Interview with Dreddnautz (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of our interview with Tony and Karen from north east new punk rockers on the block Dreddnautz!

(Read Part 1 here)

(c) Clemmy Scotswood

MG: Whats the worst thing that’s ever happened to you when you’ve been playing live?
T: I got a bit drunk once - totally forgot the words. The thing is though technically it wasn’t my fault. It was at the Blyth and Tyne at a party and some woman was going round with a big tray full of these black shots. The other lads were all driving and I thought well I’ve only gotta go over the road, I’ll have a couple of them. God knows what was in them but the words just vanished. I was gone. Micky had a right go at me!!!
K: That happens to me if I have even one drink. The speed that the words come to your mind, they just slow down to the point where they’re just not fast enough for you to see them at all. It really illustrates well how drinking slows you down.
T: The difference is with me it relaxes me. A few mouthfuls of whisky gets me in the right frame of mind and helps with my one liners onstage.
MG: Another couple of daft questions: Who’s the biggest hog in the band?
T: Not us. It’s them three!
K: Have you seen the size of them? They’re about 10 foot tall…
T: They’re lager drinking, kebab eating machines!!
K: We must admit until very recently me and Tony would always go to bed with all kinds of food that we shouldn’t be eating, chocolate, cheesecake, all sorts, oh honestly we did it every night didn’t we?
T: Yeah, and I’d get a slice about that big (makes tiny hand shape)
K: We were both dead slim when we were in Collision, but over the years, we’ve both got fat!!
T: I was a stick insect 6 months ago!!

MG: Who’s the biggest poser in the band? 

T: Me. Oh yes. I think you’ve gotta be. Yes a poser, I’m not a diva, although I can be, if someone doesn’t polish the head of my microphone and all that! (all laugh) 

K: He does it in a cool way though, don’t you Tony? 

T: 'Course I do! 

K: He does it in a way that doesn’t look like he’s posing and like it just comes naturally and it actually does. He’s like that all the time. 

T: Whenever the camera’s on me, I dunno I just perform naturally, so yes I’m the biggest poser in that band. But I think I’ve got to be, being a frontman. 

(c) Clemmy Scotswood

MG: Does anyone do anything in art or music outside of the band? 

K: Well I have my Khaos Clothes, where I screen print punk T shirts and shirts and customise or tie dye them. I have a shop on Etsy. I used to upcycle things in terms of using things had already been used to print on and that but now, I just print onto new things. 

I also like to write and I recently published my first book on Amazon - Twizell Street - and it’s got two other books to follow it which are in progress. I’ve got numerous other books that are planned out and I just need the time to write them. I’ve made a firm promise to myself to get onto those projects but the thing is, ever since I’ve made that promise to myself, new books are coming to me! I got one the other day, I’m desperate to write it, I’ve got the whole plot written down and in my head! 

T: Our granddaughter lives with us and we’re involved with a support group for people in our situation - Grandparents Plus – and they have asked you to write things, haven’t they? 

K: Yes. They’re the leading kinship care charity in the UK. We went along to the local support group that they were trying to get started but it ends up the support group is pretty much just me and Tony now, (laughs) Anyway, I’ve done a couple of bits of writing for them and the Girl Guides. 

MG: Tony – what do you do outside of the band in art or music? 

T: Well I’ve got my own little business called Sewer Rat Art and you find that on Facebook. I do commissions for people. They’re acrylic paints on canvases of all different sizes and then once I’ve done a commission I sell limited edition prints from the original artwork. I do anything from film stars to pop stars. I’ll try anything really you know, I try not to turn anything away. 

(c) Sewer Rat Art

MG: Karen – who is your all time musical legend and why?

K: That’s hard to answer really. I love Gary Numan, absolutely think he’s amazing - I have from being very very young.  He’s just a one off and I love Ozzy Osbourne as well. Johnny Rotten as well and the Sex Pistols. Everything he did with the Sex Pistols was just amazing. I once had a good dream about him as well (laughs). It was really innocent actually. I just dreamt I was back to when I an early teen and he just came in my house. We went upstairs and just listened to some records and he was just dead sweet and he just sat there all smiling, his young Johnny Rotten self - looking dead handsome and I just like, woah, he’s amazing isn’t he? It was dead real, it might as well have happened! It was an excellent dream that! 

MG: Tony - who is your all time musical legend and why?

T: The Sex Pistols for definite 'coz I think they just changed everything. I first got into them when my brother brought a copy of the NME home or the Sounds. Johnny Rotten was on the cover and I just thought how f'kn cool is he? Then I managed to see them on Top of the Pops when they aired Pretty Vacant and I thought bloody hell, these are amazing! That was it for me, that was a turning point. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing 

K: Well I’ve got this memory from when I was 9 or 10 and I remember having this old pair of jeans and sitting in the sitting room and putting loads of rips in them and adding things to them. I was thinking what can I do to make them look different and I just thought I’ve gotta do this! I didn’t know why and I can’t remember being influenced by something but it must have been the Sex Pistols on Top of the Pops or something. I got this matchbox and I covered it in buttons and I got a bit of string and I hung it off the jeans!! 

MG: That’s wild man, (T: Yeah, wild man!) really original as well! 

T: I used to get pillow cases off my bed at home and then I used to paint on them, Sex Pistols and things like that and cut armholes in and a bit off for the head and wear a pillow case!! 

K: Did it look good? 

T: Probably not no, probably looked like a sack of shit but the thing is back then you didn’t get Tshirts and stuff with band names and all the punk stuff with the Pistols on was down in London. You couldn’t get that stuff for love nor money. I used to have a neck chain with a padlock and I chucked the key down the drain and then I had to go to the doctors or something and my dad was saying ‘take that thing off your neck’. I said ‘I can’t take it off’. ‘Why? Where’s the key?’ ‘In the drain’ My grandad took me to the shed, got a saw and just sawed it off my neck!! (all laugh) 

(c) Clemmy Scotswood

MG Who was your first crush in the music world?

K: Oh it was long before Gary Newman, you wouldn’t even know who mine was….. 

T: Well we will coz you’re gonna tell us! 

K: Leif Garret! 

T: Fk'n hell. You’re fk'n joking!! 

K: I was probably 8 or 9…I had loads of posters and…… 

T: You shouldn’t even have been looking at pictures of him then!! 

K: ......actually I had a crush on the Fonz as well, I was in the Fonz fan club!! (all laugh)

MG: How about you then Tony, it's not Debbie Harry is it? 

T: No….. 

K: Who is it then? You’d better not ever have had a crush on anyone! (all laugh)

T: You’ll be all surprised. It was Sarah Jane Smith. One of the Dr Who companions, Jon Pertwee’s companion.

K: You arsehole!! (laughing)

MG: Ah but the question is though, musical crush

T: Ah… for gods sake man, lets see…....Joan Jett, I thought she looked pretty rock n roll. Or could have been Gaye Advert.

MG: They look quite similar

T: They do a bit aye, it’s the leather jackets and that isn’t it. Mind you Gaye Advert posed naked in all those old magazines, gentlemen’s magazines from the top shelf (K: Disgusting!!) Not that I ever seen it….(dirty laugh) 

MG: Bit of a serious question – what do you think about politics in music? 

T: I think there’s not enough bands singing about politics now but you know what it is? A lot of them are scared to say what they want in this country any more, they really are. A lot of people are and Facebook ban you at the drop of a hat! 

K: It is scary to speak out on what you think. I know a lot of the things that I think are really controversial and I wouldn’t say them because I know they are. It’s difficult.

T: I think the Tories are awful, they’re terrible people. I don’t even know how they manage to stay in power.

K: There’s a lot of things to do with political correctness that you have to watch but I think they cover up some real issues that are going on. 

MG: People get too easily offended? 

T: Far too easily offended. It’s ridiculous I meant they’ve got these places in America, I don’t know if they’ve got them in the schools here yet, but if a kid's got too offended they take them to the free space room so they’ve got plenty of space to keep away from being offended! 

K: One thing about political music as well, I think there’s a certain snobbery about it, that your music is only worthwhile if it's political and I think that its good if your music’s got a good message but at the end of the day if it sounds shit then your message means nowt!

(C) Clemmy Scotswood

MG:  You’re playing Madison Square Gardens. Who’s supporting you and what’s on your rider? 

K: I’d love a band called Blyth Power to support us. It’s one of my ambitions to see them one day but they only seem to play over London somewhere. Love Blyth power. 

MG: Tony who would you have supporting?

T: Johnny Cash, I would have him there and as support band before that, Buddy Holly and the Crickets! 

MG: What about a rider – would you be bothered? 

T: Oh yes. I would have plenty of Jack Daniels – neat - and probably peanut butter on toast, with butter on as well. 

MG: Smooth or crunchy? 

T: Crunchy. It’s just like baby poo when it’s smooth! 

MG: What about you Karen?

K: All I need is water with a touch of glycerine added, for my voice. 

MG: What advice would you give to yourself musically ten years ago? 

T: Don’t be in a fk'n band! (all laugh)

K: Forget about the shitty men, don’t even think about men! Have no relationships but get into a band as early as possible! Just do it somehow, make some wiser decisions in your life so that you can. I didn’t think that it was ever possible. I don’t think that I’m any kind of amazing singer, but I don’t think that you have to be. 

T: I would say make sure that you get your point across all the time. Don’t be side-tracked by what other band members say. Make sure your point’s put across the way you want to put it across and the way you want to see things happening. If it’s true in your mind what you want to do and how you want the band to be and you know it’s the best for the band, you must do it that way. Don’t ever let your ideas get lost. 

MG: What’s the best gig you’ve ever played? 

T: Mine would be a Collision gig at the Flying Horse (Blyth). St Patrick's night, dunno what the year it was. We’d never played there before and we walked through the door, and you’ve got all these rough looking bastards at the bar and, they’re all looking at us thinking ‘who the hell are these?’. So we’re walking on the stage and I whispered in Micky’s ear ‘Right let’s just get this done and get the fk out of here man, look at all them all looking at us’. We started doing the sound check, ‘I Fought The law’ or something and then everybody just started tapping their feet and thinking ‘wow, these are alright!’. Then everybody’s getting on their mobile phones saying ‘get down here and see this band, they sound really good’. And before you know it, you it you couldn’t even get a rizla paper in that pub. It was so full that people were actually lined on the bar itself, stood up. There was no standing room. You couldn’t get anyone else in there. I mean if there had been a fire that night everybody would be dead! There was far too many people in there but that was a great gig. 

K: I wasn’t there that night but the second time I saw Collision and the first time I really communicated properly with Tony was at the Flying Horse, which was a packed gig as well! There’s something magical about that little pub you know when there’s a band in it, it’s totally unsuitable for a band to play in but it’s amazing, it’s magic! 

(c) Clemmy Scotswood

MG:  It’s a shame it’s closed at the minute – it needs to be opened up again!

T: First time I ever met Karen was at the Flying Horse. I walked in, I was in a bad mood, always in a bad mood them days, always. 

K: And that’s the best gig I’ve ever been to in my life. I remember thinking this must have been what it was like back in the day going to see the Sex Pistols in a little pub somewhere. They sounded amazing! Collision were much better then, before I joined (all laugh) They were! They were amazing, honestly, I’m totally in awe of Collision. 

T: I walk in that pub, bad mood, orders a pint of lager and then I felt somebody looking at me, you know when you get that feeling? I looked over and there’s Karen, looking at me  and then when I looked at her she went (mouth open stunned look) 

K: It’s because Collision, to me, were like superstars, and Tony, to me, was the lead superstar! 

T: I was just thinking what the hell’s she gawping at? 

K: I was just thinking (starts singing) ‘long ago, and oh so far away’ (laughing) you know that Karen Carpenter song? ‘I fell in love with you before the second show’ (more laughs) 

MG: How do people contact you contact to arrange a gig/book the band? 

K: You can ring Tony on 07527 617403. 

T:  Or contact us on Facebook, either Dreddnautz the band or me or Karen direct.
MG: One last cheeky question to finish off: If you could kick out one member of the band who would it be?

K: Tony and then it would be an X-Ray Spex cover band (laughs). I can’t say anything nasty about anyone else. I couldn’t kick any of them out. I think the one Tony should kick out is me! 

T: I’ll kick all of you out then it’ll be my solo career. That’s what I would do - finally do things My Way! 

(c) Clemmy Scotswood

Thanks again to Tony and Karen for this great interview. Don't forget you can catch Dreddnautz at The Plough at Mitford this Saturday, 9th November!