If there is one name that is synonymous with American punk rock it would be this one. Their names adorn t-shirts worldwide and are considered to be the band that defined the punk sound of the USA. Of course it is the Ramones!
I got a chance to talk to Richie Ramone while he is touring throughout the US before the release of his new album ‘Cellophane’ which comes out in just a couple of months.
Richie first started as a drummer for the Ramones in 1983 and Joey Ramone once said “[Richie] saved the band as far as I’m concerned. He’s the greatest thing to happen to the Ramones, he put the spirit back in the band”.
Not only did he come and play what has been described as “faster than the eye can see drumming” he also brought a talent for singing and writing. He is the only Ramones drummer to sing lead vocals on a record and was also responsible for writing the song ”somebody put something in my drink” which was part of the Ramones first gold album.
Richie is more than just a Ramone though; leaving the band in 1987 he is still performing live around the world and is still writing and playing and is about to release his second album “Cellophane”.
We talk about his new album, touring, playing live at 12, joining the Ramones and touch on a little Trump.
Hope you guys enjoy our chat as it has sure ticked a box off this writers bucket list!
PUNK GLOBE:
Hey Richie, how things? You guys been busy today?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah we been busy, we’re moving every day, we’re just gigging at the moment.
PUNK GLOBE:
So what’ve you been up to recently, you’re touring at the moment?
Richie Ramone:
We just did Australia, Japan and came home a couple weeks and now we are six weeks in the states. So we just started that tour and we’ve just done our ninth show and we are out for 45 days. We’re in Texas now.
PUNK GLOBE:
You’re about to release your latest Album ‘Cellophane’. When and where is the best place to be able to hear and buy it?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah that one won’t come out until August, you’ll all have to wait but you will be able to get it everywhere, in the stores and ITunes. The date for release is August 5th. I actually have copies that I’m selling now on the road so at least people are getting pre-advanced copies when coming to the show.
PUNK GLOBE:
Are they selling they pretty quickly?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah, it’s going good, the album came out really well and it’s a good record.
PUNK GLOBE:
How’s the tour going so far?
Richie Ramone:
Good yeah, the west side of the states is a little sleepy with the audiences but we get them going every night. Some of my best audiences have been in the U.K, overseas and Europe.
PUNK GLOBE:
This is your second solo album coming out; do you still find the writing coming easily?
Richie Ramone:
Na the writing has never come easy for me, I’m too anal, and I dissect everything I want to make sure it’s right. So it takes me some time.
PUNK GLOBE:
With the music on your new album ‘Cellophane’, is this a collection of songs you have written previously or all new stuff?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah, its all-new stuff and I co-wrote with a couple if different people on this record. It’s all new things, the only thing I covered was Depeche Modes ‘Enjoy the silence’ and this is a record is full of original songs. The record has a song called ‘Pretty poison’ I had back in the Ramones days that never went on a record so we recorded that. That’s the only one that I wrote back in the 80’s
PUNK GLOBE:
Do you find much inspiration from any modern bands or do you go back to your roots when writing and producing?
Richie Ramone:
Na its just, well everything comes from inside of me. I mean you may listen to the radio and subconsciously be inspired by things but the hits music isn’t like the aggressive sound that I like. I made this record a little more sing song, more lyric friendly that you can sing along, to which maybe more like the modern music. I don’t know, the only time I listen to the radio is in the car but I don’t go “oh I want to do that” or anything like that. Everything just comes from inside but the outside element I’m sure affect a human being anyway, subconsciously.
PUNK GLOBE:
Has this record been a long time in the making?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah it took about 7 months to write, we were off tour for about 6-7 months before we went to Australia and that when we did the record.
PUNK GLOBE:
So when the record comes out, are you planning any European tours at well?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah the next time we will be in the UK is after thanks giving around November 28th till December 15th. We’ll being doing the UK and Ireland; it hasn’t been announced yet but its definitely going to happen. I love coming at that time of year, everybody in party mode.
PUNK GLOBE:
Yeah we close down for Christmas and the drinking starts. So what can people expect to hear in you new record?
Richie Ramone:
I don’t know really, its just life’s stories and things I’ve experience. ‘Cellophane’ is written about touring and coming to the shows every night, stuff like that and finding the energy to play every night. It’s all about the fans, its more a fans song. But I don’t know. There are a lot of good topics on this record. I never really know how to explain my own music its just listen and if you like it you like.
PUNK GLOBE:
Going back to when you first started out, what was it about the punk scene that drew you in?
Richie Ramone:
Well you know, I say this all the time its rock & roll, I mean its all rock, punk is just a term. Punk is about being true to yourself and being your own person and not being a phoney, that’s my interpretation of it. It’s not about the haircut or anything like that, I guess if you call it punk, you call it punk, but its just aggressive fast music. When I got in the Ramones I was like 24 before that I was all over the place. I got some kind of guidance of a kind of path I wanted to go down. Playing this kind of music was for me; I guess that never leaves you.
PUNK GLOBE:
What was it like first starting out with the Ramones, them being an already established band?
Richie Ramone:
It was easy, Joey and I hit if off like right away by day two. He took me under his wing and it was just a smooth ride from there. We hung out every day for 5 years, well 4 years 10 months. There was no friction, when the new guy gets in the band everyone is on their best behavior, there was non of this new blood but new blood brings new energy we became revitalized again.
PUNK GLOBE:
Your a phenomenal drummer and you are a front man and a writer, where would you rather be, behind the microphone or behind the drums?
Richie Ramone:
Well you know I’ve been playing drums for over 50 years so you know, I love being behind the drums. There is no way of doing a whole show singing and being behind the drums, I want to interact with the kids. So that’s why I step up front and Ben [Reagan] plays the drums. It just adds another element of excitement.
PUNK GLOBE:
Do you still get the same thrill and buzz from being on stage in front of the crowd?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah, it’s all about the crowd. My shows are based on who is in the audience and how crazy they are. Its not right for an audience to be sitting down they are part of the show without a doubt, fed off of that.
PUNK GLOBE:
When you were playing back with the Ramones, how much does it differ from touring with them to now?
Richie Ramone:
Well is totally different, now we don’t have sound crews and roadies and all that stuff. Its all bare bones now, we just go out there and make it happen. It’s a whole new board game. It was hard at first but once you get used to it you just do it and get it done. I don’t have all the perks of back then. We’re out all the time so you’ve got to take care of yourself its a lot different.
PUNK GLOBE:
Did you ever regret leaving the band when you did?
Richie Ramone:
No, you think about it but I made a decision and you stick by it. You cant look back and go “I really messed up and blah blah blah” you just have to be a man and live by your decision and that’s what I did. I’m glad I wrote a few more killer songs for them like “somebody put something in my drink”
PUNK GLOBE:
Do you still play the Joey Ramones birthday bash most years?
Richie Ramone:
I did that about 3 or 4 years but I haven’t done that for a while now. I don’t know why, whether I was invited or not, I don’t know. It’s just that last year I was touring and sometimes schedules just conflict.
PUNK GLOBE:
You do much of everything be it singing, drumming and producing, do you still enjoy spending the time in the studio getting down to the nitty gritty of perfecting each track?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah I do yeah. This album I worked with Paul Roessler who produced Iggy and played with a bunch of local punk bands. He was really good; we recorded at Red Bull studios in Los Angeles, which is a huge studio, which is really nice to get a good drum sound. So it was nice, the first song I produced myself was just so much hard work. I need someone behind that glass listening as I’m playing, you can’t keep running back and forth. He did a great job at keeping everyone together and all the band suggestions and all that. So you really do need a producer, I probably would never produce my own album again. It was just too much.
PUNK GLOBE:
You’ve got quite a collection a musicians playing in the band with you, How did you come together?
Richie Ramone:
They all from Los Angeles, they’re all LA based. I have a new guitar player Ronnie [Simmons] he’s from Australia but he lives in Los Angeles. Ben [Reagan] has been with me almost 5 years now and Claire’s [Misstake] been with me 3 years. Its just finding people who are dedicated and like to have fun. It’s a lot of hard work what we go though, but it seems to be working right now.
PUNK GLOBE:
If you never got into music, where do you think you would be?
Richie Ramone:
I don’t know, there were a lot of opportunity along the way but I started drumming at five years old and then I kind of knew what I wanted to do by the time I was ten or twelve years old. I don’t even know what else I would do, there was never a plan B. I think the world would be a better place is everybody could work and do the thing that want to do but unfortunately that’s no how it goes.
PUNK GLOBE:
Being a drummer for 50 odd years what advice would you give to young drummer setting out in new bands?
Richie Ramone:
Well I always say for any musician, always listen to all kinds of music. You wanna be a punk drummer, I want you to listen to the radio, listen to hard rock, listen to country, listen to jazz because you take that all in then you put it in your little machine in your head and it comes out the way you want it. You can apply it to all different kinds of music. Just don’t get stuck on just one thing because it makes you a more well rounded musician knowing different kinds of music. I don’t play country because its to boring for me to play on the drums, I don’t play metal because I don’t like double kick drum stuff, but I know its in the back of my head. Drummers have to practice, practice on pillows so the sticks don’t bounce back and develop your wrist and just practice man, it’s all you can do. Oh and practice live, don’t just do it on your own all the time you have to learn to listen to them play at the same time as well.
PUNK GLOBE:
What kind of music were you in to when you first stated drumming at 5?
Richie Ramone:
My brother Lenny who is 5 years older than me so I was 5 years ahead of the curve in the late 60’s/70’s. He was a horn player so I listened to all kinds of horn bands to and then Hendrix and so on. Music changed really fast in the 60’s it evolved and it kept changing with new bands where as no it seems kind of stagnant. My brother would have all the records that were out and I would have all that stuff and then he would be in a band and I was already be playing live by 12 because we had a band that would play wedding and stuff like that. I was playing live at a young age which really helped.
PUNK GLOBE:
If you where to be sat at home what would you be listening to at the moment?
Richie Ramone:
What now? Like I said I mainly listen more in the car that I do at home. I like to listen while I drive, I’ll turn on the radio to see what’s on the radio and it’s kind of disappointing. I like bands like Teenage bottle rockets that are friends of mine and I think they are really good, there a few good bands out there. I get to see them, is aw like 2 or 3 great bands in Texas already that have opened up for us. There are a lot of bands out there now, a lot of them are good but none of them can get ahead it hard to get to the top of five million bands. They work at it and saw a lot of talent, which I was happy to see but its just the radio has to get going again and I don’t know if it ever will.
PUNK GLOBE:
Do you think that the way music is made and sold these days had a detrimental effect on this?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah, its very hard to get you music heard in the mass’s, well in America I don’t know what its like else where but here its really really tough. All the radio stations are owned by corporations now, they have their own format and its sad but what are you going to?
PUNK GLOBE:
I think the distribution plays a role but its good to see vinyl backing a come back, well it is in the UK anyway.
Richie Ramone:
Yeah it been doing that here too, I’ll probably put Cellophane out on vinyl around Christmas time, just want to get the CD out first and then do a new release on vinyl.
PUNK GLOBE:
You been getting good backing to get the album out?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah I’m still with DC-Jam records we just got a new distribution deal so, we got a good guy over there who takes care of all that business for me.
PUNK GLOBE:
How is the live music is the scene going over in the US, you still getting plenty of people coming out to watch?
Richie Ramone:
Yeah some, I think its slipped I think a lot more kids just want to just go out and dance instead of seeing live music. But whatever, you know? There are still people who want to come out and enjoy live music; I don’t think it’s as much any more. It’s terrible but you can’t let it effect you, you just have to break though the wall and keep going.
PUNK GLOBE:
The Ramones where know for holding their own political views, what’s you opinion on the whole Trump situation?
Richie Ramone:
Its all kind of scary, he seems to be doing real good over here but I’m not sure he’ll make it to the finish line. It’s pretty scary that he has managed to get this far, he just pries on peoples fears and stuff like that. That’s how he has got all these lower class people following him around because they want change and they think that oh because he is a billionaire he wont take money but he is a cowboy, and American cowboy, it could get scary, he is fighter. The whole thing is I don’t want him going to war a putting these kids on the ground to lose their lives or legs.
PUNK GLOBE:
Who are you backing?
Richie Ramone:
Well I’m a liberal so we like Bernie Sanders but if he doesn’t make it it’s going to be Clinton.
PUNK GLOBE:
Well that’s all from me Richie; it’s been an absolute pleasure and a honor to get the chance to talk to you.
Richie Ramone:
Sure its been great, so make sure when we come to the UK you get in touch with me.
PUNK GLOBE:
I will do, I’ll be there.
Richie Ramone:
Ok great, talk to you later.
Well there you go Punk Globe readers that was Richie Ramone talking to me from is hotel in Texas where they are currently touring. Check out his new album Cellophane, it’s been the only thing bursting out my headphones for the past few days. Some great tracks on there with fast beat sounds that reverb the sounds of Riches past mixing in with new material and his unmistakably captivating punk rock voice. If you want to go and see the legend himself on tour doing his thing or just want to find out more check out
www.richieramone.com for band info, tour dates and more!