MK Magazine Interviews

CRADLE OF FILTH

An Interview with Cradle of Filth's Dani Filth by Moe Wyoming

From the minute you hear the voice, there's no question who it is: Dani Filth. The only man who possesses a shrill enough voice that's harsh enough to send even Satan running scared with his tail between his legs. Talking with Dani, he shows he's got a sense of humor as sharp as the style of music he makes.

Cradle of Filth has risen among the ranks of black metal's elite, and upon signing with record big boys, Sony, found themselves clearly on top. But certainly they deserve it, their prior works are testament to it. From the assault that was Principles of Evil Made Flesh, CoF moved to the more dark and sinister Vempire, an album that prophesized the impending mayhem their coming albums would bring forth. That sweet carnage would be clearly seen on the eloquently crafted Dusk and Her Embrace. From there they ventured towards a concept album of sorts, Cruelty and the Beast, an ode to Countess Elizabeth Bathory, and of course, Midian, inspired by a Clive Barker tale of the Tribes of the Moon. Throw in two EP's, a DVD and a new double best-of CD, CoF boasts quite an impressive resume.

CoF has battled through constant lineup changes, but there's been no loss of blood for these creatures of the night. It continues to flow into fresh ideas and new projects. Dani enjoyed making his first movie, Cradle of Fear, with director Alex Chandon, a twisted, gore-fest of brutality. With an upcoming album, CoF may well just leave some Sony folks with shaky knees, wondering just what the hell just bit them.

Moe Wyoming: From the times I’ve seen you live in concert and on video I’ve noticed you’re a very aggressive entertainer. Where does that come from?

Dani Filth: Wow…I’m now adrift to think (laughs). Well, I think when you walk onto a stage and the adrenaline kicks in I think it kind of takes over your personality. The more aggressive side of a person comes out. Not to say that there’s two different sides, like there’s Dani Filth and then me as a person normally. But, I think it just goes the same with anybody put into that position. We are an aggressive band and I think that you have to give it your all. Especially when people are coming to see you play the music they’ve come to like or maybe even love. I think you have to put it across in a way that is deserving of their attention.

MW: You also like to interact with the audience a lot and get them pumped up and into the show. Have there been instances where the crowd isn’t as into it as you would have liked them to be, so you have to push them a little more?

DF: Yeah, sure. Not so much in our own shows, but on festivals, sometimes that kind of backfires. One prior instance in Greece supporting Judas Priest, because they’re massive over there, it was about 50,000 people, it was huge! It was really hot as well, some of the hottest days of the year. Greece is on epic, olympian proportions and to try and excite them I stupidly mentioned the football result. Somebody threw something, as they’re prone to do, something whizzed past my head and I said something about no wonder England had beaten them at football because their aim was that bad. Instantly, there was a hailstorm of bottles, plastic water bottles being hurled at the stage. Hundreds upon hundreds of them and it injured our guitarist. It fractured his wrist, and our drummer, they did something to him as well. They weren’t able to move out of the way. It was amusing, if not dangerous. But it was funny to find out that after we performed there was a record amount of dehydration casualties, people being rushed to the hospital because they chucked away their only source of substance! (laughs)

MW: I remember the first time you guys played here in Chicago, back in 1997 or 1998. I was at that show and for some reason the crowd was really dead there, and you let them know! I remember when the band came back for the encore you said, “You’re all still here? This room stinks of rotting Christian flesh!” But I liked that (laughs).

DF: I think people, especially now that they’re seeing the DVD, realize that there’s a lot of sarcasm (laughs). If things like that are said it’s not aimed at any one person in particular. Because music isn’t tongue-in-cheek, but sometimes I feel that the performance can be in regards to interaction.

MW: Your voice is very unique. I’ve never heard a voice like that before. Is it ever a strain on your vocal chords? How do you take care of it?

DF: No, it’s not. It’s not as sore now because I went for training. Not to sing, but to not lose it. It’s just a lot of warming up and watching what you smoke. I’m actually on my fourth mission to stop smoking. I think I’m on day 11. Definitely, I know I’m on day 11 (laughs).

MW: On your DVD you have the “Scorched Earth Erotica” and the “Born In a Burial Gown” videos, I thought both of those were really cool. But, “Born In a Burial Gown” was filmed on haunted circus grounds?
DF: Yeah, a deserted one that was apparently haunted.

MW: Why did you pick there?

DF: Why? Well, the people that shot the video, the production crew, had done their homework and found this place. The reason being is because it was kind of locale and they knew the people that owned it. The guy who produced it was actually sort of a vermin-y, gypsy type, himself, and was in that sort of business. So his family knew their family. Also, because the floor of the circus could be lowered and raised to fill water. Which was kind of unique and something we wanted to do for the scene, well we did it backwards, where the room fills up with water.

MW: Was there anything weird going on there?

DF: Lots of weird things going on, but it think it’s mainly due to nights of debauchery, getting drunk after the shooting, throwing ourselves in the sea in our clothes and stuff…

MW: (laughs) and the video from “Scorched Earth Erotica” had clips of you from Cradle of Fear in it. How was it for you, making a movie for the first time?

DF: Oh, it was great fun. It was a project between myself and Alex Chandon, the guy responsible for it. In fact there’s talk at the moment, he’s going to Cannes next week, to see if somebody can finance the second one.

MW: Oh, so there’s going to be a sequel?

DF: Well that’s the plan, yeah. We’ve got pretty much the ideas for it. We’re going to shoot in England and Italy. We have friends out there who have perfect locations and stuff like that and put things at our disposal that we need. So he’s just going to see if he can raise some money, or raise something at least when he goes over there to the film festival. But it was great. It started off as a little project and turned into something far bigger. It was just good fun. I think when you watch it you’ll realize that everybody had a great time doing it.

MW: You also had some of your other band members in there?

DF: That’s right, yeah; in various gruesome and grisly cameos. It’s a brutal film, definitely one of the goriest films ever made. They actually passed it uncut here in England…

MW: Oh, very cool!

DF: Well, yes and no. Yes, in the fact that great, everybody can see it in full glory. But no in the fact that it seems like somewhere along the line someone failed dismally (laughs).

MW: So you can you give us a bit about the storyline? What’s it about?

DF: It’s almost like a homage to those 80’s horror affairs where you get an anthology of small stories like Pulp Fiction, Tales From the Crypt, something like that. So you have a main tale of a serial killer who is incarcerated at an asylum in London and he’s using his man on the outside, who is me, to reap revenge against the people who put him in prison. Subsequently, that involves all four stories. It’s good. It’s quite psychologically disturbing as well as graphic. And it’s funny as well. There’s a lot of humor in there. Perhaps that’s why the BBFC, which is the censorship board here, decided to pass it uncut because it’s much in the vain of Peter Jackson’s Brain Dead or Bad Taste. It’s just got an element of black humor to it.

MW: Also on the DVD you have your “Blair Twit Project”…

DF: (laughs) Yeah, that wasn’t our choice of putting that on there. It was labeled that, obviously, because of the way it looked. It was actually discovered by the guy when we gave him our tapes. At the time I believe we were on tour, either in America or the Slayer tour we did with them whatever it was called, Tattoo the Planet. And he came back and he proudly showed us this and I was like, “Oh no! this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen and if anybody else sees it I might as well just hang myself.” We sort of consented to it in the end because we realized we looked complete idiots. But it wasn’t up to us to decide who should see us the complete idiots.

MW: Yeah, but that was a lot of fun. As well as your documentary, or “Shlockumentary” as you called it.

DF: Yeah, that’s my favorite thing just because it was kind of lovingly put together. The thing was, none of it was contrived which I like as well. There’s a lot of drunken stuff. The people, ok, they’re not particularly acting how they should be. But it hasn’t got that sort of playing up to the camera that “In Bed with Madonna” would have. Where people know they’re on film so they’re just turning it all on. All of it is sort of just circumstantial stuff, or stuff where all sort of apathy towards the camera is gone completely out the window. You don’t care if it’s there or not. That’s why it stands up as a different side of the band. It’s humorous, again. If it was all (makes evil, low-pitched grumble noises) talk and blah-blah this and blah-blah that, I don’t think it would hold interest, but it does.

MW: Who came up with the initial idea for the video, to put everything together?

DF: I can’t remember. It was one of those things where it was just suggestive. We took out five months. When we left our previous record company, because our term of contract was over, we decided to be free agents for a little while whilst we were looking for another one. Since then we’ve signed to Sony Records, well Epic here in England. It was quite a major deal and we took a while to shop around. In the meantime we put out this sort of extra-length EP called Bitter Suites to Succubi, and the DVD was part of that package. Which was good because we weren’t under real pressure from anyone. It was sort of an open contract, do this, do that, do it any bloody which way you want to. So it was kind of fun. Like all things it started as a small idea and it stretches from there. Our guitarist, Paul, was actually responsible for the title sequences as well, the sort of stop motion when you go to the menu and you get the whole loop of DVD action. Yeah, that was all our guitarist that did that. As with everything, we just wanted to provide the audience with something that was well worth every penny. It comes in at about two and three-quarter hours.

MW: Yeah, I was surprised it was that long. That’s a good thing, though. But I’m curious as to how you’ve seen the band evolve from Principles of Evil Made Flesh up till now? You have the elaborate shows, the DVD, was this a goal you wanted to work towards?

DF: Obviously, yeah of course it was. But how can anyone foresee the arrival of DVD anyway? But of course there was something we wanted to strive towards. Back then it was hard, we didn’t have any money and the same ‘ol, same ‘ol where you have to stick at something. Now it’s a lot easier, but in some respects more difficult because we put ourselves in a position where we have to deliver. When you’ve got no expectations you can surprise people. Now the expectations are piled on. So you’ve got to be that much more, not only sincere, but clever with it. I think now that we have a kind of freedom and budget to do stuff it’s more enjoyable in a way, because you can’t fully realize the ideas that we would have had back then. I mean we had loads of ideas back then, we wanted to do this and we wanted to do that. But it’s about financial predicaments and such. I’m hoping this deal with Sony will provide us with the means to move onwards and upwards. We have plans. We always have lots of plans. At time it seems like it’s a race to fully realize them before, I don’t know, Armageddon happens or our last fan slips away.

MW: Since you mentioned the deal with Sony, I heard that the deal was only in Europe?

DF: No, that’s not true, it’s a worldwide deal. It’s Epic Records who we signed to in Europe, but it translates as Sony worldwide. We’re very pleased about it. We’ve actually been signed to them now since last June (laughs). As it stands at the moment, we play the Ozzfest at Donington in about three weeks at the end of this month. About the beginning of July is when we go in and start recording the new album. It’s a little frightening because we haven’t completed everything. We’re about 80% there.

MW: I don’t know how much you know about the Ozzfests that go on over here in the States but they seem so different. I’d love to see one in Europe because the ones over here kind of suck.

DF: Well we were offered one before Christmas. We were offered one for the summer as well. But unfortunately that’s not how things are going to be. We were prone to agree but the record label just said “no we can’t put the money up for you.” These are 10-week stints, and as I mentioned we’ve been signed since last June and they want an album and that’s it. Album, album, don’t want to hear anything else. It was hard enough to get them to allow us to do Donington. But I really didn’t have much to the say. But I can see their point, putting us on 10 weeks, when in that 10 weeks we could’ve written half the album.

MW: Well I know you do a lot of festivals…

DF: None this year! (laughs)

MW: You’ve done the Milwaukee Metalfest up here, twice. I saw you both times, the first with Venom and the second…

DF: The second, the sound was bloody awful. I watched The Misfits the night before and spoke with them and they had the same problem. It was just a shitty, shitty PA. Jock Koshick changed the venue, I don’t believe it was his fault. It was something to do with some prat governor of Wisconsin. So if you were going to say it was terrible, (laughs) I was just trying to explain it away quickly.

MW: No, I just recall you saying that you were not doing any more Metalfests. Did you have a bad experience or just tired of it?

DF: That’s not necessarily true. Not being demeaning to the guy, because you’ve got someone who puts on such a legendary festival year in and year out. People would moan, but then people would moan more if it didn’t happen. My only gripe is that it’s like quantity over quality. There’s so many bands playing, but it’s a bit of confusion and people don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think enough attention is provided, not to how the bands are treated because bands are pretty resilient people, I’m talking about things like i.e. the PA and the venue. I remember the Venom show, I remember watching Venom thinking, “what the fuck’s going on?” because it just echoed and I thought, “this is such a shitty venue.”

MW: Over the years your band had a lot of lineup changes, with Nick, Damien and Lecter leaving. How confident are you in the lineup now that you guys have a really good thing going?

DF: Well, we just know so. For example when Robin left we thought, “well what was that about?” There really was no reason, he just got to a stage where he felt he wanted to change. No, it was more reasons than that, but none of them were band orientated. So who knows? In a years time somebody might turn around say, “you know what? I want to be an accountant.” So you just don’t know. As much as music goes, it’s a very strong lineup, extremely strong. The new album will be testament to that fact.

MW: Excellent! I’ll look forward to it. Now, how do you feel Cradle of Filth has contributed to the metal and black metal scene?

DF: I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m qualified to talk on that subject. It’s very hard to take a step back and then analyze your stuff. That’s when things become a bit conceited. I don’t like talking about stuff like that. If I was pushed…(laughs) A few people have already had gripes with the fact that we’ve signed to a major. You know, “sell out,” or “the next album is going to sound like Oasis.” I think, and this just is just an example, the next album is obviously on a major, but what it’s going to do is not only allow us to fulfill and further our creativity. But it’s going to further the whole scene. It’s much in the way the trash boom happened. I’m making it sound like the baby-boomer 50’s here, the “trash boom.” But people were signed up like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, you had the forerunners of the scene. They were signed up by bigger labels

Slayer is a prime example on Def jam. When all the other labels are interested, “oh wow, so-and-so signed this and this,” other bands rise and the scene kind of gets pulled up a gear. What I’m trying to get at is I think this little move to Sony will improve the scene, because other bands will make it with opportunity. There’ll be more money there, more shows, more bands. It can only be a good thing, unless of course you are one of those people living on the mountainside in the middle of Norway growling at things.

MW: So do you have any insight as to why metal is so much bigger in Europe than it is in the States?

DF: I don’t know. I was always under the impression that America had this massive rock scene, but it seems to be this massive divide! You’ve got your stadium rock, which Metallica have become a part of, and the Kid Rock’s and Limp Bizkit’s, it was always like that. Then you have bands like Deicide and that, and you’d have this massive gulf in between, no middle ground. Perhaps bands like Slipknot have sort of filled that middle ground in a little bit. But it’s such a vast country, that’s one of the things, you know? A lot of Europe has got very, very poor taste (laughs). You’ll find that a festival still pays some place to host Doro Pesch and Manowar and stuff that you thought was dead. But it’s a good thing. It is a good thing. If it wasn’t for the bad taste of the Europeans (laughs) we wouldn’t be on the subject that we are.

MW: But it seems that the corporates here are intimidated, or they think it’s too dangerous to mass market metal, yet they have no problem with rap music, which can have very violent lyrics. I don’t get it.

DF: I’ve got no idea. I wish I had the answers to that so then I could help. I could help the whole scene out as kind of a musical messiah (laughs). But I don’t know. It’s obvious that’s part of the problem.

MW: Cool, is there anything else you’d like to add, Dani?

DF: Well, I mentioned that we’ve got a “best of” coming out. Which is a lot of Music for Nations years. So it’s from Dusk and Her Embrace, Cruelty and the Beast, From the Cradle to Enslave and Midian, as a double CD. It’s got really lavish packaging, a pullout poster, double CD like I said and the artwork is unreal. Obviously, the first CD is just an amount of stuff from those aforementioned albums. But disc 2 is like remixes and stuff that’s been on import CD’s, rehearsal stuff. Disc 2 is the stuff that collectors will want. There’s good stuff that I know hasn’t been released in America and there’s 3 tracks that I know haven’t been released anywhere. There’s remixes of some tracks, I think “Amor E Morte,” which is about another 30 seconds longer than the one that is on the album because it’s got the original big, spooky middle piece. “13 Autumns” with the proper drum sound on it sounds really vicious. Then, “Of Dark Blood and Fucking,” as well has a stripped down, beefier mix. So that’s good. Each disc is about 75 minutes, I think. But that’s just coming out anyway. It was inevitable with the record company once we left them would do something like this. But we just made sure we had a hand in doing it. It was an interesting package. It wasn’t something that was just thrown together for the sake of making money.

MW: Cool, I’ll look forward to that as well! Thanks for your time.

Posted by Alex Zander at November 1, 2003 12:00 AM