Lethal Fixx Interview

Interview with Joe Alexander and Nikki Wilde by Nicola "Nix" Crichton

Have you been looking for a band with flair, catchy rock tunes with copious hooks and an all or nothing attitude? Meet the decadently dressed punky, glammy, anthemic rockers Lethal Fixx. They’re made up of Jade Leearr (vocals), Joe Alexander (lead guitar), Nikki Wilde (rhythm guitar), Jonny Slade (bass) and Billy Harlett (drums) and have been converting fans from all corners of the country. Receiving excellent press over the past few months through landing support slots with the likes of Crystal Pistol and Parasite City, they’ve been turning a fair few heads.

Joe Alexander (lead guitar) and Nikki Wilde (rhythm guitar) had a chat to Nix about their latest release “Beautiful People”, their next release, what they’ve been upto of late, bass players who are a total liability, carnage and a European tour.

Nix: Tell us a bit about yourself and the band?

Joe Alexander: Guitarist, I ain't even gonna pretend to be the best, but it keeps the baliffs away.

Nikki Wilde: Poser first, Poet second, and Guitarist last.

JA: I went through hell persuading him that daily rehersals were needed!

NW: Five piece London rock band, trying to inject some energy into a scene filled with copycats.

JA: Out music is us, it's who we are, it's all a story from all the shit that's happened to us that's probably happened to most of you out there.

N: To anyone who's not heard you guys before, who would you say were your influences?

JA: We're all into really different shit, I guess that's what makes us such a good mix. I love all the old blues greats, along with the obvious Stones, GNR, Motley etc. But Jonny's a die hard metal fan, Jade loves the Beatles (Jonny can't fucking stand the Beatles and thinks they were a bunch of useless hippies). Billy is really into a lot of modern bands and Nikki's into some eclectic shit like everything from the Manics to Jeff Buckley.

N: Why should anyone else come and see Lethal Fixx over any other band at the moment?

NW: Because we're true to our roots and not to any new fad or buzz word that's considered “in” on any given day.
JA: We'll still be the same in 40 fucking years time. We've started to develop a sound that's instantly recognised as us. If it ever changes it'll be cos we've got bored, not cos the latest craze is to put “the” infront of some random fuckin word and play 60's style shit. We don't claim to be 100% original, to do that you'd have to be really removed from what rock music is, but we try to put something different into every track.

N: How did all you guys get together?

JA: Me and Nikki started years ago, took us a while but we finally found Billy. Unfortunately we acquired Jonny, whose a fucking liability then one day after many singers Jade walked in.

N: Your latest release, tell us a bit about that?

NW: We released 'Beautiful People' back in August, which was a tribute to the fans who have been their night after night getting fucked for us.

JA: So we thought we'd give them something to put on back home before the album comes out this year [April]. It's working title is “Liquor At The Dirt Stop”, dunno if that'll stay or not. But its gonna have 3 of the tracks from Beautiful People with a lot more. Instead of promoting it with tracks from it we've done an acoustic version of 5 of the songs from it, each really different from the final track, which is gonna be released as a limited edition called “Liquor Without The Fire” in Febuary.

N: What's your take on the current music scene? Playing in London?

NW: The current music scene's not at it's worst, but once again on the underground scene a lot of bands have jumped on the “sleaze rock” revival because they see it as the next fad.

JA: As for everything the NME bands are just a university dropout scene. But there are some really good bands out on the circuit that we've played with, along with all the shit. In London it's worse than anywhere, for every one decent band out their you get twenty that are just trying to be the new poison without even being a modern version, I've lost count of the number of times I could have been watching a poor copy of Hardcore Superstar. But there are a few real kick ass bands out their and I suppose its thanks to all the shit out their that we've actually got a scene to play too.

N: How would you best describe your live show?

JA: Carnage

NW: Chaos, fun, feelgood.

JA: Me trying to avoid being killed through Jonny or Jade slamming into me.

N: Favourite gig to date?

JA: Favourite venue's gotta be the underworld, sound's always perfect

NW: The garage gigs have been pretty good too. I guess London's always best for us. Its home!

N: Strangest or worst gig to date?
NW: Lincoln
JA: No stage, no P.A - nothing - although backstage was a crypt which Jonny fuckin loved.

N: Favourite song you play?

JA: "Lady Luck", although I love playin the solo for "Miss Lonely Hearts"

NW: "Slave Train", it's intense.

N: Any vices?

NW: No I'm not much of a DIY fan, Crack, Morphine, The Telegraph, no seriously, the usual.

JA: Well for Jonny it's fucking fat birds whilst me and Nikki struggle to load his heavy ass bass gear into the bus. Cunt.

N: What are your plans for 2007?

JA: Finishing the album, we've got a few tours lined up, but we ain't allowed to say who with, some dates in Europe as a first, although I doubt we'll survive 22 hour drives to Hungary with Jonny and Billy. But it'll fill the pages in the biography. I might try to see if we can get someone to tattoo Jonny's balls when he's passed out pissed and we're loading his gear for the third week in a row. That'd be a fucked up surprise in the morning.

NW: Getting rid of all the tree's so Keef can't kill himself.

Check out their MySpace www.myspace.com/lethalfixx or their official website www.lethalfixx.com. Words and interview by Nix, promotional picture courtesy of the Lethal Fixx MySpace and live pictures by Naomi Watters.

© Pure Rawk 2006