We had the pleasure of heading down to the Craufurd Arms in Milton Keynes last week to see ever-awesome The New Roses. Because of that, we felt like we just had to check in with frontman Timmy, a year after our last interview!
Last time we spoke was this time last year. How’s the last year been?
Nice question! So we released the record, it’s been out for a year now. It’s been going great. We’ve been touring all of Germany and Europe. We’ve been to Spain and France and now we’re here in the UK so we’ve travelled a lot. It was the busiest festival season ever in our career. We played everywhere and every festival. It was so cool!
The record was received very well. Especially songs like ‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘Warpaint’. It’s been great. Love songs were received very well. So we can’t complain!
And how’s the UK tour been?
We’re finally on it! We had the luck that last year in Switzerland we played a festival and we met Massive Wagons. They played I think two slots before us, and I watched their show and I was amazed. They’re really good! So much energy and a really nice vibe. A real friendly energy. So I called him [Barry] up on stage to jam with us. We kinda really connected and we stayed in contact, and this is how this tour came together. That’s why we can present ourselves to their audience now and it’s a good match! We’re really recruiting a lot of fans on this tour and it kinda paves the way for bigger stuff in the future!
Obviously you’re headlining tonight [Craufurd Arms]. How’s it like to be playing as a headliner?
It’s great! A little smaller venues. But we can really see the results already. The people that saw us with Massive Wagons are coming again like four nights later to see us. And ticket sales went up on this venue as well because people said ‘I only saw them for 45 minutes, I want to see them for 90’.
Have you got much more after this?
We’re here for another week. Next Tuesday we’re back in Germany and then we have two days off. Then we play the last four or five days in Germany and then it’s time for Holidays. I’m flying to Florida and you can all kiss my ass!
What’s it like to have Norman Bites back in the band?
It’s crazy! It’s been a back and forth kinda thing. Dizzy formed the band with us back in 2012. Then he left, we got Norman in. Then Norman left and we got Dizzy in. Now Norman wanted to come back and of course we didn’t want to kick Dizzy back out so there was only one option; that I stop playing guitar and we keep both. It’s crazy. For me, I started off as a singer, like 20 years ago, but all my time in New Roses I’ve played guitar. So for me it’s like… in a way it’s like someone’s taken away the crutch. It’s still weird for me.
Just yesterday somebody sent me a video from two years ago or something and I saw and heard myself playing guitar and it was weird! You see just how fast you adapt to the present situation!
Have you got much scheduled for next year?
We’re still working on it. We’re trying to work on the new record of course. We’ll see how that goes and if we’re ready in time we’ll release it next year! Then everything starts up all over again!