Those Damn Crows have been on a meteoric rise over the past year, captivating fans while playing huge shows and creating spectacular music that resonates deeply. Currently thrilling audiences on an intimate tour of the UK, the band’s performances have left sweat-soaked venues and thunderous applause in their wake. This sets the perfect stage for their much-anticipated fourth album, God Shaped Hole, due for release on 11 April 2025 via Earache Records.
Joining me for a candid 30-minute chat was the man on the sticks, Ronnie Huxford, from the heart of the action at Sheffield’s Corporation, just a matter of hours before Those Damn Crows step on stage. Ronnie shared the latest on the band’s journey, their creative process and the excitement building around the new album. We even found time to dive into our shared passion for wrestling, trading thoughts on the road to WrestleMania and beyond.
The conversation starts with a warm greeting and an icebreaker of what Ronnie had for dinner the night before (Pieminster). I get to the important questions straight away and ask how Ronnie is finding being back at smaller shows after spending the past year playing huge gigs such as Download Festival, OVO Arena Wembley and the Utilita Arena Cardiff.
“It’s wicked,” Ronnie says. “You’re sweaty. It’s brilliant to connect with the fans again in that way. A lot of them were asking us to do it. It is a bit of an adjustment because, obviously, last year was fantastic. We managed to play the mainstage of Download for the second time. Wembley, then we went on the European tour with tAKiDA in the summer. I think we played to a quarter of a million fans, over the one tour.
“Then ending the year with our own arena show, headlining Cardiff Arena. It’s been a bit of fun as well. Me and the boys, we’re having a bit of fun, loads of shenanigans on stage. You can try some new things.”
Ronnie likes to prepare for shows with a warm-up on the drums. “I like a banana, about a half hour before I go on stage. Very rock ‘n’ roll. We all have little quirks, little routines before we go on. Shane does his vocal warmups, the boys warm up on the bass and guitars. We’ve got a good punk rock background so you’re always kind of screwed up and ready for these shows”.
The one big thing that Those Damn Crows have been building is memories. The current club tour adds to those. “Frome was really good,” Ronnie says. “I really enjoyed it. I’ve never been to the Cheese & Grain in all the years I’ve been in bands. Never played that venue, beautiful place. The tour’s kicking ass at the moment, in all fairness.”
Ronnie explained the prestige of their huge show at the Utilita Arena at the end of 2024. “Playing Cardiff Arena, headlining it. That’s gonna be a big memory,” he says. “It was like a celebration, more than a gig. It was all the hard work, all the years. A tremendous amount of tickets sold, which pleased everybody. That’s gonna be a massive memory for a long time.”
MetalTalk have had the pleasure of speaking to Shane Greenhall a few times, so I felt it was important to hear about the perspective of Ronnie and how he fits in the creative process. Ronnie explained how he likes to add his own kind of signature or twist so audiences will know, ‘Ah, that’s Ronnie playing.’
Ronnie noted his influences, Roger Taylor, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl and Stewart Copeland. Talking on the heavier tracks, Ronnie says, “There’s a little bit of a tip of the hat to Phil Collins drumming. I introduced a bit of double kick drum on this record [God Shaped Hole], which we haven’t done on the last three, so a few months before we recorded, I just spent every day trying to be as good as I could on it. It’s been real fun.”
The band have been playing for over a decade and have some fantastic material. God Shaped Hole has been on my playlist for a week and comes out on the 11th of April. There’s a lot of emotion woven into the tracks.
Ronnie gave his insight. “There’s some punk rock drumming on there. There are some really cool tracks which I can’t wait to play live where there’s a lot of feeling. It’s a different flavour. It was very cool to record, to go through the demo stages with the boys, and it was very cool to hear the parts back. When you’re happy, you kind of lock in on that, and then you move on. I’m already thinking of the next record in my head.”
The first track of Those Damn Crows new album, Dancing With The Enemy, has some heaviness to it, really kicking the album off before going into mellow, slower and sombre tracks. Ones where Shane broaches mental health, a really important topic we could all do with talking about more. It is a dear topic to me, and really resonates.
I am really blown away by the new record, I think it’s going to be huge, and I thank Ronnie and the band for it. Dancing With The Enemy is an example of tipping the hat to Phil Collins. “When we were demoing it, there was certain stuff not sticking with it,” Ronnie says, “whether it be the chords or riffs. I really like the beat, so we worked around it for a bit to get that signature. Something that you can hear, and you go, oh wow, you just know the song. Whether it be a riff or a drumbeat or a vocal, there’s just something about it.”
Ronnie was pleased with the things I had picked up on from listening to the album and opened up more on the themes and his creative evolution. “As you said, with the mental health, Shane’s been fantastic at writing lyrics,” he says. “I’ve said this for years, right from the early stages, his melodies, his lyrics are fantastic.
“Everyone can have a go at songwriting in the band but Shane goes above and beyond with the story, the storytelling. I came from punk rock bands, so as long as I had a pop line and a hook, I didn’t really focus on the rest.
“I’ve learned a lot, and I respect a lot of what he does there because the more you listen to it… I think it went back to the point of no return when he did Never Win, for example. I just sat in a room. The lyrics, I was like, wow. I actually left the process and went out to give him a hug, and from there on, I became more and more interested in the lyrics.
“I think he’s smashed it out of the park with Still. When he brought the song to the unit and to the Crow HQ, I think me and Lloyd were like, ‘That’s gotta go on the record, even just the raw version.’ Before, he’s worked with Dan Weller, and we’ve done the records. I would have just put that version on the record because it was just great. yet again, he’s got a habit of capturing that essence.”
I wanted to know more about what Ronnie Huxford wanted his listeners to take from the new record. “I think it’s about the emotional connection,” Ronnie says, “especially with the messages and the content that we’ve chosen to become the art of the album.
“We’re all super happy, we’re vibing off the tracks. We’re four albums in, we’re ten years in. I’m really, really, really excited to kick on and do the next album. I felt like that for the previous records. You leave the process, and you’re buzzing, in a good zone.
“We haven’t even played all the songs from this brand new album yet, so it’s just so exciting being in the band at the moment with everything we’re doing it’s a real buzz”.
I was keen to know if there is a favourite track off the new album for Ronnie to listen to or play. His favourite has not even been heard by fans yet, The Night Train.
“Tracks like Glass Heart is super cool to play,” Ronnie says of whats been revealed on the tour so far. “Dreaming is our new single, we are really enjoying playing that live. I remember when we jammed down the HQ the first time and Shane was singing the top line. He was playing the piano and every time we jammed that through… it’s just got a good vibe to it. Very Americana. No Surrender, hard hitting. Spit & Choke, yet again, I haven’t played that song, but it reminds me of The Offspring and the bands we grew up with. Just so much fun.”
Even though Those Damn Crows are super busy working on the album and tour, they appear to always be looking forward to the next step. So we discuss if there’s already an idea of what’s to come. “Everyone’s super excited about this record,” Ronnie says. “It’s selling super well. We don’t really get caught up with numbers, but we’re told it’s possibly a top-five record, which is magic.
“We’re already thinking of the next tour because this is an underplay tour. So we’re super excited to announce what’s to come. There is the thought of playing as many new territories as possible and keeping on growing this Crow family.
“That’s what’s gonna keep us alive as a band, the more people who buy the merch, the more people who buy gig tickets, support the Crows. If you come out and watch a show, it really does help the band if you buy our merch, it really does help the band.
“We appreciate everybody who listens to the music and buys the vinyl. So it’s just really, really super exciting times, and we are excited to see what the future brings”.
It wouldn’t be fair to Ronnie to not gain further insight into his life as the drummer and probe his passion and inspiration more. So I asked if there was a dream collaboration for him, and his response was warming. “That is a fantastic question,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve personally been asked that before. There are loads of punk bands I really like. The Foo Fighters would be a massive bucket list, but I think after Taylor, that’s just massive shoes and pressure.
“Jamming a song with Dave Grohl, to be under that pressure. He’s a class drummer and to know you can’t mess up. Something like that would be cool, or if Nirvana were still here and Dave wanted to play guitar and jam a track, that would be really, really cool. Or, to the extreme of something like NoFX, Pennywise or Bad Religion. That would be it.”
The time has rattled away quickly but I had a burning topic to broach. So I use my last few minutes to have some extra fun. I noticed online that we both have a mutual love other than brilliant rock music. So I ask Ronnie if he is a wrestling fan, already knowing the answer. He is quick to respond with a grin on his face, simply saying, “Massive.”
We’ve got Wrestlemania coming up. We’ve got the shock of John Cena turning heel. I have to steal a moment to hear his thoughts on what we can expect. “I think it’s genius,” Ronnie says.
“I popped, I never saw it coming, genuinely never saw it coming. I actually sat in my bunk last night and watched Raw from Brussels. The whole WWE thing at the moment is mega. I’ve been lucky, I went to Clash At The Castle [in Cardiff].”
Unfortunately, Ronnie was not able to go to WrestleMania 2025 due to the small matter of promoting God Shaped Hole and playing shows. Otherwise, he tells me he certainly would be heading to Vegas.
Now, I won’t turn this music article into a sports entertainment one, but let’s say we discussed enough to make another article. I would love to get Ronnie back for a wrestling-themed interview or even a podcast down the line.
We ended up overrunning by a good five minutes through mutual excitement. If you pester the MetalTalk Editor enough on social media he may let me spin off a side article. I did ask if Ronnie could play the entrance music what wrestler would he pick. We discussed some options but settled on using the new song No Surrender as the title for a wrestling event as it would be incredibly fitting.
With that, I reminded Ronnie he had to join Those Damn Crows for a show.
Those Damn Crows release God Shaped Hole on 11 April 2025 via Earache Records. For pre-orders, visit earache.com/collections/those-damn-crows. The band play O2 Academy 2 in Liverpool tonight and The 100 Club, London, on Thursday.
