Cradle
Of Filth
Well, this actually
was my second interview that I did through phone and I was very anxious.
Thanks god, though, Paul of Cradle Of Filth was a very nice person and
was willing to answer to all of my questions. I believe that when you read
the text below you will understand that it was more a friendly chat than
an interview. Anyway, I hope to enjoy reading it and help you learn few
things more about CRADLE OF FILTH, one of the most succesfull Black Metal
bands around the world...
1. FIRST OF ALL I'D LIKE TO CONGRATULATE YOUFOR
THE GREAT CRADLE OF FILTH SITE
- I THINK YOU'RE THE DESIGNER TOGETHER WITH DAVE.
- SO HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO KEEP IT UPDATED AND
ALSO DEAL WITH THE BAND?
-
With great difficulty! There's a guy in america
where we upload everything we want to put onto our site. He helps us a
lot you see, because we basically don't have time to upload stuff ourselves.
So we basically send stuff to him and tell him what we want which region
.....
2. I READ THAT DAVE WON'T BE TOURING WITH YOU
AT THIS MOMENT
- CAN YOU TELL ME WHY, WHATS THE PROBLEM?
-
No problem, really. He wants a break, he's got
some personal problems and stuff you know. It's nothing to do with the
band or anything. It's personal stuff and we said "ok, fair enough, don't
come to tour this time and we'll start again when we come back from tour"
.
- I SEE. DO YOU HAVE A REPLACEMENT?
-
Yeah. Just a friend of ours. Not from another
band or anything.
3.OK, SO WE'RE WAITING FOR YOU IN GREECE NOW AND
I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WOULD HAVE TOGETHER WITH YOU YOUR USUAL STAGE SHOW
WITH THE GIRLS.
- WE'LL BE WAITING FOR THAT!
- WILL THERE BE ANY SURPRISES IN THE SETLIST?
-
We'll be playing a completely different set. We've
got so many songs that we haven't played before.
4.OK, THAT'S VERY GREAT NEWS! NOW...I SEE YOU
HAVE A SPECIAL EDITION FOR THE NYMPHETAMINE ALBUM COMING AND I WOULD LIKETO
HEAR SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
-
Basically, its got....The reason we are releasing
the special edition was because we had some extra tracks left over that
we recorded for Nymphetamine. We basically run out of room, we couldn't
fit them in the cd, so instead of just releasing another cd, just because
you know, what we decided to do was this special edition of Nymphetamine.
- THAT'S BETTER OF
COURSE.
-
Yes. So therefore you will get a double cd. All
the artwork's been redone. The covers are completely redone and there's
a double gatefold disk, two cds, a digipack disk thing. It looks amazing,
it really does.
5. I THINK YOU ARE DOING THE ARTWORK YOURSELF?
- BECAUSE I SEE YOU DO SOME ARTWORK YOURSELF ANDI
WAS WONDERING IF YOU EVER WORKED FOR ANY BANDS OR IF IT'S IN YOUR PLANS?
-
No, but I would like to one day though! I 've
never done anything for anyone else of this sort besides Cradle Of Filth.
I mean I'm doing something for our upcoming dvd as well.
- WHAT'S THAT LIKE?
-
Uh, different! (laughs) Have you seen "Heavy,
Left-Handed and Candid"?
- AH, YES I HAVE.
-
It's basically that sort of thing. We're recording
a show on this tour to put on the dvd and on tour I am editing the behind
the scenes footage and also I'm doing the mini pages at the moment as well.
6. I THINK YOU HAVE A MR. CROWLEY COVER VERSION
FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION.
-
Yes, we do. We have "Mr Crowley" on there, we
have "Devil Woman" by Cliff Richards, uh...we have Bathory's "Bestial Lust".
There's two brand new tracks on there as well which is completely different
stuff for us. We're testing, we're experimenting to see whether our fans
will like it or not. The second disc is like a collection of completely
different stuff that we haven't done before.
- I HAD HEARD THAT OZZY OSBOURNE HIMSELF WOULD
SING ON THAT COVER. WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT?
-
Basically it got leaked to the press before it
should have been and Ozzy didn't like it very much and he refused to sing
with it.
- THAT'S SUPERSTARS
FOR YOU.
7. IS IT TRUE THAT MOONSPELL WILL BE SUPPORTINGYOU
ON SOME SHOWS?
-
Yeah, we got Moonspell on the whole tour.
- YOU KNOW, SOME YEARS AGO IN SOME MAGAZINES IHAVE
READ SOME NOT VERY GOOD COMMENTS BY MOONSPELL FOR CRADLE OF FILTH AND I
WAS WONDERING WHAT ARE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN YOU.
-
It's not bad as far as I am aware! (laughs) I
don't know of any...on the tour all the way the relationship is fine.
8. OK. CRADLE OF FILTH HAVE HAD A LOT OF MEMBER
CHANGES AND I THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS LEFT AND REJOINED THE
BAND. CAN YOU TELL ME THE WHOLE STORY?
-
Basically, what happened was...when I was working,
I hadn't spoken to Dani for years and...it must have been about four years,
then out of the blue, all of a sudden I get a phone call and it was from
Dani asking me to come back to the band. I didn't say yes straight away
because I wanted to see and make sure that all the problems that were there
when I left, I wanted to make sure that those problems were not there still.
It was left with no answer for about three months.
- WHAT MADE YOU SAY YES IN THE END?
-
Everyone's attitude had seemed to have changed.
It seemed to be at that right tune towards the way the band had been worked,
you know.
9. I THINK THAT BESIDES BLOOD DIVINE WHICH
WE KNOW SOME STUFF FROM, I READ THAT YOU HAD A PRIMARY SLAVE BAND AS WELL
BUT I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT, CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME INFORMATION?
-
It was quite experimental. It was a mixture we
used so much stuff like Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory...we had like
hardcore and techno samples into the music We were actually good and before
ehm Fear Factory came out... No, I tell a lie, no...which band was it.
There was one band that came out (note: maybe he means Slipknot?) you know
like the bands that come out now that have samples and everything else.
We were doing that before all that stuff came out.
10.OK, ANOTHER STRANGE QUESTION IS...I READ ON
YOUR WEBSITE THAT ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINKS IS HOBGOBLIN ALE. WHAT THE
FUCK IS THAT??
-
(laughs) It's ale! Very strong flavor. Really,
really nice.
- IT REALLY HAS THAT NAME?
-
Yeah. I'll try to bring a bottle over!
11. GREAT! OK...I THINK YOU HAD PLANS TO WORK
WITH DIAMANDA GALAS IN THE PAST. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT
THIS.
-
Yeah I do but I don't know what happened and why
with that
12. SO, NOW WITH YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUM "DAMNATION
AND A DAY", YOU HAD AN ORCHESTRA, A MAJOR RECORD LABEL AND IT SEEMED TO
BE THAT IT WAS A VERY AMBITIOUS ALBUM. IT SEEMED THAT YOU HAD A LOT OF
EXPECTATIONS FOR IT. WHAT DO YOU THINK NOW, AFTER A FEW YEARS, DO YOU THINK
THOSE AMBITIONS ARE FULFILLED OR DO YOU HAVE SOME COMPLAINTS?
-
You can never fulfill your ambitions...I mean
our ambition was fulfilled at the time but now we got different ambitions
for the new album as we had with "Nymphetamine", we had different ambitions
for that as well which were fulfilled and now when we look back we wonder
what we could change, you know what I mean. I don't think you ever ever
fulfill your ambitions.
13. NOW, YOU STILL HAVE PROBLEMS WITH T-SHIRT
DESIGNS. IS THAT TRUE?
- WHO'S BEHIND THOSE DESIGNS?
-
Ah, it's myself and Dani. Dani comes up with the
slogans and I do the artwork basically.
14. YOUR NEW ALBUM I THINK IS THE MOST DIFFERENT
MUSICALLY FROM PAST CRADLE OF FILTH. DO YOU SEE THAT? I THINK IT'S MORE
HEAVY METAL THAN BLACK METAL.
-
There's nothing wrong with that at all.
- NO, OF COURSE NOT. BUT I WAS WONDERING IF THAT'S
A NEW DIRECTION.
-
Of course, yeah. I mean we didn't really purposefully
decide we wanted to go in that direction. We didn't make a conscious effort.
It just happened, you know. When you listen to "Nymphetamine", it's an
album, a collection of some amazing songs you know. So, I think the new
stuff will be more like Nymphetamine. We haven't been purposefully going
for that direction but it's just the way it naturally happened. The newest
stuff, we got a couple of new songs on the go, it sounds more like Nymphetamine.
- I SUPPOSE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY VERY SPECIFIC FUTURE
PLANS FOR CRADLE OF FILTH THEN.
-
Not really. Just go in the studio, and touring
and get this bloody dvd finished.
15. OK, SOME WEIRD QUESTIONS NOW. IF YOUR
MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING WHAT WOULD
IT SHOW?
-
Ah...first of all if it was an emotion...it would
be a mixture of...let me think. It'd be half stressful and I reckon it
would be ...god, that's a hard one. The stressful side of it is definite...there'd
be a little bit of anger thrown in this and...a lot of anger actually!
And...if it was a painting... depends what song you're listening to! If
you're listening to "Mother Of Abominations" the painting would just be
black.
16. IF YOU COULD BE ANOTHER PERSON FOR A DAY WHO
WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHICH PERIOD OF HIS LIFE YOU'D LIKE TO GET A TASTE
OF?
-
Uhm...I think....it'd have to be a Japanese emperor.
Any particular one during ....not Ming dynasty. I think it'd have to be
in medieval Japan when all the samurais and the ninjas were at war.
17. VERY INTERESTING! SO...WHAT'S THE BEST AND
WHAT'S THE WORST PART OF YOUR MUSIC ACCORDING TO YOU?
-
Well, the worst part of our music is when we're
not playing.
- YOU LIKE PLAYING
LIVE RIGHT?
18. WELL THAT'S IT. PAUL I HAVE NOTHING ELSE.IF
YOU WANT TO ADD SOMETHING OR GIVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS...
-
I can't wait to come over for the gig, I'm really
looking forward to it. We've got a wholly different set to play. We have
a couple of old songs there obviously...
- I HOPE YOU PLAY "LORD ABORTION".
-
That's not on there! We're playing "Thirteen Autumns
And A Widow"
- I THINK THAT'S A RARE ONE!
-
It is a rare one. And also we get to play "Mother
Of Abominations" live as well. The set at the moment is pretty damn heavy.
- WE'LL BE WAITING
FOR THAT.
- OK, THANK YOU VERY MUCH PAUL.
Paschalis "Elfstone"
Mirmigkakis
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