Why have you called this album 'More Than Skin Deep'? After all aren't you a party band?

Bill : What band?

Peter : A party band!

Come on, that's a curious title for a Fleshtones album?

Peter : I came up with that title and of course we are a party band, a very good one, but we're a little bit more than that I think. If people pay any attention to our records we do say more than "Sha La La La La", but sometimes "Sha La La La La" is the best thing to say. We just want to establish our position with our type of music a little bit and our interest in it goes more deep than just a passing year or two as many peoples' interest is.

There's always been that element to the Fleshtones' songbook and you've often offered the listener more to investigate. Do you find it irritating that people pass over songs, for instance 'Shadowline' and 'Nothings Gonna Bring Me Down', which have an interesting lyric?

Bill : Sometimes, though some close listeners get that. I remember a couple of people calling 'Roman Gods' "dark" and that was in 1981. So I think that some people catch onto that but the general idea is that yeah, we're a party band. Also we're not really the type of band which puts their lyrics on their album sleeve so if you were to go a little bit deeper you'd really have to use your ears and not just read.

The reviews for 'More Than Skin Deep' pick up on this. They say that YES, here is a party band, but underneath lurks a thoughtful side to some of the songs. Maybe your point is now hitting home. Anyway what took my eye was that the Press Release claimed that this is the best Fleshtones' album since 'Roman Gods'. That's a rather bold statement?

Bill : That's why we write our own Press Releases!

Peter : That's true, I might have written that Press Release myself.

Bill : I thought I wrote that!

Peter : It is a pretty bold statement. OK you could argue 'Hexbreaker' is the best since then or maybe, for the few people that know the record, 'Vs Reality'. But I think 'More Than Skin Deep' is our best record of the nineties.

Production wise it's very different from 'Roman Gods'. Perhaps the overall sound of 'Roman Gods' is a compromise between the rawness of 'Blast Off!' and the crunch of 'Hexbreaker'. Whereas 'More Than Skin Deep' is a back to a mono type of production.

Bill : When we were recording 'Roman Gods' we unfortunately had a budget and what we spent on making 'More Than Skin Deep' was what we spent quite literally in an afternoon of recording 'Roman Gods'. That album took about three weeks to record, with the production a month. So any given day for 'Roman Gods' is the total of what we spent for 'More Than Skin Deep'. That's just from that angle, but Peter and Mr Johnson were actually working the knobs as far as the production is concerned too.

So this is your second album at Compactor Studios with Paul Johnson?

Peter : Yeah, working with Paul at Compactor is a real good thing. To get back to what you were asking about before, I think everyone in the band wanted to do a record that was clear about what was going on musically. With things like 'Hexbreaker' you had to listen to it five or six times before you had any idea of what's going on and most people won't give a record that many listens. They'll listen to maybe a little bit of it, they'll be baffled, and half the time we're baffled by 'Hexbreaker'. So we wanted to do a record which was lucid.

Do you think that the production is an improvement on 'Hitsburg USA'?

Peter : It's about the same. We did the 'Hitsburg' album as an exploratory thing and we said "Hey, we like this and everyone else likes it", so we hope that 'More Than Skin Deep is similar.

You recorded around seventeen tracks at the sessions and there are three different version of the album. In the US the vinyl is on Telstar, the CD on Ichiban and in Europe both formats appear on Epitaph. Why are there so many versions?

Bill : Because our business career is scattered as usual and certain people are interested in us in one area, some people are either interested or disinterested in us in another area, so there's opportunity to do different formats. In the course of doing so why not change the content a little.

Hmm... so you're not consciously being cheapskates and ripping-off your fans?

Peter : That pisses me off and I really take exception to that. We're a band that's noted for its generosity and spirit for our audience and fans. No, not at all, but one thing we do play on a bit is our own background as record collectors and there's always that thrill in finding a Greek edition of something which has a different track. It has more to do with that.

Bill : It's a lot like the Beatles. We mimic the Beatles in many ways, not only talent and success (laughs), but also they would put out an album in Germany and it would get to the States, the 'Something New' album was all over the place. We don't have any scratch-off covers with something underneath but we have different tracks I guess.

How did you feel when Epitaph Europe adopted the album?

Bill : We were thrilled. It's about the best thing that's happened to us in a long time because they're a real label that understands bands and where we're at. They know what needs to be done and we feel very confident and very rejuvenated I must say.

Peter : It's part of a chain of some fairly positive things that have happened with us since maybe we started with the 'Hitsburg' thing. These are hopeful signs.

You've been reunited at Epitaph with some of your old pals like Wayne Kramer and of course The Cramps who you appear to have followed from IRS to Big Beat and now to Epitaph. How do you feel about this?

Peter : I feel good! It's good for us to be in the company of people that we have something in common with. And also, after doing a bunch of records that didn't reach our public in any way, it's good to be hooked-up with a label and with artists that many people know. At least then people recognise that we're putting records out. It's heartbreaking to do the type of records that we put out and then not have them reach even our public, forget about the public at large, so we hope that this will correct that.

Let's talk about the material on the album. The first thing that hits me is that most of the songs are very short and under three minutes...

Bill : That's because we're cheapskates. We refuse to do a seven minute song for our fans and I'm sure they are very thankful!

'God Damn It' appears to be a very "the Fleshtones despite all" type of song?

Peter : Oh yeah, that's one of Keith's tunes, that's a good one.

Bill : People are liking that quite a bit. One guy in Holland said "My God, that's your new rock anthem and it's an anthem for a lot of bands too", I don't know if it is an anthem but it kind of describes the pitfalls and some of the disappointments of playing in a band.

The lyric indicates that you were invited to play England for "eighteen shows in fourteen nights", so when did this happen?

Peter : I think it might have happened a lot of times. That's a fun song because a lot of people, including us, get a kick out of being able to admit that we are pissed-off about certain things and that we are not totally oblivious to what's going on around us but still rocking and rolling.

Bill : And sometimes it is "eighteen shows in fourteen nights" because some of the shows there we did two shows a night...

Peter : ...or an early Childrens' show in some place and then go onto a night-club somewhere else.

Bill : It's best that we do one show. It's hard to split our show into two parts, although we can do it, it's just not as much fun for the audience. We don't care, we'll do three shows, but the audience doesn't like it as much.

Peter, I want to ask you about one of your songs, 'Gentleman's Twist'. Firstly isn't that coming out as a 45?

Peter : It's supposedly going to be released as a single.

What's happening to the version with Alan Vega on lead vocals?

Peter : What's gonna happen is, supposedly, Epitaph Europe is releasing a single and it'll be the album version of 'Gentleman's Twist' followed by Alan Vega doing the lead and then a bonus track, you see we're giving bonus', the Fleshtones' version of 'Red Sunset' by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.

Are there any other unreleased tracks in the can from the 'More Than Skin Deep' sessions?

Peter : There might be but I've forgotten and I'm sure there are a few.

Peter, you seem very preoccupied with your childhood at the moment. There's a song about being pushed around and beaten up at school, 'I'm Not A Sissy'...

Peter : I'm still a sissy actually.

...and then there's a bonus track on the Telstar vinyl, 'Bazooka Joe', which again has a reference to your childhood days.

Peter : No, that totally has to do with now. I'm more obsessed with 'Bazooka Joe' now than I was as a child.

Is 'Bazooka Joe' bubble gum still available in the USA?

Peter : Yes, but you are right, they've cleaned up Bazooka Joe's image since my childhood days. He's no longer the ruffian with a black patch over one eye.

Is he politically correct in the nineties?

Peter : No. Bazooka Joe, like the song, is totally politically incorrect . That song is filled with homosexual innuendo and it's basically about a pederast! (Are you sure Z-man? - ed.)

Talking of sexual innuendo in your new material, what about 'Love Machine' and the instrumental called 'Blow Job'. Are you guys obsessed by sex in your dotage?

Peter : No, we're finally letting our hair down a little.

'Blow Job' is a real departure in musical style for the Fleshtones and it's almost a Lounge Instrumental.

Bill : Yes it is.

Is that something you've wanted to do for a while?

Peter : That tune was in my head for quite a while, we finally got hold of Gordon Spaeth, and it's pretty sleazy. Paul Johnson said it reminded him of someone getting a blow job under a pier at night. I like that image.

Bill : But I notice we didn't call the song 'Under A Pier At Night'?

'More Than Skin Deep' has, as ever with the Fleshtones, two carefully chosen cover versions. 'Hand For The Band' and 'Laugh It Off'. Who first recorded 'Hand For The Band'?

Peter : I've been hearing that 'Hand For The Band' had been used in the movie version of 'Boys In The Band' but I'm not sure.

Bill : Another homosexual movie. Have you ever seen 'Boys In The Band'? We'll take you to a dark theatre sometime and we'll see it. (Er... no thanks Lucky Bill! - ed.)

When was it made then?

Peter : It was in the late sixties and it was a big breakthrough film 'cause it was up-front and not being sensationalist either about homosexual relationships. There's another funny thing about that movie, there's a reference in it when they're throwing that party and the drink that they're mixing up for the bash is indeed 'Blue Whale'.

Bill : You're kidding, Wow!

Peter : No kidding.

The infamous Fleshtones' cocktail from the 80s...

Bill : I didn't buy the video of that movie like I guess you did.

Peter : Well I've been watching it again Bill (laughs).

You version of that Tams' song, 'Laugh It Off', both on-stage and on record is played and sung so well.

Peter : Thank you.

Bill : That song has always gone over very well live, even though it's not a rocker in the rockin' rockin' sense, people like that we're "laughing it off" and it's odd to hear a band laugh into their microphones as part of the song. It's fun to play too.

Peter : That's a good example of something that I'd like to compliment the band on. And that is usually being able to make an original choice of cover material. Unlike a lot of other bands which relay on redoing the cover versions as done by typical garage bands of the sixties or something. Whereas first of all we listen to the Tams so that we're able to make that type of choice while most other bands really aren't able to 'cause they don't listen to that type of material.

So you don't consider that the Fleshtones wear a musical straight jacket?

Peter : Absolutely not. We don't do something only 'cause the Kinks covered it or the Stones covered it. In fact that would be more of a reason why we wouldn't cover it. Call us apostates, call us heretics, but call us the Fleshtones.

Final question. The jacket design for 'More Than Skin Deep' has a striking image of a tattooed torso. Who posed for the sleeve?

Peter : My wife, she was handy, I said "Here put this wig on, take off your clothes and put this on," and she happily obliged too. It's a very Pop Art process, a slide re-projected over a live subject and then re-photographed. I'm particularly happy with the way that the Epitaph copies look. The printing job is excellent and those Czechoslovakians really know how to do their Pop Art! It's a nice striking cover as it should be, I'm very happy with that, especially coming after the tragedy of 'Laboratory of Sound'.

When the original artwork was rejected?

Peter : Yes, in favour of the most bland, almost camouflaged, meaningless cover.

The shot of the Fleshtones on the back of 'More Than Skin Deep' was taken in Compactor Studios and offers a good impression of the conditions and atmosphere under which the album was recorded.

Peter : We had a lava lamp and an inflatable shark...

Bill : ...and that is indeed where we recorded.

Peter : It has a bar which we didn't use much during the sessions.

Bill : Not a bit. Unlike when we used to record in England where we had those large tins of beer piled-up for 'The World Has Changed' recording. Ha... maybe we don't need that anymore to have fun in the studio. We're fairly sober in our approach to a lot of things that people don't think that we're sober about.

Peter : One thing about that, I think, of course we are always having fun being bombed out of our brains (laughs) but in earlier recordings we usually had much more of a difficult relationship with the studio, the engineers and the producers. In a way the drinking was a bit of a release from that whereas now we enjoy recording so much that it's an absolute delight. It's delightful.

And you're going back to Compactor Studios in the autumn to record another album of covers?

Bill : That's right and it gonna be called 'The Back To School Special'.

So the Compactor sound is going to be around for another year or so?

Peter : We hope so, so look out for 'Hitsburg Revisited : 'The Back To School Special'.