SWAG : PRESS



BBC Radio Merseyside
Billy Butler interviews Robert Reynolds and Paul Deakin
Broadcast Monday 22 July 2013

 
[In which Robert makes references to the Liverpool pronunciation.]


There we are, the Mavericks and Back In Your Arms Again.   It's my great pleasure to
welcome Paul Deakin and Robert Reynolds of the Mavericks as my guests today.   Welcome, boys.  
PD:  You're welcome.
RR:  You're welcome.

Welcome to the studio, guys, welcome to Liverpool.  You're our kind of a band.
PD:  Thank you, you're our kind of a...
RR:  Thank you so much.
 
You're great musicians, great sense of humour.
RR:  Ah lovely.  Well, I do love your humour.   I come in and I'm already in stitches, so I recommend that if you're having a little bit of the blues or the doldrums, come on by.
PD: You almost ended up in stitches in Nottingham.
RR:  Yes there was that, a little scuffle on the streets with those blokes.  Hey, Nottingham kids, they're raised rough.
 
He's using our language straight away - 'blokes'
RR:  [Assumes Liverpool accent] Blokes, you know... So yeah, we appreciate you having us.
 
It's a pleasure, we love your kind of music.   If you ever need a record to jump start your programme, throw one of the Mavericks in.  And if there's ever a fight, throw one of the Mavericks in.
PD:  Yes, exactly.
RR:  There is that.  [laughter]
 
Now you guys are from Miami.
PD:  Yes, that's where we started.

I never... I suppose I should have associated, with you being so close to Cuba, with that kind of music that you do.
RR:  It was definitely an influence on the group via, of course, Raul.  His parents were the classic Cuban immigrants of that... 1959-60, they came over here fleeing Castro, of course.  They came to America, but they came with a great passion for American music, and Raul was raised on truly the perfect record collection - Hank Senior to Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley... the best records ever.
 
Listen to everything, don't relegate anything.   Give an ear to everything.
PD:   Exactly.
RR:  That's right.
 
The Interesting thing about Raul is the way he writes with so many different people.
RR: Yes he does, indeed..
PD: Absolutely
RR: Well, there are one of two things going on there - either he sees an incredible opportunity for creativity, or it's a shortcut and it cuts his day in half and he can get off to whatever else he wants to do.
 
Write an even quicker one with three of them.
RR:  Yes, that's it.  That's it.
 
The great thing about the Mavericks albums, there's always variety there.  From one number to the next, you go 'I like this one', or 'That's different'.  This has got the Mavericks sound, like Back in Your Arms Again... it's got the Blue Moon-type shuffle ballads as well.  You've got an amazing song on there... I've just played All That Heaven Will Allow, which is a Springsteen cover you did... and I always like hearing the Mavericks' cover versions.  There again, you put your own... I remember, was it three or four years ago, it came up on our players, 'New Mavericks record' and there was Here Comes My Baby. 
RR:  The old Tremeloes hit.
 
Like a Merseybeat-era hit.  But it sounded like it could have been written for the Mavericks.
RR:  Its a funny thing, we have never veered too far away from some of the British Invasion stuff that we love, and if you're a musical guy, like I can tell you are, if you don't get it on the surface and you dig just a few layers deeper, you'll hear Beatle harmonies, you'll hear Beatle melodies or British Invasion-type melodies or.production - so even if it is a twanged-up Americana song, we'll find a way to sneak in a little bit of the old British Invasion.
 
I thought Lies was an early Merseybeat...
RR:  Yeah, very much.  It sounds kind of knickerbockers or something, doesn't it?
 
But yours is different, it had that Merseybeat thud, thud, thud on the drums.
RR:  Or on the floor.  Yeah, I love that.  thud, thud, thud.
 
And then by the same token you go and then do something... Raul will do Blue Moon and you thought 'Why is he doing that?', and then when you hear it, you think... of course he should...
PD:  Exactly... With that voice, for him to be able to stretch out and to sing, with the ability he has, it would be a shame not to do songs like that.
 
I noticed on your Facebook page, one of your suggestions...
RR:  Facebooook?  Is that how you pronounce it?  Boook.  Faceboook.  [mocking the Liverpool accent]
 
B-u-w-k... book... 
RR:  Buwk you too.
 
You ask for suggestions what cover versions you'd like to hear the band do, which I thought was really interesting.   One of the ones I saw and I'd thought I'd love to hear Raul do - Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.
RR:  We have done that in soundchecks.
 
Have you?  I'd love to hear you do that. 
RR:  We have never done it live before an audience, but we have done that just messing around on stage when we get our sound check done... A lovely song.
 
Do it.   Willie's never done that in the studio, you know.  He's only got that live version out.  He's never done that in the studio, it's a great song.
RR:  Yes I know.  It's a fabulous song, you may be right.  Maybe we should give that a proper recording at some point.  I'll give you a proper credit for that in the booook...
 
The thing that sticks out is, and you'll probably never hear it on the radio, is Call Me When You Get to Heaven, because its eight minutes long.
PD:  Yeah.
RR:  Right, it's rivalling Hey Jude for air time.  You saw how that got the Beatles, broke 'em right up.
 
Eight minutes.  And it's interesting how Raul talks about why he wrote it... if you don't contact someone on earth for some reason or other, you say 'Call me when you get to heaven'.   And its a lovely feeling.   And its the first time I've heard a gospel group with you, because those girls basically are gospel, aren't they?
PD:  The McCrary Sisters.  Yes, they're wonderful.   They're over here right now, too.
RR:  They're on tour, they've done a couple of these festival dates you mentioned. They were boooked to do a few of these shows, they have a booooking agent, in case you didn't know. [Assuming Liverpool accent.]
 
I went on the radio with Billy Butler and he re-booooked me. 
[laughter]
 
So you've been doing a couple of indoor festivals, you're back on the theatres.  You've done the Philharmonic before, haven't you?
PD:  I don't know that... Have we done...?
RR:  We did the Empire before. 
PD:  We did the Empire, yeah.  So this is our first time at the Philharmonic, and boy, are we excited.
 
How is the album doing in the States?
PD:  It's doing well.  You know, in this day and age the numbers are different, just because of...
 
It's hard to find out, for a start.  You've got downloads... this, that and the other.
PD:  Exactly.
 
In the old days it used to be 'How many has it sold.?'  That was the only...
RR:  It was a flat 'Did it sell, did it not sell?'  Nowadays you get all these downloads and so on and so forth..  We were on a TV show recently, our music was, and it put record sales up 500 per cent.  So I think that week we sold 10 copies, it was amazing.
 
One of the suggestions on Facebook is for you to cover the Daft Punks song...  I can see that.
RR:  They're top of the charts right now, that sounds daft, what an idea.  Thats a daft idea.
 
It's great to have you, lads.
RR:  Thank you so much.
 
It's great to meet two guys who really love what they're doing, you're very friendly, and you love your music...
RR:  We do.  La Musica.  Let me ask you, before we say goodbye, if we want to come back and do this again, who do I talk to about getting a booooking?  [Thumps table.]   I won't get enough of that today.

[Record played in the studio:  That's Not My Name]
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