Chris Holmes – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive

Written by Matt Phelps

Saturday, 03 August 2013 03:00

As original guitarist in shock rock stalwarts W.A.S.P. the name of Chris Holmes came to be synonymous with eighties excess and the LA metal scene. This legacy coupled with his infamous pool lounger appearance in the Penelope Spheeris movie ‘The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2: The Metal Years’ cemented his place in rock ‘n’ roll folklore. A quarter of a century on from that vodka-soaked cinematic masterpiece Chris is still living, working and getting all fucked up in North Hollywood. His first ever solo album, ‘Nothing To Lose’, was released late in 2012. Written, recorded and produced by Chris and ex Motorhead madman Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor (who also handles the album’s drums) ‘Nothing To Lose’ is just the type of hard edged, dirty sounding, gritty fucking record you would expect from these two guys. I got to speak with Chris recently and had to start with asking just why it’s taken him so long to set off down his own solo road…

 

Hi Chris, how are you?

 

Hey, what time is it there?

 

It’s 6pm here.

 

Oh fuck, that’s when I just wake up man! That’s great (laughs). I’m still asleep here. How are you doing?

 

I’m doing fine thanks. How are you?

 

I’m still alive, still here. So what’s new? What do you want to talk about?

 

How about we start with talking about your new solo album, ‘Nothing To Lose’. It’s been out a little over six months now, how have you found being an independent solo artist so far?

 

It’s great you know, not having to work with Capitol or EMI or any of them people. Have them telling you what to do, what to say, what to play. Fuck that crap!

 

It’s taken a while to get to this point as you’ve been out of the spotlight for a little while now. There have been a few projects you’ve been involved with through the years since you left W.A.S.P. but this is your first solo album so I gotta ask, why now? What was you motivation to get this solo thing going now?

 

Well, you ever hear of Philthy Animal Taylor? Well him and I we started doing a project together about three years ago. It was just learning the computer more or less. You know, the ins and outs of recording with one. Anyway one thing led to another and we had about twenty songs. When it started off it was gonna be an instrumental album, I mean I’m not Joe Satriani or people like that but I can write a few melodies or whatever. Then I sang on a song. I never planned on singing. You know when you hear your voice on the answer machine? Do you like your voice? I can’t stand mine! I didn’t mean to but I sang on it. It was kind of a joke but it sounded OK so I sang on another one then started singing on all of them and it changed into what is now ‘Nothing To Lose’. I was gonna sing on the whole thing but then I decided to put a few instrumentals on it. Then in the midst of mixing the thing Phil had a brain aneurysm. He got sick and popped a blood vessel in his head, kinda messed him up a little bit right in the middle of when we were working on it and he had to go back to England. He’s OK now though, he’s recovering but lucky to be alive. Anyway, I was left to pick up all the pieces and get it together to get it out. But three years ago if you’d asked me if I’d be doing this I’d have said no way, but it’s just what happened. Everything just fell into place.

 

So was it a tough decision for you to put the stuff out in public feeling that way you do about the sound of your own voice? Were you worried about having some critics picking over it?

 

No. They can just turn it off if they don’t like it, that’s the way I look at it.

 

The first video then, ‘They All Lie And Cheat’. That got a lot of attention for being so bad. Whose idea was it to do it that way and are you happy with the impact that it had? It certainly got everyone talking.

 

Well it wasn’t planned that way. About a year ago I said to somebody that I wanted to do a video for Youtube and they said they knew somebody that had all this equipment. So I went down to their place and we did it with a green screen but the guy didn’t have it set up right and kinda didn’t know what he was doing. We filmed it and then it just sat there for probably six months until we were ready to release the album and I had to say look, I need this, I need it finished. He wanted to do this and that but I said no man, I need it finished just put it together. He said but I need to do this and that and I said I don’t really care. I need something out there to show I’m doing something. So he put it together and what was funny was when I uploaded it to Youtube all the timing was off. The voice and everything was synced up but when we watched it from Youtube it was all off. Like I’m trying to give you an explanation as to why it’s so shitty (laughs). All the sync went off or something when it was doing the transfer, it’s horrible (laughs). I don’t really care you know, it is what it is.

 

Well it certainly got a lot of people talking about you again and brought a lot of attention to ‘Nothing To Lose’. No such thing as bad publicity.

 

Oh yeah. Who knows that better than me coming from W.A.S.P. Hey, did Blackie have some dates booked over there or something? A tour booked and he cancelled?

 

Um, I think he was supposed to be doing some festivals in Europe and he broke his leg or something so couldn’t do the shows. That’s all he’s cancelled lately I think. Talking of Blackie, last year he did a “Thirty Years Of Thunder” tour for W.A.S.P.’s thirtieth anniversary. I was wondering, were you approached at all to be involved in any way for that one?

 

Was I gonna play there? Um, no. I’m just doing my solo stuff. I’d like to tour with this thing, that would be great, but it depends on whether people like the music or not. If they don’t then I won’t.

 

Let’s get to talking about some of the songs on your album. The first one then, the title track ‘Nothing To Lose’, what’s the story behind that one?

 

‘Nothing To Lose’ is just about having nothing to lose. Like when you’re gambling and you take all your money and put it on the table and roll it once. Roll the dice once. You ain’t got nothing to lose, you don’t care if you lose it or not. It’s about throwing everything out there once and just doing it. I don’t have too much to lose you know (laughs).

 

That’s the whole feeling behind this album isn’t it? It’s all or nothing now.

 

Yeah, ain’t got nothing to lose you know.

 

The second track on there, ‘Loser’. Is it about Blackie or not?

 

Yeah I guess. You could say that, yeah. He wrote a song called ‘Mean Man’ so I wrote ‘Loser’ (laughs). You could say it’s about him but he’s not the only one I feel that way about, there’s a lot of people in this business. It’s a hard business. Egos are one thing but when somebody is jealous just because of the way you are then it’s really ugly. It’s kinda sickening in a way, I’ve never felt like that but it’s just what happens. I’m sure it happens to a lot of groups, the jealousy crap or whatever. I’m not jealous of anybody, never have been. If they’re better than you are then great, whatever. I look at it a lot different than other people. I wouldn’t try to keep somebody down just because I’m jealous of them, that’s kinda shitty. I never realised it was that bad but it’s the way some people are on this planet.

 

Talk us through some of the other tracks then if you could.

 

Well, ‘All Fucked Up’ is just about having a good time with your friends. There’s a phrase here in America where you say Man, I was all fucked up. Means you’re messed up. High as a kite. It’s about being all fucked up with your friends (laughs). That’s a Rap song. My interpretation of a Rap, and I have a Country and Western song on there too, ‘They All Lie And Cheat’. That’s my Country and Western song. Well Country and Western type, I like the feel. ‘Way To Be’ is just about how everybody wants you to be. Telling you what to do and the last part of the song is how you’d rather be. Or how I would rather be. Then there’s that instrumental ‘Heartbeat’ thing on there. I love that thing, that should be in a movie.

 

Yeah, I do love that one. I love the second part of that track where it just shifts up a gear and that riff, it kills. That’s probably my favourite part of the album, that second half of ‘Heartbeat’ with that riff.

 

Well when I wrote that thing it had a heartbeat. The BPM, that stands for beats per minute, it’s how they do timing on a computer, it was like 60 over 80, a heartbeat. I had a certain idea and I was telling Phil to do this and that in the song, my ideas, and he kept playing a beat in it. I didn’t want the beat in it, I just wanted it a certain way. But he kept doing it his way so I just said screw it. His way came out better than the way I wanted it to be. So it just turned out the way it is because of Phil, mainly.

 

It’s good to hear Phil again, it’s been a long time since he was with Motorhead.

 

Yeah , he was out of the picture for a while. He was living in LA, pretending he was like an American. That’s probably why he had the brain aneurysm (laughs). He’s a good guy, he’s probably one of the nicest and coolest people I’ve ever met in the music business. There’s not too many people like Phil. He’s funny, he’ll tell you exactly how it is, he won’t lie about it. He’s not a fake person.

 

You said you might think about touring if the interest is there. Have you put any thought into who you might use for the live band? It would be great to see you sharing a stage with Johnny Rod again one day.

 

I talk to Johnny all the time and we talked about going on the road. He told me to send him the record to see if he wanted to play it. I’m in the midst of it, might use him. He’s fun to play with.

 

Cool. The first gig I ever went to was W.A.S.P. on the Headless Children tour in Bristol with you, Johnny and Frankie Banali in the line up. Would be great to see you two playing together again. A friend of mine says he was part of the local crew for W.A.S.P. at one of your shows in Cardiff. He says that you and Johnny were up sound checking and that Johnny would step over to Blackie’s mic and it would be Blackie’s voice that came out, even though he wasn’t at the sound check, like it was already set up to be faked.

 

You mean sampling? Oh yeah! Years ago he wrote the songs for him and Randy Piper to sing, to get the harmonies. Then when Randy left there was a situation where there was nobody else to sing against so he’d sample a lot of it. A lot of people do it nowadays but we were doing it back then. They’d sample him with a keyboard. He still does that now.

 

You left W.A.S.P. after that tour and in 1990 you had Psycho Squad for a while. That didn’t really come to much though. What happened there, you didn’t get to release anything with them did you?

 

No, we were all just friends that drank together. We mostly partied than played. We’d always get into too many problems. People had their families, married and stuff you know? It doesn’t work when you’re married and you got kids because your priorities have got to be the kids more than the band. I guess that’s why I’ve never had them. But the band just had too many problems so it didn’t last so long.

 

I remember there was an article about the band in one of the British magazines at the time and there was talk of some of the songs you had in Psycho Squad, one of them went by the name of ‘Born, Work, Die’. I always wondered did that one go on to be the basis for the later W.A.S.P. track ‘Kill, Fuck, Die’?

 

Yeah yeah yeah, that’s what inspired that. I know that for sure but if you were to ask Blackie he’d probably say no. He’d definitely say no, but yeah. ‘Bork, Work, Die’ though, I’m gonna put that on my new album, the second one, so funny you mention it (laughs). But yeah if you ask him he’d say no but I know that’s where it came from.

 

So you’re working on the second album already yeah?

 

Yeah, well I’m just getting all the songs together. That way if I was to go on the road I wouldn’t have to be playing W.A.S.P. songs. I’d rather play my own.

 

That’s cool. Will you be adding any other Psycho Squad songs or just that one?

 

Yeah, I’ll put a few on. I still like them.

 

Great, obviously I never got to hear any of that stuff at the time living in England so I’ll look forward to that.

 

Well Psycho Squad did do an EP but it never got out.

 

I read about it in the magazines but couldn’t get the music. Now with the internet you can put something up in LA and I can hear it in England just seconds later. It’s got to be invaluable really for an artist like you when you’re doing everything yourself, on your own terms and trying to reach your fans without the involvement of a record company?

 

Yes. I mean it’s way more personal. Kids used to read an article in a magazine and then sit and wonder what you’re really like. Now you can look people up on the internet and can even tell what they’re doing that day usually. It’s kinda neat. I did a thing back along on myspace when that was big. Some kid had asked me if the certain notes in a solo I did that he was trying to play were right. I answered him back and then the next day I looked at it and he’d thanked me just for answering him and he said it made him feel like I was right there in his living room. It was kinda weird, I looked him up and he was living in Iran! That kinda tripped me out. There was a picture of him and he had his hair dyed black and was a proper Heavy Metal kid and I was like wow man. It opens up the door to a world wide thing. This kid will probably never be able to leave Iran knowing the way their government is but I felt kinda cool. It was kinda touching let’s say (laughs). Not that touching is a word that I would ever use (laughs), but I felt real good about it. It cuts out the bullshit. The rock n roll business, sometimes the bullshit that people make up just to get the publicity and crap just makes you sick. Like I bet you if I went to somebody’s house their leg wouldn’t be broken, know what I mean (laughs). There’s a thing here called workers comp, I don’t know if you have it over there but it’s like where you’re insured so if you get hurt and you’re off the job you still get paid for sitting on your ass. I’m sure if we sent somebody over to somebody’s house they’d be over there jogging around their property (laughs).

 

(Laughs) Moving quickly along, you made a contribution to the ‘Tales From The Stage’ book recently but have you ever thought about taking on a whole book? Is a Chris Holmes autobiography something that could be on the cards?

 

Yeah, I started to once but I only got to where I was about twelve. If I was gonna do a book I would do it from when I first remember being alive and on through the years. I started doing that and got to the point where I first heard music, the Stones and stuff and right when I stated playing guitar. I haven’t written any more for it but I guess I should sit down and start doing the rest of it. Probably take me about a year to do. I was gonna do one book up to about ’91 and the first time I left W.A.S.P. or got thrown out, whatever happened. Then do the second about life after. I need the time to finish the rest of the thing. I wanna call it ‘From The Most Inner Workings Of Hollywood’ because I know who fucks who and who does what in Hollywood (laughs). If you live there you just know all the bullshit that goes on. I’ve lived there my whole life so I know all the crap that goes on. I can’t say it’s halfway done it’s probably only one twentieth done, so it’s gonna take a while. Plus I gotta remember all the crap that went on (laughs). Sometimes I remember things just walking down the street, oh man I forgot that I need to put that in. I would tell nothing but the truth and it would probably make a lot of people look pretty bad. I’ll try and do it year by year since when I was a little kid though. Most books just jump around when the person remembers stuff. I want it from the start until now. I’ve never read a book myself though. I can’t because I’ve had dyslexia real bad since I was a kid. I read it from back to front and just look at the pictures. If it doesn’t have that many pictures I’m not interested (laughs).

 

Talking of all that time you spent in the business with all the associated bullshit, what one piece of advice would you think young aspiring bands starting out most need to be given?

 

There are two pieces of advice I’d give. One is don’t trust anybody, not even your brother. The people that are closest to you are the ones to not trust the most. Second of all is treat people how you’d like to be treated. Yeah, treat people how you like to be treated. And your best friends are the ones who are gonna rip ya. Believe it or not. Kinda shitty advice but that’s the way it is in this business. It’s just the way it is, if you speak to most people who have been in this business, even for a little bit, they’ll tell you I’m right (laughs).

 

Well I think that’s as good a place as any to leave this today. Thanks so much for sparing us some of your time today.

 

Yeah, no worries. I can go back to sleep now yeah? (laughs) You have a great day. Cheers.

 

 

To pick up your copy of ‘Nothing to Lose’ [Explicit] – CLICK HERE