INTERVIEW: Tigertailz – Matt Blakout

I remember seeing Tigertailz play back at The Porterhouse in Retford back in 1987, the iconic venue opened by Sammy Jackson (who also opened Rock City in Nottingham) might have been small but had hosted the likes of AC/DC, Motorhead, Def Leppard. Iron Maiden and countless others back in the day. Tigertailz of course went on to become a Rock City regular and the boys from Wales gave us many great nights all those decades ago. The band like so many has had its tragedies and line-up changes and in December 2022 another change was announced with Rob Wylde stepping aside and Ashley Edison joining on vocals. We caught up with Matt Blakout to find out more.

Mark: How are you mate? Good to see you!

Matt: Yeah good, I’m very good.

Mark: Big news from the Tigertailz camp, it’s been a while, it’s been very quiet during covid, but you’ve come up with I guess something that no one was expecting – a new singer and one from a Metal background.

Matt: Well bands change unfortunately, and you know the Tigertailz have been around so long now and it’s difficult to keep two people together sometimes never mind four people. So we got a great opportunity with Ashley and he’s proven himself very well. ‘Sick Sex’, the video and song has been a great success as a taste of the new look band.

Mark: Yeah, it sounds very different, have you done anymore? I mean obviously you’ve been rehearsing but is there anything else likely to come out before the summer? We’ve only got one date to look forward to at the minute, the June 3rd date in the Underworld but expect a lot more Tigertailz action is one the horizon?

Matt: Yeah, we’ve announced the show as kind of … well I mean you’ve got to get something on the book to get people talking and get things moving. There is some recording so Jay has been demoing and recording new material that Ashley will sing on I guess so yeah in the course of time. When the band changes you’re back to baby steps again aren’t you to get things just right and make sure we are getting things right for the integrity of the band as well as the product that we hope to release. So its early days but there’s plenty in planning and plenty coming through and talking to promoters about shows and all sorts of things going on so I think it’s just the start really.

Mark: Yeah its actually forty years isn’t it this year since the band formed.

Matt: Incredibly, yeah!

Mark: It is hard to believe isn’t it! Tell us a bit about yourself, I mean you’ve been there for…  (laughs) I should have done my research but it would have been 2005-2006 I think, when the band got back together which is 18 years ago now?

Matt: That’s right you’re spot on! (laughs) I’ve probably been in the band the second longest of any member. I came in in 2006, late 2006 and then we did some big festivals 2007, 2008 & 2009 so yeah it’s been a long time, I’ve had 2 stints with the band, 2006 – 2012 I think it was, and then I re-joined a year or so after that when things sort of settled down got back together again, so yeah I’ve been around a long time.

Mark: So where did it all start for you? One thing I love asking people is how they sort of like stumbled in to music not just as a passion but as I guess as a way of life and a business. Was it something that you fell in to or something that there was a big defining moment and you knew that had to be for you?

Matt: In regards to music, my family was quite musical, my sister grew up on Whitesnake and Deep Purple and Rainbow and all those bands really so I was introduced to that. My older brother is a bass player he had his own bands and played himself so I’ve always been involved or around music you know so I used to pinch his records. He’d deny it now but he used to have Kiss records and things like that so I initially sat and listened to all those and The New Wave of British Heavy Metal, but he took a different direction and he went off into the Blues thing, but I stuck at it and went down the Rock route so my first album was an Iron Maiden album obviously as everyone does being British and then I sort of was into the bands of the era – all the L.A. bands Ratt, Motley Crue and…  Kiss you know was the exception I’ve always massive Kiss fan really. So, I’ve always been involved with music I started playing in the late 70’s via a marching band. I don’t know if you have anything in Australia.

Mark: Yeah we have marching bands and pipe bands and stuff like that here from the old countries!

Matt: Yeah so that was my introduction to playing the drums, so I started that when I was about 9 or 10 and then I picked up a drum kit when I was about 12 and I’ve played ever since.

Mark: Tigertailz have been one of those bands that have been around pretty much all of my life and one of the first bands I saw at Rock City in Nottingham my home town, or it might have even been The Porterhouse in Retford.

Matt: I was going to say, you sound English.

Mark: Yeah I’ve been over here the majority of my life but one of the first bands I saw was Tigertailz when Pepsi & Steevi were in the band so it’s great that you guys are still out there and still making great music and I actually know your previous vocalist Rob, because he’s from that part of the country as well.

Matt: Yeah, he lives in Nottingham, he has done for some years, he’s originally from Chorley I think. I mean Rock City and Nottingham go way back with Tigertailz as in I think Adam Parsons he’s the manager now of some big bands, Europe, Thin Lizzy he started off with Andy Copping at Rock City.

Mark: Andy Copping what a guy – he now does Download and all that kind of stuff, it’s still a great venue and one of the things my mates have been asking is hopefully Tigertailz are going to be coming back there when some more dates are announced?

Matt: Yeah, sure I mean we will look at that, we are getting offers all the time, the momentum is kind of building in regards to that but we want to try and make any shows that we do events you know so not just gigs and blah blah blah but we try and build up to something special and there’s just so much going on in regards to booking shows and maybe new product.

Mark: There’s been some high profile changes of singers recently, probably the biggest one that is being talked about most would have been Eric taking over that role at Skid Row. It’s worked – an older band with a newer fresher singer has been a great boost and the music so far has been amazing. I didn’t know what to expect I must admit when Ashley came in to Tigertailz but if its anything like the video that has come out ‘Sick Sex’ it’s going to interesting. I know that band aways liked to cover the heavier stuff but do you think Ashley will be accepted by fans?

Matt: Yeah, I think so – his voice is undeniable, and his range is incredible. When I heard the tracks that he recorded when we were trying him out to see if it would work you know I just thought well if Judas Priest or Maiden or Queensryche are looking for a singer this is your guy, he was just incredible he was of that world class standard. But it’s difficult, I mean Ashley comes from a completely different background to what Tigertailz is so you know it’s kind of worlds colliding really and I think we need to be true to ourselves and true to the songs and perform the songs to the level they should be performed to and not to compromise on that, which we may have been guilty of doing in the past. So with Ashley coming in it gives us an opportunity to play those songs in the key they are supposed to be played in and in the way they are supposed to be played and deliver them to the standard that we want to make sure we can so it’s exciting times.

Mark: So are we looking at a 2023 release, do you think, for new material?

Matt: Ah well its surprising how quick a year can go really but yeah I would hope so. I  know there is material recorded that was sort of tentatively done with Jay. Jay likes to collaborate so whether some of those things  will be re-done or re-looked at with Ashley now in the band  to add his input in to where he thinks things should go I don’t know. I mean being a creative type it’s nice to bounce ideas off people isn’t it, so you know you need to give it that Tigertailz spin on those ideas but yeah then the goal is just to come up with something, a quality release really that Tigertailz is renowned for whether that’s packaging, T-shirts CD songs, it’s got to be quality.

Mark: Yeah well I think one of the few bands that has sort of like have never let me down over the years and there’s been some classic albums, ‘Young And Crazy’ I guess kicked it off for a lot of people but looking back at the older catalogue I guess before you came on board what was the one that really took you? For a lot of my mates its ‘Bezerk’ that’s the album for them but I still like that debut.

Matt: Well I was never a Tigertailz fan back in the day, I certainly didn’t like the first album. I mean the sort of music I listen to its all about the voice and Journey are one of my favourite bands so unless you have that multi octave sort of range I’m not really interested and the problem with that album was that really because I prefer the American stuff – you know Motley Crue, everything that came out of Sunset Strip, Ratt, Autograph all those kind of very textured songs really. I was never into the lower end of those bands like Faster Pussycat or Pretty Boy Floyd or Tuff: they weren’t my thing. There’s nothing wrong with those bands, they’re actually brilliant at what they did but they weren’t what I chose to listen to and I always felt that that album was in that sort of category even though it was out before those bands and they were influenced by Tigertailz. Strangely that album and ‘Bezerk’ showed quite a bit of maturity and charted the band’s progress and what they did live at the time. So I was well aware of Tigertailz but certainly wasn’t a fan then even though I saw them back in the day in the UK – I saw Steevi Jaimz perform with Tigertailz and I saw Kim Hooker’s Tigertailz so I saw every year of the band but that early stuff was not really my thing though ‘Wazbones’ was and still is a fantastic album – absolutely awesome!

Mark: Yeah I think that is probably my second favourite there – that’s a wonderful album I still play that to this day.

Matt: Yeah ‘Dirty Needlez’, ‘Make Me Bleed’ you know there’s some absolute killer songs on there and it devastates, it’s fantastic to play live. ‘Dirty Needlez’ to play live is one of my favourite songs. I think my favourite Tigertailz album is probably ‘Bezerk 2.0’ but I think the maturity and the songs on that album: ‘Do it Up’ and ‘For Hate’z Sake’ I think is absolutely fantastic but each to their own. Everyone whether it’s a band like Kiss or Journey or whatever – everyone has their favourites don’t they!? For whatever reason so I relate more to those albums than the earlier ones, but maybe because they just came out when I was too young – I was only what 15 or 16 when the first album came out so maybe I just relate to the later ones better because I was older and they just were more on my radar, who knows?

Mark: Well I mean the thing that always gets me about Tigertailz is that it’s all good – there’s not like a rough period for the band. I mean I’ve got friends who swear by ‘Thrill Pistol’ which is a later release which I love as well.

Matt: Well ‘Thrill Pistol’ was the first sort of full album that I did. I did bits of ‘Berserk 2.0’ but ‘Thrill Pistol’ was my first sort of proper studio introduction with Tigertailz so yeah it’s great to hear people reference that album. Unfortunately though there are some great songs on that album but also stuff with not a great production, so I’ve always felt it would be interesting to revisit some of those songs and redo them, you know, have a better production on those. Like ‘Long Live The New Flesh’ was just a fantastic song ‘Brain The Sucker’ ‘could have been done a lot better really, but in the circumstances with Pepsi’s illness it was just a bit, you know. things weren’t done exactly the way that they could’ve been done to maximize the album I think. But maybe that’s something for the future – you know revisit those songs and have a go at them again.

Mark: That would be great to hear. If you could’ve been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great album at any point in the history of rock n roll what would you have loved seeing been made in the studio.

Matt: Oh, wow you know that’s such an open question it’s very difficult. I mean my favourite album of all time is Paul Stanley’s solo album.

Mark: Oh really – 77?

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. I was lucky, fortunate enough to play with Mike Japp who co-wrote like 4 or 5 tracks on that album because he was a Welsh boy. I said to Mike you know this is my favourite album of all time, he just said “Why? Why is it?” he couldn’t quite get that but, yeah so possibly I mean back in the day you know I’d love to see the mechanics of that and the making of the Vinnie Vincent’s first album – that would be a real eye opener and that’s one of my favourite albums as well.

Mark: That would be interesting, I mean to me the Stanley solo album was my favourite as a kid. Timeless songs like ‘Wouldn’t You Like To Know Me’ and ‘Move On’, there’s just some great songs on there you can imagine being Kiss songs.

Matt: Yeah by far, it shows Stanley was a great songwriter, you know absolutely amazing! So yeah it’s one of my well it is my favourite Album of all time. There’s probably a few if I really sat down and thought about that. There’s  the fourth side of ‘Alive II’ maybe it would be so interesting to see that being put together in proper real time, or ‘Dressed to kill’ or ‘Rock n Roll Over’ – they would be fantastic to see those being created!

Mark: I always remember hearing the ‘All American Man’ for the first time on that fourth side and thinking wow why wasn’t this on the new album it’s got everything! Some very good stuff on there.

Matt: Yeah and ‘Rocket Ride’, there’s some fantastic songs on that album absolutely.

Mark: And the last question we leave everyone with is always the easiest question of the night, What is the meaning of life?

Matt: The meaning of life I think is just to be contented and happy you know. I don’t think it is a number, don’t they say 22 is the meaning of life? No, I think it’s just to make your way with whatever you have as best you possibly can you know and treat people as you want to be treated and just try not to hurt anybody in any way. I would like to think that that’s the meaning of life but who knows?

Mark: It’s a good answer! I’ve been asking people that for 14 years that we’ve had the website and even though we’re all different a good part of the answer is the same for most people. I can’t remember who it was the other day when I asked them what was the meaning of life and he said “the meaning of life is to give life a meaning.”

Matt: Wow that’s very profound isn’t it, probably about as profound as you could hope for.

Mark: I thought, well you can’t argue with that can you really.

Matt: Its very deep it doesn’t go anywhere, its open to you isn’t it to interpret that.

Mark: It is yes but I guess it’s sort of a clever way of saying what we’re saying, or asking if there is one! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit. Best of luck for the rest of the year and I know a lot of fans will hanging out for more dates.

Matt: Thanks for having us, Mark.

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