IndieRec Interview with the Cosmic Rough Riders, August, 2003
By David DiSanzo
http://www.indierec.com

Hailing from Glasgow Scotland, the Cosmic Rough Riders have just released a new album on their own Measured Records label containing 14 tracks of pure harmony and sun-drenched pop. They've hit the top ten with their new single back in Britain and would really like to do the same here. The main stumbling block to achieving this is that not one of their records has ever been released in America, not even this new one, despite the overwhelming success of their last release on Poptones the label of the influential Alan McGee (Creation Records founder and Oasis discoverer among many other things).

In a way, the band are starting fresh again. Their previous creative force (lead singer and main song writer Daniel Wylie) left to go solo (he was tired of touring). Picking up the slack, Stephen Fleming now fronts the band and writes most of the material. While their sound is intact, it certainly is a bit different in many ways. Whereas before they were a modern take on The Beatles and The Byrds, they are now CSN and Eagles as well. This is a good thing.

Last week, the band played two nights in New York as a showcase to see if they could drum up some label interest. I made it to one of the shows and was able to sit down with their bassist James Clifford and discuss some of their dilemmas as well as some of their triumphs and even musical inspirations. James is a delightful person with an impassioned drive and zest for life. Partying with admirers from the likes of Joe Walsh, REM, U2, and Robert Plant, the band seem poised on the edge of International success. Check out the interview and discover the Cosmics for yourself! Be sure to check out their official site as well at: http://www.cosmicroughriders.com/

IR: So what's the story with getting the new record out in the States?

JC: It has always been just imports in the States, so basically we are here in New York to sow the seeds with American labels to see about getting a deal over here. It's alright just having imports but it's time for us to come over and tour and get a deal.

IR: Have you ever played in America before?

JC: Just at SXSW two years ago in Austin, and it was about 20 million gigs in about one week. We loved it. We loved Sixth Street, venue after venue...It was a great place to start, we fell in love with America immediately and to now come to NYC you can just feel it! So many movies were made in NYC. We kept pointing out all of the sites! It's our first time here ever.

IR: Well welcome!

JC: Thanks.

IR: You are all from Glasgow then?

JC: Yeah, all of us, we all live within a two mile radius of each other and grew up together as well.

IR: Nice. It seems that there is a great sense of melody in Glasgow. I hear similarities in your band with Teenage Fanclub and Del Amitri among others.

JC: Melody and songs, not just throw away stuff. We kind of craft our stuff. We are sometimes precious with our songs but that is sometimes a bad thing because you can spend too much time on a certain song on an album. In fact our new album's title, Too Close to See Far was derived from that. We recorded all these songs and didn't know which ones to pick for the final cut. We had done maybe 30 odd songs and we had to let our manager pick the best 15 for inclusion on the album. But we sequenced them correctly!

IR: What are you into?

JC: It's funny and it probably got nothing to do with what come out, but tonight they played Blur's Parklife at the bar before we went on stage, and we love that. That was magic, imagine in America hearing it!. But the old stuff, we are all big Neil Young fans and CSN.

IR: You did CSN's Helplessly Hoping as a B-Side.

JC: That was the first cover we'd ever recorded.

IR: And it sounds great, those harmonies are amazing.

JC: Thanks, we all knew it really well so we just did it. And Stephen has such an ear for harmonies, he instructed us. "You sing this part, you sing that", and so on. We love doing covers live and putting our own stamp on them.

IR: I heard a little Who tonight! [The band used the ending of Won't Get Fooled Again" to close out the show by tagging it onto the ending of their current UK single "Because You".]

JC: Oh did you catch that? Well spotted indeed! We've been meaning to do that whole song. We got into the Byrds later on as they are not such a common name in Britain. It was more CSN and Eagles for us. And Lou Reed. We grew up on that. From there you get to the other stuff. We got into the Byrds about five years ago and it shows wee bit in the music. Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the one we've been listening to lately. I've also been listening to a Gram Parsons tribute disc that is great. We actually played a festival in England with Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Chrissie Hynde, Steve Earle, and Billy Bragg that was great. Everybody in Glasgow has the Eagles Greatest Hits, and then it goes from there. We were fortunate because we got to record a track recently with Joe Walsh called "When I'm Away From You" for a Frankie Miller tribute album. Joe played a solo, we sent it over to him and he recorded the solo and then we did a fund raising gig back in Glasgow and Joe came on stage and played it with us.

IR: That must have been an honor!

JC: Aye, oh definitely. He was well into it. We are lucky we get paid to meet bands like REM we got drunk with them at a festival. They were in the same trailer, and we knew Ken Stringfellow who was playing with them, since we did a gig with the Posies once. That was a good thing for REM getting him in the band. Peter Buck is a big fan of ours so he came along and he asked if we were going to come by and see them perform and I told him that I don't think we get to that stage with the passes we have, so he got us passes and we saw them perform and got drunk with them after the show. Guys like REM and U2 have nothing to prove, they aren't up their own arses.

IR: Very cool. Now I know you have this label called Measured which is your own label.

JC: It is between us and our management. We amicably split from Poptones.

IR: What happened with that deal?

JC: Well Alan McGee was great but there were way too many bands on it and he may have bit off a bit more than he could chew.

IR: But you guys were the most successful act on the label.

JC Well up to a point, the Hives also kind of took off.

IR: But that was just a one-off?

JC: Yeah well..

IR: Do you own the master of your Poptones repertoire?

JC: We do. We leased it out to him for seven years so there are about four more to go.

IR: And before that was Raft Records?

JC: Yeah, that was Stevie and Danny, or our new singer and old singer.

IR: Those two records command a lot of money these days on eBay.

JC: Yeah, it's funny. We can't understand it really cause the first one ("Deliverance") is all demos and the good songs from the second ("Panorama") are all on the Poptones release ("Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine") and it's mastered better. The songs that are on the first one that were used on the Poptones record were re-recorded. That first one is going to make a reappearance.

IR: That's going to get reissued?

JC: Raft is going to issue it again to satisfy demand. I am more proud of this new record!

IR: Well it's great! We didn't know what to expect since Danny left and he was responsible for a big chunk of the writing and he took the lead vocal duties. It was as if you lost your Syd Barrett. I like this new record more than Melodic Sunshine.

JC: Thanks very much. It's the first real album with the four of us. Real drums and no computerization.

IR: I heard a bit of keyboards floating around the room tonight yet there were no keys on stage!

JC: Oh we've got that straight from the album and played it through the board, aye. In that respect we use technology but in the studio it was all us.

IR: Can I ask why Danny left?

JC: He just had enough of touring. All of us love touring and he'd had enough. He is still playing new music. We are on six tracks on his new album which is not out yet. He's going to put it out himself on Raft actually.

IR: What do you think about releasing records on your own these days?

JC: I think you have to. You can only wait to long for the majors to come in and take an album off you. Then there's no reason not to put it out yourself. If you sit around it might not get heard till years and you are wasting time up till then. We put two albums out on our own that ultimately got us the deal with Alan. He's still helping us out in fact.

IR: Wasn't he mad when you left Poptones?

JC: No, no, the only thing we asked Alan for this next record was could we get a wee bit more support than we received with Melodic Sunshine and he couldn't guarantee that because he was busy with the Hives. But we are now still using the same people for support.

IR: How did you hook up with him in the first place?

JC: Our manager was a friend of ours and a pal's of Alan's. He gave him Panorama and it just sat on his desk at Creation - he never listened to it. And our manager saw him at some game and suggested he listen to it and it was right when Alan was starting up Poptones and I think we were going to be the first band on Poptones but it ended up being El Vez I think.

IR: What was up with that? That was a mistake!

JC: Daft, wasn't it?

IR: Really daft. He had all these great bands like Captain Soul....

JC: Cap'n Soul are great! There new album is great. Us and Cap'n Soul and January were...

IR: All great - I basically bought every release the label had ....except for El Vez!

JC: Give me your address I'll send you mine to make your collection complete!!

IR: Alan does have a good ear.

JC: He can spot talent! He initially came to see us at a wee place, really tiny and he was just sitting in a chair with his buddy and after a few songs we thought something was wrong because he was real restless, but he was just bubbling, he couldn't control his emotions because he loved every song. He signed us basically on the spot. He still helps us out and still sings our praises and stuff but with this new release he couldn't guarantee that he would spend as much on promotion and stuff and unfortunately you have to put money into a band.

IR: So you did it on your own and you plan on shopping it to majors.

JC: Yup. We are doing alright in the UK, better than with the Melodic Sunshine which was a slow burner until Revolution in the Summertime hit top 40.

IR: Melanie was a hit too, no?

JC: That reached 100, Baby You're so Free got to 76, Pain Inside got to 36, and Revolution 35. We now entered with or latest single, Because You at 34 so we are very pleased with that.

IR: Melanie was a song that a friend of mine heard by chance and went nuts over, claiming it eh greatest pop song he'd heard in ages.

JC: It's sickly pop isn't it!

IR: Yeah, but it's great! Did the lyrics reveal a true story?

JC: No it's totally made up! A fabrication!

IR: Now who's writing the songs, mostly Stephen is it?

JC: Yeah, with me and Mark writing B-Sides and stuff. Overall our songs are a bit more adult now. We are no longer just singing about girls called Melanie!

IR: Well thanks for your time - it was great getting to see you perform as well! Good luck!