Interview: Ultrabomb
Music is my therapy, punk rock saved my life, again, for the second time.
UltraBomb have just released their new album Dying To Smile and it is a riotous blast of punk rock goodness. The band consist of bass player Greg Norton (Hüsker Dü), singer/guitarist Finny McConnell (The Mahones) and drummer Jamie Oliver (UK Subs/SNFU) so their punk pedigree is unsurpassed and they use that experience and energy to good use in UltraBomb. With the band having suffered a setback with the cancer diagnosis of Greg Norton, they are happily back on track and raring to go again with Dying To Smile. Gavin Brown had the pleasure of talking to Greg Norton about how excited he is to be back with UltraBomb and the new album as well as discussing the legacy of Hüsker Dü and punk rock in a brilliant interview.
E&D: First of all, I just want to ask. How are you feeling and how is your health at the moment?
Greg: I’m feeling fantastic. My health has been really, really great. After the cancer diagnosis in the surgery a couple of years ago, it took me took me a little while to bounce back from that and I went through some life changes, but now I feel great and feel healthy and energetic, and I love being back out on the road and bouncing around on stage.
E&D: That’s great to hear. The new UltraBomb album Dying To Smile is out now. How does it feel to be back with this album, and how did its creation go?
Greg: It feels really good. For a second time, we booked four days in a studio, this time in London, with Pat Collier at Perry Vale studios in London. We went in the first two days and we wrote twelve songs and then we put the lyrics together and all the guitar overdubs over the next couple of days. For a second time, we feel like we wrote a punk rock classic and we’re really happy with this one even more. The band is really starting to come into its own as far as developing a sound. When we recorded our first album Time To Burn in Berlin. That morning in the studio was literally the first time the three of us had ever been in a room together. First time I’d ever met those guys in person, so Time To Burn was really special, because it felt we had been fighting together forever, and we were just best friends and best mates, so it was nice to make the second record where now it’s really starting to feel like UltraBomb is really coming into their own.
E&D: Have you always recorded with the band all in the studio together rather than doing it through files and things like that?
Greg: Yeah, you know, Hüsker Dü was pretty efficient recording in the studio because, typically, all of those songs would be written well ahead of time, and we would be touring this album that we were about to record as opposed to the record that just came out, which I think is something that actually a lot of Hüsker new fans really, sometimes confused them, but it also was really exciting for them because they were hearing new material. So we’d get in the studio and lay everything down live, and then things would go pretty quickly. The Warner records were recorded in Minneapolis, and there wasn’t that bad expediency of needing to wrap it up because we had time. I think that sometimes lead to some differences of opinion, because there was too much time to sit around and think about it. It’s kind of nice to get in and get it done, and be really happy with it and know that it’s finished. I had recorded with another band where they wanted it to be perfect, and you’re never going to achieve that. You need to know when it’s finished, and right now I think it’s finished and we need to need to move on and they’d be like, oh well I just want to tweak this I tweak that and it’s like for Christ’s sake!
E&D: Going back to UltraBomb, do you feel reenergised as a band with this album?
Greg: Oh, absolutely. You know, because of the cancer diagnosis, and the foolishness of us trying to put out the first record and the delays that that came with that. Then once the record was ready, we had tours planned that got cancelled because of various COVID restrictions or visa problems and then, my sister was diagnosed with leukaemia and I was diagnosed with cancer. So, once we finally got out on the road last May and toured in the States, that gave us an opportunity to start playing together every day. Then we toured in Britain in December, and the band just keeps getting tighter and tighter. We just finished a tour with Me First & The Gimme Gimmes in April and the band literally is so tight right now, we’re convinced we’re playing the absolute best punk rock on the planet at the moment and putting out the best punk records
E&D: What does the title of the album refer to in particular?
Greg: Dying To Smile was just kind of an idea that Jamie had come up with and one of his ideas is reflected in the album artwork where there’s this couple who were wanting to be together and be happy and they, basically meet in the afterlife and they’re happy and they’re smiling, so literally dying to smile.
E&D: What was the biggest influence in the sound of this album and the music of UltraBomb in general?
Greg: All three of us have a vast musical vocabulary and deep love of punk rock, and you know, Finnys two favourite bands are Hüsker Dü and The Clash and The Clash are certainly one of my favourites. We did record a song on this record we did In A Rut’ by The Ruts but like I said, I think the band really is starting to develop their own sound. Now. I know with the first record, there were a lot of comparisons to it sounding like Hüsker Dü and I think that was a lot of, Finny just channelling his love for the band, and now, I guess, in my opinion, I think the new record has maybe a little bit of a Clash feel to it.
E&D: How did you hook up with Finny and Jamie to start the band in the first place?
Greg: Well, that’s the miracle of the internet, right? The Mahones had covered ‘Makes No Sense At All’ and I had heard it, this was almost ten years ago, and it popped up on Facebook, and I liked it, then Finny saw that I liked his song that was, you know, a song that I did. So he sent me a friend request, because he was a huge, huge Hüsker Dü fan. We just started conversing through messenger and became friends. Almost three years ago, now, when the last band I was in took a change of direction, I was no longer in a in a group and Finny saw that and sent me a message right away and said, Hey, would love to put together a band with Jamie Oliver. At the same time, he had sent me a message and said the same thing about putting a band together with me. Originally, it was just like, alright, let’s just get together for laughs and maybe do some Hüsker Dü covers and Mahones covers, throw in some UK Subs and we’ll maybe play some festivals. It was about two months after that when Finny had the time booked in Berlin and I was like, I should go meet these guys to make sure that this is like a real thing. I just booked the ticket and flew to Berlin and met those guys and that was the best decision I could have made because Time To Burn is a classic and now UltraBomb, we’re on a fast track. We’ve got the pedal to the metal like they we like to say here in America, and I think there’s a lot of really great things on the horizon for UltraBomb!
E&D: Were you a fan of the UK Subs and The Mahones beforehand?
Greg: I was not familiar with The Mahones until I heard the cover of ‘Makes No Sense At All’ but of course I knew the UK Subs and been a fan because they’ve been around forever. Mr Charlie Harper, happy 80th birthday there!
E&D: You mentioned touring with Me First & The Gimme Gimmes recently. How did that go and what were some of the highlights?
Greg: That was a great tour, they put on such a fantastic and entertaining show. They’re hilarious and so good live. The other band on the bill was The Defiant, which is Dicky Barrett’s group, and literally, each one of us in all three of those bands has such a storied history, musically, in punk rock music. We were joking that we could basically write a chapter on each one of us and it could be Volume Two of Our Band Could Be Your Life. I think one of the biggest highlights was we played in Orlando, Florida, and it was a packed house as we hit the stage, and just a really great audience and such a warm welcome, and then great appreciation and applause at the end of the set. It was fantastic!
E&D: How did the new material go down live and did you play much?
Greg: Yeah, you know, we worked more and more new material into the set as the tour went on, but the new stuff is going down, great, even some of the slower tracks on the record are really coming across great live. The fast ones, they’re all bangers! We were the opening band on that bill, and we only had half an hour to play, so we were mainly coming out and just hitting everybody in the face with the fast ones.
E&D: What are your live plans for the rest of the year and will you be making it over to the UK again?
Greg: Well, hopefully at the end of the year. Right now we’re working on trying to get the band back out here in the States as quickly as we can. Probably starting with a West Coast run. We haven’t played the Pacific Northwest. We definitely want to work things out so that we can play in Canada this year as well. But yeah, definitely, dates in the UK and also in Europe are there in the plan.
E&D: With Hüsker Dü, do you look back at your time with the band with pride with you being so influential to so many bands?
Greg: I do. I love the fact that I was in Hüsker Dü and at the time, we didn’t think that we were doing anything that was changing music, but Hüsker did change music in 1985. Just, the approach to the records. I have been trying to go out to see more music and get out to more festivals, and just having people telling me how much the music helped them or meant to them, I truly appreciate all of those comments, and I’m just really happy to know that we made a difference and a positive difference in a lot of people’s lives.
E&D: What were some of your favourite memories of being in the band in those early days of hardcore punk in America going into the alternative scene?
Greg: The early days of touring, this was early 80s so pre internet and, and pre cellphones. You had a notebook with phone numbers in it that and you would find a guy in this town, he can put on a show. So you find a payphone and you’d call him and tell him, we’re gonna be in your area. They’ll be like, yeah, we’ll put out a show, and then you’d get there and the people would come and support it because that’s really the only way where you could find out about what was going on and see new bands, was to go to the shows. In a sense, it seemed like there was a stronger sense of community with touring. Nowadays, I think there are still a lot of cities that have that sense of community, but more of what I’m seeing more so is that cities are now kind of splintered more into individual scenes that don’t necessarily crossover and support the other scenes or even locally, go into a show. Say there’s a headliner coming through, and it’s a DIY show, and they’ll have five bands on the bill. Each band will bring their group of people, but then they don’t stick around. I find that infuriating, it’s like, why, just don’t just come with your party and then leave, bring your party and stay and party with all the other parties and see something new and get back to that community.
E&D: After Hüsker Dü split up, did you get many requests to reform and did you ever consider them?
Greg: Basically, yes, people would have loved to have seen the band reform, but it was one of those things where it wasn’t ever meant to be, and I’m okay with that. Grants been gone for over six years now so it’s impossible for a reunion again.
E&D: Who are your biggest influences as a bass player?
Greg: When I was a young kid, I listened to a lot of prog rock so Chris Squire from Yes was a big influence on me. Of course, somebody like John Entwistle everybody cites the The Ox but as I really started to learn how to play the bass, it was when Hüsker Dü started, it was the first band that I was in so it was a a lot of punk bass players and a lot of them are are now friends, like Clint Conley from Mission Of Burma, was a huge influence. Tony Maimone with his bass work in Pere Ubu. Mike Watt is still a hero. I’ve got a friend right now that’s in a band called Boss’ Daughter, this guy, Danny Paul, he is amazing on the bass. I’m continually finding new people to be inspired by and just to push me. All you can do is just try to be a little bit better each day. Like they say, the only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday
E&D: How does it feel to still be making vital music today after all these years?
Greg: It feels fantastic and I truly feel like this is what I need to be doing and pretty much what I was meant to do. You know, I had a twenty year career in the restaurant business and I went fourteen years without playing a bass and I look back on those couple of decades and there was an element that was missing and that was playing music so right now, all I want to do is play music and tour and go out and hear new music and see old friends in old bands and just to experience. Music is my therapy, punk rock saved my life, again, for the second time.
E&D: How did it feel having not played music for so long and how did it feel being back on stage for the first time after all that time?
Greg: Yeah, a little nervous, a little giddy, but then once we started playing, it all, for me anyway, just clicks and I love it.
E&D: How did you first discover punk rock?
Greg: I graduated high school in 1977. I remember a girl in one of my classes, Nancy Smoliak, introduced me to the first Ultravox album, and I was like, Wow, that’s some really crazy shit! I like that! Then the next year, at the beginning of 1978, I got hired at a record store and that’s where I met Grant Hart. Grant also then got hired at the record store and so all of these punk records were coming out and being released. The record labels were throwing promos around. I remember Sire Records and their big advertising push for the Ramones, Talking Heads, The Saints with the slogan New Wave, catch it before it passes you by or whatever which was really kind of crazy but Grant and I both immediately took to punk and we had this voracious appetite for it so we would listen to any record that came through the shop that even remotely looked punk and then we made it to another shop where they imported a lot of records so we were hearing all the great stuff coming out of England as well. It was one of those things where I personally, was like, wow, where’s punk rock been?! This is great!
E&D: What are your all time top three punk records?
Greg: Pere Ubu – Modern Dance, Wire – Pink Flag and Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat by Minutemen.
