Simon RushworthJust A Ride’s debut album represents a remarkable journey towards self-fulfilment for founder Drew Lowe. As the band embarks on a series of live shows throughout March, Rushonrock editor Simon Rushworth jumped aboard for an exclusive chat.
Rushonrock: Can you describe the genesis of Just A Ride?
Drew Lowe: I first started thinking about the music that would become Just A Ride before I joined Inglorious (in 2014). I kept joining bands that I didn’t really want to be in if that makes sense. I was joining them just because they were signed or whatever. It was never quite the right band at the right time or the thing I really wanted to do. I got to a point where I realised I’d never done the thing I really wanted to do.
Rushonrock: And what did you imagine Just A Ride would sound like?
DL: Just A Ride started with our original bass player Eddie who left a couple of years ago now. But when we first got together he said ‘I want to do something like Stone Temple Pilots’ and that’s exactly what I wanted to do! So we went back to our 90s roots. This is not to say anything bad about any other bands but I just feel it’s all getting a bit ‘classic rock’ right now and that’s not how I saw this band. I accept some people might call Stone Temple Pilots classic rock these days but what I’m trying to say is that I’m not really into the so-called classic rock or vintage rock style or sound. I was born in the 80s but when it came to the 90s there was just so much raw rock with a punk attitude from the likes of Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Faith No More and so on. Whatever it was, collectively that just became its own movement and it always inspired me.
Rushonrock: You had the vision but you needed a singer?
DL: That’s right. Me and Eddie were running around looking for someone and it was really hard trying to find the right person. I toured with a band years ago called Violent Delight and they had an amazing frontman called Rod Henderson. He’d stopped performing when I reached out to him but I thought I’d give it a shot. I think he was a bit drunk one night when he saw the Just a Ride ad on Facebook and said he would sing for us. I sent something over and he sent it back with a vocal – I was absolutely blown away. It was a song called Standing Here. It’s on the record and it hasn’t really changed since those early days. I thought ‘right, Rod’s the guy’.
Rushonrock: So fast forward to 2022 and is Just A Ride the band you always dreamed of being part of?
DL: Completely. It’s my idea of a band. It’s what I want to do. It got to a point where I just thought it was ridiculous buying into other people’s visions. What was my vision? I needed to realise my own dream. It’s obvious that Just A Ride was always the band I was meant to be in. I do lots of session work but you’ve got to have the creative side too. Even when I was in Inglorious, for example, it was fun but it never really satisfied me. I just knew it wasn’t really what I wanted to do and at times it felt too cheesy. I just thought nobody else is really doing what Just A Ride could do. Now we’re actually doing it.
Rushonrock: Just A Ride’s headline shows have been branded the Grunge Lives tour but you’re a massive Bon Jovi fan and starred in 80s cheese-fest stage show Rock Of Ages…how does that work?
DL: My older brother was in his teens when grunge came along but growing up he was like ‘Bon Jovi this and Def Leppard that’. When the tide turned in the early 90s, suddenly Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were the cool bands. He was like a lot of people back then who, when grunge came along, felt as if he couldn’t admit he was both a huge fan of Bon Jovi’s New Jersey tour and, at the same time, get into bands like Alice In Chains. But, honestly, it’s ok to like both genres and to like all of those bands! I dep in a Bon Jovi tribute band and I’m a massive Richie Sambora fan. It’s fine. There was that crossover period in the early 90s where people were asking themselves can you really like Bon Jovi and Faith No More? Is that even allowed? Maybe it was a bit more black and white back then but now it’s a lot more acceptable to like both.
Rushonrock: And it’s a lot more acceptable to be a jack of all trades in the music business…
DL: Acceptable and necessary! The Just A Ride record was originally put on the backburner because I joined Inglorious. We’re talking eight years ago! Then I did Rock Of Ages. And I do like to dabble in the world of theatre. But my main job is playing guitar for Boy George in Culture Club. That’s more of a recent thing. The world we live in doesn’t allow you, as a musician, to survive on being in one band. Even when I was in Inglorious that wasn’t the case. We had a record deal but I wasn’t on a full-time wage. You’ve got to do other things. You’ve got to diversify. It’s not the 80s any more.Â
Rushonrock: Is it right you almost quit the music business before you reached your 30s?
DL: I was 29 and about to walk across Spain doing a kind of pilgrimmage. I’d been in a band with my cousin Col [Parkinson, Inglorious, Temple Of One] but he’d moved to Denmark and we’d all become a bit disillusioned with London and music and what we were doing with our lives. I was ready to pack it all in but just before I headed to Spain I got a call from a chap called Kev Frost. That call changed my life and I owe everything to Kev.
Rushonrock: Tell us more…
DL: Kev’s is Boy George’s musical director. I first got to know him through a friend when I was working at Blockbuster Video in London. Kev was about to revive the Boy George musical Taboo when I got that call asking if I could play guitar in the show. He told me not to quit the music business. He told me to walk across Spain and have a think. That was it. I joined the Taboo cast and I didn’t look back. I had my foot in the door of musical theatre and it was nice to discover that my style of play was in demand in the West End because not all guitarists were comfortable playing rock. We performed Taboo again at the London Palladium last month and it was a fantastic experience. I’ve loved my time in Rock Of Ages and I’ve performed in We Will Rock You in the West End and toured with Bohemian Rhapsody: The Music Of Queen. But right now it’s about Just A Ride.Â
Rushonrock: The debut album’s getting killer reviews but how does it feel finally taking these songs on the road?
DL: Getting the music out live is incredibly exciting. I’ve been sat on these riffs for so long and I’m really, really proud of the album. It’s a culmination of the last four years and more. We probably ended up writing 20-25 songs for the album and you can’t use them all. You whittle them down and what’s made the cut is the very best stuff we have. We worked so hard on the 10 songs that make up the album. No stone was left unturned. There are 10 absolute bangers on there.Â
Rushonrock: Will the live set focus solely on the debut album?
DL: It’s tempting to play some newer music given the fact that we’ve been sitting on these 10 songs for so long. But I want to honour this album and work it as hard as we can, while we can. We need to finish this cycle and do our debut album justice. This is the music I always wanted to write and the music I always dreamed of performing. It’s nice and beefy. It’s great to play live. I love it.
