Hello and welcome! Thanks for taking part in our Kwarantine Kutz series! As the world writhes in the grip of Covid-19, there’s a better-by-the-day chance of the general population being put into lockdown. Which classic albums are you planning on giving a good listen to when the unthinkable happens, and why? “I plan to run through all the albums in the collection and let the neighbours hear them too… but the five at the top of the list are Rammstein‘s Rammstein, From The Inside by Alice Cooper,  The Cult – Electric, Paranoid and Sunburnt by Skunk Anansie and Green Day‘s American Idiot“.

That’s a nice mix. I’m sure the neighbours will come to love all of them! “You’ll have a lot of time on your hands even after repeated spins of those old faves – any new bands you’ve heard about that you’ll be able to lend some ears to? Who is on the up-and-up in your opinion? “I’m loving the Eureka Machines, not exactly a new band but they’re not as big as they should be…Love their songs”.

I’m not familiar with them I have to say. I’ll check them out! How will you otherwise handle the comparative solitude? Do you write music on your own well? Or do you need other musos around to catch the spark? “I do love to write songs. I am going to take this opportunity to get stuck in to write songs for both Girlschool and Syteria. I pretty much always write the music on my own at home, so this is giving me a golden opportunity… I guess there is a silver lining to every situation”.

Yes. We have to try to make the best of things… Away from music, what books, podcasts or TV do you recommend to while away a few quarantined days? “I don’t tend to watch too much TV, the things I record are usually comedies like Would I Lie To You, Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross too, but I do like documentaries also. I think I’ll be looking for a good series to download if this carries on for much longer as TV is pretty rubbish really. I think I will also pick up a few books that I have being sat around for a long time now and read them. I like the suspense, action, sci-fi type of books mainly”.

There is a lot of comment on social media about the damage being done to our industry by the virus and its attendant countermeasures – how do you see ways to fight this situation working? What, for instance, do you think of playing shows for the internet and hoping fans throw a few coins into the hat via paypal or gofundme, et cetera? “We have already decided and booked the rehearsal studio in order to do this, as when this virus hit we were halfway through our UK tour and the rest of the shows have just been postponed… It didn’t help that we were promoting the new album, so we need to find ways to do that again to keep up the momentum. We will also have some new merchandise for sale and keep everything on line as much as we possibly can”.

Sensible plans. When it all dies down what plans loom on the horizon for you? “We plan to go back out on tour to continue to promote this new album Reflection. We have been getting great reviews and fantastic responses at the gigs for the new material, so just want to get on with it again!”

Yes, the reviews have been very good indeed! Will rock’n’ roll be the same once the scare recedes? Are there any lessons for the music industry to take from what’s happened so far and implement for a better tomorrow? “I think it will take some time to recover; although everyone right now is postponing gigs until later on in the year, at that point the industry will be saturated with gigs and festivals therefore fighting for punters, which will be no good for anyone, particularly the bands. I’m not sure what bands themselves could have done differently, this is the way it
has always being run and besides having a fallback job there isn’t much else a musician could do to stop this happening again. We are here to entertain after all and personally I would be out there still doing this if I could, but it seems the choice as been taken from our hands”.

Indeed it has. anything else you’d like to say to our readers? “Stay safe and healthy and long live rock ‘n’ roll… Peace”.

Thanks for taking part!