In a metal scene rampant with Black Sabbath copycats and uninspired riffage, Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats manage to stand apart. The group of four, led by front man Kevin Starrs, espouses the riff-centric ideology of legendary Black Sabbath guitarist, Tony Iommi, without losing their individuality. The United Kingdom-based group fuses together doom metal and punk rock with dark psychedelic overtones and horror themes in a fashion unique to the band.
Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats returned to New York City at Brooklyn Steel on March 2, the opening night of their North American tour, with supporting act, King Buffalo. It was heavy, it was dark, there were riffs, it was fun! New York was keen to welcome back Uncle Acid with open arms, after two years of inactivity for the group.
I spoke with axe-slinger Kevin Starrs on March 11 via Zoom to discuss the band’s recent activities, return to the stage and more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Johnny Knollwood: Thanks so much for meeting with me today, how’s the tour been for you so far?
Kevin Starrs: It’s been great, every night has been getting better and better. The New York show was our first show in two years, so we were a little bit rusty, but it’s been good so far, really enjoying it.
JK: You were on the road right when the pandemic hit and you’re currently on a large North American trek, what are some adaptations or changes you have had to make since returning to live performance?
KS: We did New Zealand, Australia and finished off in Japan. We just managed to escape before everything locked down. We were pretty lucky to get in and out of the country. You just have to follow the COVID protocols. We’re not hanging with people when we’re on tour, we’re maintaining a secure bubble. Obviously, we don’t want to catch anything. We’ve got three months of touring coming up, so we want to make sure we can fulfill all the dates.
JK: It’s been a few years since the last Uncle Acid album was released. Did you guys write or record music during your time off?
KS: Yeah, I did a lot of writing. We couldn’t really record together because we all live in three different countries, so it’s been very hard to schedule recording sessions when there’s lockdowns and flight restrictions in place. That’s been one of the frustrating things about it. I know a lot of the fans want to hear new music, but we just haven’t been able to get together. This is the first time I’ve seen the guys in two years, so it’s been pretty crazy.
But yeah, plenty of songs have been written and plenty of things have been worked on. It’s all coming together.
Johnny: So, when you record albums, you prefer to work in the same room together as opposed to working remotely and sending tracks or ideas back and forth?
Kevin: We always record the albums live, together in a room. I’ll write the songs and do little demos for everybody. I send them off, everybody learns the tracks, and then we come into the studio and record it live. For me to do any sort of ‘emailing guitar parts,’ it doesn’t really work for what we do.
Johnny: Where do you draw inspiration from when you’re writing lyrics?
Kevin: I guess a lot of movies, but a lot of it is just things you see in real life. You know, real horror. You kind of mask that in stories and different characters so people can’t really trace what you’re doing back to anything, but a lot of it is just real-life horror. I think that’s most frightening, isn’t it?
Johnny: Did you pick up any interesting hobbies or activities during lockdown restrictions?
Kevin: Actually, I didn’t! I’ve just been playing guitar and writing, doing what I normally do. I’ve been trying to sort of ignore what’s going on and get on with it really. It was nice to have a little bit of a break. We had a U.S. tour that got pushed back and pushed back until it eventually got canceled. Once that was out of the way it was like, ‘okay, now I can focus solely on writing music.’ I didn’t have to worry about when we were going to try to tour or play live. It’s been beneficial, I think. Obviously, it’s been difficult, but I’ve used my time well.
Johnny: What have you been listening to lately, what keeps you inspired?
Kevin: Neil Young, Iron Maiden, Wasp. Just the classic stuff I normally listen to. I don’t think I’ve discovered anything new since I’ve been away.
Johnny: Who’s your favorite member of Monty Python?
Kevin: John Cleese, maybe. I liked his work on Fawlty Towers actually, I preferred that over Monty Python. For me, Fawlty Towers is the greatest comedy of all time.
Johnny: What’s next for Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats?
Kevin: Well, we got this U.S. tour, then we go back to Europe before we immediately start a tour supporting Ghost in Europe. Twin Temple is opening as well. We’ve been writing and hopefully we’ll get a recording session in.
Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats are on tour in the U.S. through April 3.
I play, I write, I play, I write...
