Twinmusix chat with Whitfield from Ugly kid Joe to talk about their Australian Tour
You created your album uglier then it use to be in 21 days what was the most challenging part about writing this album in a short amount of time?
It wasn’t theta challenging it was fun everyone has their parts the bass player, guitar player and fantastic producer everyone came to Louisiana we had our whole team there. I mean everyone that has been in the band over the years. We had Dave Fulton and Zac Morrison we had the whole team but it was fun and a lot of work because the album wasn’t written. The strength of only having 21 days is the necessity is the mother of invention so if you have to get something done you will get it done. If you have 6 months to do it you might never finish it In a scene it wasn’t hard at all it was draining because we were putting in 16 hour days so on that level it felt like ground hog day but it was a great experience and we were proud of that.
You worked with Phil Campbell from Motorhead Ace of Spades, under the bottom and madman did his style of writing music affect how you wrote those songs?
No he did not play on madman he did play on ace of spades and under the bottom. So I believe in community and I want to play with people so my solo project Richard crane I had Myles Kennedy come and sing with us. I just did a new project in Australia called yellow cake I had Ross Wilson come and sing a truck with me, I had Dallas Baxter come and see your truck with me. So we were doing the last ugly kid record we were great friends. Lemmy saying Ugly Kid Joe songs back in the day. Phil Campbell what you do with Phil because he's such a badass guitar player, first you call Phil on the phone and ask if he wants to jam on the songs. He played on my old man, under the bottom and ace of spades. so the first thing you do when working with anyone is call them on the phone or go to their house so the first thing you do when working with anyone is call them on the phone or go to their house and you say do you want to do this and if they say yes you say coop we will track all the steps and put you in our minds. That’s why technology is so cool at this point because we are able to track the album when coming to Louisiana over the computer to Wales where Phil lives. He went to the studio there tracked his stuff and sent it back.
If you could have any band perform one of your songs which band and song would you choose and would it be in your style or there’s?
Under the bottom and the original line up of Black Sabbath in their style.
How did you come up with your band name?
We were living in California we were a young band and didn’t have a band name and at that time the dream was if a national act that had a record deal that came through town. The dream was to open up for that band. So I had a demo tape and took it to this guy Bill Hardy who runs this place called the carnival. I said to him we want to open up for this band. That band happened to be a band called pretty boy Floyd now pretty Boy Floyd was more glam then glam. Certainly not our style and we didn’t really like that but we would love to open up for it. So he said I’ll listen to the tape Phil hardy called up later on the land line because there was no cell phone and said look you guys got the gig but you have to give me a band name and you don’t have a band name. You need to tell me right now so I can put it in the paper for the advertisement and I looked at my guitar player and said dude we need a name right this second and he looked over thought about it and he’s the genius in the band and said we will call it ugly kid Joe because it’s the opposite of Pretty Boy Floyd and that’s how the band name came. And three days later that show got cancelled.
So you have all written your music together have you ever written a song you have started and HAVNT finished. If you have would you ever consider releasing it to your fans?
We have lots of songs that we have never finished in mean funny enough we keep talking about the song under the bottom we have been working on that song for 15 years it just got finished. Sometimes there are songs that are 60 percent done and you just can’t finish them. So until the song is finished in would never share it with anyone besides my music friends you know my band mates but if we finish something and love it and feel good about it of course we share it with the world.
Are you bringing out any new albums anytime soon?
I am I have a band called yellow cake and band that was born in Melbourne Australia. It’s a band with guitarist Jeff Curran he plays for Dallas Frasca. We recorded it at house studios in St Kilda and it’s crushing it has a guest appearance from Ross Wilson. And a lot of legendary artist from Australia. He sings with me and also plays the mean harmonica. It also includes the parents by Dallas Frasca Jeff funny enough is in Dallas Frasca it’s a big family of course. I have a DVD coming out in the next six months it's called Orchestra of Doom. It was recorded in Verona Italy with a 34 piece orchestra with no electronic instruments. I worked with a conductor Called Andrea Battistoni and he transcribed all the music to 15th century baroque music. And the music was all old school Ozzy Osborne black Sabbath, a couple of ugly kid Joe songs a couple of Richard Crane songs. That’s never been done before where there is no electricity guitars we shoot that with 7 cameras we are just finishing it now and then I’ll share that with the world in the next 6 months as I will share yellow cake.
You played at Hellfest how was your experience there?
It was so awesome ugly kid Joe has always had a great relationship with France for whatever reason we heard about Hellfest. Phil Campbell played before us we have a good relationship with Phil. We saw a lot of the Motorhead crew. The Motorhead family was a family. The collets thing for me being a front man was we were on the same stage as Aerosmith and Steven Tyler has the cat walk that goes into the crowd and I’m never going to get a cat walk and there was a catwalk I was like hardy and I was able to go out and be like this is awesome. So it was a big honour to play with them and walk on that stage out into the crowd.
What’s the concept behind your Australian tour?
The concept it’s a celebration of the 25th year anniversary of America’s least wanted when is an album ugly kid Joe made in 1992it was produced by Mark it was produced in a studio Devonshire Studios which is a great place to record and when we made that record we were just making a record we didn’t know what it would be or what we were doing it was successful around the world we were able to tour it around the world and now it’s 25 years later. And we thought it has been 25 years let’s go celebrate the record so we thought the best place to start would be Australia. So it’s going to be a world tour we start in Sydney Australia on the 3rd and end up in Melbourne December 9th.
What bands are you influenced by?
For me it would be Bon Scott from ACDC, Ozzy Osborne, Black Sabbath, and Diary of a Mad Man, Wizard of Oz, Rob Halford, Judaist Priest, and Lemmy.
You have been to a lot of gigs what’s your favourite gig memory?
When Lemay was still alive in would go see a lot of different bands and when he died I was totally and utterly beyond uninspired by I didn’t even know if I wanted to play anymore. I thought this sucks there’s nothing there then I was sad about it. So every time they were in town or playing somewhere in would go see a Motorhead show I would stand where ever I would be and say there it is. There would be a full wind in my sail and I would be electric and excited and thinking about all the posableites and the band was always an inspiring force in my life.
What’s your craziest fan story?
I was on a press tour in 1996 in Australia if was on a TV show and about to go up to this door to meet the jackass announcer guy and right before I was going to go through the door on television this girl walked up to me timidly and put out her forearm and on her arm gouged with a razor blade was Whit and I thought on my God.
Ugly Kid Joe Press Release - Ugly Kid Joe
Ugly Kid Joe Photos - Ugly Kid Joe Photos
Ugly Kid Joe Website - http://www.uglykidjoe.net/
Get your tickets link here - http://www.destroyalllines.com/tour/ugly-kid-joe/
