Doomsday Outlaw: ‘It’s different to everything else on the album, the strings really brought it along, it’s one of the things I’m most proud of’

Sheffield-based blues rock band Doomsday Outlaw are re-releasing their back-to-bricks remixed and remastered versions of their albums Hard Times (9 August) and Suffer More (27 September), giving us two double albums stacked full of their trademark Sabbath-meets-Clutch riffs hitched to soulful vocals, telling tales of heartbreak and redemption.

After hitting the Top 5 in the UK Rock Album Charts with last year’s album Damaged Goods, they’re super-juicing their earlier albums for this summer. The band on these early albums comprises Phil Poole (lead vocals), Indy Chanda (bass), Stephen Broughton (guitar), Gavin Mills (guitar) and John Willis (drums), alongside Chanda’s long-time collaborator on keyboards for the recording sessions, Ryan Taylor. Of this line-up, Poole and Chanda are still going the distance, with Taylor a more permanent fixture for live shows now. Poole’s involvement with the band had a serendipitous start: ‘We hadn’t met before starting the band,’ he said. ‘I’d been in bands previously but I fell out of love with it a little bit and did nothing for a couple of years. I was at an And So I Watch You From Afar gig with my brother, jumping around in the mosh pit – which is absolutely the best place to be – and there was something sparked inside of me. I was watching this band on stage and thought: “You know, I want to do that again”. I put an advert on a website called joinmyband.com while I was jumping around in this mosh pit (laughs). My brother’s telling me off saying: “Get off your phone, watch the band” and I’m trying to tell him that this is actually quite important, I’ve made a decision. I said in the ad that I was a singer looking for a band and Indy got in touch and it went from there, really!’

The band name was in place before either of them joined it. ‘When I joined, it was a lot heavier and doomy, more Sabbath and Clutch and the previous singer was a lot more growly,’ Chanda said. ‘It suited what we were doing, lyrically and musically, but then when we stepped up a gear with Phil on board and we had a bit more of the blues, a bit more swagger, a bit more soul, I think it took on a different meaning. If you listen to us, a lot of the lyrics that Phil writes, they’re very personal and they’re about a different kind of perspective. So rather than being doomy and foreboding, they’re a lot more introspective. I think that’s a different way of looking at your future and what you want to be and looking internally at what you can do about it.’

‘I listen to these tunes now and there are so many moments that take me by surprise’

Of the double album re-releases Poole says: ‘Suffer More and Hard Times were such a whirlwind. As soon as I joined, we got an album together really quick and we got contacted about a record deal the day it came out. So we were straight into the second album straightaway, writing, recording and playing the songs live without a pause for breath. And they are two great albums that are stuffed with songs we’re really proud of.’ Chanda adds: ‘We’re always learning and getting better. They sound even better now than before and really show how they could have been with a little more time and faith. I listen to these tunes now and there are so many moments that take me by surprise. It all feels brand new and ready to kick peoples’ arses all over again!’

Suffer More comprises 15 tracks, including ‘Blues For A Phantom Limb’, which they have just released as a single. Kicking off with a seriously hooky cigar-box guitar line, it quickly ramps up to become a heavier anthem as the guitars come crashing in: ‘It’s a beast of a song with a massive riff,’ Chanda said. ‘It’s got a huge chorus. It’s about romantic misadventures and bad decisions, but also regret and learning – too late – that you might just wanna value what you have. It’s another cautionary tale from us and proof that the flesh is weak. Turn it up!’

Written by Chanda, he describes it as being ‘about a guy who realises that when his relationship’s gone, the eponymous “phantom limb” is actually his relationship’: ‘He feels like it’s still there and he realises what he’s missed after he’s missing it,’ he said. ‘I wanted to wrap it up in some different imagery and some good riffing! Phil’s great at what he does, so what I tried to do is not do something like Phil does, because you’ve already got that in the band. A lot of Phil songs are about how your approach to life may or may not work in certain situations, they’re quite self-deprecating. For the most part, ‘Phantom Limb’ was kind of the other side of that.’

‘This one’s got a really nice vibe, especially that breakdown bit in the middle, it feels nice to sort of get those high notes’

Poole agrees: ‘It’s not always easiest to sing live,’ he said laughing. ‘But then I do that to myself in all the songs, whether it’s this one or the songs that I write as well. I push myself and push myself. I do that with so many of the songs in the studio. We come to do them live and I think: “Oh, why have I done this to myself?!” I give myself no room to breathe and I’m not one of the people that stands still on stage either (laughs). I like to move around, which just makes it all the more difficult, you know! I think this one’s got a really nice vibe, especially that breakdown bit in the middle, it feels nice to get those high notes.’

They have released a brilliant comic strip video to accompany the single, which turns out to have been inspired by the pirate tale within a tale from ‘Watchmen’, the comic. ‘It was very much that 1950’s style comic book melodrama,’ Chanda said. ‘What I wanted to do was tie together these two album releases, so you’ll find that all of the videos are done by the same guy. They’ve got a similar style but they fit together into a story. They were made by Drew from a company called Unit 15. He’s very talented. I went through the song and I wrote a shooting script, I just made up an idea and wrote it down in quite some detail. A few weeks later, he had done this first cut. It was amazing – exactly what I had in my head. He’s done an absolutely stellar job on it.’

Poole’s introduction to singing was a lovely one and brings home just how much a good teacher can influence a child: ‘It was something that I started doing primarily because – what’s the nicest way of saying I was a little shit at school?! I’m trying to think of a nice way but I was a little shit at school (laughs). I chose music as my extra subject at high school primarily because you didn’t really have to do a great deal. My music teacher at college recognised that about me immediately (laughs). She subsequently admitted it because I became very friendly with her later in life. She essentially thought “I’m just going to get rid of this lad”. She said to us on the first day: “What I’m going to do is have everyone come in on a lunchtime and show me what you can do.” She said: “What can you do?” So I said: “Well, I can sing.” She took one look at me and thought: “No, he’s not able to do this “(laughs). She gave me a music book and said to choose a song that I knew. The only song I knew in this book was ‘Father and Son’ by Cat Stevens. I sang it and she played it on the piano and said: “Do you realise you’re actually really, really good at singing?” She kind of made it her mission then to guide me into bands and singing. The first project we did at college, she purposely put me with someone that could play the guitar and someone that could play the drums in the hope that we would make friends and start a band and we did. That was my first band, we started playing everywhere when I was 14. And I was in that until I was 19 years old.’

‘A lot of bass players are just trying to play loud or hard or fast, whereas I think I’ve always tried to get a bit of that backbeat, to get people moving’

Chanda sets himself an interesting challenge when he’s writing a song – to come up with a fun bass line: ‘A lot of bass players are just trying to play loud or hard or fast, whereas I think I’ve always tried to get a bit of that backbeat, to get people moving,’ he said. ‘When we play, and we look at the crowd, and you see people dancing, that’s absolutely excellent for me because that’s basically what I’m trying to do. You lock in with the drums to make sure that that’s there and set something down so that people are moving. On top of that, the guitars and the vocals and everything then take it to the next level.’

‘Into The Light’ on Hard Times, which was written by Poole, has an entirely different feel, it’s more solemn, reflective and hymnal and carried along by really beautiful strings: ‘I may play piano a little bit, maybe just to do a little bit of writing but only on slower things like that,’ Poole said. ‘I find it’s quite easy to play the piano when you’re singing slow, depressing songs (laughs). It was made up on the spot. It was coming back from the pub about two o’clock in the morning. I sat at the piano that I had in my house at the time and just recorded an audio WhatsApp video of myself messing around on the piano and that’s what came out. What I sang just on the spot is the lyrics that I used for the final song. I sent that to the lads again, saying: “I’m not even really sure if this is for us, see what you think.” And they came back and said: “No, actually, we love it”. It’s different to everything else on the album, the strings really brought it along, it’s one of the things I’m most proud of.’

Incredibly, it rarely makes it into their live sets. ‘I put that truth into all the songs I write,’ Poole said. ‘It can get a bit emotional. We’ve literally done it live once and that was only because there was a malfunction with one of the guitars (laughs), so we had to fill some time quickly. Ryan just started playing it. And it was: “Ok, I guess we’re doing this!” It’s about what I was going through in life at that moment in time. Some people need a few beers to let emotion out, or maybe not need it. I felt like something was bottled up.’ At its heart, it feels like a song about redemption, of being saved by someone, and of the joy and comfort that other person brings. However, it also has religious connotations, according to Poole. ‘And my – let’s say, not aversion to religion. I have no problem with people’s faith, whatever makes people happy is all good. The organised political side of religion, maybe that’s what I have a problem with.’

‘He didn’t mind that there was always music on in the house as long as it was something that he liked’

Both albums do a brilliant job of showcasing their range and very diverse influences, moving seamlessly from ballads like ‘Into The Light’ to heavier tracks like ‘Walk on Water’, which has a Pearl Jam vibe: ‘It’s very eclectic,’ Poole agrees. You can hear that we have lots of different influences and different styles, there’s a lot of uniqueness within the songs.’

Chanda, for his part is a big fan of blues-based rock from the 70’s and 80’s: ‘Aerosmith, Badlands and some of the more melodic stuff as well. I saw Mr. Big earlier this year again for the first time in ages. When I was at university, I’d just pick up anything that took my fancy. I’m a massive Scott Walker fan. I used to like ABBA when I was tiny and still do now because I like a good song.’ Poole brings different influences to the band: ‘Anything and everything, really! My dad brought me up on Zeppelin, Hendrix, Sabbath, Wishbone Ash and Pink Floyd. My dad was very happy for music to be blaring through the ceiling from either me, my brother or my sister’s room. He didn’t mind that there was always music on in the house as long as it was something that he liked (laughs). I distinctly remember being about 10 years old and having the charts on at the time, probably something really terrible blaring and him coming in and saying: “Look, if you’re going to have any music playing, just have it be something good.” And then he took me into his bedroom and in there he had a separate wardrobe, in the bottom of that was hundreds of vinyls of everything that you could imagine. He set me up on the table and said: “You know, you play any of that as loud as you want.” And then that was it. I could have Led Zeppelin as loud as I wanted to!’

Chanda says he’s been lucky to meet a few people that he admires. ‘I’ve got a pretty good eye for faces so spot people in the street where you wouldn’t expect them and I’m pretty good at bobbing up and saying hello without annoying them! I’ve met Nikki Sixx twice – in Milan and in Las Vegas – and he was lovely. And I used to bump into Jarvis Cocker regularly around Sheffield a few years ago. I’ve also been lucky enough that Doomsday had tour support for Love/Hate and for Wayward Sons, so spent a lot of time with singers whose posters I literally had on my wall growing up. Jizzy Pearl and Toby Jepson were both great, very generous with their time and advice. Definitely not a case of never meet your heroes!’

Poole has also got to meet his hero, former footballer Stan Collymore: ‘Meeting Stan Collymore was big for me,’ he said. ‘He’s a die hard Villa fan like me. I grew up watching him play and loved him but as well as playing, I’ve also followed his well-publicised issues with his mental health. He’s had his demons and he’s faced them and come out the other side. That will always be inspiring to me. So many men struggle in silence with their mental health and the more public voices we have talking about it the better.’

‘It’s about relationship breakdowns, whether it be more of a personal suffering, the breakdown of a marriage or addiction’

‘Suffer More’ on the album of the same name, is a hard-hitting track about when things go wrong, opening with a hooky, thuddy, 70’s inspired riff, with haunting vocals from Poole that remind me of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder: ‘It’s about relationship breakdowns, whether it be more of a personal suffering, the breakdown of a marriage or addiction,’ Poole said. ‘That’s what was going on with me at the time that we started writing the album. A lot of the album changed lyrically because right as we were going into record it, all of those things were going on in my personal life, so that’s what all the songs became about.’

He describes it as a ‘cathartic’ experience: ‘What I used to do is write almost I’d say stories but just write what I was thinking, more like making diary entries about what you’re thinking and feeling. That kind of cathartic experience helps you get out a little bit of that emotion and then formulate that into a song later on, if you think it warrants it. I’ve got books of hundreds of pages of stuff that’s just never been used that at some point I might go back to.’

Alcohol addiction also feeds into another track, ‘One Last Sip’, a powerful and evocative song on last year’s album Damaged Goods about someone drinking themselves into a stupor that makes you picture a dark bar and a sorrowful lone drinker downing whisky. The massive, Springsteen-like, upbeat melody belies the darker nature of the lyrics: ‘There’s a song called ‘The Spirit That Made Me’ that just came from one line that I’d written on a page somewhere and thinking about what that actually entailed. It comes from personal experiences from me, that feeling that your life’s in the dumps and where that might take you with drink,’ Poole said. ‘It’s quite a serious subject matter but it’s quite self-deprecating. Musically, it’s totally different. It sounds like it might be quite an upbeat, uplifting song until you actually sit down and pay attention to what I’m actually saying. And I quite like that. A lot of people deal with trauma and other emotions in different ways. I use humour and try to see the lighter side of things, I try to make the most of an awful situation and try to see the bright side.’

If he could meet any musician, Chanda picks American-British singer-songwriter Scott Walker: ‘In the 60’s, being part of the Walker Brothers and teen idol was not his thing but he was working on his own solo stuff. Instead of getting bigger as a pop star, he said: “I’ll translate Jacques Brel and write about debauchery and syphilis” (laughs). I’d ask him: “What were you thinking, mate?!”‘ Poole is quick to say David Bowie: ‘He was one of the most incredible songwriters who ever lived. Maybe I’d ask him where he got his trousers from in ‘Labyrinth’? They hid nothing but he looked magnificent! I’d wear those onstage, no problem!’

Any band that’s been around a while will have a ton of funny stories – costume malfunctions, equipment mishaps, tales from the road but Chanda picks out an incident this year as the funniest. ‘We were playing Planet Rock’s Winter’s End Festival this February and I was looking out at the crowd, getting the vibe and then I saw something that caught my eye. In our animated video for ‘Turn Me Loose’, the artist had captured a very distinctive look for Phil – red check shirt, big beard, black bandana and old-school aviators. And I saw a doppelgänger in the crowd – every element! Then I realised they’d deliberately chosen to dress up as Phil and eyeball him from the pit, which raised a smile. But then I saw that next to this guy, was his girlfriend, who had exactly the same gear on – fake beard and all! We were halfway through a song but I had to shimmy over to Phil and point them out. He only barely got through the next verse ‘cos we were laughing so much! We think this should become a regular thing – imagine looking out over a festival crowd in the future and seeing thousands of Phil lookalikes all generating enough static electricity in their fake beard moshing to power half of Lincolnshire. It would be magnificent!’