Return of the Caskets

Left to right - Jamie Delerict (guitar/vocals), Rob Wylde (guitar/vocals), Rob Lane aka Laney 74 (bass), Spike (drums)

Rob Wylde, Jamie Delerict and Rob Lane from Teenage Casket Company - interview with Nicola "Nix" Crichton

Back in January, Teenage Casket Company stated that they were taking a break and should be back in six months or so - freshly rejuvenated and ready to pick up the axe and sticks again ... they’ve kept to their word. Its been a while since the world has had some TCC and now they’re back and it appears that they’re ready to take on everything and anything.

Virtually all the members of Teenage Casket Company have been individually doing other things on the groups ‘break’. You name it - amongst them, they’ve done everything from supporting Stiff Little Fingers on a UK tour, toured with Faster Pussycat and Bulletboys, produced a compilation album, done solo sets in the USA and worked on other band projects. All in the space of six months! But as Teenage Casket Company, they have most certainly been missed.

Rob Wylde, Jamie Delerict and Rob Lane chat to Nix about Teenage Casket Company’s return, new material, touring with Sign, The Erotics (and the ‘Squeal Chair’) and Trash-Stock 07.

Nix: What's the past year been like in the TCC camp?
RW - This past year has been pretty busy for us that's for sure! Let's see, we released our second CD 'Eat Your Heart Out', made a video for the lead track 'Don't Look At Me Like That', we toured the USA, Italy and Ireland as well as countless journeys around the length and breadth of the UK, so we've well and truly worked our fuckin' asses off to be quite honest!

JD - 2006 contained our highest highs and our lowest lows. Well, it did for me personally anyway. The Metal Sludge US Tour was great, the new EP came out great and our video is a bona fide masterpiece! The lows? Many. But I refuse to dwell on them any longer!

L74 - It was an eventful past twelve months that's for sure! We saw so many places and made some great new friends. For me I'm proud that each year the band has really grown and built on the previous year's acheivements and made a forward step instead of going stale which can sometimes happen once a band establishes itself.

Nix: You guys have taken a break for a while, how come?
RW - Towards the end of last year the workload kind of started to take it's toll on us, simple as that. From day one we've never had a label behind us pushing what we do or any management/promoters working for us whatsoever. We've also never had a single dime plowed into what we do like so many other bands, so EVERYTHING we've ever done - from completely financing both our CD's, touring the USA twice and everything inbetween has always landed on our shoulders which was one of the reasons we took a break - we were a financial and physical disaster! Two out of the four of us were pretty much bankrupt at the end of last year! We also decided that taking a break wasn't such a bad idea as it'd give us all a chance to sit back, analise what we'd done, take stock and figure out where we wanted to be and more importantly how to go about it. We also personally got rid of a few of our own 'demons' which had started to swamp us a bit at the end of last year. Once we got back to rehearsals last month it was clear to see that the break had done us all the world of good. It almost felt like the beginning of 2004 when we first put the band together. The fire, passion and energy are there now more than ever!

JD - For quite a while I mentioned to the boys about taking a break. Not only was I desperate for a rest as I was becoming more and more fucked up in my personal life, but I could see that the band had reached the end of the road somewhat. Not as in 'finished', just as in the sense that we were all beginning to fall apart a little and we weren’t being all we could be performance-wise and also creatively. Nobodies fault, we’d just literally driven ourselves and the band into the ground. And I am COMPLETELY bankrupt - not 'pretty much'! There was also personal issues within the band too but we sorted it all out like men though. By jousting! Um no, by talking/shouting actually. I’m also clean from drugs and alcohol now. I’ve been sober for eight months. It’s been a journey and a half. Stared into the abyss and all that shite. I’m so much stronger for it now though and feel as though I can give TCC 100% once again.

L74 - It's cool to see everyone happy again and ready to kick start the band once more. Just before our break things had got a bit weird and cracks were starting to show. I agree with Jamie in that looking back I don't think our live shows were cutting it like they once were, and whilst they were always enjoyable to a degree, we weren't on the top of our game like we've been in the past.

Nix: You guys haven't exactly been sitting doing nothing, it's mainly been solo stuff or working on other projects, tell us a bit about that?
RW - Although I thought that taking a break from TCC was totally the right thing to do at the time. The last thing I wanted to do was to sit around for months on end doing nothing so I packed a case, picked up my guitar and booked a flight to the USA. I spent three months out there can I can't tell you how theraputic it was to leave all the stresses and strains that my life had become far behind me and to just chill out in the middle of the woods with my guitar in Boston. I wrote a bunch of awesome songs, made a ton of new friends/contacts and went out playing solo acoustic shows which all went over great. I also had a couple of really cool offers to do other things just before I left, but unfortunately time didn't permit.

JD - Contrary to popular belief, I actually joined The Dangerfields AFTER TCC booked our little hiatus. I fully intended on getting my shit together at home and not thinking about playing music at all. But when I got the call asking if I’d be interested in joining my favourite UK band of all time, how could I say no? Firstly, it meant that I could just concentrate on performing and not on the whole “organizational” part of being in a band. And secondly, it also meant that I could see how I could cope being out on the road as a sober musician. AG, the Dangerfields drummer/vocalist and main man had also been sober for two years, so with a kindred spirit by my side, I felt that I’d be safe. By mid April, I’d played around sixty shows with them. We toured with The Supersuckers in January and then hit the huge venues with Stiff Little Fingers in March/April. I can promise you that had I not joined The Dangerfields when I did, I wouldn’t be speaking to you now. I certainly wouldn’t have regrouped with TCC and I would quite possibly be dead. Andrew Griswold saved both my “career” and my life. Fact!

L74 - I get bored incredibly easily and if I'm not always doing something new then I go mad. Things kinda fell really well once the band took some time off and a bunch of opportunities arose for me. I got the chance to work with Richie Wermerling down in London on his new band FEETGAZER. Richie is a great songwriter and played in the 90's band Let Loose who had a huge summer hit in 1994 with 'Crazy'. I was always a big fan, particularly at that time because the melodic, hard rock music I was into had really gone out of fashion and it was hard to find bands of that genre anymore because of the Grunge explosion. Let Loose, whilst they were catagorised as a pop band or even a boy band to some extent by the media, still had great hooky, guitar based tunes which was exactly what I'm into so I guess they became my Melodic Rock band of the time. It's been a lot of fun working with the band and whilst it's ended for now because of TCC getting back together I'm sure our paths will cross again at somepoint soon. I also got the chance to play bass for THE BULLETBOYS on their UK / European Tour alongside Enuff Z'Nuff and Faster Pussycat in May which really was awesome. To be out there playing in a band I used to buy records by when I was younger was a real honour and I made some great friends and hopefully I'll get chance to do it again in the future. As always, I'm still doing stuff with the mighty DIP and with TrashPit Magazine too which I've finally got a Compilation CD coming out in August which I'm really proud of. Check out www.myspace.com/trashpit for information on that.

Nix: New material?
RW - I have eight or nine completed songs (most of which were written in the USA) and I know Jamie has songs too, but the last thing we want to do is to get on stage and confuse everyone with a bunch of songs they've never heard before. So the plan is to add two or three newies into the set alongside the songs people know and love. We're also going to be throwing in some surprises along the way so be warned!

JD - Yes! That was the thing with touring so hard in 2006. We didn’t get time to rehearse once! For real. Wylde is a master of writing instantly catchy pop-rock songs and he’s always got tunes up his sleeve. Myself however, during my “going slowly insane” phase, I developed writers block, which I’m only just fighting through now. So for the upcoming tour, we’ve decided to polish up the oldies, add a few new twists and also throw in a couple of newies too. We’ve always hated that whole catigorisation of UK rock bands by the press, (Sleaze? Please!) so we’ve gone out of our way to shake things up a bit. Wait and see….

L74 - I don't think we're ever gonna stray to far from the TCC Blueprint which we're known for as that's what we're all about. We just wanna go up there and play songs which make us and the audience feel good and have a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing what people make of the next chapter of the band. It's gonna be fun.

Nix: The Sign tour is in less than a month, what's to expect from the tour?
RW - You can expect a band who are totally on top of their game - simple as that! We've got rid of everything negative that could have possibly held us back in the past and we're ready to destroy once again in August! We're fired up, confident, hungry and we can't wait to kick your fuckin' asses!

JD - You can expect hanging and banging, strutting and cutting, wheeling, dealing and kiss-stealing, but above all, STYLING AND PROFILING. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

L74 - Out on the road I think is were we all belong and it's gonna be cool to play a bunch of new venues and also catch up with everyone again. It may only be just over six months since we've been away but it seems like ages. The tour is getting a cool buzz so we're all really looking forward to it.

Nix: AND Trash-Stock to finish off the Sign tour, how will it be doing the first Nottingham show in at least six months?
RW - It seems a long long time since we played Nottingham so ending the tour there will be awesome. It's always great to play a hometown show and Nottingham has never let us down yet. The fact that we haven't played there in so long also adds to the exitement as I think people have genuinely missed TCC which makes it all feel that little bit more special.

JD - We’re gonna make it a little more special too, because as a special guest, on the drums, the final night of the tour, at Trashstock, is…..You’ll have to buy a ticket and come and see for yourself won’t you?

L74 - I think by the time we hit Nottingham it'll be close to a year since we've played there so it should be off the scale! To be returning to Trash-Stock is gonna be mint and to be alongside the likes of Patchwork Grace, Crystal Kicks and The Sparkling Bombs, all bands we're friends with, will be awesome.

Nix: You're also going on tour with The Erotics in Oct/Nov, tell us a bit more about that?

RW - I was hanging out with The Erotics in the USA and also played a couple of shows with them. That was when I started to talk to Mike Trash about the idea of putting together another UK tour. They're great friends of ours and a kick ass band. All the guys were up for it so between Laney and I, we booked the tour. We've toured with The Erotics a bunch of times so the most important thing was to make sure that this time we took it up a notch. There's only going to be four dates on this tour as opposed to the ten we did last year but the venues are bigger and better so it's going to be a blast!

JD - I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve toured with those fucks. It’s only a few dates, but the shows were booked to coincide with them flying in for the Classic Rock awards. Apparently, they’ve been nominated for 'Best American Squeal Chair'!.

L74 - An Erotics and TCC Tour is becoming an annual event for sure! This year should hopefully be the best yet. With only a few shows it should up the exposure a little and make it a great tour. I can't wait to see their new line up and hear their brand new songs live.

Nix: Any bands you'd like to give a shout out to?

RW - I'd like to say a huge thanks to Erik Turner from Warrant for digging TCC, getting in touch and sending us songs to record. Steve West and Bruno Ravel from Danger Danger for hanging out with me whenever I'm in the USA and for supporting the band. I'd also like to say thanks to Kill Hannah for putting me and girlfriend on the guestlist everytime we come out to see them. Last but not least Vamps & Gypsies from the UK for being a damn good band who can actually write good song's (now there's a novelty!)

JD - Patchwork Grace have their debut album coming out in August this year. They’re taking over. Also keep an eye on Vamps & Gypsies and Pariah On Fire.

L74 - I think we're all really proud of what Patchwork Grace are acheiving right now and to see them hitting the road with TrashLight Vision really is awesome. I can't think of a better double header for a tour, it's gonna be electric. Acey & Co. had better be on the top of their game though to keep up with those kids! There's so many bands who we're proud to call our friends and they know who they are and we love them all. To anyone we've played and hung out with we Hail You!

Nix: What are the plans for the rest of this year for TCC (and/or solo stuff)?

RW - The focus right now is delivering big time on the Sign tour, then getting back down to writing our new album. We then have the Erotics/TCC Brawl For It All Tour II tour in October and November followed by hopefully, a shitload more touring. In the middle of all this I'm going to be putting together a side project with a couple of guys which im working on right now. I'll be doing this on down time from TCC. If I have too much time on my hands I start hearing voices! Ha Ha! Then a new TCC album for 2008.

JD - We’re gonna let the new TCC stuff come naturally, no time limits. There will almost certainly be a new album in 2008 though. When I’m not rocking like fuck in TCC, you’ll probably find that I’m out on tour with The Dangerfields, rocking out like fuck. I’m always working on solo stuff in my little home studio too, but don’t expect anything officially released for quite a while yet. That’s for when the bands have died! And that won’t be for a while yet hopefully.

L74 - Right now we just wanna get back out there and play live again. For me though I can't say no to anything which comes up and it often gets me into trouble! Everything's kinda come full circle again right now though and the focus is back on TCC which is a good place to be.

Check out the official Teenage Casket Company Website and MySpace for tour information/news. To check out what the guys are doing, you can see on their personal pages! Click for Rob Wylde, Jamie Delerict and Rob Lane (Laney74).

© Pure Rawk 2007