Bullet For My Valentine: 'when we are at home we are at it like rabbits'

We talk to Matt Tuck about fast cars, shagging and Sonisphere

United Kingdom | 23 July 2010

Big Green Coach have announced that they are working directly with this year's festival, providing ticket and travel packages for fans. The environmentally responsible travel company has a number of weekend camping passes for both sites with coaches running from a number of major cities. Click on the logo for full details.

Bullet For My Valentine have come a long way in the 12 years since they formed under the name Jeff Killed John. Starting life as a covers band, playing hits by the likes of Metallica and Nirvana, the Welsh metallers released their first album in the UK in 2005, before releasing it in the US on Valentine's Day, 2006. They've since gone on to make two more albums, selling over two million records in the process.
 
They've won a host of awards including both Kerrang!'s Best British Band and Metal Hammer's Golden God Award twice, and two albums have gone Gold in several countries, with their latest release, ‘Fever’, hitting the top five across Europe and the US. We had a chat with frontman Matt Tuck as the group prepare to revisit Sonisphere.

How did you enjoy Sonisphere last year?
Matt Tuck: “It was amazing. Cool and not cool at the same time. We arrived on site about an hour before the show. There was no prep time. It was a great show considering what we had just been through - we had not slept for four days. A lot of people don’t know how hard logistics can be for a band to get to a festival. We flew in from Chicago to Germany, we played Germany, flew to the UK, played Sonisphere and then we flew back to the USA the next day. It was insane, but surprisingly I thought we played really well. I do like the concept that Sonisphere has that there is only one band on stage at any given time, so the fans don’t miss anything. Every person in that crowd can see every band. That’s really cool.”

This year you’ve played with the Big Four in Greece and again with Megadeth and Slayer here in Spain. What’s that like as an experience?
MT: “It’s cool to be part of that, but ultimately it’s business. We have a show to do, we are not going there to watch. Hopefully we will, but we are there to entertain our fans. We have played with them before at festivals and stuff so it’s not that much of a novelty for us. I don’t mean to sound like we don’t care, but it’s not a new thing for us. It’s amazing to be part of it, but it’s not a big deal anymore.

“We did some great shows with Metallica and have great memories, have had some great times with them, hung out and got drunk together. We are super fortunate to have them on our side. They like our band and that is so rewarding.”

You didn’t have the easiest relationship with your producer, Don Gilmore, making your latest album ‘Fever’. Will you work together in the future?
MT:”It’s too early to plan ahead at the moment. The relationship between us was turbulent but always respectful. We did work as a team, but there was a difference of opinion a lot of the time. It’s hard when he wanted to do what he wanted to do and I wanted to do my thing in the same way. It was simple disagreements that turned into something rather turbulent. I have great respect for Don. I love him, he is amazing.”

Did he change the band significantly?
MT: “He never tried to change us as such, he was just modelling us to be a better band. He would make us aware that if we did this or that in a part of a song it would be better, more direct. He had an input on every song, no exceptions. Simplifying Moose’s kick patterns and making them not less metal but more listenable, easier to get it was one thing he did extensively. He didn’t actually change the music as such apart from some drums tracks and some guitars.

“He was focused on making me the best I could be as a lyricist and singer. He wanted to capture a performance, not just someone singing in a studio - trying to capture an emotion, a vibe, an aggression and stuff. That was hard for me, because there’s just me in a room with a mike. There isn’t a crowd that I feed from. It was a weird scenario to try and get that from me. To achieve that feeling that there’s a performance going on is very cool.”

So you’re pleased with the final result?
MT: “It means that it’s given us a new perspective in life. We know what we are capable of and it opens up possibilities to grow as a band and artists. Hopefully this album will take us to an arena level in the next two years. It’s opened my eyes to what a record producer can do when he uses the whip behind you all the time. Pushing you and pushing you till you snap and then he’ll stop pushing you, but you got your results by then so that’s okay.”

Originally you were quoted as saying this album wouldn’t have any ballads, but some would say ‘Bitter Sweet’ and ‘A Place Where You Belong’ are ballads. Did you change your mind?
MT: “I would not call them ballads, but low-tempo rock songs. If the tempo is what defines ballads, Corrosion Of Conformity, Down and bands like that write ballads all the time. A ballad to me is not about tempo. To me, it is something uplifting, a happy song no matter what genre. To me, happy and uplifting songs are about death and suicide anyway. A ballad to me is ‘Forever and Always’ or ‘Hears Burst Into Fire’ from the previous album.”

Someone suggested the way you were singing on previous album ‘Scream Aim Fire’ makes you cringe?
MT: “Cringe is probably too heavy a description, but it’s a sore point the way I did that album because of the way it sounds vocally. Not all of it, but most. It reminds me of the hard time I was going through and I think I could have done it so much better.

“It was all throat related. I wasn’t trying to sound different or anything, it was just the problem I had that was coming through my throat in my voice like that. But it was a case of having an album like that or nothing at all."

Would you like to re-record it?
MT: “Yeah, I’d love to do that but it’s not going to happen so there is no point in wishing it. It’s done and that’s that. I think that some [tracks] should not have been there, like ‘Hearts Burst Into Fire’ and ‘Forever and Always’. If they had not been chosen it would have been a much more direct, a more complete album. It's too up and down because of them, so perhaps they should not have been included. But ‘Hearts’ was a big single, so I can’t complain too much.”

You’ve just bought yourself an Audi R8 V10. How is it?
MT: “It’s cool, I love that car. I was doing 120mph on the motorway and I saw the police cars flashing lights behind me and I thought: shit, I am fucked. I stopped and thankfully I only got a ‘be more careful next time’. I think traffic-enforcing policemen like cars and they know what a beast like that can do. As long as you don’t do anything dangerous to others they let you off. He just told me to chill out and since that moment I have been driving a lot slower. I got a bit scared-off speeding from that incident. I am a lot more careful now.”

Finally, you’ve just become a father, Jay and Moose already have kids and between you and Losprophets you’ve got a football team of young children. What is it with Welsh rock bands?
MT: “We like to fuck. We don’t have a lot of chances to do it when we are on the road so when we are at home we are at it like rabbits. It’s my first that I know of anyway. It’s all good.”

Sonisphere Festival 2010 will take place at Knebworth House from 30 July to 1 August.

Tickets are available now priced at £40 for Friday, £65 for Saturday or Sunday, £132.50 for the weekend or £157.50 for the weekend with camping.

Click here to buy Sonisphere Festival tickets.

Big Green Coach have announced that they are working directly with this year's festival, providing ticket and travel packages for fans.

The environmentally responsible travel company has a number of weekend camping passes for both sites with coaches running from a number of major cities.

Head to the Big Green Coach website for more details.

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