The Metalheadz - Pre Tour Interview!

Tour Q&A:

My Ruin 'Ghosts & Good Stories' UK Tour
by Citizen X

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Next week see's My Ruin once against return to the shores of Britain, and as a country we've had a long love affair with Tairrie B, stretching back to the late 90's when she first came over with her bands Manhole & Tura Satana. So here at The Metalheadz we thought we'd talk to Tairrie and get the low down on the upcoming tour.

Citizen X: At this point My Ruin is just Mick and yourself, who have you got filling out the rest of the line up for this tour?

Tairrie B: We've got Luciano Ferrea formerly of Beggars Ball on bass and Matt "Frenchie" LeChevalier formerly of My Ruin circa 2005-2007 back on the drums. Matt has toured with us in the UK in the past, is in our video "Ready For Blood" and also recorded drums on our 2008 album "Throat full of Heart". Luciano is new to the My Ruin family but he feels like he's been with us the whole time. The 4 of us have a terrific chemistry together.

C.X: How have rehearsals with Luciano and Matt been going?

T.B: They've been killer. The band is tight and sounding like a brick wall at the moment. We're excited about the tour and our appearance at Hammerfest III on Friday, the 18th of March! Should be good fun and another great memory made.

C.X: Can you tell us about the bands you've got supporting you?

T.B: We're got our old friends Headcharger who are a French rock/metal band we know from our "Summer of Hell" Tour in 2006 when we played a few dates together in France. They're great guys and a terrific band that we're looking forward to introducing to the UK. Our drummer Matt is from the same town as they are in France and has also toured with them in the past. Sanctorum we met in 2008 when they supported us on our ReligiosiTour of the UK. They're a killer British metal band that I think more people need to see because they deserve some serious attention. We've become very good friends with them over the past couple of years and vocalist Aaron Sly will also be joining me on stage for one of our songs each night which I'm looking forward to once again. Their manager Terry Sly is tour managing My Ruin this time out and we couldn't have done it without him. He's really been my right hand man in helping to organize everything for the tour and look after us. It's going to be nice sharing the stage with both bands and making some new great memories together with all our friends & fans with our brutal blend of American, French and British rock & roll metal!

C.X: Being that you've toured with both Headcharger and Sanctorum before, is it good to have familiar faces out with you on the road?

T.B: It's great. We're all traveling together and staying in the same hotels every night so it's going to be one big happy rock family. We've also got an amazing photographer by the name of Don Jackson Wyatt joining us on the tour from Circle Pit who will be documenting everything we do before, during and after our shows for a unique end of tour book he is planning to make with me as well as a few people documenting with things with video. March 11th we're playing The Underworld in Camden which also happens to be my 11 year Anniversary in My Ruin with my husband/guitarist Mick [11:11] so we're having an after show party / meet & greet where all the fans can some hang with the bands for a few hours at a nearby club on a more personal level to help us celebrate our special night.

C.X: The Ghosts and Good Stories UK Tour is going to be pretty intense, as you're playing ten shows in ten days. Is that going to help increase the level of intensity in the shows?

T.B: Knowing how cold the UK is whenever we arrive and how hot we plan to get the stage every night and how much work we've put into this tour behind the scenes this time, our 10 shows in 10 days will most likely be some of the most intense ones of our life. We have a renewed passion at the moment in our band and it's come from having a new album and rhythm section that we're really happy about at the moment. It's nice to feel that fire again and I hope our fans will be feeling it with us once the tour begins.

C.X: You've always had a big fan base here in the UK, going all the way back to the Manhole/Tura Satana days, does that give you more of an incentive to tour here more often? Is playing in the UK something you always look forward to?

T.B: I have always loved the UK. While I've had a sort of love/hate relationship with the press side of things over the years, we've had a very loyal fan base on many levels that have always supported what we do. The press on our new album has been amazing and all the fans seem super excited we are coming back to debut it live for the first time. It's gotten a lot of love. It's a shame we never seem to have a decent label behind us to support and promote our band and albums properly however. We signed to Tiefdruck Musik hoping they would do right by our band and record but they dropped the ball before it even came out and just left us for dead to fend for ourselves basically so we had to sadly cut all ties and continue on our path without them. My Ruin is and will probably always be a DIY underground band. We've been doing it for ourselves for years and we're blessed that we can return to tour the UK with our 6th album and have the opportunity to play in front of so many people after so many years of highs, lows and everything in between. Luciano has never been to Britain so this will be his first time experiencing so many of the cool things we are looking forward to sharing with him and Matt once again.

C.X: Can you give us a few hints as to what the set list will include this time around? Any chance you might throw an old Tura Satana song in to the set?

T.B: In 2008 we had my former band mate Marcelo Palomino from Manhole/Tura Satana on drums with us [we also recorded a live album/DVD on this tour] so we threw a Manhole song into the set for fun but My Ruin has so many songs of our own now after 6 albums, we really do not have the room. My Ruin is about Mick & I and since he did not write those songs, it's really not that interesting for him to play them live as opposed to the ones we have created together. We're doing a few songs off G&GS, a few old favourites, our cover of "Have A Drink On Me" which we recorded for the Metal Hammer AC/DC Tribute CD last year and a couple other surprises. I think people will be very pleased with our set list. It's a barn burner.