Bullet For My Valentine

1 February 2008 | 1:10 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

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…

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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. 


Thanks again.





For more info on Bullet For My Valentine head to www.bulletformyvalentine1.com or www.myspace.com/bulletformyvalentine.