Dean Tsolondres – The Terraces – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Johnny H
Saturday, 01 August 2015 03:00
August 2015 arrives with a bang as Australian bad boys (of punk rock ‘n’ roll) The Terraces not only release their uber cool second album ‘Empire’, but also return to the UK and mainland Europe for an extensive set of live shows. Here I get to talk with guitarist Dean Tsolondres about playing Rebellion Festival for the third time, building musical empires, new drummers who were once in Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts and rather bizarrely…. Gary Glitter.
Dean thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today. It’s been two years since we last caught up – at Rebellion 2013 – and you’re back to play again this year on Sunday 9th August in The Arena, are you looking forward to returning?
Firstly let me start by saying it’s great to chat with you once again Johnny, it’s been a while between drinks my friend. As for our appearance at Rebellion [shouts] “YES!! ABSOLUTELY!!!” Rebellion last time around was an incredible experience!!! Darren and crew really have something amazing with the festival as a whole – it’s truly a festival that brings everyone together. Getting the chance to play alongside so many of our fellow colleagues and influences both from the UK and all of the world, is not only a musicians dream but an incredibly rewarding, educational, and most humbling experience. I would have to say, for me, it has been one of, if not, the highlight thus far of my career to play alongside my icons Jimmy Pursey and Sham 69, Cock Sparrer, The Damned, Buzzcocks, The Business, The Exploited, UK Subs, Cockney Rejects, Slaughter & The Dogs, One Way System, New Model Army, Ruts Dc and many many more. I grew up listening to these bands, and being inspired by these bands – I learnt to play from their craft, their honesty and fearlessness. To share the podium with these people is an honour and a privilege.
You’re also doing two other UK shows (Newcastle and Derby) before heading off to Europe, why not a longer stint in the UK?
We received the opportunity to play in Europe earlier on this year so we decided to take on Europe this time around. We’ve been waiting for European interest for a while so when the offers came through to take The Terraces to Europe we jumped on it immediately. We didn’t leave out the UK intentionally we just took the opportunity with both arms and allowed this tour to flow and build itself.
You’ve changed the band personnel about a bit since you last visited the UK tell us what happened to your drummer Henry?
Henry left the band towards the middle of last year. He didn’t really give us a reason for leaving which left us rather perplexed and somewhat confused. The Terraces were also heading into a different direction with the new material we were writing and I think Henry wanted to go in a different direction as he has his own band so he embraced his direction with open arms. We wish him all the best and there’s no hard feelings.
Of course Mark Brabbs – your new drummer – is famous for his time in Tank, but you surely have to mention his time in Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts in the biog [laughing] he or Gary surely must have mentioned that band?
[Laughing] Yes!!!! I’ve heard some of the stories!!! Very funny! To tell you the truth it’s probably a band that I would have fitted perfectly with. [Cue much laughter] Mark is an UNBELIEVABLE drummer. I’ve never played with someone with such incredibly tight timing like Mark’s. He’s more of a “meat and potatoes” type drummer as well. When he hits you can feel it and it shows on the album and as you know, or anyone who’s seem him before knows, live he’s just thunderous as fuck! He’s the perfect fit for The Terraces and what a rhythm section between him and Kingy eh. I can’t wait to share the stage with him.
This tour is dubbed the Empire Tour – referring to your soon to be released new album – what’s the back story to this record?
‘Empire’ is – to sum it up in short – the journey that Gary and myself have taken from the day we met till now. Basically it’s about our experiences together and our journey not only as songwriters but as people and how we have evolved from humble beginnings to now. Taking that into consideration, it’s also about how the world around us changed and the times we live in. When we started writing this album, I was going through some major life changes. We don’t claim to be something we are not and we definitely don’t do things by halves. Nice boys don’t play rock n roll!
So how easy was it to follow the debut album? That had to be a pretty tough record to follow up, seeing as it was so fucking brilliant.
It was hard, it was actually very hard. We worked tirelessly on it. It took us a very long time to get the sound we wanted, to get the delivery right, to get the message we wanted to get across right. We took all our influences, everything we had and played to our strengths. It may suit some, it may not others, but the honesty is definitely there. It’s a lot more honest than our last album but that’s The Terraces. We are brutally honest about our lives and the times we live in. Yes, we wear our hearts on our sleeves especially me and my guitar playing, I’m proud of that fact and don’t hide it regardless of what anyone thinks – the fact that we don’t hide it and are proud of it makes us who we are and I believe that’s what makes a good album – good, honest story telling that doesn’t hide behind the veil of deceit and dishonesty. We don’t live our lives sitting on the fence, we don’t hide behind false pretentiousness or lies, what you get is what you see. As the old saying goes: “you can fool some people most of the times but not all the time.”
I reviewed ‘Empire’ recently for Uber Rock (you can read this review RIGHT HERE) and I can hear the progression in the sound you talk about.
Yes, the band has grown, we have grown as musicians and most important as people and reflects on the finished product. It’s not about becoming an overgrown, overproduced sound, it’s about getting the right tone to suit the songs and give the songs the respect they deserve. The songs are good songs, they’re honest, true, strong and thus the sound that must accompany those songs must be the same. Why go into something half-hearted, it doesn’t make sense. You either give it everything you have, all your heart and soul or nothing at all! If you don’t love what you do then why are you doing it? We love what we do. We love music and you can’t cheat something you love, you can’t disrespect it and most important you can’t lie, cheat nor disrespect the people who spend their hard earned money buying your product or coming to see you. So many bands and artists do that and it’s wrong! Fuck that! The Terraces aren’t them and never will be. We’ve done everything we can to make this album something special, for us and for the listener and we will always do that regardless of what people or critics say. We won’t cheat anyone especially ourselves and most importantly, the listener.
I see you’ve signed to Westworld for the release of ‘Empire’ (who have also just released the excellent new Chelsea album) how did that deal come about?
We passed on a sample of the album to our good friend Eugene Butcher of Vive Le Rock and he passed it onto the team from Westworld to have a listen and they immediately jumped on it.
As you have mentioned already the lyrics are once again to the point and matter of fact, plus there’s Gary’s unsettling love of all things Manchester United [laughing]. What’s your favourite lyrical moments on the new record?
There’s many. In fact I love all the lyrics on the album. I know I sound biased but I love all the lyrics. They’re all very strong and as you say very direct. I guess my favourite set of lyrics would have to be in ‘Empire’ – it’s a song that is close to my heart as it paints a very accurate and honest picture of what is happening in the world today. It’s a call to arms!
I have to ask has Gary made you and Kingy sit through the likes of Auf Wiedersehen Pet (after he made you watch Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads for the debut) just to get his lyrical nuances on the likes of ‘Flash In The Pan’?
No [Laughing]. Actually when we were writing ‘Flash In The Pan’ I turned and asked Gary “is that song about me?” That song can be abut anybody. The lyrics are tongue in cheek too and so universal.
What’s with the Gary Glitter lyric lift in ‘Empire’ (the song)?
Funny you should ask that as a few people have. It’s not really about the Gary Glitter lyric that’s poignant, rather a fitting lyric for a fitting chorus. Let’s leave Glitter out of it for a minute and focus on the actual lyric “do you wanna be in my gang?” what a great fucking lyric!!! Now combine it with a chorus like this: “There’s fire in our hearts tonight, There’s blood on the streets tonight, young rebels stand up and fight, for your rights, your rights” – rather powerful stuff right?
Yes, I agree, but Motley Crue have been crucified on social media for including ‘Rock N Roll Part II’ in their recent live show. Are you simply looking for publicity by doing this?
No not at all! I believe people are looking in the wrong place if you’re looking for publicity in punk rock. We’ll leave that for all the childish teeny bopper acts going around today that gain publicity by posing nude and releasing sex tapes while their music (if you can call it that) speaks about shaking their ass and tits and how many hoes they’ve banged. FUCK THAT and THEM! No we don’t look for publicity through stupidity. Using a powerful lyric in a song to deliver a powerful message is enough. We’ll leave the publicity for the jackasses of the world.
‘Anxiety’ is a particular album highlight for me Dean, very ‘London Calling’ era Clash – whilst ‘Good Die To Die’ is very …ahem… latter day Quo. Now that’s complete polar opposites in my book – yet you somehow make it all work. HOW?
Through feeling. If you listen to the songs they’re message is not so different. To us they’re just Terraces’ songs and we lay them the way we know. We weren’t trying to be The Clash or Quo, we were just being The Terraces and I think that’s were it works, through honesty and our delivery.
And is that a little bit of a James Stevenson influence I detect in the intro to ‘Nothing At All’?
[Laughing] Yeah why not. James is an incredible guitarist and a huge influence on me and if you can’t pay a tribute to your influences now and then you’re not really honest are you.
On a similar tangent up until a few weeks ago I was one of those who said I would love to see Gen X back to headline say Rebellion one year but witnessing Billy Idol live these days is not exactly an easy experience. Would you be one of those who would like to see Gen X back for a few shows?
Oh ABSOLUTELY!!!!! I mean who wouldn’t? We all get older and we can’t always run around the stage like we used to however we would all love to see certain things one more time. Having said that take this analogy: it’s like watching Maradona come out on the field to play. He may not be the player he was but there will be stages during the game were he will create absolute magic and that is worth seeing in any lifetime! think Billy has a lot of magic in him, he’s BILLY FREEKIN’ IDOL MAN!
Talking of idols I also note that on ‘Empire’ you have a track called ‘Waysted’ – a curious choice of misspelling for the tune, and perhaps a reference to one of my favourite bands of all time?
[Laughing] Nothing gets past you my friend. Yep a song about getting wasted and we spelt it like the band after the man himself legendary bassist Peter Way. Say no more!
I know you and I are pretty much on the same page politically, you must have been very pleased to see your fellow Grecians voting “No” recently – in spite of whatever has happened since.
Absolutely! Im very proud of my heritage and very proud of my people. We are a proud people who have never been afraid to fight for what is right, to defend our rights and that of our brothers and sisters and if need be die for those rights. The “OXI” or “NO” vote represents a stand against the oligarchy and corruption that has forced my country into the state it is currently in. We are living in a world were the working class is being treated like garbage, where corporate greed and corruption is destroying peoples lives, where hatred and racism is a dominating force and it’s wrong. We are losing our humanity and we are acting as if we have somewhere else to go. We are fed way too much bullshit from mainstream media, lies and poison but we are waking up to the reality of what is really going around us and we are taking a stand.
I guess that is what ‘Empire’ is all about it though isn’t it Dean, being proud of your country and your countrymen and not believing the shit we are fed to try and divide the power the proletariat can still have if we all stand together.
That’s exactly right. Strength through unity and knowledge, and having the guts to say “No” and the right to be free, think freely, speak freely without being prejudiced and hateful.
Okay just to finish off I wanted to say good luck with the tour, and now is your chance to mention anything I may have missed off that you want to tell your fans.
Thanks Johnny it’s always a pleasure talking to you my friend. I just want to wish yourself and everyone out there all the very best, enjoy the summer, be good to each other and enjoy life. See you at Rebellion and on the road!
Cheers again Dean, I look forward to sharing a pint with you next weekend at Rebellion.
http://www.theterracesrock.com/
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Colour photography by Nicola Bernardi
