Rob Lane – Straight To Video – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Gaz E
Sunday, 31 March 2013 03:00
If your extracurricular activities outside of your day job as bass player with Teenage Casket Company include performing with the likes of The Black Mollys, Bulletboys, D Generation’s Richard Bacchus, and Let Loose, just how do you really find something cooler to undertake as a pet project? If you’re Rob Lane you record an EP full of your favourite songs from movie soundtracks…and ask all your famous mates to help out. I caught up with Laney to the lowdown on a project that pushed all my nerd buttons…..
I know you’re a full-on movie nerd, but what made you decide to go from dancing around the room to these songs, Tom Cruise in Risky Business-style, to actually getting them recorded?
Not sure if I ever had the moves or looks of a young Tom Cruise but I’ll take that! I’d been thinking of doing something on my own outside of Teenage Casket Company for some time but I did have one big stumbling block in that I don’t write songs! Kind of a biggie when it comes to doing a ‘solo’ record I guess?! Song writing is something I’ve never had a massive urge to do and if I’m honest, looking back, I’ve been very lucky to play in bands with some amazing songwriters. Right back from when I started out, the bands I’ve played in have always been about the songs at the end of the day. Then when TCC began I found myself in a band with Jamie Delerict who, hand on heart, has wrote two of my favourite ever songs in ‘Mirrors & Wires’ and ‘Burn This City Down’. Then there’s Rob Wylde who I honestly believe to be one of the finest pop and melodic rock writers out there bar none. How do I go toe to toe with that? Okay, I realise I’m much better looking but you can’t have it all! I’ve always been of the school of thought that if it’s not as good, or better than what’s been before, then I’ll leave it to the people who do it best. I live too much of a safe, easy going life to be a song writer anyway! I don’t have much to draw from! I try my best to avoid stress!
So, I guess I needed a different angle. I stumbled upon wanting to do something that encompassed everything I loved – from music through to films and general nostalgia which I simply can’t let go of. The initial plan was to do a Cover Band doing Movie Soundtrack songs but it became obvious, pretty early on, that it was going to be tough to put a band together and get the right people on board so it was put on the back burner. Then luckily I was at a show, maybe a year and half ago, speaking to KC Duggan from The Idol Dead (www.theidoldead.com) and he simply stated the obvious about why not just record the songs and get different people to sing? So I guess this is all his fault!
Was the idea of getting some of your rock star chums to appear on the songs there right from the beginning?
It was the only way I could do it to be honest – there was no way I could play all the parts and not end up being some kind of musical joke! I went into the studio with my good friend Michael Richards and we just laid down all the bass and drums. It was then just a matter of getting the other people into the studio to do their parts or waiting for the tracks to be emailed in. From the start I’ve labelled this as something of an ‘experiment’. There was no real band or rehearsals to work out what to do with the various tracks. I basically had to put my trust in everyone and they had to do the same with me. I really have been blessed with some amazingly talented and generous friends who’ve agreed to be part of this!
I love the whole concept behind Straight To Video, especially the cover artwork for the EP: what was the inspiration for this and who did it?
It’s basically my tiny tribute to the Evil Dead Poster where Ash is kicking ass with his chainsaw with the hot lady behind him. From the best of my recollection, I think The Evil Dead was the very first film I saw on video so it’s kind of fitting! I pitched the basic idea to Daz Mondo (Binger Creative / JD & The FDCs) who has done all the artwork for the TrashPit Records releases and he just destroyed! I wanted to try and recreate some ‘Video Nasty’ kind of sleeve and I’m beyond happy with what he came up with – totally out did anything I could have originally imagined!
On to the songs – what made you choose Jane Wiedlin’s ‘Rush Hour’ from the 1988 movie License To Drive starring, of course, the Two Coreys, Haim and Feldman?
‘Rush Hour’ is easily one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s one of those tunes that just oozes the 1980s but it’s also simply an amazing pop song. I was a big fan of the Joyrider version from the 1990s too so wanted to put my own stamp on it. The fact that it was featured in a film that is really close to my heart and sums up the whole Straight To Video vibe made it the perfect choice. I was 14 years old when that film came out and Feldman and Haim were two of my biggest idols back then. Just had to have something linking them on the CD!
Tell us who features on this song on the Straight To Video EP and what we should know about them!
In my head when I decided to do it I expected it to be more towards the Joyrider version than the ’80s original so I asked the main man, Jamie Delerict to do the lead vocals. Unfortunately, because I’m so unprepared and really have no idea what I’m doing, the musical version we put down stayed pretty faithful to the original. So whilst Jamie came in and did a great job vocally it was simply a battle of two very different genres. So I was out in the cold looking for that cute and quirky female lead vocal for the track. I then happened upon some YouTube clips of a friend of mine doing these cracking acoustic covers. I knew Becky Edwards (www.facebook.com/BeckyEdwardsMusic) from when she used to come see my band DIP play back in the day. She moved away from the Nottingham area a couple of years ago and I never knew she sung until I saw these clips – she had this really great voice much like Jane Wiedlin on the original. I dropped her a line, she was up for it, came along and as soon as she started singing me and Joe (Brown), who produced the CD, just looked at each other and knew we had the perfect fit!
As it’s ‘Rush Hour’, I needed some killer keyboard skills so I asked Richie Wermerling who I played with in Let Loose (www.letloosemusic.com) to add the main keyboard parts. Richie is a real star and not only sent a keyboard part – he sent a whole damn wall of them! It really has made the track totally different to anything I’ve ever been part of. Finally, I needed to add at least a little dose of rock to balance out the pop to the track so I got Daz Mondo to put down some chunky rhythm guitar and asked Johnny Monaco (www.johnnymonaco.com), who some might know from Enuff Z’Nuff, to do the guitar solo. I emailed Johnny the rough track and I think it was something ridiculous like a few hours, or at the most the next day, before I got this incredible solo back! This wasn’t some throwaway noodling like the Eddie Van Halen ‘Beat It’ solo (I’m a massive Van Halen fan but that is one of his worst, the guy is just messing around). What Johnny did is an amazingly thought out solo that adds something totally new to the song.
The second song is one that everyone should know – ‘Pretty In Pink’ by The Psychedelic Furs, from the film of the same name. Was there any pressure behind covering such a well known tune?
Choosing this was a bit of no brainer really. It’s a great song and as it’s from a John Hughes film – it had to be on there! I didn’t feel any massive pressure doing it to be honest, all I wanted to create was something that paid tribute to the original but had the attitude and vibe of the great Automatic 7 version which is often confused with Social Distortion. I love both versions and if I could land somewhere in the ball park of either then I was all good. The only pressure I had was making the wife happy because it’s one of her favourite songs of all time – I was potentially pissing on hallowed ground like Ozzy on the Alamo! She specified that whoever sang on it had to pronounce it ‘PRETTY in Pink’ and not ‘PRIDDY in Pink’! I think there’s just one that sneaks in there!
Tell us who features on the STV version…and why?!
There was only one person I had in mind to sing on this song and I made sure I got him on board before we laid down the basic tracks or it just wasn’t gonna happen! One of my favourite bands in the country are KITTY HUDSON (www.kittyhudson.com) and Richie Hudson has that perfect, husky rasp to do a lead vocal like the one on this song. I had it in my head how he was gonna sound and that’s what ended up on the finished track. Plus, if I had one member of 
Kitty Hudson on the tune, then why not get another so I asked Keef Identity to do some killer harmonies to go alongside Richie’s. Playing the guitar is Craig Reynolds who I play with in DIP. Craig is an incredibly underrated player, he knows everything about guitars and his sound worked great on this. He also came up with this really cool intro lead riff to the song which gives it some of its own STV character. This out of all five songs was probably the easiest to pull together.
The third song is from a film that is much younger than the others whose soundtracks you’ve pilfered, but one I love all the same – Clerks 2. Was it just a case of simply loving the song?
I love and adore Kevin Smith. These last couple of years his attitude and general creative output has been totally inspiring to me. He really has no boundaries to what he does these days, anything is up for grabs, and I think I’ve tried to bring that into what I hope to do with Straight To Video. He’s no longer just a movie director, he’s a writer, podcaster, presenter… he can do anything he wants to do and doesn’t let anything stop him. So yeah, whilst this film and song are heading towards twenty years after all the others I wanted to have something in there. The other bonus is that you could consider Smith to be the John Hughes for a whole new generation or maybe even for the same generation as we all relate to his modern take on life. Again, much like ‘Rush Hour’, Soul Asylum’s ‘Misery’ is up there with my favourite songs ever. I hope we’ve done it justice?!
…and you’ve unleashed the big gun on this tune, guest-wise…
Ha! In my eyes pretty much THE biggest! Believe me when I say Bowling For Soup are one of the greatest bands on the planet, I have so much time and respect for that band! I first met them when I was interviewing for TrashPit Magazine back in 2003 and Jaret (Reddick) once told me I was the only journalist they spoke to around that time that even knew who Mötley Crüe were! How times have changed since then. We’re all similar ages and into the same kind of stuff so I guess we hit it off and stayed friends ever since. To have Jaret sing on this project really does mean a lot. BFS have influenced this and a lot of other things I do much more than they’ll ever realise. Hopefully it’s more of a tribute and tip of the hat to them rather than an outright rip off with anything I do?!! It’s also cool to hear him singing a song like this which is a lot different to the stuff which people usually associate him with. Lee (Wray) who mastered the CD actually told me that when he was doing the mastering he was using a BFS tune as reference and never even realised it was Jaret singing which I find kinda cool. Hopefully he’s as happy with the end result as I am. It’s not the easiest song to cover, lots of ups and down with a bunch of unusual changes.
For the main guitar tracks I asked Simon Clements who plays in a band called The Nightwires and previously 3 Ring Circus. We both grew up as fans of Hard Rock but in the ’90s got hooked on a lot of the alternative bands of the time so I knew he’d be into doing this. The guitar solo is played by Tory Stoffregen who some of you may know from Enuff Z’Nuff but the two of us play in The Black Mollys whenever they play over here the UK. The song was just about finished when I got local musician Tom Wardle (www.tomwardle.co.uk) into the studio on the final day or recording and he really bought it to life with some great acoustic guitar and smooth backing vocals. Didn’t think we’d get him on there, but we did, and I’m so glad of what he put on the track.
Song four is another nod to the master, John Hughes, this time covering The March Violets’ ‘Miss Amanda Jones’ from 1987’s Some Kind Of Wonderful….
I’d revisited this film around the time I was considering which songs to do for the EP and this song really jumped out to me. I don’t particularly think the key to a good soundtrack song is to be too literal (okay, maybe Ray Parker Jnr’s ‘Ghostbusters’ gets a free pass) but this works really well. It’s kind of a meeting of two worlds with it originally being an old Rolling Stones tune and also the name of one of the film’s main characters. I thought it’d be pretty cool to do with it being one of John Hughes’ more overlooked films.
Who features on this choice cover?
I originally had a friend in mind to sing the lead vocals as I thought she’d be great to get a similar vibe to the original but she was just too busy to be on board. I was a little stuck on who to ask ’cause I had this particular sound in mind so I took a gamble. We’d done a local show with Johnny Monaco last year and met some fans at the show and got in touch on Facebook. I remember seeing one of them, Candice Lorraine, had put up some photos of her singing. She looked cool and I got a vibe she’d be into doing something. She’d actually never been in the studio before, I hadn’t heard her sing (didn’t even know if she actually could) but I figured if I was in the same boat and someone asked me to record some stuff I wouldn’t say ‘Yes’ unless I could do a decent job. She was into the song, came along and nailed it! The gamble paid off! Phew! It just turned into a fun, straight ahead rock tune with some ’90s garagey overtones.
The final song pushes my horror nerd buttons, but is still something of a surprise choice: tell us all about why you chose Dramarama’s ‘Anything Anything (I’ll Give You)’ from 1988 franchise sequel ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master’…
This is one of my favourite songs. It’s just got a great feel to it…. it’s trashy with a kind of early Goo Goo Dolls vibe. It’s no nonsense, in your face, balls out good fun. This film holds a special place in my heart too ‘cause it was the first Freddy film I got to see at the cinema right when I was in total horror geek mode. Looking back on it, the film has some really shocking moments and I don’t mean that in ‘horror’ or ‘scary’…. Just plain bad, but I still love it for just being total mainstream, late ’80s MTV Freddy Krueger. I had to tip the STV Fedora a little somewhere on this EP!
…..and this one is where you really wheel out the vocal big gun, right?!
Ha! You think?! Not sure about that but thank you! Yeah, I had to try the lead vocal somewhere on here. In my head I figured I could try and do some Robby Takac-esque vocal although I think there’s a little too much of my Derbyshire accent in there! We just did two takes, really rough and my voice was breaking in places but it suited the vibe I wanted to get across – it’s just a fun but angsty tune. I got to lay down the guitars and bass with my producer Joe dropping in the end solo. Because he’d set the seed for the whole recording of the EP I wanted to get The Idol Dead’s KC on here too, and he was a big fan of the original, so that’s who you can hear doubling up some of the vocals. Loadsa fun!
I love the EP – concept, song choice, artwork, the whole shebang – but I’m already wanting more…..there has to be a sequel, right?
Who knows? We’ll see what the response is to this first one and if people enjoy it – I hope they do. I have a bunch of ideas and lots of songs I’d like to rework but sequels are notoriously shit though right, so do I tread that path? Maybe I can do an ‘Empire Strikes Back’ or ‘ALIENS’ and get better as I go along and not do a ‘Teen Wolf Too’!
Photos by Scott Cole