MIKE TRASH and THE EROTICS have been flying the flag for Sleazy Hard Rock for 25 years now and they’re just about to add to their impressive catalogue with a new EP ‘Ride It To Death’ due to hit the streets on September 27th. Albany New York’s finest have been making great music for years and if you love something that’s got balls, as well as killer melodies and huge choruses you can instantly sing along and punch the air to then these guys are a must. We caught up with Mike at the wrong end of the day for a Rock and Roller to talk all about the latest addition to my collection!
Mark: Hi Mike how are you?
Mike: Good. How’s it going Mark?
Mark: Good thanks mate. It’s not a very Rock and Roll hour for you I know.
Mike: But here I am! Can you see me? You can see the Marshall right? (Mike is sat in front of his Marshall stack)
Mark: I can see it very nice! It’s a wonderful EP and we’ll get to that in a bit but it’s been a great ride with The Erotics so far- I make it 25 years this year since that first cassette came out?
Mike: Wow! That’s awesome.
Mark: Do you count the years?
Mike: Once in a while (laughs) it came by fast. The original demo came out in the spring of 1996 and it sells on Discogs for a couple of hundred dollars, it’s crazy.
Mark: It would be nice if you found a suitcase full of those!
Mike: (laughs) Yeah I know! I think I have one! And we didn’t even sell them, we just kinda handed them out to everybody so that everybody could get familiar with the band. That’s what you did back then.
Mark: And some of those songs went on to the first album that came out a year later
Mike: Yeah there were like 12 or maybe even more that never made it onto that first record. We were going to put them on to another album, but it never happened.
Mark: It’s been a wonderful 25 years and the thing that really gets me about you I just can’t understand why you aren’t one of the biggest bands out there because everything you put out is quality and ‘Ride it to Death’ the latest EP is another winner!
Mike: (laughs) You’re not the first person to say what you just said.
Mark: (laughs) It’s great music and more people have to listen. I was looking at your Bandcamp the other day to try and fill in a couple of gaps I have in my collection so people can head off there to grab your music. I almost ordered a hot sauce too but the shipping killed me!
Mike: I don’t even think we can send it to Australia I think it can only go to North America.
Mark: That’s a shame, if they ever let us out of the country again, I’ll have to come over and grab a bottle! The single is almost out ‘When the Wolves are Howling?’
Mike: Yeah that comes out on the 19th (July)
Mark: That’s gonna make a huge splash, a great song. So in the midst of the pandemic you put out the great record ‘Let’s Kill Rock and Roll’ was lockdown a particularly productive time for you? Or as it as challenging as it was for a lot of people?
Mike: We had all those songs written before all this craziness happened. We recorded it in February of 2020 and hardly anybody then was even talking about any virus – you heard a little bit of chatter on TV but not much, then a month later all the craziness happened – shutting down the venues and the bars
Mark: That was a hard thing for a lot of people losing live music for so long but I see now you’re back out and playing a few shows?
Mike: Yeah we managed to play a few shows, some of them were private parties some of them were live streaming but we were able to have a limited crowd there. So it’s not like we’ve not been able to play at all, but coming up this weekend we’ve got the first proper show we’ve had in a while.
Mark: So how does that feel?
Mike: Great! We had rehearsal last night and it went really good! We gotta get back in shape! (laughs)
Mark: Are you going to be playing a lot of stuff off the new EP or is it too soon?
Mike: We’re doing a few of them anyways, just to throw the out there – we have like a 90 minute set we’re playing. It really wiped me out last night I thought “Holy shit, I’ve gotta get back into shape!” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) There’s time! I think we’ve all let things slipover the last year! You mentioned before when we had a chat earlier that you’d only recently heard the AC/DC track that closes the EP?
Mike: Well I know that they did it with their original singer and they had it as a single and I vaguely remember it on ‘High Voltage’ but I didn’t really think about it, but there’s a local bar that I go to called The Kings Inn and someone went to play a bunch of songs on the jukebox and that one came on and it was like a lightbulb came on over my head and I thought “We could do a great version of this!” So I talked to the band and sent them a link to the AC/DC version, and said “Let’s kick it up a notch and do our own thing to it.”
Mark: It actually really suits the sound of the band, it’s fantastic how it turned out. You’re a band that tends to be spot on with the covers that you choose – you did that compilation back in 2017 ‘The Cover Collection’ of the songs that had appeared on previous albums…
Mike: Yeah it’s not like we went in the studio and did it all at once, it was stuff we had from here and there, some were live versions, some were crappy four-track versions.
Mark: It must feel great though to take a classic song and really do it justice.
Mike: It does, and that’s not a typical AC/DC song either – it has a crazy sounding riff, they’re usually just three chords but that one has an almost early Alice Cooper sounding riff going on.
Mark: You know what that’s exactly it, I’ll pay that!
Mark: 24 years since ‘Born to Destroy’ and as you mentioned the EP came out the year before in 1996 – take us all the way back to 1996 – what were you doing before The Erotics?
Mike: I was in a band that was kinda well-known in the Glam world called ‘Lethal Lipstick’ from 19888 – 1992 they were around a couple of years before we joined but they broke up in1992 and everyone went off to do other things. We did have a little bit of momentum going though – we did get a deal with an MCA affiliate, but that deal fell apart faster than we signed it because it was 1991 – so you can imagine! There was this major climate change in music towards the end of 1991.
Mark: Yes I remember those days when the labels dropped all of the bands you’d been listening to and everyone de-tuned and started to wear their Dad’s flannel shirts. What did the label say to you?
Mike: The label didn’t want to take the risk and that was it. They pretty much said that. They said if it was two or three years earlier they would have… I still remember in early 1991 it was just business as usual but by November everything from the 80’s was passé or out of date, it happened that fast (laughs). There was definitely a bit of overkill towards the end.
Mark: The irony is some of my favourite 80’s music was made in 1991-1992. (laughs) There was some god stuff still being made then.
Mike: There was a lot of great music. But back in 1989 it was crazy if you had a ham sandwich with eye-liner you’d get a record deal (laughs). It was out of control.
Mark: A few years later if the same sandwich had a flannel shirt he’d get a new deal! (laughs)
Mike: (laughs)
Mark: And that was in the day when you had a trust the reviews in the magazines! I bought some stinkers listening to the wrong reviewers!
Mike: I know certain magazines gave certain bands great reviews but when you listened to the album you thought “OK?”… some didn’t quite live up to the hype.
Mark: And fast forward 30 years and we’re just swamped with everything and the hard work is now sifting through the volume.
Mark: There’s lots been written about the New York scene of the 60’s and especially the 70’s I know you’re from Albany, but what was it like being a hard rock band around New York City at the end of the 80’s/ start of the 90’s?
Mike: Well we did move to New York City in 1990 and every day was a party – all the bars were great – the Scrap Bar, the Limelight, The Kennel Club – even if you went out on a Sunday night there were always places that were ram-packed. And even in the 90’s it was still like that.
Mark: Who were your influences in those early days?
Mike: I guess we were trying to copy the L.A. Sunset Strip stuff just like everybody else was. Then we started to become more like ourselves towards the end, more New York, more ‘street’, more honest. Unfortunately we should have done that earlier, but we didn’t. Then I was a couple of bands after that and before The Erotics but everything was short-lived.
Mark: I think it was Rob Lane who first sent me one of our records twelve years ago when we started The Rockpit and over the years you’ve always come up with the goods. I love your style of writing, the riffs, the lyrics, the humour it’s all in there. Everything is just so catchy – where do your themes and lyrical influences come from?
Mike: It might come from movies, or things that are going on in society at the moment, but I like to twist it so you’re not sure if I’m talking about current events or not. It’s more timeless that way.
Mark: After writing so many great songs, I have to ask – what makes a great song for you? What’s it gotta have?
Mike: It’s gotta have that chorus right off the bat! Sometimes I don’t write for months and then I’ll pick up the guitar and write ten in a row. I usually just pick up the guitar and ‘scat’ I never have lyrics – I just start with a catchy riff and a vocal line and led up to a good chorus. And if it’s good I’ll keep it and then go back and write words around it afterwards. That’s usually how I do it.
Mark: So always the riff that comes first for you?
Mike: Yeah.
Mark: And some cracking riffs on the new EP! What I’ve always loved most about the Erotics is the immediacy of the songs – they’re songs that you can sing long to first time you hear them – not many bands can manage that! By the second chorus everyone in the room will know it!
Mike: Yeah, we’re lucky that way (laughs)
Mark: One of the themes that really stands out for the band is the ‘horror’ theme. Was that something you grew up loving?
Mike: Oh year for sure. I love those movies! The mid-eighties horror films are the best and maybe the ones that weren’t as mainstream. The one I always go back to is ‘Trick or Treat’ and that influences a lot of my songs if people don’t realise it! (laughs)
Mark: I can see that! The big question for me is what’s next? You had a great album out last year, an arguably even better EP out soon – those are both crying out to be heard live! I now it’s hard to know about tours and stuff at the moment but are there any dates your aiming for overseas?
Mike: Right now we have four dates in the UK booked for May of 2022. And hopefully ‘Call of the Wild’ (The postponed UK Festival) too when they rebook it. But hopefully everything will be OK by then.
Mark: The EP is out on September 27th. The best place to get it I assume is to head over to your Bandcamp?
Mike: Yeah, our website should go straight to there now, it’s easier to navigate now.
Mark: I’d definitely urge everyone to go out there and grab a copy! Every track on there is a winner for me, do you have any particular favourites?
Mike: ‘Wolves’ I like a lot, it was the last one written and it came unexpectedly and it ended but being crazy good that’s why we put it first on there, but I really like ‘Scream Like a Demon’ which we played back in February at our last show, we kinda just snuck it in. And I’m kinda liking ‘Bless Your Heart’ a lot too – that one sounded really good at rehearsal last night.
Mark: Any plans for videos from the record at the moment?
Mike: It’s kind of hard to get everyone together at the moment but maybe.
Mark: I saw you do the photoshoot the other day.
Mike: (laughs) It was hard just to do that!
Mark: (laughs) It’s the same sadly everywhere Mike!
Mark: Thank you so much for another great record, it’s always cool to catch up. People should get out and pre-order a physical copy while they can. How did the last record sell? Are people still grabbing the physical copies in your part of the world?
Mike: Yeah, I was pleasantly shocked ‘Let’s Kill Rock and Roll’ did really well with pre-orders and everything. And this one is starting to do OK, there are lots of pre-orders which is great as it helps to cover the costs of everything.
Mark: You might even find yourselves in the charts if you get it right!
Mike: We recently discovered a few tricks that might work!
Mark: Now that I would love to see! Thanks so much Mike stay safe and stay rocking!
Mike: You too Mark! Thank you! Bye.
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