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On stage he’s a
wild animal with adrenalin pumping out of every pore, but fresh from his
afternoon nap here before us we had a guy who could give David Beckham a
run for his money as far as youthful good looks are concerned.
Ladies and gentlemen, we give you CJ from The Wildhearts.
MM – Hi CJ, How you doing?
CJ – I’m doing really well. We’ve been on the road for about 3
months now and done about 75 shows. We’re still together, we still
love each other, and we’re having the time of our lives.
MM – What time did you arrive in Newcastle?
CJ – I don’t know. I woke up about 2 o’ clock and we were here.
The thing is with the band now we used to have this reputation for being
really dysfunctional and out of control, and all sorts of things, and so
now before the shows no one is allowed to drink, or get high, and it’s
really professional.
Everyone’s got their show together and it’s obviously benefiting the
band because we’re picking up record deals all over the world and
we’re on tour till March next year. So at our age we can’t complain.
MM – Yeh, at one time the band were more notorious for what happened
offstage as opposed to what happened onstage.
CJ – Yes, but we were just kids then and we’re not kids any more.
We’ve been around for a while and we’re all really lucky to be given
another shot at this and for people to take us seriously again. You
can understand why people might have been a bit worried about this band
or even scared of the band.
Getting The Darkness world tour is simply amazing because it’s exposed
us to an audience that we just wouldn’t have found. It’s enabled our
album to come out everywhere and for people to actually see the band at
its best. The bands never been as good or as tight, even as people,
it’s wonderful you just can’t dispute that.
MM – How did you actually come to
hook up with The Darkness in the first place?
CJ – About 2 years ago we took them out on tour with us as our support
band. From their London show they got their record deal and they’re
big fans of The Wildhearts so they wanted to break us. They’d seen all
the hard work we’d put in over the last few years and saw that we
weren’t getting any bigger or smaller; but that no one would give us a
break.
Then we went out to Europe on tour with them in February. It went so
well they said we might as well come on tour with them around the rest
of the world. So we’ve got 3 American tours with them, Australia,
throughout Europe and we did some shows in the UK with them as well. A
lot of people have asked us how did we get a tour that hot, and we just
say … hey we’re The Wildhearts, we just do!
MM – I can imagine you would be the sort of good time party rock band
The Darkness would have been genuine fans of in the past.
CJ – When the band first toured with us they’d never really toured
with a rock n’ roll band and I think they were amazed.
We were still a little bit naughty back then and so I think a part of
them is amazed that we are all still alive. This line-up of The
Wildhearts is a completely different vision of The Wildhearts. It’s
The Wildhearts I’ve always wanted to be in. It’s just taken us 15
years to find the right people. But we’re here and we’re not going
away for at least another 2 weeks so enjoy us.
MM – Is Danny still a member of The
Wildhearts or has he gone for good?
CJ – No. John is our bass player now. John’s been our bass player
for a year but he is our official member.
MM – So he’s here to stay?
CJ – Yes. He writes stuff for the band and brings a musicality to the
band which we’ve just never had. He’s an amazing musician.
The band’s tighter now than it’s ever been. Thank God we’ve
finally found someone who can actually do the job and can put up with
all of our weird personalities. We’re all a bit high maintenance.
MM – What’s the fan base been like
while you’ve been on tour with The Darkness? Was it a mixture of old
and new fans?
CJ – Well if we were playing America on our own we’d probably pull
anything from 30 – 150 people if we’re lucky. In Europe we’re just
not known. Everyone thinks that because the band’s been around for so
long and we’ve made a lot of albums that we must be popular all over
the world. But our only 2 markets were only ever Japan and the UK.
In America and in Europe The Darkness were playing in front of thousands
of people every night. The fans were very young and were very receptive
to rock n’ roll music as well. We need people like that if we are to
survive.
We haven’t had a bad show and we’re going down well everywhere.
People really seem to like us. Our album came out in America at the
beginning of the week and our label just simply can’t believe how well
it’s selling.
MM- Is that ‘Coupled With’?
CJ – No, it’s ‘The Wildhearts Must be Destroyed’. We had a
version of ‘Coupled With’ came out about 2 months ago in America but
it was just like an introduction to the band. We’re going down a storm
because they’ve never seen a band like The Wildhearts before.
These people are so used to British bands being moany pissy little
children. I mean no offence to bands like Oasis, Blur, and Radiohead,
but that’s just not rock n’ roll or even close to it. People are
seeing The Darkness and The Wildhearts together on the same bill and
what they’re seeing is two British rock n’ roll bands.
MM – Proper party bands.
CJ – Yes the real deal.
MM – I suppose having all these new fans being introduced to the
band when you have all got your act more cleaned up than you have been
in the past is good because their views aren’t tainted.
CJ – Well the truth is we would never have had a chance out in America
the way we were and that’s why we never made it before over there. It
goes a long way to show people just how much this band has changed.
The Americans are actually letting us into their country because we were
banned from there at one time. In fact we were banned from most of the
world. Only the Japanese and the British were foolish enough to come to
our shows!
MM – I believe Gut Records pulled the
budget for the tour?
CJ – For the European tour, yeh they did.
MM – What happened?
CJ – They asked us to find a more happening band to go on tour with.
We said, hang a second, this is The Darkness, they are a really
happening band! It was a real surprise to us because we’d been offered
this European Darkness tour and it was all sold out.
We had no licensing deal in Europe so we really needed to get out there
and play in front of as many people as possible. And then they said
we’re not going to give you any money unless you find a more happening
band.
We all thought … oh you guys are crazy! Then of course during the tour
The Darkness won the 3 BRIT awards and then the label started to back
pedal.
We said it was just too late because you either support us from the
beginning or you don’t. They’re just another label to us now. If
they had money we’d use them. But obviously they haven’t got any so
… America’s where we are heading. We’ve done the UK for so many
years now and we will be back here in December, but America’s what
we’re concentrating on at the moment.
If anyone’s got a problem with that then frankly my dear we don’t
give a damn.
MM – Have you had any stalker fans while you’ve been out on tour?
CJ – Oh yes we’ve got quite a few. Especially when we meet some of
the older fans, some of them are scary, they really are. A lot of them,
because they’ve been into the band for so long they think they kind of
own a bit of us. They can be a bit disrespectful towards the younger
fans.
As much as we love our older fans, we’ve got this hard core of people
who have been with us for the last 10 or 12 years, but it doesn’t get
any bigger. We need the younger fans coming in. We do have a lot of very
very strange fans though. They really do scare us!
MM – Any chance of the band putting
out a DVD?
CJ – Well we’re recording all these shows for a live album which
will come out at some point and there’s talk about a book coming out
in September.
MM – What like The Wildhearts equivalent of The Dirt?
CJ – Actually it’s a journal from our last tour with lots of
pictures and just dishing the dirt out on what it’s like to actually
go out on your first US tour. There will be a DVD coming out eventually,
especially now because we’re appealing to this whole new market out
there. All these people who have never heard of us before are going to
start discovering all these old albums we have. To them we’re just
this new band.
MM – Will it be the videos or a live show?
CJ – I think it will be a combination of the videos and some live
footage. All the general madness that is the band. We’ve got so much
footage anyway which has been filmed over the years and on all the tours
we’re doing now it will be really interesting to see how we’ve all
changed. Also because we’re going everywhere, everyone’s got
camcorders on which we’re capturing tons of crazy stuff on. It will
happen.
MM – Good because that’s what your fans want.
CJ – Well it might not happen this year, but in the next 2 years I
could see it happening.
MM – I believe the band was involved
in a drive-by shooting?
CJ – What? Where’d you hear that?
MM – I heard someone tried to take John Poole out?
CJ – That’s absolutely crap, what in Buckinghamshire? I love it.
MM – What’s the truth behind that then?
CJ – A stone came flying up off the road or something and broke the
mirror and for some reason someone thought they’d pulled a spud gun on
him. Drive-by shooting, we’re not gangster rappers here. Who’s ever
heard of Ginger Snoop Dog? Snoopy Dog more like it! Trying to take out
John Poole? Must have been one of his ex-boyfriends.
MM – Well I’m glad to hear the only contract out on the band is a
record contract.
MM – What do you feel is the biggest
lesson the band have learnt over the years? What mistake will you not
make again?
CJ – We’ve literally made hundreds of mistakes in this band. I would
say just don’t take 12 years to get your shit together. Most decent
and well adjusted people can just sort it out. Unfortunately it’s
taken us well over a decade. Another thing for me personally is don’t
go back.
If people aren’t performing, or they aren’t doing what they’re
supposed to be doing, just get somebody else in the band. If you’re
going to get into drugs and alcohol then just try and control your
emotions because anything that stimulates you makes you make some bad
calls. Thank God we’ve finally got it together and we’ve still got a
shot at it. Even though we’re old men now, the boys are just a distant
shadow in all of us.
MM – The band release the two albums
really close together, why did you do that?
CJ – Which two?
MM – ‘Coupled With’ and ‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed’.
CJ – ‘Coupled With’ had nothing to do with us. It’s just a Gut
Record thing. They put it together and they put it out and we don’t
actually earn any money from it. That kind of shows you how they feel
about us. But it’s a good album. It does have very little to do with
us though.
MM – I’ve noticed that album seemed to be getting a lot more push
than ‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed’.
CJ – Yes it does seem to be getting all the reviews and the push. The
reviews are great on it. But ‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed’ is
getting much better reviews in America than it did over here. I think
the album is more geared towards an American market. It’s a bit poppy
whereas ‘Coupled With’ is a bit more depressive and has a down sound
to it.
MM – Do the band not own the songs off that album then?
CJ – Yes we own them, but Gut owns the rights to release them because
they are all B-sides to the singles they released. They can release
whatever they want. We’re not pissed off about it but like I said
before it’s just another record label to us. We’ve had many. We
collect them all like Elizabeth Taylor collects husbands.
MM – What record label are you
actually with at the moment then?
CJ – Gut over here in the UK, Sanctuary Records over in America,
Universal in the Far East and Australia, BMG in Germany. We’ve about
10 different labels on the go around the world at the moment.
I like Universal and the bigger labels rather than the small indies.
They have better money, better staff, and they’re better looking! More
colour in their artwork. Better mastering. They also give us tour
budgets, which helps a lot.
MM – I have a few questions to ask from one of your biggest but newest
fans.
CJ – What is he a huge guy like 50 stone or something?
MM – No, but he discovered The Wildhearts about a year ago and now
he’s mental over you. He’s trying to buy everything up so he has
your complete collection. He often takes along your CD’s to the local
DJ’s and badgers them to play them in the clubs.
CJ – Is he young?
MM – Yeh he’s in his early twenties.
CJ – Ah that’s good. That’s what we want.
MM –
Does the band have any new material in the pipeline?
CJ – We’re trying to make an album of all new songs which we’re in
the process of demoing at the moment. Hopefully we will then learn the
songs and try and record it over a two week period in America somewhere.
It’s done, but whether it comes out this year I don’t know.
As I said our album ‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed’ has only just
come out in America and there’s 3 singles coming off that. The third
one will come out in January next year. Vanilla Radio comes out on June
5th to coincide with the next leg of the tour over there.
So we’re going to be tied up with that till March. Then they’re
going to want to get us straight back in the studio to do the album.
We’ll have it all ready but I recon next year we’ll have the new
album out and it’ll come out all over the world at the same time.
There’ll be none of this confusion over names or artwork.
MM – Will there be another UK tour in support of the new album?
CJ – We’re probably going to be in the UK touring again in December
but we’re not too sure at the moment as we’ll be out supporting as
well. If we don’t tour the UK in December then we won’t be here
again after that till next year. We’re contracted out to play other
places. It’s just the way it goes.
MM – What other bands or music have
impressed you lately?
CJ – Actually I’m not a big rock fan so you’re probably asking the
wrong person here. The last album I bought was TLC’s greatest hits.
Snoop Dog’s greatest hits is another favourite of mine. Have you heard
of a band called G Love and Special Source from Philadelphia? I love
them.
Arrested Development’s another favourite of mine. The Glitterati who
we have out on tour with us at the moment are a cross between Guns &
Roses and early Aerosmith, they look great and they’re going to be
huge. The Therapy guys are very good as well. We’ve been out on the
road for 3 months we’ve been given hundreds and hundreds of demos. But
the only band I’ve seen play live lately has been The Darkness!
The Darkness, I think they are very good. I think they might be going
places. They might have a hit of two. I’d sign them! lol. I wouldn’t
give them any tour support, but I’d sign them!
MM – So what music do you listen to then if it’s not rock n’ roll?
CJ – I like anything really as long as it’s got a tune and the
singers good. I love singers. Last night I was listening to Bubba
Sparks, Rob Zombie, Nora Jones, No Doubt, a bit of Snoop.
I like music which has got a good beat to it and anything you can fuck
to basically. Unfortunately I don’t find rock very sexy. It doesn’t
really put you in the mood for sex does it? I mean does Ace of Spades
make you moist? It doesn’t make anything twitch on my body!
MM – What’s your favourite songs to
play live?
CJ – ‘I Wanna Go Where The People Go’ has got to be my favourite
song. We put it into the middle of a CD because it’s musical and
powerful, and I love singing ‘Top Of The World’. I actually prefer
singing to playing guitar. So thank God I get to sing quite a lot in
this band as well.
If I ended up just playing guitar I’d be really bored. I love playing
them all though, especially if you’ve got a good audience. Fortunately
audiences in the UK are always amazingly good and you can’t help but
enjoy yourself.
MM – What song do you find the fans react the most to?
CJ - It all depends really. One thing we’ve noticed as we’ve come
back to play in the UK again is that our audience is getting younger and
younger. It’s really nice because you tend to get all the old people
at the back and all the young people at the front.
The youngsters tend to react to the newer songs more. Songs like
‘Vanilla Radio’, ‘Top Of The World’, ‘Stormy In The North’.
The older guys tend to react more to songs like ‘Headfuck’, and
‘Caffeine Bomb’.
It’s really nice having that kind of audience because our audiences
probably cross over three generations now. I think that’s really good
because I don’t think there can be that many bands out there that have
such a diverse audience. It’s such a great feeling for us. It’s just
such a good night out for the family. Bring your grandma if she can
stand it!
MM – What do you think about The Darkness’s success in America and
do you think this will pave the way for other British bands success in
America?
CJ – Well their success is well deserved because they are one of the
hardest working bands I’ve ever toured with. They will open the doors
for British rock n’ roll bands.
The fans haven’t seen rock n’ roll bands like this for years. As
long as you’re a rock n’ roll band and you don’t sound like Travis
you’ve probably got a good chance out there.
We’re changing the music over there and they are looking at us as some
sort of British invasion. They will be looking at us as some kind of
British Guns N’ Roses, or British Aerosmith, or Cheap Trick. That’s
what they want. They don’t want Genesis. So all you students out there
better learn how to play proper rock n’ roll!
MM – How do you manage to write such fantastic B-sides and who/what
decides what should go on the album and what will be a b-side?
CJ – The B-sides aren’t decided. If a songs good enough it goes on
an album. Then we have a single off that album and everyone goes off and
writes songs and there’s a level of quality control in this band where
we know if a songs good or not. So I’ll go off and demo six songs and
I might only like two of them, that leaves four that won’t be used and
I’ll present the two I really like to the band.
If we’re doing an album, then they’ll make it on to the album. Or if
we’re doing singles then they’ll end up as B-sides. It’s as simple
as that. There’s no … let’s sit down and write a hit single and
then we’ll sit down and write a B-side to go with that single. We just
write songs and whatever we’ve got coming out, be it an album or a
single, the songs we choose will be used on.
MM – What can anyone who hasn’t seen the band live before expect
from a live show?
CJ – Well right now I think we’re one of the hottest bands in the
world. We’re definitely one of the tightest. You’re going to get a
bit of pop, a bit of harmonies, some melodies. You’re going to get
some punk rock, some rock, and some of the biggest riffs you’ve ever
heard.
You’ll get fast songs, slow songs, medium songs … basically if you
can get it anywhere else cheaper then buy it! You’ve also got some
swarthy handsome motherfuckers to look at as well so that can’t be
bad! Lol.
MM – Lastly is there anything you’d
like to say to all your fans out there both old and new?
CJ – Well we’re back for good and we’re not going to screw it up
this time. I know there are people out there putting money on us saying
we’ll last 6 months then me and Ginger are going to fall out, or
whatever, but it ain’t going to happen.
We’ve got a really good team around us and they’re working their
arses off to make sure we’ll still be around for at least another five
or six years. We’re gonna make another two or maybe three more albums
for sure. We’ll all make a shitload of money and then we can all go
off and do our own solo projects. And I will come back as The Pimp!
MM – Thanks for taking the time out
to talk to us and good luck with the rest of the tour.
CJ – It’s been a pleasure. Take care and I hope enjoy the show
tonight.
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