{"id":21075,"date":"2014-04-14T07:30:54","date_gmt":"2014-04-13T21:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=21075"},"modified":"2014-04-12T13:06:29","modified_gmt":"2014-04-12T03:06:29","slug":"whitfield-crane-of-ugly-kid-joe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2014\/04\/whitfield-crane-of-ugly-kid-joe\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n<\/a>\u201c\u2026we survived the first tier of it in our early twenties when we blew the fuck up around that world and that was a lot to survive and to negotiate from a lot of different angles, so now for me personally I know what to celebrate and I know what to let go of\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From tour release: UGLY KID JOE\u2019s EP Stairway To Hell, their first new music since 1996, will be released in Australia to coincide with the tour. The album features six brand new songs along with three acoustic versions of songs from their past. A special added bonus is a DVD of the band\u2019s triumphant performance at England\u2019s Download Festival from Summer 2012. Tracks like \u201cEverything About You\u201d, \u201cCats In The Cradle\u201d, \u201cNeighbor\u201d and \u201cMilkman\u2019s Son\u201d continue to receive airplay around the world, while new singles \u201cDevil\u2019s Paradise\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m Alright\u201d show where the band are headed.<\/p>\n

After a long time away from the spotlight, we chatted to Whitfield Crane about the band getting back together, their upcoming tour of Australia as well as what the future holds for America\u2019s Least Wanted\u2026<\/p>\n

I have to start off by saying there was a very big break between releases for the band, so why was it the right time to get back together and release music after so long apart?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know, there\u2019s probably a myriad of reasons for that, we all went our separate ways and then at the thirteenth hour on a twelve hour clock *laughs*, we put it back together and it felt good to do it and here we are.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d kept busy during the lengthy \u2018hiatus\u2019 but did you think that deep down Ugly Kid Joe would play together again or was there a time when you personally thought Ugly Kid Joe would never see the light of day again??<\/strong>
\nYeah I thought it was over after about ten years I was like I guess well it\u2019s over and that was that\u2026 I was always ready, I love singing so I thought maybe that would happen but it never did, and then for some reason at this late hour fifteen years later it did, and we made \u2018Stairway To Hell\u2019 and it sounds fuckin\u2019 awesome. Then we went and toured and have been touring for the last seventeen months around the world and it\u2019s been received amazingly *laughs* and you never know if it\u2019s going to work\u2026 you hope it does, and it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n

Your newest works, the \u2018Stairway To Hell\u2019 EP is raw, rockin\u2019 and has influences written all over it even via the title, when creating it was there a conscious decision on what you wanted to include or did the whole thing just fall into place exactly how you wanted it to?<\/strong>
\nWell pretty much an organic thing, we have a pretty great talent pool with all the different people that are in or around the band, we all love each other. You go in and we had maybe twelve songs to go through, and some songs make it and some songs don\u2019t and the amount of songs that made it were six songs, and of course we threw in the acoustic songs later, but yeah, you can hear our influences for sure, Priest to AC\/DC to Black Sabbath, there it is\u2026<\/p>\n

After so long away from the band, how did you approach the song writing and what is your inspiration these days?<\/strong>
\nOh you know, what do you do as a human being? You mirror everything from language to morality really, so for me I\u2019m in love with the bands I\u2019m in love with and have been from a teen, you know I\u2019m in love with certain bands so what you really do is you mirror that, you\u2019re inspired by that and you channel that really, and at least what I do is I put myself into it as well, so it all probably starts with Chuck Berry and Little Richard and goes through a lot of metamorphosis and it ends up with AC\/DC or The Stones or whatever. By the time it gets to us, one of the subtleties of why I believe Stairway to Hell is so fuckin\u2019 great is that it was a cathartic process, we liked being with each other, we never hated each other at the break up, but I\u2019ll tell you this, when you take out the thread that keeps you together in whatever marriage and of course with Ugly Kid Joe it\u2019s music, and to put us back together there was such a familiarity and it was beautiful, it was beautiful to be in those moments, so it sounds like that. So the songs are great and I\u2019ve worked on myself over the years to become an evolved singer and I think I have, and then you have that part of the equation that\u2019s almost indescribable, when there\u2019s something beyond the obvious that wants it all to work, and I don\u2019t know what you\u2019d call that but there\u2019s some real magic going on in the process for sure.<\/p>\n

What was the idea behind the rerecording of \u2018Cats In The Cradle\u2019 for this new EP?<\/strong>
\nHopefully people would remember us, that was my idea\u2026 but hey\u2026 you sit there and we\u2019re our own managers, we\u2019re our own producers, the record industry as we knew it is gone and I think that\u2019s ok. So when we\u2019re sitting there first person, I think it\u2019s ok for us to have an idea and apply that idea, so we originally released the six songs through a digital platform including Tune Core and some others around the world and we found out to our surprise that people actually wanted hard copy product or whatever you want to call it, CD\u2019s\u2026 and we thought that\u2019s cool, so obviously you make to that more interested and put some acoustic songs on there, and I remember that we always used to do a beautiful version of \u2018Cats In The Cradle\u2019 that Harry Chapin song acoustically, I think you can even look at a version of that from back in the day on \u2018Hey Hey It\u2019s Saturday!\u2019 if my memory banks serve me right\u2026 So we did that and hopefully, it\u2019s been fifteen years so maybe someone will say \u2018hey I remember those guys\u2019 and then that can be a beautiful Trojan horse to get you in the door to listen to Stairway To Hell.<\/p>\n

Well we remember you, because after twenty years you\u2019re heading back to Australia with Skid Row for some shows, which in my opinion this is a great pairing, what can fans have in store for an Ugly Kid Joe set circa 2014?
\n<\/strong>Well we\u2019re on fuckin fire dude\u2026 we just did a co-headline tour with Skid Row from October 22nd<\/sup> to November 26th<\/sup> in the UK and Europe, that was 29 shows in 36 days and we\u2019re on fuckin\u2019 point, I\u2019m healthier than I\u2019ve ever been, I\u2019m sitting here talking to you on Skype in Costa Rica right now getting in and out of the water every day and sometimes you want it, sometimes you want to be there and want to perform and sometimes you don\u2019t and right now we\u2019re so excited to be performing again in this capacity *laughs* and a kick ass rock and roll show is what you can expect.<\/p>\n

So what has the reaction been to seeing Ugly Kid Joe back out on the road?<\/strong>
\nPeople are stoked, and the thing is, if you asked me before and I\u2019d let go of this and I had no idea the micro or macro effect that it had on this band, Ugly Kid Joe, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m just some guy right *laughs* and we went out and played these shows and packed these rooms and we talked to people and we meet the fans and you realise that you think of your childhood and think of Sabbath and Priest and bong hits and dropping acid and the whole thing, and for some reason\u2026 I don\u2019t think we\u2019re as cool as those bands but for some people that come to see our shows, we\u2019re the musical soundtrack for cool moments in their lives, so it\u2019s pretty fuckin cool for me. You hear first person stories of a positive effect you may have had on somebody\u2019s life and that\u2019s really cool, so it\u2019s been a real good ride, we survived the first tier of it in our early twenties when we blew the fuck up around that world and that was a lot to survive and to negotiate from a lot of different angles, so now for me personally I know what to celebrate and I know what to let go of, so we concentrate on making kick ass music and giving a kick ass show, and connecting with people.<\/p>\n

You have toured Australia before, some twenty years ago next year; do you have a memory of touring Australia you can share with us?<\/strong>
\nAustralia we were still drunk, we were wasted for about two and half years *laughs* the thing about Ugly Kid Joe, is when we broke\u2026 we broke, we broke around the world and we toured for two and a half years and I remember going to Australia and that was our biggest market, and I remember playing \u2018Hey Hey It\u2019s Saturday!\u2019 and we were staying at the Sebel hotel, I remember drinking a lot but that leads to a bunch of stuff I don\u2019t remember\u2026 but I have a really big place in my heart for Australia because it\u2019s like California in the seventies, it\u2019s my kind of people. Yes, Australia was fun\u2026<\/p>\n

I always felt when \u2018Everything About You\u2019 was released, and even though it was a hit and still a great song to this day, that it was hard for the band to be taken seriously, like it was more of a novelty song\u2026<\/strong>
\nWell it is a novelty song… *laughs*<\/p>\n

But then it wasn\u2019t until \u2018Cats In The Cradle\u2019 was released as a single that people really stood up and took notice. Was that something you felt you had to \u2018battle\u2019 back in 1992 \/ 1993 when grunge had really come in full swing and taken over?<\/strong>
\n100% you know, without a doubt and that song is a novelty song and Cats In The Cradle is a super deep song, if you know the depth of the band and you know all the songs on America\u2019s Least Wanted and in particularly if you know all the songs on Menace To Sobriety and then you can make an assessment if what the band is all about, but if you only know two songs then you only know two songs\u2026 but yeah, grunge came and killed everything, Nirvana came along and smacked everyone in the face, and that was probably needed, we were probably the last band\u2026 well the thing about it is, we never took ourselves too seriously and we still don\u2019t, we were cynical of the whole thing anyway, we never put girls in our videos, we never did that, we mocked all that. We were timed in an interesting way and I think it\u2019s important for us just to be grateful for having the experience and todays a new day.<\/p>\n

Looking back though at when everything did take off for the band, was there one specific moment when you felt that you\u2019d \u2018made it\u2019?<\/strong>
\nYes\u2026 well I don\u2019t feel like I ever made it, I just don\u2019t feel that, there\u2019s just different moments when I was so blown away, like imagine me in my Mom\u2019s house in my own room, and my room was called the \u2018room of doom\u2019 and it was covered in pot posters and Judas Priest posters and Zeppelin posters and Jimi Hendrix posters\u00a0 and AC\/DC posters and on and on it goes and I would sit there and play air guitar on my tennis racquet and I would break a sweat, my mom thought I was insane and I was and I still am insane, and anyway, there\u2019s a whole different bunch of experiences where all of a sudden we really are on tour with Van Halen or we really are on tour with Ozzy, or I\u2019m singing on stage with Ozzy or Eddie Van Halen comes in our dressing room and is playing the beginning of \u2018Mean Street\u2019 all these weird experiences where I went from being a kid in my room of doom just committing to rock and roll to actually being on the stage and being inside the posters I was staring at my whole youth. So I don\u2019t know if that equates to making but surely it\u2019s just something really neat from just dreaming it to being inside the dream. What is making it? We sold a couple of million records, and we toured around the world, but by no means were we ever rock stars, we were never that. We\u2019re working musicians. *laughs*<\/p>\n

And opening for Bon Jovi at Wembley in 1995 too must\u2019ve been a big moment\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh yeah that was insane, \u201995 tour Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Ugly Kid Joe it was AWESOME, 80,000 seats a day, packed out, that was at our peak and we were on fire, that was the \u2018Menace To Sobriety\u2019 tour and imagine that, imagine that they give you a wireless mic and at the moment you\u2019re one of three singers singing to 80,000 people, and that\u2019s a form of making it I guess *laughs* of course you\u2019re the loudest in the room, you can say whatever. Let me tell you this man, I love to perform, you do an interview with someone much like yourself, and you make music and you do a lot of things and I\u2019m grateful to do all of that, the reason I do all of it though is to get to the stage, I really enjoy performing live, and that\u2019s the truth. So that to me, if you\u2019re actually touring, and there\u2019s been a couple of years where I wasn\u2019t afforded those opportunities and I thought literally it was all over and that\u2019s sad, and to have a reprise or whatever you want to call it, were happy to perform literally around the world, so life is good for Ugly Kid Joe.<\/p>\n

From this, do you think we can expect more down the road from Ugly Kid Joe and if so, what\u2019s next?<\/strong>
\nHmm\u2026 we\u2019re gonna come your way in April, I\u2019m gonna train in Costa Rica until then, and then I\u2019ve got some neat stuff on the back burner I can\u2019t share with you right now, but some neat stuff that\u2019s independent of Ugly Kid Joe, and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll go in in the next couple of months, but it\u2019s not good to shove anything or run away from anything, but in my mind everyone\u2019s as pleased as they could be with how it\u2019s been and once again we can do all this in house and we can produce it ourselves and we can work together as a big giant musical team, So I personally *laughs* want to go and make more music, so hopefully that\u2019ll manifest in a little while in a couple of months.<\/p>\n

Lastly, 2014 is underway, so let\u2019s predict the future. Finish this sentence, in 2014 Ugly Kid Joe will\u2026<\/strong>
\nPlay a show with Black Sabbath\u2026 just throwing that out there *laughs*\u00a0 no, no, let\u2019s revamp it, you can keep that one, let\u2019s say it out loud and proud\u2026 in 2014, Ugly Kid Joe will go on a world tour with main support for AC\/DC\u2026 that\u2019s what I want. Dude, rub the genie bottle, ask the genie, say \u2018dude, we don\u2019t need three wishes, just one\u2019 and tell them about the wish please.
\nKillRockStar Entertainment Presents:\u00a0<\/strong>Skid Row & Ugly Kid Joe –\u00a0Australian Tour 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wednesday 23 April Metropolis. Fremantle
\n<\/strong>With special guests Dead City Ruins<\/p>\n

Friday 25 April Palace Theatre. Melbourne.
\n<\/strong>With special guests Dead City Ruins<\/p>\n

Saturday 26 April\u00a0 Eatons Hill. Brisbane
\n<\/strong>With special guests Dead City Ruins<\/p>\n

Sunday 27 April HiFi. Sydney
\n<\/strong>With special guests Dead City Ruins<\/p>\n

You can win tickets to see Ugly Kid Joe with Skid Row in Australia HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Essential information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From: <\/strong>Isla Vista, California, <\/strong>USA<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0 Whit Crane \u2014 vocals, Klaus Eichstadt \u2014 guitar, Dave Fortman \u2014 guitar, Cordell Crockett \u2014 bass, Shannon Larkin \u2014 drums<\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> Stairway To Hell (EP \u2013 Out Now)<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.uglykidjoe.net<\/a>
\n\n

\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t