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Interview with Alan Wilson of The Sharks

Alan

<TX_PSY> First bring us up to date on The Sharks, looks like a "best of" type album is in the works?? Any shows to accompany the album??
<ALAN> Yes, Anagram have put together a Best Of CD featuring 25 tracks - 2 of which are unreleased bonus tracks which are tracks we did for an instrumental mini-album we're releasing. We don't really have a line up these days as our original drummer is in jail in Spain, and subsequent stand-in drummers are all doing other stuff. On these newer tracks we're using Trotsky from The Sub Humans/Citizen Fish who is a friend of mine. We just put a collection of instrumentals together for release on my label next year so Anagram used two of those tracks. Despite several offers of festival dates - mostly in Germany and America, I'm not really interested in live shows at this time as I'm too busy with recording and producing other people. I'm always booked up to a year in advance and rarely get time off, so playing out live is out of the question really. It's nice that promoters still ask, but I can't ever see me having the time to do it.
<TX_PSY> That clears up a lot of things for me since I've been hearing more about Western Star Studio than The Sharks as of late...I know the Flintstones are recording there soon, what other bands have you worked with there???
<ALAN> Well Western Star is a studio and now also a label. I wanted to have a label that releases exclusively stuff recorded here. It's a rockin' label but of course I don't only record rockabilly at the studio, but it seems like it sometimes! As you can imagine I have a lot of Rockabilly and Psycho bands through here as I have been working in that scene for 25 years and so most people who come here are either people who I've worked with before somewhere along the line, or people who have been recommended by them. The Frantic Flintstones were here last week and are back again in a month's time to mix. I've done a fair few albums for them in the past, the last few were done here, the rest in other various studios. I have worked with Chuck a lot over the years, either as producer, engineer or co-writer. I was in the FF live line up too for about 2 or 3 years. I have also done a few side-projects with him. At the moment we have this Chuck & the Hula's thing going which is a lot of fun. Other bands I have recorded at Western Star.... Frenzy are in here right now doing a new album which will be out at Christmas - I think it's by far their best work to date. I also did their last one 'Dirty Little Devils' (and the one before that at another studio) I have done two Bill Fadden albums here - the latest one is for my own label, This band is an awesome Rockabilly act. So look out for the CD, which is to be called 'Satellite Rock'. Oh I don't know how many rockin' bands I've recorded, loads.... and I did an album recently on Western Star records for Kill Van Helsing, a fucking cool surf-punk band that came here. There's also an album out on Crazy Love soon any minute by Popeye's Dik, which was done here. This is one weird dude called John McVicker who is just so strange. He paid me to co-write and record and play on his album. I drafted in some friends to help out and the result is really quite different - yet still very Psycho and a bit punky. John has the strangest almost mono-tone voice, he sounds almost uninterested which makes it so different than all these other bands who are trying so hard to 'Rock', His ideas are weird - but great - and we had such a laugh doing it. Guests include Steve Whitehouse of Frenzy. People who have heard it either love it or hate it but I can't stop listening to it in my car, it's like the same feeling you get when you see a road accident, you wanna look, you just can't help it, you have to look. I have also had a Best Of Western Star compilation CD series out which has been cool. That's basically a whole collection of odd Rockabilly and Psycho tracks done here - some real odd stuff - all mixed up and put out as a series. This is an on-going thing and Western Star will also be releasing a Joe Meek Tribute compilation CD featuring all rockin' bands doing Joe Meek tracks. I'm also just about to release a CD by the Ugly Dog Skiffle Combo called 'Live at Western Star' so watch out for that. The studio has been a massive success and has only been open 3 years. It's been 100% fully booked for the last two years. The first year it went well, but the last two have been really crazy, I am always booked up a long way in advance. I also opened a mastering suite 2 years ago, which has done really well too. And the new label is also doing great after just 6 months, better than I thought it would. I'm on my 3rd album release now and I aim to put out approx 8 per year. I also have a publishing company called Department X and we look after the publishing on over 300 commercially released tracks - again mostly rockabilly/ psychobilly tracks. I started this company in 1990 with a lot of help from Roy Williams at Nervous - he's always been really good to me. I also work as a consultant for Anagram/Cherry Red - a huge label here in England. I look after their psychobilly catalogue - which is almost a full time job in itself. I basically compile Best Of's and various other collections and re-issues. I sort out artwork material/ sleeve notes and sometimes marketing stuff for them. They are a good company to work with and I've always had a good relationship with them ever since the Sharks were on the label. For a long time now I've seen my future more in the business end of the scene than the performing end. Yes I am a busy man! No wonder I can't find time to play Sharks gigs. My wife helps out more and more these days so that's pretty cool. We're a great team and I look at the studio's clients and the labels roster of artists as one big family team.
<TX_PSY> "Mission Possible" and you aren't stopping. It seems that not only have you kept your eye on the road you are following, but also building the road yourself as you move forward...so when you do find time for yourself, what kind of things do you get into?? Things to wind down in your "spare time"?
<ALAN> I don't get a whole lot of spare time, but what I do get I spend with my wife and my kids. I also love to visit and explore the area that my wife is from. She is from Arizona and I love that desert so we usually go there a few times every year.
<TX_PSY> I haven't been to Arizona besides the airport in Phoenix for flight transfers unfortunately, you mentioned before, recently that you are making a trip to Texas soon??
<ALAN> My wife is from Tucson and I just love that place and the area around it. Places like Tombstone etc. I love Mexican culture and folk art and there is a lot of that influence there too, as well as like a hangover from the old West, so it's a cool place. Yes I'll be going to Lubbock TX in January on a kind of personal Buddy Holly pilgrimage. I've loved Buddy Holly since I was a small kid so I'm going to visit his hometown and will also visit Norma Petty's studio in Clovis, NM as well. The building still stands and even has the original equipment in it. It's not like a museum or something; it's just that it happens to still be there. You have to contact the local pastor who has the keys and he just lets you in to have a look. That will be almost a religious experience for me.
<TX_PSY> Looking back, what are some of your highlight moments with The Sharks??
<ALAN> Well it was a pretty exciting thing to be part of that early British thing in the old days, like early 80's or whatever. Some of those early gigs were wild. I never really enjoyed the traveling side of it later on, but the early days were like an adventure. Some of the festivals we did when we reunited after a ten-year break were good because it was new and exciting again for me. I particularly enjoyed certain countries; Finland was always a good one. I guess that I'm lucky in the respect that I've seen most of the world for free, which is really great. Japan was fantastic too. I have fond memories of some of the Sharks gigs, and also gigs I did when I was in the Flintstones and also Colbert Hamilton, but I mainly remember the recording sessions. I've always been more interested in the studio than in live work.
<TX_PSY> Any last words of wisdom?
<ALAN> Let me see now... um, no.
<TX_PSY> Nuff said! Thanks Alan... Destin