Mind Noise Network
Interview with Tax The Heat
Tax The Heat set off on yet another tour on 23rd September 2014 and Dan was at The Kasbah in Coventry to have a chat with them before the first leg of the tour with The Virginmarys. You can read our review of the show here.
Hi guys, thanks for having letting me invade your dressing room before your set, first off - for those that still don't know you, who are Tax The Heat and what do you do?
Alex: We are are a rock n roll band based in the South West of England. We are influenced heavily by R&B, the loud R&B of the 60s, stuff like The Who, The Kinks, stuff like that. But we're trying to take it somewhere new. Putting our own little spin on it.
How has 2014 been so far for you guys?
Alex: It's been amazing. It's been absolutely amazing. We've just had a really incredible year. We started out just writing quite a lot, demoing and rehearsing loads of new songs. Then around May sort of time we started gigging a lot and that's really carried on up to this point. We jumped on various tours over the Summer. We went out with The Graveltones, Black Star Riders and we did a load of festivals. We did Clapham Calling with Aerosmith and Download. It's been great and it's really helped build the fanbase. It's getting us out there more than we had been before. We said at the beginning of the year that we wanted to get on as many tours as possible and that's what we've done.
And you've got Planet Rockstock coming up later in the year after this tour.
Jack: Yeah, December the 6th. There's some great bands playing at that and Planet Rock have been really great to us. They've put a lot of our songs on the radio and I think it's really helped us get a lot of the gigs that we've got and they continue to be really great.
Yeah, they do seem to have taken you under their wing.
Jack: They have yeah, it's been great and they've been really kind to us and from what they say to us they're getting a really good reaction to what they've played. We've just released a new single Highway Home and they've taken that on and have been playing it so yeah, it's been really great.
So this year you've played with Scott Gorham from Thin Lizzy and now Black Star Riders, you played with Steve Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith.
Alex: My Heroes
Yeah, I heard you have a bit of a thing for them?
Alex: I've definitely got a thing for those guys. In a big way. I'm not even ashamed of it.
Why would you be? Have you taken anything from being around people like them? Did you learn anything from them?
Alex: We've been learning from those guys for years really, even though we've not been aware of it. Just watching the gigs and seeing how bands like that do their thing. But being backstage and seeing it first hand, there's just a certain professionalism. You know that, if you're a support band on a tour, you are supporting the headliners, it's their thing. But you've also got to go out and prove a point and we've been lucky in the respect that Black Star Riders and all the bands we've toured with have been really generous with us. In terms of introducing us to their crowd and even backstage crews.
You've been around now as Tax The Heat for nearly two years. It's amazing because things have moved pretty fast for you guys.
Antonio: Yeah at the end of this year it will be two years.
Alex: We got management after the first gig and shortly afterwards picked up a booking agent. So things in that respect happened quite quickly, which is ideal. They're the people that can help you take that next step. Everything has gone well so far and we know the steps you've got to take to make things happen, but there's so much luck involved. We're just lucky to have a great team behind us.
It must have been nice to have that security straight from the off?
Alex: What's great is that they believe in it. They believe in the music that we make and they let us do our own thing. It's ideal.
One thing that hasn't moved as fast, you've got the EP out, but no album yet. I've
heard that it's "coming".
Alex: Well it's pretty much written I think. At the moment the management are in talks with labels in terms of how we're gonna do it, but it's still a little way off I think. It won't be till next year certainly, but it will happen though. It will happen.
Jack: There are a lot of things that are out of our hands to do with it really. But we're ready to roll whenever we get the go ahead. There are a lot of factors that go into the making of it. We just want to get it done and get it out there, but we want to get it recorded right.
Yeah, you've got to keep it at the same quality as what you've already put out.
Jack: Exactly and we've worked with a few different producers and it's really important for us to make it sound right for the vision that we have. We've been lucky so far, but you know those guys are busy, so it takes a certain amount to get everyone together. Chris Goss who we did the EP with lives out in the desert in the States and the ultimate dream would be to get the album done with him out there. But that would take us going to the States which is easier said than done.
Do you reckon it'll be done by the time the arena shows with Thunder come around?
Alex: There's a chance but who knows? If not, we'll just have to do some more arena shows.
It's amazing how fast that has moved. A lot of bands don't ever get on to arena tours even as supports.
Alex: Yeah, luckily we knew some of the Thunder guys because our first tour was supporting The Union and Luke Morley and Chris Childs are in that band. So those guys were familiar with our stuff, but we still weren't guaranteed the support slot on the tour, but it's turned out well.
Jack: We saw them again at Calling festival and just caught up with them there. We didn't know anything about them doing the arena shows and then the next thing they asked if we could do it.
Talking of venues though, where has been your favourite place to play so far?
All: Shepherd's Bush!
Alex: Shepherd's Bush was amazing. The crew were great and sometimes that makes it. We've played at loads of venues that were great like the Guildford G Live, that was really cool. But yeah, Shepherd's Bush would be at the top right now.
I'm sure a lot of bands would agree with you on that one too. With things like The Cockpit in Leeds closing recently and the way the industry is going, after 50+ years, do you think it has another 50 years in it?
Alex: Rock n Roll music? Yeah, I think rock n roll music does for sure. People will always get excited about that because there's something real about it. There will always be a proportion that will want to get into it. There's something about a live rock band in a small place, there's nothing like it. The music industry is obviously going through some tough times. It's in a really strange place at the moment. It just seems like there's no kids getting into bands at the moment. I don't know whether it's a psychological thing that because they're downloading music for free, in their heads they're thinking "if I'm not paying for it, there's no money going in, so sod thinking about a career in that". Not that any kid would really think about that. I just wanted to play.
Antonio: On top of that there's this whole X-Factor generation where that's all they consume, so that's what they know. Rock music isn't as well publicised as say 30 years ago.
Part of the problem being if something like the X Factor puts on a 'rock week' it's hardly actual rock music.
JP: Yeah, it's Nickelback
Alex: Or they just stick a guitar on one of those fuckwits and they sell a thousand records. You know what I mean? It's just like, give that cock a guitar! It's a weird one, but I don't think rock music will ever go away.
Antonio: Even the pop acts these days, to put on a good show they need to put a rock element into their music.
Alex: You know what though, I think there will be a resurgence when more cars start getting digital radios. I think at the moment, Joe Public is just listening to the mainstream radios which just play absolute crap. But as soon as you get a digital radio there's so much more to choose from.
The only alternative really is Planet Rock and aside from you guys and a bit of Volbeat, they aren't pushing much new music.
Alex: I think they're really trying to now. I've spoken to a couple of their DJs over the years and they keep saying that we're running out of these festival headliners. Soon those guys are all going to be gone and we need to build up new bands. They will disappear if no one does that though.
When your Iron Maiden's, Black Sabbath's and Metallica's are gone that's the real big festival ticket pushers gone.
Alex: They do need to keep pushing these smaller bands. There's XFM that doing it. 6 Music are doing it as well. There's some great new stuff coming out. I just think it's going to be when people realise they can tap in to those things that things will change.
Let's hope that that starts soon then. Well guys, that's all from me. Enjoy the tour and good luck with the recording of the album whenever that starts.
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