DATE OF INTERVIEW:

DIE SO FLUID

29th May 2011

GROG; DREW RICHARDS; AL FLETCHER

METAL DISCOVERY: You’re doing the Hard Rock Hell Roadtrip in Ibiza in a couple of days’ time…

GROG: Yes.

(Drew Richards on high praise for Die So Fluid)

"The singer of Uriah Heep really bigged us up in an interview. He said we were his favourite band."

Die So Fluid oustide The Asylum, Birmingham, UK, 29th May 2011

Interview & Photography by Mark Holmes

PART 3

PART 3

Photograph copyright © 2011 Mark Holmes - www.metal-discovery.com

RELATED LINKS

Official Die So Fluid MySpace:

Official Die So Fluid Website:

DIE SO FLUID DISCOGRAPHY

Operation Hypocrite EP (2001)

Albums & EPs

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Jen Normandale at Global Music for arranging the interview.

Spawn of Dysfunction (2005)

Not Everybody Gets A Happy Ending (2008)

The World Is Too Big For One Lifetime (2010)

MD: That seems like a really weird concept for a festival…

GROG: I don’t know, I think it’s a good idea. It’s a lot warmer than Prestatyn! [laughs]

MD: And Birmingham as well, of course!

AL: Yeah, we did it in Prestatyn for the same people and they just figured, well, do exactly the same festival in Ibiza…

MD: Yeah, without the snow and the ice, and general treachery.

AL: The crowd, apparently, about half come from Britain and then they get a load of Spanish come out.

MD: I was at Hard Rock Hell in December and a great performance you gave…

GROG: Thank you.

MD: And it was amazing to see such a packed room but did it surprise you to walk out on stage at… was it 3pm… and see so many people?

GROG: Yeah, it was an Anvil moment!

MD: Ah yeah, like the Japanese festival they do at the end of the film.

GROG: Yeah, because we saw it completely empty when we went in the dressing room and thought, shit, what is this gonna be like? And then it just completely filled up.

MD: I think the main stage wasn’t open until 5pm and that was the only bar open in the venue at that time.

GROG: Yeah, yeah, and we didn’t realise they had the doors shut, anyway. The security guards, they just let them in.

AL: They obviously planned out how to make it work and it worked.

GROG: Yeah, it was great. It’s a really good festival as well.

MD: So are you Anvil fans at all?

AL: Oh yeah, I like that guy.

MD: Lips?

AL: Yeah, he comes across brilliantly in the film.

GROG: You warm to them in the film, don’t you.

MD: Oh yeah. I read you had a near-electrocution moment in Wales a while back so, apart from that, what’s been the most disastrous Spinal Tap moment you’ve had at a gig?

GROG: Two weeks ago, I fell off the back of the stage in Leeds and… it was very painful.

DREW: Yeah, x-rays and all kinds of shit.

GROG: Yeah, I had to have an x-ray but, luckily, nothing was broken. But it was bad because I fell onto a sharp edge, like one of those metal-edged things. Luckily it was pitch-black but I did still have my guitar strapped on so everyone just heard this “brrrrmmmm” as I fell down and it was kind of embarrassing! [laughs]

MD: Did you carry on playing while on your back?

GROG: Well, it was after the last song but before the encore so I had to kind of gather myself and I was so full of adrenaline that I couldn’t feel the pain. We just went on with the encore but it was a weird moment. They had to put all the lights on because they had to check I was okay and everything was still working. But it was odd. It’s just freaky when something like that happens; it’s such a shock but I’m a rock ’n’ roll soldier so I carried on!

MD: Cool. What’s one of the nicest compliments you’ve ever heard or read about Die So Fluid in the press over the years?

AL: Oh blimey...

GROG: Erm…

DREW: The singer of Uriah Heep really bigged us up in an interview. He said we were his favourite band.

MD: Really?

DREW: Yeah.

MD: Wow, that’s really cool.

GROG: Yeah, I forgot about that, yeah.

MD: The converse of that – what’s the most inane thing someone’s ever said about your band that you’ve heard or read?

DREW: We only got one bad review for the last album that I’ve seen but the guy was… I thought I must know the guy because it was all really personal about me. He said my guitar sound was like a fourteen year old’s broken distortion pedal.

MD: Really?!

DREW: [laughs] Yeah!

GROG: Who was that?! That just sounds like a personal vendetta!

DREW: I would never call myself a really brilliant player but I always thought I had the sound down. I was just like… he knows how to hurt me, it must be personal.

MD: Yeah, by talking shit, obviously! That’s not true at all. Reading some old press stuff online, someone wrote in a piece about the band eight or so years ago that “Die So Fluid look like something out of a Russ Meyer movie”. I presume that alludes to ‘Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’ and the image. Is that a comparison you often get?

GROG: Sometimes, yeah. It’s just because I’ve got black hair and a fringe, really. It’s a Tura Satana thing. But, you know, that kind of thing is a bit tongue-in-cheek and I just take it all as complimentary.

MD: Yeah, best way.

GROG: If you’re gonna go with these things and use ‘em then you can’t really be too sensitive in this game, can you?! [laughs]

MD: So, my final question – when can fans expect a new album and have you started composing yet?

GROG: Yeah, we’ve got the basis of a whole new album, actually, in the works but I don’t think it will see the light of day until, probably, early-ish next year. There’s still a bit to do.

DREW: There’s still quite a lot to do because, I mean, if we do want to do the double album then we’ve got double the work to do.

GROG: And we have a lot more live work to do so we’ve got to fit everything in.

MD: And try to break the States too, particularly now you’re over there.

GROG: Well, yeah, there’s that too.

DREW: That won’t be until next year. I think we’ve got another festival on the 9th June and then, after that, there’s a nice gap so I’m just gonna have to put my head down and not leave the house. I’ve got hundreds of ideas but none of them have been developed. Only a few of them have been developed into full songs so I’m just gonna get down to it and so is Grog.

GROG: Yeah, that’s the plan.

MD: Right, well thank you so much for your time.

DREW: You’re welcome, man.

GROG: You’re very welcome.

AL: Nice one!