Interview with Tytan

It’s a honor to take an interview from one of my most favorite NWOBHM musicians. Thank you for the opportunity sir.
How did your music journey start? Which were your earlier bands? Was it always bass guitar? Most young musicians want to be axe heroes, how did you choose bass instead? Which were your early influences?

I played piano and French horn at school which formed the basis of my love of music, and progressed to folk guitar when I discovered Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young! (I discovered beers and girls at the same time). Bass really chose me after I heard Led Zeppelin for the first time, and it’s been a decision I’ve never regretted. My earliest influences were Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the Who.

I am sure that most metalheads know your participation in Angelwitch. You were a member for 3 years and played bass for their masterpiece debut. What happened after its release? I know that Angelwitch was Kevin Heybourne’s brain child but the line up of the debut seemed to be just perfect and the future looked promising. What happened that led to your departure?

As for Angel Witch we had spent all of that time writing and touring, and after the release of the first album it seemed that we could take it no further.  Kev Heybourne was moving in a different direction and it seemed AW had reached a natural end.

You didn’t lose any time after that, the might TYTAN was the result. To me it was a perfect band that recorded a perfect album, “Rough Justice” is one of the all time best Heavy Metal LPs. I know that it was not released until the band was not active any more and that was due to Kamaflage’s bankruptcy, correct? They released a bunch of vinyls in a period of just 2 years and suddenly stopped. What was like working for them? Did they have any decent distribution? How come you did not get signed by any bigger label since the band included some top notch musicians?

It was the parent company to Kamoflage, Dick James music that went bankrupt and took all of us with it.  The album had an American release dare scheduled through CBS, but sadly this never happened.  It proved impossible to keep the band together as they were all hugely talented and ambitious, so sadly the album was shelved and as you say wasn’t issued until after the bands demise. Kamoflage was basically a one man operation, run by Nick Raymond, and working with him was one of my best experiences.

After Kal was moved to USA by the Bill Graham Management for what was to be Lion (at the start it was Lyon or British Lion the name?), you joined for a while. Is that correct? What happened and you did not continue with them?

I joined Kal in the US as a stop gap but was never asked to stay as I didn’t fit the ‘mold’ of the American pretty boy/AOR band member.  After rehearsals and touring I came home with few expectations and these were fully met!!

“Max and the Broadway Metal Choir”. WOW, that’s a strange name for a hard rock/metal band.  Jeff Michaelson must have been quite a character to work with, right. Even though the LP has some cool music playing, his vocals were not that good. How did you decide to play with him?

Max was Jeffrey’s alter ego and he always dreamed of being Max on stage and when he had the money to put a band together, I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to writing and recording, and participate in the one and only gig which resulted in Max breaking his leg during the 2nd song!!  His ambitions filled, Jeffrey retired hurt to the US.

Was the Dorian Grey band right after Max and the Broadway Metal Choir? From the name I guess it was Mike Grey’s brainchild (Jagged Edge, Skin). I have never found any recordings of this band. Were there any demos recorded? Andy Bierne (Dirty Tricks was a great hard rock band) was the drummer on this one, so I guess that the 3 of you must have been a good power trio.

Dorian Grey was so short lived sadly, we had no time or money to record anything.

After a few years you played with Paul Samson, right? I remember that in the past, he was the one that suggested to you Kal Swan as a singer for your band (Tytan). Were you close friends with him? You had recorded with Paul Samson some songs for a BBC session (also “One day heroes” was included at “The 2nd Wave of New British Metal 1987” single). The band by then was called Paul Samson’s Empire. How this ended?

I was always a friend of Paul’s from the early AW & Samson days, Empire came about through my collaboration with Dave Colwell and Mark Brabbs (ex TANK) and after our support slot to Iron Maiden on the 1986 Somewhere in Time tour, all seemed to be going well when Paul pulled the plug and decided to reform Samson, not much you can do about that?

And since 2012, us metalheads are lucky to experience the reformation of Tytan. Did that start as a one show for Keep It True and resulted to making the band alive again? (Damn, I never got to visit KIT and see that performance) There is talk for a second Tytan album, we have been waited (drooling with anticipation) for the last few years. Is it going to happen? What is the line up of Tytan now? Are you planning on doing more live shows in 2016?

As for the 2012 reunion, yes you’re right that was to be a 30 year celebration of the release of Rough Justice but went so well that I decided there was more fun to be had with the new band!  I recruited Tom Barna on vocals, Andy Thompson and Steve Mann and did a few more gigs in 2013/14, I then got the writing bug again and have written 6 new songs, some of which will be played live at Brofest and Metal Assault in February.  The new album “Justice Served” will be finished and released, I hope before the summer.  We will be playing at Very ‘Eavy festival, Headbangers Open Air and GDR2 during April to July plus some dates in Belgium, France and the UK so this old man is keeping busy!

We can’t wait to see you perform live in Athens at the “Heavy Metal Assault”. And to give you a heads up, you are going to be astonished with Greek metalheads. What must we expect? Are you going to play all the Rough Justice songs? Maybe include any new songs?

We know that Greek metalheads are intensely passionate about their music and we hope the full Rough Justice set, plus new material, will give them something to shout about!!  Tytan thank all our Greek fans who have stayed with us, we hope to make new friends and drink with the old ones when we come to Athens next month!!

Thank you so much for your time sir. I can’t wait to meet you in person when you visit Athens and have a few (thousand) drinks together (but I guess that goes for all your Greek fans). Send a message to the Greeks that always supported Tytan.

Thank you so much, and please come and introduce yourself at the club for that beer (and maybe a small Metaxa).