Dave got to sit down with Inglorious bassist Colin Parkinson before their show at Southampton to discuss the new material, what it’s like working with legendary producer Kevin Shirley and what’s up next for them.
Dave: I’m here with Colin, who plays bass for Inglorious? Thanks for speaking with us today!
Colin: You’re welcome great to be here
Second day of the tour! You were in Pontiprydd, Wales last night how was it?
It was amazing. It sold out about 400 people going mental really, people getting on people’s shoulders, all that kind of stuff. It was great.
It was so great to play out new material, we’ve been dying to play it fully at a proper show.
Talking of new material, you brought out Inglorious 2, in may. No 1 in the rock charts, no 22 in the mainstream! Was it something you were aiming for or expecting?
Not really to be honest. We are really proud of it, to get that high for a brand new rock is tough so we are definitely proud of it. What we’ve loved is seeing the progression, our first album went in at 3 at the rock charts so to get no 1 and also break into mainstream charts is amazing and testament to our fans really.
And it shows in your tickets, you’ve already sold out about half the dates?
Yeah, we’ve sold out 5 or 6 dates and most the others are 80% sold out so hopefully they will be sold out by the time we get there.
We’ve been shocked by the response but going in the right direction and we are really excited by it all.
You got to work with Kevin Shirley who’s obviously a legend in the industry working with Led Zep, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and the list just goes on and on. How did that come about?
I first heard of him through his work with Mr.. Big as I’m a big fan and he did their ‘What If’ album. It came about through Nathan as he knew Glenn Hughes from Black Country Communion and Kevin had worked with them and we thought we’d ask. I mean it was a massive long shot, we knew that but we are delighted that he came on board.
What was it like working with him?
He was really easy to work with. We sent him the tracks and he mixed it in 3 or 4 days. Once he has everything set-you he just runs it through his favourite equipment.
We didn’t work with him in the same room as he’s based in America but he did it over there and we were all blown away with the result.
You actually wrote it in Phill’s family home. How was that?
Yeah, that’s right, Phill’s from Somerset, not far from me. And we wrote the whole album in his bedroom, sat on his bed! (ha ha!) but it works you know? It’s just about being together and bouncing ideas off each other and we are very open and honest with each other and if it doesn’t work, fine, we bin it and move on it.
That’s so good, so healthy.
Yeah, that’s right it is. We try not to be too precious about our work and keep an open mind. We’ve got to be forward thinking.
Have you got a favourite track off the album?
It changes all the time, to be honest!
‘Faraway’ because I love the vocals on it. ‘No Good For You’ which we originally wrote for the last album but we decided to change it a bit and rerecord and also ‘Change Is Coming-‘ because it’s an all-round amazing song. It will be those three really.
Drew also came back to the band just before the release. What’s it like having him back?
Yeah, it’s really good. He’s actually my cousin and we’ve been playing in bands together since we were kids. It just feels so natural to have him in the band. He was missed when he wasn’t here. I was, of course, gutted when he left, being my cousin and it was our dream to play in a band together but he’s come back and slotted in perfectly. He’s an amazing guitarist, great rhythm player and compliments Andreas perfectly.
How did you get into music?
I got into music quite late actually, I was about 14 or 15. I was massively into sport before then. Played rugby for my town, cricket too. Did table tennis, trampolining and so mad about sport. One day my dad’s bass was laying around and I picked it up and taught myself ‘Another One Bites The Dust’. I’m actually a 5th generation bass player, my dad taught me some scales and I became smitten with it too.
Are your parents into rock then?
No, my dad is into blues and was in a heavy Chicago blues band. My mum is into Soul and Motown which had a big influence on my bass playing as the bass is quite prominent and busy in that music so I started off by learning that style. I started getting into Bon Jovi and Mr.. Big where I first heard Billy Sheehan, It was the ‘Lean Into It’ album which blew my mind. It was such a massive change in approach to bass playing. Hearing his tone and the way he played and the fact that he didn’t have to be in the background, he could be up there with the guitars and drums.
Who’s on your stereo at the moment?
I’m loving Mastodon’s new album- I’m a big fan of them. Mr.. Big’s new album, I love them and I’m a fan for life.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Ghost- who Nathan got me into.
I love soul and funk so ‘Earth Wind and Fire’ and ‘Stevie Wonder’ are on a lot. But Mastodon is the most recent band I’ve been listening to.
How do you relax away from performing?
I go to the gym a lot, I still love sport and want to stay healthy. I live in Worcestershire and I love to go up to hills and hike up there and I just love being with family and friends so I go to Somerset where I’m from, a lot too.
Obviously, you’re on tour for a couple of weeks but what’s next for Inglorious?
We are sorting out European dates, for December, so they will be confirmed soon.
After that we are going to make a big announcement in January which I can’t quite believe is happening to be honest but we are very excited for.
We are also going to be writing a new album soon which will come out next year. We want to release an album a year; it keeps the fans happy with new music and it keeps the momentum going.
Finally, is there anything else you would want to tell our readers?
To anyone out there who has supported us, thank you so so much, it means the absolute world to us. Thank you for helping us to fulfill our dream.
It’s great that we are connected via music, I love the power of music and the way it connects us so thank you so much, if you haven’t heard of us, then go check our stuff out, get tickets for the tour., buy the album- it sounds exactly the same live. I mean we record it live and we don’t use over-dubbing or double tracking or anything like that.
We just want to help keep British Rock going or bring it back, really. Rock has always been there, I mean it peak sometimes but it fluctuates a lot.
In fact, Nathan was talking to Nathan about this earlier and how people like Gene Simmons saying Rock is dead but we don’ t believe that, we believe it’s very much alive.
But we’d be nothing without the fans and Planet Rock, they’ve been so good to us so go and check them out too!
Thank you so much for joining us, hope the show goes well tonight.
Thanks for having me, hope you enjoy it!
You can buy tickets for the tour and the latest album ‘Inglorious 2’ from http://www.inglorious.com
You can check out our review of the gig at The Brook, Southampton here