Dante Fox was formed in September 1989 by vocalist Sue Willetts and guitarist Tim Manford. Signing to British label Now & Then the band released two albums, namely Under Suspicion and 'The Fire Within'. Now, some eight years after the release of 'The Fire Within' the band are back with a new record label (Z Records), a new album in the can (Under The Seven Skies) and a spot on the Z Rock 2006 bill at Dudley JB's. HardRockHouse caught up with Tim to find out just what's what in the world of Dante Fox....

Tim to kick things off , would care to introduce your self to the readers of HardRockHouse.com? 

Hello everyone, I’m Tim Manford guitar player and co founder member of the UK based Female fronted Melodic Rock band Dante Fox. 

Who are personnel heroes and influences?

As a guitar player I’m really influenced by Gary Moore, Neal Schon, John Sykes for their incredible technique and melodic flair, and as a songwriter it would have to be Steve Perry/Neal Schon/Jon Cain team in Journey and Robert Plant/Jimmy Page of Zep and  not forgetting Mark Free who I think is extremely underrated. 

I don’t really have any heroes but the closest person to becoming an hero of mine would have to be Paul Stanley of Kiss  for  planting the “wanna be rockstar” image in my mind as a Fourteen year old. 

Tim Manford

I first became aware of Dante fox in around 1995 when one of your tracks appeared on a guitarist magazine cover mount CD, how long had band been going at that stage?

Wow!! You remember that?

Our Ex-Manager had a contact at Total Guitar magazine and we managed to get a track off our First album which I think was “Lost And Lonely Heart” on the CD which was good promotion for the album. That was 1994/95 so Dante Fox had been together one way or another for about Five years.I actually replaced  Brian Tatler in Radio Moscow around 1991 and recorded their “Worlds Service” album with Metalica’s engineer “Big” Mick Hughes. 

How did you and Sue meet? 

We met at a very popular Rock club as far back as 1986.At the time I was playing in a  Midlands band called Karrier (who released One album and supported Magnum on their “Storytellers Night” tour) and she was just writing and planning what was to become Dante Fox. 

  

                                              Tim Manford                                                       Sue Willets

How is a typical Dante fox song written? 

Normally I will figure out the backing track and arrangement and then present it to Sue and she will write the Lyrics and melodies then inject it with some hooks .We then take it One step further in the studio where  we start to layer guitar parts and add harmonies .Sometimes Sue will present the band with a finished lyric and melody and I will then write the backing music with the band. There are no rules. 

On the new album the backbone of the songs are guitar riffs and grooves ,so most of the songs were started with Mick Hales our drummer and me just jamming ideas I’d been working on at home in our rehearsal space.

Once we had sorted out the arrangement Sue came in and wrote the lyrics and melodies.

We now have a new line-up and the title track to the new album “Under The Seven Skies” was started  in our Lounge with  Sue , Roman, Mike and me exchanging idea’s on piano and acoustic guitars. It then grew in rehearsal and developed  in the studio into a Nine minute epic with String sections, Brian May esq. Harmony guitars, passionate vocals and awesome “Lord Of The Ringish” backing vocals . 

The band signed to Now and Then in March 1996 and I first caught the band live at that years Gods, what do you remember of the show?

I remember being very surprised  how well we went down and how our profile was beginning to rise, cause at that point we had spent a lot of time writing and recording the songs which became our First album.

The bands debut album under Suspicion was released later that year. Now I had one or two demos by yourselves by this point, was the material on the album re-recorded or just re-mixed demos? 

The songs were originally recorded for Linda Bruce who co owned a very successful recording studio/rehearsal studio in Birmingham .She became our manager and financed the recordings with the objective being to market Sue and myself and a Roxette type of duo. So the songs were never demo’s  they were gonna be our debut album for Linda. We came away with these recordings and re-mastered them for Mark Ashton.  

The band next album 'The Fire Within' was released in 1998 and featured a less keyboard heavy sound, was this  deliberate move?

Even though “Under Suspicion” enjoyed some excellent reviews there were quite a few people saying they preferred our Live sound and wanted to hear more guitars. Also these songs were recorded in early Ninties so it was time for a change. 

By 1998 we wanted to update our sound and  add  more organic tones such as  Hammond organs and Twelve /Six string acoustics  and use Keyboards tastefully  rather than over using them and dating the sound. It also sonically gave more room for backing vocal arrangements which we really concentrated on (especially on the ballad “A Matter Of Time”) with help from our good friend Tony Mills (TNT,ex- SHY) 

The band called it a day a year or so after the release of 'The Fire Within'  why was this? 

 We didn’t actually call it a day we still carried on writing and recording but we definitely had the wind kicked out of our sails due to our UK label signing over “The Fire Within” to a Japanese record company who were in the process of closing down their rock department weeks after our album was released and when I approached him after a gig at Jilly’s in Manchester he just shrugged his shoulders and sniggered. So after that disappointment we kind of laid low for a while. 

John Cooksy our drummer decided that due to family commitments he  couldn’t commit to the band  so Sue and myself started writing with a local keyboard player Alan Dawkins who helped us write one of the songs for our new album “Love Tried To Find You”. 

If I’d never heard of Dante fox, which tracks from the first two albums would you recommend or play to me?

From the First album it would have to be “Lost And Lonely Heart”, ”How Do We Learn About Love” and “Still Remember Love” which all have the key elements to a strong Dante Fox song which are passionate Lead vocal, hooky chorus with nice BV arrangement and a cool guitar solo. From “The Fire Within” I’d say “Firing My Heart”, ”Under The City Lights” the ballad “A Matter Of Time” which have some really nice lead and backing vocal arrangements and of cause “Remember” which is still on the play list at quite a few Rock nightclubs around the country.

The band reformed in 2005, what had you been up to the mean time? 

Writing and recording demo’s for what will become our Third album and trying to put together a stable line-up that we could rely on. 

When you got back together the original rhythm section weren't there, why the change and what are the guys up to now if you know?

We wanted Dante Fox to have a harder edge with more flair this time round and after I met our drummer Mick Hales it was obvious that there was some really great chemistry going on. Mick's imaginative drum lines have helped me develop some of the riffs for our new album.

As far as I now either of the lads are doing much. John played on Bob Catley's Second and Third solo albums but very little else. Shame really as we do miss both the guys as we went through so much together but I suppose things move on and we’re really pleased with the new lads Roman Wieckowski  on keyboards and backing vocals (who also plays some guitar live which makes us more versatile) and Mike Dagnall on Bass and backing vocals who also has been a real find, so we can’t wait for Z Rock so we can show this new line-up off and hopefully win over some new fans.  

The have played several live dates since and had few line up changes, when I caught the band at the Z Rock 2006 Part 1 I thought the old material didn't  sound quite right without the keyboards, would you agree/disagree? 

I understand that you may have missed the keys live but at the last Z Rock we were in a situation where we do the show as a four piece or don’t play at all. The objective was always to try and get a good keyboard player who also could help out on guitar in the live area and help with some of the writing which is what we now have.  

On the strength of that performance the band signed a deal with Z records. How did this come and about? 

Well Mark has always known about the band because of our involvement with Mark Ashton and he is very aware of the popularity of the band in the late nineties (where in a poll in Powerplay magazine in 1999 Dante Fox were voted Third best UK band behind Thunder and Ten, Sue was top female vocalist, I was lucky enough to be in the top Seven guitarists and Jon Cooksy was in the top Ten drummers and even “The Fire Within” album cover made the top Ten) so when he witnessed us live last April it was the logical  progression for both parties. 

The band are currently putting the finishing touches to their third album UNDER THE SEVEN SKIES, how does the material compare to the first two albums?

 Yes we have just finished the mix’s for the Third album and I’m very pleased to say there’s a huge progression in the song writing and in the personal performances. The material is more varied for example we have “Love Tried To Find You” and “Hold Out Your Hand” which hark back to the First album but without the dated keyboard sounds which  have been  replaced with proper string arrangements and “Firing Guns” which is much heavier in almost a Zepp meets Fair Warning esq. way which again has a great chorus. We also have “Save Me” which is  a very commercial rocker which was written in 1994  and has a great vocal performance from Sue with a  truly massive guitar sound. We have “Goodbye To Yesterday” which is a proper ballad with a great emotive lead vocal  complete with piano ,string section and very lush harmony vocals. The latest song to be written is “Under The Seven Skies” and its something of a departure for Dante Fox as it’s the first song we have written as a band. Its Nine minutes long and features a truly heart wrenching lead vocal, and its almost Three songs in one and again has a fabulous string arrangement from Roman. And a 36 bar guitar solo. A true Epic. 

Is Tony Mills involved with the album this time around? 

Tony has been involved again cause his voice sonically matches Sue’s perfectly and they complement each other beautifully. We’ve known each other for something like fifteen years and even shared management in the early nineties so we made that decision fairly early on in the planning of this album. We just had to fit around his touring schedule with TNT but that wasn’t a problem. He is really into the new songs and thinks its going to be our most important album so far. 

So with that in mid can you introduce us to the current line up of the band? 

Yes we have Sue Willetts-Lead Vocals, Tim Manford-Lead Guitar/backing vocals, Roman Wieckowski -Keyboards/backing vocals, Mike Dagnall-Bass guitar/backing vocals and Mick Hales-Drums. 

Do know when the album will be released yet? 

Not as yet. Even though the albums finished  we don’t to rush release it and it get buried in the Christmas rush and also we have a promotion/marketing plan to start prior to the release. 

The band’s next “big” gig is the Z Rock 2006 Pt II, what sort of set the can the fans expect?

We have 50 minutes slot so we’re going to playing about ten songs and six of those are going to be new songs because we are so fired up about this new album. Some of you will have heard a few of these songs on our Vixen support tour last year. 

And finally, the standard HardRockHouse question, is there anything further you would like to mention that we haven't covered so far? 

We would like to thank all the people who have supported and encouraged us in the writing and recording of this new album and hope to see you all out on the road. Thanks also to the kind e-mails we’ve received through our official website www.dantefox.com and our official myspace page www.myspace.com/dantefox 

Regards

Tim,Sue,Mike,Ro,Mick