Interviews

A Quick Chat With Red Racer

• 29th Sep 2014

After covering their hefty new desert-rock inspired single recently we had to grab a quick fifteen minutes with Sean Genockey, axeman of Red Racer, to find out what makes them tick, what it’s like to be in a band with Jesse Wood (offspring of rock royalty Ronnie Wood) and why snakes are macho. You know it’s true…

When we first started playing music…
John and I first played together in 1995 and went on to form Moke. Jesse and John were in Hogg from 2005, and we have all been in various line ups together since then. We guess you can also say that when we first started playing music, mp3s, iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, autotune and Google weren’t invented. Hmm, this question just confirms one thing: we’re old bastards!

If we had to choose a new name for the band it would be…
…it would be Serpiente because it’s Spanish for ‘snake’. And it rolls off the tongue like … like something scaly and poisonous. And you can sound quite macho when you say it with a low, gruff voice, Spanish accent and a quiver to the lip, a bit like Elvis Presley … or even ‘Alves Presliéri’.

We knew we were onto something when…
The three of us rehearsed together, with John on the drums for the first time. It just seemed to make sense, even though John’s role was never originally intended to be drummer. Luckily he’s a jack of many trades, and Jesse was free to join the band as bassist. Suddenly RedRaceR became a trio and our frontman just happened to play the drums, too.

Our biggest non-musical influences are…
Phipps Bridge, Cooking, Drinking and snooker.

We’re most proud of…
Our Album.

Our ideal support slot would be…
Our ideal support slot would be a tour with our desert comrades in Eagles of Death Metal, because at some point on the album, every one of those guys contributed something, so it’s like EODM’s British alter ego in some ways. And since David Catching recently released his pseudo solo album in Mojave Lords,that would also be an ideal support slot. If asked who our dream support slot would be, hands down it would be Jack White as long as he brought both bands!

Something we haven’t achieved yet which I’d like to is…
Record and mix an album in one day.

Our favourite place to hang out is…
Since we are always in two mindsets – South London and the Desert – if we were in the US, it’d be Rancho De La Luna, but while in the UK it’s ‘The Hand In Hand’ pub.

We can’t stop listening to…
Derek and Clive, The Who, Mel & Kim.

We’re not ashamed to admit that…
Our families, and the love we have for our children and the beautiful ladies in our lives are a big part of being able to be RedRaceR. That support is particularly appreciated during our business meetings at ‘The Hand In Hand’ pub.

If we could wave a magic wand and make anything in the world happen it would be…
We really only like to wave one thing around each, and it seems to make the magic happen. But seriously, magic is something that happens when you are able to influence events by using supernatural forces (we can’t do that shit, yet, but we’re working on it) so best to just settle for the magic ‘wands’ we do have control over.

Catching us next….
We are honoured to be playing the Movember launch event on October 15th at Proud in Camden, but then we will be on a UK roadshow, starting November 3rd in Bristol, then Manchester, Nottingham, and London. Tickets are on sale now.

03 Nov / The Louisiana / Bristol
04 Nov / Gullivers / Manchester
05 Nov / Bodega / Nottingham
19 Nov / The Garage / London