Interview with Chris Dale by Tina Culbertson, Powerplay Magazine

Let’s start at the beginning as we know it. Tell us about your days with Atom Seed?

Atom Seed was a band I joined when I was a young lad. It was all a bit of a weird surprise. I played bass for them, just filling in for a couple of gigs, just cos their bassist quit at short notice. Then they got a record deal after the third gig. It was a surprise all round. I mean they were good, but back then not amazing. We got better after a while and just about that time we got dropped from the record label and split up. It was a funny old experience, looking back. But we had a really good time. I mean most bands that get dropped whinge about how hard done by they were by the Evil Record Company, when in reality you’ve just spent a couple of years drinking on their tab in some posh studios and nice hotels, then you’ve sold bugger all records so what do you expect? I know most record companies are pretty useless at selling rock albums, but that’s par for the course when you spend their money on a nice tour bus. In Sack Trick we’re not really up for the whole record company game. While it’s a good laugh if you fancy a free pint or two, it’s not really the healthiest way to make music. The way I see it music, if you’re going to take it with any level of passion can’t always be slotted into neat 3 ½ minute segments at 120 beats per minute, with a key change in the last 30 seconds. Sometimes good music is different and that’s where you and the product manager are going to fall out.

 How did you get so funky? (Musically not smelly of course!!!), are you self-taught?

Mostly self-taught, I went to Musicians Academy in London for a while but that was mostly theory rather than practical playing. Playing, I just picked up by jamming with a lot of people. Musicians really should get out and about more, it’s not very inspiring to play with the same people all the time. That’s part of the reason Sack Trick changes it’s line-up all the time. Everyone brings their own interpretation to a song, more ideas is better than less ideas!

 What are you listening to at the moment?

Kiss, aren’t they brilliant? Actually I’ve just been listening to an old Stryper live tape I had. They rock in such a funny way. I was laughing out loud at their over polite inter song banter. Why aren’t bands that funny anymore?

 Tell us about Bruce Dickinson’s Skunkworks. I read that Bruce was intending for that to develop into a permanent band rather than another solo phase or touring band, but lack of public and media interest in the supposed ‘grunge’ direction he was heading was the major cause of it breaking down?

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. You summed it up very well there. But again, you know it was all a good laugh. I spent a couple of years wandering around the world playing heavy metal in a band with some really good friends. So I can’t complain. I think the Skunkworks album was a good album but not all good albums are successful. And conversely not all successful albums are good ones, or so I’ve noticed recently.

 If the right offer came along would you want to do that again?

Me and Bruce are still all matey (in fact Sack Trick played at his kid’s birthday party the other week) however I doubt if a Skunkworks re-union is going to tempt him away from Maiden somehow. But I’m always up for a free beer in a strange country, especially if there’s a bit of rocking involved. I like not only doing the Sack Trick stuff, but also playing and recording in other bands from time to time. I recently finished doing some bass parts on the new album by Ace the guitarist from Skunk Anansie. Next week I’m off to Holland to play a couple of gigs with AntiProduct which their regular bass player, Toshi, can’t do. I’m sure that’ll be a nice holiday too!   

 Yourself, Alex Elena (drummer) and Alex Dickson (guitarist of Gun fame) seemed like a great team, both on and off stage, will you work together again?

Yeah, we’re best buddies. A fair portion of Sack Trick’s recordings, especially the first album are basically the Skunkworks line-up without Bruce. Alex Dickson produces the Sack Trick albums, as well as writing a lot of the material on our second album. He’s the hidden genius behind it all. There’s always other people in there too like Robin Guy, Doogie White, Chris Nubile etc, but a lot of the recordings come down to me and Alex.

 How on earth did Sack Trick come about?

I wrote some silly songs on my 4 track just for fun and we used to jam them around in Bruce’s band. We used a couple as B sides for the Skunkworks stuff. In fact 'I’m in A Band With An Italian Drummer' has just come out on Bruce’s new 'Best of...' album. After Skunkworks finished, we carried on recording more of  them for fun. Then we thought we’d make a CD, again just for fun. Then people liked it and we got a couple of good reviews and some radio airplay. Not loads but nice enough. So we did some gigs. They were fun too, so we did some more. People came along to them and seemed to enjoy themselves. After a while we thought we may as well do another album, but we don’t really agree with doing another album of the same stuff just for the sake of it. So we thought long and hard and came up with a concept album about some penguins going to the moon. I mean if you’re going to do an album then do a concept album, surely? Gigs followed, more good reviews (including one in these hallowed pages!) , some Swedish festivals. So now we’re finishing off our third album. Again, we couldn’t just do an album of songs. Is the fact that someone’s written ten tunes enough of an excuse to do an album? -Rarely. So we thought we’d make exactly the kind of album we always wanted to make since we were kids. A Kiss tribute album! Isn’t that the reason we all picked up guitars in the first place? Cos we wanted to be Ace Frehley or Angus Young…or Ritchie Kotzen even! And if you’re going to make a tribute to your childhood heroes then you’d better make it pretty good. Obviously re-recording similar versions of their songs wouldn’t really do. So we set out to re-invent them all in a new light. I understand a lot of younger music fans have trouble getting into classic 70’s albums, in the same way getting into Christianity by reading the King James Bible cover to cover could be difficult. So in the same way Christians present Bible stories with nice watercoloured pamphlets these days we’ve updated Kiss’s back catalogue, but without pastel shades. We’ve done reggae Kiss songs, dance Kiss songs, heavy Kiss songs, Spanish waiter singing Kiss songs. It’s a real tribute to Kiss’ songwriting skills that the melodies still come across even when they’re being shouted by a Cornish farmer, as we’ve got on War Machine. I’d like to see Slipknot’s songs stand up to the kind of battering we’ve given some of these poor Kiss tunes. Oh, and we’re covering the whole of the Elder too.

 Who’s in the band this week?

Usually there’s a core six or seven of us depending who’s around at the time. Me and Alex, Robin Guy from Rachel Stamp, Jem Davis (UFO Keyboardist), Chris Nubile, Doogie White (Yngwie’s new singer),  Ben from Vex Red and Joe Inferno, give or take another dozen or so. But funnily enough as soon as you mention you’re doing a Kiss album all sorts of people start volunteering themselves- Liegh from Terrorvision, CJ from the Wildhearts, Ace from Skunk Anansie and a whole bunch of people are all on this new album. More ideas is better than less! It’s a great album really.

 Penguins On The Moon is quite a story, so c’mon you can tell us, did it really happen?

No, sadly it’s all a fiction. I’m surprised at how many people were sucked in by that one. The first album, Mystery Rabbits however, is all true. And people seem reluctant to believe it, which I find curious.

 What’s this about a Swedish version of the album?

Penguins on the Moon is being released in Sweden in the near future, so we thought we’d make it a bit more Swedish for them. There’s not a lot of difference, the bulk of the album is still in English but we got a couple of Swedish guys to translate and sing “No Tomatoes” for us. There’s a few other differences, but the main one is that the artwork’s been redone. It looks even better now. I like the idea of different versions for different countries. If any Hungarians out there reading this want to translate and sing one of our tunes please get in touch!

 Rabbits, penguins and now sheep, are we seeing a pattern here?

It wasn’t really intentional at first, now I was told recently by an expert, it’s down to suppressed sexual tension or something. It’s probably not the kind of magazine to go into those theories right now.

 Are you happy with how Sack Trick are perceived?

Amazingly! Like I said, we just made the first record for a laugh. We didn’t think anyone else would like it too. Everything since is a bonus.

 How was the Rockshield Festival for you?

That was great fun, most of our gigs are. But if there’s one thing better than playing in a pub, it’s playing in a brewery!

 Will you tour in full make-up? (and will Kiss expect a cut?!!!)

It would be quite fun to. Put it this way, I think the new shows are certainly going to have a tint of Kiss about them. Kiss will be getting their due!

 Will Kiss ever pay tribute to Sack Trick?

Stranger things have happened…

 You put together the Kiss tribute band Schoolgirl Kiss for Christmas gigs and your new album is of Kiss covers, you’re quite a fan then?

Yeah, I’m one of those odd people that follows them round Europe on tour. I know we look like weirdos from the outside, but really they are the most amazing band ever. For those doubters this covers album will prove it all, even if you weren’t a Kiss fan before you will be once you’ve heard this. And if you were a Kiss fan before you’ll love this album, there’s so much Kiss trivia in there, we’ve even covered an unreleased Ace Frehley song.

 So I have to ask, what’s your favourite Kiss album?

Difficult to pick one out of so many greats. At the moment I’m going through a big Elder phase...

 Interesting, I didn't think it was that popular with the fans? A concept album, that generally didn't work with lots of band break-ups going on, Peter didn't play, Ace was mailing guitar parts on tape. Wasn't Elder the lowest selling Kiss album?

 You're right, it is Kiss' most overlooked album. We're on a mission again here to make the Elder a bit more listenable. When Kiss originally recorded the album, the songs were in a different order with spoken parts in between the songs. Then the record company in their wisdom, rearranged the track order and took out the spoken parts. Hey presto, a concept album with no storyline! We've put the songs back in order and reinstated the spoken parts so it's a bit easier for people to get the story.

You're covering the whole of it?

Oh yes! In for a penny in for a pound.

You’ve an interesting theory about Kiss?

Yeah, I kind of think they’re reincarnated Aztec Gods, here to usher in a new dawn. But that’s my own personal belief, and everyone’s entitled to their beliefs.  It’s a bit tricky to sum up in a sentence or two but if anyone’s interested check out my theory here.   I tried to get it published, but a few magazines turned it down. Quite a few actually. I don’t suppose Powerplay...no, I thought not.

 Have you invented a new word on this album?

We usually try to come up with a brand new English word on each album, but this time we’re sticking to most of Kiss’s lyrics of course. But they come up with a few cool oxymorons themselves, my current favourite is 'once upon not yet' from Odyssey. Future or past tense? What on earth are they on about?

 What’s next for Sack Trick?

I guess, we’ll tour lots. Perhaps in Portugal if we’re lucky. Then we’ll make another happy album. It’ll probably sound like someone screaming through gravel this time. That seems to be popular these days.