MICHAEL MONROE Interviewed By VADO TV

Tawnee Kendall from Vado TV conducted a short interview with former HANOI ROCKS frontman Michael Monroe at this year's South By Southwest (SXSW) music conference and film festival, which was held earlier this month in Austin, Texas. Watch the chat below.

Guitarist Todd Youth (DANZIG, MOTÖRHEAD, GLEN CAMPBELL, SAMHAIN, D GENERATION, CHELSEA SMILES) and drummer Jimmy Clark (Deborah Harry, JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, GLEN BURTNICK, RICK DERRINGER, WYNONNA, BLACKHAWK, THE VAN ZANT BROTHERS, DEMOLITION 23) recently left Michael Monroe's new solo band and were replaced by Steve Conte (NEW YORK DOLLS) and Karl Rockfist (CHELSEA SMILES, DANZIG), respectively.

Commented Monroe: "Um... er... y'see, you've misunderstood — it wasn't the guitar player from CHELSEA SMILES and DANZIG that joined us, but the drummer and... nah, just kidding!

"As it turned out, Todd Youth decided to join Ace Frehley's band instead of sticking with us, so we replaced him with the great Steve Conte. Also, Jimmy Clark had commitments he could not get out of in order to commit to this 100%, so we got the rock-solid Karl Rockfist on drums instead.

"These changes are definitely not a bad thing at all. We have a great spirit within the band and the sound is just getting tighter and better at every show."

A lengthy recap of Monroe's recent mini-tour of the U.S. can be found on his MySpace blog.

Michael Monroe's band is completed by bassist Sami Yaffa who has played with a remarkable variety of bands including HANOI ROCKS, NEW YORK DOLLS and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, and guitarist Ginger who has dazzled audiences over the world with his band THE WILDHEARTS.

Michael Monroe and his band are set to enter the studio in the spring to record a new album for a fall release.