Former Main Grains guitarist JJ Watt has put together a brand new band The City Kids and they’ve just dropped their motor rocking debut album ‘Things That Never Were’. JJ is joined in The City Kids by Tigertailz (Lovebomb Baby!) bassist Berty Burton, Falling Red’s Dave Sanders and Dennis Post from US political punks Warrior Soul. Via email solitude, Originalrock.net caught up with JJ, Berty, Dave and Dennis for an Email chat on all things The City Kids. Salutations from the isolation nation
OriginalRock. Firstly JJ can you clear up what happened with the previous band you played with The Main Grains, why did you guys split up?
JJ – “Its a fairly simple one really, The Wildhearts (original line-up) reunion came about, and it was totally the right thing to do, the rest of us in the band are all massive Wildhearts fans. It was great to see Danny (McCormack) back up there with them and then they recorded probably the album of the year! Ben and Ginna formed the Spangles and at the time I was dealing with some hand issues and had been for about 18 months, generally, they (the health issues) were getting worse, more painful and I was struggling to play at all. It took a long time to get a diagnosis with things like Carpal Tunnel ruled out, it turned out it was De Quervain’s tenosynovitis (no, I hadn’t heard of it either!) but a few injections and much physio later, they are back to working again. I still have to keep up the physio, night and day from before. So by the time I was back on my feet, everyone else was rolling along nicely with what they were doing and I felt inspired to try and do something again.”
OR. So how did the lineup for The City Kids come together?
JJ – “Following on from above, I started actually thinking about doing an album, all covers, with as many people as I knew and mainly for fun or potentially for charity and songs I always liked but maybe didn’t fit any bands I had been in. The first couple were Motorhead tracks and I knew Berty wasn’t doing much as Tigertailz seemed to be having some downtime and he was perfect for that stuff. So we started demoing. I sent him a bunch of demos and asked if he was up for the lot and it started growing from there. I’m not a “lead” guy, so, I thought about guests for the solos and stuff, although I did put a few down, which won’t see the light of day now haha. I did some dates with Psychobabylon supporting Warrior Soul and, haha, the conversation started after Dennis (who of course plays the guitar for them) ate some of my pies (note, I’m Scottish, I live in England, I miss my scotch pies SO much so always get a bunch as soon as I get home haha), but, we were talking and he was up for doing some recording and we all know Dave and he’s a great drummer and someone we all get on with so I asked if he would be up for it too and fortunately he said yes.”
Dennis – “I actually just agreed to do a guest spot… but the pie avenger just kept sending over tracks and at that point, he wasn’t really asking anymore. That’s what you get for fucking about with a Scotsman’s tv dinners, hahaha.”
Berty – “For me, it started out with a couple of covers, to a one-off track, to an album’s worth of original songs… It really mutated from a project to as good as a full-fledged new band! With band downtime with Tailz, it was a great way to keep the mojo flowing! As soon as Dennis and Dave got onboard it pretty much materialised into something which I wasn’t expecting to happen, but everything we’ve recorded to date sounds so great I’m glad it did!”
Dave – “JJ and I have been friends for many years now and have played together on stage a few times as part of the NLC all-stars during NLC Festival in Nottingham, aside from this we have followed each other’s bands and shared a stage together a number of times. JJ hit me up with the demo recording of Best of you and I was instantly hooked, he then broke the news that Dennis, who I’d spent a lot of time touring with during his time in Starrats and White Trash presidents and Berty who I had also played alongside in the past were also on board. This sold the whole project to me, more songs came from JJ and the more I fell for the band, once the drums were laid down with Dom Smith at Wreck Studios the album came together nicely. “
OR. The album features a guest spot from legendary rocker Kory Clarke (from Warrior Soul) . How did you get him involved?
JJ – “That’s a fairly easy one, I have known him for years, and we get on like a house on fire. We spoke about doing something in the past but it never came round. But we talked about it on the same tour and when I was finishing up the demo for the song, I couldn’t get a decent second verse but sent it across to him and he loved the song and went with some great lyrics, and recorded a bunch of vocals for it. And for me, it fits perfectly with the whole thing. I don’t think it hurt that his guitarist is in the band too haha.”
Dennis – “I would assume that my being there actually hurt your chances, haha.”
Berty- “…and then Dennis managed to get Tracii Guns on board too! Haha!
Dave – “Under the influence, it really isn’t that hard to get Kory to agree to anything, haha, he’s a top guy and he absolutely nailed it on the album.”
OR. We all know C-19 has stopped every tour and festival (we all know and love) so how does the virus affect you guys when it comes to releasing a new album?
JJ – “Well, as far the release, I did all the production here in my studio and the guys recorded in theirs and technology lets you do that really easily these days. Its a bit different from all hanging out in a studio but at the same time, you can also spend as long as you want getting it right (hopefully!) without worrying as much about the cost. Logistically, it impacts the speed we can get the CDs manufactured and also getting them into stores and out to everyone who pre-ordered it, and of course, the biggest impact is live. No album launch gig when its out, no tour, at least not yet!”
Dennis – “C-19? I love that name. Could either be a trendy virus name or a 90’s boyband and it would suck either way.”
Berty – “It does make it difficult to a degree without being able to ‘fully’ promote the album with no shows, photoshoots, touring, etc, but then with everyone not being able to go out, most people have a little extra coin going spare, so getting a brand new cd and even a t-shirt and some other goodies certainly benefit not just us, but the fans have something to get by to bypass all the bullshit that’s going on during the isolation period. Although we did manage to have people help us out with ‘self-isolation’ clips for one of the tracks on the record that we’re going to compile for a new video, so we’ve kept ‘rm busy at least!”
Dave – “It just meant we had a little more time to play with on the release/PR schedule but it also meant we could look to exactly when we want to play shows, it’s always going to be difficult with four members who live miles apart and have their own band commitments elsewhere but we will make it work and will have the City Kids everywhere we can once this is all over.”
OR. When the lockdown is finally over what touring/live plans do The City Kids have?
JJ – “It’s interesting, it started mainly as a studio project, but its grown arms and legs and now feels like an actual band and we are all itching to get some shows done now. We have a couple of shows booked, our main stage slot at Call Of The Wild Festival has been announced and we can’t wait for that, the others will be revealed in due course. There are definite plans, however, we also need to work around everyone’s rescheduled tours that have been cancelled and are being rearranged. But we are definitely looking to get out there as soon as we can.”
Dennis – “We should probably add pies to the rider?”
Berty – “The pros to us all being in different full-fledged bands gives us the advantages of having friends and connections in different places all over the world, so we have many guys and gals who have our back to help us out in these early stages and collectively it’s only gonna get bigger and better from here!”
Dave – “We just want to get where we can, when we can around everyone’s commitments but you will see shows starting to get announced in the near future for sure, we need an excuse to actually meet up and play some songs, haha we’ve not been in the same room throughout this whole process.”
For the latest City Kids news, merch, album pre-order details and tour dates hop over to: