Cradle of Filth - Storm Before and After the Calm Part I
By: Mike Sloan
There seems to be no shortage of ideas or work that needs to be done when it comes to everything Cradle of Filth. The band has been around close to two decades and any fan of the band is usually always pleased thanks in large part to how much material the British group has to offer. Whether it’s one of their sensational full length albums, a bonus-laden EP, some sort of movie/video or while busting their arses on the road, Cradle of Filth, in particular its mastermind Dani Filth, is one of the hardest working bunch of musicians on the planet.
Fresh off the release of their fantastic EP/DVD Evermore Darkly late last year, Dani Filth was kind enough to take a break from his usual busy schedule to chat with Blistering.com to catch up on what is in store for the band. Currently putting the finishing touches on their next release, an orchestral album based on their first four releases entitled Midnight in the Labyrinth, Filth chatted candidly about last year’s Evermore Darkly, the rigors of touring, getting pummeled by a bunch of French blokes and how if given the chance, he’d shag a certain Hollywood starlet.
Blistering.com: First off, how are you today and what are you currently doing, aside from this interview?
Dani Filth: Right now I’m in the studio putting some fairy dust on one of the songs that’s going to be on our instrumental album. Well, orchestral album, really; not instrumental.
Blistering.com: How is that album coming along?
Filth: It’s really great. It’s kind of magical because it’s a quite a departure from being in the studio with the usual full-on heavy metal attack. It’s a full cinematic orchestration. At the moment I’m putting on certain sound effects and strange timings. I’m putting a narrative in there as well. It’s really kind of a fun part [to do]. It’s going to be amazing when it’s finished. It really is.
Blistering.com: Before we go any further with this, you’ve done hundreds or thousands of interviews over the years. I assume that there has to be a breaking point with the monotonous questions you get asked. Is there anything that makes you cringe during these interviews when you know “that question” is coming? Is there something you’re just sick and tired of talking about that’s always asked? I want to make sure I ask those questions.
Filth: [Laughs] Well, I take it as it is, really. It’s part of the job. But the one that bugs me the most is when we’re doing a new album and the reporter wants a track-by-track description. It’s like [groans], read the lyrics [laughs again].
Blistering.com: Speaking of your lyrics, whenever I read what you’ve written it blows me away with your phrases and the choice of words. They always flow so smoothly yet they are complex. On average, how long does it take you write one of your song’s lyrics? Is it a painstaking process or does it often come naturally to you? Does it take days, weeks, a couple hours?
Filth: It definitely doesn’t take only a couple of hours because it’s not just about the lyrics; there’s the timing as well. And when we’re writing a concept record, it’s harder to make a proper, lone song without too many lyrics in it and make it a story and fit the words and ambience in it, to fit with the rest of the songs. It’s a challenge for it to make sense as a whole as well as individually song-wise, so that’s pretty tricky. But I don’t know; sometimes songs come together [quickly], other times it takes quite a while. And sometimes it’s not just about the lyricism; sometimes the song itself can be quite a challenge to adapt to the, you know, la-la-la’s.
Blistering.com: Cradle of Filth recently released the new EP/DVD Evermore Darkly. I enjoyed it but overall, are you 100% satisfied with the finished product?
Filth: Well, the whole thing about the EP itself was that it was never intended to be a stand-alone DVD or EP. Well, at first it was supposed to be a stand-alone DVD with the new video for “Lilith Immaculate” and the hour-long documentary we did when we toured all over Russia and Europe. Then we added the Graspop footage. Somewhere along the line it turned into an opportunity to make it a real fan-friendly package. We decided to finish a track off the sessions of Darkly, Darkly Venus Aversa, which was “Thank Your Lucky Stars.” It was about 75% finished when we were in the studios and we kind of outdid ourselves with that last one. Finally we had to relinquish the fact that we just weren’t going to finish it and we couldn’t fit all 17 songs [on Darkly…]. We decided we’ll just finish it off later, which we did. We got quite a bit of fan reaction from the demo of the song and they liked it because it had this sort raw feel to it. So we decided to add that song with the three (alternate) mixes plus the lead orchestral track for our new orchestral record. It all just got put together kind of as an amalgam of ideas and it serves as a bridge between the mothership album for which it belongs – Darkly, Darkly Venus Aversa – and our forthcoming [proper] album which will be [fall 2012]. The time for the release of the EP/DVD was perfect, with it being Halloween and all.
Blistering.com: What was the biggest challenge for you guys in doing this DVD in terms of gathering all of the footage and editing compared to the other DVD and movies you’ve done?
Filth: Well, it wasn’t really too bad because we had quite a bit of time to sort of assimilate all the stuff between the summer festivals. That’s mainly what we had been doing since April. We went to India, to Russia, and of course the full-on South America/North America/Canadian tours beginning the year. It was just a case of sorting things out, really, on weekends and things like that.
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