Armed with nervous optimism and a head full of questions I dial the mobile number for Ginger Wildheart. Ginger is out walking his beloved dog Maggie and in his own words he’s, “sitting by the side of a tranquil lake trying to find some equilibrium and positivity and today it doesn’t wanna fucking come.” The Wildhearts, G.A.S.S MK 11, future solo releases and tours are all up for discussion as the affable Geordie is his usual open and honest self.
OriginalRock.net. How are you and how’s the voice at the moment?
Ginger Wildheart. The good news is the voice is getting much better. I went to see a singing consultant/vocal coach and he had me do some scales and I did them and I feel it’s getting better all the time. The ribs are healing the arm’s getting better, everything seems to be healing. So that’s a good thing.
OR. Is there any timescale on the voice healing? Are The Wildhearts dates in December going to be affected?
GW. That’s what we’re aiming for, the (Earth Vs The Wildhearts album 25th ) anniversary gigs, I really would like to be match fit for those, I should be. Healing’s a process that, for a long time nothing happens and my mind can wander with those kinds of results, or lack of results rather. I’m finally starting to feel more positive that it’s all going to be OK by December. The human body is pretty resistant and I bounce back well.
OR. ‘G.A.S.S MK11’ is the second release from 2014’s year G.A.S.S project, why are you putting out on your own Round Records label? And how are you finding running your own label?
GW. Well…I like things that are interactive and for a while Pledge (music) was interactive then it went and turned into another corporate monster, but I like that interaction which was the whole premise behind G.A.S.S in the first place. To have a year of social networking interaction as well as personal interaction with your supporters and that’s what we wanted Round Records to do all along. I thought it would be good to have it as a platform where people could buy music, in digital form or vinyl and CD but they get a digital version straight away so there not waiting for ages for the music to be made, which is the one problem we had with Pledge where people were buying something they couldn’t hear for a long time. This way they get to hear it straight away and they also get a really great package, which is fully affiliated by the band, there are group liner notes on The Wildhearts Re-release (2007’s self-titled album aka ‘The White Album’). There are notes about the songs and the solo stuff. That’s going to be our working model, we’re going to beat the bootleggers, I don’t even know the (label) names, Demon Records I think, releasing stuff. It looks shit and it sounds shit and it’s got nothing to do with the band and the band don’t get paid. I could moan about until the cow’s come home or I could just get off me arse and do something better and lead by example. This is what Round Records wants to teach people, y’now don’t give up on quality, we’re going to give you quality, you don’t have to buy the crap.
Read Azra Pathan’s superb OriginalRock review of ‘G.A.S.S MK 11’ here.
OR. On the original G.A.S.S, how did you cope with the challenge of writing and recording three songs a month, plus the diary, notes on your favourite horror movies and artwork...
GW. It was a year of motion really, for everyone involved not just me, there was a whole team of people scurrying around trying to get everything prepared for release days, sometimes all night the day before the release. It was really a reaction to ‘The Singles Club’ we tried to do around the turn of the century. We did it with Infernal Records who were affiliated with East West Warners and they pulled the plug halfway through the project so people who’d invested in a year’s worth of singles ended up with six or five month’s worth of singles. That always stayed in my craw, because I hate to let people down. That might surprise some people because I seem to be one the flakiest c**ts out there at the moment, I’m cancelling so many shows. It fucking breaks my heart to cancel shows especially as it’s because of my own health, that’s double the insult. So I wanted to do something that promised twelve months of service and delivered twelve months of service at a standard where people would trust me again and I think it worked for the most part. I now have to start making up for my lack of live presence.
OR. Do you think more artists will follow your lead, as they did with Pledge, and go down the Independent label route? Or do you think that many musicians still want the dream, record label, tours, do the show and go home…
GW. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, it seems like a good idea for people to want to be independent and stay in constant communication with and to honour their promises to the fans. It’s a great idea for the honeymoon period but it’s a lot of hard work and not every musician really understands the concept of hard work let alone the reality of it and the financial responsibility of it. If you (as the artist) promise to deliver something over twelve months you’ve got to deliver whether it’s making or costing you money. If you promise it but don’t deliver then that’s your new reputation, do you want to soil your reputation by entering into something that you probably won’t be able to deliver? A lot of musicians don’t really give a shit, they cancel shows willy-nilly, cancel tours, charge a fortune for V.I.P meet and greets and generally take the piss out the fans as far as I’m concerned. But hey, people seem fine with it. What I’m doing isn’t a new model it’s the way I need to do things. The music industry is a con but people don’t seem to mind being charged extortionate prices for shit service. My thing is a reaction against all that, my thing is about the music about the service and communication and not just having your face plastered all over YouTube.
OR. Are there any plans to promote G.A.S.S Mk 11, solo or Ginger Wildheart Band shows or tours.
GW. Yeah yeah all being well I want to go out and play the theatres we did on ‘Songs And Words’ (tour). I really want to go back to those old theatres that pre-date Rock ‘N’ Roll by a few centuries and I want to do it with an all-girl band. So we’re going to put out the follow up to ‘Ghost In Tanglewood’ about November, for the hard-core people and we’re going to put it out on general release in February (2019) to coincide with the tour. I hope all those things will fall into place.
OR. Is this the album titled ‘Elemental Bleeding’?
GW. No, it’s called ‘The Pessimists Companion’. ‘Elemental Bleeding’ is an album I’ve written and want to record when I find the right producer. I was working with a guy called Jase Edwards (Wolfsbane guitarist and also played with Ginger on GITT.) but I don’t think he wants work with me anymore, so I’m looking for a Jazz producer…
OR. So is ‘Elemental Bleeding’ a Country Folk album or more of a GWB, G.A.S.S type of album?
GW. ‘The Pessimists Companion’ that is very much like ‘Ghost In The Tanglewood’ and I’m leaving today to finish that off and make sure it’s available for download as soon as people buy it. Then the album I want to record next year is called ‘Elemental Bleeding’ which will be a very dark weird record, that I’m not even sure I like.
OR. Last Round Records question, you’re re-releasing the 2007 Wildhearts album, the White Album any plans to re-release any other Ginger related albums available, solo etc?
GW. Yeah, I’d like to make them available because I would like a copy of it. We’ve got the tapes back and we’ll be remixing ‘Chutzpah 1&2’ and putting loads and loads of extra’s on that, it’ll be available next year. Then we’re pretty much bartering to get the rights to release pretty much all of The Wildhearts material that’s been re-released in sub-standard packaging.
OR. Further down the line are you thinking of re-releasing Silver Ginger 5, Howling Willie, Hey! Hello!…
GW. Anything we can get hold of the tapes of so we can remix it would be good. I understand as a fan what I would like whether it be Cheap Trick, The Sparks or Ramones. When the Mono mix of the first Ramones album came out I was one of the first people to buy it because I couldn’t wait to hear what it sounded like. I didn’t want to buy a Ramones like the one I’ve already got I wanted something special. So all of what you’ve mentioned will be up for grabs if we can get the tapes and do a special with extras, great packaging and liner notes that are written by the person who’s actually flogging the music and not a journalist who’s paid to do it.
Read Originalrock.net live review of The Wildhearts with Dodgy and Terrovision in Birmingham.
Live Review; The Wildhearts, Terrorvision and Dodgy at Digbeth Arena
OR. What do the next twelve months hold in store for Ginger Wildheart?
GW. I just want to be really really busy and creatively accomplished, which is hard to do in this business because they want you to release an album every three years and then play shitty half-filled venues to support it. I wanna feel…Like it’s worth doing, worth getting out of bed for, it’s worth sticking around this stupid fucking planet of cunts for. So yeah release a bunch of good quality stuff for people who appreciate it and I don’t want a lot to do with the generic world of popular music.
OR. And are you looking forward to The Birthday Bash?
GW. I never look forward to The Birthday Bash until it happens then its great, it’s a pain in the arse till then. We’ll be sorting out guests until the day before it happens, people want to play then pull out last minute, it’s the nature of the beast, everyone’s busy and it’s just before Christmas.
With time up there is just room for literally one/two questions from The All Things Ginger Wilderheart Facebook Page. (Thanks to all those who replied to my post but Ginger was really pushed for time and we just couldn’t get to any more questions.)
ATGW. America. Come to America.
GW. I can’t because I got involved in a scrap with someone who was getting in my face, then I got charged, so I’ve got an assault charge which means I can’t get an American Visa. So I won’t be coming to America.
ATGW. Any Idea what the new Wildhearts album will be called?
GW. Renaissance Men!
The excellent G.A.S.S MK 11 is now available from the link below now along with various other Ginger related releases. Avoid the bootlegs and support the artist.
G.A.S.S MK 11 is only available direct from here.
The Wildhearts play three Pre-Christmas shows in London, Birmingham and Glasgow tickets available here.
Tickets for Gingers legendary Birthday Bash on December 17th in London can be purchased from here.