Tuesday 1 May 2012

Mark C Lee interviews world famous UFO author Nick Redfern


Mark C Lee interviews UFO researcher and best selling author Nick Redfern


Hi Nick thanks for agreeing to the interview. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Nick: Well, I’m originally from England, but I live on the fringes of Dallas, Texas. I work as an author – I’ve written about twenty-five books - lecturer, and journalist, and mainly focus on paranormal mysteries: UFOs, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Roswell; things like that. But, I also do a lot of other stuff: I do quite a bit of writing for Penthouse, some ghost-writing for other authors, and website work for various companies in fields ranging from law to sex and horror films to exotic pets. Sometimes the exotic pets and the sex might be part of the same story LOL. I also wrote a book called Celebrity Secrets, which was about how the FBI spent years watching celebrities like John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Abbott and Costello and loads more.

You have a book out called “Contactees”, could you tell us a bit about it?

Nick: Contactees is a controversial book that looks at claims of people who say they have met aliens, and specifically aliens who look just like us. The story is a wild one, and has as much to do with possible real encounters with ETs as it does drug-induced states, wishful-thinking, certifiable madness, conmen, jokers, and even top secret government manipulation. Everything about the world of the paranormal is weird, but some things are much weirder than others, and these –like the Contactees - are the ones I like to write about. I don’t want to bother at all with the bland side of the paranormal. Nor all that “love and light” supernatural crap – which I totally loathe. I hate, hate, hate it.

Is there really evidence out there to substantiate alien abductions or is it just people with sleep paralysis spinning a good yarn?

Nick: Well, I think people do have these experiences, and most people – I believe – are honest in their claims. The big question is whether they are experiencing something external to them, or something internal to their subconscious etc. It may be – at the end of the day – a combination of both. But, I do believe, fully, that there is an absolutely genuine UFO phenomenon among us that does interact with us – abductions, contacts etc – but I don’t think we have come even close to fully understanding its true nature or intent.

Are there people today still being abducted? – What do you think the purpose is?
How does the abduction scenario fit in with Cattle mutilations, are they connected?

Nick: People do still report abductions, yes. But, the subject isn’t such a big thing in popular-culture as it was, say, ten or fifteen years ago. I think the purpose is that there is some phenomenon – definitively alien, in some sense – that interacts with us for the purpose of achieving some change of mindset in the individual. Cattle mutes? Nothing to do with aliens, in my view. This, I believe, is all about the government stealthily checking the food-chain for emerging, very dangerous viruses, like next-generation equivalents of “Mad-Cow Disease” etc. The UFO subject acts as a good cover-story for anyone who might stumble on such mutilated and dissected animals. There’s a real mystery to the mutes, but I think it’s a dark and disturbing one of government, not of ETs.

Monster Hunting – I guess there must be still species out there that are yet to be discovered but what about those species such as the Chupacabra, which may have a paranormal as well as physical element to them, what experience, have you had of them?

Nick: I’ve been to Puerto Rico on a number of expeditions looking for the Chupacabra, which is where most of the reports surface from. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who claim to have seen the creature – described as a kind of monkey-like animal with vicious-looking spikes down its head and neck – like a punk-rock Mohawk. But, like so many of these things, I haven’t yet captured one, stumbled on one, etc. Maybe one day!

Which leads me on to one of my all time favourite books of any genre the magnificent tome that is “Three Men Seeking Monsters”. Did you have a good time researching that one? How many pubs did you frequent on your fortean road trip? I particularly liked the way you started each chapter with a quote by my fave band The Ramones. I guess you’re a fan then?

Nick: I always have a good time doing research when I’m on the road. How many pubs do I hit or have I hit? I have no idea – as many as are needed to fuel me! If they sell ice-cold Tennents Super or Carlsberg Special Brew, well, then that’s even better. Growing up in England, going down the pub is what everyone does to socialize on weekends. Much better than going out to eat. Just fill yourself with lager, piss it away, and start all over again. The Ramones are my all-time favourite band. I first heard them when I was about twelve, and was hooked. I liked the image – the hair, the leather jackets, the guitars held below the waist, the speed of the songs, everything. Plus, if you liked them at the beginning, then you liked them at the end because they never changed. I hate bands that change their style or change their music. Some people call it progressing, but I don’t. I’m very glad they stayed the same from start to finish. Plus, I like the image of a band being four people – like a gang. That was one of the reasons why me and my mates liked the Ramones – we were like a gang that hung out on the streets and did stupid things, listened to music etc as teenagers. They might have been from New York, but you could still identify with them and the song subjects. I think their three best albums are Too Tough to Die, Subterranean Jungle, and Pleasant Dreams, although a lot of people knock Dreams for being too poppy, but I like it, and the Ramones had a definitive love and flair for classic pop – but they distorted it in a brilliant way with speed and punk guitar. Of the three, Too Tough is the winner. That album is masterful and bleak. I used to go and see them whenever they would come to the city of Birmingham, England and the gigs were crazy and great.

What’s your favourite Ramones track?

Nick: That’s easy: Psycho Therapy. I love that song! It sounds just like its subject-matter: crazy, deranged and out of control. Plus, the video is excellent and I like the siren at the beginning. But, there are plenty of other good ones too: Pet Sematary, Tomorrow She Goes Away, Pinhead (particularly in the 80s and 90s when they played it really fast), Sitting in my Room, The KKK Took My Baby Away, Warthog, Endless Vacation, Go Home Ann, and I think their version of Tom Waits’ I Don’t Want To Grow Up is excellent. I like their cover of Motorhead’s R.A.M.O.N.E.S too. I don’t have a least favourite song that springs to mind, but I do have a least liked album: 1989’s Brain Drain. For me, that was the sound of a band that had lost its direction, going through the motions, and ready to implode. But, fortunately, they didn’t, and from when C.J. joined in late ’89 after Dee Dee quit, I thought they really rediscovered their excitement, and their last seven years were very good. They definitely stopped at the right time, although it’s good to see that Marky is still flying the flag and playing. His post-Ramones stuff is very good.  I have met more than a few people who can’t take that constant high-speed, high-volume barrage, but I love it.

What other bands do you like? What are you listening to at the moment?

Nick: I mainly listen to punk – new and old - but I also like a lot of other stuff: Motorhead, Oasis, late 70s new-wave, the Stone Roses, the Macc Lads, and all those ‘60s girl bands like the Crystals, the Ronettes, and the Shangri-Las. Plus, a couple of my all-time favorites are one-hit wonders, like the Photos. They were a great UK new-wave band of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s whose first album is a masterpiece. I probably play that at least once a week. I wish they had gotten huge, but they didn’t. Right now, I’m listening to Bad SportsKings of the Weekend, and last night had a good blast of Life After Sundown by Ghoultown, whose singer, Lyle Blackburn, is a mate of mine.

Have you ever played in a band? Maybe you could make a guest appearance one day with my band – the pocket gods!

Nick: Not really. Just fucked around. But I do play electric guitar, so yeah I don’t mind getting up and playing with your band. But it would have to be fast, loud, no solos, and an absolute maximum of three chords – or preferably just two bar-chords, which is all you really need, anyway, to play good music. And no-one can hold their guitars above their waist. And no shirts and collars, only t-shirts. And no shoes, only Converse All-Stars. And no chatting between songs. But everything else – maybe – is good.

What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you?

Nick: God, loads of stuff, most of it pretty surreal. Getting grilled by unsmiling airport security staff about some Bigfoot plaster-casts of footprints I had in my suitcase once, and which for some stupid and unfathomable reason they were worried about. Smoking something weird – the exact content of which was never really made clear to me - on a Native American reservation while trying to conjure up a shape-shifting Skinwalker. Driving around Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rain-forest in a jeep, chasing vampires, while Sham 69 boomed out the car’s speakers. Getting mistaken for a Man in Black. Taking part in a séance at Roswell, New Mexico to try and contact the dead crew from the Roswell “UFO” crash. I also hung out for a few days in the desert a few years ago with VH1’s Real and Chance, which was a good laugh.

Do you believe in an afterlife of some form?

Nick: Well, that’s a difficult one. I don’t deny the possibility that there could be an afterlife – although I certainly don’t dwell on it, or even think about it, unless it’s brought up. But, what pisses me off is the arrogance of organized religion, where one religion will say there definitely is a Heaven and a Hell. Another will say that reincarnation is the answer. Another says something else. They, clearly, can’t all be correct. But it’s this issue of each of them being sure they are absolutely right and everyone else is absolutely wrong that angers me. Mainstream, regulated religion has become a tool of controlling people via fear and guilt. It’s actually become less about exploring the potential mysteries of life after death. Could there be life after death? Yes, I think there could. But, that whole, specific issue has been hijacked by power-nuts who want to use it as a tool of fear and control. I have no time for people like this – they are pure, absolute evil. And they are total loons too. Like most people, I have had occasional experiences – after someone close has died – that are weird and make me wonder if some essence briefly came back from...well, somewhere. But, maybe it’s just our subconscious trying to help us come to terms with death. Or, even a bit of both maybe. I just don’t know. I wish I did. We all think about these things from time to time, but it’s without doubt life’s biggest mystery of all.

Stella, Bud, Absinthe or Single Malt?

Nick: Carlsberg Special Brew, Tennents Super, Margaritas, hot tea, chocolate milkshakes, and vodka. Don’t try them altogether, though.

What’s your favourite ever film and why?

Nick: Without doubt the 1957 film, Night of the Demon, starring Dana Andrews and Peggy Cummins. Although Niall MacGinnis totally steals the show with his portrayal of the bad guy, Julian Carswell. This is an excellent, very atmospheric, black and white film about demonology in England. It’s a classic old-time, spooky horror, which are the types of film I like. I watch horror stuff more than anything else. I love zombie films, providing they are done good. There’s a lot of crap zombie stuff out there too, though, unfortunately. Some of my other favourite films are The Ninth Gate, with Johnny Depp; Pan’s Labyrinth; Dead of Night; and Plague of the Zombies.

Could you tell us a bit about your recent book “Science Fiction Secrets”?  What struck a chord (D minor a sad one) was the bit on that Lone Gunmen episode which had a plot involving a government-backed terrorist flying a plane into the twin towers in New York. I’ve recently watched it again and it is uncanny. Do you think it be can be put down to pure coincidence – a random event – or something else?

Nick: Yeah, that was very weird. The Lone Gunmen was a short-lived spin-off series from The X-Files. And the very first episode was about an aircraft flying into the World Trade Center, but where the event was actually being carried out by a computer-hacker who takes control of the aircraft on behalf of shadowy forces who were going to blame the attack on Middle Eastern forces and use the Trade Center attack as a reason for attacking the Middle East. What’s interesting is that this episode was filmed and aired before 9/11. I kind of think it’s one of those odd coincidences. But, maybe it’s more. Unfortunately, nothing is ever clear-cut in this field!


Do you think that there has been a conspiracy to cover up the knowledge of extra terrestrial life or has it all been disinformation put out to divert attention from secret military projects?

Nick: I think it’s both. I think there are some UFO incidents which are clearly evidence of “something else” interacting with us. But, equally, there are some cases where I think we can suggest these things are secret military aircraft of an advanced nature. Look at all the weird drones flying around now, or landing in Iran even. They look very weird. In a few years, it’s going to be difficult to know which are our UFOs and which are...theirs.

What’s the most far out UFO theory that you’ve heard? Have you seen a UFO? I know that in your book “A Covert Agenda” you state that your father had seen one. How did that inspire you?

Nick: As for the most far-out theory, that’s easy. I wrote a book in 2010 called Final Events, which was a study of a think-tank group in government that believed rather than being extraterrestrial, the UFO phenomenon has demonic origins. And they meant that literally: The Devil, Hell, Armageddon, the whole thing. It was a fascinating thing to research, and demonstrates how the subject can nurture belief systems of a very controversial kind. Nope, I’ve never seen a UFO! My dad worked on radar for the British Royal Air Force when he was called up for National Service in 1950, and was involved in a couple of UFO incidents, where very fast-moving, high-flying objects were tracked on the radar. He told me this when I was a kid. It definitely got me interested in the subject, and did inspire me to look deeper. Not just because it was my dad, but because he was trained in the military on radar. He knew his stuff, in other words. He still talks about it to this day, if asked. But, he doesn’t dwell on it, and neither do I. Just one of those weird things.

Remote viewing. This one has always Fox Muldered me. Do you know anything about it and if so what is it and how does it work?

Nick: Yeah, it’s basically the idea of using the mind or the “soul” to, in essence, astrally leave the body and travel to another location where you can “see” what’s going on. The CIA researched this for years. It’s known as Remote-Viewing, but a more accurate term would be “Psychic Spying.” The CIA tried to train its agents for years to do this. And, intriguingly, it did seem to work at times. The big problem, though, was that it was unpredictable. I do believe it’s a real phenomenon, but harnessing and controlling right when you want it, that is the big problem.

Dawkins, Darwin or Ancient Aliens?

Nick: It’s hard to know, and sometimes, after a hard day of writing, it’s hard to care, too!

Have you seen the film Spinal Tap? If so have you ever had any tap moments?

Nick: Yes, of course I have seen it! Nope, not had any specific Tap moments that I can think of. Although, I did get lost behind a stage at a UFO gig once, I have been to Stonehenge many times, and all my amps do, of course, go up to 11!

What are your plans for the rest of this year?

Nick: I have a few new books out: The World’s Weirdest Places; The Pyramids and the Pentagon; Monster Diary; and Wild Man. I wouldn’t mind actually doing some more ghost-writing too. Maybe ghost-write the autobiography of some legendary punk star. I would love to do something like that. So, if there’s one reading this and is interested, get in touch! No wishy-washy musicians though. By wishy-washy, I mean everything that is not punk.

Will the world end come 31 December 2012 or will we all awake the following morning with heads like a fight?

Nick: Prophecies never, ever come true. Look at Nostradamus: It all comes down to how people interpret prophecies. Anyone can make a case that people have prophesized things correctly, but it’s always after the fact. And if the prophecy doesn’t come true, they just say the date was wrong, and push it forward ten years or whatever. No-one needs to worry about all that 2012 stuff. I’m totally certain that in 2013 the world will be just like it is now – screwed up, over-populated, fat and diabetic, medicated to the eyeballs, engaging in endless wars in the Middle East that no-one really understands, and addicted to watching vacuous birds on the telly with far too much time on their hands, but with an admittedly good amount of junk in their trunk. But it won’t be the end of the world. Unless, of course, there is some nut who wants to try and make the prophecy come true, which is probably the only danger to worry about: Some fool who thinks he’s doing right by making something happen. But that’s not some supernatural fulfilment of a prophecy. That’s just a nut on the loose who needs a good kicking and taking out of circulation.

Do you have a karaoke song or what would you sing if I forced you to with a big stick.

Nick: You wouldn’t have to force me. I don’t mind making a fool of myself! I would have to sing the Undertones’ classic Teenage Kicks. Aside from being one of the best songs ever written in the history of music, it would make a good one for Karaoke.

I see you’re now resident of the US in Dallas, Texas how’s that going? What do you miss about ol’ Blighty apart from the rain, the road works, the politicians, Simon Cowell (or did we send him your way) and milky tea?

Nick: Well, I don’t miss the tea, as I can get it right here: Good old British PG Tips! I like my tea hot, full of milk, and three heaped teaspoons of sugar. I can drink tea all day – and do! I like living in the Dallas area. I’ve been here about 12 years, and been coming over since ‘98. But, the heat does sometimes get to me, and yes, I do miss the rain! Cowell? Nah, I couldn’t care less. I don’t miss the pubs because I actually get back to England quite often, so I always meet up with my old mates and we go down the boozer. It’s instantly just like old times, no need for fancy introductions, or group hugs or any such nonsense. Just say “Alright, lads!” hit the town and have a good laugh. Of course, if I didn’t get back often I would miss it. But, getting back a lot means I don’t develop that missing things attitude. I do miss English chocolate though, and also Fish and Chips which is the greatest food on the planet.

To find out more about Nick check out his excellent website and buy his brilliant books!

2 comments:

  1. Hey man...

    http://nickredfernfortean.blogspot.com/2012/07/nicks-pick-of-day-1.html

    Cheers!
    Nick

    ReplyDelete