Matt Jones & Dhani Mansworth – The Treatment – Interview Exclusive 

Written by David Whistance
Tuesday, 20 December 2011 05:00

Hey guys thanks for taking the time to speak with me. At the start of 2011 The Treatment was virtually an unknown band. How does it feel to end the year headlining your own UK tour?

 

Matt; It’s incredible; we have had an amazing year and worked with some fantastic people.  We are really excited about our first headline tour.

 

Your appearance at this year’s High Voltage Festival was critically acclaimed along with well-received support slots with the likes of Alice Cooper and Motorhead, it must be a great time to be a member of The Treatment.

 

Matt; Yes it’s been a blast.  We all get on well together and we don’t take ourselves too seriously.  You have to have a sense of humour to be in The Treatment or you would never survive.

 

How does it feel being accepted by the audiences of such legendary bands?

 

Dhani; It has been overwhelming to be honest, the UK and European audiences have been very kind to us and we intend to give our all every time we play for them

 

What other bands/artists would you love to support?

 

Dhani; AC/DC would be incredible, Van Halen, Sabbath, The Cult, Priest, Iron Maiden, these would all be dream gigs.

 

The band hail from Cambridge, how did the band form? Were you already friends prior to the formation of the band?

 

Matt; No. I started with Dhani and a couple of kids from school, and they rehearsed at lunch times.  When Dhani approached his dad about putting a serious band together they both started putting adverts on music sites.  We then found Ben who knew Rick, who new Tag.  Matt we found by accident on a Myspace site.

 

When I was doing some on you guys for today I noticed that there are certain individuals who seem to criticise The Treatment for playing “classic rock” when the band are still only teenagers themselves. Why do you believe people have such a negative outlook concerning the band’s age?

 

Matt; Really, to be honest we haven’t come across that personally, I don’t know, maybe the purest Led Zep fan may not like us being a “classic rock” band, but we all grew up listening to these classic bands and we have as much right as anyone to listen to and play this kind of music. Age is irrelevant in music, they must be dickheads.

 

Personally I discovered you guys supporting Black Stone Cherry in June, I was blown away by the bands performance and material even though I was still unaware of the identity of the band on stage and I certainly didn’t know how young the band were, which brings the question if the band can deliver the goods, surely that’s all that matters.

 

Matt; You’ve hit the hit the nail on the head… that is all that matters

 

You have been compared to such legendary icons as Aerosmith and AC/DC, how does it feel being compared to such rock legends?

 

Dhani; Well we have some way to go before we get anywhere near those bands, but it’s really nice that people hold us in high regard, that is a great compliment

 

Listening to the bands debut album ‘This Might Hurt’ I can definitely hear some clear influences in your music, however, tell me what music influenced the band growing up?

 

Dhani; It’s funny but we all have parents who listen to Zeppelin, AC/DC, Priest etc so we all had similar exposure to this type of music at an early age.  Thank God our parents had good taste.

 

But do any of the band listen to any new bands (and genres) and if so what are your current musical trends?

 

Matt; We all have varied tastes and we do listen to some of the new bands, and from all styles, but we enjoy the classic bands most.

 

One of my fellow Uber Rock scribes recently witnessed you guys supporting Alice Copper and happened to notice that you played a couple of tracks by the band More, that featured Dhani’s father Laurie Mansworth.  We wanted to know was it the band’s choice to include these numbers or did your father pressurise you into the decision? (Laughing)

 

Matt; No, he has never pressurised us into anything.  We jammed them at a rehearsal one day, and they sounded great and fitted well into our set, so we played them to Laurie and he said they sounded rocking so we decided to play them live, and people seem to love it.

 

Joking aside, the band was formed by you Dhani, and your father Laurie has been in the musical business for as long as I can remember. Did he have an influence on you wanting to be in a band yourself?

 

Dhani; He was obviously an influence on me, as I used to go to gigs with him from a very young age, but it was something I always wanted to do and my dad has always encouraged me as long as I was happy doing it.  My brother is the total opposite; he has no interest in playing at all.  Dad has always encouraged us to do what we want with our lives as long as it is something positive

 

If I were to ask you to select five tracks at random from your Ipod/MP3 player what would they be?

 

Dahni; Dr Feelgood – ‘She Does It Right’

Slade – ‘Take Me Bak ‘ome’

AC/DC – ‘Sin City’

The Cult – ‘Fire Woman’

The Doors – ‘Riders On The Storm’

 

One question we always like to ask bands is “have you experienced any gig from hell moments”, either as a band or as a fan?

 

Dhani; Yes we went to Donington last year camping.  A lovely lady spewed in our tent, it was hell.

 

What has 2012 got in store for The Treatment? I imagine we will be seeing The Treatment on next year’s festival circuit.

 

Matt; Lots more touring, and hopefully lots of festivals.  We want to meet and make as many new fans as possible, cause at the end of the day they are what it is all about.

 

Guys thank you so much for sparing us your time once again, all of us at Uber Rock wish you every success with the ongoing tour and all the best for 2012. 

 

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