Tom Harte of TRUCKER DIABLO
Interview by Tony & Bill @ The Dedicated Rocker Society
Trucker Diablo are a band that have gone from strength to strength, through hard work and dedication to their craft. The band was born in 2008 and quickly gained a name for themselves picking up endorsements along the way from their peers such as Ricky Warwick, Ginger Wildheart, Joe Elliot, Damon Johnson and Cormac Neeson. 2011 saw the band be hand picked by festival promoters to appear at Download Festival Irish leg of their UK tour. Leading right into 2012 the band has their single “Drink Beer, Destroy” feature on Kerrang TV, MTV Australia and Xbox game Rock Band 3.
Following on the boys took 2012 by the throat and played a massive 40 shows, which including some key highlights from playing Hammerfest with Anthrax, supporting Foo Fighters at Tennents Vital, supporting Terrorvision on their UK tour, rocking crowds on the main stage at Hard Rock Hell festival and topping Thin Lizzy” in Belfast. What does 2013 have in store for the Trucker boys? After the success of their debut album “ The Devil Rhythm”, the band will start 2013 with the release of the highly anticipated second album “Songs of Iron”, which be released officially in May of 2013 by Ripple Music single “The Rebel” released on the 1st February.
There’s a big open road in front of Trucker Diablo, jump on board, be a part of the convoy and catch the Big Truck on tour in the U.S and U.K in 2013. The Rocker and I caught up with Trucker Diablo’ s frontman, Tom Harte to get the lowdown before they throw down on their up coming tour. Here is what he shared with us.
How did Trucker Diablo come about? Cool name by the way, who came up with it?
Tom Harte: We have all been friends for quite a long time and myself and Terry our drummer played together in band previously. So when it came to putting the band together I had a fair idea of who I wanted to be a part of it. We put the band together at the start of 2008 and recorded a demo but didn’t really do that much. I came up with the name, I alway liked Trucker as a name, Diablo gave it the evil edge it needed and we all like the whole muscle car thing so it stuck pretty hard.
Tom: We recorded all the music and vocals in about 2 weeks and another week or so to mix it.
With the success of your debut release, ‘The Devil Rhythm’, was there pressure to make the new album sound just as good? We ask only because, some bands fall short with their sophomore recordings.
Tom: We really wanted to blow the first album outta the water and give fanssomething new to get their teeth into. There’s always the pressure. But we will were pretty confident with the songs we had. I think we did that and we are really happy with how the new album came out.
Any memorable moments good or bad that you’d care to share with in regards to the making of, ‘Songs Of Iron’?
Tom: I suppose actually trying to whittle down the songs, we felt strongly about a lot of songs that didn’t make it… And eh “chatted” over it strongly lol
How many songs did you actually write for this album?
Tom: We had originally 22 songs and we wanted to get it down to 12, but we end up with 14 lol.
What’s the song writing process like for you guy? Is it one person or is it a group effort?
Tom: For this album I wrote alotta of the tune in my rock shed, refining the tunes. Normally we will bring tunes or riffs to rehearsal and we work on them until they are in some kinda shape that they would be good enough to make the set.
How does feel to get positive endorsements from your fellow Rockers like, Ricky Warwick, Ginger of The Wildhearts and The Answer’ s Cormac Neeson (to name a few)?
Tom: It really humbles you in my opinion. Some of these bands I have been listening to for years and now to be thought of highly is something that I always dream of,It really is an amazing feeling that we have some great supporters.
You’ve done two music videos, “Drive” and “Rebel”, what’s the next single for you guys? Where we’re those two videos shot by the way?
Tom: We are still deciding what to do next. We normally gauge reaction from the fans and go from there. So I reckon we will decide pretty soon and go from there. The Rebel footage was shot when we supported the Foo Fighters and “Drive” was shot at a local film studio in Belfast.
2011 through 2012, you guys were literally “Road Warriors” playing a number of festivals. Would it be safe to assume that 2013 with be the same? If not busier?
Tom: You would be spot on, right from the start of the year it started to get busier and with festivals and shows coming up, there’s no letting up from the big truck.
Any chance of coming to America for some shows? When you do finally come over (noticed I said, “When” not “If”), who would you like to tour with?
Tom: Yeah we would absolutely love to come, just really politics at the moment. We need to find a booker to get us on shows, so once we get all that sorted we can start to make plans. We wanna tour with Metallica lol, why not….
We have to ask, what in the heck is in the water in Ireland?…:) In the last five years there have been a surge of great rock bands coming from there. Aside from you guys, there’s The Answer, Last Known Addiction, Sweet Taste and the Screaming Eagles.
Tom: Must be the beer lol…Yeah, they say behavior breeds behavior. When bands see other local bands doing well, they wanna do they same. Its great to see…
As a band what goals have you set for yourselves?
Tom: We wanna be a huge successful rock band, I think if you can’t aim high, why bother? There has to be a new new legacy of bands to take over from the greats to keep rock and roll alive and I want us to try and achieve that.
What’s next for Trucker Diablo?
Tom: Well the new album is out and we just want to get it in front as many people as possible. We are making more trips to Europe this which Is great. So hopefully we can make more in-roads to other countries around the world and spreading the good word of Trucker Diablo. Loads of Love, Tom.
For more info on Trucker Diablo: www.truckerdiablo.com
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