Back in the Groove

Former Dead 60s’ vocalist Matt McManamon is striking out on his own – some 16 years since the release of his band’s gold selling debut album.

YM caught up with Matt to discuss his Liverpool upbringing, the importance of his Irish heritage, rediscovering his confidence, and the challenges of launching a solo career in the midst of a pandemic

Words Dan Haygarth

Where in Liverpool did you grow up?

Allerton. We always used to call it ‘Beatles territory’. I actually grew up just over the road from Forthlin Road, where Paul McCartney’s childhood home was. All of The Dead 60s boys were from round there, near that area of Allerton Road. I even went to the same school as John Lennon, Dovedale Primary.

But you’re living in Ireland now?

Yeah, I came back about 13 years ago now – basically when The Dead 60s split up. Quite soon after that, I just decided to move. I was born in Liverpool to Irish parents, so I always class myself as Liverpool–Irish. So rather than hanging  around Liverpool or live in London, which I did for a while, when the band finished up and I took a break from the music, I decided to come over here to the family.

How did you first get into playing music?

I started really young actually. It was with Charlie [Turner, The Dead 60s’ bassist]. I was probably about 13 or 14 and Charlie had met some like-minded musicians at a house party. They were trying to start a band. To use an American phrase, it was like a high school band. They started jamming and needed a singer.

Although I didn’t really class myself as a singer at the time, I had the confidence to get up and have a go. That’s kind of how it started. That band was called Rest Home and we did quite a few gigs in and around Liverpool, but it only really happened for about a year and then that band split up and me and Charlie went on to form Pinhole.

That went on for a couple of years and we ended up getting a small record deal. Things were ticking along nicely, we did a couple of tours. We did quite well considering we did it all off our own back with very little money, but we decided to dissolve that band because we were getting older.

Pinhole’s sound was a bit immature. We naturally progressed into The Dead 60s and that sound.

 

 

How did you decide that The Dead 60s were going to have that specific, quite unique sound?

I guess that we were all kind of interested in punk music and a bit of ska and reggae, but we’d never really played that style before. Charlie, who was my best mate, really took the reins and said “we should try and do a reggae-tinted band”. We just ran from there.

I was a massive Clash fan – I still am, and I loved the way that they combined punk, reggae and ska. We just thought that we’d try and do it like that. If I’m being totally honest, I just wanted to be in The Clash.

How do you reflect on your time with The Dead 60s?

I’ve always felt that there was unfinished business there, in a way. I don’t feel that we quite got to where we should have or could have got to. I’m not bitter about that, that’s just the way that life is and how it went. The Dead 60s split up because the record label dropped us and we didn’t have any funding or any backing.

All of a sudden, you’re left with absolutely nothing. It was really difficult to continue. It was with a heavy heart that we decided to knock it on the head because we didn’t want to run it into the ground.

We wanted to leave it on a bit of a high and at a decent level, so that was kind of the reason why it all dissolved and we disbanded. There is part of me that feels that we didn’t quite get to where we should have, but that’s just life and that’s just the way that it was. They were the cards that we were dealt and you just get on with it.

It’s been 16 years since The Dead 60s released their debut album. Why have you decided that now is the time for your solo project?

There was quite a long period where I didn’t really do anything. I think people thought that I’d just packed it in for good. Maybe I even thought in my own head that I had. But the fact of the matter is that I’d always wanted to carry on doing music, I just couldn’t quite get the wheels in motion.

I think it was down to confidence. When you’ve been in a band which has done fairly well and then it’s over all of a sudden, it’s a really horrible feeling. It was definitely a confidence crusher for me. You feel that you’re useless. I don’t want to sound dramatic, but you do feel like you’ve failed.

Slowly but surely, though, my confidence came back and that brought me up to the stage that I’m at now. One thing that happened to me a few years ago, prior to launching the solo work, was that I was with The Specials for two and a half years – from 2014 to 2016.

Roddy [Radiation] left the band and I heard from their manager out of the blue. He said “Can you come and play the Isle of Wight Festival?”. I hadn’t been on a stage for around five years at this point. The headliners were the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The Specials were on before them. I said “Okay, yeah, this is a baptism of fire”.

The Specials were one of the big reasons why The Dead 60s became a band in the first place. The reason I managed to regain my confidence was from playing with them. They’ve had such an influence on my career.

 

 

Your new songs have a different feel to The Dead 60s stuff. What prompted the new musical direction?

I’ve always been a big fan of The La’s and I think that Lee Mavers is one of the best song writers that the world has ever seen. He’s right up there with John Lennon, for me.

I’ve always been interested in the likes of Lee, The Stones Roses, Mick Head and Shack. I love all that kind of stuff. When I’m at home and writing songs, I write them on the acoustic guitar and I just go for it. They just end up coming out in that kind of style.

Once I’m in the studio and I have other players with me – other guitarists, bass players, drums, all the rest of it – you start layering it and it just naturally evolved into the sound that it’s become.

This first single, ‘Jumpin’ The Gun’, started off sounding a bit like The La’s on acoustic guitar, but as soon as we got into the studio, it progressed into something more pop and rock – a harder sound.

It was a great thrill to see it evolve and grow into the song – I didn’t think that it was going to sound like that. It was exciting and unexpected, but I’m very happy with the results.

‘Scally Folk’, which is the title of your forthcoming album, is a great phrase. Where did that come from?

When people first heard that I was doing music again, they asked “What does it sound like?”, and I always struggled to tell them. I had a conversation with Mick Cronin, who is my drummer and also recorded, produced and engineered the album in his own studio here in Ireland. I asked him: “What does it sound like? What should I say?”. He said: “It’s dead easy, it sounds like scally folk”.

I absolutely love that phrase, I think that suits me and I love the way that the word scally is associated with Liverpool and the word folk would be associated with Ireland. I just thought that kind of summed me up as a person as well, with my Liverpool-Irish roots, which I’m really proud of and keen to fly the flag for both places.

All the sounds and the songs, they are very much influenced by Liverpool and by Ireland. It was the perfect phrase and we got an album title from it as well. It ticked all the boxes.

Are you hoping to support the album with a tour later this year?

The plan is to do as many gigs as possible and as many live performances as we can. It’s hard for everybody because the pandemic means that nobody can plan with any kind of confidence or conviction.

I’ve tried to chip away at it and have conversations with agents and promoters and people who put on shows. There is a lot of interest and there are things that will happen along the line but nobody can book anything and have any concrete plans.

It’s really frustrating but all I’ve got to do is wait it out, cross my fingers, wait for Covid to pass or the vaccine to be rolled out on a wider scale. As soon as live shows are allowed to happen again, I’m definitely going to be gigging and touring as much as I can. We’ll do a full band tour and hopefully smash it out of the park.

Matt’s new single ‘Jumpin’ The Gun’ is available to stream now, with ‘Scally Folk’ expected later this year via Fretsore Records