Antonis "Jey Key" Katsaros of Greece's Rock Overdose talked with Tony Wright, DeeExpus' vocalist about everything for the band! Enjoy the conversation:
RockOverdose: Hello guys and welcome to Greece’s Rock Overdose!
Tony Wright: Hello and thank you for having us
RockOverdose: So, can you introduce the band to those who might not know you?
Tony Wright: Certainly. We are DeeExpus and we are a rock band hailing originally from the North East of England. The band is myself, Tony Wright on vocals, Andy Ditchfield on guitar and keys, John Dawson on bass, Mark Kelly on keyboards and Henry Rogers on drums.
RockOverdose: Your first album “HWH” had an extremely warm welcome from the press all over the world! How do you feel about that? Did you expect this to happen?
Tony Wright: We seriously couldn’t believe the reviews it got. We felt that we’d written and produced a strong album and were very happy with the final product but did not expect it to be so universally praised. To read that someone from the other side of the world have had their emotions stirred by what we have created is an almost indescribably good feeling. We are eternally grateful to everyone who bought a copy and gave us such warm feedback.
RockOverdose: At 2009 you won the award of the “best new band” from the Classic Rock Society! Can you describe us the feelings of that success?
Tony Wright: As touched upon in the previous question, to have people who you have never met be so enthused about your work is phenomenal. That they would then be moved to vote for you as their favourite new band is even better. Things like positive reviews and accolades really do make all the blood, sweat and tears that go into making an album seem worth it.
RockOverdose: Also at 2009 you released the Live CD and DVD “Far From Home” at Katowice of Poland. Is it the most far away place you have ever visited until now?
Tony Wright: At the time it certainly felt like the farthest point away on earth as we literally travelled by plane, train and automobile over 24 hours to get there. It was only our third ever gig as a band so to be invited over there to perform and record the live show was a real honour and one which we thoroughly enjoyed. Since then we’ve been over to America so I guess that’s the furthest place we’ve travelled to play.
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RockOverdose: At the end of 2011 you released your second work, titled “The King of Number 33”. What is the title means?
Tony Wright: Every town, village or suburb has at least one eccentric figure. In the rural town where I lived in my formative years, that position was held by the “Bus Traveller Man”. This man would travel all day, every day on the local bus service (Number 33) that ran from Stanhope to Bishop Auckland, sitting in the seat directly behind the driver, never speaking to or acknowledging anyone, never making eye contact or noise. Naturally this man became a target of torment and taunting for the local children however he never broke his stoic demeanour or rose to any bait or abuse and continued his journeys in an oblivious utopian peaceful dream. The lack of response soon negated the children’s behaviour and it just became accepted by all and sundry that if you got on the bus, Bus Traveller Man would be there.
Until one day he wasn’t. Rumours abounded and as a young child naturally I was taken in by all of them: “He’s gone mental and killed everyone on the bus with a knife”; “A Nurse tried to take him away and he strangled her”; “The Driver tried to wake him and he’d been dead for three weeks”. The truth was that his mother, with whom he still lived, had died and he was forced to live in a care home as he had learning difficulties and was unable to suitably care for himself. Awareness of physical and mental disabilities was much different in the 1980’s, even more so in less liberal rural areas, so our ignorance as children (and many of the adults) can possibly be forgiven.
Whilst looking for inspiration for lyrics to write, something triggered my subconscious and the memory of Bus Traveller Man appeared in my head. I began to speculate about what was going through his mind, how was he feeling as he went through his bus travelling regime and I was struck by how calm, placid and at peace he seemed. This began to develop into me imagining that he felt he was the King of the bus and it was his own personal kingdom. I initially wrote a few verses based on this premise and that covered a typical day in his life and passed them to Andy for his perusal. He loved the lyric and said I should develop it further to cover his whole life rather than just a day. Not one to turn my back on a challenge I duly set to work and a while later presented Andy with about ten sheets of lyrics that covered from his youth up to the present day. Naturally I used a large wedge of poetic license to formulate his background, how he felt, what happened in the end etc however having spent several years working with people with learning difficulties I was able to draw on many aspects of my experience to tell his tale. As for how the King’s story ends, well maybe it happened as above, or maybe the rumours were true.
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RockOverdose: How the press received your new work? Are you satisfied by that?
Tony Wright: When we initially finished the album, our intention was to send numerous promo copies to the press for review, however once EARmusic became interested we decided to delay this. There have still been several reviews on various websites etc though and all have been extremely positive, stating that the album is better than Halfway Home. Based on the reception Halfway Home received this only bodes well for “The King ”
RockOverdose: I’ve watched a lot of different tries to categorize your music .?
Tony Wright: I guess we really come under the label of “prog rock” but that genre has diversified so much since its inception in the 70’s that I think the term no longer applies and there are so many sub-divisions of it such as neo-prog, symphonic rock, art rock etc. If I were to describe our music I would say it is intelligent, melodic rock music played on an epic scale.
RockOverdose: So what’s next? Lives and tours maybe? Any chance to see you in Greece?
Tony Wright: We’re currently in rehearsals for 3 UK dates in April followed by a trip to the USA for RoSfest 2012. There are more gigs pending and will be announced when and if they are confirmed. As for playing in Greece, speaking as someone who has visited Mainland Greece and many of her islands on holiday, I would absolutely love to play there. I love the culture, the people, the weather and the Mythos beer 😉
RockOverdose: Thank you for this interview! The last sentence is yours.
Tony Wright: Thank you for the questions. Hopefully see you live in Greece soon.
For RockOverdose.gr,
Antonis "Jey Key" Katsaros
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