Hi guys, let’s start talking about TCC, how the band was born and where your name comes from?
MH: TCC was started by Rob Wylde and Jamie Delerict after their previous bands split. I was invited for a jam by bassist Rob Lane, who I’d been in a band with before. He'd got to know Wylde from bumping into him at Rock City, Nottingham and got talking about the bands they liked. The rehearsal went extremely well. The bands name was something JD had in his mind for a long time. Great name, unique logo!
RL: I knew Mike would be great in the band if I could get him in but wasn't sure if he'd be into the general sound which Wylde was putting together so I was quite pleasantly surprised when after hearing the demos he dug the stuff. I think it's been quite an education for him when it comes to hearing the kind of bands me and Wylde love but then again he's always had pretty varied tastes and this is just another string to his bow.
JD: Imagine a shop that specialised in making coffins for children that have passed away. That shop would be called the TEENAGE CASKET COMPANY.

I really like "Dial It Up", you remind me of the American Heartbreak sound so much …how would you define your music and what are your main influences?
RL: We keep getting the American Heartbreak comparison but I'm not overly familiar with their stuff - maybe I should get on it and check them out? The one song I heard I really dug though. Regarding our own sound I think we've stayed true to the bands we love but there's such a wide range of bands between us that it's given us something of our own to take out there.

RW: I think the term “Punk Rock Bon Jovi” really sums up what we do. We take all of the best elements of 80’s hair metal (good time, melodic, high energy, massive hooks) and mix it up with a cocky and at times, arrogant and sleazy punk edge that keeps it sounding fresh and relevant for the kids today.
JD: With influences as broad as Poison, Ramones, Rush, Swingin’ Utters and Goo Goo Dolls, by rights we should argue all of the time and sound like a fuckin’ train-wreck. I’d like to think that we sound pretty sweet. Ok guys, who wants to buy the American Heartbreak CD? It’s about time we listened to our competition!
MH: The band's sound is a great blend of our favourite music! Uplifting, anthemic, good time rock 'n' roll. Great music for trying times!

My favourite songs are "One Thing You Don't Need", "Down On Luck", "Mirrors & Wires" and "Beautiful"... is there a song you feel a particular tie with? Why?
MH: I guess “Down On Luck”, as it was the first tune we played together, also “One Thing” is another that stands out for me, but it's hard to choose. I love them all!
RL: There's no one song I feel a real tie with but feel they all work really well as a package and there's no real 'fillers' which can't be said about some other bands who have one great song then can't follow it up.
RW: I love all the songs on the album for different reasons as they all mean something to us, but I guess that I’d have to go with “Down On Luck” as it was the first song we put together as a band and sums up a lot of what was going on in my life around the time that I wrote it. I just think that it’s a really great pop rock song.
JD: It’s not necessarily a favourite of mine, but the strongest tie that I have with our songs would be “Mirrors & Wires”. It’s the song that binds me to my past, as it was one of my old band’s (PANIC) signature songs. Lyrically, that song means the same to me as what “Down On Luck” does to Wylde. Desperation followed by hope.

You have shot the video for “Hatred”, a D-Generation cover. Why did you choose that particular song and what kind of video is it?
RW: The guys from Ignore Entertainment were in England to film this years Download festival and stopped off at our show on their way. They filmed the entire gig and a couple of weeks later sent us the videos. We chose “Hatred” as it came out best in terms of sound quality.
RL: We had our whole set filmed by our Norwegian 'brothers' and they picked the best performances from the set. They edited together “Hatred” and “Another Part Of Me” and we thought it would be cool to put “Hatred” out there as it's pretty much as heavy and in your face as we get. What's cool is how energetic the performance is considering it was just one live take with two cameras. Imagine what it would look like with several cameras and a bunch of takes?!

MH: “Hatred” is such a kick ass tune and it was a great performance, it would be a shame if it didn't see the light of day!
JD: Jesse Malin and D-Generation were innovators and a band well before their time. Were they glam? Were they punk? They were energetic and dangerous rock ‘n roll and that’s the path that I want TCC to follow. “Hatred” is Teenage Casket Company showing our appreciation to a real rock ‘n roll band. It’s not a proper video that you’d see on TV exactly, it’s a very real and very live, professionally filmed snapshot of a moment in time. We’ll be working on a promo video very soon.

I know you have other side projects beside TCC. What are they about?
MH: My side project goes by the name of SPIKE. I started recording the first album “SPIKE” about 1998, the second one was finished about 2003 which is called “Salvatore” and I'm about two songs into my third. Every instrument is played by myself. It's great to play other things rather than just the drums - it keeps things fresh. There's a link on TCC's website to SPIKE, so if you're passing through check it out. Musically it's epic rock that's quintessentially English ...well maybe!

RL: I'm a total Bass Whore and just love to play live. As soon as I could pick up a guitar I've played in more than one band at a time. My other band, DIP have been together for about 8 years and I've been with them for 6. It's just real quirky, good time rock and roll - imagine Bowling For Soup jamming out some old AC/DC and Roth era Van Halen and you'll come pretty close to it. The guys in TCC have been real supportive of DIP and everyone gets on really well. Thankfully the bands schedules don't really clash too much. Get your fix of Fat Boy Rock n Roll at www.oyah.co.uk
JD: It’s not technically a side project, as we call ourselves Teenage Casket Company, but Rob Wylde and I occasionally take to the stage and sometimes even tour acoustically. We’re getting better and better at it as time goes on and it’s definitely something that I want to do more of in the future.

You have shared the stage with TRASHLIGHT VISION, MITCH MALLOY, VAIN and EROTICS, can you tell us something about that experience? Any funny episodes?
MH: Every gig with those artists named has been awesome. Both of THE EROTICS tours were awesome and it was over far too quickly - great guys with killer tunes. As for funny episodes the now legendary “Boston Incident” springs to mind!
RL: Any time you get the chance to support a band you're a fan of it's a real honour and privilege. What has been really cool is that nearly all the bands who we've played with have been great to us and become friends and supporters. It's a real buzz!
RW: We’ve had a great time with all those bands and are lucky enough as of yet not to meet any dicks. The VAIN shows especially meant a lot to me as I grew up with posters of those guys on my wall, so that was a dream come true. As for funny stories, ask Jamie Delerict about a recent incident on our US tour in Boston concerning ridiculous amounts of alcohol, a wash basin, a toilet cubicle and 2 very large redneck bouncers!
JD: A full US Tour Diary will be posted on our official website by the end of August, so I’m keeping all of those stories quiet until then. In fact I’ll even be holding back on some of that information too just in case we have a book offer. Teenage Casket Company – The Soil.

I went to see Vain here in Italy and they seemed to be one of the best bands among the ‘80s old bands. Did you get on well with them? What do you think of their new album?
RL: VAIN have always had something of a cult following in the UK so it was amazing to see how warmly received and welcomed they were by the English crowd. They delivered big time too, awesome players, great vocals and they were cool guys too. Davy Vain was the first person to sign our Mailing List at the first show! Rock on!
MH: VAIN were on fire, they just ruled, no going through the motions type of thing. They sure made us feel welcome.
JD: VAIN were great. They reminded me of AFI’s dads.
RW: I thought VAIN were awesome and the cool thing was that they seemed to be out there touring for all the right reasons. They love it and not because they want to make a fast buck out of watered down version of what they used to be. They were all really nice guys and I love the new album. It rocks big time!

Rob also runs TrashPit magazine, which is really well done... when did you decide to create it? Why did you go for a paper version and not a webzine, which is much cheaper?
RL: TrashPit has been running for two years now. I became frustrated about not being able to find out what all my favourite bands were up these days, figured other people must feel the same way, so set about finding out myself! I ran a fanzine promoting Unsigned Bands some years ago and wanted to take it up to the next level. I've always loved 'printed' fanzines, guess I'm kinda old school and like something you can hold in your hand (no pun intended!). Maybe one day I'll have to take it onto the net as I now get swamped with CD reviews and it would be much quicker to update things especially as TCC is getting busier and taking up more of my time.

What are the magazines and webzines you like most? Do you miss the dear old paper ‘zines?
RL: There's still a bunch of great paper zines out there. Black Velvet Magazine www.blackvelvetmagazine.com is the 'standard' pretty much to which all zines should be judged. Shari has been running that thing tirelessly for over 10 years and her enthusiasm and drive is mind blowing! Other mags which I really dig are Bubblegum Slut, Satan's Fish Tank and Devolution. There's a great new zine just released called Beat Motel which is really well done too. As for Webzines - Slam Rocks of course! There's tonnes of others too: Veglam, Sleaze Metal, I could go on for days. Every one of those sites deserves a mention but I don't think you'd have enough room! Anyone who loves music that much to put that much time and effort in for others rules!
JD: I miss the paper zines. The punk scene was sustained throughout the 90’s by the hard work of hundreds and hundreds of fanzine editors worldwide. Those zines are dying out now and look what’s happened to the underground punk movement because of it. Webzines are obviously the way forward, but what am I going to read in the toilet? Thank fuck for TrashPit!

The TrashPit covers feature many bands like Robin Black, Roxie77, Antiproduct, etc... what breakthrough bands do you think is worthy to listen to? What about the English music scene?
RL: You pretty much summed up the bands worth checking out right there! They're three of my favourite bands in recent years. Our good friends The Erotics are incredibly underrated too, Mike Trash is a songwriting genius and I reckon he's probably influenced a lot of todays bands more than people realise! I'm looking forward to the TrashLight Vision album when it's released and I'm digging the latest Explosion CD but those guys have been around for a while. Other than that the new Zan Clan album really took me by surprise. I expected it to be dodgy Speed Metal when I saw the sleeve and it just blew me away (When they say don't judge a book by it's cover was certainly true on this occasion!) To be honest there's not been that many UK bands to make me take notice - sorry! England has always struggled to produce a great rock band. I'm sure there's some out there but a lot of it tends to be hype and very few bands can live up to that and deliver live and on record. The last band to make be look up were Malibu Stacey but now Terrovision are back out gigging I'm not sure what the future holds for those guys but that was a great album they put out.

I don’t really like that kind of topics, but Al Qaeda hit London a few days ago. What are your thoughts about that? What do you think of Blair and his politics?
MH: England has had it's share of terrorist bombings over the years by various groups. I do not think it is a war that we can win. The War Against Terror is impossible, you cannot fight an invisible army, it's a bleak prospect, we've just got to get on with living, as for Blair, he's out of his depth.
JD: I couldn’t have put it better myself Mike. Look at Blair’s face. He has no idea what he’s doing any more. But is there anyone one else who could make a difference? I doubt it.
RL: That stuff is crazy and you're always thankful when no one you know is involved but you've got to feel for the families wrapped up it all. It's mad to think that people can believe they're doing some good by doing these things.
RW: I think we should leave all that stuff to the politicians. All I know is that we all live in a fucked up world right now where nobody’s really safe anywhere. It’s very scary.

Let’s talk about music again... what are you currently doing? When shall we listen to the follow-up to "Dial It Up"?
RL: We've just got back from our first US Tour which was awesome and a real dream come true. I really hope we can get back out there soon. We've got a few more shows pencilled in over the next few months but right now I think we're gonna get our heads down and look at revamping the set and getting some new songs in there. There's some great ideas flying about particularly a new song called “Cocaine” which we've just started to put into the set. When the chorus hook drops it's killer! We're hopefully gonna be doing some European dates in the Autumn then maybe early next year we'll look at getting some new material recorded. Watch this space!
JD: Yeah, we need to take a break for at least a few weeks and see what new material we can come up with. We’re still pushing “Dial It Up” hard and playing live as much as we can, so I’m not even thinking about the next release right now. We need to take another big step up that ladder with what we have right now.

In your link section I’ve seen the Subbuteo website. Who’s the one keen on that? What football team do you support?
RW: I used to own a Subbuteo set as a kid and I loved it, so did Jamie. We decided to have a game recently. He destoyed me completely and now I hate that fuckin’ game!
JD: I was really looking forward to start playing again with Rob. You know, a few beers, write a couple of hit songs, have a game of Subbuteo. ROCK ‘N ROLL! Unfortunately, as Wylde explained, I annihilated him. I think I beat him 20-0 three times in a row and have crushed his spirit beyond repair.The poor lad couldn’t even score one goal. Anyone else wanna step up? I’m pretty much the only football fan in the band. I support Newcastle United and try to keep in touch with everything that goes on at the club although it’s getting harder for me the busier we get.

The German football team of St. Pauli plays an AC/DC song whenever it gets a goal scored. What would you choose to celebrate a goal of your favourite team?
JD: How about when Alan Shearer scores his next goal at St.James Park, the intro to “Mirrors & Wires” hits the PA system? It’d be kind of like that Ice Hockey keyboard tune they use when they score. The crowd would chant along with the keyboards! Before Newcastle matches, they’ve actually been playing “Blitzkrieg Bop” for a couple of years now. Crazy shit.

That’s all guys, you can say whatever you want to the SLAM! readers...
MH: Thanks for the support, love your site, love your country, hope to be there soon.
RL: Big up to SLAM! and it's readers for liking the tunes and for the support you've given TCC. Really hope we can get over to Europe and rock out live for you all soon!
RW: I’d just like to say thanks so much for all your support. Your site rules! Hopefully we’ll make it over to Italy in the not too distant future and show you what we’re all about!
JD: Graci, graci, graci!