My interview with Robin Black was one of those rare interviews where you realize that there are some people born of this world destined for greatness. And at the same time there are also those people that can spout bullshit like nobody's business. I don't know where Robin Black fits into this equation. Maybe that's the point. He is relatively unknown, he is Canadian, he wears make-up and feather boas, he just released his debut album, Planet Fame, and he thinks that it won't be long before he and his band, Robin Black and the Intergalactic Rock Stars, are the biggest things on the planet. Robin Black thinks he is the savior of rock n' roll. I've thought about it over and over again. How does one tell the story of Robin Black? Simply put, you don't. Robin Black is so eloquent, so honest, so swift of tongue that it is best to just let him tell his own story. 

How are things?

Everything's good man. It's a good time to be Robin Black right now.

Why is that?

Well, dude, you know, we've spent the last couple of years converting people back to the cause of rock n' roll and today we found out thirteen, fourteen hundred kids in the country went out and decided to buy our record, instead of buying the Edwin record or buying Ja Rule or whatever. They chose our record and it's exciting, it's like, the shows are getting bigger, people are getting it, and, you know, it's good.

So you're happy with those numbers then?

Well, I'm not really concerned with numbers, I'm not interested in the business of it, but from what I understand, if you can sell 500 records your first week you're a fucking hero. So I'm thinking that we've got a hit on our hands and that we're going to get a few hundred thousand kids in this country over to the dark side.

Now you seem extremely confident in the success your band is going to encounter with this new album and everything that is going on. Why are you so confident?

Dude, we come along at a time when the world needs rock n' roll. Rock n' roll, and a rock n' roll concert and a rock n' roll band, has never been more important than it is right now and nobody, nobody fucking does it better than we do. So, yeah I'm confident. I know that we're doing something that matters. I know from talking to people that come to our shows and talking to people on our website and wherever, that what we're doing is important and I know we're good at it. And confidence has never been a difficult thing for me.

Now is all that genuine or is any of the hype that you preach about you and your band a little bit PR?

I truly, truly believe that we are a great rock n' roll band at a time when the world needs a great rock n' roll band. I believe that with every fiber of Robin Black. Everyday I wake up in the morning excited about the fact that I get this chance to go and bring something special to people. It's not hype and it's not PR. It's just who Robin Fucking Black is.

You are saying this is coming at a time when the world needs it. Now I know a lot has been said and written about your views on Canadian music, but are people hitting this over the head ad nauseum right now or is there really a genuine concern over Canadian music?

Well I know that I may have spent a little more time talking about how bad Canadian music is when I should have been talking about how good our music is. But, the truth is, we're from Canada and before we go and invade the rest of the world we're going to conquer our home country first. And it does matter to us, it does irritate me, that if I was a 15-year-old kid right now that I don't have anything good to listen to. If I was a 15-year-old kid right now and being convinced by assholes who work for record companies and, you know, 58-year-old radio guys to buy an Edwin record when really I should be out there buying a Robin Fucking Black record, that would irritate me. You know, the truth is we can get into a long conversation about how bad the system is here and how they make stars out of people that don't truly have something special to give to somebody. Whether it's the fact that there just aren't enough superstars in Canada so you have to make Matthew Good one, I don't know, but the truth is, there should be good music coming from here and the rock n' roll experience, the rock n' roll record, and the rock n' roll concert is a very important thing for a teenager, for somebody in their 20's, for somebody in their 30's. A rock concert is a special thing that has to survive and has to be carried on and we're the ones doing it.

That's very interesting because I was at a Cult concert not too long ago and Ian Astbury was up on stage denouncing Nickleback and he was saying that it was like the guy who used to deliver your pizza is now a rock star. Do you see it that way as well?

You can make your pizza delivery guy a rock star, you can make the roadie who carries the guitars a rock star, but you can only do that if there aren't true ones out there to take their thrones. The pizza delivery guy or even the fucking DJ, who all he does is spin records, the only reason these people are rock stars is because there are no true rock stars out there. I respect Ian Astbury but I think he's missing the big picture. It's not to blame the fans or it's not to blame the people for the fact that they have made the pizza delivery man a rock star. You blame the lack of rock stars and you blame the artists for not carrying the torch of rock n' roll the way it is their responsibility to do so.

It seems like there's a whole 80s thing going on here. Is that where we find the true rock stars, in an 80s revival?

The 80s mean shit to me. True rock stars started with a Little Richard - what the fuck was that, you know - or Elvis. Sure David Lee Roth was a rock star and that's cool but the 80s didn't invent the rock star, the rock star invented the 80s.

So do you feel that what you guys are doing is part and parcel of an 80s revival? Is there an 80s revival going on right now?

I don't know if there is an 80s revival going on and I really don't care if there's an 80s revival going on and we certainly have no part of it. What we do is wake up everyday with the desire to make great music and realize that since we're musicians who are driven to do this it is our responsibility to give absolutely everything we can give. I think our music is the music of 2002, 2003, and I think the only reason people make comparisons with us to something from the 80s or something from the 70s is because of our attitude. Somebody said to me the other day, 'Are you guys bringing back the old days?' and my answer was, 'If the old days are rock bands giving everything they got, rock bands realizing the importance of a great rock show, and rock bands performing over the top and not quitting until they're sweaty and bloody, if that's the old days than that says something pretty fucking pathetic about the new days.' You know, I'm constantly blown away by the fact that people perceive us as some sort of revivalists because we think what we're doing is just good traditional rock n' roll the way it was meant to be done and the only reason it seems to be revivalist in some ways is because we have had to sit through fat dork DJs spinning records and consider them a rock star and we've had to sit through 50-year-old bald guys wearing baseball caps playing rap-metal. The world needs rock n' roll and that is what we are here for.

So your debut album just came out, Planet Fame. Tell me about that, the music on it, and are you very optimistic about it or very realistic? I mean Planet Fame, that's a pretty big statement.

You know it doesn't feel like a big statement to us. We've spent five years everyday performing in front of people, writing music for people, meeting our fans, getting feedback, and we believe we're the best band in the world, without a shadow of a doubt. And I think anybody who sees our live show believes it to. And calling our record Planet Fame - it really didn't mean anything special to us. It seemed natural. It wasn't a bold statement and it wasn't a prediction. It just seemed like the facts. And whether I'm optimistic or realistic - my realistic view is that this band is as good or better than any band in the world and we will give absolutely everything we have to every single show in a way that nobody else does. We will go and we will perform with an urgency and an intensity that isn't done these days. Then we will meet every last fan and thank them all for coming, take photos with them and sign every last fucking thing the way rock bands are supposed to. My realistic view is we will be the biggest band in the world by 2004. That's realistic.

Will you still be able to talk to people and sign things when you are the biggest band in the world?

It's really important to me to try to thank the people that are a part of our revolution. And that's what it is. It's a revolution. When there are 20,000 people I may not get to thank them individually but I'll fucking find a way to thank them all.

What bands out there, for your money, are doing what you're doing, are taking part in the revolution?

(Sigh). I want so badly to like music, you know. I want so badly to feel as excited as I did when I was 15 and I first heard 'Rebel Yell,' or when I first saw Van Halen in 1984. I want to be that excited but I'm just not. I can't think of anything, right now, that will make me a fan and I think that is part of what has driven us to make this band as good as it is and to make this band all about being for our fans. It is because we know what it is like not to have anything to be excited about and people need something to be excited about. That's a big fucking responsibility but we take it on ourselves.

So was that the reasoning behind this record, making something that if you were a fan this is something you would want to listen to?

That is absolutely what we thought of every minute while we wrote the songs, every minute while we recorded them, and when we put the package and the artwork together. I wanted to make a record that if I was a 14-year-old kid I would feel excited about music again and I believe we've made that record.

A lot of what you guys do is based on your appearance and your attitude and everything like that. Is there a fine line between keeping what Robin Black looks like and the music they play separate?

You know, we can't help the way we look and they way we think a rock concert should be. It should be over the top. It should be an incredibly sweaty, crazy performance. It should be interactive with the people there and it should be almost religious in its significance. We wear make-up and we dress this way because we feel good like that. I don't get dressed up like Robin Black and play a show - Robin Black is that guy on stage. I couldn't do it any other way but the truth is, being that flashy, being that outspoken, that I can't help. Being that outspoken, being that aggressive, and our show being that big is an incredible thing to live up to when you go to make a record. Even just the shit that I say, when I am talking to somebody and I say we're going to be the biggest band in the world, and I say it's really important and we're going to do this, to live up to that on record is an incredibly huge challenge.

Your new video is now in heavy rotation on MuchMusic. Do you see this as a good thing? 

Well, I think it's a whole lot better that our band, our faces, our brand of rock n' roll is on MuchMusic. I think that's a whole lot better than seeing Edwin or Matthew Good there one more time.

So you're not worried about maybe getting overplayed and saturated?

We're a band that's meant for arenas, we're a band that's meant to infiltrate music through the mainstream door. It's important to me to have a kid in Lethbridge, Alberta or Brandon, Manitoba see our band on TV because we've got a message and we've got something we want to say and we want to be their option. So I think it is great that MuchMusic is on it and they've got the good sense to show my pretty face everyday.

You have said, "Working your ass off to overcome every obstacle, no matter how immense, is the only way you can make your dreams come true." How are you working your ass off and what obstacles do you have to overcome?

Well, I'm not the best singer in the world, our band is not the most talented band in the world, and we're not natural gifted songwriters, but we're guys who believe that we can make a difference. What we do doesn't come naturally, it's an incredible amount of work to make music this good and I am never going to be the guy saying, 'Ah man this just comes easy,' because it doesn't. We have to work our assess off to make this band this good. I mean if anyone who sees our shows wonders why other shows aren't as good it's because it is an incredible amount of work to put on that kind of show with that kind of commitment every night. And every obstacle has been thrown at us. The record industry wanted no part of what we do, radio and TV didn't like what we did despite the fact that we are good-looking guys that should be on television. Everybody seems to want us to fail. Everybody but our fans. Everybody but people who are really into music, people who are really into rock n' roll and desperately need rock n' roll. Those people wanted us to succeed but everybody in business wanted us to fail and the only way we are able to keep this shit going and the only way we are able to keep bringing this music to the people who need it is by sheer force of will. I can't wait for the first asshole to ask what it's like to be an overnight success because we have worked our assess off everyday because we believe that rock n' roll is an important and valid thing that has to be done and we have to do it. We don't have a lot of messages but I think seeing our band and seeing this 5'5" guy with purple hair, wearing make-up and standing there in front of everybody and telling everybody he's the greatest rock star in the world and telling women that he's the most beautiful guy in the world, I think that if you believe it for even a second and you believe I can do that then you believe anything is possible. I think on some level the people who are fans of our band get that. If they see that this little guy who is not that great of a singer can be a huge rock star and able to do this then they believe they can do anything to. I think that's important.

So with all this having been said, you guys are now on your way to conquering Canada, but when will you set out to conquer the rest of the world?

Well, we're from Canada, so Canada is the first place we want to conquer and we want to prove that it can be done here and we want to prove that it's important to be a real rock n' roll band in this country. We're on our way to doing that and I think everybody knows our fucking name now, everybody knows who Robin Fucking Black is and love us or hate us we're here to stay. The next step is either Scandinavia or Japan in the fall and then America right after that. And the truth is, this is a difficult country to be able to break something open the way we have. This is a really tough nut to crack open and have people know who you are and by the time you've done that here you are so ready to conquer every other country. So when I get to America, when Robin Fucking Black steps on to a stage in Los Angeles, they won't fucking know what hit them. http://www.robinblackrocks.com

- JW Warren