MICK BOX:
Yeah, we’re very proud of it. It’s a very honest account of where we are right now. It was recorded as a band in the studio -- we didn’t go in there and do it all piecemeal. Producer Mike Paxman came in, heard the power of the band rehearsing and said, ‘That’s what we’ve got to get down, we’re working on one pulse, let’s go into the studio and record it all as one band.’ We did, which was great.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
Yeah, it seriously rocks.
MICK BOX:
And it works very well on stage too. We did a whole European tour with it over about eight weeks. So many bands play it safe and only do two or three tracks from their new albums and stay with all the old standards, so [we decided to] just go out and do the whole album. You can go and do those things and fall flat on your face, can’t you? [Laughs] You’ve gotta be aware that people do come to hear the old stuff, but look, we’ve been playing all this old stuff now in various forms and going to the well and digging out other songs and things we used to play for the last 10 years so. This is the band today and it marries very well with the old stuff, the classic stuff, so it was good!
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
I’m thinking that maybe the absence of 11 years maybe help pull out some of the old fans out to investigate. What do you think?
MICK BOX:
You know, that was a business thing, not a band thing. We actually got out of our last record company contract after our last album … purely because they didn’t support us. We were already signed to Sanctuary Records, who owned our back catalog, and being a back catalog label they said, ‘Look, we’re thinking of starting a frontline label, would you be interested in doing an album and being the first band?’ We said, ‘Of course we would, we’d love to!’ So we went off and recorded the album, came back to them and they were just about to give us a release date and then they got bought out by Universal! [Laughs] Then we had to wait another year while Universal decided what they wanted to do with us. Nothing’s certain out there now. It really is a disposable, fast moving society we’re in now, isn’t it? Everything’s push button this, push button that, one track download, stick it on your iPod and off you go. There’s none of that, I don’t know, romanticism is probably a bit of a strong word, but that anticipation of finding out there’s a new release, going down the shop and picking it up, coming home playing it, reading all the sleeve notes.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
Yeah, I have to admit I do like to get the full details of who’s played on an album and all that.
MICK BOX:
Me too, and I think it makes it more rewarding when you’re listening. You get a real feel for the people … but it’s not to be! The other thing that [annoys] me a little bit is the fact that you go into the studio and you spend a vast fortune on getting the optimum sound that you can get and then it all gets squashed down into an MP3. You’re not even getting the full effect, which is a bit of a shame, but there you go. Can’t complain, this is where we are in life and we have to get on with it!
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
So, are you finding that you’re getting into newer territories with this album and its success?
MICK BOX:
Newer territories? Well, we play in over 48 countries! [laughs] Coming up this year we’re going to go to South America, we’ve got South Africa with Deep Purple, we’ve got Swiss festivals with Joe Cocker and then we’re headlining [one night of] the Sweden Rock Festival. We’re doing France with Blue Oyster Cult.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
In an interview you did with Classic Rock Revisited you talked about a U.S. tour starting in January ’09 but obviously that didn’t happen.
MICK BOX:
Yeah, that was all going ahead fine and we were doing all the House Of Blues dates and for some reason that all just fell through. So we’ve got our agents working on both coasts … trying to piece something together and maybe do a package thing. We dearly want to come out there because I think this album and the band are made for the American market.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
Who do you listen to these days? Are there any new acts that impress you at all?
MICK BOX:
I have to say no, not really. I love hearing bands like Slipknot and Trivium and I still listen to all of them and they’re fantastic players but I’m from the old school, you know, and with them, there’s no song. I’m listening along and I’m going ‘Oh that guy can' and 'That’s brilliant' and 'That’s really good,’ but you certainly wouldn’t be whistling it the next day, would you? [both laugh] You see, that’s where I come from … a good song is a good song. Everything is wiped off the floor when I put Jeff Beck on [laughing] … I can’t get beyond that! Anything with Jeff Beck or Neil Young, mate, I’m in! [more laughs)] But I do listen to everything, all the modern stuff that comes out. I give it an ear and sometimes I put a bit on the iPod and sometimes I don’t.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
What next for Heep?
MICK BOX:
We’ll probably fill up [with tour dates] pretty quick, so what I’m trying to do right now is write some more songs for the next album [and] we’re trying to do a bit of re-shaping of our business. I don’t think I could ever let it go, just because we’ve done that before and ended up ... in not very nice places, so I’m just trying to keep a hand in with everything and I think the boys are comfortable with that as well. There’s a lot happening [in the music industry] and you just have to be aware of it and keep on top of it and just find your niche, so I’m not quite sure where our next move will be. If it’s [a new album] with Universal and they convince us that it’s going to be a good thing and they get behind us then that’s fine, but if they don’t then it will be someone else. But we won’t wait another 10 years, that’s for sure! [laughs]
Interview conducted February 9, 2009
