The Wildhearts are one of our most unpredictable, volatile and beloved rock ‘n’ roll bands.
This month they’ve interrupted their latest ‘indefinite hiatus’ to tour the UK once again.
MM chatted to guitarist and founder member CJ before their Manchester Academy show to talk about the band’s future, a fiery chilli sauce named Devilspit and time spent travelling on tour buses…
Since we last saw the Wildhearts on the ‘Earth vs…’ 20th anniversary tour you’ve been working on a solo album and frontman Ginger’s just released his own. What does it mean to you to be in ‘Wildhearts mode’ – how does your approach differ?
Well, solo mode I work on my own, I don’t have a band around. I do everything myself and its easy. It’s really easy.
There’s no need for diplomacy or allocating jobs to different people, it’s powered by my own steam.
But when you’re in a band environment it takes longer to make decisions. There’s more people involved, more minds involved.
I’ll be honest, I prefer working on my own. I enjoy my own company.
I like being on my own.
Scott Sorry had to take leave from the band for family reasons, but he’s back on bass for this tour. What’s it like having him back in the fold?
It’s been great.
I mean, the bass player role in The Wildhearts is a revolving door. Scott’s doing this tour as Jon’s currently in the Caribbean with his other band.
And Jon will come back to do Download with us because Scott can’t do it – it’s the best of both worlds.
Have you got any favourite tracks from The Wildhearts archives, any obscure stuff you love to play live?
Yeah, this where I can understand Ginger’s frustration. I think he gets frustrated playing the songs most people want to hear. I think he’s a little bit bored of them.
I actually enjoy playing them because I only get to play them normally for a few weeks a year. I don’t tour eight months a year, I only tour when The Wildhearts are doing shows.
I don’t see myself ever touring my solo stuff.
For me this is great. I get to play I Wanna Go Where the People Go and Headfuck, I’m not bored of it.
But we had this set and it was full of slightly obscurer numbers and a bit more punky, but we seemed to have a lot of complaints online about it.
So we thought ‘fuck it’ we’ll give them what we believe you want to hear – and they want to party.
So tonight it’ll be relentless party tracks from start to finish!
You played Now is the Colour from Endless Nameless (The Wildhearts’ opinion-dividing noise record, made during CJ’s absence from the band). I heard you’re not a big fan of that record. Have you been converted?
I love when we play Endless Nameless songs – they’re great songs, I haven’t got a problem with the songs, it’s just the production.
It’s awful.
You’re not a fan of all the distortion?
I love distortion, but I just don’t think it’s a particularly well-made album – but that’s down to my personal choice.
I love noise, but there are really good songs buried beneath noise and it should be the other way round – noise should enhance a song, not hide it.
Have you ever considered playing Thunderfuck (the atypically non-fuzzed up closing track) from it?
My favourite song off Endless Nameless is Urge.
I love Urge, it’s got such a beautiful chorus and I love the version we do as well because it has a little bit more soul – I think – than the recorded version.”
Has this tour whetted the band’s appetite for a new Wildhearts album?
There’s always talk of a Wildhearts album. I don’t know when it’s going to be, but it will happen… at some point in the next 10 years!
But we’re talking about touring, we have another anniversary coming up next year.
So, y’know, it’s been mentioned we might do some more shows.
So there could be a (second full album) P.H.U.Q. anniversary tour?
Yeah, we’re talking about it.
The good thing about The Wildhearts is nothing’s ever in concrete and, y’know, we all have lives outside this band.
But when the call goes out, we all come.
You say a new Wildhearts album could be anytime in the next 10 years…
Yeah…I don’t think it’ll be that long!
So, is it likely to be released via (fan-funded music platform) Pledge Music or do you think The Wildhearts are too big for that?
No band’s too big for Pledge. We’re not the type of band who are gonna get a record deal big enough to accommodate what we need to make a good album.
And understandably so, because we’re not kids – we’re not contenders for the top-10 anymore.
Pledge for any artist in our position will enable them to make albums to a standard because of the way the money is generated. So Pledge seems the obvious way to go down.
But it might not be around when we make an album, we might get a government grant!
What sort of direction do you think a new Wildhearts album might take? I read Ginger said he felt the fans wanted a kind of raw punk album?
I’d like just a Wildhearts album, which has some punk, some rock, some pop and just little bit of prog. We’re a band, who stand in the middle of music, and we can take a bit from there and a bit from other here and we mix it up.
You can’t pinpoint our sound, because in the same breath you’ve got Urge and then you’ve got TV Tan – same band, completely different tracks.
I kinda like that about The Wildhearts. We’d never make an album of ten I Wanna Go Where the People Gos or ten Rooting for the Bad Guys.
There’s always going to be that sort of variation?
Yeah, there has to be – we’re like a meal y’know: starter, main course, dessert.
Changing the subject from The Wildhearts for a minute, can you tell us a bit about your solo album Mable?
Ah, Mable…Mable was an excuse for me to make a chilli sauce.
I couldn’t do one without the other. We’re mixing the album right now, and I’m so happy with it. I’ve been playing it to the guys and they’re all going ‘I can’t believe you recorded an album on your own, man, in your spare bedroom. It’s got such a nice warm sound.
It took me about six months to write and it’s about my last three years living in London before I moved up to the Yorkshire countryside.
And it’s kind of me saying ‘goodbye’ to my life as a younger man. I’m approaching middle age, y’know – I’m gonna be 50 in three-and-a-half years.
It’s like an end of an era for me. I’m about to become a father as well for the first time.
It’s been a massive chunk of my life, but I’m really proud of it.
I always think of your stuff as being more the power pop end of things, but future single Down the Drain has quite a chunky riff to it…
Yeah, the album is quite diverse. I have quite a soft voice, I have elements of soul to my voice and I think most people can recognise that I’m not a screamer.
I love lots of music and I don’t actually listen to much rock these days, so it’s nice that I can make an album on my own and incorporate all the stuff that I like.
It’s actually quite aggressive in places. But it’s also quite melodic and dancey – and I even rap in parts of it. There’s lots of keyboards, and it’s just me and what’s in my head.
I’ve done it myself and I had total artistic control – it’s a real mix.
What are you listening to these days if you’re not listening to rock music?
When I was younger rock and punk was what I loved. But I’m listening to so much different music. I listen to a lot of dance, I listen to a lot of classical, I listen to rock.
I like anything, but I haven’t heard much rock that has made me want to make an album.
I hear a tune and it doesn’t matter what type of music it’s on. If I hear a tune or a melody that makes me want to play music.
While before it was like a good riff and guitars and that doesn’t inspire me anymore.
So melody is what pulls you into music?
I’m actually inspired more by food than I am music.
Food is my biggest passion – hence the chilli sauce.
You’ve got the Devilspit sauce coming out with Mable, and there are some more in the pipeline too, aren’t there?
Yeah, I’ve got two or three coming out. If it goes well this is something I’ll do for the rest of my life.
The initial reaction to Devilspit has been amazing. People absolutely love it.
I’m a chilli-head. My mum has been making chilli sauce all my life and I grew up with it.
My Dad is Indian, my mum is from the Seychelles so we had a lot of spice in our home cooking.
“I love spicy food so the chance to make my own chilli sauce was a no-brainer for me.
But the fact that it’s a combination of beer, barbecue and chilli in a bottle… it’s awesome.
I mean who doesn’t love that?!
Is there a possibility new Wildhearts material could feature a new singer? Ginger seemed to indicate he wanted to give up singing.
I think that was a phase Ginger was going through.
If it’s going to be a Wildhearts album, there’s a sound to The Wildhearts – especially vocally. There’s Ginger’s voice and then there’s mine and Ginger’s voice harmonising.
It’s a big part of the sound, and I think if we maybe fuck with that formula a bit it could also be the biggest mistake of our career.
Could you come to the forefront a bit more?
Well, no, because I’m not the frontman of the band.
I sing on my own stuff because it’s a solo album. But The Wildhearts has a frontman and it’s Ginger – that’s his job.
If he doesn’t want to do it then really we should stop doing The Wildhearts – but that’s his call at the end of the day.
So as far as the rest of the band are concerned, Ginger’s the mainman – the frontman?
Yeah, he’s the frontman. The thing when you’re working in a group or a band is that everyone has their role.
And the reason they’re in that role is because they’re suitable for it and they’re the best person for that position.
I’m not gonna play on drums – it’d sound awful!
Could a future Wildhearts line-up feature two bass players in Scott and Jon?
I don’t think it’d work, because Scott’s punk and Jon’s prog, y’know? It’s a different type of playing.
Scott’s really cool and Jon’s like a virtuouso – he’s absolutely immense. People take a step back when he’s really playing, he’s insane.
Could Scott be the bass player and Jon the all-round musical genius?
(Laughs) Again, it’s a revolving door and I’m sure that when it comes round to recording the album it’ll be whoever’s available. We’ll see, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about right now.
Is Devilspit responsible for your tour bus ‘smelling of ass’ (as mentioned on CJ’s Twitter feed)?
No, everyone had kebabs last night so that’s why it smelled so bad!
I’m a really early riser. I’m always up at half-six as I have a lot of chickens (at home) and I need to go out and feed them.
But this morning it was particularly bad when I was walking past the bunks. You could hear a lot of groaning and wind-breaking.
And about midday I worked out everyone had kebabs last night. It was nothing to do with my hot sauce – everything to do with the dirty meat everyone had been eating!
Is that a bit of a culture shock for you now coming from rural north Yorkshire and then getting back on the tour bus with the boys?
No, I’ve spent so many months of my life on tour.
Once you’re a seasoned professiona you always are. You can take me from any situation and drop me on a tour bus anywhere in the world and I’ll automatically feel comfortable.
It doesn’t mean I like it, but I’m comfortable!
I mean, take this tour bus we’re on now – it’s fucking awful!
The company are great but this tour bus is straight from the 90s: it has no wi-fi – you can’t even plug your telephone phone into the stereo system, it only plays CDs!
That is antique nowadays – I keep putting signs all over it for the bus driver, Bob. And I’ll say ‘Oi Bob, the 90s are calling they want their bus back’ – It’s awful!
It’s the roughest ride man, I’ve had a smoother ride in a bumper car.
Before leaving to prepare himself for the show, CJ reflects on how it’s ‘insane’ that 25 years have passed since he and Ginger formed The Wildhearts together.
He relates a tale of how being recognised by an assistant in a mobile phone shop led to a mini-epiphany.
Realising CJ was a member of The Wildhearts the phone flogger enthused ‘you guys are classic rock, man!’
“I had to take a step back and think ‘Oh God, we are’ we’ve been around long enough to be put in that category,” he says half-jokingly, half-ruefully.
“We’re not kids on the street anymore, we’re almost Status Quo, aren’t we?” he laughs.
“But we are like a classic rock band now – we’ve been around long enough.
“I’m embracing my classic rock status as a semi-pro musician!”
CJ’s new solo album Mable is available to pre-order via Pledge Music now and will be released at the end of May. Expect a new Wildhearts album when you least expect it.
Image courtesy of Trudi Knight, with thanks.
