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(Spring 2006) by Stephanie Lynne Thorburn
The origins of Leaf Hound take the listener on a curious tight-rope walk,
balanced between 1960’s bluesy psychedelia and the archetypal hard
rock grooves of the ‘70’s. Their cult album ‘Growers
Of Mushroom’ was canned in one eleven hour session at Spot Studios Mayfair,
featuring tracks penned by guitarist Mick Halls and vocalist Pete French.
The Growers album was a lyrically, musically and spiritually full- on record
that got famously locked in the vaults of time, resurrected by collectors,
enchanted by its legacy as a Pandora’s box of surprises. At first glance,
Leaf Hound would appear to be of the same stock as Zeppelin, Free, sometimes
even a pastiche of The Faces, occasionally expressing a musical cliché or
two. The Hound has endured remarkably well, precisely because there is a
great deal more to the enigma than first meets the eye. In fact, testament
to the band’s cult status is their stature achieved through word of
mouth as a seminal underground stoner rock outfit.
A 2005 edition of The Growers album was unleashed last year, the poetry
and mystique still as rhetorically rich thirty years later, with Neil Jordan
recently working the gutsy ‘Freelance Fiend’ into the sound track
of his latest picture. By popular demand a new incarnation of the Hound is
most definitely back, headed by original frontman Peter French. Having enjoyed
stints with Atomic Rooster and Cactus, he has also endured periods of down
time and anonymity from the industry, but still possesses a physical presence
on stage like a vocal time lord. It was indeed a privilege to have the opportunity
of interviewing Pete and newly established songwriting partner, guitarist
Luke Rayner on familiar territory by Camden’s Underworld nightspot
this April. The duo were invigorated at the prospect of discussing all areas
of natural interest surrounding the ‘renaissance’ of the mighty
Hound.
RIL: What have the highlights of the past couple of years been for you?
There was a great gig last Easter when Mick Halls came down to play.
Luke: Yes that was great. My favourite
gig was in Sweden though, the Kaktus festival and they were an incredible crowd.
They had to have barriers
in front of the stage and stewards to keep the guys back; people drunk and
shouting for this and that number. In Sweden all these people had come to
see us and knew all the songs we were doing.
Pete:
There were a lot of people turning up expecting to see some old guys and
they were pleased to see a young band up there
(including myself
of course!), alive and kicking. When I first heard these ‘new boys’ jam
I thought it was fresh, and the whole thing has been a catalyst for a new
continuation and album.
RIL: What have been the main differences between working with this band now
and the original Leaf Hound?
Pete: It’s very hard to say because I have the most fantastic
respect for my cousin Mick Halls who now lives in San Diego and he is a superb
musician. He worked on my solo album with me, he wrote on the Leaf Hound
album; Mick and me have written so many things that it was a shame he married
and moved away. I think we would be a five- piece band if that weren’t
the case, because he’s a very creative guy. I had a wonderful time
with Mick and we worked well and now he’s doing his thing and of course
wishes the band well. If we get on a major tour, I’m sure we would
invite him in to help us out and in the interim there is nothing missing
except to say the original band played as a four- piece band live. We haven’t
lost anything, we’ve gained and when you get down to the writing we
have tried to encapsulated the same ‘Zeppelinesque’ type of riff
thing, with the psychedelic Floyd feel, it’s very original.
Luke: Some people have said that our new songs aren’t quite
the same as the old songs, but we’ve had thirty- five years of music
since one album and the new one and thirty- five years of listening to different
artists.
Pete: I’ve been in Cactus, Randy Pie
and done my solo album..
Luke: Obviously I am influenced by everything
that has come between as well, so we aren’t going to write songs
that are exactly the same.
Pete: The structures and underlying attitude of this
band is not dissimilar, but the new songs are fresh.
RIL: So, yes I do want to ask about the new album ‘Unleashed’,
you are co-writing the new material I believe, how are you getting on?
Pete: We’ve done an awful lot of it, and it’s pretty
much finished actually. There are three writers in the band, with Ed Pearson
writing as well. The majority of it though is like the relationship which
Keith Richards and Jagger have, where Luke and myself communicate to each
other.
RIL: I’ve got the track listing here of the new material and I’ve
also heard some of the new songs live. I was particularly taken by your version
of the Atomic Rooster number, ‘Breakthrough’ Luke!
Luke: Yes, I’d say it was even better in the studio than live
because there is more chance to put more guitars on there. Every part on
the original is on there but played by guitar- it’s a big number.
Pete: It fits in with the band beautifully.
It was one of my favourites with Atomic Rooster, it’s nice to be able to do it again in memory
of Vincent Crane and nice to be able to show the talent of my guitar player
over keyboards. Yes, it’s gone down well and we’ve just written
two brand new compositions, ‘The Man With The Moon In Him’, a
personal favourite of mine and the other is one that Luke conceived, ‘Deception’ a
lilting sort of number, Randy California almost. One thing I would boast
about is that I would not like to be in a band without musical quality. I
like musical composition, I like lyrical content, root musical content. The
thing about Zeppelin if I’ve learnt from them is that they had this
quality of going up and down in their dynamics. They took blues and rock,
delivering it in a nice way, like a story, not monotonous.
Luke: Actually, I’m quite surprised at the stoner following
we have. I’ve got into some stoner bands like Orange Goblin, Fu Manchu,
but would never link them to Leaf Hound and if someone is totally into stoner,
I couldn’t see how they would liken it to Leaf Hound?
RIL: There are elements of ‘seminal’ stoner music in
Leaf Hound as well as Zeppelin- back to basics, quality stripped down production..
Pete: I hope so. We tend to be riff based, not
intentionally ‘Zeppelinesque’,
but we have that attachment, at the end of the day, it’s rock and it’s
good music. I think the fact we are liked by the stoner scene is because
the head bangers can get into other hard rock acts and on our new album we
have tracks like ‘105 Degrees’, but then we like to go back to
good old-fashioned music with melodic structure too..
RIL: Moving onto the Roadburn Festival 2006, you will be sharing
the bill with bands like Hawkwind, Orange Goblin, Brant Bjork, Witchcraft
and Colour
Haze. There’s every genre from space rock, psychedelic, stoner, metal
to blues. The festival is quite consistent in representing bands that you
have been sharing the stage with from your sector of the industry over the
past few years. What will make the festival special for you?
Luke: Roadburn, well just to be there with the
big names, to be considered to be a ‘big name’ as well and to get that billing with everyone.
Pete: He’s such a modest guy and I have every faith in him!
I can’t wait to put this band up with the others.
Luke: You look at bands like Witchcraft and
they’re great,
but we stand out from all those guys as not exactly what they are.. My style
especially, I do play in a bluesy, Zeppelin style, but there is a lot of
Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai in there as well, things that I listened to
when I was younger. I think we will really stand out at Roadburn and not
in a bad way, but we have much more commercial appeal to Hawkwind; I love
them but they are very niche market. What I like is rock music with hooks
and I think that is what Leaf Hound is, a lot of hooks and memorable radio
stuff as well, still heavy rock with signatures.
Pete: It still has the all-important attitude
in there, with colour, hooks. We’re not inhibited to show what our craft is all about. To
be honest, I think we’ve written some bloody good songs! Look at it
from my point of view, I’ve got so many machine gunners coming at me
turning around saying the old album was a five- star, how are you going to
top it? I’ve got to make sure that this band collectively is going
to deliver equally as good an album in the modern sense as the old one. It
will be up to the public, hopefully they will see what we’ve tried
to do, and we’ve put a lot of work into it!
RIL: When is the new album
due out?
Pete: Well that’s a good question because we financed it ourselves
and we’ve got it mixed. The Sweden Rock Festival said that it would
be great to do a presentation at Sweden Rock, (June 2006). Between the winning
post and starting there is contract, songwriting, album cover design, liner
notes, deal with distributor, getting the whole thing mixed to our satisfaction.
So, optimistically we will try for June.
RIL: Were you happy with the 2005 re-release of the Growers
Of Mushroom album
on Repertoire Records last year?
Pete: I was delighted, because
Luke Rayner is not only a bloody good guitar player, but he also has good
ears and a mean studio. He re-mastered
the whole damn thing in his studio and it wasn’t the record company
who re-mastered it, but this young man here.. We sat in and listened and
got it just how we wanted it. The mastering on ‘Too Many Rock n’Roll
Times’ we sent to the States, mixed and mastered and we never lost
anything on the translation. Repertoire do bygone albums, and when they met
me I said, “I will give you a new song for the album” which seems
to have cultivated a whole new thing. They have a living, breathing band
on Repertoire now.
RIL: I notice there are new bonus tracks and some, which were taken from sessions
not on the original album.
Pete: Yes, it’s more fair to the buyer, the way Repertoire
did the artwork was superb and Chris Welch’s sleeve notes... A truly
colourful, wonderful package. Very professional. Most of the feedback I get
is that they really love it; Record Collector and Classic Rock have written
wonderful reviews about the album, which is a complement to me and my cousin
Mick and for the new band.
RIL: So, where do you want to take Leaf Hound onto now?
Pete: What I would like to do is to see
the band become successfully acclaimed and be recognised for the new songs
and standing on its own. On
a personal note I feel that I will have really done something quite unique
in the music business to come back and turn it right round and do what I
should have done all those years ago, so it will be wonderful!
Luke: For me it’s a dream come true to
play in a classic rock band and an original rock band, a band that already
has a certain amount
of acclaim and following. In a small way I feel part of rock history, it’s
a really weird feeling and for me, it’s incredible to be here with
Pete and the rest of the guys and we all get on well, it’s an easy
feeling. The opportunities we’ve been given in terms of concerts and
the re-release have been fantastic.
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LUKE
RAYNER & PETE FRENCH
