MadDogCole.Com : Hello Jim. The recordings of mad dog`s comeback album "ultra violence" are finished and it will be available very soon. Before we talk about the record please let us know how you got in contact with the Mad Dog and how the collaboration came about.

Well as you know, I have been very involved on psychobilly-online since 2003, and have read and contributed to many articles on there regarding the whereabouts of Mark “Mad Dog” Cole. In September? 2006, Martin “Lohmax” posted a thread in the private “PORK” section saying that a person calling himself “MadDogCole” had posted a vw-video clip on Youtube, and after Martin had asked, the bloke had confirmed that he was indeed Mark Cole. Martin encouraged Mark to contribute to psychobilly-online. I was obviously interested in this situation, and after a while decided to get in touch with Mark, as I knew that in the Krewmen days Mark lived about an hour from where I live, and I thought it’d be cool to meet him.

I was really pleased when Mark replied to say that he had actually moved to Gosport, which is about 10 minutes drive from my house! A couple of other local lads had asked Mark if he was up for a pint and a chat, and Eddie (Exit Wounds etc) suggested a meet up in a local pub, as he was down from London seeing his family who are in Gosport, on the following weekend. I was actually away gigging in the north of Finland that weekend with my own band Whip Crackin’ Daddies (WCD), and had been travelling for about 10 hours after no sleep, but managed to make a call to Ant Thomas to get Eddie’s number to find out where this pub was, and I went down. I also took my buddy Ruby Bones, who is in WCD. So we walked in and met Mad Dog Cole and his wife Ruth, as well as Eddie and a few of his old psycho mates. Mark and Ruth and I had a very long chat about his profile on the scene, the potential of his return to stage and LP, and obviously whether he did it with Tony McMillan as The Krewmen or started something completely new.

I initially suggested that if Mark wanted to make loads more money and have an easier comeback, that he should reform The Krewmen with Tony. But as I immediately found Mark to be a cool guy, I later offered my services as a musician in the event that he went on his own, and also as I’ve got a lot of contacts on the psychobilly scene, I suggested that I may be able to help him on the business side.
We decided that for a bit of fun and to test the water that we’d get together for a jam in the week, along with bass player Mark Palmer who had met Mark a few days earlier and had played in bands with me in the past. We had a jam and discussed further some potential material and ideas for the possible scenario that Mark went on his own, and agreed that Mark had to make a choice, and let me know.

Well as we now all know, the Krewmen did not reform, and so Mark and I decided to immediately start a plan of action. - Get a band together, work hard, record some demos, get a comeback gig, get an album deal, etc. The following week Mark came to see my band play, and he met Choppy who is my good friend and bass player in my rockin’ bands. They got on well and Mark was impressed by the stage show and Chop’s exemplary bass skills, and after a bit of discussion over a few weeks it was decided that Choppy was in on bass. We talked to Ruby about playing drums, as he is a good little drummer, but due to his relocation to start a University course, it was gonna be difficult for him to commit the time required. Mark spoke to Dominic from the old Krewmen lineup, but he was too busy to commit the time required.

I showed Mark some videos of my old buddy Lee Barnett, and as Mark was impressed, we offered him the gig, I knew he would have the right feel for the material that Mark and I had started writing. Lee plays drums like he’s punching someone’s head in, and that is what we wanted ….which is nice! Ha ha. If I recall, we had our first practise as a band during the Christmas break. We have been working hard constantly, and the rest of the story is already public. We recorded some very quick demos at my home studio, and got the deals we asked for. I am very proud to be able to work with Mark, and I hope that everyone enjoys Ultra Violence as much as we enjoyed making

MadDogCole.Com : So you guys only had 3 months left until the comeback gig at Speyer. Wasn`t it a big risk to perform live after such a short time? I mean the expectations were high. There must have been a lot of pressure on you.

The pressure was immense, but I thrive on pressure, stress, and deadlines! - I am the busiest man I know. Mark and I created a work schedule and stuck to it. Basically, we knew that we had to get the job done; after all the negativity surrounding unfulfilled promises by others before, we knew that Mark had to get out and do it as soon as possible. The scene knows that Chop, Lee and myself can “ave it” (to use Chop’s favourite expression) and I knew that Mark could sing the same as he used to and had presence, so really it was just a case of picking the right material, and working hard as fuck up to and beyond Speyer.
I think it’s cool as fuck that Mark went straight back in with a bang – 20 years off then first gig in front of 2,000 screaming psychobillies in Germany!

MadDogCole.Com : Your set at Speyer contained a lot of old Krewmen songs. Were you familiar with them already when you met the Mad Dog for the very first time?

No, not particularly. I had the first 3 albums, and had bought the first two LP’s way back in 1988, but I’m not a musician that learns everybody else’s material. Maybe as I’ve always been a singer songwriter, I am not interested in learning someone else’s work unless I have to, instead I tend to absorb styles and create my own music. When I met Mark and we discussed the possibility of me forming a band for him I immediately started doing my homework and got a handle on most of the tracks from the first 3 albums, just in case. We started jamming with songs like Let Loose, Devil’s Daughter, Solid Gold, etc.

MadDogCole.Com : In the run up to the Speyer gig many people were demanding for Krewmen songs. Was it planned to perform those songs from the beginning or was it an obligation because everybody wanted you to do them?

We both knew that there had to be a heavy bias towards Krewmen songs, as that was what the crowd would want to hear more than anything else. In private discussions on the PORK forum and in public, many people were indeed pleading to hear Mark sing various Krewmen songs. However Mark was insistent from the start that he also really wanted to move forward. This was what I wanted to hear, as I personally am not keen on nostalgia. We collated a list of all the songs that people had requested and we picked the ones that we wanted to do.

I really enjoyed having to learn them, and am still working on refining live versions of the songs that we do in the set. As you know, many of the Krewmen songs on the albums had two or three guitars layered on the recordings, so it is difficult to recreate the sounds with one guitar on stage and also perform naturally… Also I am between a rock and a hard place – if I manage to perfectly recreate the sounds of the albums, then I get accused of being just a copyist, and if I add my own feel to the songs then some peoples’ nostalgia trips will be ruined.

MadDogCole.Com : Let`s talk about the forthcoming Ultra Violence Album, Jim. There will be 8 songs co-written by Mark and you. Please tell us a little bit about the songwriting for this album. What can we expect from the songs and the album?

Okay - we looked at what the scene is today, and we listened to the very strong opinions of some of the biggest supporters of Mark’s comeback. The album is intended to be in the style of Old School Psychobilly in all it’s guises. My statement was that I wanted it to be as good as or better than if it was a 4th Krewmen album with Mark on vocals; and I wanted it to sound as if it had been recorded in the1980’s. Mark’s request was “No Jimi Hendrix!” and also that he wanted it be recorded as live as possible. We hope that the album becomes a new classic, and that people grow to like it as much as the ones that they bought when they were teenagers!

You’ll have to hear Ultra Violence and decide for yourself.

The album title gives a clue as to some of the style and content – the songs are tough and occasionally brutal; they are also fairly concise, as we are not interested in overly extended self indulgent guitar solos.

The songwriting between Mark and I is consistent and follows a few patterns. Mark has musical ideas, where he will request that I create a structure, riff or rhythm in a certain way, and then we find a good key etc, or I will create a structure, and present it to him to see if it works for his vocals. Mark writes all the lyrics, but occasionally asks me to finish a line or think of a title.

MadDogCole.Com : What`s your favourite track on Ultra Violence?

Fuck! dunno? all of them!

MadDogCole.Com : Now to an unavoidable question : As we all know you`re also working on some other projects. (Whip Cracking Daddies, The Dark Angels, XX Cortez - all bands formed by you) On your MySpace site it says that there are also records planned for these bands in the near future. So I guess you will be very busy. Please tell us about your momentary plans. How does the future look like...also referring to Mad Dog Cole. Will the collaboration go on or is it just a one record project?

quick answer - my own stuff comes after MDC in my priorities, I'm finishing projects in the time between MDC work; and Mad Dog Cole will carry on into the future! We are already working on new material

MadDogCole.Com : Fantastic. If we take a closer look to the current psychobilly scene we have to recognize that there aren`t many bands left which prefer the oldschool psychobilly style. Do you have an explanation for it?

explanation? music is a constantly evolving and progressing entity! But in MDC we particularly wanted to recreate the sounds of the heyday of psychobilly and give the people what they want!

MadDogCole.Com : Great. Jim, where do you see the MadDogCole band going in the immediate future, and what would you like to see happen in the long term?

ask Mark that one - I'm just the guitar player.

MadDogCole.Com : Ok. I will ask the Mad Dog himself. Mark, where do you see the MadDogCole band going in the immediate future, and what would you like to see happen in the long term?

I want to play Japan and the USA, and as many more European shows as possible. MDC WILL get back to the top, and this time, STAY THERE!

MadDogCole.Com : On the 20th of October you`re going to play in St.Petersburgh, Russia. Have you ever been there?

Yeah I went there in 1987 - Moscow and St Petersburg (Leningrad then) I was studying Soviet politics at college. The place was scary then, but I'm told that it is pretty much like any other European place in the big cities now. It is gonna be cool.

MadDogCole.Com : Thanks for your detailed answers, Jim. See you guys at Hamburg and Berlin later this year. Keep on rocking.