Phil Collen and Paul Cook On Making MANRAZE Music

LEGEND ALERT! When you hear that Phil Collen (Def Leppard) and Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) are checking in life is GOOD! 

Phil and Paul have been in the band MANRAZE (their side project) for more than 20 years (along with Bassist Simon Laffy who was in GIRL with Phil) and this killer trio is combining all of their influences and musical inspirations. Cool thing? 

They just released LOCK STOCK & BARREL-  a 5 CD boxed set that gives the fans a FULL look and listen - The MANRAZE experience if you will. 

The first two albums, an instrumental, live performances and "unreleased and unleashed"  a full disc or rarities and songs that never appeared on a Manraze album. 

We discuss power trios, making music with friends and why the London influence still fuels them. 

Loved this conversation with Phil Collen and Paul "Cookie" Cook. 

Rock Royalty, Legends, Great Guys. 

TC Out! Tune in next week! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, this is Rachel Ballon, and this is the Car Stereo Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 0:03

Yo, yo, what's up, yo? This is DMC and a place to be, and the only place for you to ever be is right here rocking and rolling with the Car Stereo Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hey friends, it's Terry Carr, and this is the Car Stereo Podcast. Welcome back for another week. You can always follow my YouTube channel, like and subscribe, please. Hit up my website, Terry Carr.com. And after coming this week on Friday, I've got Dead Rock done the podcast live from his studio to celebrate the release of his new weapon. This week, what else can I say? It's Legend Way with Bill Collin, the guitarist of Death Lever. Also, Richard on the Death. I have that together talking about their band Bathway. So it's not the band belt together. Way back when I first begin of memory's other second record, which is called Fun Lock. They have a full collection out now called Lock Doc and Bowl. Let me explain. It's a five-part collection. Parts one and two are the first two records. There's a live disc, there's an instrumental disc, and a disc called unleashed and unreleased a collection of memories around. That's why they have all that they want it down. And I had a great time with Phil and Paul. It's just a mind-boggling experience. We discussed how memories came together, the leopard, pistols, connection, and much more. Sitting down this week with legends and rock and roll hall of famers on the Car Stereo Podcast, I welcome Phil Collins and Paul Cookie Cook. Let's go. The Car Stereo Podcast is on, and I always get super excited when I have legends on the cast with me. Oh my gosh, like my heart is so full, being the rock fan that I am, to have the one and only Phil Collin and, of course, Paul Cook from The Pistols. And the guys are, of course, in the band Man Rays. Wow, I'm like a little bit blown away. I'm sweating here in New Jersey.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Oh, thank you. Good to make you sweat. That's great. No, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Before we get into everything going on with Man Rays, because you guys are doing like, I don't even want to call this like a retrospective. I feel like this is an every disc on this is a unique band experience. So we're gonna get into that. I have a vision of you guys meeting as young guys. And if my vision is wrong, just bullshit me and just go along for the ride. So I'm picturing like Phil is in girl and Paul is in the pistols, and there are these kind of scrappy lads, and there's a pub involved, and maybe a fight. And was it anything like that when you guys met or no?

SPEAKER_03 2:56

We probably no, it probably was. It probably was in a pub because we we'd run into each other before we actually knew each other. So yeah, that and and and that was a pretty apt description of some of them pubs. Scrawny, scrawny teenage, you know, whatever they are, laurying around and all of that stuff. Yeah, and like other other bands, like lots of bands. And on that note, and I forgot to tell you, Paul, I saw Slim Jim Phantom the other the other day. I saw him up in in I was doing a video, and and he was there with his wife, and I'm like, what's and I hadn't seen him for years, but um, yeah, so that kind of thing. You'd bump into people you knew or you didn't know, and and there was there was just a great scene in London, I think. And I think that's what where we would have probably run into each other in the first place.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

We cross we cross paths definitely along the way, but we we're kind of eyeing each other up with suspicion, you know, like we did in London. You know, the cynical English. Oh, he's in that bloody heavy metal band, yeah, and we're like we're the punks, you know, and we're we're not talking to them, you know what I mean? It was it was all a bit like that back in the day. Very territorial, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah, I love that. That's how I pictured it, and you know, rock and roll has to be a little bit of that, especially back in the day. You know, that's sort of what gave everybody their grit and their anger and a little bit of what they have, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

They were struggling to find identity, and and all of that, the different groups or whatever, you know, or or little subgroups, um, everyone joined them. They still do, you know, you still have all these different kinds of vibes of music and you know, goth this and something that, and before you know it, everyone's separated.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

So, yeah, but yeah, that's identity and authenticity, and you guys are you guys are the guys, and I think it's so incredible that, and it's weird because I'm lit, I'm going back to Man Ray's. You know, I got with you guys on the second record. That's really when I discovered the band. And then I sort of went back and saw what you did, but I'm thinking it's over 20 years. Is it been a yeah?

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Crazy. Yeah, it's like 26. 22 years, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yeah, we we was um we were really under the radar when we done this, you know. Uh Phil, it was Phil's Phil's idea, really. He wanted to do something outside of Leopard. And I think I'm right in saying that Phil and Simon got got the original idea together. They just thought it'd be great if we could get a cookie on drums, you know. And lo and behold, uh, Phil bumped into me. Literally, he was driving his car, nearly knocked me over in West London. He said, Hey, I've got this idea. It's true, true story. I've got this idea. Let have a listen to this. Why don't you have a listen and see if you're interested? And uh that's that's that's how it happened, basically.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, I love that. And Cookie loved the idea, and then Cookie's on board for this.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, I'd listen to it, and I thought this is sounding interesting. Let's um get together and see where we go with it. And it like like I said, it was really under the radar at the time. Yeah, got two albums out, and nobody knew what was going on, and um, yeah, not not not that interested to be that honest, but it's it's good, it's getting a new lease of life at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Well, it's interesting that you say that because you say it was very interesting, but people weren't really interested. Interesting is an understatement because there's just so many flavors and textures and feels, and I am such a sucker for a power trio. I'm like the power trio gal. I love there's something very magical about it.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Yes, I think.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, I have the Lemmy cutout. You know, I grew up on these great power trios, whether it was the stray cats or rush or the police, or you know, I loved when like bands were Hendrix experience or Cream, or you know, I love seeing bands scale down. If I could see Thin Lizzie with only three members, I was happier than seeing them with more than three members. I love a power trio. So you guys have a very unique feel with Man Rays because there's a little bit of a sprinkling of something for everyone in this band. So, how did all of these flavors sort of come to the top of the pot here?

SPEAKER_03 7:12

I think you just summed it up. I mean, it's a bit of all of those bands. And uh I think the the great thing is that you don't have to paint yourself into a corner. We don't have to sound like the pistols or let leopard or anything, really. We could just like open it wide open. So it was really creative and it was really artistically refreshing and and inspiring to be able to just do that. And being a three-piece, I'm honestly, it was magical the first time we played. We're like, well, it just had a sound. It just and and you could go off on a tangent, and and no one was saying, Well, perhaps we shouldn't do that. It was none of that. It was like this this all works. So I think that that was it, really.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Because Leopard is so Leopard and the pistols, so the pistols, and of course, Simon, you guys were together in Girl. So it's so nice to be able to see, because at first I was like, Oh, this is very punk, and then I was like, Well, wait, no, I'm hearing like some ska. And then I'd be like, But there's still like a leopard vibe in the vocals, and then you can still hear, you know, Paul's influence. So it's just such a such a flavorful, for lack of a better phrase, listen for the ears.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Yes, thank you. I I agree. I I that's it always felt like that. And as Paul said, you know, we were so under the radar, and it's like we've actually got more love in this past week or two than we have ever had in the 20 years. So many people go, Oh, this sounds great. How come we never heard it? And it's like, well, you know, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

There's so much cool shit on these five discs. It's pretty incredible. And I love the way that you did it because you did like disc one is disc one, uh, disc two is punk funk roots rock. Then you did this whole instrumental thing, which is pretty amazing. Then there's acoustic. I didn't realize you guys played out as much to be able to have all of those performances. There's some really cool performances on here, and then the unreleased and unleashed, which has all these rarities and things that are just kind of like new to the table. So, what made you guys decide to do five discs on this lock stock and barrel the complete recordings?

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Well, there was so much stuff there. I mean, it was made, I mean, it's Phil Phil Phil walks around all day with a guitar strapped around his neck, you know. I mean, even when he's making a cup of tea. So and as he's always writing stuff and coming up with ideas, and he got you know, he can't he can't sit still basically. And there's there was so yeah, there was so much stuff there, you know, and uh it just evolved from that, really. When we were just like Phil said, being really creative and couldn't stop, couldn't once we got going, we just couldn't stop just writing and recording, really, you know. And we got the two albums out, and then like you said, there was loads of extra stuff there, and we done little shows here and there, and extra soundtrack stuff, and it's all there, it's all there on the disc, as you say. That's how that's how there's so much stuff there, really.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

It's like a man-raise one-on-one.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

Oh, it is. I mean, it's I was shocked to be quite honest. When we started pulling the stuff out and you know, like remixes and and stuff that Simon had done that hadn't really seen the light of day, and it was all of this stuff, yeah, acoustic things. I was in a radio station somewhere, and it sounds great. It's not like you know, some a lot of the time it sounds awful when you when you go into a radio station and they go, Well, can you play anything acoustic? But off we go, and it's like shockingly good. So um it was that was inspiring actually, just hearing all this stuff, you know, after 20 years or something, or 15 years in some cases, where we'd we hadn't heard it at all. And it it sounded brand new, and it still had this energy and and inspiration attached to it. So that it was really cool, and it is really cool, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, I love the acoustic tracks. I was really surprised breaking everything down with you guys, how incredible they sounded. Everything kind of has a bit of a a bit of a new life. So you must be so jazzed up to get this out and and feel just really good about it. Now, Phil, I know that you're probably days away as we're speaking from heading back out on the road with Leopard. It would be so nice though to like I'm near New York City. We need like a man raise show in the city.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Custom made for New York City. Can we do that? Like, how do we do this?

SPEAKER_03 11:34

We've got obviously got to have some some time because uh Paul's going off in with doing a pest pistols tour as well. So, um but I yeah, look, we've we've done it before. We we would get these breaks in between. And I think it'd be really good to sit down and figure out a set list. And we got, like I said, we got so much stuff, and it would be great. And then, yeah, who knows? That would be really cool. New York would be great. We're actually talking about if we get the time doing a a tour of London, like you know, do three places, two little three little places around London within a week or something, because we'd all be there, you know, so it's it's not much of a stress, but yeah, depending if that if we can pull that off and that goes well there, who knows? New York would be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Cookie, can you get on this? I'm thinking if anybody can make it happen, it's cookie. He's got the clout.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Oh, yeah. Well, it all depends on the schedules, obviously. Yeah, like Phil said, he's out on the road again, and uh, we are as well with the pistols featuring Frank Carter for this rest of this year.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

So cool, such a cool tour.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

If we get a bit of uh feedback and a bit of love of what's going on at the moment with Man Rays, it'll be it'll be worth doing it, and it'd be nice to do it because I don't think um we got the um the kudos, I think, is the right word when we originally released the first two albums, you know. We put a lot of work into it, and if it like I say, if we get a bit of feedback, who knows? You know, strange things happened in this crazy rock and roll world, don't they?

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

I think we have a different appreciation for things now as well. I think that those of us that are still rocking, there's a different appreciation, and I think that having you guys out on the road now might be different than it was 20 years ago or 15 years ago or 11 years ago when you guys were releasing music.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

I agree. I mean, uh the the police was it is a great example, you know, they famously kind of fell out and disappeared and all that stuff, and they got together and done a tour in 2008, and I saw them, I saw them back in the day, and then I saw them and it was amazing how different it was. I mean, it was a bit a lot more slick, obviously. I mean, I I kind of preferred it back in the day, but having said that, it was just great to to hear it kind of elevated like that, you know. And I think that that we'd have a version of that, you know, we'd still have the energy and we'd we'd have a bit more of a uh an idea of what we're doing, like the more of a confidence just going into it because of hindsight, basically, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Yeah, we we was a bit, I mean, we were we weren't sure where we were going with this to start off with, you know. We didn't know which direction we were going in. That's why it's so kind of eclectic, if you like. And now I think we um if we did it again, it'd be uh kind of different. We did do a f a few gigs back in when these albums first come out, but I don't know if we were really sure of what we were doing or where we were going. I think it I think we'd be a lot more confident now, and it'd be a total different animal, right, Phil?

SPEAKER_03 14:23

100%. I mean, we we didn't even know what to call it. Well, I still don't know what to call it, but it's it is eclectic. It's it's got a thing, it's uh it's diverse, it's culturally and musically genre diverse.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

But it still rocks, like it's there, it's the biggest thing. It still rocks, it still rocks your head off when you listen to it. I agree. And I hear the pistols, and I hear Deaf Leopard. I mean, I'm always gonna hear those sounds because that's your guitar, that's your guitar tone, that's your vocals, that's your harmony. So I still hear all of those things that are familiar to me, yet there's a freshness about you guys working together. And I think you guys, you guys are pals, you guys like to hang together, you guys like to make music together. You can't fake that. That kind of authenticity, you cannot fake. And I think that that comes out. Also, I want to talk about because you guys have like a single from this record. I love the guitar feel on I Surrender. Oh my god, you can get lost in that. That's a float above the kind of a float above the song kind of feel. Talk to me a little bit about that song.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Well, leave your body experience. Well, uh it again, it yeah, it touches on like the end section. It it's called it's like Pink Floyd meets Reggae. It's like Sly and Robbie meets Pink Floyd at the end, and we got Debbie Blackpool Cook, who's the singer in Delta Deep, doing a scat vocal at the end. It's really good. It's really good. And and I I think one of the things that we because that was the last thing we did actually, it it was us accepting the diversity, and and it's like, yeah, you can do a thing where it's a groove song, and you know, the the song is yeah, it's got some bits that sound like Marvin Gay on the vocal, and it and it's kind of really straightforward, and then it goes off on this left field at the end. But we like that, you know, that that you know, like Paul was saying, it's like we finally know what we are, and and I think you know, just even celebrating that is is is great. And that song, it while we were doing it was an old song. Simon had had the idea originally, and we it just turned into something else, and it kept turning into something else, which is great. You know, it's like you don't want to do it so cookie-cutter where it's like uh oh, this is gonna be that and that. No, it's like you just let it run with itself.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Who had the idea to put Debbie on that song too? Because I think that that was brilliant. I heard she was gonna be on it, so I'm waiting for her, and I'm like, where is she? Where is she? You know, because I was a fan of hers from Delta Deep. And I remember, Phil, you were really generous to give me an interview when the band was in town, and she was part of that interview, and uh just a lovely woman, a monster vocalist, a relative of yours, too, because she's your wife's godmother, right? She's Helen's godmother. But putting her on that song at the end to sort of take us on that journey was uh a pretty brilliant idea.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Oh, thank you. The other thing which was really interesting, we um there's a song on the Delta Deep first album, um, Black Coffee, which is a humble pie cover, written by Tina Turner, but it's actually Man Ray's playing. It's me and Debbie, obviously, on vocals and guitar, and Paul's on it and Simon. It's actually it's a Man Ray's track.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

So that that's really cool. And and and again, you know, just we are from London, and I think that it's nice to celebrate Stevie Marriott and Humble Pie and all of that stuff, and which we we are. I mean, there's is a very London thing about the band. You know, we're all from there, we're very proud to be Londoners, um, which is kind of weird because I'm not patriotic or any of that stuff, but there's there's definitely something that's like really cool about being from London. And and we we kind of just, you know, we have that thing. It's great.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

You can hear that. Look, I think regionality comes out in people's music.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

You can hear where people are from, where their roots are from, where their feeling comes from when they're delivering songs. You know, there are vocalists and there are deliverers of songs, and and you can really hear that. And that's why I started this interview saying, Don't ruin my vision for the whole London scene, because that's exactly how I pictured it. You guys is these young scrappy lads hanging out and still making and still making amazing music.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Yeah, and you still you still get that vibe in London, you know. I know it's a it's a bit old school, but you still do get that if you go to certain areas of London, you know, it used to be Camden or now it's Shoreditch or whatever, you still get you do still get that kind of vibe with uh, you know, where there's a scene happening with bands hanging out in pubs and eyeing each other up and all stuff like that. You know, it's still there a little bit, not not like it used to be, but it's still there.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Well, let me tell you from from someone from the states, anything that I see, whether it's old footage of the stones with Marianne and Anita Pallenberg or Jimmy going to London, because for him, that's where it was starting, or the pistols, or the fashion, or the there's something very magical about that whole scene and music. So to have you guys bring that up for me is like very exciting because you know, I was a child of the 70s, so growing up with all of that for me was just there was a magical world that I wanted to figure out how to be a part of, you know, being a silly kid from Jersey.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Yeah, no, I like Phil said, we're we're all from London and we're connected, you know. Phil, we're we're real Londoners, me, Simon, and Phil's from you know, we're not from the suburbs, we're we're real proper Londoners, and we really connected socially as well as musically. And one of the great things as well. There was no restrictions with man raised what we were doing. We could have gone anywhere we wanted with it, you know. We didn't want to do a punk, we didn't want to do a Leopard rock album, or we we just went wherever we felt felt like with it. It was great, it was it was really free.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

And that has to feel so good for you guys now. All these years later, still being working musicians that are inspired by music and getting to play music with your friends. Like, how effing cool is that? Do you wake up some days and do you say, Holy crap, I feel I feel pretty lucky.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

I I do. I mean, uh, in hindsight, especially with what happened with the music industry, because it it really became a business and it was very apparent. Like somewhere in the 80s, it went from being an art form to the music business purely. And and you you could get elements of the art in there, but you know, it's like vinyl. When people talk about vinyl, they'll talk about, you know, it'd be Miles Davis, it'd be Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, the Stones, the Pistols, the Clash, whatever. Aretha Franklin, all this stuff before, and then then the digital thing. And there's a real difference. There's a difference to approach, there's a difference to artistry and and how people and and reasons for doing it. I meet so many people, and it's I'm really uninspired by by what the reasons they're actually doing it for. So we celebrate that. I know we were talking about we celebrate the London thing. We absolutely do, you know, the the the 60s, all the the hippie stuff, and you know, the Hendrix, Sergeant Pepper, all of that, the way it went to. Um, but they were also influenced by American bands as well. You know, let's not forget, you know, the Stones and the Beatles, you know, they they Chuck Berry Records, Howling Wolf, um, the The Beach Boys, all of this. So there's a the secular thing going off. There's a thing of being inspired. I mean, even the punk thing, you know, New York dolls. That that that was '73. You know, that album came out. It's amazing. And it really inspired the Glam Rock period, all of this stuff, and we we actually got caught up in all of it. So it's just beautiful to be able to um take it all in and put it out in a in a in its own way. And I honestly can appreciate all the stuff that's on this box set because that is that. It's the culmination of all of those influences, all the culture, all the the genres of music, all of that. It just is kind of seeping out, and it's just a just a wonderful thing to be part of, I've got to say.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

It's an incredible collection. Music lovers are going to love it. And those that don't know Man Ray's, it's a perfect introduction, and there's just so much music. It is five discs. I feel weird sometimes saying discs because people download, you know. So that's like a five-record collection, if you will. Um, one, two, three, four, five. There's acoustic strip down, there's unreleased and unleashed. You've got the first two records, and of course, the all-instrumental, and that amazing, beautiful single, I surrender, which is just so good. Guys, this has been such a pleasure for me to actually pick the musical brain of Phil Collin and Paul Cook. I I I I, you know, usually I'm a big mouth, like I said, from Jersey, and I'm kind of speechless um to be able to spend some time with you guys. So grateful.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Thank you. Uh one of the one of the other things. Thank you. One of the other things that we I only realized when we was talking about the other day, it's like two members of this band are in the rock and roll hall of fame in in two separate bands. And it's like, well, that's that's that's what you never when someone mentioned it's like, wow, yeah, that's that's that's actually really cool. So you would hope it would get a bit more kind of um loved, you know, just based on the pedigree and and all of that stuff. And I I like it when you hear it, that's what it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

So it's it's and it's so interesting to see social media comments from new fans, too, because social media comments from new fans are like everybody's kind of like surprised. Like, holy shit, where has this been? Oh my god, this is incredible. Yeah, I haven't heard anything like this in a while. Join the club, bro. How come I'm how how did I not know about this? Though that's that's what you want. Uh, definitely that's what you want when the music fans are going have those oh wow moments, as opposed to like, oh, I can't believe these guys are still trying to pull this out of there or pull this out of here. You know, people are getting these natural reactions that I think is just like bang.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Yeah, that's good, that's good to hear, you know, because we're like us, like we touched on earlier, we did we didn't uh get any reaction whatsoever. I probably just wondered what we would do was totally crap, you know. I know, right? So it's uh it's nice to get a bit of feedback, and uh yeah, thank you for your time as well, Terry.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Absolutely, guys. It's been fabulous. Thank you guys so much. I will probably see you both on the road with your other bands. But I am fingers crossed for a man raise, just a one-off in New York City. There's so many cool, gritty places for you to play in the city, and I think it would be so super cool. So, uh, yeah, when that gets announced, I'm gonna be like the first one buying my tickets for that show.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Perfect. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Bill and Paul, thank you, my friends.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

See you well. All right, here, thank you. Don't forget to like this podcast and subscribe to the Car Stereo page on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Rob Moorhead, Tasty, and I will see you next time.