The Treatment was in Paris for a short promo day, for their new record, and we got the chance to have a talk with Swoggle and Dhani Mansworth!
Hello guys, Happy New Year! How are you?
Swoggle (bass guitar) and Dhani Mansworth (drums): Happy New Year man!
Your next album will be released in a few days/weeks, excited about it?
S: Absolutely, cannot wait, so excited, I don’t know what to say (laughs).
First, what’s the meaning of the title? “Running With The Dogs”.
D: We picked it because we thought it was quite unusual title, which stands out for people buying the record but the whole idea, for us, was like a group of people (us) but people will have their own meaning from it.
S: Yeah another way to look in is that with our fans, we’re all running in the same sort of thing, all sticking together, everyone is in rock n’roll. The track was written, thinking about a gang and like he said, doing all the same sort of thing. We had a few different titles but we thought this one was really cool so “let’s pick this up!”
How did the writing go on? Because you toured a lot these past years.
S: We’re writing, literally, all the time, generally in rehearsal, trying something out and if it’s strong enough, we work it right down as we possibly can.
D: We always do something productive but wherever it’s rehearsing for a tour or recording or writing, we always look into the future. We don’t want to be put in a position where we’ll have to rush in our music, we look ahead, already starting thinking writing for the next album.
S: Yes, we got a couple of songs already.
What were the guidelines of the album?
S: When we recorded the first album, we were all so young, we are proud of the album still, but we weren’t really you know, we were 16/17 years old. I think we wanted to create a much more mature sound obviously with the same energy and the high tone music. We just wanted to have a more mature sound and a better production, just a better album I guess. On this album, it’s such a massive step up for us that we’re really really proud of it.
Jake is the new lead guitarist. How did he end up with you? Did he get involved in the album process?
D: The album was already recorded before Jack had joined. We had to find a replacement for Ben so we put a note on our Facebook page, if anyone who wanted to play us can just send a message. Jack was one of those how stood out because he’s demos he sent were really outstanding so he came down for an audition. We went for a couple of tracks and we offered him the tour to see how it’ll go on and he did a very good job and became a permanent member of this band.
S: Yeah the thing is with it is that we tried out so many guitar players, we had over a hundred people asking for an audition, we also had the problem with people don’t living close enough. Jack got all the components for: he looked cool, played great guitar and he’s just like us and that’s exactly what we were looking for. We’re very happy to having him on board.
Did your touring influence you on the new music? Because there’re some KISS, Alice Cooper etc. elements in it.
D: I definitely think we picked up a lot on KISS/Motley Crue tour, just by seeing them every day. We step back and looked to our performances and what we did was to go on the next level. We took our time on this second record, we really wanted to kick out the first one.
S: We took that experience and we put it in the songs, that we wrote during this tour and we just wrote about what we were like at that precise moment, purely rock n’roll. Our chances to make out that tour were so slim because we didn’t believe it and then we had to find the money to tour there and it was unbelievable we did it. We had to thank our managers that put money in it.
D: Basically everything was against us on that tour, we were the complete underdogs but we went through tons of people and I don’t think that you can buy this kind of experience.
S: It was incredible.
If you had to pick up the three tracks that describes the best the record, which one and why?
S: I think, personally, “I Bleed Rock N’Roll”, “Emergency” and “Running With The Dogs”. I think it’s a good sort of cross section about what we’re about, real high energy. We love just to hit and rock n’roll.
D: We don’t want to be put in boxes, we don’t want to be a niche where we always release a ballad. We like to be a “all round” band like Aerosmith for example, that’s what we feel like.
What can expect the fans about it?
S: High energy, rock n’roll, couple of soft songs as well like “Unchain My World”, no drums only acoustic guitars, something that we haven’t tried before at all and we’re really really proud of it.
You toured with huge bands and you’re still very young. Did you do some crazy shit during those touring days?
S: Of course. (laughs)
D: We don’t really drink during tour.
S: Yeah. I can remember one time, I was sharing a hotel room with Tag [Tagore Grey, the other guitar player, ed.] he got out of the shower and we all ripped his towel off and put him outside the door and locked the door. We’re more that sort of band.
D: We do everything bands could do but we just don’t kind of drink. We don’t want to be hangover every day, we’re at work so we have to put out the best show that we possibly can. But we’re always messing with each other, pranks and stuff you know.
Any other bands with whom you’d like to tour?
S: Lots of! AC/DC, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Aerosmith.
D: All the classic bands.
S: To be honest, if someone gives us a tour, we’ll take it.
What did you listen lately?
D: We listened to Airbourne’s new album “Black Dog Barking”.
S: Yeah a lot, it’s great. Otherwise, I don’t know, we listen to many other genre than classic rock like Steven Wilson’s new album, Gojira new-ish album too.
And what about Black Sabbath’s “13”?
S: Oh yes! Great! I forgot that one. It’s really cool, it sounds like they never been away. They’ve done very well to deliver an album that had such a great response, clearly the talent is still there.
What can you answer to people saying that your music is not original? It’s hard rock but…
D: We are not trying to reinvent anything. The reason why we’re playing this music it’s because we do like that kind of music, that’s it. It has been so many times, I can count many bands that got that retro sound. We just want to play rock music.
S: We play the music that we love to play and we play the music that we think is good to play. If you don’t like it, that’s cool, don’t listen to us, listen to metal. We’re not gonna change what we are.
If you weren’t in a band, what would you do?
D: Well, we’ll just be normal kids you know. Going to college, go for education and eventually get a job.
S: I think all of us had zero plans of what we’re going to do before the band came. Maybe a porn star? (laughs)
How did you all end up in playing music?
D: I think lot of this has to be the parents. I’ve always been involve in music in some way or another. So it wasn’t really “what will I do when I grow up?” but more “what will I do in music?” working for a drum company? In a band?
S: I remember my dad showed me a clip from The Who playing “My Generation” and a second later I knew “that’s what I’m doing!” and never ever since then I knew I’ll do anything else and that’s kind of how it happened.
What are you next plans?
D: We’re touring UK and well after we’ll give the record out and just try and tour as much as possible. The only plan for this year is to tour. Take this album as far as we can.
S: Tour, tour, tour.
And finally, we are “RockUrLife”, so : what rocks your lives guys?
S: Just play music, that’s what we’re all about!
D: I just like to think that this is the dream job for anyone. If you had the choice between this and a huge football career, actor or anything, I’ll always choose to be in a band. You got to see so many amazing places and those experiences are so great.
S: Such amazing experiences, just love it.
What were the most amazing places you traveled to?
S: All of them were incredible.
D: Recently we went to Japan for the first time and that was like being on another planet, we never experienced that. Coming to Europe, we always see similarity but Japan is like being in the future, everything is bright, new technologies everywhere, that’s crazy. Architectures, mannerism, food are complete different. Experience that is already amazing for us.
Web site : facebook.com/TheTreatmentOfficial
