Citing influences such as Elvis Presley, The Cramps and the Sex Pistols behind the music of London punk-a -rollers the Dedwardians is perhaps not exactly what you would expect from a one-time sleaze rocker. But then again Paul Gautrey is not exactly your average everyday frontman. I caught up with Paul recently to find out what happened to his last band The Glitterati after the release of their second album ‘Are You One Of Us?’, and also most importantly to chat all about his new band. So ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to the Dedwardians.

 

Hey Paul, thanks for taking the time to speak with Uber Rock. It’s been a while since we last spoke, but your now out front of the all new Dedwardians, what’s the story there then?

 

It started when I wrote a bunch of songs with a kind of ‘50s sound and feel, that’s what I was listening to and what I love. I wanted to do something different from anything I’d done before but I wasn’t sure if these songs would end up as a band or even see the light of day. I was just enjoying writing songs that I was into.

 

Once I had a few songs I tentatively put a band together, I tried different people for short periods of time, it took a long time to find a full band. I tried to avoid having any of my old band members as I wanted to make sure it wasn’t seen as The Glitterati with a new name and new sound but when I found out Gaff was looking for a new band and I was struggling to find a guitarist I just thought Id be cutting my nose off to spite my face if I didn’t get him in. He was my mate and better than anyone who I’d tried out, and from that point onwards we started getting the songs I had together and finding a line up for live shows. We already had a manager after a two track demo me and Gaff put together got out to a few people, he eventually put us in touch with Ben our bassist who plays double bass in Vince Ray And The Boneshakers and he brought his mate Owen in to play drums and we had a line up. We started writing together and the 3 of them brought more punk and garage rock ‘n’ roll influences to the sound and we started playing live last summer.

 

I see you describe yourselves as Glamabilly – what the fuck is that?? (laughing) Is that Gaff playing rockabilly? I notice he’s not followed you down the route of getting a quiff yet (laughing)

 

(Laughing) I did try early on to get him to slick it all back but he wasn’t having any of it, good for him. Well we didn’t have a clue how to describe what we do, it’s not rockabilly but does have some ‘50s influences, but we also have some punk influences, some garage rock. The best way to describe it is rock ‘n’ roll but nowadays that could mean anything. I think we just thought it sounded a bit different and didn’t really tie us to anything already out there and it makes people want to know what we are all about which as a new band is half the battle.

 

You’ve definitely changed your sound to what you were doing with The Glitterati though, what brought about that shift in style?

 

Well when you write as a band the sound usually ends up been a mixture of everyone’s influences, you don’t all like the same stuff and you all probably want the band to sound slightly different but you try to find a middle ground, that was probably what happened with The Glitterati. With Dedwardians it’s the same, I started with a few songs with a bit of a ‘50s sound but then the other guys brought different influences and you can hear that in the songs we play now.

 

Anyway that’s the long answer. The short answer is it would be boring to start a new band that sounds exactly the same as your last one.

 

So you now ditched your ‘Appetite For Destruction’ for a bit of clean living ‘Bluejean Bop’?

 

(Laughing) There’s only so many times you can rip off ‘It’s So Easy’. This band ends up somewhere between Elvis, The Cramps and the Sex Pistols.

 

 

You’ve just released your debut single ‘Bang Bang Die’ on Bam Records, tell us about how that came about.

 

Yes we released that on our manager’s own label. We recorded both songs with two great producers, Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Peace, Kasabian) and Liam Watson (The White Stripes, The Kills). It was great to have people like that wanting to work with us before we had even done a gig.

 

And the video, that’s a fine piece of work I must say, what was the story behind that?

 

We did that at The Effra Social Club in Brixton which is this really cool old working men’s club that looks like something from World War Two or something. We didn’t want to try anything flashy as on a low budget videos can look a bit crap if you try and be too flash and we aren’t that type of band. We just wanted a simple live performance video really, we embrace our poverty (laughing).

 

The video for the B side ‘Stop Destroy’. What the fuck is going on there? Did you run out of budget for that one? (laughing)

 

Well they both pretty much had a budget of zero (laughing). The one we did for ‘Stop Destroy’ isn’t really a video like the one for the single. Its just one camera in the corner of our rehearsal room, we just wanted to put the song on YouTube and thought it works better with some visuals. To be honest we prefer it to the one we did for the single and it kind of works with that particular song which is a bit dark and creepy.

 

So the next obvious question I guess is what happens next? I mean when can we expect a full album from you guys?

 

We are already talking with people about an album which is pretty good going as we have done less than 15 gigs so we are a little ahead of schedule if anything but the reactions been great and things have moved pretty quickly. Now we are just looking into the best way to put an album out, our next move will probably be another single or EP early in 2014.

 

And live shows?

 

Yes definitely. So far we have only played a few London shows so we are dying to get out and play to as many people as possible without being cocky, this is a great live band.

 

There does seem to be an ever growing swell of UK bands playing rock ‘n’ roll music, we happened on Radio Nasties earlier this year and now you guys, what other bands can you recommend we check out.

 

Well most of the time we seem to end up playing with East London hipster bands with a keyboard and an IPod which really can be as bad as that sounds. Out of the bands we have played with, The Diamond Noise were good, kind of like QOTSA and The Hives and Bad For Lazarus who have ex members of Nine Inch Nails and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and we played with a band called Hot Gothic the other night who were great fun but all completely different to what we do. I haven’t seen many bands with a rock ‘n’ roll/punk sound like ours but so far we have managed to go down well whoever we have played with. Even the hipster bands crowds can be converted, we just try and show them the error of their ways.

 

I can’t do this interview without asking you a few questions about The Glitterati, a band you know we loved here at Uber Rock. How did that all end for you guys? I’m assuming from what you’ve said already that you and Gaff are still mates (laughing) but what about the others?

 

No I fucking hate the cunt (laughing)……

 

It just kind of came to its natural end really, no arguments or hard feelings. After our second album came out we just came to the realisation that there wasn’t much else we could do. At that point we had put everything into funding our second album ourselves and finding a label to put it out. I think it just killed us when we realised that “putting it out” was all the label were going to do with it and there wasn’t a lot we could do about it was a bit soul destroying at the end. Everyone had moved on and wanted to do different things in life and in music. I’m still in touch with all the guys and glad they are all happy and doing whatever they want to do.

 

When you look back at that time what would you say was the moment you are still most proud of?

 

In hindsight everything we did on our first album as that was a magical time. My favourite would probably be recording our first album with Mike Clink in L.A but there were so many other things happening to us that you only dream of as a kid. The second album was a bit of a struggle really but I’m proud we found a way to put that record out.

 

And what would you say was the most valuable lesson learned that you have now taken into Dedwardians?

 

Just enjoy it. Enjoy it all, don’t worry about it too much, and don’t get too involved in the business side of things. You can’t control everything so don’t try to. Some people will like you, some won’t but as long as you like it and like doing it nothing else really matters. What will be will be.

 

Which leads me back to Dedwardians and the question I love to ask new bands – what is your mission? I mean do you have a band manifesto? A vision as such of where you want to be?

 

No real manifesto. We think we have a great band and we hope other people agree. If they do it will allow us to do more of what we love doing, playing live, recording and releasing records. If they don’t then they obviously have really bad taste in music and there’s nothing we can do to save them (laughing).

 

So nothing else will do then?

 

Well we are already doing what we love. We just want to do more of it, release more records and play to more people, we don’t want to rely on anyone but ourselves or to try to please anyone else but as long as there are people out there looking for new rock ‘n’ roll music to love then I think we should be alright.

 

Paul, many thanks for your time once again, it’s always a pleasure chatting with you fella, and I look forward to seeing what you guys get up to next in 2014.

 

Thanks Johnny and cheers to you and everyone at Uber Rock for all the support.

 

https://www.facebook.com/Dedwardians?filter=2

https://soundcloud.com/dedwardians

 

Live photography courtesy of Keira Cullinane

 

To pick up your copy of ‘Bang Bang Die’ – CLICK HERE