By Jens

It was quite a revelation to see Thee Exciters almost demolish a Copenhagen Christian Youth club called Club Retro in January with an onslaught of supercharged fuzz beat action. Their 45 on Dirty Water Records blew me away, and so did the copy bassist Lee Tea sent me of their six Black Tornado recordings helmed by Copenhagen garagerock producer extraordinaire, Ralph A. Rjeily (Baby Woodrose, On Trial etc.). The new boss tunes have an even rawer edge to’em, which equals their amazing live performance earlier this show. Besides Lee, Thee Exciters consists of crazy frontman Paul Le-Brock, guitarist Justin Cunningham and Richie Walker on drums. Down the boozer, fish and chips! Go! Go! Go!

LC: That was quite a killer show at Club Rose in Copenhagen earlier this year?

Lee: Yeah thanks, we really enjoyed that show, it was our first time playing Copenhagen. It was a good crowd too, a lot of rock'n'roll types, so we decided to let our hair down a bit and go for a crazy rave-up, we were pretty drunk on the free beer, so we went a bit wilder I think. We'd definitely want to come back for some more shows in Copenhagen soon, its a rockin' place.

LC: Tell me a bit of band history?

Lee: Well, we started around 2001 after my band The Hoodwinks split, and Justin’s band the Steamkings had pretty much slowed down to a halt. We thought that what our town (Southampton) needed was a bit of a kick up the rock'n'roll arse, as most of the local bands were pretty piss-poor indie bands ripping off Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis and other bland boring Brit-Pop shit. We had a mutual love for 60's Garage, The Sonics, Punk, 50's Blues/R'n'B and Rockabilly. At the beginning it was just me (Lee Tea) and Justin, so we recruited an old friend Tony on drums. At that time the guys wanted me to sing, but I thought a singing/frontman would be better (and I wouldn't have to worry about singing, remembering lyrics, I guess I was being lazy), the obvious choice for the frontman was local mod loony Paul Brock, he had always said he wanted to be in a band, so he was recruited straight away. After a few pretty bad local gigs, we gradually made our way to London, where we were welcomed with open arms and became part of the great punk/garage scene. The rest as they say is history

LC: Must be hard to rehearse, geographical, with 3 brits and 1 swede in the band?

Lee: It is hard, but we manage somehow, mainly by not rehearsing much at all, using the first couple of gigs on a tour to sort ourselves out. We really only get together to write new stuff, which is usually done in a matter of minutes then its straight down the pub! But I think we're lucky that all members of the band play by instinct (or luck) so we don't have to worry too much about rehearsing. And by the way Jens I'm not Swedish despite the vicious rumours.

LC: Okay. How you get in touch with Dirty Water Records? It’s also a famous rockclub in London.

Lee: We have all been regulars at the Dirty Water club for years and years, so we were all well known to PJ. One day I said to him, "when you gonna put out a single by Thee Exciters" and he said "what about November" and I said "OK", the deal was done, as simple as that. He really liked the band anyway and we were all part of the Dirty water furniture so it made sense. It really is the best place in London for truly great music.

LC: Bruce Brand (of Headcoats-fame) produced, and even drummed on the 7”?

Lee: At the time of recording the second single we were between drummers, our second drummer Ken had left and we didn't have anyone to play drums, so we made a quick call to our old friend and guru of garage, Bruce Brand. He came down to the studio and after hearing the songs for the first time, layed down the drum tracks in under an hour, we then recorded and mixed the four tracks in about 5 hours, with Bruce producing. With Bruce in charge of the production it made it much quicker as there ain’t much he doesn’t know about getting that sound, we were lucky he was a big fan of our band and was only to pleased to play on the record. It was a big compliment for us.

LC: The ”Dial E For Excitement” single sounds a bit The Shadows Of Knight-esque, but your new 6 track mini-album has a rawer sound, more Detroit r’n’r-ish?

Lee: Yeah I agree it has a 60's sound, that’s what we wanted, and with Bruce in charge we managed to get a good sound. With the new stuff we wanted a different sound, we had written some songs one afternoon and they all had the same vibe kinda Detroit 60's rock, so when we recorded them we went for a more tougher sound, and a bit rawer too! We also got through three crates of strong Danish beer which might have added to the raw sound!

LC: You recorded that in Copenhagen in Black Tornado Studio with Ralph A. Rjeily?

Lee: Ralph was a good bloke, a real character, he was very into our sound and helped a lot in getting it to sound good. A lot of joints and beer were consumed over those two days it was a great experience, I can really recommend that studio and Ralph. I had heard a lot of good things about Black Tornado, and we all fancied recording outside of London and it seemed our kinda place, I think Copenhagen is our kinda place!

LC: Has the 12” found a label yet?

Lee: Yes, it will be released on H-Records in Spain. It will be a split 10" LP with the Coyote Men from Newcastle, UK. They're good fiends of ours and came up with split LP idea. I'm not sure when its released maybe October, but don't quote me on that, you'll be the first to get a copy, Jens!

LC: Sounds bitchin’, can’t wait! You’re mostly into writing original material, no covers?

Lee: Our songs are mainly originals, we have done a few covers over the years, cant remember which ones now, but we usually play our own songs these days. We will be writing some new songs this autumn, we really want to put out a full length LP, so we'll be looking for a label to release that, and help out with the recording costs. Won’t be until the middle of next year, but maybe we'll put another 45 before that.

LC: What’s the best band you’ve seen this year? Mine’s probably The Cynics at Primitive.

Lee: I think my favorite band this year would have to be The Hentchmen, we played with em in Detroit this April and they were the best I've ever seen em, this was our third tour with’em. I also saw the Soledad Brothers in Philadelphia, they were pretty mind blowing too.

LC: Fave record, movie and drink?

Lee: This is a tough one, I have many favourite records, my fave 7" would be "The Witch" by the Sonics, it will always be the ultimate garage 45. Movie would probably be "The Wild Angels", its got real garage-punk attitude, and a great soundtrack by Davie Allan & the Arrows. Drink? Yes please! Well I'd say anything with alcohol in it, but I do like a good pint of English ale!

LC: Cheers. I’d say that garagerock is bigger in Sweden than in England, or is that changing?

Lee: Not too sure. I think there are more bands in England but not so many really good ones, Sweden has less bands but most of them are really good, quality rather than quantity. Dont know if the scene is bigger, its certainly a lot easier to play in England there are a lot more places to play, its a bit more difficult to get gigs in Sweden.

LC: Anything to add?

Lee: We are playing a garage fest in London on September 30th, then we're off to Spain in October for a 5 date tour, starting in Madrid on 11th October. In November we're playing the Gloria festival in Paris with a load of great garage and punk bands. I wanna try and book up some dates in Denmark/Sweden for sometime this year or early next year, I think its about time we came back to Copenhagen! In between time we will get some new songs written and recorded for an LP. But I'll keep in touch about the Danish/Swedish dates, we are looking forward to coming back to Denmark, we may also do more recording at Black Tornado as well.

LC: Okay, thanks Lee, see you at the Cramps gig in Malmø!

http://www.myspace.com/theeexciters