Interview with Crashed Out!

Directly from the UK, Radio Punk meets the energetic Crashed Out who, after over twenty years of career, are about to release their seventh album. Enjoy!

Radio Punk: Hi! Let’s start by telling you that we are pleased to have you on Radio Punk and to be able to interview you. Tell us who you are and where you are from.
Crashed Out: Hi guys I am Chris Wright lead singer with North East UK based punkrock band Crashed Out. I am also a tattoo artist I own and run Viking Tattoo Studio in my home town of Jarrow just outside Newcastle Tyne and Wear.

RP: Nine years have passed since your last official album. Is there a reason behind this long break, considering that you have gone on important tours?
CO: Wow has it really been that long? Yes we have been pretty active live over the years so I think that has probably been a factor on not writing and releasing new material and trying to get enough time off between gigs and our jobs etc to record is not always easy. Also Johnny our last drummer left about 3 years ago to start a family so we had to get our new drummer Carlo trained up for gigs etc. Another thing we try and do is never just have fillers on our albums maybe that’s why it takes us a little longer as well we always want to put 100% into every song. We have about 14 brilliant new songs and we are in the process of making demos of them as I write this. So hopefully once we send them out and find a decent label the album will follow maybe by the end of 2019 or early 2020, but its definitely on its way, I am really looking forward to recording and hearing these new songs.

RP: What should we expect from your next release? Will you stay true to the style of your previous albums or do you have anything new in store?
CO: The new stuff is similar to the Crash n Burn/Dirty Dozen format quite rocky in places, a couple slow numbers, some punky fast stuff, just what we are known for really. As I mentioned, we now have a new drummer who plays quite heavy hard rock type stuff so that will give it another dimension.

RP: You have three American tours behind you with a lot of important bands and many shows in UK and in Europe, will you start immediately with the official tour of your new album presentation or will you take a short break?
CO: Well yes that’s what I’d like to do once the album is finished we will prob speak with our bookers and label (whoever that maybe) and see what our best options would be for touring etc but yes we will definitely be out there to promote it.

RP: Your last three works (“Crash and Burns”, “The Dirty Dozen” and “Twenty Years Strong”) were all released by German label Randale Records. Are you going to stay connected to Germany or will you change productions?
I am happy to speak with any decent label that can offer a good deal for us, my main concern is not about money (never any money in what we do haha), it would be about the promotion and distribution of the album, ideally a good label in Europe and another in the USA, we will just see what comes along once we send out the demos, we have a few labels in mind that i think could be really great for us. We will see!

RP: Thinking about the creation of an album, how does an album come about? What is the process you follow? Do you work together from the beginning?
CO: Ok I cannot play any instrument at all, I never had the patience to learn, I write loads of lyrics and keep them on my pc i have 100s of them, I then get song tunes from Spin or Lee, then when I have worked the lyrics into the tune we practice the hell out of it. Our drummer will jam along until he has worked out a great drum patten for a song. Both Lee and Spin write their own songs and music and present them to us on band practice nights. Lee has started to record his music and lyrics then mail us the song so we are familiar with the song for when we get together to practice. It works for us but there is nothing like just getting together in a room shooting ideas about and jamming until we know a song is working. Thats the old way and best way I reckon!

RP: You have been playing for 24 years now and surely both you and the music scene you belong to have changed and matured. Is there anything from the old times you are missing? And is there anything you couldn’t absolutely do without today?
CO: Yes we’ve been around the block so to speak we have always done everything for ourselves total DIY, so not much has changed really, just us getting balder fatter and greyer ha ha ha. I think today there are some great bands and the Internet has made things a lot easier to communicate with other bands labels promoters etc so that is a must today. Also it’s now easier to get your music heard with internet radio stations etc which is great for the scene.

RP: We are at the end. First of all, thank you for answering our questions. We leave you this free space to tell our readers anything you like. Thank you again and we look forward to seeing you in Italy!
CO: Thank you for the interest in Crashed Out and good luck with Radio Punk, we have played Italy on a few occasions and always had a great response, I look forward to playing your fine country once again in the future. Please check out our band page links much appreciated. Best Regards Chris

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