Room Thirteen talks to Cradle of Filth Guitarist Paul (P) before the penultimate gig of their European tour.

R13: Tonight's the penultimate date of the European tour, how's it been?
P: Good, good, the tours been going very well, there've been some good responses actually cos we haven't played Europe for a couple of years and it's been going really well.

R13: Yeah I was reading the tour diary and you've had quite a few sold out shows including tonight I believe?
P:Yeah exactly, last time we played here we pulled 1300 and it shows the band's getting bigger cos tonight we sold it out and there's more kids wanting to get in so if we wanted we could've moved up to a bigger venue if there was one? But I don't know what's round here?!
R13: Well there's the MEN Arena which is a bit like the NEC, not sure you're quite there yet!
P:haha not quite but we're getting there.

R13: I assume you've been playing a bit of new material from the last album, how's that been received?
P: Going really well, the way the album starts, this is how we open up the set when we play it live. Starts with the intro then we go into 'Gilded' then into 'Nemesis', then we start playing some old songs and it goes down really well.

R13: How do you think the new one compares to older albums?
P: I think it's better myself, personally I'm a big fan of the whole heavy metal thing in general, I don't like to be pigeonholed in a particular style, I like the whole thing so this is what I like about Nymphetamine, it's covered the whole thing and isn't sitting in its own little genre.

R13: Does it annoy you that some people pigeonhole you as purely a noise band when in reality you're much more than that?
P: Totally, the thing is that people keep trying to label us with the black metal label and all they've got to do is listen to Nymphetamine or even Midian or Damnation. Fair enough in the past they may have been able to roughly label us as that but they're still doing it and now it's like 'open your fucking ears!'. We sound nothing like these black metal bands, as far as we're concerned we're just an extreme heavy metal band and that's it. The only pigeonhole we're in is that we're a heavy metal band and that covers a lot of scope.

R13: So Nymphetamine (the song) was nominated for a Grammy?
P:Yeah.

R13: How good is it to receive that kind of recognition?
P: It's strange! Hahaha...

R13: What, because you never expected it?
P: No, a band like us? It's just weird, it's good but the sad thing is that they sent us certificates and medals saying 'Grammy nominees', it's like what the fuck?!
R13: Hahaha so yeah, congratulations you haven't won!
P: Yeah exactly, apparently they just send them out to everyone and our manager's like 'well they're just bloody American'. It's just bizarre that they give you stuff even if you haven't won anything, I just don't understand that at all.

R13: But that aside, was it kind of nice as well?
P: Oh it was amazing yeah, when we first found out I was like 'yeah whatever, somebody's just winding us up' but when we found out properly it was like 'fucking hell!', it's quite surreal actually.

R13: It must make you feel like you're getting somewhere at last though?
P: Oh yeah definitely, especially in America as well you know, coming from the States hopefully it's gonna carry on snowballing.

R13: From what I've read you've got quite an impressive stage show, have you many problems getting it into many of the venues?
P: Some of them yeah, some aren't just high enough or big enough, basically we've got our own stage, own monitors, own PA, own everything so we can just turn up to a blank room and fit it all in. Tonight I don't think we're going to get some of the trapeze stuff in. We've got this really big puppet that comes on which is quite amusing, it's very cool especially when you've got the lights and the smoke going it's quite menacing and it's really cool. It reminds me of the whole Hungarian folklore stuff, like really distorted Punch and Judy, it's basically like that kind of thing.

R13: there's some angle grinding as well is there not?
P:Yeah.
R13: What's the story behind that, in Belgium they wouldn't let you do it?
P: Oh yeah, apparently there's a law in Belgium that if you're using any sort of angle grinder you've got to wear safety goggles so if we do it live, we've got to wear safety goggles, the performers have to wear safety goggles and the audience have to wear safety goggles so it's like 'I don't think we're gonna get away with this one'
R13:That'd be quite amusing though...
P: Yeah, amazing watching the whole audience with safety goggles on!

R13: You've done a cover of Cliff's 'Devil Woman', who's idea was that and how did it go down when first suggested?
P: It went down really well actually when it was first suggested, it was more of a comedy factor but we decided to do it and did three or four attempts at it and they were all bollocks but we thought we'd just give it one more go and see what happens and eventually this one came out alright but it is quite amusing.
R13: Have you played that live at all?
P: Nah! Hahaha!

R13: A few years ago although Dani was the star you all had cameo's in the 'Cradle of Fear' movie with Alex Chandon which became something of a cult classic and I believe he's remixing it
P: Is he? First I've heard of it!

R13: Any future plans for movies?
P:Nah, with Cradle of Fear, it's not our film even though we're in it, to tell you the truth I think we're in it just so Alex could try and push numbers out the door. The whole Cradle of Fear thing, when I first heard the title I was like 'that's a bit close to the mark' do you know what I mean? There's not gonna be another one, acting's not really my thing to tell you the truth.

R13: What about soundtracks then, I think the music lends itself pretty well, either to be used as part of a soundtrack or I see no reason why you couldn't score the whole thing. Is that something you've thought about?
P: We have, but the nature of the way the band is we have spurts of writing and then it stops. That nature of working wouldn't work for writing a whole film score.
R13: Yeah I know what you mean, it'd come out as disjointed.
P: Yeah totally but then we were on Resident Evil, if we've got a song that's already done yeah, of course take it, by all means do it but as for physically writing for something in particular I mean yeah we'd do it, we'd give it a go but the whole nature of the way we write, it comes up in peaks and then dies down and then eventually if you try and put a whole piece together like that it's gonna come out pretty strange.

R13: You're working on a live DVD at the moment, is that just going to be concert footage or is there going to be extra stuff on it?
P: Well, the last one there was an hour and a half of us just acting like a bunch of prats, there's videos on there and a whole live gig and it's pretty much the same with this one. We shot the last two dates of the European tour in Paris so we got a whole film crew out there and had seven or eight cameras shoot over the whole two days for the DVD so we've got that and there's gonna be more behind the scenes stuff. Pretty much the same thing just a few years on!
R13: When's that due for release?
P: Hopefully December.
R13: Just in time for Christmas!
P: Haha yeah...

R13: There's a book as well, is that just going to be a straight biography?
P: No it's a whole history of metal in general, as well as us it also goes on a tangent with other bands and has quotes with Anton Nevay (?) and it's like one of those big thick coffee table type of books. It goes over the whole band history, then goes on to talk about other bands, it's more of a factual thing about the whole horror thing based around this type of music.

R13: Back in the 90's there was actually an album recorded that was wiped out by the studio because the company wouldn't pay?
P: Oh god, that was called Goetia that was on a small independent and it was like 'oh yeah we'll give you an album blah blah blah' and when it was recorded they just disappeared! Haha This was in between demos, they just said we're sorry guys we can't pay for it and they just got rid of it.
R13: So did any of that resurface?
P: No, but then it was a slightly different type of music.
R13: You didn't manage to sneak a copy out then?
P: No! Hahaha...

R13: Last one then, ever thought of doing a Cradle of Filth unplugged?!
P: Unplugged?! What on acoustics? Haha Oh that would sound really bad, really, really bad so no! Haha
R13: Haha, simple answer! Well thanks for your time and have a good show.
P: Yeah, cheers.

Cradle of Filth's latest album 'Nymphetamine' is out now.