Spotlight On...
Revenge of the Psychotronic Man
(Manchester, England)
By Jillian Abene
(SugarBuzz Wash DC/Richmond)
SugarBuzz Magazine
1. For the those listeners who are new to ‘Revenge’s' sound, in a nutshell, how did you guys go about the makings of the band and what message would you like to put out there for those in the USA? (For example: I realize that you are completely against the commercialism of punk rock based on your lyrics. Can you elaborate on your observations?
Andy: The band originally started about 3 years ago because we all wanted to play stupidly fast and aggressive punk rock and we also wanted to do a lot more in terms of gigging and touring than we had in our previous band.
We all love doing this shit so much, but for us it’s not just about the music, it’s about the whole package. We want to have fun so we put everything into every gig, whether we play to 4 or 400 and we try to make a big night out of every gig. We love to hear the other bands playing and to support the nights we play at. I guess it sounds cheesy but we really value the whole punk unity thing. Being in a band isn’t a competition; it’s about like-minded people and bands coming together and doing something fun and constructive.
In terms of commercial punk, there is a lot of commercial punk that I like, but I do hate it when a band completely changes its sound for commercial gain. I definitely don’t begrudge people making money out of their talents, but I think people should stick to their guns and remember why they play punk rock in the first place. If you don’t like the music you play yourself, you shouldn’t be doing it.
Davey: I’m a big fan of Punk but I also love Rock n’ Roll and wanted an outlet to combine both genres and play the outcome as fast as possible. ‘Revenge...’ was my chance to do just that and I personally think we do it well which is why we adhere to different crowds across the punk/rock community and are very much liked by all. Plus I (as I’m sure we all did) just want to have fun and make new friends all over the country, even over the water to other countries. (world domination awaits!) and having fun is what it’s all about for me. Sure, there are times when you’ve had enough and you wanna pack it all in but then something happens or comes out of a gig that makes everything all worth while again. At the moment it’s all fun again and I’m having a ruddy good time!
Big Hands: I think people read into it too much. Some of my favourite bands are multi millionaires from their music and we are pretty fucking far from having a spare tenner never mind millions. But I listen to the music I like and play the music I like. Saying that I’d sell out if I got offered a million but then again there’s not much I wouldn’t do for a million.
2. The new CD, “PARTY IN THE VAN” is more cohesive and has an original new sound in backup vocals. Any particular song do you like playing best on the CD? And why? --was there some significance -- band joke?
Andy: There is more in the way of backing on the new CD because Liam contributed much more backing (and a bit of lead vocal) this time round and we also liked the idea of adding more gang vocals. Also I sang a lot of the last CD due to writing quite a bit of it, but the song writing was more split up on this CD so Davey sings a lot more lead on this one, which makes our sound more versatile. Unfortunately Liam’s left the band now so we’ll be rounding up idiots off the street to bulk up the vocals next time.
I like playing ‘Fuckers…’ because I’m not tied to my mic for the whole song so I can go ballistic onstage.
Davey: I’m a big fan of bands whose use of vocals carries the melody, especially in the chorus ‘cause then its sticks in your mind and you can’t get rid of the fucker! When I write a song I try to create a sing-a-long chorus to produce that effect so people will remember the songs and we do see them singing the lyrics at gigs which means our mind games work. The use of backing vocals carrying the melody and producing harmonies is something we worked hard on this time cause, like Andy said, we had another voice to work with and so gave us all much more leeway in creativity on our sound.
I like listening to, ‘Awful, Awful Business’ best cause it showcases everything that we are as a band. Personally I like playing, ‘Becky Want’ on stage cause it’s just fun, simple--and is about me being unemployed.
Big Hands: I used to get bored of playing, ‘Fuckers…’ but I personally think it’s the best on the cd and since recording it I have had a new found fondness to playing it.
3. Who came up with the song idea to have it sound like, ‘Body in the Bath?’ [i.e., ‘Party In The Van’]
Andy: Ha-ha, it’s funny because we’re actually singing, ‘Party! In the Van’ but loads of people think its ‘Body in the Bath’, we need to stop slurring our words. I’ll let Davey answer this one because it was his idea. What a funny story!
Davey: Thank you Andy. When we played Derby on our first tour we went to a shit club (which we made better). When it finished I started singing, ‘There’s A Party In The Van’ because we didn’t want to stop having fun. Andy and Bev went back to the van to open a can and when they came back I was stood in the street with a crowd of people, all of us singing ‘There’s A Party In The Van’ and it just became something we sang when there was nothing to do after a gig. I thought it would be novel to write it into a song and what better song than one about touring.
Big Hands: I thought it was about when Dave woke up one morning on tour with that fat emo chick in a bath.
4. Now that 2007 is more than halfway over, what do you plan to do for the next couple of months? Obviously tour…however, are there festivals to play?
Andy: We are playing the Spit and Sawdust Festival next week and are hoping for a mini-tour in October, but realistically we’ve all used most of our holiday time from work so we’ll be gigging more sporadically and at weekends and building towards bigger tours in the new year. We also have a track on Punktastic Unscene 4, which is on national release over here next month. We’ve got a fair bit booked gig-wise and new songs on the way too so it’s all good.
Davey: Also I’d like to add that the new songs being written are loads of fun and faster than ever, which means another CD next year. Obviously with the loss of Liam the next CD will be slightly different again but still contain the usual ‘Revenge’ speed, humour and melody that you’ve all come to know and love.
5. I presume the band favours other punk rock bands from in the UK, any you care to mention? And are there any American bands you find have top-notch punk rock quality along the same lines? Curious!
Andy: To be honest I really like a lot of UK punk, but my tastes probably swing more towards American stuff. I grew up on skate punk, like Pennywise and Lagwagon, but nowadays my favourite bands are bands such as the Lawrence Arms, None More Black, Kid Dynamite (RIP) and the Bronx.
There are some awesome UK bands out there though so I’d recommend checking out the Great St Louis (whose new CD is amazing), The Fractions, the Kirkz, the Shadowcops and Harijan who are all based in the Greater Manchester area with us. Nationally there’s the King Blues (I’m loving my reggae at the minute), the Down and Outs, Guns on the Roof, Buzzkill, the Grit and Chas n’ Dave to name but a few.
Davey: I’m a massive Wildhearts fan and love hard rock bands from the 80’s and early 90’s, Bon Jovi, Kiss, Def Leppard and Tigertailz to name a few. At the moment I like a lot of unsigned UK bands (Andy mentioned a few, also 3Dbs Down and D’Corner Bois are pretty ace). Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Swedish bands ‘cause they’ve got something unique over there such as, The Bones, Turbonegro, Backyard Babies and The Hellacopters. I’ve also been listening to a lot of country records like Hank Williams and Howling Willie.
Big Hands: you forgot the mighty GFA!
6. What bands in particular (current) do you think influence ‘Revenge’? If you could pick a band that you would like to play with on tour, who would that be?
Andy: I’d list bands such as the Lawrence Arms and perhaps even some of the skate stuff as big influences to my song writing (anything that’s really, really fast to be honest) and I suppose there is a bit of a punk n’ roll influence in there too, but that’s possibly more apparent in Davey’s songs.
I’d love to tour with our mate’s bands because that would be most fun. We had an amazing time when we went to Ireland with the Dangerous Aces and the Medicine Bow (who are both worth checking out) because it was a load of good mates on a great trip. It would be a laugh with the Fractions or the Kirkz too.
If I could pick any bands in the world I would actually burst with excitement if we could tour with the Lawrence Arms or The Bronx.
Davey: To be real honest I agree with everything Andy has just said. It’s always best to tour with a band similar to yourselves so Lawrence Arms, The Bronx or The Falcon would be good contemporary companions. All our friends’ bands would also be a real hoot to tour with. As for influences, the Wildhearts are massive in my eyes because I love their infectious melodies and their twisting/turning songs. I listen too and influenced by so much that it would take ages to list it all. For a sneak preview check out my favourite bands on www.myspace.com/daveypsychotronic.
Big Hands: I’d love to go on tour with Kylie or Motorhead… not for the same reasons….
7. I understand there are props at your shows. What is the meaning in this and what are the props? Basically, was there a story about what derived from them surfacing at shows?
Andy: Ha-ha, I think you mean the Psychotronic sausages. Well to cut a long story short, we are complete idiots and when a promoter said we could sell any merch we wanted we thought it would be funny to go to a pound shop and buy loads of crap, which we then customised and sold. We found these strings of sausages that you normally give to dogs to play with, sold them and then people started swinging them round in the pit. It actually got a bit dangerous so it hasn’t happened for a bit.
Davey: Don’t forget the giant witch that graced the stage (took most of it up more like) at the Rock N’ Roll Extravaganza at Satan’s Hollow. It was a massive inflatable witch that needed a generator just to keep it up. It was bigger than me.
Big Hands: The world’s first sausage pit was ace but I think it’s time to take it to the next level and get people to use real sausages they could even use bacon and eggs, to make it an easy Heinz…do an all day breakfast in a tin, but that could get a bit dangerous though.
8. Suppose you had to put the band down and walk away from it, what profession would you choose to fill the gap?
Andy: I can’t imagine not being in a band now as I’ve been in various bands for over a decade. I always wanna be involved in the punk scene so maybe I’d take our fanzine, ‘That’s Not Skanking’ – which you can download here: www.revengeofthepsychotronicman.com/tns.htm) to a new level and do that more seriously and frequently.
Long term, if I ever decide that I’m too old to jump around onstage like a complete idiot (which is unlikely) I’d absolutely love to run a live venue, or even better, a record label. That’s the ambition anyway.
Davey: Running a record label would be a cool idea. I would probably go solo with an acoustic guitar and do some comedy country songs and covers for something to do. I quite fancy the idea of that. I got some recording equipment recently for my computer and have started to put a few songs down on CD just to see what I can do and come up with.
Big Hands: I’d be a full time alcoholic!
9. Obviously, everyone gets along in the band. However, when does it become time to be creative and come up with the lyrics and tunes?
Andy: We are all really close mates and it makes things much easier in terms of working as a band. We all know when it’s time to have an element of professionalism and when it’s time to piss around. We have been working really hard at practices lately, especially because we had to alter some of the older stuff when Liam left. Me and Davey write songs on our own then we get together and chop and change bits. We think it works pretty well at the moment.
Davey: We are always writing and finalizing songs so it’s just part of the practice. We have lots of new songs in the pipeline so are working through them all the time and trying them out at gigs.
13. Are there any big plans in the future? Do you think you would do the ‘cross over’ and play in the USA perhaps for next year sometime?
Andy: It would be an absolute dream come true to play abroad, especially in America. I don’t realistically know how we can do it without some sort of financial backing or sponsorship but if the opportunity came we’d be over in a shot. I suppose the way to do it would be to hook up with an American band of similar ilk and we’d sort them a few dates here if they sorted us a few over there… so if any ones interested!
Davey: I would like to do at least one tour abroad before I die and it’s a big thing for an English band to ‘break America’ so that would be an interesting challenge. Also Japan is big for this type of music so that would also be an interesting expedition.
14. What was your most memorable show and why? [be specific--err if you can remember...]
Andy: I reckon we’ll repeat each other here, but I loved the Subhumans gig and also when we played the Angel Cake, Burlesque night, because that was hilarious. There have been too many to mention really, we’ve played well over 100 gigs now, which is crazy.
Davey: I agree with Andy, those were my favourites too. I also really enjoyed supporting Discharge at Manchester Academy ‘cause there was a massive stage to go mad on and we sold a lot of stuff that night which means somebody likes us... which makes me proud.
Big Hands: My memory is pretty shit at the best of times but to be honest I just love playing live. Even when I fuck up loads which is regular or when we break loads of equipment, which is also regular I still love playing the drums very hard and extremely fast.
15. Do you see the sound of punk rock changing? How? If you were able to put your 2 cents worth in to the younger punx that are wet behind the ears about putting a band together to play, what advice would you give them?
Andy: I think punk will always change and evolve, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse and I think sub-genres will always arise which can take the music in new and exciting directions. As much as I value the history and routes of the music, I wasn’t around when it all started and personally don’t see the need to pretend it’s still 1977. For this amazing scene to continue there needs to be new blood and new ideas so change is good.
My advice to new bands would be to just get out there and do it and to do it with some fuckin’ enthusiasm. Everyone in the punk world talks about being in or starting a band but it takes some effort to go and actually do it. I’ve played in some crap line ups when I was a kid (some may say I still do now) but I’m always pleased that I just got out there and played and I’ve had some great experiences through doing that. It’s so much more fun getting out there and gigging than it is sitting in a practise room talking about doing it. My only other advice is to stick to what you believe in. Play and write music you would want to listen to yourself and you cannot go wrong. Oh and finally, just have fun! That’s what it’s all about; too many bands take it all too seriously!
Davey: Again Andy’s said it all, some pretend it’s 1977, others pretend it still the 50’s and so on. All in all we have something in common and that is a love of good, talented, interesting and non-manufactured music, just enjoy it while you’re still alive.
The only advise I’d give is don’t just change your sound to what’s popular or what’s ‘scene’ cause sooner or later it will just go out of fashion and so will you, there are bands who do that well already. Write and play what you like and what your good at, have loads of fun and I’m sure you will go far. Is it better burn out or to fade away?
Big Hands: It has changed and will continue to change. The first thing that people who aren’t into punk say when I tell them I’m in a punk band is, “oh do you sound like the Sex Pistols?” Some of the bands we’ve played with that have classed themselves as punk are just comical. At the end of the day punk is what you want it to be. To me punk is doing what you want and not what people think you should be doing. Oh yeah and most importantly punk is acting like a complete and utter twat and having fun whilst doing it.
www.revengeofthepsychotronicman.com