Punk Globe: Thanks for the interview, Alfie Tell us more about your early history with Professor and the Madman?

Alfie: Thank you, Ginger, my pleasure.  Sean and I first met through the punk band D.I. in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. We immediately developed a strong friendship and we had an abundance of artistic chemistry, but unfortunately the timing wasn’t right. I was on my way out of the scene to focus on my mathematics and physics studies, which eventually led to my current day job as a mathematics professor at Cal-State Fullerton. While I was beginning my studies, Sean was heading deeper into the scene. We kept in sporadic touch during the subsequent years, but I was immersed in my science career and was out of state for much of the time. We hooked back up in 2015 when Sean asked me to fill in for a couple of reunion gigs he was doing with his old band The Critens. We quickly regained that chemistry and decided to form that promising collaboration that we should have pursued long ago.

Punk Globe:  The band has some heavy hitters in it - yourself, Paul Gray and Rat Scabies and Sean Elliott. Tell us how you all got together?

Alfie: At one of those Critens reunion gigs, Rat Scabies was in attendance, and he joined us for an encore of The Damned’s “Smash it Up.” Sean and I had just started writing the first Professor and the Madman album, Elixir I: Good Evening, Sir!  We invited Rat to guest on one of the tracks at our home studio in Fullerton. The results pleased everybody, and Rat came on as a full member and finished the album with us via file sharing. The three of us have collaborated on all five of the Professor and the Madman albums that have been released since 2016. 

Sean and I have always been massive fans of The Damned, a band that has been blessed with many great rhythm sections, but the Gray-Scabies combination from The Black Album/Strawberries/Friday the 13th era always sounded magical to us. Sean reached out to Paul on Facebook to see if he would be interested in playing on our song “Nightmare”, and as with Scabies, there was instant chemistry. Paul came on as a full member in 2018 starting with the release of our third album, Disintegrate Me. His contributions have really completed our sound.  

Punk Globe: Tell us what they each do in the band.

Alfie: Sean and I do all the guitars, vocals, keyboards, horns, percussion — whatever is lying around and needed. Paul is Chief of Bass, Rat is Drum Master. Sean and I write the music and lyrics and lay down the scratch tracks for Paul and Rat to work with, but Paul and Rat write their bass and drum parts as only they can. 

Punk Globe: Is the band's home base in Orange County? 

Alfie: Sort of... Sean and I are based in Fullerton in OC, that’s where we do all our work. Paul is based in Cardiff, and Rat in London, so it’s a multinational collaboration made possible by the internet! Well, a few times we’ve gone to the UK and they have come to the US for P&TM business as well.

Punk Globe: How did the band's name come about?

Alfie: Sean and I were very intrigued with the idea of binary opposites (Jekyll and Hyde, Good and Evil, 0 and 1, pure and impure, dark and light, etc.) and how fundamental and intriguing they are in the human personality, psychology, art, science, and beyond. The title of the book The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester seemed to capture that notion somewhat while matching the reputations that Sean and I have. So, we went with it!

Punk Globe: So very cool Alfie!! Influences for the band? 

Alfie: Many. For Sean and I, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The Damned are always at the top. Also, The Kinks, Bowie, early British punk and such (Damned, Gen X, Siouxsie, etc.) and early OC punk and goth (Adolescents, TSOL, Christian Death, etc.). My older brother Rikk was my main teacher and mentor, so there was a heavy influence there. 

Punk Globe: Your very first band was Attack where you played drums after that you started Almost 21 switching over to guitar and lead vocals you had a couple releases however when you were 15 the band broke up and you joined DI was Casey in the band then? Also, some of the other players from Almost 21 joined DI.

Alfie: Casey was in D.I. then. As far as I know, there’s never been a D.I. without Casey. Casey and I had talked on a few occasions about my joining D.I. The time was right when both the “Suburbia” line-up of D.I. and Almost 21 seemed to have run its course. I brought A21 drummer John Knight and close friend John (Bosco) Calabro with me to form the next iteration of D.I. with Casey and Rikk.

Punk Globe: How long were you in D.I.? 

Alfie: Four or five years total. From about 1984-1988-ish, and I rejoined them in 1990-91 for the first European tour and for U.S. stuff afterwards.

Punk Globe: In 2012 you and several other musicians got together and started recording some Crash Kills Four and Almost 21 songs that lead to a project called A Raincoat, Shoes, and Pornographic Blues. You released a 12" that made an impact.  Tell us more about that.

Alfie: Yes, that was actually my re-entry into the music scene. Bosco contacted me through Facebook and told me about the CK4 project with John Knight and invited me to record a song or two. I had been M.I.A. for two decades, but Bosco, John and I have had a very long and close friendship. It was so much fun, we did the whole album together. I’m very proud of that work as well.

Punk Globe:  In 2015, Crash Kills Four had a project in-works that was called Professor and the Madman. The group released a Halloween single that included music that they had expected to release within the next couple of months.

Alfie: I think that is some unfortunate misinformation on my Wikipedia page! I’m not allowed to edit it, so if anyone wants to clean that up…. Whoever wrote it got CK4 and the early beginnings of P&TM mixed up. That Halloween single (an early version of the song “Nightmare”) was P&TM’s first release. The “expected release” referred to eventually became Elixir I: Good Evening, Sir!

Punk Globe:  On November 13th you are releasing Professor and the Madman's new album, Séance.... Please give us details how many tracks and where it will be available at? 

Alfie: The album has a dozen tracks. There is a loose, overarching story to the album, mainly based on the lyrics of the title track. It starts off as a tribute to our fallen brethren and early memories of the OC punk scene, then devolves (think Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf) into a nightmarish/absurdist ride through purgatory, hell, and then into a revelation about the nature of an “old and new world.” The music stands alone quite well, but those with a vivid imagination will love the story and the ride it takes you on. In this way, there’s a lot of ‘70s influence there (Tommy, Phantom of the Paradise, Head, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, etc.). We even made a corresponding board game for the album! 

The album will be available as a download from all the usual places, as well as CD, and yellow vinyl from Amazon, select record stores (ask your vinyl/CD store to order it if they don’t stock it) and of course our own outlets via Bandcamp and our own website:

https://professorandthemadman.bandcamp.com/follow_me

https://professorandthemadman.com

Punk Globe: Tell us more about your label Fullertone Records and how you hooked up with them?

Alfie: One of the founding tenets of P&TM was to retain complete creative control of the work, and in each “deal” you make on the business side, this control is compromised (sometimes completely). Sean and I created Fullertone Records so that we wouldn’t have to compromise. Same with our own Hollydale Studios, who, in addition to producing the P&TM catalog, has done recording, mixing, and mastering work with various notable artists in the US and UK.

Punk Globe; Please give the readers a description of the band?

Alfie: P&TM produces a wide range of music that reflects their broad range of influences—mainly rock, punk, goth and pop. However, they untether from any particular genre to create something with much more imagination, scope, and richness than any one style can offer. For that very reason, people who can just as easily listen to Bowie as Bad Religion will enjoy what we do. And, those with a fondness for the ‘60s-‘80s, and who like to close their eyes, put on some good headphones and immerse themselves, will enjoy it the most.

Punk Globe: Do you have any Internet Links you would like to share with the readers?

Alfie:

SOCIAL: http://www.professorandthemadman.com

https://www.facebook.com/professorandthemadman/

https://www.instagram.com/professorandthemadman/

Twitter: @ProfessornMadmn

https://professorandthemadman.bandcamp.com/follow_me

https://soundcloud.com/professorandthemadman

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4MsrqkWDj7V8ht0JGfoGx2

Punk Globe: Any plans for videos? 

Alfie: Yes! “Time Machine” is the first video from the new record, and it features footage of the entire band from our gig at the legendary 100 Club in London. It was released in September. Search for “professor and the madman band, time machine” on YouTube. Try to avoid all the stuff related to the Mel Gibson movie when you search, LOL!

Punk Globe: Any final words for Punk Globe readers in these election days and hopefully a win for Biden win and a cure for the coronavirus? 

Alfie: Oh dear, that would take a seven-volume treatise! We don’t use P&TM as a platform for politics, but as a fellow human being and a US citizen, I will say this to your readers: 

• Whatever your political views, things are obviously not going well, and change is quickly needed. We need to come together in November to help make that happen. 

• Don’t let a choice of two political affiliations define who you are or limit what you might think. Being a punk, above all, is about being an individual and accepting others’ individuality. Any version of punk without that is a fraud.

• Coronavirus: Don’t rely on corporations or political parties to fix your world. Even if a safe and effective vaccine is eventually found, there will always be the Next Big Thing. Aside from common-sense precautions, live as healthy a life as possible and keep yourself in strong shape, particularly as you get older. There is a ton of misinformation out there, but Henry Rollins had it right: Don’t put crap in your body and mind, and treat them very well. A truly healthy person can fight off the vast majority of diseases for a long time.