XYZ: A lot is going on at the moment for Stone Gods. You had a single out on last month and your album on 7th July. What sets you apart from other rock/metal bands?

Dan: Our average height! [laughs] That’s a hard question. When we played Download festival this year, we stuck out a mile. We have more in common with your Judas Priests rather than the scream metal bands. I think we’re heavy, yet melodic and more song-based, rather than just an attitude. And, of course, we have loads of guitar solos!

I hear elements of Soundgarden, Thin Lizzy and Def Leppard coming through in your songs. Are there any contemporary bands that you admire at the moment?

Toby: I like the band Year Long Disaster [Rest of the band agree].
Richie: To be honest, I don’t keep up-to-date with modern rock bands. I’m kind of set in my ways really and just listen to the same old stuff. As a kid or up until a few years ago I used to actively seek new music and buy music. But these days I either haven’t got the time nor the inclination to do that so I just end up listening to the first six AC/DC albums over and over again! [laughter].

I wanted to talk about The Darkness for a little bit; they spread to a lot of people who weren’t what you might call ‘hardcore rock fans’, which you guys obviously are. Are Stone Gods setting out for a more hard rock demographic as opposed to the gimmick rock band vibe that celebrities thought it was cool to like, which plagued The Darkness towards the end?

Dan: In the beginning [with The Darkness] we didn’t care about who we’d appeal to. Before we were signed we sold out the London Astoria to a load of proper metallers. It was the same songs that we were playing to a pop audience in arenas with the same attitude, but yeah, we’re not trying to ride on what we done in the past and chase the pop contingency. We’re not worried about that.

Was that slightly annoying? It was a bit of a laugh what with all the spandex and the big posing rock guitar solo thing going on in your videos…

Dan: Like I said before, in the start we maintained what we did throughout The Darkness. I think it’s people’s opinions that have changed rather us. We just go out there and try and put on a good show and not take ourselves too seriously. I think the opinion of the band has changed because of their popularity and I don’t think we were gimmicky at all.

Is everything still amicable with Justin Hawkins?

Dan: Yes, he’s sent some positive messages. You know, we fell out for a while and we’re talking again now. So it’s all very amicable.

Do you fear that Stone Gods are perhaps not as accessible as The Darkness were for, say, the blasé rock fan but then you’re perhaps too ‘old school’ for the current kid who listens to rock or metal?

Richie: It really doesn’t bother us one way or another really. As long as we’re happy in what we do and if people want to jump on for the ride, then that’s fantastic. You quite rightly pointed out earlier that The Darkness was besieged by “not your average rock audience”, and you used that as a negative so…

I didn’t use it as a negative, I was just pointing out the mainstream appeal of your previous band and how far it spread…

Dan: We’re certainly not trying to recreate the success we had before. A really good level for this band would be to sell out venues like the London Astoria and get to that level of touring. I’ve been there and done it. I’ve played the festivals and the arenas, which is great. But I’m really enjoying the level of touring we’re on now. We’re not saying that we’re not ambitious. I think we have a couple of singles on the album that will cross over and get on the radio. But for now we just want people to get what the essence of what the band’s about.

Words by Mo Mostowfi
Photograph by Sarah Hadland

XYZ Magazine

Richie Edwards, Toby Macfarlaine and Dan Hawkins (Stone Gods) interview with Louise Delahunty

Sitting backstage at Manchester’s Academy 3, watching Dan Hawkins shoot one of his road crew to the ground with a banana, then shoot himself in the head, I was pleased to see that rock tours the world over share the same underlying current of tomfoolery. Clearly very happy to be on tour together and putting on such glowing, crowd-pleasing shows, it would seem that Stone Gods have only a rosey future ahead of them. Already with an entourage of die-hard fans, both old and new, buzzing around them, there’s a real air of ‘something special happening’ when this band are on stage. I caught up with Richie Edwards, Toby Macfarlaine and Dan Hawkins to talk to them about touring, pub quizzes, dinner parties and punching monkeys! (The latter is not a euphemism.)

Lou: How has the tour been going?
Richie: It’s been really good.
Toby: Despite the initial…scary moment!
(The band’s first few dates had to be postponed due to drummer Ed falling ill. Robin Goodridge was drafted in at the last minute to save the day!)

Lou: How is Ed doing?
Richie: He’s doing alright, he’s on the mend! We got Robin in to help us out…
Toby: And he’s good!

Lou: Have you all worked well together as people?
Dan: Robin’s a total star.
Toby: He is a great guy.
Dan: He’s one of the funniest fuckers I’ve ever met.
Toby: There’s been lots of laughter and mucking around.
Dan: I think all of us have progressed. For the first time I don’t really get nervous before we go on stage. I just get excited. It’s confusing sometimes whether it’s nerves or excitement, but it’s definitely just excitement now.
Richie: Yeah, we’ve been having a lot of fun and playing some good shows…I think!

Lou: Yes, the Birmingham gig was good!
Richie: Cool, I had a lot of fun in Birmingham.
Lou: I could tell. I particularly enjoyed your high-fiving all along the front row of the crowd.
(Cue laughter and Dan’s uncanny impression of Richie’s multiple high-fiving)
Richie: If I’d have been stood at the front I’d have thought “Edwards, you wanker!”

Lou: Has there been anything that’s gone hideously wrong?
Richie: No, I don’t think so…
Dan: There’s was one thing… we’d travelled for hours to get to a venue and we arrived, tired… and the first thing we saw were the posters on the walls saying “Stone Gods”, and then in even bigger writing; “made up of ex members of The Darkness”. So basically we looked like a bunch of cocks. Not that I’m saying…
Toby: A bouquet of cocks.
(Cue laughter and some scary images conjured!)
Dan: Not that I’m saying anything against The Darkness, don’t get me wrong. But we’re going out of our way to start a new band and….not disassociate, but… well, we’ve had people coming up to us and saying they were half expecting us to play a load of Darkness songs, which we’re not. That’s not what we are.

Lou: And quite right too! Though I did love The Darkness.
Richie: So did I! Y’know, everyone who was involved with that band are hugely proud of what they achieved, it’s certainly not something we’re trying to keep quiet, but this is a new band. We want to draw a lie under it.
Toby: We want to E-volve rather than RE-volve.

Lou: Do you find that a lot of your fans are old Darkness fans who have followed your projects or fans who have discovered you newly?
Richie: It’s definitely a mix of both. There’s no reason why any Darkness fan would necessarily like this band. It’s not a natural progression. And we were aware of that. That’s why we did the limited edition Burn The Witch EP, to kinda set our stall out and say; look, if you’re expecting what you got before just be aware. But that’s not to say there aren’t elements in what we do that could be conceived of being Darknessy, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Lou: Do you get asked about The Darkness a lot in interviews?

Richie: We do get asked and I think we have to expect that.
Dan: It’d be a bit naïve to think we wouldn’t. I don’t think we’ve done an interview when we haven’t been asked about it. I think if in five years time we’re still being asked about it that would piss us off.

Lou: So, describe Stone Gods in five words.
Richie: Fucking amazing loud rock band.
Dan: That’s funny because I was going to say; fucking awesome heavy rock band.
Toby: I was going to say those same words but maybe in French.
Lou: Controversial!

Lou: Do you ever read your forums?
Toby: I go on the official forum quite a lot.
Lou: How do you feel about some of the things that your fans say about you?
Toby: Sometimes I feel a bit violated. Sometimes ladies say things I don’t want to think about so then I have to stop reading that thread and go on to something else. But if they want to write that stuff, fine.
Dan: I’d like to go on the forums but I can’t really. I don’t necessarily take things personally, but I take things onboard a bit too much and there’s too many people wanting to know too many things. But I think forums are great for communities of fans. And our fans are geat.
Richie: Yeah, we’re very lucky really with our fans, we’ve got a really good bunch. And they run a really good unofficial website and spread the word like no-one’s business!

Lou: Apart from the obvious musical talents, what do each of you bring to the band?
Richie: Toby brought a knackered old Volvo.
Dan: It’s about to be scrapped!
Richie: Yeah, if anyone wants a Volvo 440, available for spares or repairs…
Dan: If it’s still there when we get back off tour it’s gonna be given away to the 500th person who turns up at the in-store gig.
Richie: And they have to take it that day!
Dan: Yeah, the Volvo will be parked in the car park outside and the keys will be given to the 500th person to attend. Actually, no, we should make it more like 50th, yeah?
Richie: Yeah, just in case.
Dan: Just in case!

Lou: Do you think 500 is a bit optimistic?
Dan: Just a bit!
Richie: Well, it’s a very small record shop, you’re not even gonna get that many people in.
Lou: Should be cool though…
Richie: Yeah, we’re doing it unplugged. Stone Gods unplugged.
Lou: So have you got your set list all ready for it?
Richie: Nah, we’ll do it on the night.
Dan: Wing it. Take requests and whatever.

Lou: Richie, I’ve heard that you’re only drinking honey and lemon and no booze? Why is that?
Richie: I haven’t had a boozey drink on this tour. I’m fighting off a cold at the moment and the last thing I need is to be going on stage with a hangover. Now more than ever is a really critical time for this band and if I come off stage feeling like I haven’t given 100% because I was out ‘til 6am the night before partying then I’ve not only let myself down I’ve let my three best mates down as well, and everyone who bought a ticket for the gig. Doing a good show, getting an early night and being ready for the next night is more important to me. At this stage. As soon as the carnival starts then it’ll be like; fucking hell watch out!
Toby: He’ll be off his NUT!

Lou: Should you really be encouraging children to “bring a match and start the flame”?
Richie: Absolutely! Nah, I don’t think it’s encouraging, particularly. I like the reasoning behind the way they used to deal with ‘witches’… They’d burn them and if they died they weren’t a witch. Or they’d drown them and if they died they weren’t a witch.
Lou: So what would they do if they were a witch and survived?
Toby: If they flew up out of the water they’d have to be caught and killed another way.
Lou: So there were men with big butterfly nets standing at the other end of the pond?
Richie: Yeah.
Toby: Amazingly, very rare did that happen! It went widely unreported!

Lou: What would you do if you were omnipotent for a day?
Toby: If I was impotent for a day… I don’t know really.
Richie: I wouldn’t leave my house.
Toby: Yeah, have a really nice day at home.
Richie: I’d stay in bed. I’d be too scared because I wouldn’t know what the fuck the world might do! I’d be sitting in going; what the fucking hell…
Toby: What am I?! Nah, I don’t know… I think I’d try and make everyone smile.

Lou: When you’re on tour and things get boring on the bus, do you play any games to pass the time?
Dan: It’s quite hard to play games in the tour bus we’re currently in because it’s quite hard to move! And we’re not facing each other. But one of my favourites is the on-the-road pub quiz, where I become quiz master, download a load of questions off the internet from various pub quiz websites and off we go! Everyone puts in a fiver and the winner walks away with a lump of money.
Richie: You used to do it by phone to the crew bus as well, didn’t you?
Dan: Yeah, when we were in convoy we’d play it via walkie talkie through the two buses.
Richie: There was a lot of money to be won! I love a good quiz. Ask me what my favourite tele program is!
Lou: What’s your favourite tele program, Richie?
Richie: QI! All about facts. I love it. Stephen Fry is one of my dinner guests. Y’know for your ultimate dinner party? I wouldn’t let him leave. Not in a funny way though!
Lou: Who else would be at your dinner party then?
Richie: Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Ricky Gervais… And the missus! And the lads, obviously.
Toby: Yeah, we’d pop over, We’d bring the pudding.

Lou: And finally, would you rather punch a panda or a baby horse?
Dan: Monkey, please! Gimme a monkey, I’ll punch it straight in the face!
Lou: Why?
Toby: He hates monkeys.
Lou: Because they’re ugly?
Dan: That depends… Some monkeys… I tell you what, one of those big baboons with the red arses and the really big, horrible teeth… If that comes screaming at me that’s gonna get punched right in the face.
Richie: He would definitely punch a monkey in the face.
Lou: Is this a deep set hatred that you’ve always harboured?
Dan: I dunno. I studied monkeys when I was at school. I know what’s going on back there behind those eyes. And I once saw a Gorilla eat its own shit.

www.purerawk.co.uk

by RICHARD SMIRKE – Thursday, June 26, 2008

Along with his brother Justin, Dan Hawkins founded The Darkness. Following the band’s demise in 2006, the remaining members, minus Justin, formed Stone Gods. Their debut album, Silver Spoons & Broken Bones, is released on July 7.

You’ve been away from the spotlight for two years. Are you excited about returning?

Absolutely. It’s almost like being granted a reprieve. It’s nice being in a band where everyone really cares about everything rather than just me taking it all on my shoulders.

How do Stone Gods differ from The Darkness?

It’s probably edgier, bigger sounding, maybe a little more anthemic, if that’s possible. The key thing is that the songs are based more on emotions rather than on clever twists of phrase. It’s a much more organic kind of sound.

What can we expect from this tour?

Just s***-loads of rock. I don’t know if there’s many bands that I would be as excited about seeing because our songs are great and the gig experience is a really feel-good one.

Do you have any regrets about The Darkness ending?

None at all. Some things are supposed to just burn brightly and then die. Maybe the one regret that I have is that people were having such a shit time by the end of it, that I didn’t end it before Justin did. People’s happiness is more important than keeping something going because wages depend on it.

Justin quit the band amid a well-publicised battle with drink and drugs. How is he doing now?

I don’t know, really. We haven’t exactly been best mates for the past year and a half. We [didn't speak] for about a year after the split and now we’re just working things out.

Band: Stone Gods Date:  22 June 2008

On a wild and windy night in good old Newcastle we caught up with Stone Gods, the new saviours of rock shortly before their show at the Carling Academy.  Now this interview should carry a government health warning because the making of it created a tremendous amount of merriness and mirth amongst the band. Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present to you … Stone Gods … MM – Hi Guys, how you all doing today? SG – Good thank you. MM – First things first, I believe Ed’s had to drop out the tour due to illness?  How’s he doing and who will be replacing him? Toby – Yes he’s tuned in and dropped out.  He’s on the road to recovery now though. Richie – When it happened it was a case of either pull the whole tour or try to get someone else in and luckily we found Robin (Robin Goodridge, ex-Bush/Spear of Destiny) who’s been awesome and really helped us out by agreeing to do the tour with us.  The tour was really important to us and we really didn’t want to cancel it by thankfully Robin here helped save the day. MM – How did you come to find Robin? Richie – He was hanging around.  No actually it was Dan’s guitar tech Adi Vines who used to know Robin from his old band Bush and he suggested him, he (Robin) was up on the train in a flash. Robin – It was strange though because on the Monday I’d not heard a note of their music, then on the Friday I was playing Donnington with them! Richie – It was quite a big order really, but the order was filled and the rock was delivered on time and tasted wonderful. MM – Well that actually leads nicely into my next question, how did Download go? Toby – It tasted really nice.  We had 10,000 metal maniacs screaming at us! Richie – It was really good because it’s well known as a mecca for the rock world.  It was nice to kick off the ‘album campaign’ and a good way to kick off the new tour as well. Dan – Yeh it was great being there but it was all thanks to Robin really, because if he hadn’t agreed to help us out then we wouldn’t have been able to have been there. MM – How’s the tour going this time around as opposed to your tour earlier in the year?  Is the word starting to spread out there about the band? Dan – Yes there’s been a steady increase in ticket sales and there’s more people singing along.  It’s strange though because at one of the gigs we played there were more people turned up this time, but there wasn’t anyone in the crowd we recognised from the last time around.  It was like a whole new lot of rock fans had come along to check us out.  Maybe the others had all come along to see us at Download? Richie – To be honest we haven’t really done ourselves any favours by going out on tour at this time of the year because June’s notorious for being a pretty rubbish time for tours really.  You have all the festivals going on, you’ve got the exams so the students are busy studying and the rest have already gone home by now.  You’ve also got the footy tournament on at the moment, so us going out on tour now is pretty much going out on a limb. Robin – We’ve been having some great fun though and it’s getting better and better as the tour goes on.  We’re really starting to kick some arse. Richie – It’s really important for us to go out and establish ourselves as a live band.  It wasn’t really an option for us to cancel this tour when we found out Ed couldn’t do it, because really we’re a live band and we need to get out there and be playing, so that people can see that we’re really at home on the live stage.  We need to be able to really take it on from there, one step at a time and build it up from the grass roots level up.  It’s great that we’re seeing people leaving our shows with a smile on their faces. MM – Your debut album ‘Silver Spoons & Broken Bones’ is due out soon, what can you tell us about that? Toby – Yes it’s due out the 7th July. MM – Is that in all formats? Dan – Yes everything. Richie – Yes that’s CD, vinyl, download, cassette, 8 track, VHS, Beta-max, lazer disc, dart board and medical implant. Robin – Yes and I will gladly volunteer for the insertion of that. MM – What to have it inserted into you or to do the insertion? Robin – No, I’ll gladly volunteer to do the inserting. (This comment is met which much laughter around the room and some polite coughing at the thought of Robin doing his insertions.  Now that’s what I call dedication to the cause.  Ladies if you don’t mind let’s have an orderly queue). Ritchie – Yes, that’s due to be inserted on the 7th July. MM – What about the songs on the album? Toby – They’re great! Richie – It’s a collection of 13 tracks of varying levels of rock n’ roll from the heavy to the more ballady end of the genre. Robin – I have to say it’s quite a diverse collection. Richie – It’s really been like a journey making this album (Richie desperately tries not to sound like a spaced out hippy with that comment by countering it with a genuine explanation of how the band bonded and progressed together while making the album).  There’s a lot of different styles in there and we’re all really proud to put it out.  Someone else mentioned to us that there’s something on the new album for every rock fan and basically whichever genre of rock appeals to you, there will be something on the new album that will appeal to you. I like diverse albums myself, I like albums that have a little bit of something else on them rather than this is what we do and we’re going to do it for 50 minutes. Dan – I think it’s quite an ambitious album for our first album but I think we’ve managed to pull it off. MM – How did the writing process go for the songs on the new album, did you all chip in? Toby – We all sat around round a table with a glass of port. Dan – There was a lot of wine drunk during the making of it. Toby – It started out around 7 pm, then moved to 6 pm and then in no time it had moved back to just before 4 pm.  Basically the four of us sat down around a table with a pen and paper and wrote down some ideas and by the time it came to actually record the album, we were up to about 30 songs titles so we then had to whittled it down. Dan – What we tried to do was write the tunes and we’d write one or even two songs a day.  Then in the evening we’d switch into demo mode where we’d basically go in with artificial instruments to help us get a feel for how things would sound together and did the demo’s.  I like working like that and moving through things quite quickly because generally if you have to ponder too long over something too long then it’s obviously because it’s just shit. Toby – It’s better to keep moving on and the good point is that if you’ve moving on through the songs that quickly, you suddenly find yourselves sitting at the end of the night listening to something you only wrote that morning and you can say ‘wow that sounds great!’ and you can then leave it and then look at it from afar. MM – How long did it actually take to put the album together? Ritchie – I think we started writing at the end of 2006 and we recorded through till June 2007. Dan – We were told that June 3rd was our absolute deadline but we kind of moved it through to July and we got it right.  That was about 6 months up to that point.  From the actual start to finish I’d say about 8 months, but that’s also including the making up of the band and everything else that was going on with the band.  I think that’s a pretty good achievement to put together a band and then write and record an album and be ready to go out on the road within the space of 8 months. Ritchie – It is really when you think about it like that, that’s pretty good going for anyone.  I’d never really thought about it like that before. Toby – These days for some people to spend 6 months making an album is not really an option. Dan – Luckily enough I have my own studio and we were funding it ourselves.  I know some people tend to knock albums out really quickly these days but I think the really big rock albums sometimes take a little longer to do. MM – The music listening public have already been introduced to the new heavier sound you have developed with the release of your EP ‘Burn The Witch’, which you released earlier this year.  What reactions did you receive from that release? Toby – It was all good. The idea of that EP was really just to get something out there.  We’d already got a small fan-base going who had set up the bands fan websites for us.  We really just needed to get something out there.  It was never intended to be a big ‘Ta-Da!’, it was a strictly limited number release.  The thing is you are still able to download it. Dan – I don’t think the pirates expected us to sell out as quickly as we did and it’s still selling well by download.  I thought you’d only be able to download it for a certain length of time after it had been released, but you can still get it now. Richie – It was really awesome.  It was great that the actual physical release were all gone in the first day of release.  I’ve kept 6 back for the old pension like. (laughs). Toby – They’re still going for proper money those things, I’ve seen them selling for £30 on EBay!  That’s crazy! They were only about £3 or £4 to buy in the first place! MM – How does this differ from the songs you’ve done in your musical past and do you feel more comfortable with this new direction? Dan – Well it’s not really a new direction as this is a new band and the line-up is completely different.  We’re just doing what’s natural to this collection of people who are in the band, it’s not like we’re thinking about how we should sound now.  There’s a whole load of songs we wrote that sound just like Creedeance.  Who knows we might end up going in that direction for the next record.  We’re all just doing exactly what we want to do, hence that’s why I think the new album is so diverse, because we all like a diverse amount of music.  We don’t want to be pigeon holed to one exact sound because our tastes are a lot broader than that. MM – How did you first come across Toby and decide to ask him to be in the band? Toby – Well I suppose I could probably best describe that myself.  We’d been mates for the best part of a decade anyway and I was working with Graham Coxon at the time when I got a call from Dan saying … “give us a call, I’ve got something I want to talk to you about”.  This generally means in my experience, do you want to start a band and it did.  I went off and had a listen to 6 or 7 of the demo’s and then said yeh go on then, I’ll have some of this. Ritchie – Actually you’d put down the bass for something like 12 songs, some of them he wasn’t even aloud to listen to them first and we just alright, go! Toby – Yeh, they just pressed record and told me to get on with it! (laughs). Ritchie – Toby is the master of winging it, just call him “Winger”. (At this point the guys break off into singing some Kip Winger songs and then progress on to a rather bizarre conversation on the legal age limit to have sex around the world, followed by which decade of music had the most sex and what gets shoved through letter boxes … like I said bizarre and totally unprintable!). MM – Stone Gods, what if anything does that name represent to you? Toby – Probably the lack of a better name! (laughs).  It’s difficult because we ended up with pages and pages of names and then when we went and googled it they’d all been taken. Dan – The most difficult part is to try and get 4 people to agree on one name.  Then you google it and find out someone else has already taken it. Toby – We were this close to becoming named ‘H M S Battlecat’ at one point.  There was a definite Masters of the Universe theme going on at one point. Dan – ‘The Whispering Weed’ was one of mine. Ritchie – ‘Our Woman’ was another one and ‘Power Monkey’. Dan – I’ve actually kept one of the names we considered as the name for a post-prog-folk off-shoot project I’m going to start soon called ‘Druid’s Egg’.  (Ladies and gentlemen, remember where you heard that news first, Druid’s Egg, a band to watch out for!). MM – Do you think it was perhaps a case of too much too soon before with the Darkness’s sudden rise to fame, although I am aware that as a band you (Dan) had been going at it for quite a long time before it suddenly took off and exploded onto the scene. Dan -  For certain members I’d say yes, most of the members other than me.  It was a hell of a ride and a lot of fun and a sharp learning curve.  I’d already spent a good 10 years desperately trying to get into that kind of situation, whereas the other guys hadn’t and I think it just really took them by surprise.  I’d been working in the industry and had a bit more experience and so I was more than ready for it, hence the reason I didn’t change that much when it actually happened.  But that’s just the way it goes you know. I think until you’re actually in that situation then it’s very difficult to judge what it is to have to deal with all that.  I know people say … “well what’s the problem, you’ve got everything you need!” … but it’s not that simple really, if it’s not exactly what you asked for and then you’re thrown into that situation without really knowing if that’s what you want to be doing, it can really fuck you up and I think that’s what happened. Robin – It’s interesting really to be careful what you wish for, because your perception of what it is, when you actually get into it you might go … “fucking hell, am I going to be able to deal with this?” … and the answer might be that actually you can’t.  But then it’s too late because by then you’ve got it. So many people get into a position that they don’t want something the way it is, but then trying to get back out of it can fuck them up in so many different ways.  Some people might choose to make records that won’t do too well because they deliberately don’t want to get into all that again.  It happens to everyone to a certain degree but you just have to work out how you’re going to deal with it. Dan – Yes, that’s what I think happened to us.  It can create a feeling of being trapped for some people. Robin – Yeh, suddenly you realise you’ve created this big monster and you have to decide whether you’re bigger than it and whether you actually like this monster you’ve created, or is it actually your enemy. Dan – Well I’m not afraid of the monster, I’m still hungry and so they can fuckin’ bring it on. MM – What was the biggest plus that came out of that experience? Dan – The biggest plus that came out of that experience is that I can still sit here and talk to you.  I guess also meeting Ritchie along the way, that was one of the major things that’s continued on through from that experience. MM – Do you have any one main regret from what happened during that time? Dan – Do you know what, I don’t have any fucking regrets about that time.  I guess there were things you learn as a result of going through those experiences.  One of those is I now know how to behave in a relationship now.   But musically you know what, if I had to do it all over again, then no I’d probably do everything exactly the same way again.  I tried my absolute best to keep the thing going and OK so that nearly cost me a couple of things, but I don’t regret anything. It’s stressful but unless you’re running a really high profile business, then people just don’t realise how stressful it can be.  It’s difficult to try and keep everything together and keep the family together when you’re out on the road.  It is quite stressful at times but I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever.  It’s an awesome start to my career, I’m just about to release my third album and I’m only 28 years old. MM – Well you did actually achieve a hell of a lot regardless of it all ended when you think about it. Dan – I actually got an Ivor Norvello award for songwriter of the year with my name on it. Richie – That’s like an Oscar for the best album ever made. Dan – Yes, it’s like winning an Oscar.  You know back in the day I used to work for a publisher and I was like a runner and once a week I had to go and dust all the Ivor Norvello awards that the publisher had for all these amazing song writers and now I dust my own! (laughs). MM – Ok now I have to ask you a really important question now, who got the big white tiger and the huge pair of boobs? Dan – Well they both went up on EBay and neither of them sold for hardly anything! Richie – I have a feeling some zoo were interested in having the white tiger. Dan – I can’t remember what happened to it in the end.  I wanted to turn the huge pair of tits into a hot tub.  They were massive.  A lot of that stuff was sold off as The Darkness as a company wound down. Richie – I loved that tiger, it was really soft to touch and very well made.  It was fantastic.  When it first came in it was just white and didn’t have any stripes on it. Dan – I was surprised that Justin didn’t want to buy it actually. (Justin’s quite well known amongst the fans for having a soft spot for felines and tigers in particular). MM – How did that experience affect your relationship with Justin or is it true that blood is thicker than water? Dan – The blood is thickening so to speak.  Yes we fell out for quite a while but we’re on brighter terms now and he’s quite supportive of this band.  We were chatting the other day and he’s got a new band that’s coming out soon and we’re fully aware people are going to try and play us off against each other.  We’ve already had a couple of mis-quotes.  When he heard about the band he was straight on the phone and asked if there was anything he could do to help and gave us some good comments so it’s all very amicable now. Richie – Sometimes you might make a jokey comment in an interview and then it’s mis-quoted when it’s printed.  That really upsets me when that happens, because you think shit, if such and such reads that they’re going to think I was having a go and I wasn’t. When we were doing the ‘Ticket to Hell’ album I was Justin’s interview partner for a lot of the interviews he did and I saw time and time again journalists feed him questions to try and get him to bite.  I’ve seen them print things that he was supposed to have said and I swear I was there and he definitely did not say those things.  He was one of those people that interviewers used to really try to bait during interviews. MM – You know that’s so wrong to do that because after all, the music press is supposed to be here to support the scene not sabotage it. Dan – I think it happens because people run out of things to write about and so as soon as you become famous the red tops are always on the look out for scandal. Richie – The true music press like Kerrang, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock didn’t do things like that but the moment you get into the arena of the red tops you’re on to loser, because they’ll build you up as much as you can and claim to have made you what you are, then take absolute delight in chopping you down inch by inch and cause massive problems just because they want to sell newspapers. Dan – I’ve never had any interest in being a celebrity or anything like that, never even remotely interested in that shit.  When you have your sister and your mother cowering on the floor in their room because you’ve got some shit from the **** (paper’s name removed) banging on the windows and doors because they think they can get a story out of them and shouting and saying they aren’t going to leave until they get their story.  You have to phone your dad and tell him not to kill the guy.  It’s just not good.  If that’s what it takes to be successful or famous or whatever, then I don’t give a shit and I’d rather not do any interviews at all. MM – Richie, how did your progression from bass player to guitarist and singer come about? Richie – To be honest the whole bass player thing came about as a bit of a side step.  I was always a guitar player as a youth.  It was actually easier for me to play a guitar than to play a bass.  It was just a different instrument I had to play and so getting back to playing the guitar was like getting back on top of a comfortable pony and smacking it’s ass.  (To which he breaks out into hysterics of laughter). MM – You joined the band when it was still The Darkness as bass player. Ritchie – Yes it was in May 2005 I joined The Darkness and shortly as soon as I joined everything went tits up!  That bodes well for this project doesn’t it! (laughs).  I never actually sang for The Darkness though, those were boots too big for me to fill, I’d never have tried that.  It wasn’t until we put together this new band that I agreed to be the singer. MM – Are the band currently signed or unsigned at the moment? Dan – We’ve signed a distribution deal.  It’s kind of a cool deal we have with them.  There’s no big advances of anything like that like you’d have with a traditional record deal.  Basically you bring the album to the table that you’ve made yourself and then rather than make 8p a record you make something more like £5 a record, so it’s all a very independent way of going about things.  We’re really happy with it and they were the first ones out of the gate saying they really loved the record.  It just seemed like the right thing to do. I think even if the right label offered us a wad of cash I’d have been nervous of signing with any major record label in this climate for 4 albums.  The rug has been pulled out from under the music business.  EMI went last week in the UK didn’t it so … it’s constantly happening.  If we’d signed a deal 6 or 7 months ago with people who may or may not have been interested in us, then now those people wouldn’t have been working there any more and we’d have been stuck with a deal and an album that would never have seen the light of day.  You’d have also been stuck with them for the next 3 album releases. Toby – You could have been stuck with a load of new people who didn’t really know what to do with it and they could have either shelved it, or they might have tried to bring it out but wouldn’t know what to do with it.  Major labels these days are also keen on offering what they call 360 deals, where they get your publishing, they get your touring, they get your merchandise, they get absolutely everything and to be honest it’s just not fucking worth it.  You might as well just form a club and hand your music out on CD’s for free if you’re going to do that. MM – You’ve started playing smaller venues again and are progressing to medium sized venues, how do you feel to be starting all over again and if it suddenly took off like before, would you deliberately try to slow things down? Dan – Well it’s great to be back playing smaller venues as it’s just a whole different experience to be honest with you.  It was one I was so pissed off with the first time around and I don’t really remember, but this time around it’s like a whole new exciting world. I think if it did suddenly take off again then yes I wouldn’t just want to play the bigger venues just because more people want to come to the show.  I’ve kinda been there and done that, so yes I’d try and keep it at a level where it’s still enjoyable.  I’m not saying it’s not enjoyable playing arenas and stuff like that, but I think if we can get to a level where we’re playing places like Brixton Academy and Manchester Apollo I’d be happy to stay at that level.  That’s a little way off at the moment but we’re in no rush. MM – Finally thanks for taking the time out to chat with us this evening, we really appreciate it.  Is there anything I’ve omitted to ask that you’d like to share with all our readers? Toby – Thanks.  I think all we’d really like to say to everyone is just come on out and check us out live.  I think we have something there to offer everyone. Dan – Yes, come and check us out live and the new album is fantastic and you’d be hard pushed to find a band as diverse as us or even in the same ball park. MM – With that we left Richie to warm up his voice and the rest of the lads to wipe the tears of happiness from their eyes.  Stone Gods are one hell of a cracking live band and their forthcoming album sounds like it’s going to be a corker so be sure to check it out. We’d like to thank Dan, Richie, Toby and Robin for taking a considerable amount of time out before the show to chat with us and share some happy and bizarre thoughts. A big thank you must also go to John their tour manager for being a true gent and looking after us before the interview. www.themayfairmallzine.com

Following the Priestesses  interviewing the Gods in the Temple of a dressing room, Priestess Jo went down to the rather nicer environs of her local pub, with producer and Leeders Farm maestro Nick Brine. Here’s her interview with  the Stone Gods’ producing Archangel, with the able assistance of her admirable better half, David.

Jo: Have you always wanted to do this?

Nick: Producing?

Jo: Yeah

Nick: From a young age. Played guitar from about the age of 8 –always wanted to play, but always was interested in how records were made. Sounds bizarre – never wanted the limelight, but wanted to be a musician. Always interested in why – well at that young age you don’t really know why records sound different, you just kind of listen to music and think that the band just plays it live, and that’s how it happens.

Jo: When I was little I used to listen to Terry Wogan in the morning, and I always used to think that the bands were in the studio and they’d come in to sing. I was so disappointed…

Nick: Yeah… I did really well at school and I was all ready to go to university. My parents thought I was all ready to go on and study – architecture, actually, and all that kind of stuff, that was the plan anyway – the the opportunity came up at Rockfield to do that. I was 16, school was finishing, I saw the advert and thought ‘I’ll go for that’. It was something I wanted to do. I’d been recording with my band. I was in a band at the time, I always did all the recording, I was always recording rehearsals. Could never not record it, always annoying everybody.

Jo: Born to do this then

Nick: Yeah, that was it, finished school on Friday and started work there on the Monday morning.

Jo: Pretty good, I wish I’d managed that!

Nick: So my whole holiday between my school life and my working life was one weekend. That was spent absolutely rapping myself because I was starting a new job!

Jo: I thought you were going to say absolutely plastered, really

Nick: No, it wasn’t. well… it probably was…

Jo: Or both at the same time, not pretty!

Nick: The band I was in at the time, well, we were all tearaways.

Jo: Enough said… Right. What careers advice would you give to would-be producers and music managers?

Nick: Start at the bottom, doing whatever you have to do, and you HAVE to put the hours in. You have to do all the rubbish jobs, you have to take the crap from people. It’s all a good learning process. No matter how bad it might be at the start when you’re working with people who might not be treating you very well,  you’re working 100 hours a week and getting paid – for instance I was paid £29 a week when I started. Didn’t matter whether it was £29 or 29p. Even though it feels like the hardest job in the world and you don’t get on with the people you work with, they’re giving you a load of stick or something, you always learn something. Just stick it out, you’re always learning. And there’s no way round it, you have to do the hours, you don’t get good at it overnight. Try and work with as many people as you can, learn off everyone, and just be prepared to do anything. Don’t say ‘I want to be a producer so I’m only going to produce.’ You can’t. If it means making the tea for a great producer for two years, then you make the tea for that producer for two years.

Jo: And then you can be Rick Astley!

Nick: Yes!

Jo: May or may not be a good thing…

Nick: No probably not.

Jo: But he’s fine, he’s made his money! So, how bored did you get, back then?

Nick: There was no boredom. For me, I was doing… I walked into that studio at 16, and the first day I remember I got told to sit on this chair. It was a band called Sepultura playing the loudest music I have ever heard in my life. Sat in front of this massive two speakers. I just got on with them really well. I mad ethe tea, got on with it, shut up and did what I was asked to do. Immediately I thought ‘Wow, this is just going to be the coolest job in the world!’ Four weeks later a band called the Stone Roses turned up – absolute legends  – I really admired them after their first record, thought it was great – and spent 14 months working with them. There wasn’t boredom with them, because we played football most of the time. The rest of the time the studio was empty, and I was allowed to go in there and fiddle. I didn’t do a lot of work… There is boredom now – not right now – the middle period, when I was an engineer, when you might be assisting for a producer who does all the work himself and you know you can do it. We call it babysitting, you’re just there looking after the studio. You don’t have to do any work, just be there. That’s when boredom sets in, and frustration, because you just want to be part of making that record and you’re not, really. That’s the boring part for me, if I ever have to do that. You can’t bored producing because you don’t have a minute to sit there and do nothing.

I talk a lot on breaks and stuff – I’m the studio joker!

Jo: I can think of one other candidate, but I don’t know them all, just one band!

Was it always your intention to have your own studio, or did it just happen, or was it one of those things you never thought would happen?

Nick: Just kind of happened really. The studio I came from, Rockfield in Wales, I was involved in the day to day running of that as well. I was an engineer, a producer, maintenance man, assistant engineer, worked the office, looked after the cows, fed the ducks, baled hay, everything involved in a residential studio on a farm.

Jo: Not much changed there then, it’s just in Norfolk!

Nick: No I do all that now! I wasn’t running the place, they had a studio manager, but I used to help out and do a bit of everything. With this one I just fell into it, having worked with The Darkness. Dan phoned me up and said ‘I want to build a studio, can you do it?’ I’d built two studios before, one for another legendary rock star  – bass player for Oasis, Guigsy – and one for somebody else. So I came up and built it. The plan was then to do the next Darkness record which I’d been offered to produce, but we all know what happened next, there was no more Darkness. Dan said he wanted to take the studio to the next level, I agreed, and he said ‘make it commercial, and if it is commercial I need someone to run it.’ I thought long and hard about it. I’d been based in Wales for a long time, 13 or 14 years. I was freelance, working all over – in the States, Europe, anyway, but that was my base and my home, my studio that I loved. Fantastic studio. It’s always hard, but building this one with Dan – all of a sudden my heart was in this one too because I built it from scratch, and it turned out fantastic. The change of scenery was good, a new lease of life, and all that. I haven’t stopped working since!   It was supposed to be calming down! Become a studio manager, work 9-5, Monday to Friday maybe, but it’s been 100 hour weeks, non stop. No week ends off.

Jo: What is it about Rockfield then, that made it so special?

Nick: I think three things. Kingsley Ward, the owner. Absolutely as mad as a hatter, but fantastic guy.

Jo: He’d have to be! You’ll be heading that way…

Nick: I know! He has a never ending supply of stories of all the greatest bands from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, because they all went to Rockfield. Some of the greatest records have been made there, and bands, and the history. The first thing is Kingsley, the second is location. It’s a fantastic part of the world. Not so far from London that bands won’t go there, but near enough. It’s got an airstrip, bands used to fly in. The third thing is that it’s just got that magic that you can’t put your finger on. Abbey Road’s got it, Studio 2, we’ve got it here, and a couple of others that I’ve been to. You walk in and there’s an atmosphere straight away, creative and makes you feel important.

Jo: It’s got the ghosts.

Nick: Yes. You just have to go and see it and you’d know why.

Jo: Are you going for the Rockfield feel, or are you aiming for something different?

Nick: I think that with the nature of Dan’s farm, the area, and the nature of the buildings, it’s always going to be like Rockfield anyway. It’s going to have that look and that feel to it. It’s different in some respects. We’re quite unique in the way we set it up – a little bit quirky but we wanted it to be like that, technically. It was done intentionally but it also just happened. It was partly dictated by the way the farm is, the buildings and all that kind of stuff. Also by the kinds of studio I like, and that Dan likes. Some of it was dictated, but everything I liked about Rockfield, I took there. Me and Dan have worked in so many studios all over the world that we just took all the little things we liked and tried to put them in without overcrowding. And it’s kinda worked. It’s ongoing. It’s the kind of thing that’s never going to be finished. There’s a bit more building work and it’ll be right by the end of year.

Jo: Someone will go and bring out new stuff for it anyway… How do you feel about some of the bands you’ve had in the studio? Have you really had any star quality pass through? Yet?

Nick: Seasick Steve. Phenomenal. Fantastic. The way he recorded the record was great for me, because I come from an old school way of recording, Rockfield  was very old school. You don’t get to do that any more because most bands need the aid of computers because they’re not good enough, to be honest. It’s also become so you can’t live without computers as a production tool. You get so used to using them, and the things you can do with them are incredible. It’s great, and you do need them, but when someone comes along that wants to record totally old school, live, with no computers – if you need to put two tapes together, you have to physically cut the tape. The fact that I could do that after my grooming at Rockfield was perfect for him. To record things that way with a guy with fantastic ideas and fantastic voice… what he played with his drummer, just the two of them, was the record. There’s no change, manipulating it, no changing time, no effects.

Jo: Real stuff!

Nick: The production in it is to capture the real thing. Simple production, and that’s sometimes the hardest to get. It’s a really organic record. He writes about his life stories, he’s fantastic. KT Tunstall, as well. She really impressed me.

Jo: I can’t say that she’s crossed my path…

Nick: No, but regardless of whether you’re into her music you can see that she’s got something going on there, and she just impressed me. Ultra professional, quick, great with ideas. On the case, and a really great musician. Apart from that, we’ve had a few in that are… alright. But, we’ve got Teenage Fan Club coming in. One of my favourite bands, and I’ve done two albums with them in the past, so having them come to this studio now is great. They’ve been with solo projects, but not as a band, before. Our next big thing. Great musicians and songwriters. There have been lots of good things, and some not so good. I don’t produce all the bands that come in. I can’t have opinions on all of them cos I’m not involved in making the record, just running the studio. We did a band called The Rifles. A London band with Atlantic Records. Sounded good what was coming out, and there’s big things apparently happening for them. We  could have another hit on our hands for the studio.

Jo: Sadly you don’t get paid extra if the bands do really well… How much patience have you got?

Nick: The patience OF A SAINT. That’s an easy thing to say, but everyone I work with would say it before me. People see what I have to put up with, and say ‘how do you do it?’ I don’t know. You just learn. It’s another asset. A big part of the job, and being good at the job. A tool, being able to focus and not lose it with people.

Jo: And not say what you want to say?

Nick: Well I pretty much do say what I want to say. It’s hard when you’re all tired, after working weeks and weeks on end, like 14, 15, 16 hours a day, to have that patience. For 15 years, up until end of last year, I’d lost it twice.

Jo: That’s quite good!

Nick: Then I lost it twice in one week, with the same person. So I doubled my tally of losing it with the artist. That’s still only 4 times in 15 years!

Jo: That’s VERY good! I’m impressed with that! What misdemeanours have you, and will you, slap hands for? In the studio?

Nick: Well, the pet hates… bands are bands, and they do what they like, really, but some of the younger bands, just starting out, they come and their instruments are in a right mess. Drummers are the worst. And I hate it, because you spend a day putting their instruments right for them. It’s costing them money, going into my time, when they could just do it easily at home before they come.   Bands not rehearsing. But there’s not really anything else – anything goes.

Jo: What are they not allowed to touch, that’ll send you ballistic?

Nick: Well they can’t change the settings on the desk. That’s a big NO. So is messing with the tape machine. They don’t touch the tape machine! The computer is ok, it’s always saved and backed up. They can’t touch the outboard equipment either. There’s not much they can’t do. There’s one thing, when you’re editing, and you really have to concentrate and it takes hours – and the band will sit at the back of the room and all talk through it. I usually give them about 20 minutes and then they get a very polite ‘Will you leave the room please.’

Jo: That IS polite.

Nick: They always ask ‘When do you want us back?’ so I go ‘Don’t come in the room until I call you’

Jo: The next question was ‘Is it your round?’ but we’ve done that… so do the technical and creative sides of the job marry well?

Nick: They do. But some producers and engineers aren’t musicians and aren’t that musical. A lot are, some engineers are just technical. A lot more than I am, which is fine. They might come from more technical backgrounds, more the maintenance kind of side, but I come from a more musical background which is why it was so easy for me to go into production, I suppose. I really think it helps if you are musical, because with a band you’ll be able to hear immediately what they should be playing, when they probably don’t know that they’re playing it wrong. You need to be able to hear that. A technical engineer can be great as well to understand why you need to do things a certain way, probably better than I can. I do everything on feel and based on what I’m hearing. I don’t tend to go ‘technically we shouldn’t do it like that’ because I don’t care, if it sounds good we do it like that.

David: How much influence then, do you feel that you have over some bands?

Nick: Huge

David: How they sound? Do you think that’s a good thing?

Nick: I think it is. That’s why bands use a certain producer, they like a certain sound and they want to go for that. Sometimes you’re engineering and just there to capture the band as they are. Your job then is not to mess it up, just don’t turn them into something they’re not.

David: I was reading something about the John Peel sessions, when the Jesus and Mary Chain went in, the producer said ‘You don’t want all that feedback, do you?’ and that was their sound.

Jo: They wouldn’t have been anything without it.

Nick: No, a producer can really mess a band up, and a record. The young bands -  I do a lot of stuff for free if I like them, put stuff out on my own label to help them out – people I know maybe through friends. They’re the ones who aren’t great, but in a couple of years they will be. You’re always asking the question ‘Right, I can record you as you are, and give you a true representation of your band, only making you sound sonically better than you’re used to, or I can produce you into sounding something like this kind of  band I imagine you want to sound like. But it’ll be nothing like what you are. Hopefully you’ll be that good in a couple of years.’ And they always choose the second one. They always want to sound amazing, and sometimes that’s their downfall, because they send that to a record company. Record company comes to a gig, and it’s shite, and that company will never come and see them again. WE had a couple of bands in recently and the recordings are phenomenal. I’m really pleased with them, they’re some of the best ones I’ve ever done, and they’re blown away. But it’s nothing like the bands are, and I just feel a little bit like I’m cheating with that. I’m doing it to help them out, but if I had a choice I would prefer to work with something that’s good in the first place.

Jo: Is it easy to get to the heart of what they want, and need? Or a lot of reading between the lines?

Nick: Yeah, a lot of reading between the lines. You know, a lot of musicians look at you and nod and say yes, and you know they’re thinking ‘No’.

Jo: There’s a lot of tact?

Nick: A lot of tact. 90% of the job is getting on with the job and being able to understand the people you’re working with and what they’re after. Loads of people can engineer and loads can produce, but it’s not messing it up, half the time, and getting to the root of where people see their careers going. You always talk about what kind of album you want to make, how you’re going to do it. That’s dictated as well by how you’re going to record it  – live, what instruments you’re going to use, which studio you choose…

Jo: How many have you got?

Nick: Obviously I’d choose Leeders Farm every time! But if Leeders Farm was booked and I had to go somewhere else, then we would sit down and have the conversation about which studio. That would dictate the sound and everything.

Jo: What percentage of bands that you’ve worked with do you reckon are going to make it in some way?

Nick: The recent bands I’m working with, yeah? Umm… I would say… 20%.   And that’s not because of me!

Jo: No, dear…

Nick: It’s the nature of the music business. Obviously not everyone can make it. But things that are going well… there’s a guy called Mark Ruebery who’s now got a record deal, just done the video for the second single. Reviews have been great, he’s a singer songwriter. He’s doing really well. Then there’s Stone Gods, might do something, you never know (joint snorks). Seasick Steve’s going to be massive this year and next year. I would bet my house on it. Apart from that, I’m only working with 10 or 12 bands, so can’t think of anything. The Rifles, but I wasn’t producing that so I can’t claim anything for it.

Jo: Who’s the most difficult lot you’ve ever worked with, and who’s the best musician?

Nick: The most difficult band. It’s weird because one of the most difficult people I’ve worked with is Mark, who’s my best friend. He won’t mind me saying that cos he’ll agree with it. He’s horrendous at times, but also one of the best that I’ve worked with. It’s really odd with Mark, a rollercoaster. The hardest band I’ve worked with for a session wasn’t producing, was as an engineer at Rockfield for a band called Carcass, a kind of death metal band. It was a very hard session. They weren’t particularly difficult as people, the session was just hard.

Jo: Who don’t you want to work with ever again?

Nick: I don’t mind naming names on this one. PAUL O’DUFFY. Put that in big capital letters.

Jo: Ok!

Nick: Gave me absolute hell when I was learning as an engineer. Trying to think who else was difficult. I’ve been pretty lucky, I think. That one difficult album, Paul O’Duffy gave me a lot of stick. Everyone else is ok. Owen Morris is a big producer, he has the reputation of being the hardest person to work with. I think he’s absolutely fantastic, a legend.

Jo: He obviously liked you! Do you think variety is running out?

Nick: No, think it’s there, if you’re prepared to look for it. I think Joe Public doesn’t see it because they get saturated with everything that’s on E4 and magazines. If you actually like music and you go out there and look for it, there’s plenty of variety. It’s just unfortunate it’s not given the exposure it should have. There’s a lot of bands I like, and the majority of people will never have heard of them. That’s a real shame, and now you have to point people in the right direction for music.  Music channels, magazines, they’re all fashion driven. It’s hard to follow when it’s only going to be around for five minutes until they move onto the next thing.

Jo: Which is why I don’t pay attention to a lot of it in the first place, really. I can’t stand rap and hiphop and RnB, so that’s 90% of it all anyway.

Nick: Yeah, 90% of what’s on TV. I didn’t answer who was the best musician.

Jo: No, you didn’t!

Nick: That’s a tough one, isn’t it?

Jo: Just give me a few!

Nick: Ok, let’s start off by saying Dan Hawkins, shall we?  That’s one of them.

Jo: Does he pay you for that?

Nick: Hee no. He really is a good musician. I think all of Teenage Fan Club are fantastic musicians. Seasick Steve, again – just his style of playing and the feel that he gets. You stand in a room with him and it’s so emotional when he sings, it really hits you. He has such a loud, passionate voice. Umm… It’s weird because I’ve worked with some musicians who are fantastic players, but who don’t necessarily do it for me feelwise. You can look at them and think ‘wow, that’s amazing playing’, but… Bruce Springsteen is a fantastic musician, Great vocalist, great guitarist. He was ultra professional. There’s no one who would win hands down, I suppose. The Beta Band are quite interesting musicians. They’re like producing musicians. Quite clever, quite arty, they’re the most interesting in the way that they record and the ideas they come up with.

David: How much do they bring into the studio, in terms of their songs? They sound to me like a lot of it is done.

Nick: A lot of it is done and pieced together. The overdubs aren’t, we come up with those in the studio. Beta Band don’t some in with much, really. They create and create and create. They all have a little workstation that they sit at, the song playing in their headphones. They sit there for days, burying themselves away, and they all come to me with these ideas, and go ‘There you go, make them work’.

Jo: Cheers, lads!

Nick: Really difficult, but SO interesting to get four people’s take on the same song and then put it all together.

Jo: That’s a really odd way of doing it.

Nick: It is, very odd. But when it comes off, you get some really interesting records.

David: I can imagine that pre-digital age it must have been impossible to piece all that together, there must have been a big change.

Nick: You’re always programming. It took forever, and you were cutting pieces of tape up, putting them all together. It took a lot of skill, and that’s all gone now. I’ve worked with some engineers who have never recorded to a tape machine. Kingsley, the guy from Rockfield, told me the other day that there was a band in, and they asked ‘what’s that?’ and he said ‘that’s a tape machine…’ and he just went *head in hands gesture*. But, his tape machines are odd. Big. But there’s real tape on them,  and they’re going ‘what is that?’ And that’s when you realise ‘I’m of another generation!’ already, and I’m only…

It’s hard to pick a musician because there are so many I could pick. So many fantastic drummers too, but it’s hard to say, because it’s about the songwriting as well. Too many. But Dan’s good! He’s alright.

Jo: Alright? He started off as a drummer, then was a bassist. Does he still do that, or stick to his guitar?

Nick: He’s drummed on a couple of tracks.

Jo: I’ll see if I can spot them!

Nick: Not telling you for who!

Jo: *snork* right okay.. umm… where was I? Oh yeah. Are you a mentor, and an agony aunt?

Nick: Oh yes. Bands come to you. I’m  a bit of an agony aunt for Dan.

Jo: Well, that kinda figures, really.

Nick: I’m like his wife. Only in certain ways!

Jo: Well, he needs one!

Nick: Yeah! When you’re making records with young bands, it’s really hard on them, the pressures to make a record, the amount of money involved. You do take them under your wing and give them advice. Some of them might be struggling with their relationships, or struggling personally or battling with drink problems. You are there to be, even though I don’t see myself as that old, a father figure to them and look after them. That’s part of making the record as well. Keeping everyone together, keeping their spirits up, sorting out any problems. You have some artists, they’re in tears, because it gets too much for the. You do get all that. People have bad days but they know they’ve got to come in and perform. They don’t feel like it, they’re down and everything’s going against them. They’ve still got to go in and perform, and that’s where your people skills come in, knowing how to deal with them. Some people you know when you’ve got to leave them alone. Others you know when they just want the attention. A lot of them do. I’m always very honest with people and tell it how it is. If they need to be told to snap out of it, shut up and get on with it, then that’s what you’ve got to tell them. They also need to be looked after a little bit. You have to play the game sometimes, unfortunately, the way you have to tell them ‘that was great, really good, really liked it, but we’ll just try it again, to see, cos you never know.’ You have to do that sometimes. Other times you know you can turn round and say ‘that was absolutely AWFUL, get it together and do it again’. Also you know you can’t say that to certain people.

Jo: Or you’re not getting your tea, and I’m cooking?

Nick: I only cook for Stone Gods, cos they like my cooking. I don’t cook for anyone else.

Jo: Shall we move onto Stone Gods? What are their studio peculiarities, and were they sure right from the start what they wanted to sound like? Did it evolve? Who is the nightmare to work with?

Nick: In Stone Gods?

Jo: Yeah, are they all crap at something?

Nick: They all have their good points and bad points! Not many bad, to be honest. No, I think we kind of knew.. they’re very professional. They’ve worked hard, all of them, there was a lot of pressure on them, obviously, with the new band after The Darkness. They’ve all handled it, really. Ed really got a lot of pressure on the second Darkness record. He got a lot of stick, had a really hard time getting his drum part right. He was really nervous and hoping he could do better. For him it was really important he didn’t go down that same road again, and luckily he didn’t. Did a lot better this time.

Jo: I’m very impressed with the drumming on the album.

Nick: Ed could have been the nightmare after the TD record, but he wasn’t. he played a lot better, held it together a lot. Whether that was because me and Dan were producers and he felt a lot more comfortable, or he’d been practising more because he didn’t want to go through that experience again. Toby – absolute legend. You just think with Toby that there’s no way on earth that he’s gonna come in and play those songs. A little cheeky chap who spends most of his time on the computer, watching Spanglish, that’s his favourite film, and you think ‘here we go..’ then he comes in and nails it, like a true professional. Dan – he’s…er… he’s Dan… Dan will spend days turning ideas into more ideas, building on stuff. He’ll spend time, just me and him, putting things together, building and building on it. It takes that amount of time, not a case of not knowing what to do. Exploring lots of different avenues. And Richie – well Richie nailed it. He would come in, do his warm up, sing his four takes and we’d have it. We’d always have it, we’d never have to go back and redo anything. He was still finding his voice, learning how he was supposed to be as a front man, as a singer, and he nailed it!

Jo: Reports from the tour so far are that he’s much better already than the last tour, and people were impressed with that.

Nick: Yeah, he’s come on, he’s a good front man. It is early days for him, and he’s done well. We kinda knew, talked about what kind of record we wanted to make beforehand, so we all had the same idea, really. It took a while. New band, finding their feet, finding their sound.

Jo: They’re a lot older and more experienced than the ones you normally get though, aren’t they? A bunch of 19 year olds are a bit different from the 30 year olds who’ve been around in the business, touring, whatever.

Nick: Yeah. They’re all professional, all turn up for work on time and put the hours in. Apart from Dan. *chuckle*

Jo: It’s his house!

Nick: Well they all lived there. They all turned up for work, when recording the record.

Jo: Riiight.. when you were recording, what sort of problems were there?

Nick: The main problem for Dan would have been… when he ran out of Trident Splash.

Jo: I’m sorry? Oh, chewing gum!

Nick: If you could mention Trident Splash, we are trying to get and endorsement for Dan from them. You might see it coming up in a few interviews. I’m not kidding, that was a problem! We’d both given up smoking, we were on a massive health kick at the time, and Trident Splash kept us going. We went through so much it was ridiculous, and if we ran out, we would send Asa, who was the assistant then. No matter what time of night it was he’d have to go to 24hr Tesco’s in Norwich. When I think of problems I think of that. Other problems  -I suppose that when you come out of a band as successful as The Darkness, you’re always going to be dealing with the aftermath of that, financial implications, closing a business down – it was a business. Trying to make a record with a new band while trying to deal with those things is quite difficult. We had no technical problems, the studio held up, it was all really good. Trying to think what else happened – nothing much really. Ed’s peculiar rashes. The usual things.

Jo:??????????

Nick: Facial rashes, from hairdye. Other than that, Dan’s tab at the Boars! That was usually a problem.

Jo: For Dan or the landlord?

Nick: For Dan! We were just there a lot.

Jo: Does very good food, apparently.

Nick: If we didn’t want to cook we’d go to the Boars!

Jo: Scampi and Chips?

Nick: That’s Dan’s favourite!

Jo: Yeesss… we know…  So, is SG’s sound still evolving, and if so, which way is it likely to go?

Nick: I think it’s still early days for them to decide that, really. Usually you look at evolving the songwriting, and sonically, but on this record because they’re quite established musicians. It’s already quite  grown up sound and it’s already well put together. I don’t think it’s decided where they go from here. I don’t think they would just make exactly the same record. I don’t think anyone’s thinking that far ahead, at the moment, whether to go heavier or more commercial, or what. They’re still finding their feet. I think that from the live shows, the sound will evolve, as well. What they are as a band comes across live, and that will go into the next round of songwriting. There are already a few tracks knocking about because they’re always writing, anyway. Look out for a Christmas Number 1, too.

Jo: We’ve been down that track, we don’t want to go through that again! Is there anything they really don’t want? That they tried, hung their heads and were very embarrassed about? Musically, not personally, although if you want to divulge any secrets…

Nick: None of them are embarrassed, they’re all proud of what they’ve done.  On this record there weren’t any songs where we went ‘that was really horrible’. The songwriting was always good, to the point where we had to struggle to pick the songs to go on the album – 20 songs down to 13 was really difficult.

Jo: There’s only one that we didn’t know, Wasting Time, which they hadn’t played live.

Nick: Yeah. The other ones have been B-sides now, and B-sides on the next single. No, nothing to regret, really.

Jo: No embarrassing tapes to sell on ebay?

Nick: No. They all do embarrassing things as they go along, but nothing really serious.

Jo: Don’t they ever cock up?

Nick: Well yes, but not on a grand scale, when they’re playing! Nothing to go in the history books.

Jo: Dan’s known, when he’s playing live, for having technical problems that no one else is aware ever happened.

Nick: They’re constant, his tech problems.

Jo: But no one else ever notices them, even the people who ARE quite technical.  He seems quite anal about it.

Nick: Yes, he’s anal about his guitar set up. He has one of the best guitar tech in the world, though, working for him, but he needs it. His set up is phenomenal, far too complicated but he gets the best out of it. He’s happy with it, and it sounds good. Now, what have they been up to that might embarrass them?

Jo: Best moments, worst moments, and  moments at least one of them is trying to forget?

Nick: Best moments with Stone Gods? There are two, no three. Mike Fraser agreeing to mix the album was a very happy night. Finishing the album. And seeing that first gig in Leicester. Seeing that, thinking ‘that’s my boys!’ was very sentimental. We were all so tired after all the work we’d put in all year, and finally the album’s finished and they’re playing live. To see how nervous they were beforehand, of what people were going to think of them. At the end of the day though they don’t think too much about what people think. As long as they’re happy and comfortable in themselves and what they’re doing, that’s what’s important. As a new band in their position, coming from where they did, that’s where it all begins. The next one will be when I sell a million, and I get my platinum disc. That will be the happiest moment!

Jo: Worst moments?

Nick: Oh god. One of my worst moments with Stone Gods was ending up in the pond. That’s another story and I’m not going into it!

Jo: Apparently that’s a lake…

Nick: Dan’s had a couple of injuries. Not really a worst moment, but there have been thoughts of a major label coming in and taking them on, but that’s still round the corner. It’s a new band and a new career and you have to treat it as such.

Jo: Some of those are going to be quite cautious after what happened last time anyway.

Nick: Exactly, and so that’s still possibly on the cards. I don’t think that’s a worst moment or disappointment.

Jo: A realisation of it? It’s early days yet…

Nick: They’d have liked that to have happened. But, they’re working with great people, anyway. For me, there weren’t any worst moments. It was the usual process of making a record, it had the usual ups and downs. There were days when you didn’t want to do it, think you could do a good job today.

David: Were there any particular songs that were difficult to do?

Nick: Burn the Witch took a lot of drum work. It was quite difficult to get the feel of that track right. Beero was a massive song to record. It went on and on, getting that right. There weren’t songs we had to record and scrap and do again. Defend or Die took a lot of effort.

Jo: It turned out well. That’s my favourite on the album, though it wasn’t, live.

Nick: Everyone went through personal things – the odd bereavement – you remember doing a record for that thing happening at that time. The ups and downs of life.

Worst moment with Stone Gods – clearing up when they left.

Jo: Well.. umm.. they’re boys, and it’s not their house… What’s technically their best song?

Nick: For me, Burn the Witch was the hardest to get the feel right. It seems straightforward but it’s not. There was a lot to do with where the bass drum lies in it. Technically drumwise it was important to get that right. Beero from a production point of view was the biggest track to get right – adding all the bits, where to put things.

Jo: Is there anything you think they are still capable of, and would benefit from?

Nick: There’s no doubt they’re going to get better. This is just the beginning, you know. They’re a great band already, but with someone like Dan as a driving force the band will get better and stronger. The songs are already really strong anyway. I think Dan has a lot to offer as a songwriter, as have the others. They wrote a lot of that album. Richie is just going to go from strength to strength. There’s a long way yet though to go, for them. What would they benefit from -  a band like that needs to be playing big venues, it’s a big sound. They need the right people, and hopefully they have got them in place.

Jo: More of everything?

Nick: Yeah. They have an opportunity to build on – great record, great songs, doing the shows.

David: Do you think they get the exposure that they deserve?

Nick: No, they don’t, no. I think it’s very difficult for a band like them. Trying to shake the Darkness tag off – you can’t completely, I know.

Jo: We do our bit as well!

Nick: They would probably benefit from me doing percussion and backing vocals live on tour with them.

Jo: Do you think so?

Nick: Not drums. I am percussion king, though, I did all the percussion on the record. So yeah, me, live, doing that and some vocals.

Jo: That’s another question – have they ever considered having a female vocalist?

Nick: No. there might be a track where it’s needed, but I don’t think they’ll be going down that route. There may be a collaboration or something, you never know, in the future. But I can’t see it for Stone Gods, at the moment, anyway.

Jo: Last question, then. Do you only rock, or are you cross-genre?

Nick: I grew up with The Beatles, in my house. Mum and Dad were obsessed. Well, not quite that bad… the earliest recording of me is at age about 4, singing pretty much all the Beatles songs.   Mum’s got that, on cassette of course. I started off learning the guitar with some blues music, Robert Johnson, Freddie Guy, Muddy Waters and BB King. So I grew up with blues music, then I got into my rock music due to my elder brother. Stole all his albums and just bought everything else. I had really really long hair.

Jo: I’d have to see that…

Nick: I was a proper rocker. I’ll show you the pictures one day. I went to see every great rock band that was out at the time – just endless.

Jo: So you and Rockfield and Leeders Farm and Stone Gods are ideal partners then?

Nick: Yeah, but after Stone Roses, every indie band wanted to come to Rockfield, so I became known for recording indie bands not rock bands. Then the Britpop thing happened, and Oasis, and I was working for them. That then kind of made me a Britpop engineer/producer. It was what was happening at the time, at the end of the day it was live music and guitar music. There wasn’t much rock music about anyway. I still like my indie music, though not really the mainstream bands.  It’s mainly rock. I listen to a lot of pop music but that’s because I work with singersongwriters and do some somgwriting. Lots of it, to be honest, is just dire, but you have to listen to everything, because you never know who’s going to knock at your door. It’s all interesting, if it’s good and if there’s something there that appeals to me I’ll work with it. Doesn’t have to be rock. I like folk, not really keen on jazz but I don’t have much experience recording it. I like to record a rock band, there’s nothing better, but like working with indie bands as well. Working with Seasick Steve doing blues was great cos it brought be back to my roots when I first picked up a guitar. I like a lot of 60’s music purely for the songwriting. The lyrics are fantastic, they create such an image. Motown’s fantastic, I love soul music.