Today is Big Truck day! It’s the day that rockers Trucker Diablo play the Steelhouse Festival, release their incredible new single Kill The Lights and also begin pre-orders for their forthcoming album Social Hand Grenade. Kill The Lights is a massive, quick-fire, big riff, in-your-face rocker. As well as having riffs that will leave you reaching for the guitar, it’s the gang vocals that also draw you in, making this a massively inclusive experience. It’s an absolutely outstanding track and is one that’s leaving fans with a massive sense of anticipation for the new album in October. We catch up with Tom Harte (lead vocals, guitar), Simon Haddock (vocals, guitar), Jim McGurk (bass) and Terry Crawford (drums) on what is perhaps the biggest day in Trucker Diablo’s calendar this year. We catch up with the band ahead of their festival performance. Despite having had little more than 3 hours sleep, Trucker Diablo look surprisingly fresh, no doubt the excitement of a 6000 capacity crowd in less than 30 minutes is keeping those adrenaline limits high. In the scorching heat we grab a beer and our conversation begins…

So today is Big Truck day! How does it feel not just to be playing the Steelhouse Festival but to be opening this prestigious event?

Simon - It’s a fantastic festival! Opening up today is a great opportunity for us, especially because we’ve got a new album coming out and we’ve also got the new single as well so it’s a good opportunity to showcase that. Plus we are on early so it means we can meet and greet and influence people and have a beer… and have another beer!

You’re going to be performing in less than half an hour. What sort of things are going through your mind as you prepare to take to the stage.

Simon - Just excited! I can’t wait to get on. We had a soundcheck earlier on and the stage sound is just brilliant. The monitors and the set ups are good, and with festivals you usually don’t get this sort of thing. It’s usually a quick line check and you’re good to go, but you don’t know what it sounds like. But today we are sort of half confident because we got a wee glimpse of what it sounds like. I think we’re all pretty pumped and ready to rock ‘n’ roll!

Well you’ve already mentioned that you’ve got a new single coming out, Kill The Lights, and it’s an absolutely outstanding track – I absolutely love it. What really struck me about this song is that it isn’t just a great rock track. I actually found it really inspirational because not only was I singing along, I wanted to pick up my guitar and play. I wanted to be a part of that track! It’s a massively inspirational track and it just made me wonder how important is it for you that your music does inspire people?

Tom - If you look at all of the Trucker stuff, it’s all very positive. It’s super important for me because when I was writing this song, that’s really my core. I want someone to listen to the song and feel what I’m feeling, and be inspired by the subject of the song.

Jim - The reason why we’re all musicians and doing this is because at some point in all our lives we were inspired by music. We he like a chorus of a song or a guitar riff or whatever and it just gives you goosebumps. That’s what I want! I want to be a musician, I want to play bass, I want to drum, I want to play guitar yet, you know? So the fact that people are saying that our songs are inspirational is the key really.

Tom – It’s absolutely the core! I don’t want Trucker songs to be out there for pure likes, I want people to really feel them. Just like you said yourself, you heard it and you wanted to get involved!

Simon – It’s pretty instantaneous that song. We call it the three minute head-butt! (Laughs!) So it’s no Bohemian Rhapsody but it has its place as well. It’s got a great flow to it!

Absolutely it has! Ahead of the album’s release, we have also been treated to the track a Dig which featured on the New Wave Of Classic Rock Volume 3 compilation, and that too is an incredible track. It’s full of absolute power and this, together with Kill The Lights, is building a massive sense of anticipation for Social Hand Grenade. How representative are those first two tracks of the full album? 

Tom – They are a really good representation of the heavier side of the album I would say because collectively think it’s diverse and we always like to have that. You listen to those two tracks and they are probably the heavier side of the album.

Terry - There are a few surprises in there as well!

Jim - There’s no formula. It’s not that we sit down and say ‘Right, this has to be a heavy album and everything has to sound like that’. It’s just that Tom comes in with a riff or whatever and you know if it’s going to work. It’s like you were saying earlier, you just feel it.

Simon - It doesn’t necessarily have to have distortion or be heavy and out to slit your throat. It could be a simple chord progression.

Jim – So there are a few surprises on the album that people won’t expect but we all love bands that are diverse.i

Simon - Where everything is so predictable, that gets a bit boring after a while, you know what I mean? We were talking earlier today about our favourite bands are one of my favourites is Faith No More. When you get a new Faith No More album you have no idea what’s coming. It could be a ballad, it could be a death metal song or it could be a punk song. It could even be a swing song like Frank Sinatra but that’s the beauty of keeping people on their toes. So that’s what I always love about bands when they are diverse, the element of surprise where if you’re listening to a heavy track, you’re expecting to have another heavy track but you may be like ‘Oh, what’s this?’. So for ourselves, there is no real formula, just as long as it sounds good and we like it we think people will be inspired!