Notorious for touring heavily, Motörhead are on the road when I speak to the band’s drummer Mickey Dee. He’s on an absolute high, having not long finished a show. Before he gets on the phone, I hear him bragging to the people he’s with about how he had to do an interview ‘with Australia’.

When he finally does come on the line, I ask him how he copes with touring long and hard – and whether there is anything specific that he does to counteract the effects of it. Dee tells me that touring hard is punishing for his body, but that it’s what they do and -more than that – what the band does best. “I do a lot of sports, you know, a lot of hockey and football. And I water-ski and stay active. That’s enough so that when we tour I never really fall out of shape.”

Promotional material for Motörhead’s latest release, Motörizer, states that the album is the most wide-ranging release the band has ever produced. When I run this past Dee, he umms and ahhs, but finally says he doesn’t quite agree. “I don’t think that maybe it’s the widest album. It’s just one of them. It’s got a lot of different types of songs: this album goes in all kinds of directions. The songs remind me of Bastards, not song-wise, but in the range this album seems to have.”

Motörhead are not a band to deliberate too much about what they record, or to take a long time in the process of writing and producing new releases, preferring to do this spontaneously. Motörizer is no exception to this rule of spontaneity – with Mickey Dee telling me that the band likes to capture the moment when they get into writing and recording. “I have to say we’re very fast, so we kind of catch the moment we’re in. If we wanted to do an album today or six months later it would be a very different album. [This one] was just catching the quick moment where we were at the beginning of this year. I used to like to say that an album is a reflection of the past year.”

Metal is currently in a renaissance period, where young kids are starting to discover – and in some cases, rediscover – classic bands and the old masters. These kids are finding and becoming enthusiastic about all genres metal again, which is fantastic for bands like Motörhead. Does Mickey Dee find the same thing? “It’s funny you say that!” he enthuses. “Tonight there were tons of youngsters in the crowd! It’s great to see that we’re picking up another generation, that we’ve got something right and that we’re moving forward with the band. A lot of young kids enjoy what we do.”

But, as he tells me, the band has done more than most in the way of projects that appeal to the younger generation. “We’ve done a lot of stuff that appeals to youngsters too, like Spongebob, so maybe that’s all paying off. And all this stuff we’ve done with skateboarders and surfers. Yeah, people ask whether it’s great that heavy metal and hard rock is coming back. Bullshit! It never left!” he laughs. “It just gets overwhelmed in the media; others get most of the attention. All the bands are pretty much still here.”

Mickey Dee equates the rise in younger generations’ picking up of metal to the fact that metal is more about quality than anything else. “It’s all quality music, you know. You have to be very able and capable to play heavy metal or hard rock or the type we’re talkin’ about. You have to be very good. You can’t get away with being a shitty musician! Quality usually prevails.”

Given that Mickey Dee has been roundly lauded by Lemmy as being the best drummer in the world, you have to take his point – whether you agree with Lemmy or not. As any metal head knows, playing metal isn’t for people who are shit at what they do – especially if they’re drummers. While Dee couldn’t tell me what his favourite track on the release is (due to not having listened to it enough, or played it live enough to sort out a hierarchy of favouritism) he could tell me, with absolute certainty, that he thinks Bastards is their most underrated release.

“It came out on a shit label – they almost buried it! It was good that it was re-released because I think it was a great album. It almost died because of the shit label we had, which was too bad. You know, it’s out there now. But I think that a lot of these records need a little more attention. They are pure and simple and more people should listen to them.”

As Mickey Dee looks back on the history of his career, he tells me that he’s never really surprised or astonished about the fact that he is where he is. He also doesn’t really get sentimental about the past, mainly because he’s really happy with what he’s achieved. “I take care of myself and I always put music first and try to be as good as I am. I think I have my head screwed on right,” he laughs. “And, yes, I’m lucky that I’ve been healthy and can maintain what I do. But it’s not only luck; it’s hard work.”

Given that the band is presently touring to promote Motörizer, I ask the inevitable question: will they be gracing our shores any time soon? “Oh, I hope we can come next year!” enthuses Dee. “We’ve gotta follow through. We can’t leave Australia behind like we did before. Of course, it’s up to promoters to book us, but I think we’ve definitely got to get there next year. I love your country! We always have a blast when we’re there.”

Motörhead’s Motörizer is out now on SPV/Riot.