The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack Interview: Michael Monroe, Part Two

As we continue our chat with the glam-punk hero, we discuss remixing Hanoi Rocks’ Oriental Beat LP (and why every ‘80s record should be remixed), why punk was important and his favorite PiL songs.

Hanoi Rocks ca. Oriental Beat: (l-r) Nasty Suicide, Gyp Casino, Michael Monroe, Sami Yaffa and Andy McCoy

Welcome back to this continuation of this Zoom conversation with Hanoi Rocks/Demolition 23/solo rocker Michael Monroe, conducted last October 11th. (Read Part One here.) This was meant to promote the recent reissue of the Demolition 23 album, a raw punk-meets-rock affair that was barely released in the early ‘90s, which reconvened Monroe’s long-running partnership with fellow Hanoi Rocker Sami Yaffa. As you see here, in this installment Monroe talks about remixing the classic Hanoi Rocks album Oriental Beat, which featured some of their strongest material, such as “Motorvatin’” and “Teenangels Outsiders.” However, it suffered from the same thin, shrieky mixing job that plagued most ‘80s records, which we discuss below.

The sound files for what the band calls Oriental Beat’s “real mix” arrived in the email the other day, as I was transcribing this. And the band has saved the record from the ignominy Pete Wooliscroft’s original mix inflicted upon this record. Gyp Casino’s drums slam hard and true, Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide’s guitars grind with all the thick mids a pair of freshly purchased Marshall JCM800s likely provided, and Yaffa’s bass grunts prominently, full of fat and dirt. This is the way this record should have always sounded.

But why don’t we let Monroe tell you about it…?

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