| Man Raze UK | Phil Collen Interview 2005 |
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Guitar Buyer - November 2005
Razing Hell
For some, it would seem that one hugely famous and critically acclaimed band is just not enough. Rob Sandall asks why this Leppard is changing his spots.
...The national rail service, predictably, has let me down again. I finally bumble into Westbourne studios a good half an hour late, red faced from running the last straight. Lucky, then, that after being ushered through one of the rehearsal studio doors,
I am met by a noticeably at ease and amiable Phil Collen. Such is his carefree mood, in fact, that one suspects the Def Leppard guitarist, beautiful wife in tow, could be giving this interview to a drunken hobo (sadly, not far off my appearance) just as cheerily.
This is because Phil is talking about his new project Man-Raze, a labour of love that has seen the band record numerous tracks (some of which will be aired on the forthcoming Skin Crawl maxi single), and has seen them practicing hard for their debut gig at the Spitz in London. The band, originally to be called Fay Raze after the King Kong starlet of old and later amended in a reference to surrealist photographer Man Ray, comprises Phil, Simon Laffy (ex-Girl bassist), and Paul Cook (former Sex Pistols drummer). They've been waiting quite some time to air their new work: the last time the three met was some months ago, a forced hiatus due to Phil's touring commitments with Leppard. If the frontman's mood is anything to go by, it's been more than worth the wait.
Guitar Buyer: How did Man-Raze come about, Phil?
"I came back to London last year for a while, my dad was ill so it was really just to spend time with him. Obviously, I've known Simon Laffy for a good 25 years now, from Girl days. We've always kept in touch, and the two of us thought about getting some songs together. We thought it would be great to have a three-piece based on The Police, but with extra influences: Nirvana, Bowie, Iggy and so on, and we thought it would be great if Paul played drums on it.
I've known him on and off for years, from saying hello and just being in London, really, and then happened to see him in the street while I was visiting dad in hospital. We phoned him up, came down here to rehearse and thought, 'f**king hell this is great!!'
We're all from London, and we wanted to keep it as a very English-type thing, you know? A lot of people have been saying 'You gonna' play in the States?' but it was kinda nice doing it here - it's even got an English sound to it, so it made sense to start here."
You mentioned some influences: are they completely different to the bands that inspire Def Leppard?
"It's funny, because some of the influences are identical, but they're portrayed in a different way. Take the whole Bowie thing: Me and Joe (Elliott, Def Leppard) are huge Bowie fans; we've even done a thing with Cybernauts, which was Bowie's old band, as a tribute to Mick Ronson who died about 10 years ago. And we toured it, too, with Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey. So the influences are the same, it's just being done in a totally different way."
How does the dynamic of the band compare to Def Leppard?
"It's different as a three-piece band. When we first started off we were like 'F**king hell, it's like Hendrix!", because of the freedom, and with me being the singer. You're not kind of tied down to such structures. What's great is that we didn't just record the sounds and put the record out. We've actually had a bit of time to think about redoing it, so we've got some dance on it, and even bit of dub. In Def Leppard, you know, we couldn't do a reggae song. But we can with Man-Raze, so it's really, really fun. But even with stuff like solos, you know they sound a little bit too alien in some of these songs, so you have to be careful where you stick them and how you play them. That's what we've been working on in rehearsals."
DEF TONES
Phil's comments on the two bands' shared influences do indeed ring true when listening to Man-Raze's soon-to-be-released Skin Crawl. There are elements of Leppard in the mix, but with a raw edge to the production that recalls the grungier side of rock. Phil's new duties as lead vocalist, too, add a distinct growl to proceedings, far-removed from the some-would-say saccharine-sounding Leppard.
The change in sound can at least be partly attributed to the somewhat shocking difference in gear that Collen uses in Man-Raze. The all-singing, all-dancing digital set-up he'll be using for the debut gig is a far cry from the usual effects-modest affair that he tours in Def Leppard. With a new attitude towards songwriting, it would seem, also comes a similar reassessment of gear.
The line 6 Vetta you're using is a departure from your more usual rig.
"Well, they gave this to me before the last Def Leppard tour, not this one but the one before, and it sat in my garage for ages. I turned it on and it was so confusing with all the lights and I thought 'F*ck, I can't get on with this'. Then I sat down with it for two days - it actually took me a lifetime to figure it out - and it's unbelievable what you can do with it. You can split the amps: you've got the simulations of the Marshall and Soldano ones, for instance. I tried the new model (Phil uses the original Vetta 1) in the States with Def Leppard but it just didn't work out. And the Man-Raze project, well it's just a totally different beast, so I had (the amp) shipped over here. It's huge, and it's great in the context of a three-piece. Everything I play is straight through the amp, no extra effects at all! We're playing a little club for our first gig, and it'll work out a treat."
So you're not wedded to tube amps?
"I am normally, on some of the solos on the new record I used a Marshall JMP - the little rackmount one that I've been using for years with Def Leppard - and a Fender Cyber Twin, which I love. For the live rig in that band, I used a combination of the JMP, a Randall power amp and a Palmer Speaker Simulator. The Randall is a transistor amp from nineteen-eighty-something-or-other, which has never gone wrong. It's just amazing. I use a little chorus, a little delay, and that's pretty much the whole live sound, so it's a slightly different thing. A lot of Man-Raze was done on the Vetta, and then some on the Cyber Twin."
On to your signature Jackson guitar - who approached who?
"Mutt Lange (producer of Def Leppard's Hysteria), around 1983, said 'You should check these out.' And I'd seen them while I was touring America. Van Halen and all the guys coming out of LA were using guitars with rubbed-down necks. So I started using a Charvel that Mutt got me from Grover Jackson, and I kinda' fell in love with it. I was using Ibanez Destroyers before that, and Les Pauls and Strats and God-knows-what, and as it went on we kind of developed this as a total hybrid that became available to buy in 1996. I have a really fat, chunky neck on it, and the latest model has a genuine Fender headstock on it. I've always wanted a Fender 'stock, so it was a pisser. Even in the '80s. (before Fender bought the Jackson name) it was all 'You can't use it because we'll get into trouble'.
I still use a Floyd Rose whammy bar; I know it went out of date like a decade ago, but for me I can do so much shit with it. It's great, and I don't really let the fashion bother me too much."
And there's the Sustainer pickup?
"I use that a lot. Even before this model, back in the '80s, I was using Hamer and Fernandez versions. Tom Anderson made me a guitar that kind of looked like (the Jackson signature), and then Jackson came up with this. My guitar tech at the time, Stan Schiller, said 'Oh. man, don't put Fret markings on it,' because a lot of the time I just stand there and close me eyes. I play with 12-52 strings and a metal pick, and I have a real heavy attack. I've been using metal picks for 25 years now. But it's beneficial, because I never really break strings - when they're 12s you can give them a lot more stick."
The signature model aside, do you use any other guitars?
"I've started playing a Telecaster. I like really fat necks, as I said, and it took a year but they came back and said 'This is the biggest we've got'. It's f**king huge! I love it, again because I do like playing aggressive. Otherwise, I've been using a Gibson, but that's more because when I first came over here it was the only guitar that I'd left in England to play around with. I had to get everything shipped over!
MAN-WHAT? - If you've come even close to guessing the origins of the new band's moniker, you might well deserve a medal.
Originally pencilled in as 'Fay-Raze', the band had intended to reference the Hollywood starlet Fay Wray of King Kong fame. Later, though, the 'Raze' was kept and amended to Man-Raze. This second name was a reference to surrealist photographer Man Ray. Now there's a fun trivia fact to wow your co-workers and friends with.
Rob Sandall © Guitar Buyer 2005 - Transcribed by Man Raze UK.
See pics from this mag - HERE