Bullet For My Valentine

Following their September Australian tour and just ahead of their upcoming Soundwave performances, we sat down with Michael "Moose" Thomas, drummer for thrash/metalcore legends Bullet For My Valentine.

Moose, this is Jake from Killyourstereo how are you?

Hello, pretty well thank you.

Have a good chrissy and new year’s mate?

Yeah, the break has been really nice. I just want to get back to work now though [laughs].

Ahh you’d be looking forward to coming over here for Soundwave then?

Oh yeah, more than ever.

You actually seem to be in our country more often than not, do you enjoy touring down here?

Definitely, it’s weird because it feels like home only really far away. Always nice weather too.

Not the nicest weather at the moment!

Oh yeah I’ve seen that. Hopefully it comes good before we get over there.

I think you might be safe mate. There’s a few more metal bands on the lineup than the last Australian music festival you played…

Yeah it’s actually really nice to know that we aren’t going to be as different to everyone else on this tour, it’s going to be nice and easy and we’re looking forward to seeing some really cool bands.

Yeah cool, what bands in particular are you keen to check out?

Well definitely Iron Maiden and Slayer, also the new boys – Rise to Remain, really awesome band.

Couldn’t agree more about Rise to Remain, I had the pleasure of speaking to Austin Dickinson a few weeks ago and the kid really has his head screwed on the right way in terms of music.

Oh yeah he knows what he’s doing. They all do, I think they’re great. Their new album should be coming out soon.

It’s been about 8 months now since Fever’s been released, do you find it interesting to crowd reactions to new songs grow as time goes by?

Yeah it’s cool, but the crowd reaction for Fever’s songs was really good from day one. I think with Scream Aim Fire to begin with everyone just wanted to hear the old songs, so it’s really nice to see people really enjoying the new stuff at shows.

You released Your Betrayal as the album’s lead single. When it comes to deciding what songs will be singles and things like that, are they decisions you make or a record company decisions?

We usually leave it up to them, but they’ll ask our opinion as well. Generally our producer will talk to our record label and they’ll work it out between them. But a single will never go out unless we are happy.

According to last.fm, Tears don’t fall is still your most listened to track by quite a sizeable margin. What do you think you got so right with that song?

I have no idea. It was just one of those songs that we wrote in five minutes, something special was just going on that day when we wrote it.

What would be your favourite Bullet Track to date?

I like them all really; it’s hard to think of one that I DON’T like to play. Probably something off Fever because it’s still quite fresh.

You’ve toured with some of the greatest names in metal, could you pick a favourite tour?

We did Mayhem Festival in America with Marilyn Manson and Slayer, that was definitely one of the funnest tours I’ve ever done.

How long do you think you’ll tour off Fever before starting to think about album #4?

I think we’ll probably tour Fever up until the end of the British Summer (Augustish) and then we’ll take a bit of time off and do some writing.

If you could say there was a song that inspired you to want to play music, what would it be?

Probably something off Nirvana’s In Utero album. It was definitely one of the albums that switched me on to music.

Ahh cool, so I’d imagine Dave Grohl would have been an influence on your drumming?

Absolutely. I actually taught myself to play drums watching Nirvana videos.

Mad. You started off playing guitar though yeah?

Yeah I did, I kind of wish I’d stuck to it too. It’s a lot easier! [Laughs]

What’s the strangest interview question you’ve ever been asked?

Well we had an interview with a British magazine before, and they asked us if we would ever jerk off a horse. We didn’t really know what to say.

With so much time in our country you must have gained an appreciation for some kind of local beverage?

Yes actually ,I love that Pure Blonde beer. I’ll have a good swill on that when I come down.

Hopefully they have it on tap at Soundwave! Cheers for your time Moose, see you in Feb.

Ok cheers, no problem.