After the huge success of their 2018 album ‘Never Say Die’, Melbourne’s Dead City Ruins are looking to make 2020 another mammoth year, as they prepare to launch their fourth & as yet untitled full length release later this year. 2019 saw the band embark on not just one, but two European tours as well as a whole host of shows in their home country of Australia, before spending some quality studio lockdown time with American recorder producer Machine, who they flew in to work with them on their new material. The Rockpit managed some festive talk time with guitarist Tommy ‘T-Bone’ Cain to discuss the band’s time playing over in Europe, the addition of lead vocalist Steve Welsh and how they came to working with US record producer Machine.
Sean: Hey Tommy, how are you doing?
TC: Good thanks Sean. How are ya?
Sean: Great thanks mate. I’ve been trying to get to talk to you guys for a while now but I just can’t get you all to sit still long enough for a chat.
TC: [laughs] Yeah it’s been a bit like that these last eighteen months.
Sean: Well, you’ve certainly been flying the flag over in Europe during 2019 with two separate runs of shows.
TC: Yes, we did January & February and then we did November as well. The first dates were with Udo Dirkschneider and his band U.D.O, which was amazing. They have been touring pretty heavily since late 2018 and most of 2019 so we were real lucky to jump on one of their European legs which started in Madrid, Spain and then we went up into the UK… I think we did three shows in Spain, a show in London and then one of the shows in Sheffield got cancelled unfortunately. We managed to have a couple of days off after that so we had our own show in Belgium, followed by a huge stint in Germany and the Czech Republic then back up to the Netherlands. Then we did another German leg in November so it was quite the year for Germany for us.
Sean: Some of the photos that were coming out when you were playing these shows were incredible – huge turnouts at these venues, which must do you guys the world of good.
TC: Oh yeah, definitely. We were playing predominantly to U.D.O.’s crowd obviously and he just draws huge numbers. He has no problem filling venues of two thousand, three thousand and even up to five thousand people.
Sean: Fantastic. And what are the fans like in Europe? Do they like to get there early to support the opening acts?
TC: The German fans are like clockwork, man. You tell them the doors open at seven o’clock and they are there at seven o’clock [laughs] and they are all in the venue by seven-thirty or eight o’clock to watch the first band. That’s just how they are – they have a thing called German time, where you are on-time! [laughs]
Sean: Always known for their efficiency & they like value for money [laughs]. How were the merch sales for you guys then?
TC: It always sells well there, which is great. They are so passionate about what we are doing. If there is anything new or new signatures they can get, new posters they can buy… they just grab what they can. And that’s how they are – just so passionate about it. It works out really well.
Sean: Another big thing that happened was a line-up change in Dead City Ruins. I was lucky to see you guys at Cherry Bar in November 2018, when you were playing four Saturday afternoon residency shows. I briefly came and said hello after your set…
TC: Ah that’s right, I remember that now…
Sean: You were supported by El Colosso at the show I came too.
TC: That was the day we filled the stage with some very big stacks [laughs]. El Colosso brought all there amps and we brought all ours as well and we stacked them all up [laughs] I remember that.
Sean: I’d been looking forward to see you guys live after hearing & reviewing ‘Never Say Die’, mainly just to see if Jake (Wiffen) really could hit those notes… and hit them he bloody well did! Then Jake leaves & you guys amicably part ways. His replacement is Stevo Welsh… wow, what an amazing vocalist he is too – another incredible front man.
TC: Firstly, Jake had already decided he was going to leave at the end of 2018 and finish any other shows we still had but he had just decided he wanted to move on with his life and spend more time with his wife… and that was a fair thing, so we had no problem with that at all. But yeah, that was really lucky for us with Stevo. He was someone we sort of found through a mate of ours. He knew him and had seen his YouTube videos, where he was singing all these covers and believed he was living in Melbourne. So, we looked him up on YouTube and found him doing all these classic 80s & 90s rock n’ roll & heavy metal hits and even newer stuff like Ghost and things like that. So, we worked out how to get in contact with him and eventually got his number, we met up in Doncaster, had a beer and explained the position we were in. We just said we wanted to give him a crack, he was up for it and wanted to expand his horizons. So, we gave him some of the new material that will be on the new album in 2020 and he came back with some extraordinary stuff… we were mind blown by him. So we invited him into the studio to rehearse with us and he came down and just nailed it. We just knew from that moment that this was going to work really well.
Sean: I watched some of the clips of him mimicking some of the greats like Dio & Coverdale, which is incredible to watch & hear but then I listened to the six DCR’s tracks that you re-recorded from ‘Never Say Die’ with him on vocals and they have a completely different feel to them.
TC: We wanted to do that just for a different angle because we won’t be releasing the new material until later in 2020 and with the November dates that were coming up we wanted to give the European audiences something that they hadn’t heard before and give them Stevo’s take on some of the tracks from ‘Never Say Die’ – people had seen Stevo but hadn’t heard what he was bringing to the table with Dead City Ruins.
Sean: Does he write as well? Has he contributed to the new material as a songwriter?
TC: Oh yeah, Stevo is a big writer – very, very big writer. That was one thing we asked – we knew he sang a lot of covers but wanted to know if he could write. So we asked him and he just suddenly showed us about twenty songs he’d been doing over the last five years & recording and we were like “So you’ve had a whole thing goin’ on” [laughs] It was amazing!
Sean: That must relieve a bit of pressure off the rest of you…
TC: Oh, it definitely takes the strain off because Blanch (Sean Blanchard) & myself are very heavy writers and sometimes when we are going round in circles it’s good to get a fresh set of ears on something and that’s where Stevo came in… as soon as we met we started writing. It was fantastic to see which way it would go and there were times we would just change something very slightly guitar-wise but the rest of it was a complete song and was the way it should go and he didn’t have to do any more to it – he’d worked that long & that hard on it that it actually was that good.
Sean: Last time I was over in Melbourne was in October and I was trying to catch up with Blanch for a beer but you guys were either already in lock down in the studio or pretty close to doing that. James Lewis (Arctic Monkeys) produced ‘Never Say Die’ but now the new album has been elevated to whole different level with production being handled by Machine, who flew over from the US to work with you. How was that?
TC: We had been speaking to Machine since 2015. We’d always wanted to work with him and we knew the amazing things he’d done with Lamb of God, Crobot, Clutch… there was a bunch of bands that we really liked and we’d seen footage online of him working with them and just knew we wanted to work with him one day. It didn’t really work out until early 2019 when we got back in contact and talked about doing a new album and he had September & October available, which fitted in so well for us…. It was absolutely perfect for us because we weren’t touring and we knew we should have all the new material with Stevo ready to go. So we locked it in around May or June, which was awesome – as soon as we got off the road with U.D.O. we were writing, writing, writing, rehearsing getting everything ready for September & October and then bang, it put us into overdrive. We were rehearsing at least twice a week as a band and then once or twice a week in Stevo’s studio just writing lyrics & riffs and all that stuff. We were full tilt for months.
Sean: You posted a video on social media of you & Blanch sat with Machine having a cold beer. That must have been a relief to finally get him here.
TC: It was amazing. It was like catching up with an old friend – it truly was. We had spoken that much via emails & Skype so as soon as we picked him up from the airport we took him to his hotel and sat him down for a beer and filmed it to put out on the socials and it really was like seeing an old friend because we’d been talking to each other for four years.
Sean: So we haven’t seen or heard an official release date as yet… Is there anything on the cards just yet?
TC: We haven’t heard one yet either from our guys overseas but we are hoping sort of middle of 2020 but there will be singles dropping & music videos and that sort of stuff – we’ve already done one music video & there are plenty more to come. We are going to finish the Australian tour in January and then carry on working on more videos – we finished one just before we left for Europe in November… it was a whole twenty-four hour shoot but we got it done.
Sean: I won’t push you too hard because it’s probably secretly under wraps but is there a title as yet?
TC: [laughs] We’re still deciding…
Sean: I like it. That’s as good a title as any, “We’re Still Deciding” by Dead City Ruins…
TC: [laughs]
Sean: You mentioned the Australian dates and I see Sydney’s Bad Moon Born is joining you for some shows… what a year they’ve had.
TC: Yeah we can’t wait – the Frankie’s show will be real fun as will they all.
Sean: Bad Moon Born was one of my highlight live performers for 2019 when they played with Buckcherry & Hardcore Superstar. To be honest they were outstanding.
TC: Wow. I saw them when they supported Skid Row not too long ago and I thought then what a good band they were.
Sean: You have a good spread out list of shows for the start of 2020 with Canberra, Sydney, Tasmania & then Melbourne, where you finish on January 18th at Northcote Social.
TC: It’s always great to play our hometown for the final show.
Sean: …Oh hang on, I see there’s one more… January 20th in Perth… [laughs]
TC: [laughs] Oh mate we’d love too. We loved coming over to Perth – we played there about three times. We had some good friends over there in a band called Chainsaw Hookers and we used to always come over there and gig & party with them.
Sean: Just to clarify to our readers, the 20th January date is not a real tour date… just wishful thinking on our part. So, just a few regular questions to close with if that’s ok with you…
TC: Of course.
Sean: If I booked you a restaurant table and you could invite three people from the music world, dead or alive, who would you select?
TC: I’d definitely invite Stevie Ray Vaughan along and I’d probably invite Duff McKagan along too. I think he’d have a lot to say. I’d probably just invite Blanch along for the hell of it… so there you go [laughs]. I don’t really like going anywhere without him so there you go.
Sean: [laughs] I noticed that even when you’re on stage. Even when you solo, you two have to get close…
TC: Sean & I have known each other for twenty seven years… we met when we were four years old. It used to be just me on guitar in the early days and I got Blanch in and we knew it was going to be a bit of dual Les Paul sort of action and we sort of developed it over a number of years which was really cool.
Sean: It’s always visually impressive the old dual guitar solos. What was the last album you listened to Tommy?
TC: The last album I listened to was… shit, what was that? Oh, that’s a real tough one. I think it was the latest Ghost album, ‘Prequelle’. I was going for a run the other day and that was the last full album I listened too.
Sean: Cool stuff. So lastly, if you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
TC: Well, shit… it would have to be a Michael Jackson song right? It would have to be ‘Thriller’ surely [laughs].
Sean: Live off the royalties for ever… I wonder if Eddie Van Halen gets anything still for the guitar solo in ‘Beat It’?
TC: He’d have too… surely. I heard that Jackson always used to pay well & give artist’s credit so I would have thought so – an absolute gentleman & scholar in that sense.
Sean: He must have been a bit of a rock fan having worked with Eddie Van Halen & Slash.
TC: He could see & hear talent and knew what talent was as he grew up surrounded with it.
Sean: That question still never fails to amaze me as I get the most unexpected answers. Tommy, it’s been great talking to you. We really do appreciate your time and all of us at The Rockpit wish you & the rest of the guys all the best for 2020 and we are really looking forward to hearing the new album later in the year.
TC: Mate, it’s been a pleasure and thank you.
Sean: Catch you next time I’m in town.
TC: For sure.
TOUR DATES
Saturday, January 11: Transit Bar, Canberra
Sunday, January 12: Frankies, Sydney
Thursday, January 16: Brisbane Hotel, Hobart
Friday, January 17: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave
Saturday, January 18: Northcote Social, Mlebourne
Tickets available from https://lnkfi.re/DeadCityRuinsAU
