Interview with Gary Moat from Burnt Out Wreck
WinterStorm
Saturday 30th November 2019
Q..Gary thanks for taking some time for a chat after your set , What have you been up to since leaving Heavy Pettin’ and forming Burnt Out Wreck
Heavy Pettin folded in about 1989 and when it happened I already had 2 kids and stayed in Milton Keynes . Gordon Bonnar from HP had moved down to Milton Keynes as well and was working in a recording studio as a sound engineer, we started writing songs together as we had been doing that since we were 13 years of age and these songs became a band that we called Mothers Ruin. We still had day jobs to earn money but we still wrote songs but at that time it was more important looking after the family than being in a band. Everyone who was in HP was very much the same.
In 2016 I decided I would do some of the Mothers Ruin songs and some new songs and make it into a project that I called Burnt Out Wreck pretty much named after what I was myself at that time.
I recorded them and put out the album ‘Swallow’ and everyone seemed to like it and love it. It went down well which was a bit of a surprise to me but made me very happy.
Q.. Its just heads down Rock & Roll
Yes it’s straight ahead and that’s the only thing I really like , its my favourite style. I carried on with the new album in the same vein , maybe even more so . ‘Swallow’ had a varied style on it it wasn’t just AC/DC type style.
Q…The new album seems to be doing really well ?
Its doing really well , seems to be doing better than the first album to be honest . I think its down to everyone who bought the first , listening to it and telling all their friends on Facebook and social media to listen to it and buy it . The song ‘Dead or Alive ‘ already has thousands and thousands of views . Its just awesome Imflabbergasted.
Q.. You played upstairs on the sessions stage last year here, did you enjoy the main stage this year. ?
We went down well last year but I think we were up against The Dead Daisies so a lot left but we still had 50/60 who stayed and watched. This year we were really surprised to het the call to do it after someone pulled out , we said’ yeah that would be awesome’ . We were totally blown away with the audience today it was amazing . They were right to the back of the hall and the balcony was full. WinterStorm is a cracking gig , of all the things in Britain . Being in a band we see a lot of things going on , all the shambles etc , but this is definitely a gig to remember. We also announced today we are on the main stage at Bonfest next year which is brilliant.
Q.. I see you have some gigs lined up for the New Year
Yes we play Glasgow Hard Rock Café & Bannermans in Edinburgh at the beginning of February, come and see us .
Q.. You’ve also just supported Pete Way
Yes just done a couple of gigs in London & in North Wales with him, it’s a strange combination , he’s the total man , done a lot in his life and has said a lot of good things about me which is a funny feeling as he’s one of my all time heroes.
Q.. I believe you have just got the rights to your own music back again ?
Well , yeah its not the rights , we managed to get the licences for the first 3 Heavy Pettin albums and put them out on our own label which is my wife and I , not HP the band , its got nothing to do with them . Its our label at the moment called Burnt Out Records and is distributed by Cherry Red . There’s a lot of confusion about it at the moment and people think im rejoining HP , but im not Hamie & Gordon are fronting it and giving it large .
Q .. How do the rights /Licences work from an ignorant of the music business point of view .
Nobody owns their own music , when you sign to a record company and publishers its theirs forever , well until , Ive got another 20 years and Il be gone and then they revert to me . You sell your soul to the devil in the early days.
So its nothing about the rights , its purely the licences to solely put out CD’s and sell them. Universal get their money from downloads and money back from us for the CD’s being sold.
Previously after all the sales , all the money went missing and people have been living in the Caribbean on Heavy Pettin’s material. It is great to have it and we will do it properly this time . Its just been horrible through my life getting nothing , nothing is coming back and HP sold an awful lot of records .
When the re releases came out back in 2004 , no money was ever repaid . Even the ‘Big Bang’ album on FM/Revolver in 1989 we got nothing from that but they kept re releasing and re releasing it .
When the internet started up HP were all over it . People were buying box sets for £100/£200 a time , and someone is living a life of luxury on that and thees nothing we can do about it . So we’ve done something about it now , we’ve fought hard for it. That’s basically it , it will sort itself.
- So when Heavy Pettin were reforming were you asked ?
Of course , myself and Hamie had been talking for a couple of years about doing it . Trying to get the guys into it was another matter after so many years it was a case of do we want to do this , they had day jobs and families and it remained a will we or won’t we .
In 2016 I decided to do my own stuff which was released and everyone thought it was great . So I had to think will I do it or will I just be the singer in Burnt Out Wreck which was doing so well .To be honest I preferredbeing the singer , I loved playing the drums but ive always been a songwriter . So I chose singing , the crowd go mental , it’s a difficult task you can hide behind a drum kit but not behind a microphone , so this is where we are at ..
Thanks so much for your time Gary
