Interview HEADLINE MANIAC
Sunday 15th May 2016
Road Legend Festival (Vienne)
Where are you from?
Simon : We are from a small seaside town in Essex,
called Southend-on-Sea, roughly 40 miles outside of London.
Where do you come from as musicians?
Chris : Anything that sounds good I have found inspirational.
That is why I started playing. The 70's rock, modern rock, grunge...
Simon : It's pretty much the same for me.
We both play for
Eddie and the Hot Rods, very famous 1976 punk rock band,
and this evening we will play with them for the French Road Legend Festival.
Your band is called HEADLINE MANIAC. Why this name?
Simon : There are actually three of us in the band but unfortunately
the lead singer couldn't be here this evening, because he's got a very
important family engagement. His name is Ian Michael Dean and he
calls himself Dipster. If you put Ian Michael Dean as an anagram,
it comes as Headline Maniac.
Chris : Clever!
Simon : That's where the name came from.
Who are the members of the band?
Simon : Myself as the drummer.
Chris : I am the guitarist. And...Oh he is not here!
Simon and Chris : And Dipster.
Simon : He is the bass player and the singer.
What are your musical influences?
Simon : Classic English rock bands like
Bad Company,
The Who,
The Kinks,
I also like Jazz and Heavy Metal. I have a broad spectre musical influences.
Chris : Mine comes from guitarists of
Thin Lizzy's school guitarists of England and so on...
Simon : What about Dipster?
Chris : He likes Pop Rock, Blues, the band
Kiss...
Simon : Between the three of us, we have got a very wide range of music, we grew up listening to.
Chris : Absolutely.
Let's speak about your first album.
Simon and Chris show the CD.
AM : Who writes the songs?
Simon : Dipster. He surprised everybody. He came to the studio
one day and said he had a lot of songs initialy for a new Hot Rods album.
He played them to the band and we felt they weren't quite right for
the Hot Rods. The three of us thought they were great songs, so we get
together one day and did some rehearsals, that's why the Headline Maniac
are the three of us. Dipster writes the lyrics and we all get together
for the music and we made this album.
AM : What are the themes developed in your texts?
Simon : Life on the road, being in a band, touring, women, drinking, partying.
Dipster doesn't write anything that seems too politics. It is all about
having a good time, it is about rock'n'roll.
Where was this album recorded?
Chris : In No Studio in Hullbridge, Essex.
It has been mixed and produced by John Hannon.
AM : Do you have plans, wishes for the future?
Chris : Just carry on playing.
Simon : We've got great reviews in some UK magazines. We hope to do some
more shows and hopefully people would like our band, and buy our album,
carry on touring as Headline Maniac. We are not kids anymore,
we don't want to be rock'n'roll stars, we just want to play and have a great time.
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