I spoke to Jack to discuss the re-release of their first two albums “Rides Tonight” and “The Gamblers Regret”.

Tell me the history behind these albums.
Jack - In the spring of 2005 we went into the recording studio to lay down our first full length record. Unfortunately, two weeks before we were scheduled to go into the studio, my bass player Mike had a run in with the law and would not be able to make the sessions; so I panicked! It was really tough to get into this particular studio because the engineer was well known for recording a lot of big stars like Van Halen and David Bowie so I didn’t want to cancel and loose my spot. When things like this happen to me I just look at it like God or some higher power is trying to help steer me in the right direction. I thought maybe this bass player wouldn’t have worked out or maybe with his lack of studio experience he could have put us in overtime with a lot of retakes and put me in the poor house paying for excessive studio hours. So I just accepted that this is meant to be, make the best of it, and find another bass player. I got hold of Doug Osbourn who played with Straw Boss, I told him about my predicament and I asked him if he’d like to be on the album and he said “hell yeah!” We did some quick rehearsals and headed into the studio; “Rumble Club Rides Tonight” was released in August of 2005.

Jack - I kept writing and by November of 2006 we were ready to record another album. This time I wanted to have more control over the process so I put a studio together in my house in Covington, KY. At our first session my PC crashed and I realized that my interface to my ProTools system didn’t have nearly enough inputs for us to make a professional recording. So we canceled that session and I started researching the equipment I would need. Three weeks later I was up and running and I got the guys back in and we started laying down some tracks. We finished the recording some time in Jan 2007. I spent four weeks mixing and mastering it, and several more weeks working with our graphics artist to finish the layout and get it ready to press. We released the “In Case of Rumble” in March of 2007. On the back was a picture of glass case that you should break in case a rumble breaks out, it’s got all kinds of weapons that you might need like a blackjack, and a pair of brass knuckles!

Why did you decide to get them re-released?
Jack - I think it was mid August 2007 and I was just sitting there thinking “How the hell am I going to get these CDs out there?” I already had them on CDBaby.com, Amazon.com, Raucaus.com and Nervous UK was doing some distribution for us. They were selling really well at shows, hell at one point I was selling like two a day on eBay for like three months straight. But people on myspace would write me and say what record store I can buy your CD? I remembered reading a couple of interviews with the founder of Hairball8 records, so I contacted them. Ryan said he loved everything about Rumble Club except for the cover art on the CDs. They wanted to know if we would be open to their suggestions. I was like “Oh my God a record label that wants to know if we would be open? Ok, sure”. We were very open to getting input and guidance from HB8. If label told me to change the name of the band, I’d tell ‘em to take a hike, but wanting to give us some advice so we could have a chance at getting the music out to a larger group of people, well that’s good stuff. We hired an artist “Taz” who did a killer job for the new cover art; I really like what he came up with. I think the covers fit the sound of the band a lot better and maybe our original CD covers were a little too ‘80’s Rockabilly looking.

The records came out at the end of November, what has been the response from people who have heard them?
Jack – We’ve had a lot of good feedback. The first record “Rides Tonight,” has been well received but there has been as even better response with “The Gamblers Regret”. It seems like people believe the first one was good but the second one was even better.

Have you had any other releases?
Jack - We recorded our first EP in 2004 on 24 track analog tape in Taylor Mill, KY. It was just a three song CD including “The Killer”, “My 56” and a cover of The Rev’s “Like a Rocket”. When we recorded “The Killer” the engineer, who had recorded a lot of bands out of Nashville, pointed out how he thought Johnny Cash would have liked the song. I remember him saying “He (Johnny) probably would have wanted to record that one!”

Rumble Club.

How would you describe the sound of Rumble Club?
Jack – I think there are 2 kinds of Rockabilly; neo-Rockabilly bands, and the type that is focused on being really traditional sounding. We are not 100% Psychobilly for sure; I just feel we are not traditional Rockabilly, but there definitely are some Rockabilly influences in our music.

I hope you don’t mind the vocal comparison to Johnny Cash? You sound like him without trying to copy him.
Jack – About every interview and review of the CDs compare me to him, but it is a compliment, but like you say, I am not trying to mimic him.

You are an excellent guitar player, did you take any lessons?
Jack – Yeah, I started on violin at 6 which was when I got a bit of classical training. I came from a family of musicians, my grandfather and uncle were big influences on me, I picked up the guitar at 11 and started taking lessons and reading music; my first show was at 12!

When did Rumble Club get started?
Jack - I started the band in 2004 and it was me on lead guitar and another guy playing rhythm guitar in the first line up, with an upright bass player and a drummer. The drummer quit because he wanted $50.00 per show guaranteed; I told him he was crazy so he quit or I fired him. I can’t remember. I then ran an ad in the paper looking for a drummer and Matt Walsh responded and he turned out to be a really great drummer and a great guy. After several more rehearsals it became apparent that the bassist was becoming a problem, he was constantly wining and complaining and just being a total asshole about everything. I fired him, and seeing he brought the rhythm guy into it, I had to fire him too. That meant I had to run an ad for a bass player and Mike Kiley came along and tried out; he was really laid back and just wanted to play for the love of the music so I hired him on the spot.

Do you remember your first show?
Jack - We played our first show at The Barrel House in Cincinnati opening up for local Rockabilly band Jerry King and The Rivertown Ramblers. Our set was comprised of songs by The Stray Cats, The Reverend Horton Heat and a handful of my originals such as “My 56”, and “The Killer” etc. We were pretty rough but the crowd liked us.

Have any bands been really supportive of what you are trying to do?
Jack - We got a lot of help and support from bands like Straw Boss, Jerry King, and The Star Devils. The local Rockabilly scene was slow to accept us because we didn’t play traditional Rockabilly, we’re more on the Cowpunk, Psychobilly side of things and we were loud and fast. I figured the only way I’m going to make this work is to create my own shows, so I started booking bands from outside the area. I did a “Psychobilly Nite” at the Madison Theatre in October 2004 and I think every Greaser and every Betty Girl showed up just out of curiosity.

What is the history behind the current line up?
Jack - After the recording sessions for “Rumble Club Rides Tonight” were over with, I had the daunting task of finding a bass player that could play and sing backup vocals like Doug. I had seen this greaser at some of our shows when Mike was on bass, I remembered him because he was one of the only guys that could dance so all of the girls would take turns dancing with him. He was really good too, doing moves like the jitterbug and swing dance moves, spinning those girls until they were dizzy! Doug told me one day that his name was Alex Becket and that he played upright bass; I think I called Alex up and asked him if he wanted to try out for Rumble Club. He was like hell yes; can I get a copy of the CD and learn some of the songs first? When he came over a week later I think he already knew every song on that CD; which was very impressive, so I was like “You’re hired man!”

Jack - We played our CD release party with Alex on bass and I think that was the first gig we ever played where peopled started to go kinda nuts when we started rockin’ out! I looked at Alex and he looked at me like “Wow they like it!” In early 2006 the band’s popularity had grown so I thought it was time we got out of our little city and start playing regionally. At that time my drummer had to leave us as he put it “I think it’s time for me to bough out as Rumble Club has grown and I think you need a drummer that can get out there and do these out of town shows.”

Jack - So back to the newspaper, I ran an ad for another drummer and Tim Heinrich showed up for a try out one night, I said “Play me a shuffle beat” and he said “You mean like the beat used on Mystery Train?” I said yeah, exactly. He started playing this really solid train roll, one of the best I’d ever heard. Afterwards Tim is packing up his gear and I guess I figured he knew he got the job, but he looks at me all serious and says “So am I in?” I looked at Alex and we just cracked up!

Jack - We got Chewy initially playing acoustic guitar when we played this CASH tribute show which worked so well that I asked him to join the band, which he did just before the last recording started. Now Chewy plays a Telecaster pretty much all the time. So, the guys I’ve got now are all on the second album. This is a good solid line up that will probably last years now. I have finally got the right line up, everyone has the same passion for it and everyone is going to hang in there.

I want to ask you about the name of the band; where did it come from? Rumble means to fight in England.
Jack – That’s right, that is what I meant by it too! I picked the name because I really liked the movie Rumble Fish and the whole James Dean thing. I want our band to come off like we are rebellious but not like we are packing guns and shooting each other, you know? The “Club” part of the name is because the guys in the band are sort of in a club, and the fans are in our club, you know they wear our Dickies shirts with RUMBLE CLUB on them.

If you play a venue for the first time do people know what to make of the band?
Jack – Pretty much any place we play they snap right into it and love it, and they usually go pretty crazy. We have that effect; maybe it is our sound? I have been in music so long that I make sure it is really professionally done and we put on a very fun show, and we basically rock the house! It is not like we have to come in and then come back to warm them up, they seem to instantly fall in love with it. They come out and see somebody playing a big hollow body guitar and doing things they are not used to seeing and then there’s Alex “Bones” up there slapping that big bass and they’re like, “Wow this is cool!”

What is the best review you have had for a show?
Jack - We once opened for the creators of Psychobilly, The Meteors and P. Paul Fenech told me after the show that he really enjoyed our set. I smiled and he said he wasn’t kidding and that he doesn’t usually say nice things like that; I said “I know I’ve heard you have a reputation for that”. He said “Fucking right!”

Why do you think there is such a draw for people who like Rockabilly and Psychobilly to be so heavily tattooed? The music and tattoos seem to go hand in hand.
Jack – It is weird with the tattoos because if you are into ‘50’s Rockabilly like Elvis, he didn’t have any so it doesn’t come from there. Maybe it comes from the greaser look of the truck drivers, the working class and the blue collar guy? I think they look really cool especially the greaser with the full sleeves. I don’t have full sleeves, but I have tattoos and I plan to get some more ink soon.

Jack Corey i studio.

So, what’s next for Rumble Club on the recording front?
Jack - I have written a bunch of new songs; I’ve got one about Lindsay Lohan crashing her SL69, with lyrics like “We’re goin’ for a ride and Lindsay’s gonna drive!” - It really rocks out. I have one that has a bit of influence from Marty Robbins called “Lonesome Gunman Traveler” which has a western theme about a young cowboy. His life long friend runs off with his bride to be, and so of course he guns him down and ends up running from the law for years. I have another one that is more on the Psycho side of things called “Psychobilly Willie”. I did a re-write of one of my favorite Hardcore Punk songs. I’ve renamed it to “I Love Livin’ as a ‘Billy”. I’ll let you guess what the original title is though!

Where are you going to record it?
Jack – In my home recording studio in Kentucky. I call my studio Fisticuffs Sound House!

What about future live shows?
Jack - As for touring we will be out during March, but it is hard for us to go out for long stretches of time, so this will be a ten date tour hitting Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York and maybe the Boston area. We should be back out again sometime in the fall, we’ll probably go south for that tour. In-between touring we will be playing shows in the Midwest, and hitting areas in the south and north east quite often. We will play Rockabilly Riot Nite on Feb 8th in Columbus, OH and I have booked a big Psychobilly show on Feb 9th in Newport, KY. This one will have a handful of Hairball8 bands like the Corpse Show Creeps, and Al & The Black Cats. We are also talking about a European tour for 2009 so if anybody in Europe wants to book us please drop me a line.

Do you have a website besides your Myspace page?
Jack – www.RumbleClub.com You can still buy the CDs with the original artwork, they are kind of a limited edition as once they are gone we won’t repress them.

Rumble Clubs webside.
Billy Bad Breaks myspaceside.