Rob Lane of Bulletboys/Teenage Casket Company

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by Derric Miller
Staff Writer

HRH: Rob, thanks for taking the time to talk with Hardrock Haven. To start with, you’ve been the touring bassist for the BulletBoys for a while now, and the band has a brand new album called ’10 Cent Billionaire’. Are you going to be hitting the road with them again?

Lane: I hope so….. anyone who’s kept track of the BulletBoys these past few years will know that for a long time the band was very much a revolving door of musicians other then Marq (Torien). Recently though it’s become a solid unit with the unique exception that there’s two bass players, myself and Stephen Allan who’ve both been in the band since 2007. To be honest, it’s not the strangest thing in the world and it works out pretty good especially as I’m based in the UK. I’ve done the last couple of European Tours and a US run earlier this year and Stephen has just come off the road on the last summer tour. It’s kinda funny, Stephen and I have never actually met but it feels like we’ve known each other for ages! There’s talk of some more European shows soon which’ll be great if I can jump on board those. I love all the guys in the band and playing live is great, they’re definately a big step up from a lot of the other bands in that particular genre and Marq is an awesome frontman.

HRH: How did you hook up with The BulletBoys, considering they are an American band and you are living in England right now?

Lane: Kind of weird from the outside looking in I guess but it was pretty simple. I’d seen a lot of Package Tours come to the UK with the same musicians playing several sets each night which makes sense financially but personally I think it’s a rip off for the crowd. So, I just took a stab and got in touch with the Booking Agency in the US and offered my ‘services’ should they ever need anyone. Never heard anything back for maybe two months then a couple of weeks before a European tour an email drops in my Inbox asking if I wanna play bass for The BulletBoys on a tour alongside Enuff Z’Nuff and Faster Pussycat?! Hell Yeah I do!! The rest is history I guess!

HRH: A while ago, you told me that you didn’t hit the studio with the band on this effort, but they use you in all the promo shots. Do you feel they are taking advantage of your Rock Star looks?

Lane: Ha Ha, that’s funny! I’m flattered if that’s the case but don’t think that’s the reason! I think all it is was, was that I happened to be the guy playing bass on the tour they had those shots done and they turned out to be the best ones. Jeff Zoccoli came out to a show in New Jersey and after our set took some cool pictures. It could have easily have been Stephen on that tour. Originally bassist Lonnie (Vencent) from back in the day started that run but was unable to complete the tour so I jumped on board. But yeah, I’m stoked! Shit dude, I’m on the promo for the new BulletBoys album…. for me, some kid from a small village in the UK who brought ‘Freakshow’ and ‘Za Za’ back in the day, that’s pretty frickin’ awesome!!

HRH: I actually first “met” you from your band Teenage Casket Company, a Hardrock Haven favorite and one-time HRH Band of the Month. You guys just played a live show in August after over two years apart. Tell us a little bit about getting on stage with the TCC gang again, and overall, what was TrashStock like?

Lane: It was really great to not only play together again but also just to hang out. Everyone in this band has very unique personalities which I think is one of the reasons we appealed to a lot of people in the first place. It’s gonna sound cheesy but when we hit the first note at rehearsal it was immediatly obvious the band was still gonna be able to step up to the plate in a live setting. Prior to TrashStock we did a couple of club shows and then the festival itself was great, it always is. This was the third time TCC have played and the fourth for me with my other band DIP, opening it last year. I had loads of technical problems but the crowd were just fantastic to us and I think it showed on all the YouTubes that turned up soon afterwards.

HRH: It’s obviously difficult touring with TCC lead singer Rob Wylde living over in the States at this time. That being said, do you guys have any plans to record a new studio release any time soon?

Lane: Well, even though the shows this past August were a lot of fun and a definate success it did teach us that in the past couple of years we’ve kinda moved on so whilst it was fun, Jamie (Delerict) has decided to leave the band. It’s not a massive shock and everything is cool but we’re in different places right now, not only geographically but metally too and whilst TCC is still very important to us I guess we all have to make some choices and move on. But, even with Jamie leaving which is gonna be weird ’cause he’s a huge presence in this band, we’re still forging on to what will be a very different chapter and we’re gonna be heading into the studio before the end of the year. Wylde has some great new songs which I’m excited about and can’t wait for everyone to hear. Time is very precious in this band right now so we have to use it whilst we can!

HRH: Next time TCC hits the studio, if you could choose any song to cover and record, what song would that be? And why?

Lane: Who knows? We’ve done some very different cover versions in the past….. we recorded D-Generation’s ‘Hatred’ and we always used to end our set with ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In’. There’s a funny story behind that which shows what VERY different musical backgrounds we all come from. When we suggested doing a Poison song we gave a tape (yes, a cassette) to Spike our drummer who comes from the Rush / Police style of drumming. At the next rehearsal he came back with the comment… ‘That’s not serious right?!’ I guess Rikki Rockett wasn’t quite in the same league as Stuart Copeland! Also, anyone who saw TCC when we first started will also remember us doing a song called ‘I’m On Your Radio’ which was written by Mitch Malloy on his Fluidsol project if anyone picked that up – killer song and great album! Perhaps now Jamie is no longer in the band we may have lost a little of the ‘TCC Quality Control’ so who knows, Wylde and myself might be looking at laying down some Trixter or Warrant – that would be awesome!

HRH: You are also in DIP, along with TCC and The BulletBoys. Wylde is in Sins of America, and I know Jamie and Spike also have side projects. With all of you guys working in 2-3 other projects, what is it going to take to have you all focus on TCC? Or is that just not in the cards at this time?

Lane: It is hard at times, probably more mentally than anything. I for one juggle far too many things at once and I’m sure it’s gonna come and bite me in the ass at some point. I thinks it’s probably the geographical element that’s making it hardest though. If the band was on a major album deal with money for travel and more time available then it would be a lot easier to sort schedules but you do what you do. At the risk of sounding bitter, TCC have never been given the breaks in the ‘industry’ which we felt we deserved. The fans have always been awesome and the critics too which is priceless to us, but the people with ‘power’ to really take things to the next level have never delivered so we just soldier on doing our own thing to the best of our capabilities and perhaps becasue of that it’s made us a stronger band?

HRH: Does this propensity for people to steal music instead of buy it directly and negatively influence your opportunity to focus on one band full-time?

Lane: Not really, the whole ‘stealing’ of music can be looked upon from so many different angles. It happens and it’s going to continue to happen even more so I think the only positive way of looking at it is to say, well if kids are gonna illegally download the music then at least I hope they’ll like it enough to come out to a show, rock out and buy some merch!

HRH: Speaking of other projects, I’ve never heard DIP (sorry!), so tell us a little bit about that band, how they differ from your other bands, and where can we find out more about them?

Lane: Wow dude…. DIP is a whole other interview in itself! I’ve been in that band for almost ten years. We’re all the very best of friends and I guess you can say we’re kind of a unique band! Imagine Bowling For Soup jamming to some old Van Halen with a big Faith No More influence, it’s that screwed up! There’s probably more influences flying about in that band than there is in TCC! There’s definately a big slant on humor in DIP and every gig is totally unique. I’d love to get more American’s opinions on the band for sure as I think, or at least I hope, they’d really like it, at least for the very British-ness which we exude! Check us out at either www.oyah.co.uk or www.myspace.com/oyah

HRH: Sorry, I left out one other band you are in – The Black Mollys. I just reviewed their new compilation and dug the hell out of it. Are you their European touring bassist, like with The BulletBoys? Or do you record in-studio with them as well?

Lane: The Black Mollys are another part of the whole interbred music scene we roll in! I met drummer Randi Scott when he was playing in Enuff Z’Nuff on my first BulletBoys run. We became friends, stayed in touch and then he invited me to play bass on a UK tour he was doing for The Black Mollys. The band is a project set up by Tory Stoffregen who is an incredible songwriter as you know from hearing the CD. The songs are in the mould of EXACTLY what I was into back in the mid/late nineties when I was trying desparately to avoid Grunge and Nu Metal and find something with at least a spot of melody. For me, bands like Everclear, Lit, American Hi Fi and The Gin Blossoms where what it was all about so when I heard The Black Mollys I freaked! Power Pop Heaven!! So in this strange screwed up world, it ended up with me playing bass for them when they hit the UK, when I can’t do it they call on Stephen Allan, my US bass brother from The BulletBoys and when the Mollys are not on the road, Tory is playing guitar in either Enuff Z’Nuff or The BulletBoys! You following all that?!!!

HRH: Besides being in a bunch of bands, you run TrashPit Records and TrashPit Magazine. You’ve released some killer music on that label, besides TCC, like The Black Mollys and The Erotics. I first heard Idiot3 on a TrashPit Compilation and I’m still addicted to that band. So, tell us a little bit about the label and the mag …

Lane: The fact you say the Label has released some killer music makes my day! That all I wanna acheive and get people to ‘trust’ what I put out and take a chance on it even if they’re not familiar with the band. The Magazine started back in 2003 just before TCC got together. There wasn’t much music around at the time which you could call Hard Rock – at least not in my opinion, but all of a sudden bands started to appear…. Butch Walker became a God, Robin Black from Canada reinvented Glam Rock and made it vital again and the awesome Bowling For Soup hit big in the UK! This was what I wanted to see in a magazine alongside my favorite bands from back in the day but that magazine didn’t exist so what the hell, I’ll start my own! From the magazine the label was born, initially as a vehicle for the TCC albums but since then it’s grown steadily and I’m very proud of what it’s released. There’s no massive budget and I don’t earn a dime but it’s on it’s way up. Drop by the website and buy some stuff! www.trashpit.co.uk

HRH: So what’s next for you? What’s the next big project you are working on?

Lane: Who knows?! There’s always talk of something possibly happening. For me I just wanna stay busy. The label has a couple more CDs on the horizon which I’m excited about, TCC whilst in a changing stage are on the verge of something new, DIP are gonna be returning to the studio to mix our new album and there’s always something brewing in The BulletBoys and Black Mollys camps so we’ll see what happens over the next few months!

HRH: Is there anything I left out that you’d like to leave with our Hardrock Haven faithful?

Lane: Dude, the fact that you and the webzine have championed TCC since the very beginning means a hell of a lot.You’ve done it with a great sense of humor and I hope we can continue to put out music you enjoy – I hope to hang out and share a beer with you one day too! For everyone that has heard about TCC through the website – thanks so much for checking us out go hunt down the new BulletBoys CD – you’re gonna freak when you hear what Torien has come up with!

www.myspace.com/roblane
www.myspace.com/trashpit
www.myspace.com/teenagecasketcompany
www.myspace.com/officialbulletboys
www.myspace.com/theblackmollys
www.myspace.com/oyah