Mr Zippy

Ok, you have been with Mr Zippy for nearly 6 years and now you have decided to leave the band, what are your reasons for this decision?
Well, I think if you sat me down and asked me, or if anyone did for that matter, you would get a different version of the story. There are just so many different reasons. The main ones are I guess quite simple, yes I have been with Mr.Zippy for nearly 6 years, I’ve done quite a lot with the band but where as it’s been good…it’s never been quite what I have really wanted, it’s never really been the right thing and I’ve always had my doubts. Sometimes it’s been great, other times I’ve wished I wasn’t on stage. Sometimes I’m happy to be working for the band, other times I’m screaming at myself because it feels like no one is helping me or thanking me for any of my work. The tours have been fun…mostly, but sometimes shows can depress me more than anything else, when I start to realise that the people I am playing to have nothing in common with me, I could probably walk round the whole audience and talk to everyone and not meet a single person who I could connect with (this isn’t the way it always is of course!) but it does happen. Also, the music world is changing, very few people seem to understand what we were trying to achieve, and I’m not even sure if I do. Punk rock has turned from music into product. Most bands I know now seem to talk a lot about sponsors, about booking agents, about labels, about videos about where they are touring next and it’s a whole world from where I am. I can’t stand on stage sometimes and justify what I’m doing. I just want to play guitar. From what I can realise these days, the least important thing on an album is the music. Our last album ‘Ambition Is Critical’ suffered greatly from being rushed into production, there are songs on there I love dearly and that I’m very proud of, but there are also songs on there that I love dearly that we can’t play live and songs on there that make me cringe. It’s not that I don’t love punk rock, as it’s in my blood, but, well, I guess it’s personal to me – I don’t feel part of what is going on anymore. My health has also been a big issue, I suffer from some things I don’t really want to talk about, but the band has affected these in a bad way. I’ve got more to give and more to do, I know this all sounds like I’m moaning or even pretentious, but thats the way things are. In a few weeks I will be 28, that’s quite old I guess. Sure I don’t look feel or act like someone approaching 30 but I am and there is so much more I want to do with my life. Not to sound like an asshole but sometimes (not all the time, just sometimes) it feels like the band has been a dead weight around my legs that I’ve been dragging around for 6 years, I’ve kept trying to take it places but we’ve always been held back. Well now it’s time for me to open the door, take a deep breath and walk away.

The tour with Caffeine will be your last few shows in the band, are you looking forward to them and will you put your all into these very special gigs?
If anyone comes! Yeah, of course I’ll be giving it 110%, there’s not a show where I havn’t given it 110% I don’t think, no matter what the circumstances. But yes, knowing these will be my last shows with Mr.Zippy I really will be living every last moment as it it was my last…because it will be! You gotta put all there is into it or there is no point, if you are just going through the motions (and I could name names) then get a job in a factory.

What do you plan to do after you leave Mr Zippy – do you intend to form a new band in the near future or are you going to escape from it all for a while?
I think I’m going to escape it for a while, see what happens, see where I go. Forming another band would depend on where I settle, and also what style of music I want to play, I don’t think I will play music like Mr.Zippy again – or of course it will sound a bit like them because it would be me playing and writing but you know what I’m saying here. I don’t want to get myself into the same rut again though, so things will be different. But until then, like I said, I think I’ll just sit it all out and watch the world go by. Do some living for a change, spend some time with my girlfriend, catch up with old friends and try to remember who I am.

Do you think it will be hard trying to adjust to a full time job after spending the last six years of your life on the road with Mr Zippy?
Of course, and I’m not looking forward to this thing I have to do. I have to work, I really do, for the past however long I’ve been speaking out against working and now, even if it’s just for a few months I have to get my head down and earn some money to dig myself out of these debts that I am in…then I truly can face the future.

Mr Zippy are currently writing stuff for a new album – how is that sounding?
A little too poppy in places for my tastes, but some of it is sounding brilliant, of course the band now has Frank (Zippy bass player) helping with the writing right from the start and he’s bringing in some amazing ideas, and of course, all the guys, when they are writing get some ace ideas bubbling, so I think the next album will sound good, I don’t know if it’ll be my ‘thing’ or not though.

You seem to get on extremely well with the other members of the band (Jon, Mads, Pete & Frank.) Do you think you will miss life on the road with them after you leave?
Well, I’m not gonna speak bad of my band, I love them all like brothers and hate them all like brothers too. I’ve lived with Pete and lived with Jon, and being on the road with them and then going back into co-habiting with them is two different sides of the coin. It’s sad to say but we formed the band because we were friends, but we hardly hang out as friends anymore, we rarely share any common interests. Yes I do get on with them when we are together…sometimes and yes, of course I will miss them, but only the same as I already miss what was once a great, tight-knit, close group of friends.

After all these gigs you have played being in the band you must have some funny stories to tell us – what has been the funniest thing you have experienced on tour with Mr Zippy?
Ha ha, that’s like asking me my favourite album or song! ha ha! OK, that really is hard to say. We’ve seen and done some stupid crazy stuff. We once all saw Corey Taylor from Slipknot in Subway, that was funny. Us and 4ft Fingers once all got so drunk that me, Mads and Pete (Zippy singer + drummer) ran naked across fields in Buckinghamshire and Mads got covered in dog shit. Everything we did and saw in Japan and Norway was amazing too…it’s hard to pick just one moment. We’ve had some amazing times together, and sometimes…we’ve been a great team. The funniest…*****! I really don’t know, when everyone is on form we can laugh for 24 hours…PLUS!

Is there any chance at all that you will come back and re-join the band in the future, or do we all have to accept the fact that you are no longer in the band and are never coming back?
I think you’d better just accept it…but I’m sure you’ll see me again. Somewhere