Recently, Time Off staff member Jo Volz caught up with her musical heroes Redd Kross in London. Here's the result.

You know what it's like. You wake-up mid-morning in Dublin and you have to be in the centre of London by early afternoon to interview the band you most admire in the world. No? Well, neither did I until recently when I was lucky enough to find out.

After a plane flight where I thought my nasal passages would implode, the hire car experience from hell and a stressed out London tube ride, I finally ran up Charring Cross Road to get to the famous London Astoria — late. All this to have an informal chat with a person I see as the pop rock music master. Here for your reading pleasure are the results. Please may I introduce Mr Jeff McDonald of Redd Kross.

You're almost at the end of your European tour; how's the tour has been going so far and where they have you playing?

We started in Europe and that was fun, now we're doing this whole British tour with The Foo Fighters. It's been really, really fun. I wasn't sure how the audience would respond to us but it's been really good. A nice relief.

Your new release Show World, where did you record it?

In Los Angeles, California. And we mixed it at the studio where Fleetwood Mac made their Tusk album — their experimental double record. LA's one of the best places in the world to record because there's so many studios that you get good deals because they are all fighting for you. In the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles just about every great record was recorded there. It's all industrial, it's really good.

It's been a long time since your last album Phaseshifter. Have the tunes been lying around the back of your head for ages or did they just come straight out for this album?

We toured for about three years, from about a year before Phaseshifter, then like two years after, and we didn't have time (to write) 'cause we were on the road all the time. So no, we wrote them when we got back. People think we were resting back home but in actuality we had been touring for so long. We took a couple of months off but then we started writing. We recorded the record twice, actually. We weren't happy with it the first time around so we took a couple of months off, wrote some more songs and went into the studio and recorded it again.

So your record company is totally cool about you doing stuff like that?

Well, they're never cool about it, but they let us do it, so I guess that is cool.

Have you developed any favourite tracks from Show World yet, if so which ones and why?

It's really strange because I don't listen to the record. When you work on it for so long you hear it so many times you never want to hear it again. It takes a couple of years to actually listen to the record. But from hearing it on the radio, I like 'Follow The Leader' a lot, and I heard 'Secret Life' the other day it sounded really good.

A major difference with the new album is the absence of your keyboard player Geri Fennelly. So, the obvious and important question is, where's Geri?

Geri is in LA, she's doing tonnes of stuff. She's very busy at the moment.

What do you think about being called retro when you've always played the same type of music?

Well, I think a lot of our influences are very obvious. And they're always from music that's old. I believe that's the way it is with everyone. I think no one can exist with out being influenced by something that's already happened. For us, it's always a little bit more obvious, especially around the Third Eye period, the image on the album cover was so striking that no one could ever get that out of their head. We donned the bell bottoms.

So for the all important question, will we be seeing Redd Kross Down Under in Bris Vegas in the near future?

Well I'm not really sure. But there's talk of September!

So there you go. If you don't already know Redd Kross, now you should. They are modern day masters of all that is good in pop music.

Redd Kross' new album, Show World, is out now available on Mercury Records. They also have a major back catalogue of releases available, all of which are worth tracking down.

By: Jo Volz