My Dying Bride
TM - Hi, this is Amelia and Elizabeth and we are here with Andrew from My Dying Bride Thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
AW - Thank you.
TM - You are bringing out your new album 'A Mortal Binding' What can fans expect?
AW - I think they are going to be surprised at the ferocity we have been known for many years. As being dark and ambient we are known as doom metal but this is one of our most straightforward heavy metal albums. It is still doom in a My Dying Bride way but we deliberately try to write riffs instead of long passages of cords and harmonies. We have tried to write an album with riffs and movement as opposed to the deep eclectic Darkness that the 'The Ghost of Orion' was. It is more straightforward and there are no session musicians or female vocals it's just guitar, keyboard, violin and vocals it is very much heavy metal.
TM - What made you want to change your style of music this time?
AW - What happens with us as we look at the last record which was 'The Ghost of Orion' we look at how that was shaped and formed And we thought we couldn't do that. I was writing riffs that were heavy metal and I was taking them to the band and I was like I'm not sure about this what do you think and they said that's fine, we can use that. They started to be chunky and more powerful riffs and when we were building the song 'The Apocalyptist' we thought you know what let's just do this let's not be ambient dark and eclectic let's just be in your face just for one album. Our version of In Your Face is not Slayer or anything a bit more forth rife with the riffs and the way it's played and still makes it doom metal as best we can. I was trying to avoid doing 'The Ghost of Orion' again which was tricky and also to stay as My Dying Bride as well.
TM - What was your writing and recording process?
AW - I do most of my rehearsal and preparation in my studio. Once I developed maybe two or three ideas, I will take them to rehearsal with the rest of the guys and we make sure they are usable if they are not we change them, enhance them or add harmonies. We took more than 18 months to get this right. We all work as well, we all have normal jobs like normal people so the recording side was very fragmented and very professional. We might have three days in the studio, then have four days off and then go for one day and have two days off. We didn't spend a lot of time collectively in the recording studio but when we did it was great fun because we like each other.
TM - How did you come up with your album cover and is there a meaning behind it?
AW - The album cover was done by a guy called Roberto. He did the last ep we did called 'Macabre Cabaret' and he was given the album lyrics the song titles and the album title and he was left with the idea of trying to decipher that knowing it's My Dying Bride. He came up with a cover to match and I am going to leave it to him to tell everyone how he came up with the idea.
TM - How did you come up with the Video for 'The 2nd of Three Bells'?
AW - The idea was we would do a band performance for the video everyone gets to see the band in full Glory and we found a mansion in Manchester called Antwerp Mansion. It is reportedly haunted which we liked and you can understand why when you get there. We thought we would do the recording as professionally as possible and we brought in a girl called Jen who did Aerial Silk that fit in with the storyline of Our Song. She was an entity that was drawing you away from your body so she almost died herself but with the time we thought, we got the balance right. I thought these shots we got of the band playing were excellent. I think conjured up something worth watching.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be, what song would it be and would it be in your style or their style?
AW - I would get Slayer to play something in their style maybe 'The Cry of Mankind'.
TM - What was the first ever band or artists you saw live as a kid and did it inspire you to play music?
AW - I saw KISS in 1986 and it was on the Lick It Up tour. The actual venue is now a car park in Leeds it didn't inspire me to play because by that time I had already decided I had to be in a band. Suddenly you find yourself in a place where everyone in a venue is there for the same reason, everyone is just like you and happy to help you if you fall over or if you are about to get pushed over. Back then these concerts were frantic even Kiss and I never looked back. I went to the concert with my denim jacket on and it was phenomenal.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
AW - If there are fans of the band we are appreciative of your support, fingers are crossed that you all enjoy the album as much as we did.
TM - Thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.