stuff out for now, and we will possibly throw an obscure cover in there to mix things up as well. We certainly won’t be playing anything from my past though. Midnite City is a totally new thing and we want to keep it that way.
What are the best and worst aspects of touring and playing live?
The best thing is just being onstage playing your songs in front of people. That’s what every musician lives for and why we all get into this in the first place. There is no better feeling in the world than that. The worst thing is, just how hit and miss and unreliable it all is. You can literally go from playing on a huge stage in front of thousands and thousands of people going completely absolutely nuts one night and then the next night you could be in a tiny little club in the middle of nowhere playing to 20 people. That transition is a hard one but it’s the nature of the business so you really just have to go into each show and play like it’s the last show you will ever play regardless of whether there is 5,000 people or 20 people in front of you.
Getting to see the world is obviously amazing too. I’ve been lucky enough to play in over 16 countries around the world and each one is completely different to the next. You see most of the countries through a van window but you occasionally get to do a bit of sightseeing here and there which is always nice. The only downside of it is the traveling and lack of sleep which is grueling at times but that’s all part of it so you learn to deal with all of that. It’s the nature of the business.
What music moves you? Has it changed over the years?
I still have my go to bands like Kiss, Def Leppard and Danger Danger for example that will always be with me and continue to inspire me every day but apart from that, and with the lack of any new bands that I think are of any note, I just listen to a lot of pop music, both old and new. But there are a few bands that I have gotten into over the past few years, Queen being one of them. I was never a fan of them at all before but I now have a total new understanding and respect for what they do and their music and have started to listen to them a lot. Maybe that’s an age thing!
Are there any artists that you just can’t go without? Who created that spark and who continues to inspire you?
The initial spark came from Duran Duran when I was a little kid. I thought they were amazing in the 80’s, the songs, the image. They were just the ultimate package really and were without doubt the band that got everything rolling for me. From there it was Europe, Bon Jovi, Heart and Def Leppard and then came all the hair bands. I’m pretty much a walking encyclopaedia of all that stuff but it was always the more poppier, commercial bands of that genre that influenced me most. I also loved 80’s pop too like Aha and Nik Kershaw. The only band I couldn’t live without though is Kiss. The greatest Rock N’ Roll band of all time bar none!
Take it all the way back for us – what was it that made you realise that music was going to be your life? Was there a defining moment or a gradual realisation?
I just always loved music from being a really small little kid. My parents weren’t musical but both of them loved to listen to music. My mum was a big T-Rex fan and my dad was really into ABBA but also loved country music like John Denver and Emmylou Harris. As a result, music was played in the house all the time when I was growing and I think that’s where my love of pop and melody first came from. I mean, nobody wrote better melodies or hooks than ABBA, either before or since. All I knew as a little kid was that music just made me feel happy and safe and I totally ensconced myself in it.
I also remember seeing Adam Ant on TV when I was about 4 years old and being totally blown away with his look. But I think it was when I saw Duran Duran on Top Of The Pops for the first time when I was about 6 that I realized what I wanted to do with my life.
Then a couple of years later, my mum took me to see Europe on their ‘Out Of This World’ tour and that was really the defining moment for me and a game changer. I totally lost my mind that night. It was just the greatest thing I’d ever seen or heard up until that point in my life. It completely took my breath away and I knew as we walked out of the venue to get the coach home that night that my life would never be the same again. My course was now set and from there it became music, music, music 24/7 and nothing has really changed since then if I’m honest. Deep down I’m still that 11 year old kid with my mum wearing a Europe T-shirt that was 10 times too big for me. Having said that though, my family on my mum’s side were all musicians too. My uncle was a drummer in a country band and my mum’s cousin Jean Bennett was a singer who had a record deal and put albums out in the late 70’s, so the music gene is definitely in the family tree for sure.
If we had to put you on the spot and ask you to name one single song that really exemplified your feelings about music, it’s power and emotion what would that be today?
I’m going to give the most un-Rock N’ Roll answer ever here and say ‘Thank you For The Music’ by Abba. Sums it all up really.
If you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any great album just to see how the magic happened what would it be and why? What’s the album that still resonates with you?
It’s got to be Def Leppards’ ‘Hysteria’ which will always be my favourite album of all time. I would love to have seen how that album was made. To see how much a slave driver Mutt Lange was and how the whole thing was articulately put together note by note. It’s an album that defines an entire generation and in a hundred years from now when someone asks, ‘What was 80’s Rock?’ that’s the album that will be played.
What is the meaning of life?
You only get one ride around the track. Make it count!
Thanks Rob, maybe catch you at that launch show at The Tap – my old local!
