In their short existence, Bullet For My Valentine has achieved a hell of a lot. Sold out headline tours, shows with Iron Maiden and even a public spat with Rob Zombie for good measure. Vocalist and guitarist (and songwriter as he made painfully clear) Matt Tuck was more than happy to talk about his and his band’s success…
In their short existence, Bullet For My Valentine has achieved a hell of a lot. Sold out headline tours, shows with Iron Maiden and even a public spat with Rob Zombie for good measure.
Vocalist and guitarist (and songwriter as he made painfully clear) Matt Tuck was more than happy to talk about his and his band’s success…
Interview w/ Matt Tuck (Vocals/Guitar)
of Bullet For My Valentine
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By Cameron Chambers
Thanks for speaking with
us today Matt.
No problem mate.
Bullet was on the
road since “The Poison” was released in 2005 right through until
the first part of 2007. Did you have any kind of break or was it straight
into the studio to record “Scream, Aim, Fire”?
Um, we pretty much went straight
in. We finished our shows for “The Poison” at the end of December
2006, took some time off for Christmas and New Years and then at the
beginning of January we went straight into the studio.
Given your hectic schedule,
do you guys get much of a chance to write while on tour?
Yes and no. We don’t write
songs as they are. It’s more that I come up with most of the ideas
on the road, just hanging out in the back of the bus and jamming.
There’s a lot of time to
kill on tour so most of “Scream, Aim, Fire” was arranged on the
road.
Did you enter the studio
with all eleven tracks mapped out and ready to go or was there some
last minute song writing that made it onto
“Scream, Aim, Fire”?
There were a couple of tracks
actually, that came after most of the record was already done. Mostly
we’ve got a few of them on the back burner as B-Sides.
More often than not when you’re
in the studio and being creative things pop up that didn’t exist before
you went in there.
“The Poison” was a huge
commercial success, clocking in at over one million sales (and still
counting) worldwide. Were you feeling the pressure when it came to writing
the new record?
Nah, not really. We’re just
writing the music that we have always written as a band. The good thing
was that we had 2 years between records and that really gave us time
to grow and get better as a band, as well as on our personal instruments.
It gave us the time to write
and make it the best record possible. There was no pressure for us,
although the media was making a big hype out of it.
Having spent the better
part of the last 2 years on the road, did you find that the song writing
was a more collaborative effort this time round?
It’s still me writing it
all so it’s no more of a collaboration than “The Poison” was.
The only difference is that I wasn’t locked up on my own. I didn’t
have my whole life to write this album as opposed to before.
Album number two comes around
quicker than you think so you’ve just go to write when you can.
Colin Richardson
has worked on some amazing metal records. How did you enjoy working
with him and what did he do differently compared to your previous producers?
We’ve always worked with Colin since day one. He doesn’t over produce anything and he trusts
us as musicians and song writers. Plus, he knows what we want and what
we’re trying to achieve.
We have him on board more for
his ear than his production. He’s great though, you don’t want a
guy who goes into the studio and rips your songs apart and writes them
how he’d like to hear them.
A lot of producers are happy
to sit back and act as an engineer. Is Colin more of a “hands on” guy when it comes to arrangements
and ideas?
He’s not afraid to tell us
his opinion… but if there’s a call to be made I’ll make it rather
than him. He does take a backseat though, he’s more of an executive
engineer who makes sure that you get the best guitar tones and drum
sounds.
“Scream, Aim, Fire”
would have to be one of the most anticipated metal records of 2008.
What can fans expect from the band this time around?
It has everything that people
love about us but it’s just more aggressive really. It sounds how
we’ve always sounded but everything is a lot fresher, more up tempo
and flashier.
The dynamics are more extreme
as well. The ballady' stuff is more arena based and the heavier stuff
is a lot thrashier.
The album's title track
has more in common with “Ride The Lightning” era Metallica than modern day metal bands. Was it a conscious decision
to up the ante so to speak and take things in a heavier direction?
We just wanted to make the
extremes more extreme. “The Poison” was a great album… people
loved it and we’ve spent our whole lives subconsciously writing it.
It wasn’t written in any particular direction though so we just used
the songs we had at the time.
Now we wanted to show the whole
boys to men transformation.
Were there any influences
on the new record that might not have been present during your previous
album?
Nah, not really. We just took
all the best bits from what we already do and made them better. There
was no outside influence from other bands or artists other than the
influence we took from “The Poison”.
Obviously Metallica
and Maiden are an influence but they’ve been there since day
one.
You've already conquered
the European market so will you be spending more time in the US on the
back of this record?
Yeah, you know, we’re going
to spend more time there anyway just because of the size of it. We definitely
made a big, big dent in America… I think we’re up to 400,000 records
sold over there so hopefully as soon as the new one is out that’ll
drag it out to 500,000 and we’ll have a gold record.
We’re going to spend a good
third of the year over there.
What have Bullet got planned once you've wrapped up your European tour
in February?
We’re going straight to the
US pretty much the day after we finish up in Europe. We’re also going
to be doing another video in LA and we’ve got something else really
cool planned but I can’t really say what it is.
Then after that we head straight
to the Taste Of Chaos tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu.
Your Australian tour in
September last year was completely sold out. Were you expecting that
kind of reaction from the fans down here?
Nah, you know. It’s hard
to know what to expect when you’ve never been somewhere before. We
get a lot of traffic on our website and there’s always a lot of mail
from Australia so we knew the fans were screaming for us so we went
there.
All the shows were sold out
way in advance so it was great.
When can we expect a return
trip?
I’d say probably around April
or May. Nothing’s confirmed at this point but the dates have definitely
been penciled in for us to hit Australia and Japan.
A lot of bands released
a lot of great records last year. What were
your top 3 releases?
To be honest… I didn’t
have any. Not because there weren’t any, I just didn’t listen. I
was so wrapped up in our album and going through personal hell with
my voice. I was just buried in my own world.
I didn’t buy or listen to
any music all year so it was kind of a weird one.
You've obviously played
with a lot of different bands in the last 18 months. Were there any
up and coming groups who caught your attention?
Again, you know, not really.
There’s nothing out there that’s properly new so I didn’t see
anyone that other people don’t know about that had any potential.
That's all we have time
for Matt, is there anything else you'd like to say?
No, that’s it mate.
For more info on Bullet For My Valentine head to www.bulletformyvalentine1.com or www.myspace.com/bulletformyvalentine.