Sheffield based Crimes Of Passion formed in 2005, and played their first gig at that year's Firefest Pre-show party. With their debut album due for release July 21st and a European tour with White Lion imminent, Ant Heeks caught up with vocalist Dale Radcliffe, drummer Kev Tonge, guitarist Andy Lindsay and new Bassist Simon Fearns at their album launch party to get the full story.

How would you describe your sound?

Dale: I'd like to think that it's quite unique, that it's quite a mixture of styles … maybe something like Skid Row meets Bullet For My Valentine or Funeral For A Friend. We've all got influences in obviously Maiden, Skid Row, Motley Crue … these are the bands that made us get into heavy metal in the first place, all these sort of bands rub off and this is why we wanted to keep the melodic vocal lines and the catchy choruses, but the thing that appealed to all of us are a lot of the bands like Trivium, Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine, that kind of thing, that kind of big sound. We wanted melodic songs, but heavy.

You wanted them to appeal to a big audience

Yeah, and I think we are quite happy with what's come out now, cos it does. There's people into melodic rock who like it and people into hardcore that like it. I think we've achieved what we wanted, eventually. There are still some AOR type of songs on the album like ‘Exit Wound' which is the first tune we wrote, but still it makes a varied album. When we talked influences and directions to go it appealed to me that there were no limits, it didn't matter if it was a ballad, or thrash metal, whatever came out went, there were no limitations. We knocked out ‘Exit Wound', ‘Pretty In Blood' and ‘Dream Of Me' fairly quickly, and it was quite evident from the start it was going to work. Then we were looking for a name, and I suggested Crimes Of Passion which is a line from the song ‘Pretty in Blood'.

You sought a producer and went ahead and recorded the album without the backing of a record label. What prompted this and was it the right decision?

Definitely! Yeah, we obviously had a demo of the 3 songs and we approached quite a few record labels and we were told initially that they liked it but they wanted to hear more, so we thought well, if we are recording more then we might at well record a whole album. We were fortunate enough that the studio we recorded at is quite near so we had the luxury of being able to pop up every evening, so it was easy to do. I mean we paid for it out of our own pockets and what have you, but with hindsight obviously now that we are signed we actually get more of a cut for ourselves. We are not paying anybody back you see, so its worked out quite well. It will be more profitable for us.

Why did you choose John Mitchell?

Well John Mitchell mixed it and Tim Turan actually mastered it. We finished recording at Orion Studios in Sheffield. It's a guy we know, Steve Ellis, things went fairly smoothly, but he's not an expert at mixing. He did our demo but we felt we wanted a little bit beyond his capabilities. He's still fairly new to it but don't get me wrong, he's got a great studio and he knows how to use it. The time we spent with him recording was spot on. I don't think we would have done it any other way, being so near and convenient. We spent all the time we needed to get things right. Somebody recommended John Mitchell to us having done bands like Funeral For A Friend and Enter Shikari … these are chartable rock bands, really well known bands with fantastic sounding albums, all the sort of bands we are listening to. So we had a word with him, we sent him a song, which was ‘Breathless And Beautiful', and it came back a completely different song to what we had heard on the rough mix, and so we thought right that's it, there's our man. So we sent it all to him. John doesn't actually master stuff himself so he then recommended us to Tim Turan at Turan Audio who then mastered it, so yes it all fell into place really nicely.

You have got Tony Mills guesting as well

We certainly have, he's singing on 4 tracks. We supported Shy a few years ago and Tony took a bit of a shine to us. We got quite pally with him, he liked our stuff and it just came about when we wanted some backing vocals doing in a hurry. Rather than me going through all the rigmarole, we wanted a different sounding voice on there, rather than me helped out by Andy and Kris, as it all started sounding the same. We wanted a bit of variation. We were also getting pushed for deadlines we needed to meet, and for gigs we needed something ready to sell, so we got in touch with Tony and said could he turn them around in a fortnight. He did those 4 songs basically just by us phoning up and asking if he was up for it and that was that.

Where will the album be available?

Well basically HMV, it's already on their website as a pre-order but it will be HMV, Zavvi, Amazon, Itunes … it's all through Pinnacle distribution so it'll get everywhere everything else does basically. At this stage its only European, but we are looking into a Japanese release early next year, so we are going to have to put the inevitable Japanese bonus track on there somewhere, and looking to the USA, it's all going to happen, it's going to get released everywhere to be honest.

How do you write the songs, individual ideas or a more democratic approach?

Generally 90 percent of the time, the ball starts rolling with Andy, with an idea, a guitar riff and then the next thing that happens a tune will start developing in my head, a vocal melody, so me and Andy will ricochet off each other, my vocal line over his. He might change something to suit what I feel we might need or vice versa. I would need to knock out a verse and chorus to know if the song's going to work, then we'll start basically adding more complications and putting the obligatory guitar solo in, things like that, and the middle eight the pre-choruses, all those sort of bits come after, but the main thing for me to know if it's going to work is a verse and a chorus.

You've toured with bands such as White Lion, Jeff Scott Soto, Danny Vaughn, Gotthard and Great White. Have you learnt anything from any of them?

Yes, they are all as skint as us, ha ha! I've learnt a hell of a lot because, I mean when I was a teenager and into metal bands like White Lion and Talisman, those sort of bands, you always perceive them as being like up there, millionaires, but it's bizarre when you actually tour with them you find they're not actually earning that much money for a lot of hard graft, and you kind of take your hat off to them. This is why it gets annoying when people slag bands off, they haven't got a clue just how much hard work goes into it. People like Jeff Scott Soto, just look how many projects the guy does, he does nothing but graft.

How do you manage your lives with the demands of touring and rehearsing?

Easier for some of us than others. I've got no family as such yet, so it's quite easy for me, I'm self employed. Simon's got no family yet. I mean obviously Simon's a newcomer here but he's taken the plunge, he's put the band first like we all do straight away, it's in an early stage, it's all new to him and he's put it first, but obviously it's a little more difficult when there's children involved. The only way it can work is by putting the band first all the time.

Is that one of the reasons Kris Hudson-Lee (original bassist) left the band?

Basically yes, he found it more difficult than the rest of us to get away, to let work down, let his wife down. I think Kris is maybe happier playing in a band that plays 2 or 3 times a month, still getting the buzz of playing but doesn't need as much dedication. It's upsetting everybody around you leaving everybody out.

How is Simon fitting in, has he bought anything new to the band?

Dale: Ask the man himself!

Simon: I don't think I've bought anything new just yet cos we haven‘t started writing. I haven't bought any new songs yet, I've just been beavering away.

Dale: Just from my point of view he's a different player from Kris, a more aggressive player. For me personally it adds to what I want to hear out of the band. Kris is a great bass player, good technical player and everything but I think Simon's playing is more fitting to the direction that we feel we are going in.

You take your music very seriously but there is a strong sense of humour within the band, with your between song raps. Is this an important side of things?

We are now joined by Kev and Andy, so I ask Kev about the choice of label

You've signed a deal with Vigilante, any particular reason for the choice?

Kev: We talked with four or five other labels, and as a new band starting out labels are not willing to take a risk nowadays like they did when Skid Row and Winger and all these bands started on the scene. With your downloading and stuff like that, more people are doing it that way, so as a result labels are suffering so the deals you get offered from a label are crap when you are going to get 40 pence per album back. We did it through Vigilante because their distribution network in Europe is second to none and we get more money basically so we can finance more tours, so the more records we sell the more money we get so the more tours we can do. The aim of this game, we are not going to sell a million records and make a million pounds, it won't happen we just need to get the name out there with the first album so people know what we are about. Hence doing the White Lion tour and Vixen next April. Pinnacle are the leading independent distributors in the UK so we are on the right track cos they do everybody, and then we have got the equivalent in Europe. What we haven't got in Europe Plastic Head do, who are one of the big guys basically so we've got a fantastic distribution network. The guys we are doing PR with, we've signed with Metal Music Management in Sweden, we are using Maria from Avispa in Spain, Vanuccio from GT in Italy, they are all doing promo for bands, so they are not just releasing the album into the shops they are doing radio play as well. It's really good and things are starting to turn now. Our advert is due to come out in Metal Hammer in Spain this month, it's a big issue they're doing with loads of promos so basically when we land in Spain in July with White Lion hopefully people will have heard of us, the album will be there and we've got plenty of radio interviews to do so hopefully they'll know who we are.

How much do you attribute the contribution of MySpace to your fan base, and how has it helped to promote the band?

Dale: Enormously to be honest. I mean you just kinda target the areas that we know we are gigging, the sort of band that we support and get in touch with. Absolutely, it's done us a lot of favours. You get to know the people who are coming to the shows before, because you get a reply "thanks for the request, we'll see you in such and such" or wherever, so you know, it's a fantastic tool. It's one of the most important things that's happened on the internet for bands, definitely. I think without MySpace, I honestly think it would be a step backwards to how it used to be. MySpace is absolutely brilliant, really important. I mean where else does an unsigned band get like getting on for 200 plays a day of their stuff in Italy, Spain, Germany, where else would we have got that in the early days? Some bands that I'm just getting into I discovered by accident, just through MySpace. It's fantastic.

Kev: It's a main tool nowadays. Your main band website now does very little. You can click onto someone's profile who's into the bands we like such as Iron Maiden and Dio, send them a link saying check out our site and if they like it you've got a fan, so it's got to be advantageous to any band. You've got to put the work in and use it as a proper tool. We've all done it now, we've had people from Sweden, Norway, people who are on White Lion's MySpace site say "we love your music, can't wait to see you as well, when's the album out?" So straight away you've got an album sale, so it's got to be beneficial.

What are your views on the current UK rock scene, and where do Crimes Of Passion fit in?

Dale: I think the UK rock scene is buzzing, it's still there. I mean that's quite evident, but I think there is too much sort of … I'm thinking how to describe it… if you go to Germany they'll like you if you're a good band regardless of whether you're metal, over here I think if you're not a particular style that's not cool at the moment, you're barking up the wrong tree for the charts. I've got to be honest, over here I think the music scene is a bit Emperor's New Clothes in a way. It is a good rock scene over here, it's still there, it's not as in your face as it is if you go to places like Norway or Germany or Holland. Over there they are proud to be into metal. Over here, if you're a metal band that's not cool. There's none of that kind of attitude in other countries. But there are some great bands out there, that's what it is and you just work round it, can't change it, you play to the people that you want here in England and look forward to playing to twice as many people when you go abroad! I'm not just talking from our perspective, I mean White Lion as well. We're just a little bit more accepted over there.

Any message for Fireworks readers?

Kev: That our album is very, very good and would make a wonderful addition to anyone's record collection!

Visit www.crimesofpassion.org
And www.myspace.com/crimesofpassionrock