Man-Raze, Paul Cook and Simon Laffy
Posted on 25th Jun 09 by Robert O Connor | 
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Formed in 2004 by Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Paul Cook (The Sex Pistols) and Simon Laffy (Girl), Man-Raze have become much more than a time passing side project. Despite lead singer and guitarist Phil’s extensive touring commitments with Def Leppard, Man-Raze have managed to record and release a debut album along with several tracks for [...]
Formed in 2004 by Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Paul Cook (The Sex Pistols) and Simon Laffy (Girl), Man-Raze have become much more than a time passing side project. Despite lead singer and guitarist Phil’s extensive touring commitments with Def Leppard, Man-Raze have managed to record and release a debut album along with several tracks for a follow up and they’re currently preparing for a wide range of UK shows later this year. Although the obvious questions of each members style have risen up repeatedly, the band have delivered an album that perfectly combines each members own unique backgrounds as well as their collective influences.
On the day of their first Irish show, Drop-D was scheduled to have a brief phone interview with bass player, Simon. Unfortunately, heavy traffic in Dublin’s streets meant we had to make do (tongue firmly planted in check), with iconic Sex Pistols legend, Paul Cook for the first half and Simon for the second. Armed only with a list of questions specially written up for Simon and a Sex Pistol on the phone you can imagine the pressure. Fortunately, I managed to pull things together and talk to the band about their debut album Surreal, their plans for the future and why they love Ireland so much.
Drop-D: So how did Man-Raze get together?
Paul: Well Simon and Phil have obviously known each other from way back in Girl days and they kept in touch over the years and I think Phil had some songs he’s wanted to do outside of Def Leppard for a some time and he got together with Simon and they started working on them. Then they were looking for a drummer and me and Phil’s paths had crossed over the years and he just suggested to Simon that they get me to drum, without me knowing. I just bumped into him (Phil) in London one day and he just mentioned he’d been looking for me and said have a listen to these songs and see what you think. It was just a chance meeting and it worked out really well.
We wanted Man-Raze to represent a wide spectrum of sounds we grew up loving. We didn’t want to be bogged down into one genre
Drop-D: And this was back around 2004?
Paul: Yeah, it was a few years ago. It’s taken a good while to get it going and off the ground. Phil’s been touring, he’s had a bit of a revival with Def Leppard and I’ve been doing Pistols stuff so it’s taken a while to get the actual product out there, ya know.
Drop-D: I’ve been reading interviews with you and journalists keep harping on about the different back grounds you all come from musically. Did you find it hard to get a collective sound when you first started playing?
Paul: No, not at all actually. Musically Leppard and the Pistols are a bit different but the songs that Phil was writing were much more up tempo and much more rocky and my sort of thing, if you like. He didn’t want to do another Def Leppard obviously. So we slotted together pretty quickly once we figured out which way we wanted to go sound wise and put them all down on paper. It wasn’t until we sat down together in the studio that we worked out which sound we wanted to go with.
Drop-D: Aswell as rock and punk, you’ve also incorporated a reggae influence in your sound, did you all share a love for reggae music from your early days in London?
Paul: Yeah that’s right, a lot of people had been asking us about our influences growing up and that’s what the album reflects really. We all grew up when all the reggae/ska stuff was around and the Motown and rock sounds and they were big influences and we wanted Man-Raze to represent a wide spectrum of sounds we grew up loving. We didn’t want to be bogged down into one genre.
Ah we love Dublin. We’ve got such a strong connection to this city with recording the album over here in Joe’s (Elliot, Def Leppard) place and it’s so surreal here with the lovely countryside and the great Irish treatment
Drop-D: I suppose there’s a lot of expectations amongst Leppard and Pistols fans because of your involvement?
Paul: Yeah exactly. Man-Raze are a free flowing group. We do what we like and what sounds right. We’re trying to use it to express ourselves out of the norm if you like. We’ve had labels long enough and it’s time to spread our wings about and use the influences that have shaped our life for something new.
Drop-D: With the Sex Pistols reuniting for regular tours and Def Leppard on the road every five minutes. Do you find it hard to get time to sit down and work on Man-Raze?
Paul: We have actually. Since Leppard have had a revival in the states they keep touring and they’re off again soon. That’s why it’s taken us a lot of time to get it together and the Pistols were touring all last year. Now it’s coming together slowly and
we’ve been able to do a few shows and we’re doing the Download (Festival) this weekend and getting to play Dublin tonight so it’s great.
Drop-D: And you’ve got a winter tour with Alice Cooper coming up in November?
Paul: Well that’s not confirmed yet. There’s talk about it alright and hopefully it’ll come off but definitely not confirmed, but things are starting to move.
Drop-D: Do you intend on taking a break from Leppard and Pistols duties next year to concentrate more on Man-Raze?
Paul: Well Phil finishes touring at the end of the summer so hopefully we’ll all get together in September / October and start pushing ourselves as much as possible after that. We haven’t played many gigs at all since starting and we really want to just get out there and start playing. We’re all really right into the band so once Phil can do it, it’ll be great.
Drop-D: When you’re playing live, do you get many requests for Pistols or Leppard fans?
Paul: At the moment it’s been fine actually. Luckily we have the album out now and I’m not sure if many people have heard it but they obviously realize that it’s a different thing from those bands and they’ve been quite good really. We haven’t had anyone shouting out for God Save the Queen or Pour Some Sugar. There’s not much chance of us doing that anyway, which is the reason why we’re doing this band. We’ve been playing those songs long enough as it is.
Drop-D: You’re going over to Download this weekend to play, are you looking forward to it?
Simon: Yeah, we’re playing on the Tuborg stage and it’s going to be our biggest gig to date. We’re very excited about playing in Donnington. It’s going to be a short set so we’re just going to get out there and blast it out. It’ll be fantastic. We’ve been rehearsing a nice long set for Dublin and a short set for Download (laughs).
We prefer to keep our own control over things. The last thing you want to do is hand over full control to anyone after four or five years of doing things your own way
Drop-D: I heard you’ve been in Dublin for over a week now rehearsing. Have you been enjoying yourselves?
Simon: Ah we love Dublin. We’ve got such a strong connection to this city with recording the album over here in Joe’s (Elliot, Def Leppard) place and it’s so surreal here with the lovely countryside and the great Irish treatment. While recording we also managed to get out and see different towns around the country which was great and off course Phil and all the Leppard lads have all lived here at some stage and Joe still does so there’s a good connection between us and Ireland.
Drop-D: What are your future recording plans. Will you concentrate on pushing Surreal next year or do you think you’ll go back to the studio first?
Paul: We’re definitely going to push this one first because we haven’t had the chance to do that yet, but we’re writing new songs and we want to record a new album as soon as we can. It’s been tough though because we haven’t had a record company to take it on until now. Fortunately Universal has just picked it up and it’s just been re-release in the U.K. Unfortunately it didn’t come out properly before because it all went a bit tits up around distribution so this is our official release if you like. We’ve also got a good PR team now so we’re just trying to make people aware that the albums there. Up until now we’ve been funding and recording everything by ourselves.
Drop-D: Now that Universal have come on board, have ye signed up to do an album with them or are they just handling Surreal for now?
Simon: Well we’ve gotten used to running our own label now. We prefer to keep our own control over things. The last thing you want to do is hand over full control to anyone after four or five years of doing things your own way. Too often you can get led astray from where you want to get to. Luckily the Universal people have been lovely and really helpful so we have a great relationship with them and we’re happy with them. Obviously we don’t have the distribution Universal does and if they offer us something amazing then we’d have to think about it (laughs). I think most bands are headed down the D.I.Y. path at the moment anyway after all the years of companies being greedy and bloated of the back of fans. It’s a very hard line to draw. We’re cautious but it would take an amazing deal to take this away from us, we’ve spent too long working on it just to let it go.
Drop-D: I know you’ve explored the downloading idea. Have you any plans to use the internet more for releases?
Simon: Well, if we really want to fly, which we do, we’ll have to get the record industry involved at some stage but there are a few downloading items in the works. I think they’re doing a deluxe release of Surreal in America where it’ll be download only.
Drop-D: Have you and Phil ever considered reuniting Girl?
Simon: It has been muted but I don’t know if it would ever come together or not. Partly because we have Man-Raze now and we wouldn’t want to interfere with various things from the past. Never say never would be the honest truth and who knows (laughs).
Man-Raze’s debut album Surreal is out now.
Tags: def leppard, man raze, sex pistols
