MM - How long did it take to put the album together from the initial conception to the final product?
Todd - Well we actually recorded the drums, the bass and half the rhythm guitars we banged out in seven hours on the record. The I spent another day and a half on guitars and another two days doing vocals.  Obviously you will see that I'm not singing now.  On the record I sing but now I'm not.  What happened was right before the tour I started having some really bad throat problems.  I went to a specialist and I have a polyp on my throat.  So when I get home I got to get this polyp scrapped off and the doctors told me that I'm never gonna be able to sing the way I used to.  Now Skye was on '36 Hours Later', the record we did for People Like You, but he had left the band because he didn't want to just play guitar any more.  He wanted to be a front man.  So here we had the perfect solution, Skye you're now the front man and you don't have to play guitar any more and I don't have to kill myself with my voice.  It's hard for me but I'll get through it.  I love this record I really do.  I know you always hear people say that but I really do love the songs and they way we did it.  I don't know if you guys had it over here but in America we used to have this show that was called 'Mr Ed' the talking horse.  Well the studio we used is what used to be Mr Ed's barn, they changed it into a recording studio about 20 years ago.  So we got to record our new record in Mr Ed's barn, which I think is pretty cool.  MM - Wow yeh, you could have got him to do some backing vocals while you were there! (laughs).  (A brief moment of madness ensues as Todd breaks into an enthusiastic rendition of the theme from Mr Ed).

MM - I believe the band have been together for five years now?
Todd - Yes.  You know I put the band together when I was playing in Danzig because it was just to have some fun between Danzig tours and you know with Glenn he writes everything, it's all written by Glenn Danzig, produced by Glenn Danzig, everything is Glenn Danzig.  So I wrote some songs and a bunch of my friends got together and we did it just for fun, then before you knew in typical Hollywood story, all the major labels started sniffing around and trying to sign the band, that's how we ended up on Capitol for the first EP, then in typical major label style they said ... we don't hear a single ... and shelved it, then that's how we ended up on People Like You, and now we're with this new record label.  You just keep trodding along.  MM - I suppose it's all about the right label at the right time.  Todd - Yeh.  

MM - How has the band's sound changed over this time from when you first started out?
Todd - I just think the songs have gotten better.  It's not so ... one, two, three, punk rock ...  We were definitely taking a little bit more time with these songs with harmonies and now with RJ in the band ... he's such a brilliant guitar player and for me to have someone to play off the back of and work like that, together we have something that a lot of bands don't have.  I think the next record is really where it's going to come into it's own and people are going to have their minds blown.   

MM - Have you had a chance to think about the next record yet?
Todd - Yeh, we've started talking about it and we have ideas here and there.  When we get back home after the tour we're going to take a couple of weeks off to sit down and write it properly.  We've got to do a show with this old LA band called The Joneses in LA and then we're just going to go back into the room to see what we come up with.  I have a few riffs floating around so we'll go in and start working on those.  We'll start working on it now so we don't get six or eight months down the line when we're done touring and then realise ... oh shit we have to write a record in two weeks! ... at least this way if it's good enough we can start playing it live and then we'll soon start developing it and turning it into something real.   

MM - Talking of LA is that still the vibrant city it used to be that supported live bands and the rock scene?
Todd - Yeh, seven nights a week there's about three or four different gigs you can go to.  You can go to the Sunset Strip and you can go see somebody at the Whiskey and then walk across the street and go to the Viper Room, and then walk up the street to the Roxy or the Key Club, and then go and have a drink at the Rainbow.  Then there's the East side where Silverlake and all those kinds of bands came from.  It's more hipster and alternative where the guys all have beards and Buddy Holly glasses and wear corduroys.  That's not my scene but there's still so much music going on in Los Angeles.  

MM - Do you have any other tour plans at the moment?
Todd - No, well we're talking about maybe us and Bullets and Octane coming back here together in a few months, I think that would be a great package tour, so that's what we're working on next. 

MM - Where do you see the band progressing from here?
Todd - Right now I see us progressing to Brighton tomorrow! (laughs).  That's about as far as I can take it right now, I got to get through tonight's gig and then get to Brighton for tomorrow.  One day at a time! (laughs).

Then I was in D Generation and then when that fell apart I joined a band called The Waldos which was Walter Lure from The Heartbreakers.  So I would sing and play all the Johnny Thunders parts.  I played with Debbie Harry for a while and Ronnie Spector.  Then I joined Danzig and I was in Danzig on and off for something like 9 years.  I got to play in Motorhead for 5 shows when Phil Campbell's mom passed away.  Now at home in LA I do a lot of session work and that's how I got signed up to do the Glen Campbell thing and I've just done the UK tour thing over here.  I actually worked on his new record and I'm just generally keeping myself busy.         

MM - That's quite a diverse range of bands that you've played with over the years, is there any particular genre you have a preference for? 
Todd - No you know I guess it goes back to when I was a kid and my father was a brilliant guitar player.  He was the one that told me that's there's two kinds of music, there's good music and then there's bad music.  I don't look at things as genre's, if it's good it's good, if it's bad it's bad.  Just because it's Country doesn't mean it doesn't Rock.  You know there's some Jazz songs that will just blow away any Heavy Metal band.  I try not to be genre specific.     

MM - You've mentioned that both your brother and your dad were musically inclined, were they in bands or were they just musicians? 
Todd - Yes my father had done session work and then once the responsibility of fatherhood kicked in he had a chance to move to Atlantic City and start working in the Casino's back then, but my mom kinda just said no and that was it.  He's real proud and he's just passed that on.  He came out and saw me play with Motorhead and he's come out and seen me play with Danzig before.  He laughs and he looks at all the amps and when he sees 3 full stacks he says ... do you really need all that? ... he'll plug into this tiny little amp and blow you away.  He busts my balls a little bit but he's proud of me, he's always been proud.  Actually when I decided to do the Glenn Campbell thing he told me that really meant a lot to him. 

Just this past Autumn I could have gone out on tour with Glenn Danzig or I could have gone out with Glen Campbell and it was a really tough decision for me to make.  I could either go out and do the big rock tour where we have the 3 full stacks and the tour buses and all the girls and all that kind of thing, or I could do something really different and musically challenging and when I made the decision he said that for people my age to be playing with Glen Campbell, that was the equivalent to playing with Elvis Presley and that meant a lot to him.  All those times before when I would tell him ... Dad I'm playing with Motorhead! ... he'd go right, whatever ... or Dad I'm working on the new Cheap Trick record! ... he'd go yeh whatever.  But then when I said ... Dad I'm playing with Glen Campbell! ... he was like ... Oh my God, this is your big break!!! (laughs).  It really meant a lot to him so I can tell he's proud and that means a lot to me.

MM - Have you got any family of your own? 
Todd - Oh yes!  I just have to look at a girl and I get her pregnant! (laughs).  I have 4 beautiful and lovely daughters.  I have 4 girls.  My oldest is 20 and she's in college now in San Francisco.  I am an 18 year old who's a drummer.  She's goes to school in Massachusetts.  Then I have a  13 year old and a 7 year old. 

MM - Are they following in your footsteps?
Todd - Well the 18 year old probably will as she's an unbelievable drummer.  She used to study with Omah Hakim.  She took lessons from Omah for a while and she's a really really great drummer but she wants to get into Rock journalism.  That's what she really wants to do and that is what she's going to school for.  Both her and my older brother are humongous music fans and my 7 year old and I really doubt you're ever going to meet a 7 year old that's like ... OK daddy, I'm going to be David Johansen and you're going to be Johnny Thunders ... she knows music and she really loves Emmylou Harris and she loves Gram Parsons, she's got such a wide taste, because she's so young she'll listen to Emmylou and then she'll listen to the New York Dolls, it's just all music to her. 

MM - Well if you started out at 12 then that was really quite young to be in a proper band by most people's standards and to be out in the big bad world. 
Todd - Yeh but then again I kinda had a bit of a wild childhood though. I grew up in the lower East side when it really was alphabet city and it really was a bad neighbourhood.  I'm glad I had the childhood I had but I wouldn't wish that on anybody else. 

MM - Is there anything that you've turned down over the years that you wished you'd gone for?
Todd - Well I got asked to join Motorhead 3 shows in and I turned it down because we were on Capitol at the time and that's the one I kinda kick myself in the ass for.  That was definitely one.  Although I've always just followed my music and wherever my guitar takes me is where I go.  

MM - Was it always the guitar that you played from being young or did you play anything else?
Todd - I played a little drums, a little piano and a little bass but basically I'm a guitar player.  That's what I love. 

MM - Can you remember what your first guitar was?
Todd - My first guitar was my father's Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed was an old bluesman, 'Bright Lights, Big City' was a Jimmy Reed song.  He had a Jimmy Reed 'Kay' model and that was my first guitar.  Then I had a Gibson Marauder because that's what Paul Stanley used in 1976/1977.  That was my very first "my own guitar".   

MM - When you first joined Agnostic Front at the tender age of 12 was that the first time you'd played in front of a live audience?
Todd - No, as said earlier my family was kind of like a wild family and so all the musicians would be at our apartment after a gig, after my father had been out gigging and my mom used to bar tender at a Jazz club called The 55.  At 4.35 in the morning they'd be like ... come on get up, you got to get up and play us a song ...  I'd trundle out in my pyjamas and grab the guitar and they'd be singing and I'd play a few songs and then I'd go off back to bed.  But yeh when I joined Agnostic Front that was when it really first started and I started to play to proper audiences.  It was like ... whoah! people are really going nuts for this! ...

MM - It really is quite astounding to come across someone who started out playing so young and yet is still here today enjoying it!
Todd - Yeh I really love it, I can't imagine doing anything else at all.  My uncle who passed away always said to me that I was a journeyman, I guess I have some gypsy blood in me somewhere and that's why I love to travel and I love to entertain. 

MM - Do you think you'll be like the Rolling Stones and go on until you're 6 foot under?
Todd -  Well you know I look at Lemmy and if I can be in my 60's and still be out there rocking and doing it my own way then that's success.  That really is success to me, not the platinum record on the wall. 

MM - Do you ever think if you hadn't gone down this musical path which way your life might have gone?
Todd - Well you know most of the kids that I grew up with are either dead or in jail.  Like I said our neighbourhood wasn't a good neighbourhood so who knows.  I try not to think about it to be honest.  

MM - Is there anything that we haven't covered that you'd like to share with our readers?
Todd - If you get the chance then do check out our MySpace page and pick up the record and support read Rock N' Roll.  

Thanks for the interview, it's been a real pleasure you guys. 

MM - We'd like to thank Todd for being such a good sport and for sharing his true thoughts and feelings with us today.  Believe me when I say this band are fantastic live and if you like good old fashioned sleazy rock n' roll with the low slung guitars, striking riffs and sing-a-long melodies then this is the band for you.  I for one will most definitely be at the front of the queue when this band tour the UK again next time around.