DialMFor Mantra: Ramon and Barrett in action.


wasn’t as involved as I should’ve been. I was playing but wasn’t really there.”


Once again, Ramon retreated from public gaze, finding a musical soulmate in Barrett while plotting a new vision for Sun Dial which would pick up where Kohoutek left off. Another sabbatical followed – partly due to malign, sometimes violent outside influences. Gary explains: “Russell was nearly murdered, being smashed on the head with a large weapon and repeatedly kicked andpunched –giving him constant headaches and pain. Then I was attacked by some psychopath with a knife threatening to put me six feet under. This was followed by my house getting burgled and ransacked. Both of us have had financial disaster, relationship meltdowns and prolonged depression. It was a harsh period but they were independently wake-up calls. For us, it was back to basics, returning to the original, raw sounds that inspired us at the beginning.”


Out of such adverse conditions, Ramon and Barrett circulated a string of privately- pressed CD EPs which sounded far darker and more experimental than the band of old – and they also took the first steps back to normality with a Sun Dial sampler CD, Shards Of God. “Such trauma has given us a creative edge,” suggests Russ, “for me lyrically (albeit morbid in nature) while Gary has become the born-again ‘king of the riffs’!


He has penned a vast amount of songs with some ferocious guitar work.” All of which was building towards their next long player. “The new album was like making the first Sun Dial record all over again,” admits Gary. “It was very exciting but this time around, and for the first time, we are making it without compromise. It’s a pure Sun Dial album in every sense. We’re very excited by it.”


Experimental and uncompromising, Ramon and Barrett had navigated a route forwards for Sun Dial, which led in turn to a new deal with the ubiquitous Cherry Red Records for their own imprint, Shrunken Head. “Cherry Red offered us our own label,” explains Ramon. “As a result, we have Shrunken Head as the focus for making deluxe editions of all the Sun Dial albums, the unissued Kohoutek and our new record. We are overseeing every release, each one with bonus unissued material, so it has our stamp of approval.”


It all seems to have tallied neatly with Sun Dial’s 20th anniversary – although the band’s chaotic, anarchic nature suggests this is purely a marketing accident. Whatever the case, all of the band’s wares are now being presented with some semblance of common sense as double CD sets on Shrunken Head throughout 2010 and beyond, prefaced by a career-wide anthology, Processed For DNA, and the unveiling of their first studio album


in eight years, simply titled Sun Dial. This could feasibly lead to Sun Dial’s profile being at its highest? for well over a decade. If only they can find that drummer!


Both members are intimately involved with the new packages. “Without doubt they’ll be the definitive versions,” claims Russ, “with Gary overseeing the mixes/masters. It’s a Godsend as Sun Dial have suffered repeatedly from misinformation.” Gary agrees: “We’ve been in existence for 20 years,” he says. “It’s a good point for the anthology. But it’s also re-focusing on what Sun Dial was/is about. Hopefully, all the fans’ favourite tracks are included from every period plus unissued tracks, including a few from Kohoutek and one from the new album called ‘Storm Coming’.”


Having strolled back up the hill to Gary’s bohemian maisonette, I’m struck by a sense of black humour which pervades the various trinkets and bits of ephemera around the place – not necessarily what you’d expect from a casual listen to Sun Dial’s intensely serious music. “We’re both very reclusive,” admits Russ, “and have developed a mistrust of most people, as well as a dose of dark humour due to our sometimes ridiculous circumstances. Add to that Aleister Crowley, the occult, Hanna Barbera and old horror films and it’s an unusual mix!”


• Sun Dial is out now on Shrunken Head. 43


Photo courtesy of Gary Ramon


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