Nasty Rumours!

     Nasty Rumours are from Bern, Switzerland and they play one of the most infectious brands of punk rock around today.  They take their ques from the late 70's punk bands that had a pop edge to them. Bands like Generation X, The Vibrators and The Undertones. These guys aren't a bunch of mindless copy cats though, they've got a soul and an energy that's all their own and it plainly shows in their music.

Interview by J Castro

Let’s begin by telling me who is currently in the band and what everyone does in it?

Juli: We are 4 guys in Nasty Rumours; Danny / drums, Flo / bass & backing vocals

Jamous / guitar & backing vocals, Juli / lead vocals  

How did you all meet and decide to play in Nasty Rumours together?

JAMOUS: The four of us knew each other already for years. Growing up in a small town in the Swiss Alps, there was only one place to go to, one club where there was punk / metal / alternative music on a weekly basis – bands from all over the world passed by and literally showed us how music is done.  The place is called “Café Bar Mokka” in Thun (and by the way, it is the most beautiful club all over the world, travel to Thun and have a look yourself). “Café Bar Mokka” was the place for all of us to start chatting up other music freaks and so a lot of bands were founded in that environment in the late 80’s, early 90’s. Danny at the same time started his own label “Subversiv Records” and all those bands started to release their first efforts under the “Subversiv” flag. Bands came, bands went and in 2012 I was without a band, as my ’77 punk band of 17 years - Tight Finks - broke up. Danny always loved ’77 punk rock therefore he asked me to start a new project. At about the same time Juli asked me the same question. But here we were with 1 guitarist and 2 drummers.  Juli then just decided to step up to the microphone and to be our lead singer. A job he since then does in such a perfect way! An old friend of ours was happy to fill in on bass and there we were: Nasty Rumours!

"Rats In A Wheel" b/w "Wanna Be On Top" 7" released June 27th, 2014 on No Front Teeth Records  

Tell me about the first time you heard punk rock music?  What record or song was it, when was it, where were you and who first introduced it to you?  If you can remember all of that of course!

JULI: I remember at school the whole Skate-Punk and Melodic-Punk thing was very in trend. All these big bands from “Fat Wreck” and “Epitaph”.  At that time my older brother was introducing me to The Clash, telling me that this was punk of the first hour! It was also my brother who introduced me to the music of Tight Finks. Thanks to those guys I discovered the whole old school punk universe. I’m younger than my bandmates in Nasty Rumours, as you may already know. As a young teenager I was at their shows, going crazy. To be growing up with their music and now being in a band with them is kinda cool!  

JAMOUS: In school there was this guy Tony who was totally in love with The Beatles. The only other band he let “intrude” his ears was Die Toten Hosen out of Germany. In 1987 they released a live album Live – Bis Zum Bitteren Ende and this Beatles dude Tony taped the album for me, which then hooked me up with punk rock for the first time. It was also the first time I heard the word “Scheisse” (shit) in a song. It blew my mind, how great was that!!!! Soon after that the Ramones took over and all the other ’77 bands followed…

What sorts of things influence your song lyrics? Are there any subjects you wouldn’t write a song about?

JULI: A lot of things have an influence on the lyrics. I mean anything that creates an emotion is a possible inspiration for a new song. Whether it’s love, hate, boredom or whatever. We are not explicitly a political band but when I’m reading the newspaper or take a closer look at society, it’s clearly affecting me in writing the lyrics. We often end up singing songs about love and shit, though, hahaha.  I can’t think of something that I wouldn’t write about right now. As long as you got something to say, say it! And underlay it with a catchy tune.

Was the song “Barbwire Heart” (the B-Side of the newest EP on Wanda Records)  inspired by true events?

JULI: It’s fiction. But anybody who has been rejected and felt like a crushed bug knows what it’s all about. 

Nasty Rumours is currently based in Bern, Switzerland.  When I think about Switzerland and rock music, I think metal.  Maybe because of Krokus or Celtic Frost.  What is the music scene really like up there now?  Is there a supportive crowd that goes to punk shows?

JAMOUS: That’s really funny to read! When I was 9 years old I listened to Krokus a hell of a lot. Heroes they were... hahahaha! The problem in Switzerland is, that it is very very hard to earn your living with music. So there is very few bands that are known internationally. Like Krokus, Celtic Frost, Gotthard, Yellow, and Bonaparte.  But, like in every country of this world, of course there are thousands of musicians and bands in Switzerland, too. There’s a huge underground scene, a D.I.Y. scene. Bands work quite hard to be able to play shows and to release albums. There’s every kind of music scene in Switzerland, every kinda music played - so of course there is also a Punk scene here, but it’s not as big as in places like the U.K., West Coast cities of the USA, Washington DC, NYC, Berlin, big places like that. It’s a small scene, but when there’s bands touring through Switzerland people often travel quite a distance to catch the shows. But on the other hand it’s not uncommon that you can watch the U.K. Subs plus The Vibrators playing a show in front of just 30 people! Sad!

And speaking of metal I was reading an interview with Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden and he said that punk is rubbish, the people playing punk music can’t play and if given a choice, people in punk bands would rather be in metal bands surrounded by porn stars.   What do you guys think about that, is he half right?

JAMOUS: Nothin’ to say to this one… I’ll have to take a break now, as I have to burn all my Iron Maiden LPs… Strange quote! The first two Maiden LPs had a great touch of Punk in them… Next question, please…

What kind of feeling or sentiments do you hope your audience walks away with after seeing a Nasty Rumours show?

JULI:  I hope they’re all exhausted from going crazy during the best concert of their lives, haha! No seriously, of course I hope our audience is having a good time and that they enjoy themselves and our music.

JAMOUS: I hope they cannot think other than: “When are they playing next? When are they playing next? When are they playing next? …” For me it is important that people can leave their daily life outside the club and have some loose hours and when they walk home they have a smile on their face. And hopefully they think about when they can hit the local record store next time to get a shitload of wonderful old school punk records.

"Girls In Love" b/w "Barbwire Heart" released October 31st 2014 on Wanda Records

It seems a lot of the band’s influences come from punk and rock n roll bands that were in their prime decades ago.  Do any current bands influence you and your music?

JULI: Yes, of course. That’s the beautiful thing about music; you’ll always find new bands that will blow your mind. I’m a huge fan of 70’s punk bands and I listen to those old bands a lot. They made a lot of people to what they are today, including me. Those bands still matter.  But don’t close your eyes and ears on new bands. There are tons of inspiring new bands I could name you. Currently nonstop on my record player: Impo and the Tents, the Achtungs, Generacion Suicida.

JAMOUS: For me one of the biggest influences for the music I play are The Boys, Ramones and The Adicts - but they’re from the “old” scene and that was not your question… I’d say looking at current or “modern” bands I have to mention The Briefs and The Cute Lepers. Huge influences! They both brought a sweet side back to punk rock with cute melodies and bright colors. Thanx, Mr. Steve E. Nix!!!

Where can people go to hear or buy Nasty Rumour’s music?

JAMOUS: We play shows in Switzerland of course but always try to travel to other countries, too. So check our homepage regularly as in the “Show” section you’ll find out about when and where you can catch us live. To buy our music you’ll simply have to come to one of our shows and feast on the merchandise table or you’ll hit our Bandcamp site. Also check the shops of our Record Labels “No Front Teeth” and “Wanda Rec.” if they have some 7” left.

What is in the near future for the band, any touring or new records in the works?

JULI: There is going to be a release of another 7” single soon, it’ll be called Dilemma and will be out on Wanda Rec.  We’ll play a couple of shows in Germany, in the Czech Republic and Switzerland at the end of this year.

Follow Nasty Rumours! 

http://nastyrumours.com/

https://www.facebook.com/nastyrumours

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First Base

     Toronto's First Base have been producing driving, jangly, rough around the edges power pop since 2009 with a number of releases to brag about in their ammo case. If you need any further description of their sound, the cover of the band's newest effort: You've Got A Hold of Me EP, released earlier this year on another one of our favorite labels, Hosehead Records, is a brilliant homage to the late ‘70's Irish punk/power pop band Rudi's debut single "Big Time," which came out in 1978. Much like The Undertones, Buzzcocks, the Boys and even Generation X: First Base put just as much of the pop aspect in their music as the punk. When done up right; that mixture ladies and gentlemen is the sound that I have a particular soft spot for in my hardened heart for, and First Base manage to pull it off oh so flawlessly!

Interview by J Castro

Let’s start of by telling me who’s all in the band right now and what does everyone do in it?
MIKE: There's been a few different lineups but the current line up is: Connor on drums, Nick on guitar, Fraser on lead vocals and guitar and me on bass. We generally all sing back up vocals too.

How did you all meet and decide to play music together?

FRASER: About eight years ago I was compelled to start a band for some reason. I had recently moved, and didn't really know any musicians so I just started the "band" by myself, recording songs and putting them on Myspace. Eventually, a couple of guys I worked with found out what I was doing and offered to join. So Shinnosuke joined on drums and Shota joined on second guitar and that was like the birth of First Base as a real band. Since then, Shota has moved to Japan and Shin now lives in Montreal.

MIKE: I met Fraser for the first time at the second ever First Base gig. When I saw they didn't have a bass player I offered to play with them and a few weeks later Fraser messaged me on Myspace (hee haw!) and asked if I was still interested. As for the other guys, I had known Connor since high school and had already been in a few throwaway bands with him so I already knew he'd be a good fit. All of us met Nick by seeing his band Brat Kings play a few times. Connor had switched over to drums and we needed a new guitar player so we asked Nick to play with us and he was into the idea. And that's where we are now.

Is this the sound you had in mind when you got together and started playing or did the music just kind of take on a life of its own?
MIKE: Well the music all comes from Fraser. It was his project before any of us were involved and he writes the songs. We make slight changes or add/subtract certain things to everything as a band once we start to play them together generally. It was always the kind of music I personally wanted to play and I think all four of us mesh really well together. This is probably the best the band has ever sounded in my opinion.

FRASER: I write the songs and record them all before we ever play them together as a band. I have fun recording my own version of the song, then we take that and make it suit the band so we can play it live and eventually record it together. I think we've been getting better at translating the songs that I record on my own into the band's songs and getting the band's own sound out of them.

Tell me a little about living in Toronto. What’s it like playing there and are people there supportive of what you guys are doing musically?

MIKE: Toronto's a weird city. I don't want to trash talk it because I love living here and it's a rad city but the scene for the kind of thing we're doing isn't particuarly great. Right now Toronto is really into weirdo/experimental/grungey kind of music. The hardcore scene here is really good too. There was a time when the hardcore and power pop bands played together, but that doesn't seem to happen anymore which is unfortunate. That being said, there are a handful of amazing bands from Toronto doing something similar to the kind of thing we are.

We joke that we're actually an Ottawa band because our records have been recorded there, mixed there, artwork done there (by our friend blood brother Ken from Mother's Children - Ottawa local) and the Ottawa scene just seems to be a lot more in touch with the kind of sound we have.

Can you remember as a kid who first inspired you to want to pick up an instrument and learn how to play/write music?
MIKE: The first band I was ever really into, probably like a lot of Canadian kids, was Rush. Ha, ha. I started on bass because all my friends wanted to play guitar. My first band played our grade 8 assembly a few times. We stole a riff from a Misfits song. Ha, ha. I found out about punk very young and instantly connected with the Ramones (and the Germs - oddly enough) about the same time I realized I couldn't play like Geddy Lee because it was way too hard. All down hill from there.

FRASER: Probably the Ramones for me. First Base is basically the entirety of my musical output and almost all of it stems from the Ramones somehow.

I was reading an interview with Kim Shattuck from the Muffs and she said when writing song lyrics she stays away from politics because nothing dates a song faster. What sorts of things inspire your songs and are there any subjects you try to stay away from purposefully in your lyrics?

FRASER: I just try to make "love" songs. Anything about relationships seems to be ok. Any song I've made about anything else just doesn't work for us, so I stay away from that. I don't think we'll ever do a political song, although I guess we sort of have one? I made a song about the oil refineries in my hometown for the "Bloodstains Across Ontario" compilation. You could say it's about environmental issues, but it was really just a Beach Boys parody. 

What sorts of things distract you the most when you’re playing a show? Is there something in particular that annoys you the most that someone in the crowd always seems to do?
MIKE: People in Toronto just generally stand still and cross their arms when they watch you, (with the exceptions of our friends who are always sweethearts at our shows). You can't tell if they love you or hate you. It doesn't annoy me but the first couple times you play live it can be intimidating.

FRASER: Someone up at the front with their phone out. It's kind of depressing to see while you're playing.

You guys recently played with Forgotten Rebels, how did that go? Were you fans of their music prior to your show together?

MIKE: I was and still am a huge Forgotten Rebels fan. I remember listening to Reich N Roll from the Tomorrow Belongs to Us 12" in the car with my mom on the way to grade 9 summer school. The chorus is just "I wanna be a nazi" (all tongue in cheek - not actually promoting any sort of nazi-ism) repeated over a few times. It's a miracle she put up with that kind of shit from me. The show itself was weird. Forgotten Rebels seem to attract a lot of crust punks for some reason. Oh, and we had to play in front of all the Rebels gear which gave us next to no breathing room.  I didn't feel like the crowd really enjoyed us that much but we sold a ton of merch that night so who knows.

There’s an old folk story I’ve heard about the first time Bob Dylan and John Lennon first met. Lennon was a huge Dylan fan and he asked him what he thought of The Beatles music and Dylan responded by saying “you’re good but your music doesn’t say anything.” So The Beatles started to move away from their pop music about love and girls and came out with Rubber Soul soon after. What do you think about Dylan’s response, do you feel rock n’ roll has to say something provocative to be relevant?

FRASER: I like the story of John putting down Paul with the song "How Do You Sleep," and Paul responding with "Silly Love Songs." 

MIKE: I think the best Beatles material is when they were singing about love and girls. I prefer songs without any kind of political or social message and I know saying that's going to piss a bunch of people off. I see enough of that shit in the rest of my everyday life. I don't want to have to listen to it in my music too. Obviously there are exceptions, I'm just speaking generally. Bring on more songs about chocolate and girls.

FRASER: And hot dogs.

Where are the best places to go to hear your music and buy your records?
MIKE: You can like our Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/FirstBaseToronto  or listen to some songs @ https://firstbase.bandcamp.com/. You can buy our newest 45 from Hosehead records @ http://www.hoseheadrecords.ca/p/webstore.html and our LP from HoZac Records @ http://hozacrecords.com/store/

What does the near future hold for First Base?
MIKE: Right now we're just writing songs to record for our next LP, which might end up being more singles - but we're aiming for an LP. We've got a handful of them written. Hopefully we'll be recording late summer and have the LP out early next year but nothing is set in stone yet.

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Los Pepes

 Photo by Al Overdrive

     London’s Los Pepes have been singing their anthems of heartbreak and despair at high decibels for a few years now, releasing a few EP’s and a marvelous, critically acclaimed LP last year titled Los Pepes for Everyone! on Wanda Records. Now they’re getting ready to release their fourth EP called And I Know/Say Goodbye also on Wanda Records.  What this band has been doing from their inception is taking Small Faces and Beatle-esque harmonies and adding some angst and crunch to them, much like The Boys and The Jam did back in the late 1970’s. They started out with that blue ribbon recipe since their first demo tape and keep perfecting their own unique take on rock n’ roll with each release. Los Pepes; they’ll make you wanna dance, they’ll make you wanna break things, and when the dust settles you’ll wanna call the one that got away.

Interview by J Castro

Let’s start out by telling me who’s all in Los Pepes and what everyone does in the band:

BEN: Los Pepes’ home is in London but it’s an international organization. We have members all over world from Kyoto to Los Angeles. Due to geographical constraints and various visa headaches you never know who’s going to be there. Currently you’re going to see/hear some configuration of these guys: Myself - Ben Perrier (vocals/guitar) Gui Rujao (guitar/vocals/drums) Seisuke Nakagawa (bass/vocals) Kris Hood (drums) Adam Smith (bass) Shaun Clark (drums).

How did you guys all meet and decide to play in a band together?

BEN: Just over three years ago now I started this up. I had a bunch of Testors style punk rock lying around that I wanted to play. I got together with Jay (the original drummer) and recorded it in an afternoon. That was all it was really gonna be. This was under the name Los Pepes. It wasn’t until Seisuke got involved that the ‘Pepes of today started shaping up and things got going. Back when Seisuke lived in London lot of time was spent smoking cigarettes and listening to 45’s. That’s when we got driven to do things properly. 100% drive to make something that we really like. We should have played music together a long time ago so we’re making up for lost time. That’s why we have to write a lot of songs. As long as we write songs there will be Los Pepes. All the other guys have been met along the way through a mutual love for the same music and the need to play it.

Did you have an idea of what you wanted Los Pepes to sound like or did the music kind of take on a life of its own once you guys all started playing together?

BEN: Well, like I said originally it was very straight down the line high-energy punk rock. It’s completely changed since then. I’m not even sure how it changed so much into a power pop thing but it did. I guess smoking all those cigarettes and listening to those 45’s. I’ve always loved writing melodies but hadn’t done anything with that too much in previous bands. The delivery is still real high-energy and punk and that will always be cuz that’s who I am, same for the other guys. Only now the focus is songs. We want to write the best songs we can that’ll do something for someone somewhere. With guys like Seisuke and Gui around there’s a good team working on that.

I don’t normally ask bands about their names, just because it’s a bit of a cliché, but I find the name Los Pepes particularly interesting just because it’s a bit political and you’re music really isn’t. What was it about the group Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar that you found intriguing, enough to name the band after them?

BEN: Ha. Yeah that’s exactly where the name comes from. We have nothing to do with Columbia or Pablo Escobar and you’re right we’re by no means a political band. I did read “Killing Pablo” many years ago. It’s not even a very good book, more the kind of shit you would buy at an airport or something. It is a great story though. I actually have a friend whose family fled Columbia for the UK because of Escobar. He’s fucking crazy unsurprisingly. More to the point Los Pepes sounds like a Spanish garage band with a horn section or something, which is very misleading. Misleading people is always good. Give them one more reason to write you off before they listen to it.

 Photo by Al Overdrive

What sorts of things typically influence your song lyrics?  Are there any subjects you try to purposely try to stay away from?

BEN: It’s mostly stuff that causes you trouble that you write about I find. You write a song and you feel better. I guess love and all that stuff is one of the biggest sources of trouble for human beings so that features pretty significantly. There’s other stuff in there too. A drop of nihilism here, a fuck you there…sarcastic humor about things but mostly its love songs. That seems to be where it’s at at the moment. As far as staying away from stuff, we basically play rock and roll but I hate all this self-aggrandizing bullshit. You know, that “hey bitch, I’m so motherfuckin’ rock and roll” business. I see that around and I know those guys are full of shit. Unless you’re the real McCoy like GG Allin or something I ain’t interested. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about me, I can’t understand why you would want to tell everyone how “badass” you are. On the other end of the spectrum overly sugary “I love you baby” stuff also gets annoying real fast.

I was watching an interview with John Lydon and he was talking about how much he hates Green Day because “there’s nothing about them that’s original, they don’t do anything that’s their own.”  What do you think about that statement?  Do you feel a band has to be “original” to be significant?

BEN: That’s good question. The way I look at it more or less all the music I like is not from today. There are exceptions but then even the new bands I like don’t really sound new. I got the Sleaford Mods new album the other day and that is pretty original but it’s basically still punk in many ways. The music we make is heavily influenced by old music, most obviously ‘70’s/’80’s punk. But there’s a difference between that and being contrived. We write a song, that’s a new song. It belongs to us and it’s not some rehash carbon copy of something else just to be retro or cool. It maybe inspired by other music but it has new energy. That’s because it was written in an honest attempt to make something good that didn’t previously exist. If that isn’t original I’d say it’s still significant somehow. Fucking hell, it looks like the Romans ripped off the Greeks when they put up all those pillars but who gives a shit. If I were lucky enough to be a figurehead of a major musical and social movement in late ‘70’s Britain maybe I’d also wave my finger at soft targets such as Green Day. My issue with Green Day is I think they suck.

This is the “lightening round” portion of the interview.  Feel free to elaborate as much or as little as you’d like to the following questions:

1.     What was the first concert you attended without your parents?  

BEN: I’m pretty sure it was the Melvins at the Garage in London sometime in the mid ‘90’s. I was born in 1981 by the way.

2.     What was the first band T-Shirt you owned?

BEN: I think it could well have been a Melvins t-shirt from that very show.

3.     What was the first record you bought with your own money?

BEN: I can’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure it was an AC/DC record, probably either “Highway To Hell” or “Back In Black.” It was definitely something that said “kid getting into rock and roll for the first time.” More significantly, at a similar point in my life I remember hearing “The Passenger” by Iggy Pop. I really liked it a lot. I went to the record shop and asked for Iggy and the guy sold me Stooges Raw Power no less. My life was changed. I was very young and I couldn’t believe what the hell was going on with that record. I’m so glad that guy sold me the wrong record.

4.     What was the first band or musician’s picture/poster that you put up on your bedroom wall?

BEN: Something either grunge or ‘80’s US hardcore punk, that how I rolled as a kid. I still believe Black Flag are the greatest band of all time.

 Photo by Al Overdrive

Where can people go to listen to or buy your music?

BEN: You can buy records and listen to our music on our bandcamp page: www.lospepes.bandcamp.com and also from our label Wanda Records: www.wandarecords.de we’ve also got all that facebook stuff here: www.facebook.com/lospepesmusic

What lies ahead in 2015 for Los Pepes?

BEN: Well, we never stop. Like tuna fish. We got a new EP, “And I Know/Say Goodbye” coming out again on Wanda Records late May and will be on tour in Europe at the same time (tour dates below). We’re also recording a new album. In a weeks time from writing this interview we’ll be hitting the studio with new songs and new ideas. Soon as that’s all done will be putting it out and getting out playing to people as much as we can. We really need to go to Japan too. That’s an important next thing for us to do. Sayonara folks.

VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaAojUnu_nw

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The Boys

     In all honesty, I was debating whether or not this interview needed any sort of introduction at all. I mean this is The Boys, but in all fairness, I decided to write one anyway. When people say, “This band needs no introduction,” The Boys really don’t. The Boys are arguably the best, most seminal, and highly influential and one of the most critically underappreciated punk, pop, power-pop bands of all time. Casino Steel and Matt Dangerfield were arguably the Lennon/McCartney of UK punk and had the songs to back it up. Yes, far more bands got the accolades, but before The Boys unplugged their amps in 1981 they had released four of the best LP’s ever (The Boys, Alternative Chartbusters, To Hell With The Boys and Boys Only). So after thirty-three years, The Boys are back with Punk Rock Menopause, their brand new LP. Does this mean it could be five for five?

Interview by Ed Stuart

Who’s answering the questions?

Matt Dangerfield

Who is currently in the band and what instrument do they play?

Matt Dangerfield, guitar/vocals

Casino Steel, keyboards/vocals

Honest John Plain, guitar/vocals

Can you give a brief history of The Boys?

The Boys were born in September 1975 when I left Mick Jones and Tony James’s London SS to form a new band with ex-Hollywood Brats keyboard player Casino Steel. My old art college friend, guitarist Honest John Plain, was soon recruited and in 1976 Kid Reid on bass and Jack Black on drums completed the line-up. After just a handful of gigs, we were the first UK punk band to get an album deal when we signed up with NEMS Records. After two albums with NEMS we moved to Safari Records and released a further two albums with them.

What bands did you have in mind when starting this band?

Having grown up in the sixties, the best music from that decade was a major influence but this was a new era and I envisaged us being a cross between Velvet Underground and Hollywood Brats. Later, when the first Ramones album came out, that was also an influence.

How did the idea come to get the band back together and record Punk Rock Menopause?
We had been playing live gigs together again since 2000 when we reformed to play Japan. There had been many offers for us to reform over the years, which we turned down but Japan was interesting as we’d never been there. Also, a major Japanese punk band called Thee Michelle Gun Elephant had covered a couple of our songs and suddenly we were selling lots of records over there.

The idea of making a new album was occasionally discussed but I was always the most against doing it unless I thought it could be as good as, if not better than, our previous albums. This time though, after a day in the studio knocking around a few new song ideas with Casino and John, for the first time it seemed to me that there could be a new Boys album and now there is.

How did the band decide on Wolverine Records to release Punk Rock Menopause?

They were recommended to me by my good friend Campi from Die Toten Hosen.

The Boys have been referred to as the Punk Rock Beatles. How do you feel about that reference?

It used to annoy me in the early days but now I don’t mind it. I forget which reviewer first used that phrase but it was only because we sang harmonies live and most of the other early punk bands didn’t at the time. One of my strongest musical influences came as a teenager when I used to go round to a school friend’s house to practice guitar together on a Friday night. He came from a big Irish family and after the pubs closed all his older brothers and their friends used to come back to his house to play guitars and sing fantastic harmonies – early do wop Rock N’ Roll stuff, which I’d never heard before as well as Beach Boys, Beatles etc. That’s where I learned to love and sing harmonies.

I always thought one of The Boys secret weapons was that the band had several different lead vocals. I know early on it was primarily Matt and Duncan taking leads vocals with Casino Steel providing back-up vocals. What was the original idea behind not just having one lead vocalist?
Maybe that’s the other reason why we were labeled the punk rock Beatles! Originally, it was going to be me as the lead vocalist but I always thought it would be more interesting if there was more than one lead singer so when it turned out that Duncan could sing. I was really pleased. Also our early songs were all fast and furious and we both sang and played instruments, so having two singers helped us to keep the energy levels up on stage.

How do you feel that your songs and LP’s are seen not only as influences to numerous punk-pop and power-pop bands?

It’s always a huge compliment when someone names us as an influence.

In an interview, Duncan Reid stated that one of the reasons The Boys didn’t get airplay was because “At the time the charts used to be rigged and people used to get into the charts because the record companies, especially the majors, had the power to buy you in. Once you'd got into the charts you got onto Top Of The Pops and all the other exposure followed, so I suspect we didn't benefit from that either.” What do you think of this comment?

In our time every record company knew which record stores were used to compile the charts and those stores were targeted by fake buyers employed by the labels/distributors. But everybody was doing it. A major label could probably afford more fake buyers, but if you’re cheating in a game of poker you can’t really stand up and complain that someone is cheating better than you.

And getting airplay doesn’t necessarily mean you sell more records. There were times when we employed the best pluggers (the specialists who approach the radio stations) in the business and we got tons of radio airplay but sold bugger all. It’s what’s called a Radio Hit – radio loves it, record buyers hear it, but don’t want to buy it.

50 years ago people used to buy music and get their water for free, now people pay for water and get their music for free. In what ways do you think this affects the current state of music and would it affect the way The Boys will promote Punk Rock Menopause?

Maybe we should be bottling punk rock water instead of making records :)

We just make music and get it out there.

Other than bands using tremendous amount of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to promote themselves nowadays, do you feel the basic mechanics of being in a band are essentially the same as when The Boys originally started?

The basic mechanics of being in a band are exactly the same but the whole music business has been flipped upside down and inside out. There are good and bad sides to that. Record Companies weren’t perfect but how intrusive and controlling is social media going to become? Whatever happens, people will continue to love making music and people will love listening to it. Social media might very well disappear up its own backside but music will always be essential and loved.

The Boys were offered a record deal after just six live gigs. Do you think that type of thing could happen again?

Yes, of course.

Which Boys LP is your favorite and why?

The first album. Because it’s like your first born child. Because it’s so instant and raw but to this day sounds dynamically brilliant. We only had a few days to record, mix and finish off writing quite a few of the songs on the way to the studio so it has a sense of urgency about it that I love. We could never recreate it no matter how hard we tried.

Can you talk the about song “Jimmy Brown?” I have read a few interviews with Boys members and all of them have remarked how great they thought this song was, but the song never made it on a proper Boys record and wasn’t released until Odds & Sods. Any reason why this was?

No particular reason. It was recorded in a session between albums when we were looking for a single to release. We recorded three or four (maybe more) songs in that session. We ended up releasing “Better Move On” as a single. None of the songs from that session ended up on the next album either because, as usual, we had more than enough new songs to deal with at the time. We’ve had a lot of great songs that ended up on the shelf because we were very prolific in those days – still are, as we’ve discovered making the new album and had to shelve a few songs.

Where can people hear The Boys and what’s next for the band?

On the new album or live on stage somewhere. More of the same.

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