| Man Raze UK | Classicrockrevisited 2008 |
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Classicrockrevisited - July 2008 - [ Link Back ]
Surreal - An Interview with Def Leppard & Man-Raze Guitarist Phil Collen ::
Jeb: Man-Raze has finally been released on VH Classic. How did you decide on that label?
Phil: We didn't want to go with a standard record label as they are a dying breed. What they offer has always been sort of a rip-off. They are bit more up to date with stuff but they still have an outlet so it seemed perfect to us.
Jeb: I can't wait to see what the reaction is from your fans. You have the Sex Pistols and Def Leppard on the same album.
Phil: As you know, we worked at this for years and when we finally recorded it we found that it had its own sound. When we were in the studio it just popped and it was its own entity.
Jeb: Did the project start with you and Simon Laffy?
Phil: As soon as Simon and I started talking we knew that Paul [Cook] was the perfect person to play drums for us. I saw Paul in the street in London. It was a bit weird, actually as we had just mentioned it. We spoke to him and we started rehearsing and all of our influences just came out.
Jeb: You literally ran into him on the street?
Phil: My dad was in the hospital and I was coming back from seeing him. Simon and I just had a couple of songs at the time. We were talking and we thought Paul would be perfect because we were all into the same stuff growing up. We all loved reggae and punk and different kinds of roots music. It was a very much a London kind of thing when we were kids. When we started playing together it felt very natural.
Jeb: Did you know Paul before you ran into him in the street?
Phil: I had spoken to Paul and when I was in London I would occasionally bump into him. I went and saw the Pistols play a few years ago and we all knew each other from just being in a band. Simon's girlfriend knew Paul's wife. It was very much one of those things.
Jeb: Sid hardly knew how to play and Leppard is so highly technical. It is a neat mix.
Phil: I know Sid wasn't the best bass player in the world but the guy they have now is great. I saw them a few months ago in a little club in LA and it was really cool. Steve Jones had the best guitar sound I have ever heard.
Jeb: Will Man-Raze tour?
Phil: We are talking about September. The majority of the dates look like they will be on the Coasts - mostly on the East Coast but we have a few dates on the West Coast as well. Leppard and the Pistols both have a month off then.
Jeb: People in Def Leppard are not known for stepping outside the band and doing solo projects. Was this a strange thing for you to do?
Phil: No, not really. We have done stuff before. Joe and I did a tour of Japan and England with the Cybernauts. This really is not a solo thing; it is a band. These are songs that we could never do in Def Leppard.
Jeb: Are you going to play some Sex Pistols when you tour?
Phil: Yeah, we are going to play some Pistols. We did a thing in Burbank, California a few months ago that was like a documentary by an English film maker - I think it is going to be on VH1. It was a live gig in this sound stage. We were doing versions of the songs so we are going to do that again. We change some of the songs here and there and it is really cool.
Jeb: This sounds like it is a lot of fun for you?
Phil: It is so much fun. People ask me where I am going to get the energy to do this. You can only sit on the beach for so long - don’t get me wrong because I love doing that too - but after a while you just start dying to record and tour.
Jeb: You and Simon go way back.
Phil: We were in the band Girl, which was twenty-five years ago; that is half my life. We always remained in contact. When we were in Girl we never wrote together but in Man-Raze we did and it was really, really cool. Girl was a different dynamic and we just never wrote together. When we started to this time then we opened up the flood gates.
Jeb: Did Def Leppard see you lay and just picked you out of the band?
Phil: Joe had called me a few years earlier because they were having problems with Pete [Willis]. Joe asked me if I could just come out and help them out because things were not happening with Pete. I told them I would but it ended up sort of smoothing over so I didn’t go. A few years later, on the High "N Dry tour, actually they had just started Pyromania - I don't think the backing tracks were even done yet but all of the songs were written. Joe said, "Do you want to come down and play some guitar solos?" It went from there. I wasn't actually asked to join the band. I played some solos and then I played some more guitar and then I sang some vocals.
Jeb: Girl was a pretty big band on the scene.
Phil: Yeah but it was grinding to a halt. We had lost our manager and our label, Jet Records that had Ozzy and ELO on them. They decided to go somewhere else and it ground to a halt. Without a label and a manager it just fell to pieces. The timing for Leppard couldn’t have been better.
Jeb: Was Simon angry that you left?
Phil: He said, "Go for it. We have come to the end of our cycle." It was a normal thing. We had worked really hard and everything kind of disintegrated.
Jeb: How did you end up in a band with Simon all these years later?
Phil: My old girlfriend in London knew Simon. We all hung out in a big group together in London. She told me that I should check out some of Simon’s songs. I didn't even know he was writing any songs. He was really getting into deejaying and mixing songs. Again, there is a whole different dynamic there that I didn't know about. Our writing sessions were very open-minded. Paul is a great drummer but he is also a great dub drummer and he loves reggae. Three of my cousins are married to Jamaican guys and you would always hear that music coming down the hall. With Simon, Paul and me then all of this stuff all started coming together.
Jeb: You took your name from the artist Man Ray - sort of.
Phil: Originally I wanted to call it The Fay Rays but they told me it was a bit camp. They thought it was a little effeminate. Someone said, "How about Man Ray?" I told them that we couldn't use that because he is an artist and that is his name. So we called it Man-Raze as it is a mix between Man Ray and Fay Ray. Paul came up with calling the album Surreal and since Man Ray was a surrealist it fit in perfect.
Jeb: Is VH Classic going to get behind the album and give it some support?
Phil: They have their own TV station. A lot of people go on there and they also go online. They have some plans and they are pushing it. In July they are supposed to give it a big push. We are going to do some acoustic things around the country on radio stations and come September we will be doing gigs.
Jeb Wright © Classicrockrevisited 2008 - (Full interview via the link above including the last few questions about Leppard).