Albums of Purgatory interview Turtlehead

Firstly, whats the band up to right now?
We are about to release our 3rd cd “Bleeding Hearts and Burnouts” and are heading over to Ireland for some shows in June and hopefully a Euro tour in Autumn/Winter, which is being planned just now. we are also doing a lot of one gigs around Scotland which also includes playing at the Revolt Fest in Dundee in August, You can find out more about this festival, which has a whole load of Metal, Punk, hardcore etc playing at it here www.revoltfest.co.uk

How would you describe the Turtlehead sound?
Punk with a H/C edge!!!! Its evolved over the years, we started out quite poppy, then we've just drifted into the style we are today.

How did you get involved with the band?
Robert, I started the band with the original bass player, Paul in 1994. we had been in the same previous band together, and decided to get a new band together along the lines of the Descendents, Green Day (remember this is 1994!!! Green Day were still underground and only just about to go massive), Bad Religion, Snuff etc the poppy side of punk!!
it somehow never went that way!!! 9 years on and I'm still here along Brian who joined in 95 and is probably the original vocalist, we had a few try outs but Brian was the first serious person. Dave joined in Jan 2000, after original guitarist Gary left.
Rich, I saw a post on a message board saying that the band were looking for a new bass player. So I wrote off, got a tape of songs to learn, auditioned and my life has been going downhill ever since J

Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?
Rich, My first gig ever was in a shitty pub full of psychos. I was scared shitless and hid behind the p.a. My first gig with Turtlehead was a punk all dayer in the bands hometown, around 200 people I think. Once again scared shitless!! As the band was well established I didn’t want to be the guy who fucked it up. I did!! But they let me stay anyways
Robert, my first gig was again in a shitty pub, (aren't they all!!) We played for about 20 mins and we sucked big time!. I think all the band members played a different song at the same time. The first Turtlehead gig was again in a shitty pub,but the place was packed with all our mates. We had been together for about a year before we ventured out and it kinda showed, we played not to bad. we had learned our lessons from previous bands.

Are you involved in any other projects and if so how do they compare to Turtlehead?
Only Dave (guitarist) plays in another band, hes the talented one!! hehehe, and we just get all his other bands cast off song ideas!! His other band is called Shatterhand and they rock.

What are your favourite Turtlehead tracks?
Rich, Pro-choice is my favourite but I like them all really,
Robert, Probably 'Keep it to yourself' which is a track on the new album, again I like all our songs. Its interesting to hear the progression in the band and you think to yourself on hearing earlier tracks, I wouldn't have done that, and i would change that, but at the time it sounded ace! I also like 'Over You' which appeared on our 1st album.
What are your favourite all time songs?
Rich, I've favourites from all the bands I listen to but the main ones are, Wasted Years – Iron Maiden, Welcome Home (Sanitarium) – Metallica, Spiral Architect – Black Sabbath, I Don’t Wanna Hear It – Minor Threat, Tearing – The Rollins Band. I’ll stop there or I’ll be here all day.
Robert, tough question!!, God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols, Complete Control - The Clash, Silly Girl - The Descendents, Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers, Bad people, Bad scene - Jawbreaker, Not Listening - Snuff

What the first record you ever bought?
Rich Wasted years By Iron Maiden
Robert I can't remember, but the first album i bought was The adventures of Hersham Boys by Sham 69
Which album was it that got you into metal and can you explain why?
Rich Probably Number Of The Beast- Iron Maiden. I can’t explain why really. It just seemed to make sense and the scene was something I wanted to be part of. It’s a definite love/hate genre of music, I think. If you don’t understand it you never will.
Robert, I was never a big metal fan, punk was my thing, but I love AC/DC, and Back in Black and Highway to Hell are my 2 favourites, i do have some metal albums Slayer etc South of Heaven is ace!! Rich is definitely the metal in the band, followed by Brian.

What’s the last album you purchased and what did you think of it?
Rich, Fuck! I’ve bought 11 cds this week. Not many new releases, I got a re-release of Morbid Tales – Celtic Frost, which is awesome, I never had that one so I’m finally catchin’ up
Robert, Good mourning by Alkaline Trio, and War on errorism by NOFX, the NOFX one is really good, they've put out a few duffers but this one is back to good NOFX, they've went a bit political and musically its what NOFX do best. The Alk Trio one....its growing on me, its not as instant as From Here... but yeah, its ok.
What would be your dream band line-up?
Rich, Paul Bostaph – Drums, Jason Newsted –Bass, Angus Young – Guitar, Tony Iommi – Guitar, Ben ward -Vocals,
Robert, Paul Cook - Drums, Matt Freeman - Bass, Greg Ginn - Guitar, Milo Aukerman - Vocals

If you could do a cover for a tribute album to any band, which song of which band would you pick and why?
Rich, Hosanna In Excelsis by Sabbat. Just for the bit where it goes “charge!”
Robert, God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, I would never ever want to do it really, but its the song which really got me into punk, and i still love it to this day, and its a piece of genius songwriting. Class!!!!

What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?
Rich, It’s in the same boat as punk and other forms of what were classed as underground music. You have mega-popular bands that the kids all love. How many of them will be remembered through time, who knows. I only hope that the 13-14 year olds stay with it and don’t treat it as a fad. It’s lost a bit of the “all for one” mentality”, for want of a better phrase, it had when I was young. You saw somebody with a Maiden t- shirt walking down the street you acknowledged him or her even if you didn’t know them because it was a rare thing to see. Especially at that time, where I stay. I think im getting old!!!!! You will always have the underground bands especially in the harder styles black/grind/death etc. In the end its what you make of it
Robert, I guess Rich has said it all, the popularity of 'Punk, Metal etc is astounding today, it is everywhere. I do remember, and I'm going to sound like a jaded old person!!, but to get punk albums you really had to search about, and wait for bands to tour or hope that your local record store had someone who liked punk. Today, thanks to the internet you can find out about bands from anywhere,
The problem being now is that there are so many bands, good bands can sometimes get overlooked for mediocre bands who have a lot of money behind then.
mainstream music is something i never really pay much attention to, it all sounds pretty dull, viva punk, metal and the underground!!!


Which other bands stand out for you at the moment?
Rich, Im looking forward to the new Metallica album, it better be heavy!!!!!. There is a good Scottish metal scene and I would advise anyone to check out these bands: Broken Oath, Co- Exist, Churn, Madman Is Absolute, In Decades Decline, Errata, Pathogen also my friends band Dead or American they are hard to describe but they are fuckin awesome.
Robert, Hot Water Music, they just get better and better, Caution is an awesome album. Turbonegro have came back with a good album, Face to Face just rule, Consumed should be huge!!! probably the best punk band in the UK just now, go check them out.
One Car Pileup, if their album ever comes out, get it!

Do you have any funny stories about the band you can share with us?
Rich, Do you have any funny stories about the band you can share with us? We were playing a gig at a squat in Torino, which was full of dogs. I stood on shit three times in a row. Every time I cleaned my shoe I did it again. By the third time I lost the plot much to Dave and Brian’s amusement.
Robert, I remember that, although at the time i was incredibly ill with the tour bug which had been round the other members, we lost Dave in Dublin, Ireland for 12 hours after a night on the tiles. we played the gig went out and sampled the Dublin nightlife, on going home Dave and Brian and a guy from Mixtwitch (the band we were playing with) got a taxi. The guys house they were going to was kinda new and the taxi driver didn't know exactly where it was so he dropped them of at the start of the housing estate, there was 3 streets so they took one each and they agreed to get each other if they found it. That was the last we saw of Dave for 12 hours.
We found him back at the gig venue sleeping on a table at an outside cafe. the distance from the guys house to the venue is about 5 miles, Dave has no idea what happened, although he did have a cut leg and a train ticket in his pocket. The perils of Guiness!!

and finally, what do you see in the future for Turtlehead?

Well, I hope our cd is received well and tour to Japan would be nice, also a trip to the US should be on the cards in early 2004, and hopefully its not another 5 years untill our next album!!!