Red Electrick: ‘Happiness is finding a path to solving the problems you enjoy solving the most’

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Joe: Make a cup of tea

Pete: Check my phone

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

J: Believe in myself and what I do.

P: 5by5 rule – if it’s not going to matter in five years, don’t spend more than five minutes being upset by it.

What do you never leave the house without?

J: Phone, wallet and my watch.

P: Phone and my sunglasses.

Pick three words that describe yourself

J: Hard-working, down to earth, fidgety.

P: Hard-working, perfectionist, honest.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

J: I rate my achievements in different ways – some are moments in time like the many great concerts… but it’s being able to do what I love doing as a full-time job.

P: Making music my full-time career as a producer/songwriter for various artists at my studio Railway Studios and as a performing artist and guitarist for the past 10 years with Red Electrick and others.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

J: ‘School Of Rock’.

P: Bon Jovi.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

J: Life is short, find what makes you happy and make that a big part of it.

P: That the trick to happiness is finding a path which leads you to solving the problems you enjoy solving the most (you probably know which book I nicked this off).

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?

J: My car.

P: My place.

What is one thing you wish you knew when you were younger?

J: That time is more valuable that you think.

P: That turning 30 is actually great.

Who’s your inspiration?

J: John Mayer – I think he is the complete artist.

P: At the moment, Mark Ronson – I love all of his songs and productions.

What has been your biggest challenge?

J: My UK tour before I joined REK; I played 18 venues over 25 days driving from Scotland to Southampton.

P: After University – educating the general public and my friends and family that music in Malta can be a career and not just a hobby.

If you weren’t in the band, what would you be doing?

J: I would probably be a surf instructor in Australia.

P: I always wanted to open a pasta restaurant.

Do you believe in God?

J: To be continued…

P: Sometimes…

If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would it be?

J: Ed Sheeran – he just seems like a cool guy.

P: Keith Richards.

What’s your worst habit?

J: Fidgeting.

P: Cigarettes.

What are you like when you’re drunk?

J: People tell me I talk more.

P: More outgoing and relaxed.

Who would you have play you in a film?

J: Ryan Renalds.

P: Owen Wilson.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

J: Selfishness.

P: Jealousy.

What music would you have played at your funeral?

J: Nothing depressing, something like ‘Another One Bites the Dust’.

What is your most treasured material possession?

J: My guitar.

P: My vinyl collection.

What is your earliest memory?

J: Being scared to go on a rollercoaster in EuroDisney

P: Going to London Zoo when I was three.

When did you last cry, and why?

J: My brother’s wedding last year.

P: When I heard one of our latest unreleased songs that lyrically struck a chord. It’s going to be on our next album.

Who would you most like to meet?

J: Jack Black – he’s hilarious.

P: Donald Trump – you have to admit, it would be entertaining to sit down and have a beer with him.

What’s your favourite food?

J: Slow cooked BBQ food.

P: Pasta.

Who’s your favourite person on social media right now?

J: John Mayer.

P: Mark Ronson.

If you could travel in time, where would you go?

J: To the 1980s in the studio with Queen while they were recording their album The Works.

P: April 1994 – The Eagles’ reunion at Warner Bros Studios in California for Hell Freezes Over.

What book are you reading right now?

J: Anthony Kiedes’s ‘Scar Tissue’

P: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

J: Flying.

P: Overcoming my fear of black dogs.

What’s one thing you want to do before you die?

J: Travel the world surfing different spots.

P: Have a couple of kids and chill with them.

What music are you listening to at the moment?

J: Daft Punk, Hall and Oates, Vulfpeck.

P: John Mayer, War on Drugs, Maggie Rogers, The Specials, Aerocity, Dean Lewis.

In the shower or when you’re working out, what do you sing/listen to?

J: I’ll be singing any song that’s stuck in my head at the time. When I’m working out I like Rage against the Machine.

P: In the shower I’m just singing lines I’m working on at that moment. Working out it’s ACDC, Guns n’ Roses and Queen.

TELL US...

How did the band come together, and what’s your biggest musical inspiration?

The band came together at the school we attended. We were five kids discovering music together and all wanting to create our own songs. It was an amazing journey and each step of the way had its amazing ups and equally bad downs. It’s hard to pin point one musical inspiration however, our driving factor was always to create our own music, not copying what’s going on at that particular moment, and simply trying to be original and trying to make music we enjoy listening to back in the car.

If you could perform with any artist, who would you choose?

Again too many to mention but we’ve always loved Queen and Freddie Mercury so singing one of his amazing tracks with him would be pretty awesome.