The past 12
months have brought forth a multitude of 'themed' album releases from
bands old and new, big and small. However it has to be said that
one of the most unusual 'themes' for a
concept album has to go to the punk rock band The Eruptors for their
'Bad Time To Be Having A Good Time'. An innocent enough title you
may say, ah yes but read on and soon you'll know what I mean ...
MM - Introduce
the band members to us and can you tell us a little bit of background
about how you all came together.
Jeff: I’m Jeff Pepsii. Me
and Al where in a band together with three other people but we used to
get really pissed off with the amount of faffing around to get things
done. So we started a power trio that eventually mutated into The
Eruptors when we got Gary on board.
Gary: I was in another band with Geoff, he
invited Alex to see us play a gig. I love rock, so did they, the rest is
history.
Alex: The name ‘The Eruptors’ came
about because I saw something on TV about a volcano, which made me think
of the Van Halen song ‘Eruption’, and that made me think ‘The
Eruptors’ as a name for the band. Jeff agreed it was a killer
name, and it stuck. Then, after a few years of demoing songs
when we could find the time, Jeff converted an old farm building into a
recording studio and we used it to make an album. Gary played some
of the older demos to the record label that his other band is signed to,
they were impressed enough that they decided that they would like to
release the actual album, and the next one too.
MM - When did you realize the band was going to
work?
Gary: Jeff and I
got on great in another band, and the Eruptors seemed like the perfect
forum for our special brand of unbridled speed and loudness. The first
rehearsal, with Geoff’s girlfriend taking photos of us all sweating it
out in Survival Studios, Acton, was an indicator of the fun times ahead.
First two gigs were awesome fun. What for me cemented the band as an
integral part of my identity, was our first US tour. We rule.
Jeff: When I met Al and we first chatted about music and the
bands we were into I knew that there would be cool times ahead.
And when I first heard Gareth tune his drums – he was just belting the
living shit out of them. I thought that was the complete package
there.
Alex: I had no doubts it was going to work haha. Well the first
gig was already booked before Gary joined. At that point we had no
major ambitions to do anything beyond that first gig, it was just about
having fun and seeing if we could get away with it. But I guess
after that first show, the crowd, venue staff and the promoters all
seemed to like it too, and I realised that the 3 of us really had
something. So we just kept on doing it, and here we are.
MM - Who or what inspired you to join a band in
the first place?
Gary: Listening
to Led Zeppelin, Yes, Fairport Convention, Deep Purple, Cream, Dire
Straits. My parents, and my mates Chris and Steve – I was thirteen.
Jeff: Sex drugs and rock n roll. I
mean who can say no to that!!! When I was a teenager grunge was
the big thing but I just knew that it was fake and it couldn’t last.
There was nothing to aspire to, nothing to lift you up. Not like
rock n roll which had everything, the fun, the attitude. Punk rock
is rock n roll and vice versa.
Alex:
My parents brought me up on 70’s rock, like Thin Lizzy, Rory
Gallagher, Deep Purple, and some of my early memories from when I was
really young, are of my uncles bands 720 and New Torpedos. Some of
those guys he was in bands with went on to join bands like LA Guns, Bad
Company, FM, Samson and so on. As I got older I started listening to
Iron Maiden, WASP, Guns n’ Roses then Motorhead, and blues music, then
some of the punk stuff. Grunge came in and there was some cool
stuff in that scene but a lot of crap, a lot of posers. Scratch beneath
the surface and it was no different to the fake 80s rock they claimed to
be replacing in that sense, only more politically correct.
Everyone was whingeing about getting paid to be a rock star. Get over
it! haha.
MM - I believe the band members are a bit
spread out geographically, how does that work when it comes to band
practise etc?
Gary: We practice
only when we need to – i.e. if there’s a tour coming up or a
recording, we’ll rehearse for that. We all know the songs anyway,
since we wrote and recorded them and love them (they’re awesome,
n’est pas?) This way we don’t piss each other off – you think
it’s a coincidence we banished Geoff to Ireland?! No way! We are all
good listeners on stage – a trio is a great, great thing, and we are
all larger than life in the band. Not over-rehearsing allows us to
deliver the most we can when we perform.
Jeff: We use all the means that modern technology gives us.
MM - With the release of your debut album ‘Bad Time To Be Having A
Good Time’ earlier this year, how are the band feeling right now?
Gary: Like Iron Maiden, only faster, mutha
fucka.
Jeff: Feeling real good about everything, all the time!!!
Looking forward to finishing the next album, starting to write the one
after that. And just wondering what other cool creative things we
can do with this thing of ours.
Alex: We’re sitting on top of the world, to quote a great blues
song.
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MM -
What feedback have you received from the fans and music media
been so far to this release?
Gary:
Fans are not surprised at how awesome the record is. Media have
generally embraced the vibe, although some people appear not to
see the value in a twenty-one minute space opera ending in a
skate anthem – what the hell is wrong with these people?!
Jeff: Some love,
some hate. Which is perfect. It would be horrible to
do something that inspire some kind of a reaction.
Alex: Mostly good, including a great review from Mayfair
Mall. In fact I think you guys were the first published review.
You got the scoop! The album is available at mow/mid
price so check it out, people.
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MM - The album is a
concept album set against a sci-fi theme. Would you like to tell
us a little more about this whole concept and walk us through the songs
that feature on it?
Gary: No, not really. Open your ears
and your mind, baby. Or maybe just ask Geoff.
Jeff: It starts off with two characters who are pilots in the
space navy. There at a pretty packed bar and there just looking
out to see what’s going to happen. There's a band in the corner
getting ready to play. But then the first song, dawn of the earth,
takes us back to the birth of the planet and one of the things that
crawled out of the prehistoric soup was the concept of evil. Back
in the future the band starts to play in the bar, the two space navy
guys listen to the first song, theme from the eruptors and then high
tail it to the base which is a hive of activity with the spacecraft
being prepared. We then get a bit of back story, we hear for
example a speech made by commander de’ath to the combined earth navies
which is broadcast around the world.
We also hear a little bit of reaction to that speech by some of the
ordinary people in their homes. De’ath promise’s a quick and
easy and moralistic win over the backwards aliens. The war starts
and mankind invades the alien’s solar system but it doesn’t go
according to plan, in fact most of the space navy is destroyed.
Commander de’ath then decides to blow up the alien sun using a weapon
called the devil with angels wings even though every on earth thought
that such an evil weapon would never be allowed to be used. We
don’t find out if this works or not and the album ends back where we
started with a dawn of the earth. But we don’t know is this
because mankind or the aliens have being blown back to the stone age
because of losing the war or is a grander point about weather evil has
or is always with us from beginning to end.
It’s also about rocking out and having a good time.
MM - Do you have any plans to tour in support of the album?
Gary: If you have plans to finance such a
venture, I can be on the road tomorrow morning.
Jeff: Ditto.
MM - Have you had a chance to think
about how you will approach your follow up album or is it too early to
say?
Gary: Long and
hard (or so I keep hearing from our female fans). No really, the second
album is nearly in the can. Incredibly, it’s actually better than the
first CD. Mostly because of a drum solo, a tribute to Lynard Skynard,
and the fact that it’s TWICE AS LONG!
Jeff: Yep, the next album which will be called ‘Seduce and
Destroy’ is having the finishing touches applied to it. Slightly
different approach in some ways. But that’s the nature of the
rock n roll beast!!!
MM - How would you best describe your
music to any of our readers who are currently unfamiliar with your
music?
Gary: Like Motorhead, Zeke and AC/DC,
only quirkier and with a better looking line-up.
Jeff: It’s like sticking your head out of a window of a fast
moving car.
Alex: It’s the sort of music that makes you jump out of your
seat and start rockin’ out
MM - The artwork for the new album is
also pretty impressive, how did you come to hook up with Andy Tilley the
artist and what input did you have on it’s content?
Alex: Andy lives
near me and I know him from his work for the magazine ‘Bubblegum
Slut’. He mentioned that he could do us some T-Shirts, and had
some pretty far-out ideas to do with wart hogs, machine guns, hot rods
and scantily clad rock-sluts. The shirts were a success and it was
only natural that he should do the artwork for the album. We were all
really pleased with how it turned out, he did a sterling job.
MM - Who are your inspirations musically
and spiritually?
Gary: I am
spiritually bankrupt and all the happier for it. I have embraced atheism
with a lust that only the victim of an over-religious upbringing can
perhaps truly appreciate. The spirit is a construct of our (chemical)
brains; a figment of our imaginations. My inspirations, however, are:
Alex and Geoff, my parents, my drum teachers, my wife. John Bonham, Max
Roach, Frank Zappa, Bill Bruford and my insatiable desire to ROCK YOU. I
like the fact that this band steers clear of all religious or political
agendas – we’re all aware of contemporary issues and histories;
sometimes, though, it’s nice just to play some goddamn rock music and
enjoy yourself, ya know?
Jeff: Neil Young, Ronnie James Dio, AC/DC, Heart, Hellacopters,
Waylon Jennings, just loads of good music. And of course all the
bad, commercially ‘inspired’ whore music for the masses which also
inspire’s but more in a what not to do with your time on the planet
kinda way.
Alex: Musically – loads of stuff, rock, metal, punk, blues.
Obvious ones would be Iron Maiden, Rory Gallagher, The Hellacopters, Sex
Pistols, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, WASP (especially Chris Holmes
solo in the live version of ‘Sleeping In The Fire’ from ‘The
Sting’ dvd!!!), Guns n’ Roses, UK Subs, the list is endless.
Spiritually, I believe there is a God of some sort. Bill and Ted
summarise things best; ‘Be Excellent To Each Other’.
MM - Does music dominate your life or do
you get time to relax in between? If so how do you like to chill?
Gary: I chill between songs, between
gigs and in the shower. Otherwise I rock. Hard.
Jeff: I love surfing, ocean kayaking, camping, hiking. But
in a weird kinda cosmic way that would just be impossible to explain in
words (for me anyway) its all the same thing. If you know what I
mean…
Alex: I like to run, do a bit of weight training, go to the
beach, that sort of thing.
MM - Is there anything you’ve have
done in the past that you wished you had done differently?
Gary: I should have eaten a bigger
breakfast today – I was starving by 11.00!
Jeff: Loads of things!!! But hey, win some, lose some…
Alex: No use crying over spilled milk…as one door shuts another
opens…. Every ‘bad’ decision I ever made worked out for the
best in the long run.
MM - How would you like to see yourself
in 5 years time?
Gary: Reflected in a wall of platinum
CDs on the wall of our studio in Cork.
Jeff: Yep, same, but in a bigger better studio. And with
gold disc’s.
Alex: Happy, healthy, and releasing great Eruptors music!
MM - What would you most like to be
remembered for?
Jeff: I’d like to remembered with a
dirty grin and a guilty smile!!!
Alex: I’d like to be remembered as the guy who played the
guitar solo on ‘Leaving (On The Wings Of An Eagle)’ from The
Eruptors forthcoming second album, entitled ‘Seduce & Destroy’.
MM - OK, now for a fun question, if one
day you were involved in a freak accident and became a new breed of
superhero, what would your name be, what would be your special power and
what would your costume look like?
Gary: My name
would still be Flamin’ Gary De Niro, and I would have the special
power of rock endowment – I would be able to infect anyone, at any
time, with an unflagging desire and ability to rock out all the while
they were with me. Upon my sudden but not untimely disappearance, people
would, like Scrooge, be left to reflect on what just happened. And their
lives would be changed. And eventually there would be no more fucking
hip hop.
Jeff: It’s already happened. I can’t talk about it.
My superhero nemesis will start tracking me.
MM - Do you have any final words for our
readers or is there anything we’ve omitted to ask?
Gary: “Hello
everyone” to the readers. And you don’t appear to care, but I’m
fine, thanks.
Alex: Check us out on myspace.com/eruptors
and if you like it, buy an album or a t-shirt.
Jeff: Keep on keeping on!! Rock n' roll will never die!!!
MM - Well
there you have it my little rock-a-doodles, the very talented and
extremely wacky Eruptors, or The Eruptors to be precise. If you
haven't heard their album yet then have a read of our review elsewhere
on this site, if that wets your appetite then head on over to the bands
myself site and wrap your ears around some snippets. |